New iPhone Commercial/Can android.....

[stinky]

I am sure you have all seen the new iPhone commercial where they brag about it being able to search the internet among other things while in a call.

I tried this on my Hero yesterday, but it first said that the data connection was being used and to enable Wifi. I enabled wifi and tried again, but no browser would connect, Google Maps wouldnt find my location, seems like Android cant handle this?

Is there something I missed? Would this be an Android thing, Sprint thing, etc?

 

[lekky]

Sprint uses a CDMA radio, which means it cannot take calls and use mobile data at the same time. The iPhone adverts are misleading as they suggest that android phones cannot do this, however this issue is carrier specific. For example with my Hero in the UK, I can access data whilst on a call no problem.

Just to confirm, Android CAN do this, but Sprint cannot. An iPhone on Sprint could not do this.

 

[stinky]

Thats a bummer.

They do say "can YOUR phone on YOUR network do that?"

So there is no way around it, even with wifi?

 

[dima1109]

So there is no way around it, even with wifi?

I can browse the internet through a WiFi connectiom while on call just fine (Verizon/Droid).

Also, the G1, MyTouch, and Cliq folks can do the exact thing in the commercial just fine on T-Mobile. The ads are misleading, no doubt, but they are not pointed at Android, they are pointed at Verizon.

 

[CookieMomster]

I am sure you have all seen the new iPhone commercial where they brag about it being able to search the internet among other things while in a call.

I tried this on my Hero yesterday, but it first said that the data connection was being used and to enable Wifi. I enabled wifi and tried again, but no browser would connect, Google Maps wouldnt find my location, seems like Android cant handle this?

Is there something I missed? Would this be an Android thing, Sprint thing, etc?

LOL. I never knew my phone couldn't do that. I never tried to do it while in a voice call before that commercial. To this day, I don't really need to do that. Ask those phones if they can listen to their music while surfing the internet. Not a war to wage if my understanding is correct that they can only do one thing at a time besides talk and surf.

 

[stinky]

I thought iPhones could listen to music and do other things, but not anything more than that as far as multitasking.

 

[jeffyo]

I thought iPhones could listen to music and do other things, but not anything more than that as far as multitasking.

Yeah, ONE thing at a time bro. Sorries iPhone users. Who needs to talk and browse at the same damn time? Pay attention to the person you are talking to for god's sake.

 

[lekky]

LOL. I never knew my phone couldn't do that. I never tried to do it while in a voice call before that commercial. To this day, I don't really need to do that. Ask those phones if they can listen to their music while surfing the internet. Not a war to wage if my understanding is correct that they can only do one thing at a time besides talk and surf.

Remember, its a really important point especially if you are gonig to be introducing android to other people. Its not the phone that cannot do it, its the carrier. The phone CAN do this, it has nothing to do with Android vs iPhone, it is purely Carrier vs Carrier.

 

[dima1109]

iPhones have multitasking for the core applications (browser, media player, calendar, email, etc.), but not for any installed applications. Even then, it is very limited, and things close seemingly on their own most of the time (because, you know, Apple is looking out for you, they know what you need a lot better than you do). That is the big difference between iPhone OS and Android. Wanna listen to locally stored music while browsing the Web? You can do that on both. Wanna listen to music through the Pandora or Last.fm app? Sorry iPhone users.

Here is a scenario I like to tell to iPhone users when they ask me what's so great about Android. Imagine you wanna play a game, but you are feeling nostalgic, so you wanna play a Sega game from a while back. You fire up the emulator, and start the good Mortal Kombat 3, with all the controller keys conveniently mapped to your physical keyboard. After a little bit, your LED blinks because an email arrived. You are just about to FINISH HIM, but you think it may be an important email that you've been expecting. You click the home button, get out into the menu, launch the Gmail application, and read the email. You decide to reply, but you need to include a link from a webpage. You go to the web browser, copy the link, paste it into the email (that you find in the exact same state you left it) then send it. After you close the Gmail app, you decide that MK deserves some heavy metal from your Metallica station in Pandora. You launch the Pandora app, click play, then go back to your game (which was left in the exact state you left it). With iPhone, not only doing everything would take twice as long because of useless transition animations/fade-ins/fade-outs, the internet connection would likely be down, so it would take you an hour to load the website to get the link, and another hour to type your email on the onscreen keyboard. Not to mention you would lose your fight because you had to exit your game. Wait, you wouldn't even be able to play that game because console emulators are not legal under The Apple App Constitution.

