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IPhone to Droid-X: Lots to Like

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Re: IPhone to Droid-X: Lots to Like

#61
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the iPhone, I felt the need to tether because surfing the web is so clunky. Can you elaborate?

I have an iPhone and I think I know what the GP is saying (although I haven't tried Android). I have a 3G which is basically unusable for the web because it's so slow , and I haven't even put iOS 4 on it. Apart from that, however, Safari basically just has no features. The form filling is so broken that, when I type half my email address in and it offers to fill it out, I tap on it to dismiss it and it fills the box…

I just recently acquired a 3GS, after previously having used a 3G and a 2G. The 3GS is much faster, such that I don't feel like I experience lag in most operations. I had no idea that improving the speed could make such a difference in the entire usability of the device.

I am now using my iPhone more than I had ever used previous versions. I think because the time to accomplish a task is so much shorter, I find more opportunities to use it. I'm using the browser more, because the speed is close to a regular computer (or at least feels like it is). Sure, the screen is small for browsing, but I'm finding myself using double-tap to quickly zoom in and out of parts of the page (whereas before I used a lot of pinch zooming), and panning around the page is quick and painless now (I think it holds more of the rendered page in memory and has to re-render less).

I don't know if my next phone will be an iPhone or Android, but I do know one thing: it will be fast.

Warning on the 3G and iOS4: Iif you upgrade to iOS 4 on your 3G, you may fall into the large subset of people who are experiencing extreme slowdowns. I was one of those people. I had never seen such terrible slowdowns on an iPhone. With a bit of hacking, you can downgrade back to 3.1.2 or 3.1.3, but it's not supported by Apple and requires some 3rd-party tools. There are supposed fixes for this (such as turning off spotlight), but I'd suggest waiting for this to get ironed out before moving to iOS 4. Maybe 4.1 will fix things. iOS 4 doesn't give the 3G much of value anyway.

Re: IPhone to Droid-X: Lots to Like

#62
post #3

> "Wifi Tethering. I don’t need to tether often, but when I do, I do. I rooted my phone quickly, just so I could use one of the many apps in the Marketplace to tether my laptop via Wifi. Worked flawlessly, no extra charge." That's tantamount to saying "I jail-broke my iPhone quickly, so I could use one of the many apps on Cydia to tether my laptop via WiFi" ... except you don't need an app for that because tethering…

The no cell data while in a call is a CDMA issue, not a phone issue. An ATT or Tmobile Android phone can use voice and 3G data at the same time the same as an iPhone. Also, I'm not sure how the no cloud push in 2.1 can be a reason for switching from Android to iPhone. Does the iPhone have a cloud push feature equivalent to the one Android 2.2 cloud push feature? I'm assuming that's the "no cloud push" feature he's ta…

> The no cell data while in a call is a CDMA issue, not a phone issue.

Yes, I have successfully browsed the web in the middle of a call, using 3G(HSPA) on my G1.

Re: IPhone to Droid-X: Lots to Like

#63
post #56
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if it's equivalent, but setting up the iPhone to treat your Gmail account as an Exchange Active Sync account gives the iPhone most of the cloud push features (Mail/Calendar/Contacts). I can add a contact on my iPhone that syncs OTA to Google that then syncs to my mac address book. Google voice texting and messages don't integrate perfectly yet, for example if I get a GV text on my iPhone and read it it d…

I'm not sure if it's equivalent, but setting up the iPhone to treat your Gmail account as an Exchange Active Sync account gives the iPhone most of the cloud push features (Mail/Calendar/Contacts). I can add a contact on my iPhone that syncs OTA to Google that then syncs to my mac address book. The contact/calendar syncing is great and in my mind really makes MobileMe a hard thing to justify buying. The push mail is n…

This is easy to fix.

Check the account's Advanced settings, and make sure that the account's Deleted Mailbox points at the "On the Server" trash. You may also want to confirm that the Sent and Drafts mailboxes point to their Gmail equivalents.

You can archive a message by moving it to the All Mail folder.

In iOS 4, there's an option at the top level settings of accounts created as "Gmail" accounts to archive or trash messages deleted on the device, I'm not sure how this relates to the above settings.

Re: IPhone to Droid-X: Lots to Like

#64
post #4

" Every couple of days, you do need to reboot the phone. " Love how this was tossed out there as an afterthought. Huge, obnoxious deal-breaker. I love losing state every 2 days! /sarcasm

This isn't a normal Android user's experience. I have had to reboot my Nexus One a few times when it seemed to be behaving strangely (laggy, screwed up multitouch) - but I'm talking about 3 times in three months.

