TL;DR – I was using an iPhone 4s for two years, an iPhone 5c for a few months, I really liked how fast and small they both were. I bought a Nexus 5, used it for a couple weeks, but didn’t like the size and poor camera performance. I bought a Motorola Moto X. It’s not as good as an iPhone, but it’s the best Android phone I could find.

First here is just a little bit of background about my phone priorities because my priorities are probably not yours.

1. The phone must have a good camera. And by good I mean being able to take pictures of constantly moving objects (kids) in low light (indoors).
2. The phone battery has to last at least 1 day without charging. At work I am not always at my desk and need something that I can use throughout the day without being unreachable by the end.
3. It needs to be a reasonable size. None of this Galaxy Note crap. I like smaller phones. If someone updated the specs on the HP Veer and it ran Android, I’d probably use that.
4. Usable in 2 years. I would like OS updates for at least 18 months and the phone should not feel like it’s falling apart and too slow to run apps in 24 months.
5. The phone must integrate with Google services, or have good compatible apps. This rules out Windows Phone for me.
6. Wireless charging is a huge plus. I find it convenient and love the option.

And just to be thorough, here are a few things I really don’t care about in a phone

1. Unlocking bootloaders and custom ROMs, I don’t have the time to search for and flash my phone repeatedly. Any customization I am going to make needs to be small and easy. I’m too busy to do that anymore.
2. NFC, I won’t use it, I don’t care.

With all that said, I’ve had a lot of smartphones in the past. In 2011, after webOS’ demise, I settled on the iPhone 4s as a good smartphone for my needs. It was small, fast (for its time), and had the best cell phone camera on the market. Even after two years of using it and iOS 7 update I didn’t feel the need to buy a new phone immediately. It still fulfilled my needs with Google’s apps loaded on the phone and jailbreak tweaks that let me set default apps. I bought and used a 5c for a few months and really enjoyed the slightly larger screen, better camera, and insane battery life. Under normal usage the phone lasted a full 48 hours before it was dead.

Nexus 5 Review

I bought the Nexus 5 within minutes of it being announced which is very unusual for me. I didn’t read a single review (there were none) but felt the $350 off contract price was a reasonable risk for me to take. If I didn’t like the phone I would sell it for full price or maybe lose $20-40 which was acceptable. Because I got the phone only a week after it came out that also means I was on Android 4.4 without any updates. Keep that in mind with this review because some of my complaints have been fixed via updates.

The Nexus 5 had everything I was looking for on paper. I knew the screen would be a little big but I was hoping the phone felt smaller in the hand like the Moto X did. The Nexus 5 didn’t. I had multiple issues with activating the phone but that was mostly an Android problem and not the Nexus 5. After activating I had problems with apps not installing until I rebooted the phone each time and various other weird issues but as far as I know, they were all problems with Android 4.4 and not the Nexus 5. I didn’t hear of a single other person having these problems.

The hardware looks great. The black one is completely black soft touch without any faux textures or needless embellishments that drive me crazy on phones. The edges have a slight taper which felt really good when holding the phone. The soft touch was also extra grippy, similar to the old IBM Thinkpads which was great. If you bought the white one, I’m sorry, it looks pretty bad and it’s glossy plastic.

The screen was stunning, it almost looked fake. Not only is it 1080p but the IPS LCD made the image look hyper realistic. The touch screen was so responsive it removed some of the feeling of interacting with a phone. The screen was too big to comfortably use with one hand so I always resorted to using two. It wasn’t terrible but got annoying coming from an iPhone 5c. The screen looked great while reading documents and watching videos but the traditional LCD backlight got a bit annoying when trying to use the phone at night. I typically like to read light text on a dark background, but that really only works well for OLED screens which don’t have traditional CCFL backlights. I had the same complaint with the iPhone but because the Nexus 5 had an inch bigger screen it felt like looking into a flashlight while trying to read.

The power and volume buttons had a good feel and placement on the phone and the speakers were louder than the iPhone. The earphone hole was really small though. I often found that I missed it when holding the phone to my ear and had to slide the phone to the right spot to be able to hear a call.

