Apple's latest iPhone ads take a swipe at Verizon

I get Apple's point here, and that is a handy feature to have, but if you live in an area of poor service with AT&T (which is surprisingly common), you're pretty much NOT able to do this before your call drops -- seriously.  I love my iPhone... at home while I have 5 bars.  But when I travel downtown in a heavy network traffic area, my service often falls back to EDGE (no simultaneous voice and data), you're pretty much SOL.  Also, this is a GSM feature, not really a quality of network feature.  T-Mobile 3G can do the same.  Maybe this is Apple's answer that they intend never to make a CDMA version on Verizon?  Or, maybe AT&T thought they'd leverage the Apple partnership for their benefit, and pushed for this?  Personally, I think the more "killer" phone feature on AT&T is the call management.  On Verizon, you can't 3-way call unless you initiate it.. meaning that if someone calls you while you're chatting, you have to tell them "hey, can I call you back so I can conference you in?"  It's a pain, and the way to do it is reminiscent of landline days, rather than resembling our digital age (press "phone" button, place outbound call, wait for call to connect, press "phone" button again to connect...)  Also, Verizon only allows you to conference up to 2 additional parties (3-way calling) whereas AT&T allows up to 6-way calling (true conferencing).  When I switched from AT&T to VZW a while back, it was the number 1 feature I missed -- much more so than simultaneous voice and data (even though that's really handy, too.)  Also, simultaneous voice and data is available on VZW for phones with WiFi while connected to WiFi.  My point is, this is a bit of a soft-sell on Apple's part and not extraordinarily aggressive.  There are some legitimate advantages/disadvantages of each carrier.  AT&T's Quality of Service depends largely on where you live.  If you're in a suburb of a big city near a cell tower, the service is great. If you're in a rural area: not so great.  If you live in a major downtown area with heavy cell traffic: useless.  Them are just the breaks.  I think GSM technology is WAY better, and I applaud AT&T for using it.  They get better, cooler phones. The technology (when it works), works better.  However, my vote will DEFINITELY be switching to Verizon once LTE starts rolling out, and has decent market penetration.  My guess is, Apple is probably talking to Qualcomm to develop an LTE/CDMA/GSM version of the iPhone for 2011/2012 -- not this year.  I don't think they have any intent to ever make a CDMA only or CDMA/GSM hybrid.  Personally, I think the AT&T contract will continue through 2010, since T-Mobile isn't a huge carrier, and Apple is making too much on AT&T.  In 2011, they'll probably introduce a VZW/T-Mobile/Sprint version using an LTE/CDMA/HSPA+/EDGE chip from Qualcomm.

Are you kidding? I do this all the time, especially with emails while I am on the phone.

Umm..but it doesn't hmmm how do they do that?  Is it Magic?

That also means you cannot look up something online, send an email, check your Exchange linked calendar while on the phone.  This is MORE than just the phone that allows it to do this, Apple's deal with Cingular at the time included that they had to change the way their network behaves to allow for this, Verizon did not want to do that, Also remember the CDMA network of Verizon also limits it's range to this country, once you leave this country you are not roaming on other 3G networks, looks like Verizon backed Betamax and HD-DVD on this one.