Dumb question about smartphones

A

average gimp

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Jun 5, 2009
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I've never owned one, so I don't know. Is it possible to receive a call while being able to type in notes or check a map or something? I ask because I often have to take notes and I'd like a phone that I could replace the paper with in real time.

I'm mainly asking about Blackberries, iPhones, and the Pre. Supposedly Verizon will get the Pre and the BB Tour (the Curve/Bold hybrid with better memory) by December. Have also read they may get the iPhone if they can make a deal with Apple to build them in CDMA.
 
average gimp said:
I've never owned one, so I don't know. Is it possible to receive a call while being able to type in notes or check a map or something? I ask because I often have to take notes and I'd like a phone that I could replace the paper with in real time.

I'm mainly asking about Blackberries, iPhones, and the Pre. Supposedly Verizon will get the Pre and the BB Tour (the Curve/Bold hybrid with better memory) by December. Have also read they may get the iPhone if they can make a deal with Apple to build them in CDMA.
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Both my old Samsung Blackjack, and my new iPhone 3G could use the internet and run apps while connected to a call. However, only 3G service works concurrently with a call (and only works 100% reliably on my iPhone). 2G (EDGE) internet access will not work while the phone is engaged.
 
I have the HTC Tilt and it can do all that. It runs windows mobile so it also connects easily to my work computer and syncs up my tasks and calender with Outlook. It can also sync a lot of other stuff such as files, etc. but I don't use that feature.
 
The thing with CDMA is that it cannot do voice and data at the same time. That being said I have the blackberry curve and it can do notes and other tasks like look at a map (including google maps with gps location) while on a call. For example I am listening to music right now on it while writing this all on my blackberry. If you decide to go with a GSM(sim card based) provider then you can do calls while browsing and sending emails and taking notes. This is why they call them crackberries it is addictive :). If you have any BB questions feel free to get in touch I spend a lot of time on the road for work and have become somewhat of a blackberry pro.

Cheers

J.
 
I've got the Bold, and love it. It can pretty much do anything except sing and dance. Whatever you get, make sure it's a 3G phone. (But be warned, coverage isn't always 3G in all places, and sometimes it's even completely non-existent.)
 
Yep 3g is the answer. Mostly. It can be spotty. And then its no good. But I think all the phones mentioned have it. My brother got a new Curve on ATT cause it was so thin compared to Bold, he promptly returned it for something with 3g...
 
I just talked about this phone in another thread, but take a look at the HTC Touch Pro 2. They hype the multi-tasking features pretty hard, like being able to make a call from wherever you are in the software. I don't know if other phones can do this, but if you are on a conference call, you can connect to a single person on that call for a private conversation, then drop back into the conference call when you are done. That sounds pretty cool for business applications.

It is coming to all four major carriers this year, supposedly to a couple of them (Sprint and T-Mobile) in the next couple of weeks when they finish working out the software kinks. It is looking to be a very slick phone, and a very cool feature is that it can use either GSM or CDMA, which is not common at all in a phone. It has a GPS antenna, full qwerty keyboard, tilting screen, and all kinds of other nice features. I was about to buy the Touch Pro when they announced the TP2, so I'm stuck with my brick of a phone until the TP2 is released.

Dang, I sound like an HTC salesman. :D
 
"A very cool feature is that it can use either GSM or CDMA, which is not common at all in a phone."

You bring up a very good point here. To my knowledge, the only other phone that does both is the BB 8830 through Verizon. Like all Verizon phones, it's inherently a CDMA device, and accomplishes GSM through the use of a SIMM card. I had an 8830 before I got the Bold, and in my experience, as well as the other people I've talked to, it is not the "world phone" it's cracked up to be.

That's actually about the only thing I can recommend about AT&T, though. If I were to say what I really think about their coverage here in the U.S., I'd get infracted for sure. But if you plan on spending any amount of time out of the country, it should be a consideration.
 
Wow--thanks to all for replies. Looks like I should be OK with whatever of the three phones I end up with, assuming Verizon gets its act in gear. Problematic as they've been, I know:

- T-Mobile has no signal coverage in my area (they inherited Cingular's old network, which sucked);
- only one family member has AT&T and he's not happy;
- I've yet to hear anything good about Sprint;
- MetroPCS has too small a coverage area. Plus they charge extra for voicemail;
- TracFone has good coverage but lousy CS (unless you like practicing ESL with recent Haitian immigrants).

Besides, I've got more family members on Verizon. Oh well oh hell.
 
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