The micro USB on the bottom was “upside down” which was annoying and the camera lens protruded slightly from the back which made me always a little nervous I would crack it. The official cases fix the lens problem by adding some extra thickness to the back. I really like the colors of the cases but dislike cases enough that it wasn’t something I considered.

The battery wouldn’t last quite a full day. I consistently take my phone off the charger at 0600 and return home from work at 1800. By that time the phone would have about 10% battery under normal usage. I never trusted that because if I had a day of heavy usage I’m sure it would not have lasted through the work day.

The camera was, for my uses, unusable. Everything was a blurry mess. The shutter was so delayed there was no chance I was ever going to get a decent picture of a moving target. Here are just two samples to show you what I’m talking about.

This was the best of three pictures I took. And it still does not look very good with over exposed light and blurry cars.

I haven’t used the Nexus 5 since the 4.4.1 update came out and fixed some of the camera problems, but it was such a bad first impression that I gave up.

Just to wrap up the Nexus 5 review

Pros

• Great screen
• Good Soft touch texture
• Really fast

Cons

• Crap camera
• Poor battery life
• Too big

Moto X Review

I toyed with the idea of getting a Moto X before getting the Nexus 5 but the lackluster camera tests I saw made me hold off and if I were going to get one I really wanted it with a wood back. They also seemed too expensive initially at $200 on contract. After realizing I wasn’t happy with the Nexus 5 though I was able to get a promo code through Motorola’s black Friday sale which made a customized Moto X $350 off contract (same as the Nexus 5). I sold the Nexus 5 and got the Moto X even though the wood backs were not yet available. I got it because I found out you could get a soft touch back instead of the hard plastic that the in store Moto X came with from the carrier. I’ll admit The Verge staff also convinced me a little bit after hearing a lot of the editors on the Vergecast and Mobile Vergecast say they use the Moto X.

Setting up the device wasn’t nearly as painful as the Nexus 5 because the Moto X used a micro SIM card which I already had in my iPhone. I switched the SIM and logged into my Google account as usual and then it started syncing apps and accounts. The problem was the phone was REALLY slow while syncing. So slow that I just set the phone down and let it sit for about an hour. I didn’t have that problem with the Nexus 5 nor with either iPhones.

The Moto Maker option with soft-touch backs are pretty limited in color options so I ended up with an all black phone with orange accents. Disappointing, considering the cool yellows, reds, and blues they have but I also like the murdered look which is probably why I like how the Nexus 5 looks so much. The soft-touch isn’t as grippy as the Nexus 5 but was good enough to feel like a more solid device in my hand. The Motorola logo on the back has a slight dimple and for some reason I really like it. The phone is smaller than the Nexus 5 with a screen of 4.7″ and with the curved back feels really nice in the hand. The front half of the phone doesn’t have the soft-touch grip to it which looks a little odd but it’s not the worst thing in the world. The Moto X is closer to the iPhone 5 size than it is to the Nexus 5.

The power and volume buttons are both on the right side (poor lefties) which I’m not a fan of because it makes the volume rocker pretty small and hard to activate sometimes. There isn’t enough leverage to make sure I’m hitting the right button when it’s in my pocket. The power button also seems to be mounted a bit low for a “smaller” phone. The speaker is mounted on the back of the phone which, thanks to the curved back, works great when sitting on a table. But if you try to watch a video or listen to audio you’ll end up cupping your hand and not be able to hear anything still. Everything else, hardware wise, is fine and the micro USB port is even installed the way I like (not upside down).

The battery will last, just barely, a full day for me. At the end of the work day I usually have about 40% battery left (0600 until 1800) and I often can last until midnight with 5-10% left. It’s a big downgrade from the iPhone but enough I can live with. I wish the Moto X had wireless charging built in which would help getting through a day, but because it charges with micro USB I just make sure to charge it at lunch to make sure it will last.

I have never had a phone with an AMOLED display before, and although I’ve used them in the past on friends phones I never realized how nice it is for night reading and clock displays. I haven’t had any problems seeing it in the sunlight, which is a typical complaint of AMOLED, but I find myself manually adjusting the brightness more than I would on the iPhone. I think that’s an Android problem because I have done that on all my previous Android phones too.

