Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

IPhone to Droid X: Impressions of a Data Pig

designbygravity.wordpress.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 56 posts

Re: IPhone to Droid X: Impressions of a Data Pig

#11

Post by randallsquared »

Terretta wrote: post #8

Despite all the furor about iOS needing multitasking, this detail is glossed over: on Verizon you can't look up something requiring data while you're on a call. This isn't an Android vs iPhone issue: on AT&T my HTC Aria can handle a call while checking for directions on Google Maps just fine. It's interesting how total failure to support the most common smartphone multitasking scenario is glossed over as a "niggle".…

Calling it "the most common smartphone multitasking scenario" seems like pretty extreme hyperbole. I don't even know if my phone (N900) can do this, because it's never occurred to me to try.

Re: IPhone to Droid X: Impressions of a Data Pig

#12

Post by siglesias »

htsh wrote: post #9
Terretta wrote: post #8

Despite all the furor about iOS needing multitasking, this detail is glossed over: on Verizon you can't look up something requiring data while you're on a call. This isn't an Android vs iPhone issue: on AT&T my HTC Aria can handle a call while checking for directions on Google Maps just fine. It's interesting how total failure to support the most common smartphone multitasking scenario is glossed over as a "niggle".…

I'm not sure if it's the most common smartphone multitasking scenario. Considerably more common than that,I want to leave an application and come back to it without navigating from the beginning. For example, if I'm in twitter and I go to a link in the browser, I can come back to where I was in twitter. And I can do this with the back button. Do you really check for directions while on phone calls often? Perhaps it's…

No back navigation on iPhone from browser to Twitter? You mean this back button here that's only there when you need it? http://yfrog.com/86px1kj

Re: IPhone to Droid X: Impressions of a Data Pig

#13

Post by [deleted] »

nfg wrote: post #10
htsh wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if it's the most common smartphone multitasking scenario. Considerably more common than that,I want to leave an application and come back to it without navigating from the beginning. For example, if I'm in twitter and I go to a link in the browser, I can come back to where I was in twitter. And I can do this with the back button. Do you really check for directions while on phone calls often? Perhaps it's…

> "niggle" is troubling and slightly outdated, especially if you look up it's etymology. Could you expand on this? I can't find anything other than it dating to the 1500/1600s, probably from Norwegian "Nigla" (to be penurious) or cognate with "Niggardly". As with "niggardly" I don't think there's any racial connotation to the term other than its sound?

[deleted]

Re: IPhone to Droid X: Impressions of a Data Pig

#14

Post by htsh »

nfg wrote: post #10
htsh wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if it's the most common smartphone multitasking scenario. Considerably more common than that,I want to leave an application and come back to it without navigating from the beginning. For example, if I'm in twitter and I go to a link in the browser, I can come back to where I was in twitter. And I can do this with the back button. Do you really check for directions while on phone calls often? Perhaps it's…

> "niggle" is troubling and slightly outdated, especially if you look up it's etymology. Could you expand on this? I can't find anything other than it dating to the 1500/1600s, probably from Norwegian "Nigla" (to be penurious) or cognate with "Niggardly". As with "niggardly" I don't think there's any racial connotation to the term other than its sound?

The word "niggardly" and it's cognates are not preferred language not just due to their phonetic similarity to a word which unfortunately has awful connotation, but also because sophomoric racists have unfortunately appropriated these terms to have this sort of racial meaning. I should have said "recent etymology" above.

For this reason, magazines and newspapers avoid the term: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_%2... (see the bottom)

I might be dating myself here, but "niggardly" and "niggle" used to be used quite often to imply racial meaning even if none technically exists. Perhaps we shouldn't avoid the term just b/c some ignorant folks used them in racist ways, but in this case I don't see the harm in avoiding it considering there are so many other ways to say the same thing. Unfortunately, once racists use these words to mean something other than their dictionary definitions, you run the risk of raising eyebrows amongst people who may have experienced these terms in these secondary contexts.

In England, this is likely a different story.

And would you really use "niggardly" to describe something in America in 2010? Really?

