thinking of defecting from the iphone

[ladysybil]

I have the old 3g. am due an upgrade in June, and have been thinking that i wont be signing up for a two year contract ever again, and that perhaps i shouldnt bother with the iphone 4, and just get the next one when it comes out. trouble is, i dont know when it comes out.

what i dont like about the iphone is that i cant have apps on in the background. so for example, msn messenger isonly on as long as it is clicked. i come out of it, and it logs me out, whereas i know other people have it logged in always. not sure what phones they use, but if iphones are meant to be the best, then what am i doing wrong on mine?
same with the radio. I would like to listen to it, and still be able to recieve phone calls. why cant my iphone cope?
ive had a play with a friends blackberry torch, and i love it, but not sure about the keys. i rather like the massive landscape version of the qwerty keyboard on the iphone.

anyone know anything about this and can advixe me please?

its a free app that i downloaded. i dont know of any other way. trouble with the app is that i then can t recieve calls whilst using the app

but why would you want to listen to the radio while trying to have a phone convo? surely you´d want the radio off in order to speak and actually hear what´s being said to you??

lol. i meant, that when i am using an app, the phone goes straight to voicemail, so i cant receive any calls. which annoys me.

I think the new iphone can multi task. I have the htc desire and it definetly can.

The iPhone 4 multitasks just like your PC so you can have things running in the background.

So does the 3GS with iOS4.

Sorry to hijack, but what's the radio app called?

Get a HTC Desire instead.

yessirnosir, my radio app is Tunein Radio and is fab. It cuts off when a call comes in and once the call is finished the radio resumes but this may be something to do with the way I've set it up to work with a Zeppelin wirelessly.

Thanks, I shall try it. But I will never defect from my iPhone, I love it. My dh hates his blackberry. But neither of us is very technically minded - I think that makes the iPhone a winner, much more intuitive, but maybe if you know what you're doing the options are broader.

I have the 3GS version and can listen to the radio and have phone calls. The radio dims when the phone rings and then carries on again once the call is finished. Which app are you using? I use tunein and it works better imo than the other one I tried - ICarRadio.

I only use the radio on the train and it works very well indeed.

You can download iOS4 to a 3G. I did that for ds's and it works fine (my old cracked screen no sim card phone).

I have iOS4 on my 3GS.

You need an HTC Desire :)

i havent done the last update, as the one before slowed my phone down too much. the guy in the shop told me my 3g was a dinosaur. :(

Well, the guy in the shop was right, the 3G is a dinosaur. But the 3GS or 4 can do multitasking, i.e. it will dim the radio when the phone rings and MSN will remain logged in, etc.

You can get 3GS on contract now for free with most providers, I think.

Ladysybil.

I had your exact same dilemma. And let me tell you I learned a VERY valuable lesson.

My 3G was groaning and I yearned for something faster. Multitasking, widgets, open source & flash support sounded way better than the closed Apple shop with the "do it my way or the highway" mentality of the iPhone.

So I duly upgraded to the HTC Desire and gave my 3G to my VERY happy teenage daughter.

Cue a week of being lost in Android forums asking how to do this & that. How to fix this bug or that bug. Menu upon menu of options. Yes the widgets were nice, yes flash was nice....but they didn't really matter. They weren't the killer items I thought they'd be. At one point I was called "technically incompetent" by some android forum users. All I can say is if I am then lord help everyone else!

As for multitasking, BAH! I've multitasked since Windows 95! I saw the light then. It is a great idea for a computer....not so good for a phone! Why? When I am travelling, I don't want my bloody phone to be constantly downloading stuff and using up my 3G allowance and battery power! So with Android I kept having to turn stuff off. It was a real faff. Apple's selective multitasking is a much better idea and thought out.

After a week I returned the phone for a refund. I tried to relieve my daughter of her 3G to which she told me like hell she would and something about out of her cold dead hands...

So I bought a new 3GS. Fabulous. Back to a land where things just worked. OK, so its not as "leading edge" as Android....BUT with Apple I don't have to worry whether the new version of android will work with my handset. Or put up with applications written by a child. Most electronic manufacturer's will support Apple ipod/iphone now, so you can get alarm clocks to car stereo's which you can plug in a use your playlists on.

To be honest I could go on......the points I am trying to make are:

1. Android sounds good but in practice is a pain compared to the simplicity of Apple
2. Everyone supports Apple.
3. Multitasking is not a good idea on a phone.
4. It just works!

Upgrade to the iPhone 4, if not the 3GS. Don't go Android yet. One day I think it will be great. But its not mature enough yet.

thank you for that detailed post niceguy. thats exactly the sort of thing i need to hear. :)
I shall stay shtum until my upgrade and hope like hell that the newer version of the iphone is out by then, so i dont get a phone that will be classifed as a dinosaur 16 months into a 24 month contract.

I believe the iPhone 5 is due out around June! (just in time for my upgrade!!!)