The camera was my biggest worry with the Moto X. I had gone to the store prior to buying the phone and tested the camera just to see how Motorola’s customized software worked. I like the rapid picture mode, although it doesn’t work as well as the iPhone 5c, but I’m not sold on the tap anywhere to take a picture aspect. Overall the camera takes faster and better pictures outside than the Nexus 5 did and it doesn’t have the same shutter lag. The pictures inside are inconsistent with their color accuracy and macro shots are near impossible. Video works well and I like that it includes a slow motion video option. One thing I didn’t think I’d use was the camera gesture (two wrist flicks) but it works 80% of the time with is enough for me to try it first before using the lock screen shortcut. It gives a quick vibrate feedback and then opens the camera.

This shot took me about 10 tries before the charger was in focus and not yellow tinted from my lights

An outdoor shot that any camera should be able to take but it still turned out nice.

The rest of the Motorola add-on software is nice but sometimes a bit buggy. Here’s just some quick pointers on what they added.

• Active Notifications – Everybody loves this but I don’t find it as easy or functional as the iPhone lock screen notifications. It works alright but it’s sometimes weird to have a notification screen before your lock screen. It also sucks that you can only see info from the most recent notification.
• Assist – It does a really good job of figuring out your driving and reading you messages. The meetings mode is annoying though because it won’t see if I’m set to busy or free during the meeting. I often schedule things on my calendar that I’m willing to be interrupted for but it doesn’t take that into account.
• Trusted devices – This is probably my favorite feature by simply disabling your lock screen when connected to a bluetooth device you specify in the settings. I have it set for my car stereo and am debating getting a BT headset or smartwatch just to use this more often. It was much easier than tasker and was built into the phone.
• Motorola Help – This is a chat portal for Motorola’s support. It works really well and even gives info about your phone (SN, IMEI, etc.). I chatted with them about a problem I was having and was able to get it resolved in about 10 minutes. It doesn’t notify the support person that you’re chatting from your phone though because they recommended I reboot my phone which I wouldn’t be able to do while chatting.
• Motorola Connect – This is a way under reviewed feature which allows you to send SMS from Chrome on your computer. It also shows call logs and battery status. It has completely replaced the Google Voice plugin for me and works a lot better.
• Touchless control – allows you to say “OK Google Now” at any time to get a voice prompt. It works maybe 60% of the time and it’s annoying that it keeps jumping back and forth between Google Now and it’s interface. All the app switching makes it really slow too so I typically don’t use it. Although it is more useful than the Nexus 5s “OK Google” to search, it is no where near as good as Siri for speed, voice recognition, and functionality.

To sum it all up

Pros

• Smaller size
• Good battery life
• Add-on software that is actually useful

Cons

• Slow performance
• Bad speaker placement
• Camera not great
• Wood backs cost $100 extra

Overall I’m happy with the Moto X over the Nexus 5 but I have a feeling that in a year I will want something else. The phone will probably be too slow and because the battery will probably only last 1/2 a day. If I really wanted something I know I would be happy with in two years I probably should have stayed with an iPhone. I think most of my complaints with the Moto X are Android related and not actually problems with the Moto X hardware. Now it’s just a waiting game to see how long the Moto X will receive Android updates.

The reason these flags have been brought to my attention is because the suspected infected clients use P2P to download a payload from a server. Our network flags the P2P traffic which is what alerted me to the abnormal traffic.

Clients
All of the clients have been either iOS (iPhones and iPads) or Apple laptops running OS X.
To my knowledge there haven’t been any Windows clients flagged for the same P2P traffic.

What’s in common
The main thing in common is all of the clients are initiating a P2P connection to the host update.alyac.co.kr:6969 or IP address 125.140.132.205 which both belong to a Korean antivirus company.
All of the clients show the agent to be libtorrent.
All users don’t seem particularly tech savvy and no common software was found between all of the computers/phones/tablets. In most cases the software installed seemed very minimal. I did not have the opportunity to gather browser history on the clients.

What else is weird
The requests happen in batches. The first week I noticed them there were 3-4 in that week. A little time passed and I had another 2 hits just days apart. Now I get smaller sporadic hits.

What I have found
I have wireshark dumps from the P2P traffic but I can’t decipher any meaningful information from them besides the actual connection being made. Email me if you want to have a look.
I also found that the Alyac servers were hacked back in 2011 but I can’t find much else about the company or domain.

