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Has anyone tried multitasking with the iPhone 4S?

iRetired

iRetired

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 21, 2012
625
104
WNY
I was just on my iPhone 4S talking to a friend about going to the movies tonight when both of us said we didn't know when a particular show (Dark Shadows with Johnny Depp, if you must know) started. But I have an iPhone 4S on AT&T and I can multitask, I said. So I tried to switch to Flixter to look up the movie time but lost the connection with my friend.

I haven't called the local AT&T yet, but who knows whether they would have an intelligent response.

Is the AT&T commercial bogus? Or is it possible to really do two or more actions at the same time?
 
Yes, it is possible. It is likely that the call dropped, on either his end or yours.
 
Just tried it again using the double-tap method on the Home key. But Flixter must have already been opened at some point, right? Then I could've swiped the previous app icons and tapped on the inactive Flixter to look up the movie.

But there's no way to switch from an active call to an unopened app, right? No magic pause - lemme get to the homescreen - flick, flick - tap Flixter - look up info - switch back to call?

BTW, my iPhone is not jail broken.
 
Pretty sure you hit home button once to get back to home screen, open any app, and there is a bar at the top to get back to the call. Works fine, done it many times
 
You only have to hit the home button once, it will take you to the home screen and keep the call going.
 
If the OP was on an EDGE only network, then I believe that the phone would've popped up a message saying it couldn't access data.

What probably happened was the common AT&T voice-to-3G call drop.

When you're in a voice call and then decide to use data, a "GSM" phone has to negotiate a 3G connection (for simultaneous voice+data), then drop the 2G voice connection and transfer its communications over to the 3G connection.

Basically, the phone must switch on the fly between two very different radio networks, from GSM voice using a TDMA radio, to UMTS-3G voice+data using a CDMA radio.

If anything goes wrong during the transfer, the call can get dropped.

Sometimes this switchover happens unbeknownst to you, because of background communications. For example, you could be on a voice call when a background process decides it needs to send data to a server to check for messages. The call transfer fails, the voice call is dropped, and you're left wondering what happened.
 
The call would never end.

Data would simply be unavailable during the call if the network doesn't support it.

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kdarling said:
When you're in a voice call and then decide to use data, a "GSM" phone has to negotiate a 3G connection (for simultaneous voice+data), then drop the 2G voice connection and transfer its communications over to the 3G connection.
Click to expand...

This is utter nonsense.

UMTS networks can handle voice calls, and assuming there's a suitable signal, they'll be used in preference to GSM.

The device does not have the authority to switch from GSM to UMTS to "use data". This is controlled entirely by the network.

As for the "vertical handoff" process, it really shouldn't result in a dropped call unless there's a problem with one of the networks (GSM or UMTS).
 
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