 

[dima1109]

Who needs to talk and browse at the same damn time? Pay attention to the person you are talking to for god's sake.

Have you ever seen two teenagers have a coherent conversation with each other doing fifty things while talking to someone on the phone is nothing new to the core iPhone audience.

 

[UncleMike]

Remember, its a really important point especially if you are gonig to be introducing android to other people. Its not the phone that cannot do it, its the carrier. The phone CAN do this, it has nothing to do with Android vs iPhone, it is purely Carrier vs Carrier.

Actually, it's a technology vs. technology thing - CDMA vs. GSM. CDMA can't, but GSM can, but only in a 3G coverage area. Aside from the fact that the carrier chose the technology, the carrier has nothing to do with it. And the phone in this case (a CDMA-based Droid) CAN'T do voice and data at the same time.

 

[lekky]

Actually, it's a technology vs. technology thing - CDMA vs. GSM. CDMA can't, but GSM can, but only in a 3G coverage area. Aside from the fact that the carrier chose the technology, the carrier has nothing to do with it. And the phone in this case (a CDMA-based Droid) CAN'T do voice and data at the same time.

Well its both really. the carrier chose the technology, they have everything to do with it.. Can the phone physically do it? I mean if I used a Droid on a GSM network could it do both at the same time? Because if it can saying the Droid cant do both is misleading.

The advert the OP mentioned was blatantly trying to play on this, making out that android cannot do both, and i can guarantee many iPhone users took that away from the advert.

 

[IOWA]

Why would you surf the web while on the phone anyway?

 

[UncleMike]

Well its both really. the carrier chose the technology, they have everything to do with it.. Can the phone physically do it? I mean if I used a Droid on a GSM network could it do both at the same time? Because if it can saying the Droid cant do both is misleading.

The advert the OP mentioned was blatantly trying to play on this, making out that android cannot do both, and i can guarantee many iPhone users took that away from the advert.

I guess I can clarify this by saying that it's not a policy decision on the carrier's part. It is however, a result of the carrier's technology decision(s).

There's nothing inherent about Android that prevents it from doing voice and data simultaneously. You can't use a Droid on a GSM network - it's a CDMA only phone, and therefore can't do voice and data simultaneously. The Milestone could possibly do so, since it's a GSM variant of the Droid.

 

[osli]

I think a lot of people just hate Apple. Did they steal your firstborn or something? I'm no fanboy of Apple, but neither am I of Microsoft or Google. Or ATT, or Verizon, or Sprint for that matter.

There were a lot of great things about my iPhone that my Hero just can't live up to. There are a lot of things my Hero can do that my iPhone couldn't before jailbreaking. I haven't rooted my Hero yet, because I'm waiting for 2.0. My jailbroken iPhone could do everything my Hero could (including everything in the multitasking MK/web/email scenario above), and a few things more that I've yet to figure out or get an app for on my Hero.

Advantage to Android for being customizable and fully open to 3rd party apps out of the box. Advantage to Apple for having a phone so intuitive and user friendly that my wife has not once asked me how to do something (I shudder the thought of her having to deal with my Hero) and that my just turned 3 year old can pick it up and play his favorite games without help.

 

[takeshi]

The ads are misleading, no doubt, but they are not pointed at Android, they are pointed at Verizon.

I wouldn't say they're misleading. They're trying to sell the idea that a feature that Apple and at&t (since at&t's network has been its Achille's heel in the marketing wars) have is a major decision point when it may or may not be. Every advertiser tries to convince you that you need their product. It's nothing new in the world of advertising. It's up to the viewer to decide if that's the case or not.

I mean if I used a Droid on a GSM network could it do both at the same time?

As stated above the Milestone can but the Droid is CDMA only -- so no you can't use it on GSM and it can't use data and voice simultaneously.

The advert the OP mentioned was blatantly trying to play on this, making out that android cannot do both, and i can guarantee many iPhone users took that away from the advert.[/quote]

Because if it can saying the Droid cant do both is misleading.