Re: IPhone to Droid X: Impressions of a Data Pig

#15

Post by htsh »

siglesias wrote: post #12
htsh wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if it's the most common smartphone multitasking scenario. Considerably more common than that,I want to leave an application and come back to it without navigating from the beginning. For example, if I'm in twitter and I go to a link in the browser, I can come back to where I was in twitter. And I can do this with the back button. Do you really check for directions while on phone calls often? Perhaps it's…

No back navigation on iPhone from browser to Twitter? You mean this back button here that's only there when you need it? http://yfrog.com/86px1kj

Is that the full standalone Safari or an embedded Safari within the twitter client? It looks like an embedded browser within the twitter client.

On my iPod touch, if I left my twitter client to go to Safari, I could not come back to exactly where I was in tweetdeck. But I have not tried 4.0 in this regard.

Re: IPhone to Droid X: Impressions of a Data Pig

#16

Post by sandipc »

sahaj wrote: post #3

i just recently went from iPhone 2G to Samsung Captivate and i can not stress enough just how easy navigating around android is. the back button, the search button, and the notification bar are the killer features. this author fails to find use of the search button, but for me this is an essential item. you can be in any app (contacts, im, mail, etc.) and hitting search will search that currently open app. if you hit…

holding the home button for a second pulls up a sort of task switcher of open/recent apps - once I discovered this a few weeks ago on my Droid Incredible, I've been using it nonstop

Re: IPhone to Droid X: Impressions of a Data Pig

#17

Post by sandipc »

tocomment wrote: post #7

Somewhat related, any advice on whether I should get an HTC Incredible, or a Droid X? (or something else?)

I have an Incredible and have used an Evo in person - I haven't seen the X yet. I would say go check out the size of the Evo/X in person and see if that size of a phone is too big... it was for me. The pixel density of the Evo screen was also lacking a bit, and I understand the Droid X is similar in resolution and screen size. I hear the X has the best battery life of the three though.

Re: IPhone to Droid X: Impressions of a Data Pig

#18

Post by felideon »

mirkules wrote: post #4

I just switched from iPhone 3GS to Android (Galaxy S). My first impression is that it's not as polished as the iPhone, but the overall gain in functionality is worth the switch. IMO the biggest pros (that iPhone lacks): - Micro SD card storage - Mount the phone as a USB drive or as a modem (hallelujah, why did it take so long for phones to get this?!) - Swype (reminds me of T9 on non-smart phones, sweet, although use…

You _can_ remove the AT&T apps if you root the phone.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=712546

http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/3319-stock-apps-that-can-...

http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/1950-galaxy-s-has-been-ro...

I'm very close to switching from an iPhone 3G to the Galaxy S (captivate), so I'm glad to see someone confirming what I thought would be my impression: not so smooth but more functionality. Not sure if I should wait a few months though for an Android 3.0 lineup.

Re: IPhone to Droid X: Impressions of a Data Pig

#19

Post by siglesias »

htsh wrote: post #15
siglesias wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No back navigation on iPhone from browser to Twitter? You mean this back button here that's only there when you need it? http://yfrog.com/86px1kj

Is that the full standalone Safari or an embedded Safari within the twitter client? It looks like an embedded browser within the twitter client. On my iPod touch, if I left my twitter client to go to Safari, I could not come back to exactly where I was in tweetdeck. But I have not tried 4.0 in this regard.

It's a fully functional browser that loads from the app, yes. All developers have this at their disposal. This isn't a problem precisely because apps rarely need to "leave" to display a browser. One just comes in modally, displays the content of a page, and that's that. If you were using a Twitter client that yanked you out of Twitter to show a site, you were using a bad client.

Re: IPhone to Droid X: Impressions of a Data Pig

#20

Post by theBobMcCormick »

Terretta wrote: post #8

Despite all the furor about iOS needing multitasking, this detail is glossed over: on Verizon you can't look up something requiring data while you're on a call. This isn't an Android vs iPhone issue: on AT&T my HTC Aria can handle a call while checking for directions on Google Maps just fine. It's interesting how total failure to support the most common smartphone multitasking scenario is glossed over as a "niggle".…

I imagine that would be an annoying limitation. Although like you said, that's carrier specific, not OS. On my TMobile N1 I've got no problems using my data connection while talking on the phone... I do it pretty frequently actually to send and receive emails while sitting on conference calls for work.
Post reply on HN