iPhone on Verizon

[wa-loaf]

Yes, but that must be processing speed, not network speed. Apple can't do anything about improving network speed... that's up to the carriers.

4G is hella-fast on Verizon. With LTE on my DL speeds are around 14 meg and upload is around 5 meg. I think at home I get 10 meg down / 2 meg up.

3G speeds are like 10% of that. 1 - 2 meg down and 300 - 500kbps up.

 

[bvibert]

Yes, but that must be processing speed, not network speed. Apple can't do anything about improving network speed... that's up to the carriers.

4G is hella-fast on Verizon. With LTE on my DL speeds are around 14 meg and upload is around 5 meg. I think at home I get 10 meg down / 2 meg up.

3G speeds are like 10% of that. 1 - 2 meg down and 300 - 500kbps up.

No, what I saw was talking about transfer speeds, and about how the 4G nomenclature didn't matter to Apple (or something along those lines). There wasn't any details, other than a chart in background of the presentation that showed the 4S upload and download speeds compared 3 4G phones.

The story I read appears to be gone now, maybe it was bullshit?

 

[wa-loaf]

The two step hardware shutter is where, on a point and shoot camera, you depress the button halfway to get it to focus, then fully to take the picture. I hate taking pictures on other people's phones because I'm never really sure where it's going to focus; the two step shutter solves this problem.

You realize for a long time the iPhone has been able to do this? You just touch the screen where you want the camera to focus.

 

[bvibert]

You beat me to it, that's what I was talking about above.

 

[mondeo]

Yes, but that must be processing speed, not network speed. Apple can't do anything about improving network speed... that's up to the carriers.

4G is hella-fast on Verizon. With LTE on my DL speeds are around 14 meg and upload is around 5 meg. I think at home I get 10 meg down / 2 meg up.

3G speeds are like 10% of that. 1 - 2 meg down and 300 - 500kbps up.

HSDPA+ is 14mb/s down peak, and then it's just network build out just like LTE.

At home I'm at 6 meg down. It's more than enough with 3 guys in the house. I don't know what the point of 4G on phone with a 2GB/mo data plan is; 800x480 video is under a meg/s. With a good 3G connection, you can stream anything to a phone. Maybe you can download apps faster. Woo-hoo. There's no functional difference unless you're tethering, at which point the data plan gets killed.

 

[bvibert]

Android is the phone for major geeks. And I don't really understand who else.

As an Android fan I think you're right, unfortunately. At least for now. Although, my sister is about the least tech orientated person you could imagine and she's on her second Android phone.

Google needs to do some work to make everything more stable. That is where Apple has a major advantage, they control the hardware and software, but it limits options. My low end Android is pretty stable... but it does occasionally do dumb things.

The two step hardware shutter is where, on a point and shoot camera, you depress the button halfway to get it to focus, then fully to take the picture. I hate taking pictures on other people's phones because I'm never really sure where it's going to focus; the two step shutter solves this problem.

My phone has that, I assumed most phones did by now?

 

[wa-loaf]

You beat me to it, that's what I was talking about above.

4 vs 4s

 

[bvibert]

Yes, but that must be processing speed, not network speed. Apple can't do anything about improving network speed... that's up to the carriers.

4G is hella-fast on Verizon. With LTE on my DL speeds are around 14 meg and upload is around 5 meg. I think at home I get 10 meg down / 2 meg up.

3G speeds are like 10% of that. 1 - 2 meg down and 300 - 500kbps up.

Here's some more details:

Like rumored, the new iPhone 4S runs on faster HSPA+ networks. That means that your telephone will download stuff faster from the Internet. Before it was up to 7.2 Megabits-per-second downloads. Now they claim two times as much: 14.4Mbps. This depends on the carrier, of course. I don't know about you, but on AT&T I never get the maximum speed they claim.

Apple claims that, in real life situations, they are fast or "faster" as the competition's phone on faster 4G networks. We will test that claim.

http://gizmodo.com/5846504/new-apple-iphone-all-the-information

 

[mondeo]

You realize for a long time the iPhone has been able to do this? You just touch the screen where you want the camera to focus.

