[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note II] BlackPhantomX:
To be quite honest, I don't miss much about the iPhone... And this is coming from someone who had an iPhone since the original came out. To me, the Note II is much more robust than any of the iPhones I've had (all the way to the 4S), but if I was to think about it, the things I miss are...

1: Siri. Specifically, her responses. Galaxy Voice isn't bad and is pretty too the point, but isn't as keen to giving humorous responses to equally humorous questions like, "Where can I hide a body?"

2: Some of the swipe gestures I got used to with the iPhone. Sometimes, I find myself trying to swipe to the right on an e-mail, expecting a red "Delete" button to appear.

And to be honest, I don't see how the iPhone is much more "elegant." Sure, it has an aluminum backing, but you can always buy an aluminum backing for the Note II. I will admit that I liked the 4 and 4S's (and also the 5's) edged sides over the Note II's curved edges at the rear, but I don't exactly pay attention to the rear often enough to care that much. I've got the aluminum sides bumper on the way anyways, so that will help alleviate that "problem."

Look up SMS Popup, Droid Notify or Popup Notifier in Google Play Store. BUT, if you want a literal popup that looks like iPhone's notification popup, try iPhone Notifications.

---------- Post added at 12:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:31 AM ----------

I'm not sure how you have yours set on your desktop, but it sounds like the problem is the sync interval on your computer. If you want it instant or near instant, then maybe lower the sync interval to 1 minute. The calendar on the Note II automatically syncs with Google Calendar the moment you open it. In short, the problem isn't the phone, but the sync interval of Google Sync Calendar on your computer.

Dunno what to tell you on this one. I had no problem syncing all 500+ of my contacts the first time around.

I use Go Launcher EX with Go Notifications and it seems to have a badge for many apps. Of course, the drop down Notification literally tells you if you have a voicemail in Visual Voicemail, or if someone posted or replied or messaged you on Facebook, etc, etc. And you can do this from Samsung's TouchWiz launcher the Note II came with stock. I'd say it's a lot easier than having to hit the home button on the iPhone and see which app has a badge, then launching that app and getting to the right part of the app to identify what the badge is trying to notify you about. For example, with the mail app, you just swipe down from the Notification bar to get it to drop down, then click on the e-mail account it's notifying you about and it'll not only launch the mail app, but take you to the right account it's notifying you about (if you have multiple e-mail accounts like I do). Then, if you happen to also have some voicemails, while still on the mail app, you just swipe down again from the Notification bar and select the voicemail, and it'll take you there. Honestly, it's no different from iOS's way of notifying you, but just in another way. It just seems you're not used to this way of doing things.

Actually, it's technically 1-2 apps for all that. 1 if you don't care about Visual Voicemail. The phone app has tabs at the top for keypad (aka dialer), call logs, favorites and contacts. Visual Voicemail is just the only app that's separate. You'd have to use AT&T's Visual Voicemail app, which isn't too different from iOS's Visual Voicemail. You still have the option to call back from the app, and when you tap to call back, it'll launch the phone app.

As someone who used the iPhone as my first and only smartphone before the Note II, I can understand where you're coming from. But as I played with the Note II more, I found out that the main app that the iPhone had weren't too different from the Note II's main apps. Just like how you probably didn't immediately learn everything you can do with the iPhone when you first got the iPhone, you won't immediately learn everything you can do with the Note II. I honestly don't believe there's a learning curve. Most, if not all, of the things I enjoyed that I was able to do with my iPhones are available on the Note II, but just with a different route to use them. Some more convenient (ie: Notification bar) and some just strange (ie: separate app for visual voicemail).