Buying a Note, what to do about iMessage?

[WordMasterRice]

You have a bad iPhone then. I can get 6-7 hours of use off a full charge. I couldn't even get 3 out of the Note and unlike the other ridiculous claims, here is the proof...

Why should he prove a god damn thing to you? This is a thread about iMessage and nobody gives a **** about whether you believe his battery life.

As to your question, unfortunately with iMessage it all gets kind of blurry. Once you start using it with anything you are kind of stuck. I wish they had made it iPhone only since then you could actually use it like SMS, but since its on the ipad and ipod touch you have interesting problem where if you are out of a data area you can get an iMessage and it correctly says delivered because it is sitting on your iPad at home, but you never got it on the phone that you actually have with you.

 

[BiggAW]

Agree, making it only iPhone is pretty pointless... the only way it would work is if literally every single person owned an iphone and other apple devices (ipad etc). I too turned it off.

If they made it universal for other devices, Android, Windows, even CrapBerry then it would have been a changer, but like usual Apple instates their "restriction".

I left it on because it helps a lot when texting Verizon iPhones or people with limited texting plans, since the messages don't get chopped up. But it's not exactly something that I would make a purchasing decision based off of, or really matters that much. Most of my friends have Android phones, and several still have dumbphone/QMDs, so most of my messaging is SMS anyways.

Yeah, four platforms and it would have been HUGE. I think it also has a hard time gaining traction in the US because we have all-or-nothing SMS plans. If we were like other countries with some limited plans, it might be a bigger deal. I have to have the all option, and I have a ton of data, so whatever it uses is fine, it doesn't affect me either way.

 

[batting1000]

edit

 

[cynics]

Screen on is a terrible way to compare usage. I actually make phone calls all day on my phone. Screen is off but the battery is still draining.

 

[mbell1975]

Agreed. After 5 years of OS updates, all I can do to personalize my phone is move a 5x4 grid of icons, add some folders (9 icons in each), and change the wallpaper. Made the switch to the GS2 just last week.

Yea, because giving up a phone and entire platform just because your stupid app icons can only arrange a certain way is a very smart thing to do right? I mean, who can live with such BS! I need to have 783 icons in a folder and the ability to move my icon anywhere on my 7 home screens or else I just can't use that app or my phone! FML!

 

[ChrisTX]

The problem with iMessage is that it only works with other iPhones, so the majority of messages are still SMS. It does nothing to change the game. If they made an iMessage app for Android, BB, and WP7, then it would have been almost a game changer. Almost because it still wouldn't work with dumbphones. I know when I get an iPad, I'm going to turn it off on the iPad, as it would just make things so much more complicated. If you treat iMessage as a different/better way to do SMS, everything works. Go beyond that, and it's a nightmare.

I agree that it only works with iOS devices, and that's a limitation for some but the people I keep n contact with most often all use iOS devices. Just wanted to clarify.

 

[SHirsch999]

If you are trying to do something similar to iMessage where you can carry on a conversation going from the iPad to non-iOS device you need a texting app. the one I use is textfree, and it works very well. Seems to me your friends are sending the text to your email address instead of your phone number. The ipad will not receive an iMessage sent to a phone number, only an email address. There is no need to disable iMessage on you other devices. You just need to either have other people send messages to your phone number, or use some sort of cross-platform texting/messaging app.

 

[Henry Li]

Hi! Everyone! I have just switched to Samsung Galaxy Note too! I was using an iPhone 4 before. I was loooking forward to an upgrade from Apple before. I was completely disappointed with what Apple did for the whole year (just change the spec of the iPhone a bit). Also, the user interface of iOS has been always the same for 5 years (it is already the fifth generation). Okay, Apple has it's own style of simplicity and rigidity. I am enough with it. I have been an iPhone user for 4 years.

Good bye, iPhone! And, Goood bye, Apple! You are just too proud to be the leader. You will someday fail.

 

[powaking]

Might want to take a look at Trillian as well.

 

[LSUtigers03]

You have a bad iPhone then. I can get 6-7 hours of use off a full charge. + plugging it in

Fixed it for you.

 

[cynics]

Fixed it for you.

Everything he post as proof is weird and doctored (or could be). Screen on time on Android could have been from making phone calls all day. IPhone getting 6-7 hours but was obviously plugged in (even though I know this is achievable).

All his facts and proof have no substance.

I'll post an example of the flawed screen on time counting as usage in my next post to show you what I mean.

 

[cynics]

I use an android tablet as a wifi hotspot all day. So it's usage time is 100% of the total time.

This is how it looked when I got home from work.

Notice how bad of an indicator screen on means actual usage?

I used it for a bit to knock up the screen time.

His argument indicates I ran the battery down to 58% by using the screen for 35 minutes. Massive flaw in how he is determining usage.

To make matters worse I found the iPhone to have "usage" even when it's off from time to time. So it's using tiny amounts of power but usage time is cranking away making it look like it lasted longer.