Obviously not, but I haven't been exposed to the UI enough to learn those tricks. I'll still take my hardware camera button, I just like the feel of it.

Again, there aren't many real differentiators left. Each of the platforms has pretty much the same capabilities as everyone else, and the new stuff that gets bragged about (like 4G and 8MP cameras) don't make a real difference.

 

[mondeo]

My phone has that, I assumed most phones did by now?

I think it's actually gone away on a lot of phones. The volume up botton on the iPhone will work to take pictures with iOS 5, but I think to focus you still need to do the tap the screen trick wa-loaf mentioned. I know some of the Androids I looked at didn't have it, depends on manufacturer and I wouldn't be surprised if most of the low-mid ones don't have it. It's part of the hardware spec for WP7. Don't know what BB does.

 

[Nick]

OK. So the FS does run on HSDPA+, which is AT&T's version of Verizon's LTE. They are both 4G networks, different technologies (like CDMA vs. GSM on 3G).

But Verizon users are screwed since they can't run on HSDPA+, so they will be stuck at 3G speeds on VZW.

 

[bvibert]

Mines a low end Android, so I guess I got lucky.

Before iOS5 was the only way to take a picture on the iPhone to tap the screen?

 

[bvibert]

But Verizon users are screwed since they can't run on HSDPA+, so they will be stuck at 3G speeds on VZW.

I was wondering about that??

 

[Nick]

Yeah if it can't take advantage of LTE it won't be faster on Verizon. Big downer IMO, I was sasuming they would make 2 unique phones like they did for the last gen.

 

[mondeo]

OK. So the FS does run on HSDPA+, which is AT&T's version of Verizon's LTE. They are both 4G networks, different technologies (like CDMA vs. GSM on 3G).

But Verizon users are screwed since they can't run on HSDPA+, so they will be stuck at 3G speeds on VZW.

They're both 4G networks after the goalpost for 4G got moved in twice. LTE isn't even 4G according to the original spec, that was going to have to wait for LTE advanced. HSDPA+ is the short term ATT/T-Mobile "4G" until they switch over to LTE as well. Which will probably be the iPhone 5.

Oh, and Sprint's still screwed.

 

[bvibert]

Yeah if it can't take advantage of LTE it won't be faster on Verizon. Big downer IMO, I was sasuming they would make 2 unique phones like they did for the last gen.

That's certainly going to hurt its overall popularity, I'd think. The folks already with ATT won't care, but the Verizon customers aren't likely to upgrade. Then again Verizon customers haven't had their iPhones for very long, so they probably aren't looking to upgrade yet. The iPhone 5 may be out by the time they are. I don't see Sprint picking up a ton of sales with a slower connection speed than ATT for the same exact phone. Then again most customers probably won't even know the difference, they'll just know they have the newest iPhone that they can talk to. We'll have to see how much ATT plays up that they are the only ones who can take advantage of the faster speeds on the 4S...

 

[wa-loaf]

Mines a low end Android, so I guess I got lucky.

Before iOS5 was the only way to take a picture on the iPhone to tap the screen?

Yeah, there's 2 clicks. One to focus (if you want) and then the shutter button.

 

[wa-loaf]

My biggest fear is that this is a stop gap phone and the iPhone5 will be out in January or the Spring. I'd be really pissed if that happened.

 

[MR. evil]

Well my 3G is just about dead, so I am going to grab a 4s in a couple of weeks. I am not a huge techno geek and won't care to much is a 5 comes out in the new year.

 

[o3jeff]

My biggest fear is that this is a stop gap phone and the iPhone5 will be out in January or the Spring. I'd be really pissed if that happened.

It's only money and you could sell the 4s for a couple dollars!

That's why I'm probably going to wait. That and I still have a few months left on my contract. When that gets closer to ending I will look and see if there is any talk of a new one coming out and decide then.