Choosing Apple or Android tablets

[captainham]

Other annoyances are that my tablet keeps pestering me to turn on GPS. Why it's even trying to use GPS when I've disabled every app, including Maps, that should have needed access to it is open to debate. I don't trust Google in the slightest as they're a company that seems hell-bent on invading users' privacy. The way they use GPS on their devices appears to be a case in point.

I can understand this point fully. I leave my GPS on (i.e. not on-"on", but available to be switched on automatically if an app wants to start it up) as I figure Google already knows more about me than I do anyway so I waved the white flag on the privacy front.

However, I was quite amused/mildly terrified to discover the Location History function in the Google Maps app recently, as I could see the history of it tracking me across Europe on my recent travels, with a minute-by-minute breakdown of my precise whereabouts, when I got on/off the plane, where I was working, the hotel I was staying in, the restaurant I ate in, etc, all with an easy-to-follow map of the routes I took.

Amazing and terrifying in equal measure!

[Gentile]

I can understand this point fully. I leave my GPS on (i.e. not on-"on", but available to be switched on automatically if an app wants to start it up) as I figure Google already knows more about me than I do anyway so I waved the white flag on the privacy front.

However, I was quite amused/mildly terrified to discover the Location History function in the Google Maps app recently, as I could see the history of it tracking me across Europe on my recent travels, with a minute-by-minute breakdown of my precise whereabouts, when I got on/off the plane, where I was working, the hotel I was staying in, the restaurant I ate in, etc, all with an easy-to-follow map of the routes I took.

Amazing and terrifying in equal measure!

[The Spartan]

I'm don't think that's the case. I'm not a heavy apps user, but I did have an app that I used for Google Analytics that I had to buy separately for my Samsung Galaxy S2 phone and for my Asus Transformer tablet (both Android). I could be wrong, though: possibly they were just specialised apps for the devices they were running on.

Some phone apps aren't Tablet compatible and vice versa.

[yasockie]

The landscape is indeed changing very quickly - things that were clear advantage of Apple ecosystem are now available on Android too, for example in the UK Google Play will offer the music match functionality too.
I have just purchased iPad mini and I am very happy with it, but I am pretty well aware that this is probably my last iOS device - I have already switched my phone to Android due to superior gmail/calendar etc sync
At the moment I think the usability of the Android has been developed for the phones so <5". I am certain that they will catch-up soon, but at the moment the overall experience is simply better on iPads - you will get little things like mini detecting thumb on the edges of the bezel or in case of iPad 4 massive CPU/GPU firepower and a beautiful display.
If you want the best right now, get an iPad
If you want good value (best bang for the buck as them Americans say) get the Nexus.

One slight advantage of the Android ecosystem is that it is easier to tinker. If the idea is for the little one to break it and hopefully fix and maybe eventually learn to code something usable for it, Android might be a very slightly easier path.

[VectraMan]

Google Now wants to use GPS, or at least location services. I've improved my battery life by turning it off.

Bloatware is why you should by a Nexus device. You just get the pure Android from Google, and whereas even high profile phones like the S3 are still a version behind, my Nexus S (which is a 2010 model) has been on JellyBean for months now.

[yasockie]

Google Now wants to use GPS, or at least location services. I've improved my battery life by turning it off.

Bloatware is why you should by a Nexus device. You just get the pure Android from Google, and whereas even high profile phones like the S3 are still a version behind, my Nexus S (which is a 2010 model) has been on JellyBean for months now.

This - have a look at a nice review of Android 4.2 Android 4.2 on Arstechnica

Again, at this very moment in time, iOS/iPad is a more polished platform, where features 'just work', whereas on Android you can do more but a lot of it seems to be beta/work in progress, for example AirPlay vs Miracast.

[Gentile]

Google Now wants to use GPS, or at least location services. I've improved my battery life by turning it off.

Bloatware is why you should by a Nexus device. You just get the pure Android from Google, and whereas even high profile phones like the S3 are still a version behind, my Nexus S (which is a 2010 model) has been on JellyBean for months now.

A bit of an aside, but when I used have to recruit developers for gigs I was technical lead on I used to have the standard list of technical skills that I'd include in the job spec. E.g., "Ice Cream Sandwich", "NHibernate", "Entity Framework", etc. I also used to include the (at the time non-existent) skill "JellyBean" and ask applicants to identify which of the skills asked for wasn't a real technology by including it in the subject line of their application e-mail. This was partly to deter unqualified applicants, but moreso to deter agents from sending unsolicited CVs (I could just set up a rule that rejected any such incoming e-mails that didn't have the magic word in the subject line). Looks like reality has now caught up with fiction, since JellyBean (TM) now exists.

[VectraMan]

Wasn't Jelly Bean some absurdly over-complicated Java job scheduling system?

[xoggoth]

I could see the history of it tracking me across Europe on my recent travels, with a minute-by-minute breakdown of my precise whereabouts

F8 me! You mean it can see me wandering around the house looking for my reading glasses?

Seriously, yes, GPS can track you to within a few m at any moment. I have a cheap GPS device I monitor my jogs with and I can get a detail track of my route on Google Earth with times. How long before our wonderful democratic government (assuming they don't already) have access to such info? All in our interests to prevent terrorism etc obviously.

Wasn't Jelly Bean some absurdly over-complicated Java job scheduling system?

Close. Jelly Bean, Ice Cream Sandwich etc are Android versions. Absurdly over-complicated Java job scheduling system, no, over-complicated Java with absurdly crappy bug-ridden development and deployment systems, yes.

[Gentile]

Wasn't Jelly Bean some absurdly over-complicated Java job scheduling system?

Not that I know of, though you may be right. Nowadays, as xog said, it's of course a release of the Android OS.