[Terretta]

Despite all the furor about iOS needing multitasking, this detail is glossed over: on Verizon you can't look up something requiring data while you're on a call.

This isn't an Android vs iPhone issue: on AT&T my HTC Aria can handle a call while checking for directions on Google Maps just fine.

It's interesting how total failure to support the most common smartphone multitasking scenario is glossed over as a "niggle".

"So where is that?"

"Let me hang up, check, and call you back."

[htsh]

I'm not sure if it's the most common smartphone multitasking scenario.

Considerably more common than that,I want to leave an application and come back to it without navigating from the beginning. For example, if I'm in twitter and I go to a link in the browser, I can come back to where I was in twitter. And I can do this with the back button.

Do you really check for directions while on phone calls often? Perhaps it's just me, but people don't call me for directions that much.

I do agree that the author's word choice of "niggle" is troubling and slightly outdated, especially if you look up it's etymology.

[nfg]

> "niggle" is troubling and slightly outdated, especially if you look up it's etymology.

Could you expand on this? I can't find anything other than it dating to the 1500/1600s, probably from Norwegian "Nigla" (to be penurious) or cognate with "Niggardly". As with "niggardly" I don't think there's any racial connotation to the term other than its sound?

[htsh]

The word "niggardly" and it's cognates are not preferred language not just due to their phonetic similarity to a word which unfortunately has awful connotation, but also because sophomoric racists have unfortunately appropriated these terms to have this sort of racial meaning. I should have said "recent etymology" above.

For this reason, magazines and newspapers avoid the term: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_%2... (see the bottom)

I might be dating myself here, but "niggardly" and "niggle" used to be used quite often to imply racial meaning even if none technically exists. Perhaps we shouldn't avoid the term just b/c some ignorant folks used them in racist ways, but in this case I don't see the harm in avoiding it considering there are so many other ways to say the same thing. Unfortunately, once racists use these words to mean something other than their dictionary definitions, you run the risk of raising eyebrows amongst people who may have experienced these terms in these secondary contexts.

In England, this is likely a different story.

And would you really use "niggardly" to describe something in America in 2010? Really?

[p01nd3xt3r]

The fact that you got down voted and he has 12 up votes (currently) has really kind of changed how I see the hacker news community. Socially I always knew i didn't "fit in" with the people on this site but the one thing that connected us all was learning about technology and a love for sharing what we learn. Because of that I thought that there was enough general respect amongst us all not to use a word like "niggle" or "niggardly" and certainly not to defend it's use. I know you all wont agree with me but lets be honest for a minute; I am a black male and if you were in a conversation with me face to face you would not use that term because if you did we would have a problem.

[htsh]

Yeah, same sort of amazement here that people are upset at me for pointing out the controversy (and that you're getting down-voted as well). I am a brown male who grew up in Jamaica, Queens and then New Jersey and saw a lot of interesting mixtures of culture growing up. It was mostly good but I realize that I've seen more racism up close than most of my friends.

I honestly don't blame them though -- they are right by the books and I understand this stance if you've never seen or experienced the words used in that way.

Though the definition has nothing to do with race, but once you know racists have associated the two, what I don't get is why would you get upset at the person that tells you and shows you that racists are doing this?

Check out the dude below -- he's all worked up and offended that I pointed out that people are doing this. And he's offended at me for saying it's troubling and wise to steer clear of that mess. At least he agrees that they are morons.

And yeah this is definitely a bit disturbing. I don't think it's outlandish at all to avoid certain language once racists start using it to hurt people. If he's fine using word that we've experienced racists use to describe African American babies, that's his call. I don't understand why anyone would be offended or flabbergasted that the word itself has some controversy around it. It's not like there aren't other words to use.

[confuzatron]

* Check out the dude below -- he says he's actually offended that I pointed this out*

You're right. Being offended by words is absurd. Doubly-so when they are not even uttered with an offensive meaning. This may be too subtle, so I'll clarify: I was taking the piss out of your position.

[prodigal_erik]

Avoiding "niggardly" is far from a sign of respect. I'm taking a precaution against a listener flying off the handle in ignorance, so it's actually a critique of their education and emotional stability as I perceive them. And it never would have occurred to me that we now have the same problem with "niggle" until reading this.

[confuzatron]

It just blows my mind that there exist people who would discourage the use of the word 'niggle' because of the fact that it is etymologically related to a word that sounds a bit like a derogatory term.

[htsh]

But you're ignoring the part about people using it in racist ways already. That's the rub here:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=niggle

[confuzatron]

Urbandictionary! A palpable hit! I retire from the field of combat...

[Terretta]

> Do you really check for directions while on phone calls often? Perhaps it's just me, but people don't call me for directions that much.

No, but people do call me and ask me for feedback on an email they just sent, and I'm able to look at it. They call me and ask me how a stream looks. And I'm able to play it. They call me and ask me if a web page is suitable to share with a client. I check and say it is.

I work online. People call me about things that are online. If I'm at my desk, I'm using a landline. If I'm away from my desk, I'm not by a computer.

So yes, my most common multitasking use case on my mobile phone is to look at something online while on the phone.

While I can do that on Android on AT&T, I can't do that on Verizon.

[siglesias]

No back navigation on iPhone from browser to Twitter? You mean this back button here that's only there when you need it? http://yfrog.com/86px1kj

[htsh]

Is that the full standalone Safari or an embedded Safari within the twitter client? It looks like an embedded browser within the twitter client.

On my iPod touch, if I left my twitter client to go to Safari, I could not come back to exactly where I was in tweetdeck. But I have not tried 4.0 in this regard.

[siglesias]

It's a fully functional browser that loads from the app, yes. All developers have this at their disposal. This isn't a problem precisely because apps rarely need to "leave" to display a browser. One just comes in modally, displays the content of a page, and that's that. If you were using a Twitter client that yanked you out of Twitter to show a site, you were using a bad client.

[akmiller]

Then I want to email the link to that page, so I have to open the full Safari, then do the email link which opens my mail client, then close the mail client which goes to my home screen, go find my twitter app and open back up to pick up where I left off!

I like my iPhone but it has it's flaws just like any other device.

[siglesias]

You're wrong. http://yfrog.com/1ssz0p

This is a free app. It's up to the app's designer and isn't endemic to the device or OS, unlike the inexplicable permanent presence of a physical back button on Android devices.

[awolf]

Nah, Tweetie (the iPhone Twitter client in the screenshots above) also has a built in email client for sending links. No need to leave the app.

And yes in iOS 4 if you DID need to exit the app it would be in the state you left it when you returned.

[randallsquared]

Calling it "the most common smartphone multitasking scenario" seems like pretty extreme hyperbole. I don't even know if my phone (N900) can do this, because it's never occurred to me to try.

[theBobMcCormick]

I imagine that would be an annoying limitation. Although like you said, that's carrier specific, not OS. On my TMobile N1 I've got no problems using my data connection while talking on the phone... I do it pretty frequently actually to send and receive emails while sitting on conference calls for work.

[RK]

Is this a GSM vs CDMA issue? I'm pretty sure I can due this on TMobile.

[dminor]

It is indeed a CDMA limitation, not an Android one.

[pasbesoin]

Does rooting the phone get rid of it, or does the problem lie on the network / back end?