I have a 24hr road trip coming up, so having a smartphone at that time is a must.
I’ve wanted the iPhone for a while, and being a VZW customer, now is the time. I like the Optimus(s) that are coming out, as well as the Bionic, but I need the phone before the 19th of this month.
Am I going to have to pay for the hotspot (monthly like the droids) or are they including it (which would explain them bringing it up all the time)?
Thanks in advance…
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Droid. Free navigation for your 24 hour road trip.
No Verizon will not be including wireless tethering for free. But if you have a droid you can download and instlal z4root for free from the android market, then download and install wifi tether for free from the Android market. Free wifi hotspotting. I’m sure there’s a way to do this for the iphone too though?
I do love the hardware and software of the iPhone4 but I use it a lot on the phone while browsing the web so not sure if I could adjust to using the phone or the data just in my work environment. If you are already a Verizon person you are used to this I guess.
I do agree with Fry. The only thing I wish was there was free turn by turn like the android phones have.
If you want one why ask people to talk you out of it? You seem like a smart guy, if you’ve used one and like it more than the droid alternatives get one.
As for wifi hotspot, don’t expect either of the big two (AT&T and Verizon) to offer it for free. Once you jailbreak though the $9.99 mywi app is available and it works great. There are other cheaper and probably even some free tethering options for jailbreakers but mywi works so good it’s worth the $10. Bad news, the latest firmware that comes on the phone can’t be jailbroken. Good news, they all get jailbroken eventually and it sounds like several jailbreak vulnerabilities are available and the dev guys are just waiting for apple to release the latest firmware that’s in beta so apple can’t patch the jailbreak hole before releasing it.
For nav I downloaded a torrent of the TomTom US/Canada app and it works great. Again, only an option once you jailbreak (the torrent part. You can always buy the app legit).
This sounds like a personal issue to me. I have had my iphone3gs for well over a year and even during a ‘heavy’ use day I never worry about battery life.
I can kill my 4 in a day if I use it a lot. Processor intensive stuff will kill any smartphone. Need for Speed, Angry Birds, TomTom… those 3 eat battery like crazy. Just emailing, surfing the web and talking on the phone doesn’t hit the battery that bad though.
There are a few things you’ll need to know about how the Verizon iPhone handles calls differently from AT&T. Firstly, you can’t do 3G data and voice at the same time. When using data on 3G, calls take precedent, but if you’re in Verizon’s 2G territory and using data, your call will go to voicemail. Another thing to consider is how Verizon’s network handles multiple calls. You can add up to two people to a call, but after that, everyone gets shot to voicemail, unlike the AT&T phone, where the numbers go way beyond that.
A bigger issue may be that while using the Personal Hotspot feature, your calls will kill your connection. That means that if you’re loading a page on your computer tethered to your phone and you get a call, the page stops loading and doesn’t resume until the call stops ringing, or you hang up.
Let’s put this as simply as we can: data rates on the Verizon iPhone 4 we tested were dramatically slower than those on its AT&T counterpart. How much slower? Well, even though network speeds fluctuate based on many factors, we didn’t see the Verizon device peak much beyond 1.4 Mbps on downloads (and even that high was rare), and it barely hit 0.5 Mbps on upstream. On the other hand, the AT&T device regularly pulled down above 3 Mbps, and 1 Mbps or more going up. We’ll admit that the Verizon speeds were more consistent, but the irrefutable fact is that AT&T’s network is much, much faster, at least in our neck of the woods.
But that seems to be all Verizon specific problems, lol.
The new iPhones should be out June/July, that’s why I wouldn’t by one right now. Verizon is also releasing some dual core phones int he coming months. iPhone 4s on VZW also do not do Voice and Data together. Probably not a big deal for most.
Battery life on my Droid X kinda sucks. A 12 hour day of moderate use will kill it. I’ve been tempted to get the car dock (suction cup GPS style dock for the Droid X) but instead I ordered two spare batteries and a stand-alone battery charger off ebay for $10 bucks. So when one battery gets low I’ll just toss in a fresh one. Can’t do that with an iphone since you can’t get at the battery. However it sounds like that might not be an issue if the battery life is that good.
Battery life is not bad on the 4. I use it pretty heavily and unless I am playing a game or running some background stuff all day it lasts pretty good.
Also make sure you’re running 4.2 although I think the 4s come with 4.2 (correct me if I’m wrong). We have a 3GS at work that was running 4.0 and would last maybe 4 hours before it was dead…Went to 4.2 and it works a lot better.
Yeah, all the new ones comes with 4.2 because Apple doesn’t want you jailbreaking them, and as of right now 4.2 without backed up shsh blobs can’t be jailbroken. 4.3 beta is out and once 4.3 is released I would expect a JB soon after.
Whatever you get, make sure you take it back within your 30 day grace period and get an HTC Thunderbolt. (It gets released sometime this month.) It’s a 4G droid smartphone. With 4G already up in Rochester and more markets rolling out this year I don’t see why anyone would buy a 3G only smartphone today. It’s already obsolete. Not to mention the Thunderbolt can do voice and data at the same time ala AT&T whether on 3G or 4G. No other VZW phone can do that.
The VZW handsets ship with 4.2.5 IIRC. Clearly Apple ships all new devices with the latest version of the OS, as should any company. This isnt to stop would be jailbreakers, its simply to ensure you are shipping the device with the most up to date OS. I know quite a few people with iOS devices, and the vast majority of them NEVER update the OS… Even if it adds lots of improvements, bug fixes, etc…
If anyone talking about iPhone battery life is talking about a iPhone, iPhone 3G, or iPhone 3GS, not a 4, battery life can not be compared. 3GS and previous can die in a day easily, with heavy use. iPhone 4 has significantly improved battery life, and is a great device. Even with it being old at this point, if you want Verizon and the iPhone now, just get it. There is ALLWAYS going to be a new ‘amazing’ Android handset every month or two… You cant wait forever. And im sure the CDMA iPhone 4 will hold value quite well, should you want to resale in the future.