So I am posting this for anyone with more information to help me track down what is happening. I find it too coincidental that P2P traffic is going to a random Korean website when the users don’t appear to have any P2P traffic installed. Please leave a comment if you’ve seen something similar or have any other information on what may be happening.

• Hold volume down (while phone is on) = Compose new tweet
• Hold volume up (while phone is on) = Show contact favorites
• Triple press home button (while phone is on) = Open camera
• Triple press home button (while phone is locked) = Play/Pause

Here’s a quick video I found that shows some of the settings and how it works.

Browser Changer

Allows you to change the default web browser in iOS (Mine is set to Google Chrome)

Chromizer

Adds some gestures to Google Chrome

Data Monitor

Lets me see how much data I have used per day and per month on wifi and 3g connections.

F.lux

Changes the screen hue based on the time of day. You specify what type of lights you use and it automatically adjusts.

Five Icon Dock

This one does exactly what you’d think

FolderEnhancer

Puts folders on steroids and really customizable. This was the 2nd jailbreak app I bought.

iFile

Just a file browser, but if you pay for it you also get Dropbox syncing etc.

NCSettings

Like Android toggles in the notification center.

OneByOne Contacts

Lets you swipe to delete contacts like webOS used to.

PasswordPilot

Automatically enters your App Store password

PdaNet

PdaNet has been around forever and the only way you can get it on your iOS device is with a jailbreak. It’s a one time $15 fee but well worth it if you tether a lot and don’t want to pay the $15/mo charge to the carrier.

Pull To Dismiss

Gets rid of the keyboard when you don’t want it. Easier to explain in the video.

ShowCase

I just found this one and it fixes a HUGE annoyance I’ve always had with iOS. Check out the video.

Silent Rington

Give you a ringtone that doesn’t make any noise (just vibrates). It’s great for an alarm when you don’t want to wake anyone else up.

Siri Toggles

Turn on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc. with Siri. This functionality is built into iOS 6, but I’ve had it in iOS 5 for quite a while.

SmallBanners

Makes the notification banner smaller.

SMS GV Extension

This seamlessly integrates Google Voice into the default SMS app. Here’s the website for more information.

SwipeSelection

Adds gestures to the iOS keyboard that I wish every keyboard had.

SwitcherMod

Allows you to customize some features of the app switcher. I use this to always show the close X on apps.

Switchy

Makes the app switcher 2 rows high and adds other customizations

WiCarrier

Show’s your currently connected wifi network in the status bar. More info at iDownloadBlog

xCon

Hides your jailbreak status for some apps.

What I needed

A lot of phones can do all the basic functions. Good browser, email, apps, etc. but when I really considered what was most important to me right now it boiled down to these 5 things.

1. Not being on Verizon
2. A really good camera (video and stills)
3. Longevity of support
4. Cutting edge apps
5. Good battery life

Here’s why I picked the iPhone 4s over the other options for the above essentials that I had.

Not Verizon

This really comes down to the fact that I have been with Verizon since 2005 and the new house I bought gets horrible Verizon signal. My last apartment wasn’t ideal Verizon real estate either. I have had multiple friends come over with AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile and all have better signal than any Verizon phone. And let me tell you, dropping calls on the nations most reliable network is just as annoying as dropping calls on the nations most hated network.
Plus Verizon was making moves that I didn’t want to be a part of (selling customer information), and they didn’t have any compelling plans that made me want to stay. My new 2 line family plan on AT&T is cheaper than my single phone line on Verizon was. If I had gone with Sprint or T-Mobile it would have been even less.

A Really Good Camera

I have a 4 year old Cannon point and shoot camera that I have used as my sole still and video recorder. It did great for what I needed it for but my need for an even better camera (especially video) is about to become exponentially greater on or around mid-December. Sure most smartphone camera’s are just fine when taking pictures, but I don’t want something that’s “just fine” I want something that will make carrying a second camera obsolete and save me money. I had briefly debated getting a micro 3/4 camera and a phone with a crappy camera but the age old saying “the best camera is the one you have with you” kept playing in my mind like a broken record.
The best smartphone cameras in the past year have been the Samsung Galaxy line, Nokia, and Apple. When looking at reason three for my smartphone requirements, both Samsung and Nokia are out of the running.

