The purpose of this article is not to argue iOS versus Android and not interested in the beauty or speed argument. It is to argue hardware and software capabilities of this single Samsung tablet device that I own, not the operating system it works on. I do agree in putting this out there that each tablet operating system has its blunders whether that is the limitations within or the low-level securities of each respective, hence no perfect system exists unless the user finds that perfect system in a desktop computer employing a mouse and keyboard. This is a response in limited form to the article I found well written by craigmod.com entitled Getting the iPad to Pro: The new iPad Pro is a computer from the future, with software from yesterday.

I wanted to show some of the differences I have in my tablet. I see iOS users show how great their iPads are but then I hear, watch, and also experience through tech support that there are limitations in the iPad. First the positives are that on both sides, software is limited by the imagination of the developer(s) and in some tablets limited by their inputs. It seems that the iOS has the best curated software when I look at their availability of iWork and iMovie that are native to iOS. Others would argue their choice of Samsung and Google productivity suites. Others argue for privacy and the security available between iOS and Android tablets. Some consider iOS to be more concerned about security as almost everything they do is either stored in iCloud or computed solely in the hardware of the iPad.

In iPads the inputs are limited for photography to importing all files to the Camera Roll of Apple Photos. In other tablets, it depends on the manufacture’s choice of software but in my Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 tablet (referred to as my tablet) I can import/export any file that I want and I can choose which app it will be imported to. The choice of only the Camera Roll for photography on an iPad is limiting, you can’t pull in RAW files and you can’t directly import your photos into Adobe Lightroom. First the photos are imported into Camera Roll and then you have to reimport them into Adobe Lightroom or other app. If you want to have them in your Adobe cloud first, it is best to use the desktop computer.

Like iPads, I can connect a bluetooth keyboard or share the screen with a monitor. But additionally, I can connect a bluetooth mouse or a use a hub to connect a desktop mouse, keyboard and external monitor if I choose. I can also use a powered USB hub and connect an external hard drive and do the same with it that I would do on a desktop. I use an extra app for the functionality to format it.

Similar to iWork and iMovie, there are many free and paid apps available for me to use from the Google Play Store and I can choose to synchronize my data with Google Drive or with those apps available clouds.

When I need to share a file or open a file within an app, I use the share menu on my tablet. For every app that I install on my tablet, there’s an added icon in the share menu. When I used iPads before iOS 12, it was limited Apple’s list of approved apps, now they have allowed their submenu to include third-party apps.

Which platform is more future ready? I think both have their positive and negative points. iOS has a mostly polished operating system but lacks those inputs with flexibility. Android is polished for most, some might think it is not simplified enough, and has the flexible inputs depending on the tablet you choose and the software is available for your needs.

Which platform is more privacy and security orientated? If you want to live in a “walled garden” with hardware, software, and privacy barriers, then choose iOS. If you want more flexibility with your hardware and software, but don’t care how much Google knows about you (G Suite customers excluded) and serves ads to you based on that information, then use Android.

Which platform is more secure? I would argue that both are built by humans and there are flaws in both. One is promoted to be all about your privacy and security, iOS. And the other is promoted as free and feature rich while also being secure and telling you that you have control of your privacy, but there are loopholes to that statement just as much as using social media might be considered a pitfall. I would also argue that the user has every responsibility to research which platform they want to be on and which they feel comfortable with, which gives them more options to move away their data at any moment, delete it, modify the settings to limit how much each company knows about them. Despite all these claims and efforts, the breakpoint is how much of that data in stored in the cloud whether that is iCloud, Google Drive, or Samsung’s cloud because one day soon those servers will be hacked no matter how much effort has been made to prevent it and that will be the test.

What are you doing to stay secure online? Are you choosing an easy password? Are you using the same password on every website regardless? Are you enabling that two-factor authentication for your password? Are you making the most with the security features provided for your account? If you are not doing your best in these areas, what good is it which platform you decide to use because you have already crippled your personal cloud if you have not employed these new methods of security.