Cast your vote: droid or smartphone

Whether you’re a Droid Defender or part of the Apple Army, the “SmartPhone Smackdown: Droid vs iOS” debate at Princeton Public Library on October 23 gave everyone more to consider when purchasing their next phone, along with an evening of entertainment. An audience of more than 50 gathered in the library’s Community Room to hear the virtues and the drawbacks of each operating system as presented by Khurt Williams, who highlighted the merits and advantages of the iOS on Apple smartphones and other mobile devices; John LeMasney came to sing the praises of the Android operating system and related devices.

In addition to those gathered in the library, the public was encouraged to participate in the debate style presentation through social media. Hours before the debate, Facebook was buzzing with anticipation. The library tweeted under PrincetonPL using #PPLSmackdown, highlighting points and encouraging participation. Using Google Plus, this event was streamed via YouTube thanks to LeMasney’s ingenuity. Joe D’Aquila of The Trentonian newspaper streamed the event via ScribbleLive which allowed for real time chat online, adding to the excitement.

The library is grateful that Williams and LeMasney, who are extremely active in the world of social media and in local tech/geek circles, were able to debate. A coin toss determined the order for the evening. Williams, a senior advisor in information security compliance at Bristol-Myers Squibb, president of the Princeton Macintosh Users Group and all around Apple fan boy, took the podium first. With thirty minutes to present his case for the iPhone and iOS system, he wowed us with the attributes of the Apple world. Next up was LeMasney, manager of Educational Testing Technology Training and Outreach for the Educational Technologies Center at Princeton University who also teaches at the library in the evenings. He is an advocate of open source in general and a self-described Droid fan.

After a short question and answer session, the audience was asked to decide the winner for the evening. Using dual decibel meter apps on both Android and Apple devices, it was apparent via audience applause that those in attendance appreciated both presenters. The iOS discussion led with 100 decibels on the decibel meters and the Droid fans managed 94 decibels.

If you missed the show, check out  Storify which captures the highlights and be sure to view the stream.

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