Longevity of Support

Why should I care if I get a phone that is supported for 2+ years? Because being on an outdated phone sucks. Windows Mobile was the worst for longevity of support. Once a phone came out to market the only chance you would ever get updated to a new version of the OS was if there were a critical flaw or gaping security vulnerability in your phone. Instead you had to turn to the ROM community to build you something that would be updated and keep your phone functional until your 2 year contract was up, or your had to learn how to cook up one of your own ROMs in the kitchen and try a new recipe every week until you found something that didn’t taste like frozen poop.
Could you survive on the OS that came on the phone when it was new? Probably not. The original mobile operating system was so full of bugs and bloatware that after a few months of use you had to restart every other day just to send or receive phone calls. Today is a far cry from what Windows Mobile used to be (well, except for Android) but webOS has no future (*tear*) and Nokia with Meego is dead. Windows Phone 7 is just getting started but it’s still a little unclear where it will be in two years. That left me with Android and iOS.
From my experience iOS has been crap in versions 1-3. Version 4 just started to show some promise and 5 was the first version I was willing to try full time. Once I get a stable jailbrake I think I could actually live with this operating system. Some of the fundamentals of the OS (jumping back and forth between the home screen, and needing to load specific apps for certain actions) are so dated it’s scary. And the textures! BLAH! Could it be any worse looking? I don’t like where iOS is going but I like where they are right now for at least the next year (maybe two).
Android on the other hand I hate where they are right now. They can’t make up their mind how they want to manage their platform and up until Ice Cream Sandwich they didn’t seem to have a clear goal of where they wanted to go. I think they know that and will probably be somewhere really cool in about a year and a half.
If the Galaxy Nexus weren’t exclusive to Verizon it probably would have been my next phone and I would have just lived with not-as-good pictures and charging my phone all the time.
My biggest problem with iOS is the fact that I don’t have any other Apple computers and don’t care about their ecosystem. On the other hand, I use Google’s ecosystem daily and can’t wait until they merge Chrome OS with Android (A la splashtop). My dream phone (webOS excluded) would be a 4″ Google Nexus device with Chrome OS splashtop and a good 11″ laptop dock. I think it will happen, but not for another 6-8 months, and it’ll need 12 months to mature.

Cutting Edge Apps

I write about technology part time. No I don’t make my living off of it but between writing about how to do things in mobile and people asking me about what phone they should get it makes having a non-mainstream OS a little bit hard. Heck, having never used an iPhone full time before was probably one of the main reasons I didn’t recommend it to many people. But the fact that I had an Android phone full time for a while also made me not recommend Android. It was too complicated and buggy for my dad to use. Although that didn’t stop him from getting one and making me root it and load a custom ROM anyway.
When it comes down to my ability to write about and recommend new technology, I have to be able to use it too. Even if I got the latest Android phone, there was no guarantee that the app I wanted would run on it because the app store isn’t unified like it is on Windows Phone, webOS, or iOS. While Android does have a lot of cool apps and it is more open than iOS, if I had picked the wrong phone, I might as well have stayed on webOS.

Battery Life

If the best camera is the one you have with you, then the best camera you have with you is the one that can hold a charge. I have been in too many situation with a dead camera battery (my past phones included). The iPhone has been notorious for having good battery life and I can easily go a full day (6am – 10pm) with wifi, 3g, and bluetooth on. I don’t even bring a charger to work anymore because it is that reliable for me. This kind of battery life is one of the main reasons I don’t care about LTE right now. Call me in a year when they unify the chips and don’t have laptop sized batteries just so you can run > 6 hours. By that time LTE will be so saturated that it still may not be worth it.

Conclusion

All this to say, while Android figures out what it wants to do long term, and while webOS continues to die a slow meaningless death. I’ll sit back and watch where they go, including WP7+, and wait on a stable OS that knows where it’s at. Even if I don’t care for how some things work or the ecosystem I’m a part of, at least I have what I need right now. Your needs are probably different than mine, and you should pick for yourself what is most important to you before you listen to someone else’s holy mobile doctrine.

