iPhone vs. Android, and, giving kids smart phones.

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Ugg. How to keep this short?

I'm self-diagnosed Aspie. My wife might be. She hates smart phones. We have three kids. The oldest I'm pretty sure is, the middle, probably not, the third might be.

We live in an above average income area. I'm the only one in our family with a smart phone. It would appear that my kids are in the minority on having smart phones. I can afford it, but I have been unemployed twice in the past. So I have fears about having some huge bill I would have problems paying.

My phone is Android-based. My oldest is pretty clever and has figured out how to download mp3s and get them on her feature phone. The middle one, I dunno, I have this feeling maybe Apple might be better for her, and it looks like almost all her friends have iPhones.

Last thing, the oldest is a junior in high school, and contracts are two years, and I am pretty sure I don't want her showing up to college with a feature phone.

So questions for anybody...
What do you think about giving smart phones to kids in general? Am I giving an Aspie something that lets them withdraw more, or I am making that outcasts by not doing it?

Then between Apple and Android, just seems to me that Apple is like a that one Lou Reed song, "Never once gave it away. Everyone had to pay and pay." Then someone at work is complaining about moving his iTunes account from one computer to another - I guess could you some up the experience without me having to spend hours playing with iTunes. Or,, how does it compare to say buying songs on Amazon?

I have an iPhone, but I would much rather have an android.

Apple is far too much of a control freak for my taste. Everything has to be done through them, and I have yet to find any back doors.

There's no need to face a huge bill every month, at least, not one you're locked into paying, especially if you're willing to get a phone that's a couple of years behind (which still means it's much better than a desktop computer from the 90s...). I paid £65 for an unlocked secondhand HTC Wildfire, and I'm paying Giffgaff £12 each month for unlimited data, but I can opt out of that at any time because it's not a contract.

I have moral objections to buying new phones, given the working standards under which they're made. My secondhand one is a stop gap measure until I can level up my Tinker skill to the point of building my own. This year is the year of level grinding...

I'm with android myself. There are many more choices hardware wise there.
With the iPhone, you just have, well..., the iPhone. Not to mention Apple has some control issues.
Also IMO, Apple is behaving contrary to how they have preached in the past. They we're all aginst Microsoft's controlling nature when they we;re small, now that they are big, they are being as much if not bigger Di*ks than Microsoft ever was.
The patent trolling isn't good for their reputation either.

Don't get me wrong Google are not saints either. Thee is just more flexibility on the android platform.

And smartphone in general, do your homework on the plans available from all the carriers, It's easy to get conned.

When I'm asked about what smartphone, or tablet, or computer, I recommend, I usually ask, what are your needs? Personally, I have apple, mostly because I used to work frontline support for them, and their products are usually easy to troubleshoot. It's very seldom that I get stumped when it comes to an Apple product.

Android devices, I can't help with, as I never owned one.

Windows PC's, as well as Windows embedded devices make me cringe. I detest having to touch the registry, as it's too easy to hose your computer, thereby causing a complete reinstall of the OS and all your applications.

As for monthly cost getting out of hand, have you considered an MVNO like Virgin or Ting? I'm looking at Ting rather closely right now, and I might drop Virgin for Ting once they get their issues straightened out with the iPhone 4 and 4s. With Ting, you can BYOD, as long as that device worked at one time on the Sprint Network. (Either Sprint, Virgin, Boost, or any other Sprint MVNO.). The rates are posted on Ting's website.

I have and Iphone 5s, but I would have went for an Android if it had a specialist app I needed.
I bought my sister a Uawei Ascend Y300 for £60. Its a better choice then buying Iphone 5s or 5c for
a monkey.

I am a hater of windows but in recent years windows has improved considerably. Very few errors and no blue screen of< forgotten what they called it> . The windows phones don't use any legacy windows code and built from the ground up. The interface is more slick then the iphone and android phones.

i had a nokia lumia 800 which had windows phone on in i liked the interface on it but there was absolutely no apps on it so i followed the crowd and bought an iphone. The phone you require depends on your needs

Thanks for the replies!

In typical Aspie fashion, I forgot to mention some key items -
- in USA
- have five phones total with Verizon, two of which are still on contract.
- debating going to T-Mobile.

Any opinions on what happens when you hand an Aspie teen a smart phone?

usually become addicted to it but you could say that about an NT

What do you think about jailbreaking devices? I actually don't know anyone who's done it, but it seems like you can do so much more with an iOS based phone or tablet once this is accomplished. 'Course you also automatically void whatever warranty you might have and might also brick the device if something goes wrong.

you can always restore it in itunes so it does not void the warranty . just dont go into an apple store with a jailbroken iphone lol

I wouldn't jailbreak the unit until it's out of warranty, although I can't see how Apple could find out if their device was jail broken.

I got a used flip phone a few months ago, because I needed to use the Stylus from my Garmin Palm PDA GPS combo to operate the buttons on the old phone. I don't like smartphones, because they aren't good phones and extremely fragile.