This is why people that go from the iPhone to note or whatever say the battery feels similar or almost as good. It's because it is in real life on newer android products.

Edit: sorry about the pic quality I snapped them with my 4S. Weird lighting and stuff is to account for that. Oh and btw I'm not arguing mbell's personal experience either. Just a minor flaw in his methods of determining usage. I really don't think there is a good way to compare aside from real world experience.

 

[batting1000]

Yea, because giving up a phone and entire platform just because your stupid app icons can only arrange a certain way is a very smart thing to do right? I mean, who can live with such BS! I need to have 783 icons in a folder and the ability to move my icon anywhere on my 7 home screens or else I just can't use that app or my phone! FML!

It's just one of the many reasons I can give as to why I switched.

 

[mbell1975]

I use an android tablet as a wifi hotspot all day. So it's usage time is 100% of the total time.

This is how it looked when I got home from work.

Image

Image

Notice how bad of an indicator screen on means actual usage?

I used it for a bit to knock up the screen time.

Image

Image

His argument indicates I ran the battery down to 58% by using the screen for 35 minutes. Massive flaw in how he is determining usage.

To make matters worse I found the iPhone to have "usage" even when it's off from time to time. So it's using tiny amounts of power but usage time is cranking away making it look like it lasted longer.

This is why people that go from the iPhone to note or whatever say the battery feels similar or almost as good. It's because it is in real life on newer android products.

Edit: sorry about the pic quality I snapped them with my 4S. Weird lighting and stuff is to account for that. Oh and btw I'm not arguing mbell's personal experience either. Just a minor flaw in his methods of determining usage. I really don't think there is a good way to compare aside from real world experience.

Thanks for that. The fact still remains that my Note was down to about 20% battery after 12-14 hours while my 4s was still around 50% As I mentioned, I wasn't even using the Note for calls or texts, it was just entertainment. Add in my calls and texts and forget it. Would have been dead in 8-10 hours. Hell, it dropped from 98% down to 89% just sitting untouched for about 40 minutes. No apps were even running. My 4s can sit for hours an lose maybe 3%. Android just sucks for battery life. I have seen it with too many devices over the years.

 

[AndroidTriumph]

I couldn't agree with you more. I owned every iPhone from 1 to 4 but stopped after I found out the 4S was the same freaking thing as the 4. I have been on a prepaid Android phone since then and the experience has been okay. Going to give the Lumia 900 a try next because it doesn't look like we will get a screen option bigger than 3.5".

^actually it's quite old and stale. After 5 iPhones all pretty much looking and feeling the same, some of us might look elsewhere for something a little new and different.

To the OP, I think that's all you can do.

----------

What is there to "adopt"? When you send a text or receive a text from an iOS device, you are usign iMessage and it's in blue. Very simple...

iMessage is a lot like BBM. Excellent yet totally proprietary. As much as I like my iPhone 4S, I've not adopted iMessage so far.

 

[cynics]

Thanks for that. The fact still remains that my Note was down to about 20% battery after 12-14 hours while my 4s was still around 50% As I mentioned, I wasn't even using the Note for calls or texts, it was just entertainment. Add in my calls and texts and forget it. Would have been dead in 8-10 hours. Hell, it dropped from 98% down to 89% just sitting untouched for about 40 minutes. No apps were even running. My 4s can sit for hours an lose maybe 3%. Android just sucks for battery life. I have seen it with too many devices over the years.

Like I mentioned I can't argue about your android phone or personal experience.

I however have had decent luck.

What I can comment on is the LTE directly. My Xoom was shipped with 3G radio hardware then later upgraded to LTE. What I can say is the hardware used is a massive battery hog. Since I can compare the exact same device with or without LTE I can say the battery took a massive hit. Disabling LTE and using CDMA only doesn't make a difference. Battery life was on par with my iPad 2 where I'd charge every other day. But no longer.

I can say with much confidence the LTE is what's killing the battery. Not so much the screen.

That said I can confidentially predict the next iPhone. It will either have LTE with a huge battery, the next gen LTE or no LTE at all. There is no in between either, current LTE chips are just to big of a battery drain.

 

[mbell1975]

That said I can confidentially predict the next iPhone. It will either have LTE with a huge battery, the next gen LTE or no LTE at all. There is no in between either, current LTE chips are just to big of a battery drain.

It will have LTE but Apple will do it right as they always do. They will be able to optimize the new iPhone and its battery to last far longer than any LTE powered Android. You can bet thats why the 4s didn't have LTE. Apple had the tech to do it but they probably decided its better to wait and make sure they add it to the iPhone only when they are able to make it not drain the battery.

 

[Darkmx2000]

Proof?

Dude. Seriously. They are phones. That's all. Just phones. Nothing earth shattering. They won't bring world peace, cure cancer or make you into something you're not.

They're just phones.