Computers

1. First of all 2011 will be the year of the tablet. That isn’t a prediction, it’s more of a fact. I think the big winner in the tablet world will eventually be Google with Android simply because they will have the cheapest and most devices. This has already been proven true with cell phones.
2. Even though the company with the cheapest and most devices will eventually win, advertising will win the tablet market in the short term. It doesn’t matter who has the best device or the best software. The company who has the most successful marketing campaign will win. This makes me think that the iPad will continue to sell well, the Blackberry Playbook will have a decent market, even though it will suck, and HP won’t have much traction unless they change their strategy. In the end, Android will still probably take the lead because they will have the most companies pushing Android tablets.
3. Because of tablets in the <$500 range I think laptops will begin to take a hit in sales. While this has already been reported with the iPad, it will actually be true in 2011. Oh and desktops don't have a chance. Even businesses will begin to go away from desktops and start offering more laptops, tablets, and thin clients. 4. Apple and Microsoft will begin to change their strategy for their computer operating systems. I think Microsoft will begin to rely heavily on "cloud computing" and try to offer some of their own services but mainly focus on always connected devices with instant on. Apple, on the other hand, still won't embrace 3rd party cloud services and will expand their own Mobile Me platform and continue to segregate their users. While this won't cause an Apple revolt in 2011, I think there may be an uprising in 2012. 5. Microsoft won't have a real answer to Windows on a tablet. While they will have lots of plans and still push out devices, they won't have something that is finger friendly until 2012. Even though what they should do is put Windows Phone 7 on tablets.

Cellphones

1. Smartphones will continue to expand their market and the Verizon iPhone will finally come out. The iPhone market share won’t go up as much as some people expect because most people that want a smartphone are already entrenched in the platform they are on now. And 2011 will have so many good phone operating systems that the iPhone won’t be “the best” anymore. iPhone market will still go up, but it won’t catch Android.
2. AT&T will be forced to stop riding the iPhone success wave and either slash their prices or finally get some decent devices. My theory is they will reach out to HP and Blackberry for exclusive devices rather than lowering prices to Sprint and T-Mobile level.
3. Network will be the big marketing push for carriers at first but that will die down near the end of the year because most of the networks will begin to share the same coverage and network technology. Also phones will become less exclusive because quad-band and penta-band phones will become the norm. Although 2011 will still see very few LTE voice devices.
4. Customers will start adding devices to their contracts because more devices will have cellular radios and the wireless data will finally became fast enough to use. I think there may even be a push for people to ditch their traditional internet provider and just tether their phone/buy a modem because it will be cheaper for them.

Video Games

1. Nintendo will finally have to announce a new console. The Wii sales will drop so much that Nintendo will updated it to a Wii HD that has Blu-ray, HD graphics, and 3D capabilities. They will also incorporate the Wii Motion Plus controller into the standard remote and probably have a standard webcam with a high focus on video chatting and video integration into games. I am hopeful that people will finally become tired of the same thing and Nintendo’s success will plummet until they are innovative again.
2. Microsoft won’t announce a new console at E3 but will probably hint at something coming in 2012. They will continue to update the Xbox 360 to add value to the system, but developers will need more processing power and more storage space to push the envelope. And they won’t get that from the 360 because of the fragmentation of the console install base.
3. Sony won’t come out with a new console but will finally create better online services that will allow developers to easily take advantage of cross game chat, universal lobby rooms, and video chat without having to program it from scratch.
4. A new company, or possibly existing company, will come out with a “console” with the main focus of bringing PC games to the TV. It will be similar to OnLive but will have a better library and subscription model that will actually be successful. They will also include support for iOS and Android if they truly want to “make it”.

Other

1. There will be a decline in major technology breakthroughs because the economy will finally level out and companies will realize that they can’t just keep pushing new products because people aren’t buying them. This won’t stop companies from coming out with new things, but big breakthroughs won’t happen as often as they did in 2009 because people don’t have the money to buy it and companies don’t have the money to develop it.
2. Streaming services will continue to try and eat away at the cable TV market but it will take big companies like Google, Microsoft, or Apple to make it truly successful. I am hopeful that Microsoft will finally make a all-you-can-eat video service, a la Zune pass, that will work on the 360 and Windows that might compete. No matter what, a pay-per-view model will not work, and content providers will be stubborn to allow this type of model.

