I saw a sneak peak at the new Android OS, Honeycomb, specifically optimised for tablet computers shown here. To me the page turning implementation of an Android ebook page compared to iOS’s page turning implementation is indicative of what is fundamentally different (and worse) about Android compared to iOS (see this at about 46 seconds compared to this at 3mins 50 seconds) . On iOS the page turning algorithm looks very much like a real page turn, it’s almost luscious. There’s something about the shading, opacity and the path that’s taken by the curl which just looks real to me while on Android the page turn looks like a computer algorithm, a wee bit rigid, a wee bit mechanical. It’s missing a level of sensitivity to aesthetic. If iOS didn’t exist I’d happily (I think) own an Android phone (except that if iOS didn’t exist an Android phone would look like a Blackberry, hmmm…). I’m sure there will be some desirable ideas in Honeycomb just as there will likely be some desirable new ideas in iOS 5, that’s the nature of things. At the moment Android stuff always feels to me like its geared stylistically towards nerds with pizza stains on their playstation 3 t-shirts. Just one person’s 2¢.
