iPhone 5 - a good choice now for a PC guy?

[kelton]

I'm suffering phone schizophrenia.... trying to make my work life exist fully on the phone and can't decide on a phone (I take notes and communicate a lot)
I currently have a Note 2, but I'm finding the size to be difficult to tolerate!

I'm fairly well aware of the other options, but if you could answer some questions for an iPhone newbie.

The last time I used Apple stuff (through the 90's and early 2000's).... lots of stuff was proprietary to Apple (protected music formats, for example). At this point, I'm guessing that things may have opened up a bit in terms of compatibilities across systems (right?). Also, I would rather not get involved in an entirely new cloud system (iCloud) and stick with my google drive, dropbox, and Evernote type deal.

So, I guess the question is this, is the iPhone as well suited to a PC type person as it is with a fully "involved" Apple fan?
Is it able to fully integrate with Google type stuff (calendar, docs,etc.)?

Is the use of iTunes utterly necessary for basic tasks?

 

[Jaguarr40]

Well personally since i use the same apps you mentioned and use them a lot including their desktop counterparts I would have to say YES you would be very happy with the choice or direction you are considering.
Is it able to fully integrate with Google type stuff (calendar, docs,etc.)?

Yes for sure it does to answer the above question.
I cloud is up to you but Apples iCloud is such a no brainer that I don't think you would not want to use it once you read about it which is what you should do. Read the article link i gave you and lastly iTunes is not a needed use except if anything for backups and update you apps but then again you can use your phone to do both ofthem through WIFI on your phone. Good luck and hope all works out for you and that I have answered all your questions.
iCloud | iMore

 

[Fausty82]

Well personally since i use the same apps you mentioned and use them a lot including their desktop counterparts I would have to say YES you would be very happy with the choice or direction you are considering.
Is it able to fully integrate with Google type stuff (calendar, docs,etc.)?

Yes for sure it does to answer the above question.
I cloud is up to you but Apples iCloud is such a no brainer that I don't think you would not want to use it once you read about it which is what you should do. Read the article link i gave you and lastly iTunes is not a needed use except if anything for backups and update you apps but then again you can use your phone to do both ofthem through WIFI on your phone. Good luck and hopeall works out for you and that I have answered all your questions.
iCloud | iMore

Yep. What he said (^^^^). Should work well for you.

 

[anon(4698833)]

The iPhone is not exclusive to Mac users at all...in fact, one could own the iPhone without a computer all together and function perfectly fine with it.

Music is still reformatted through iTunes, so if that is a huge deal breaker to you, you might want to do some research about it before buying...personally, I do all of my music purchases through iTunes, so having it all reformatted through such is not a problem, but that's just me.

As far as cloud storage, I use dropbox all the time, so you certainly do not have to use iCloud (though for iPhone back ups, it's almost stupid not to). The iPhone is integrated very deeply across a wide spectrum of uses (including most, if not all of Google's offerings).

 

[kelton]

Thank you. I'll have to look into iCloud.

I'm just darn "googled" ...along with some other cloud services, that it pains me to consider yet another cloud-thing. (for the sake of a solid phone backup service, it might be cool, though)

 

[Jaguarr40]

I would honestly have to say to you if you took what I started with and wrapped into all of Sean's posts with it, I think you would pretty well come up with the ultimate answer as many if not all of his points as well are on point. Thank you Sean for your points of view and assist.

 

[Trees]

Backups alone were enough to bring me back from Android. Yes, I used Titanium Backup, Google App Backup, Nandroids, and cloud based backup options. Didn't want to put my Nandroids or TiBu stuff in the cloud, so had to setup FolderSync jobs to move that on a regular basis to my home NAS. Cool that I had the flexibility, but needed to simplify things, and be confident knowing I could always get reliable iPhone backups with minimal effort.

 

[Jrome.brooks]

You will be fine my friend....wow the note 2 is not getting the job done ??? Hmmm well that's why apple works better

 

[Guacho]

I've ben using the iphone since 2008, I have never owned a mac computer ( that will change soon though ) and I've been fine..