Re: IPhone to Droid-X: Lots to Like

#65
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if it's equivalent, but setting up the iPhone to treat your Gmail account as an Exchange Active Sync account gives the iPhone most of the cloud push features (Mail/Calendar/Contacts). I can add a contact on my iPhone that syncs OTA to Google that then syncs to my mac address book. The contact/calendar syncing is great and in my mind really makes MobileMe a hard thing to justify buying. The push mail is n…

This is easy to fix. Check the account's Advanced settings, and make sure that the account's Deleted Mailbox points at the "On the Server" trash. You may also want to confirm that the Sent and Drafts mailboxes point to their Gmail equivalents. You can archive a message by moving it to the All Mail folder. In iOS 4, there's an option at the top level settings of accounts created as "Gmail" accounts to archive or trash…

Check the account's Advanced settings, and make sure that the account's Deleted Mailbox points at the "On the Server" trash. You may also want to confirm that the Sent and Drafts mailboxes point to their Gmail equivalents.

If you're using the Google Sync feature (to get your mail, contacts, and calendars pushed live to your device), Google presents your Gmail account as though it were an Exchange account. Consequently, iOS doesn't let you change the folder mappings like you can with an IMAP server.

Re: IPhone to Droid-X: Lots to Like

#67
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the Incredible? I'm about to get one on Friday when my $50 credit comes in.

I think it's great. My only complaints are that the camera is horrendous. Every picture is blurry no matter how still I hold the camera. Also the speaker sounds muffled and too quiet on regular phone calls. (Yes, the volume is all the way up.) Oh and the battery life is kind of bad. I had to read a couple of articles and turn off all kinds of things off to make it last through the day. I think the battery has some ki…

Sounds like your camera is seriously screwed; mine doesn't have this issue at all.

Re: IPhone to Droid-X: Lots to Like

#68
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The no cell data while in a call is a CDMA issue, not a phone issue. An ATT or Tmobile Android phone can use voice and 3G data at the same time the same as an iPhone. Also, I'm not sure how the no cloud push in 2.1 can be a reason for switching from Android to iPhone. Does the iPhone have a cloud push feature equivalent to the one Android 2.2 cloud push feature? I'm assuming that's the "no cloud push" feature he's ta…

I'm not sure if it's equivalent, but setting up the iPhone to treat your Gmail account as an Exchange Active Sync account gives the iPhone most of the cloud push features (Mail/Calendar/Contacts). I can add a contact on my iPhone that syncs OTA to Google that then syncs to my mac address book. Google voice texting and messages don't integrate perfectly yet, for example if I get a GV text on my iPhone and read it it d…

> I'm not sure if it's equivalent, but setting up the iPhone to treat your Gmail account as an Exchange Active Sync account gives the iPhone most of the cloud push features (Mail/Calendar/Contacts). I can add a contact on my iPhone that syncs OTA to Google that then syncs to my mac address book.

No, this is not equivalent to cloud push. Application-specific push (in this case google sync) was part of Andoid 1.0 on the first G1.

Re: IPhone to Droid-X: Lots to Like

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an iPhone and I think I know what the GP is saying (although I haven't tried Android). I have a 3G which is basically unusable for the web because it's so slow , and I haven't even put iOS 4 on it. Apart from that, however, Safari basically just has no features. The form filling is so broken that, when I type half my email address in and it offers to fill it out, I tap on it to dismiss it and it fills the box…

Interesting, I also have iPhone 3G (with 4.1 beta installed) and I do browse web a lot. Mobile Safari was the first useable browser on mobile device, imho, and multitouch + zoom on tap makes it even better. Android browser uses the same Webkit engine, hence my question, what's so different about browsing.

Oh, of course, I don't disagree with that. Before the iPhone and Safari, you could not browse the web at all. It's just that now, other phones have evolved.

Re: IPhone to Droid-X: Lots to Like

#70
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an iPhone and I think I know what the GP is saying (although I haven't tried Android). I have a 3G which is basically unusable for the web because it's so slow , and I haven't even put iOS 4 on it. Apart from that, however, Safari basically just has no features. The form filling is so broken that, when I type half my email address in and it offers to fill it out, I tap on it to dismiss it and it fills the box…

I just recently acquired a 3GS, after previously having used a 3G and a 2G. The 3GS is much faster, such that I don't feel like I experience lag in most operations. I had no idea that improving the speed could make such a difference in the entire usability of the device. I am now using my iPhone more than I had ever used previous versions. I think because the time to accomplish a task is so much shorter, I find more…

I agree with you entirely. I might paraphrase and say that every second I have to wait for my phone to perform an operation cuts my usage of it in half...

I guess I was only half on topic on the previous comment, since I was talking more about slow phones than the iPhone in particular (even though it is an iPhone and the slowness is a part of it).

I have struggled to find a fast phone for ages now. The fastest phone I've had is a Nokia 6500, which just does most of what I want, and instantly. Unfortunately, as I find myself connected to my business more and more, I need a phone that can help me.

I don't think you can hope that 4.1 will fix anything. Slowness on old devices is part of Apple's planned obsolescence. How else would they get you to buy a new iPhone?

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