The ad says nothing about the Droid or Android.

Why would you surf the web while on the phone anyway?

Might not matter to you. Doesn't mean that it doesn't matter to someone else. If I don't see the point in using Twitter does that mean that no device should have a Twitter client? Yeesh.

I think a lot of people just hate Apple.

Every forum is chock full of fanboys who have an irrational attachment to brand. Android and Droid forums are no different than the rest.

 

[Loon]

Why would you surf the web while on the phone anyway?

Coming from a 3gs owner I can say that being able to check stuff on the net while talking with people has actually come in handy a few times, but I've never just browsed while having a conversation

 

[nateo200]

Coming from a 3gs owner I can say that being able to check stuff on the net while talking with people has actually come in handy a few times, but I've never just browsed while having a conversation

You better watch your back before the droid fanboys kill you! I kid I kid. But yeah that is nice, my mom calss me up and asks me to look things up and if I don't have wifi well then I have to hang up and look it up. Kind of a pain.

 

[Loon]

You better watch your back before the droid fanboys kill you! I kid I kid. But yeah that is nice, my mom calss me up and asks me to look things up and if I don't have wifi well then I have to hang up and look it up. Kind of a pain.

Yeah it's usually just like if someone asks what the weather for tomorrow is or something lol, nothing really special

 

[nateo200]

The commercial though is pretty weaksauce at frist it seams like there just attacking android as a whole but then they mention HSDPA 7.2 as if at&t has that widespread if at all plus there shit backhaul can barely handle UMTS in the raw let alone HSDPA 7.2....will say I like GSM/UMTS better but I can't stand at&t....

 

[Loon]

AT&T is trash there's no doubt about it, but I can't speak on Verizon personally as I've never used it. tbh everything on att is perfect on paper but in practice it just doesn't work. I cant get a god damn signal anywhere indoors so being able to do web and talk at the same time is never an issue since I don't have a signal. The data is fast...really fast...when you have a signal which is almost never. The only other carrier i've ever used was US Cellular and they should not even be in business anymore no idea why people subject themselves to that kind of torture but att is not much better

Also I swear that sometimes it only has an edge connection even though it's showing full 3g bars because of how slow it is

 

[nateo200]

AT&T is trash there's no doubt about it, but I can't speak on Verizon personally as I've never used it. tbh everything on att is perfect on paper but in practice it just doesn't work. I cant get a god damn signal anywhere indoors so being able to do web and talk at the same time is never an issue since I don't have a signal. The data is fast...really fast...when you have a signal which is almost never. The only other carrier i've ever used was US Cellular and they should not even be in business anymore no idea why people subject themselves to that kind of torture but att is not much better

Also I swear that sometimes it only has an edge connection even though it's showing full 3g bars because of how slow it is

Well where I live not gona lie at&t 3G is rock solid. But drive 20 miles away and have fun on EDGE While I'm on full bars of EVDO REV A

 

[jree]

I am coming from an iphone but couldn't use it on 3g bc of tmobile's different freq. I do miss the iphone but trying to download, surf, and anything web based on edge was just the most frustrating thing. I have the cliq now and I'm starting to get used to it. Its funny that this topic was brought up bc my fiance called me up and asked for directions somewhere and I pulled it up on google maps and used her starting point to give her directions. It was relativley fast.

As far as the whole maps vs. maps thing, it really DOES matter where you are. I was just in New York and lemme tell you, AT&T reigned supreme over there. My buddy had signal 3g no matter where we were at. Even in all the museums. My tmobile did a pretty decent job. I had better signal than my fiance.

 

[jree]

And the one thing that I did notice about the cliq is the somewhat lag that it has when transitioning from window to window. Just this second I tried to answer a call and slide to answer had a split second delay. I know that I need to give this phone some time and I definitley need to learn more about it before I give up on it.

 

[DankyDroid]

I can make a voice call and use data w/ my vzw droid, I use the wifi, vzw is going to be rolling out their own wifi as well, so yeah, it can do it.
One of the prior posters has it spot on though, does it matter the "capability" of the iphone, if you can't get a signal?

"My Iphone can surf the web while on a voice call....well in theory, I mean if I could get reception....(sigh)"
LOL