[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] taz0x:
Hi there,

First off I don't have an Android phone, I only have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, so my knowledge of Android is entirely based on what I was able to test with this so far.

I am in debate on what to get for a new phone, and I have been leaning on an Android based phone, but the more I read the more I get this feeling that Androids are still are inferior to an Iphone when it is Jailbroken (even when Rooted). Take for example Firefox and Chrome. While they are two different browsers, MOST OF THE TIME I can find extensions for both browsers that has the same functions, with some minor exceptions. And the two can generally perform the same tasks with some pros and cons between them.

Now with an Android and Iphone, that doesn't seem to be the case. The app selection seems much smaller on Androids, and ROMs don't seem to do anything useful from my point of view (all they seem to do is mess around with the UI of the OS). And what strikes me more is how there isn't much "equivalency" between the two. What lead me to come to this assumption, was that there is no real way method to achieve "true multitasking". What I mean, is the ability to switch between apps without them having to "pause itself in the background" as many times as you want so long as you have RAM available to do so before it force stops an app. Right now I use an iPhone 4s and I am using a Cydia app (or tweak?) that allows me to do this, but since I have had this for well over two years, it most likely is out of date (plus I haven't updated my iOS since I've had this tweak as well). However, in my quick google search, I've found that tweaks with the same features, which were Dissident, and Watchdog Pro. In contrast, I've spent two weeks trying to find something similar in Android, and the closest thing I've come across is the concept of "Multi Window". While it allows multiple apps to be run at the same time, from what I have tested you cannot really "minimize" applications while windowed, or have this be compatible with EVERY APP. Unless you use a thing called XMultiWindow, for Xposed Framework. Unfortunately, it seems like this method seems to be extremely buggy, and the development for the XMultiWindow has been halted for a while.

I feel that this "true multitasking" thing is very much achievable in Androids, but it feels like its not available because not enough people are R&D'ing it to make it a reality. Its not a new concept or anything.

Which begs the question: How does the Android homebrew community's size compare to the iOS Jailbroken/Cydia community? Is there a reason why there is so much of a lack of apps/tweaks that allows you to do things with an Android device?

I've heard so many times that people switch to the Android because it's so customizeable. But the way I see it, the thousands of tweaks on Cydia makes it seem like iOS's are much much more customizeable with what it can do. So why do people prefer the Android over iOS? Or am I misinterpreting this? Was the term "customizeability" simply referring to the look of the UI, or did it mean that "people with heavy programming knowledge could easily alter an Androids functions while non tech savvy people cannot"?

Can someone please clear this up for me? Thank you so much in advance.

PS: I tried to add links to what I am referring to for clarification, but since I'm a new user I apparently am not allowed to do that. My apologies.