That is all I got for this year. Let me know if you have any predictions in the comments or if you agree/disagree. Either way I hope everyones 2011 is great and I am looking forward to all the announcements to come.

Ease of use; Winner: 2-way tie
This one we can call a tie between iOS 4 and webOS because both interfaces are just as easy to launch and run apps and both have little things that you need to get used to. Double tapping the home screen to switch apps isn’t super intuitive and neither is forward/back gestures in webOS. In either case, Android is the loser.

Openness; Winner: webOS
Obviously iOS loses here, Android is open source for its core OS and allows installing apps from outside of the marketplace but so does webOS. Where webOS takes the cake is the fact that there is no rooting of your phone to get access to parts that are supposed to be locked down. How to root the phone is FREAKING IN THE DOCUMENTATION!!! It doesn’t get any more open then that. And lets not forget the open nature of the platform to allow apps to be written in HTML, CSS, Javascript, or C/C++ if you want. Due to this wide open nature, amazing things like Preware has been made available to tweak every last “kernel” of your phone.
Google also loses by making their “default” apps (Gmail, Maps, etc.) completely closed source and even takes down anyone who tries to share them. Palm on the other hand has written every built in app according to the standards they hold their developers to and made the apps all open source so you could see exactly how they built the app. Android and webOS are both fairly open, but webOS is more open and is the winner here.

Battery Life; Winner: Bogus Category
WTF is this doing here?!? This has everything to do with hardware and almost nothing to do with software. In any case, I think we can agree that Android loses this category with almost zero battery conserving settings and complaints on almost every Android device. This is a bogus comparison when trying to compare mobile operating systems. If this were a debate between the iPhone 4, Evo 4G, and Palm Pre Plus this would be a perfectly valid comparison.

Multitasking; Winner: webOS
This is a no brainer. WebOS does multitasking better than any other mobile OS available period. Android is the only other one that even can run apps in the background but there is a reason that a task killer is the first thing every Android phone needs. And lets not even get into the difference between running apps and using approved services and fast app switching.

Software Keyboard; Winner: 2-way tie
iOS has evolved into the best software keyboard and Android actually gives you options for keyboards, I would call this a tie because if you want to use swype on Android, you can. A software keyboard is only good if you are used to its idiosyncrasies and can use it. Personally, I rarely have to get used to a hardware keyboard, but webOS doesn’t even have a proper soft keyboard option.

System-Wide Search; Winner: 3-way tie
They all have it, they all work about the same with the same oddities and features. It is a tie. But just for the record, Android and webOS did it first.

Notification System; Winner: webOS
Once again iOS is the clear loser here, and while I liked the idea of Android’s curtain at first it just plain sucks after using it for a few months. I can’t clear a single notification without clearing all of the notifications and I can’t have extended controls in a notification. I know it is possible, but in all the apps I have installed, I have never seen actual controls inside the notification, just an icon that always stays there and opens the app when pressed.

Voice-to-text; Winner: Android
This works really well 80% of the time in Android and is the clear winner without a doubt. The bad thing is, I only use it 5% of the time I am inputting any text. So it is great 4% of the time I input text but really wouldn’t be a missed function and I still would prefer a proper physical keyboard.

Syncing; Winner: 2-way tie
Who the hell wants to plug their phone into their computer anyway? iOS loses here because you need iTunes for updates and setup. Android is great as long as you use Gmail and have a Google account. WebOS creates an account for you and stores all of your settings AND apps installed. So with webOS, if you break/lose your phone, you can log in with your Palm account and not only do all your settings from every service (sans Facebook) come back, but the apps you had installed come too.

Non-Google Syncing; Winner: webOS
Ever heard of Synergy? You probably haven’t, but it wins. Gmail, Facebook, Yahoo, LinkedIn, and Exchange are all there, out of the box. There is not contest here.

Tethering; Winner: webOS
iOS is just now putting this feature in but because it has the typical Apple restrictions, (no teather in to the iPad, really?) and Android still costs money on any carrier that will allow it, webOS wins because it is available on the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus and is completely free on Verizon. Yes I know if you root your Android phone you can do it for free, guess what, you can do the same thing in iOS and webOS so no one cares. Heck, Windows Mobile 6.1 had this feature and it worked great and was always free, doesn’t mean WM is any good.