I don't give a rip what people choose to use or buy, so following that line of thinking, I'm not going to waste "n" minutes of my life taking a screenshot OF A MOBILE PHONE SCREEN to validate/invalidate whatever it is you believe, which seems to be a moving target in the first place. I'm quite comfortable laying in bed with my wife, and getting up, walking into the kitchen and dinking with my phone to satisfy someones curiosity is really, really low on my list of priorities. Let alone someone on the Internet. Heck, I wouldn't even do that for a direct relative.

I just don't care.

I do have to say, though, that today went down as one of the more entertaining days on MacRumors. Even more so than the yellow tint/light bleed madness that has followed the last two iPad launches.

How hard is it to take a screenshot to show actual usage? It's funny how you were asked to show proof and you fly off the hinge.

See not that hard at all.

 

[mbell1975]

How hard is it to take a screenshot to show actual usage? It's funny how you were asked to show proof and you fly off the hinge.

See not that hard at all.

Thats because he was lying. There isn't a Note made thats going to give you 9 hours of usage time Most I have seen was close to 7 hours, however, that was not running on LTE. There is no setting that allows you to turn off the LTE or even 4G which is a complete fail in itself.

 

[Darkmx2000]

Yea, because giving up a phone and entire platform just because your stupid app icons can only arrange a certain way is a very smart thing to do right? I mean, who can live with such BS! I need to have 783 icons in a folder and the ability to move my icon anywhere on my 7 home screens or else I just can't use that app or my phone! FML!

That right there is an EPIC! response.

 

[Walter Bell]

I think that mbell doesn't get what we are saying.

On screen usage is not an indicator for actual battery life. If you really think that your phone is doing absolutely nothing while you aren't touching it, you are sorely misinformed.

My iPhone tells me I get 7 hours usage. Does that mean I actually had my screen on for 7 hours? No. Apples usage statistic is not reporting the actual time the screen has been on for that charge. It indicates ENTIRE phone usage: Radio, CPU, GPU, Screen, etc. same goes for the Galaxy Note. Screen usage is a small factor of overall battery usage.

Once again mbell, when you look at the objective data provided, what type of battery life were you expecting? The fact that you did not make an informed decision regarding your Note purchase does not mean it is a bad product. You expectations are based on hopes and dreams, not facts. No amount of software optimization can overcome the crappy battery technology we have now and the battery hungry LTE radios available for use on the market. Comparing your 3G iPhone usage time to a 4G LTE device is apples to oranges.

I really hope we are not related in some way.

Edit: Most of us have many reasons for going to Android. I still like iOS as I own an iPad, but for my phone, android suits me and a lot of other bored iPhone users until the next iPhone comes along. It's the same reason I but a new car every three years. The one I have now is fine, but I want to experience different combinations of strengths and weaknesses that provide an overall good experience, which more than one platform is capable of producing.

 

[ixodes]

What is there to "adopt"? When you send a text or receive a text from an iOS device, you are usign iMessage and it's in blue. Very simple...

Using the word "Adopt"...
Just another way of saying I haven't made a decision if I will ever use it.

There's so many other excellent cross platform choices, that iMessage has very little appeal to me. It's not about ease of use, they're all easy.

It's about interoperability.

 

[wpotere]

It will have LTE but Apple will do it right as they always do. They will be able to optimize the new iPhone and its battery to last far longer than any LTE powered Android. You can bet thats why the 4s didn't have LTE. Apple had the tech to do it but they probably decided its better to wait and make sure they add it to the iPhone only when they are able to make it not drain the battery.

Kind of funny how you made this thread yours. Oh, and Apple doing it right ha yet to fix the wifi driver issue it has in Lion.

They aren't perfect.

I actually prefer my wp7 phone over the iPhone to be honest. I am also interested in the note as I like the size. Maybe next update that is the way I will go.

 

[mkruck]

How hard is it to take a screenshot to show actual usage? It's funny how you were asked to show proof and you fly off the hinge.

See not that hard at all.

Go back and re-read, friend. If there was any hinge-flying-off-of, you're looking at the wrong guy. Now, if you had accused me of being a smartass, I'm guilty as charged.

Oh, it's not difficult at all. I simply chose not to get my butt out of bed and do it for some person on an Internet forum demanding that I do so. Why should I? As my 6 year old recently told my 9 year old, "You're not the boss of me."

It's really not a life or death situation. Plus, it was much more fun watching the hysteria after I declined. It's so strident, you'd think that a handful of people on MR are the illegitimate spawn of St. Steve, the way they jump to defend anything produced by Apple.

High entertainment, indeed.

 

[Eddie Bombay]

How hard is it to take a screenshot to show actual usage? It's funny how you were asked to show proof and you fly off the hinge.

See not that hard at all.

Not hard at all.

This is mostly in 4G zones (HSPA).
Only switches to 4G LTE at my 2nd office.

2 days 1 hr 58m 46s on Battery, 4 hrs 45 min of screen time.