If you are having a hard time choosing a present for a friend or loved one, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has some advice. According to him, smartphones powered by Android operating system such as the Samsung Galaxy S4, Motorola Droid Ultra, and the Nexus 5 are great Christmas presents for iPhone users.
Switching to Android is the new black
In a blog post, Schmidt emphasized that many of his friends using the iPhone are shifting towards high-end Android smartphones because of “better screens, are faster, and have much more intuitive interface.”
For those interested or planning to switch to high-end smartphones, Schmidt issued a guide to help users transfer all their data from their iPhones or iPad to Android smartphone or tablet.
Schmidt wrote, “Here are the steps I recommend to make this switch. Like the people who moved from PCs to Macs and never switched back, you will switch from iPhone to Android and never switch back as everything will be in the cloud, backed up, and there are so many choices for you.” He also pointed out that Android accounts 80% market share in the industry based on a latest survey.
Schmidt’s advice for switchover
Schmidt’s guide for switching from iPhone to Android is easy to follow because it is a step-by-step process. Some of the important points in the guide include making sure that software on the Android phone and the iPhone are updated to the latest versions, turning off iMessage, ensuring that the iPhone is fully synced to the Mac iTunes and backing up all contacts to iCloud. With regard to photos stores in the iPhone, he advised users to copy the pictures over to Mac then sync the iPhone with iTunes.
According to him, “It’s probably easiest to backup your iPhone photos to the Mac, but not copy the old photos to the Android phone. New photos you take on the Android phone will automatically be backed up to your photos in the Gmail account (iAuto-Upload is normally enabled) so no action is required. If the old photos are important, send them to Gmail and download into the Android phone or upload them to Google+.”
Furthermore, Schmidt recommended that users should use Chrome because it is free, safer and better than Safari in “so many ways,” and to use two-factor authentication for their Gmail and Google accounts.