Release/Update Consistancy; Winner: Bogus Category
HUH?!? really? What does this have to do with how good a mobile OS is? because you know you will get an update every year? Is Windows better because you get patches every first Tuesday of the month? Or the fact that a new and improved Windows will come out every 3-5 years? NO it makes it worse. This shouldn’t even be on this list.

Customizable; Winner: 2-way tie
If we are talking about user customizations, Android wins hands down. Widgets are great, icons can be placed almost anywhere, and you can set anything you want as a background image. But if we want to talk about the underlying OS, that is a win for webOS. Just go look up Preware and kernel patches and then come back and see why I picked this as a tie for Android and webOS. Oh and I agree, webOS needs to allow more home/lock screen customizations. Widgets sure would be nice but not at the cost of slowing my phone down like it does in Android.

Apps; Winner: 2-way tie
WebOS cannot complete here. Both Android and iOS have >50,000 apps and at that point it just doesn’t matter. There will probably be an app for just about everything. I would actually call this one a slight win for Android just because you can still install apps outside of the marketplace and the web store they have announced should be a huge success. Oh ya, and that whole Apple approval process is a joke.

Web Browsing; Winner: 3-way tie
They are all based on webKit so what does it matter. Some will scroll faster than others and some have better resolutions, but that all depends on the phone and doesn’t matter for rendering. Android and webOS may have slight wins over iOS because they have embraced Adobe flash but once again, that is a phone specific thing because the device has to be up-to-snuff for playing flash content. A three way tie.

Gaming; Winner: 2-way tie
Android doesn’t even have a language that enables the rich games that iOS and webOS allow. And besides the quantity, webOS has every bit of the quality as iOS so it is a tie.

Music Player; Winner: 2-way tie
Android’s built in music player is terrible, iOS’ is as good as any iPod’s (which doesn’t really say much), and webOS’ is just OK. The fact that webOS’ player is open source makes the player really stand out from the crowd when you install simple things like lyrics, and wikipedia searches straight from the player. I know there are better 3rd party players on all the platforms but that is not what we are comparing here. So it is a tie between stock iOS and stock webOS.

Free Turn-by-Turn Navigation; Winner: Android
This is a killer feature, but lets be honest, this will probably come to iOS and webOS simply because Google can sell more ads if it exists on all the platforms. For right now though, it is a win for Android.

Google Apps Integration; Winner: Android
This is like saying iOS has the best iTunes integration. OF COURSE ANDROID IS INTEGRATED WITH GOOGLE APPS. If Android did not have the best app for Gmail I think we would all be very worried. This is one of those arguments that fluffs Androids numbers IMO, but I will leave it in just for the sake of argument. Every mobile OS will integrate with their own offerings, the problem is, Apple and Palm don’t have email or web app offerings. This is more a win for Google and less of a win for Android.

Google Voice; Winner: 2-way tie
Yes this is a cool feature, I have it (and have had it since it was Grand Central) but I never use it because it is iffy and I don’t think the service is quite there yet. In any case, both Android and webOS have native apps for Google Voice and iOS is stuck using a web page. Android integrates deeper into the system, but all of the basic features/settings can be set on either platform so it is a tie.It has come to my attention that webOS no longer has a native GV dialer since some of the recent webOS API changes. I was unaware that a recent update broke this compatibility. In any case, it is somewhat of a bogus category seeing as accounts are still invite only and I am sure only 1-2% of people who have GV even use it for their daily calls.

So what is that total again? This time taking out the stupid frivolous comparisons.
iOS = 7
Android = 10
webOS = 13

Do I own a iPhone, Android phone, or Palm device? No. I have a 4 year old Windows Mobile device (HTC Vogue) running Android 2.1. I have use plenty of iPhones and have convinced quite a few people to buy webOS devices. I just needed to let the few people who read this site know webOS is the best mobile operating system currently available on the market. I just hope other technology sites can finally recognize how great webOS is, and maybe stop focusing on flaws with a phone that came out when the original iPhone was still big news.