Apple Patents Gestures, Secure Boot Is Here, Android Bests iPhone

Danger! Danger! Grammar checker required! :D

Perhaps Beats? or Dominates?

Additionally, shouldn't it compare apples with apples? Android is an OS and the iPhone is hardware.

Quoting:Android is an OS and the iPhone is hardware.

The iPhones is hardware with bundled OS and basically are inseparable. With most Apple products, people don't distinguish between the two and Apple wants that way. The Android is an OS that runs on numerous hardware, and you are right, he should have compared it with Samsung, HTC, etc.

I believe he is comparing the OS

Quoting:Perhaps Beats? or Dominates?

Actually "bests" is legitimate English, it's not commonly used and may be considered archaic, but it is correct.

> Actually "bests" is legitimate English,...

Yes, it is. And it's actually used quite a bit by sports columnists who are always looking for another way to say which team won.

"Bests" is not archaic. As far as I'm concerned, if I've heard it used in my lifetime, it's not archaic. Since I'm under 40 (and my memory of grammar and English things at this level wouldn't have started until at least 10), that's really not that long.

I have heard the term a few times recently, and I assumed it emerged from fashionable "net- speak".

It's not an archaic form. I think it has emerged from a need to find a better alternative to "beat" to mean performed better competitively. Even "beat" is not really a good choice in this context, so I understand that need, but it grates on my ears every time that I hear it.

Oh, and I wouldn't use sports commentators as a good example of proper English usage :D

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Getting back to the other point however, I disagree with Fettoosh.

If the commentator was comparing iOS to Android, then might we remind him that all the iPhone variants, iPads and the full spectrum of iTouch devices run iOS. That's a fair bit more than the iPhone and therefore a fairer comparison.

As many people probably know, I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination, an iPhan, but if you're going to make comparisons then the comparison must at least make sense.

"Better" and "best" are odd words, in that they can serve as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. I don't know if any other English words are so capable.

> . I think it has emerged from a need to find a better alternative to "beat" to mean performed better competitively.

It's older than that. Merriam-Webster dates its first known use as 1863. Freedicitionary.com says the following:

[Middle English, from Old English betst; see bhad- in Indo-European roots.]

Whereas for beat it says the following:

[Middle English beten, from Old English baten; see bhau- in Indo-European roots.]

> Oh, and I wouldn't use sports commentators as a good example of proper English usage :D

Depends on the specific commentator. However, in this case such usage is perfectly appropriate, regardless of who is using it.