Mixed Marriage: Android & iOS7 Users

Cats & Dogs living together... MASS HYSTERIA!!!

So fellas, I got a good one for you. If you choose to use this little nugget of tech talk for good or bad, that's on you. Also as a side note, I'll warn you that I haven't researched this too much, but enough to know it's a documented problem impacting many Americans in a mixed marriage where one spouse has an iOS device and the other has an Android. One of those Americans is me. My wife likes the simplicity of iOS devices and all the other moms have them. Me, well, I like Google. My stuff is with them and I subscribe to just about every product they have (except for Glass because $1500 for a pair of non-prescription glasses is dumb). Also as a side note, our AppleID is under my Gmail account... but I digress...

The Issue:
Android devices cannot receive text messages from iOS7 devices (iOS7 devices can still receive from Android). Yep you read that correctly and you can see the potential for disaster. Also, as a small business owner this concerns me as my customers sometimes will just text me an order and I could be missing those orders.

Imagine if you will (dream sequence)*....
Android Dad: Hey honey can I go to Happy Hour after work?
iOS7 Mom: Tonight is bad, Sally has a soccer game, Jimmy has tutor, and someone needs to stay home with the baby....
(text never received by Android Dad)
Android Dad: Honey I haven't heard back from you on this. I'll assume no news is good news and I'll be home by 8pm
iOS7 Mom: Didn't you get my last message?!?! tonight is bad. I need you home!
(text never received by Android Dad and Android Dad proceeds to Happy Hour)
iOS7 Mom: WHERE ARE YOU?
(text never received by Android Dad and Android Dad still at Happy Hour balling hard)
iOS7 Mom: WHERE ARE YOU? SALLY IS STUCK AT SCHOOL!!!
(text never received by Android Dad but Android Dad decides to leave Happy Hour early and get in good graces with iOS7 Mom)
Android Dad: On my way home... early. See how much I love you?
iOS7 Mom: F-U
(you can see how this is going to end when Android Dad gets home)

So, guys there you have it. It's real, it's out there, and I am sure there's some poor Android Dad that is reading this in the proverbial doghouse... on his Android.

*any names or descriptions in this dream sequence were purely unintentional. And no, this hasn't happened to me and my wife

The Solution:
I've been reading about 6 or 7 different forums on this and the solution isn't very clear. Of course I am reading Android forums and all of them hate Apple. So reading through that is a bit troubling. I'm not sure where the "fault" lies on this, but I just know there's 2 Behemoth companies that probably won't be racing to help find a solution. However, the solution that I am trying to make work is the following from forums.androidcentral.com:

1. Apple ID is stored in two places: App Store and iMessage separately, log out of both on ALL iOS devices in settings>app store and settings>iMessage.
2. log in to https://appleid.apple.com and change your AppleID to a NEW email address
3. remove your cell phone number from the apple ID
4. log back into all iOS devices using new AppleID and deselect the cell phone number and old appleID email address. check the new email address (New AppleID)
5. Once you do this on all devices your texting will resume to normal. Remember iMessage can be used with email address or phone number that why it is important to get rid of all devices. Leaving just one will screw it up. 
6. Once all devices are logged into the app store and iMessage under the new AppleID texting should resume normally.

I will follow up with everyone on this and let you know if it works.

What can you do to help?

Seriously if you hate either one of these companies, post your comments on a different blog. What you can do, is share this post with people you know. As texting has become an integral part of the way we communicate with others (right or wrong), this issue should be addressed and it could help resolve a ton of problems for Mixed Marriages and Businesses.

Finally, A Cell Carrier That Delivers

Two years is a long time. 

In 24 months, you could have two more children. You could be almost halfway to owning a new car. Or, two years could solidly place you in your "mids" (30s, 40s, 50s).

Yet, if you want preferred pricing on a new cell phone, that's what the major carriers demand -- two years. My previous two-year contract seemed like an eternity. I won't mention the carrier's name. Let's just say their network speed is pretty well the antithesis of their namesake.

In March, we jumped to Verizon. They advertise the largest 4G LTE network (or something like that). It's no joke.

 

We both went with the iPhone 5 when we switched to Verizon. If you have an iPhone, you should check out Magpul's awesome line of cases. I got this one for around $10 on Amazon. They have a selection of colors.

When we were debating carriers, I did a lot of research. AT&T and Verizon were the front runners. I travel quite a bit for my job. Nothing frustrates me more than being at a press event and not being able to Tweet a photo.

In St. Louis, we're spoiled. It's a fairly major market, so any major carrier should have pretty good data coverage. Once you leave this glowing metropolis by the river, you start to notice how good a network actually is.

When driving along interstates, LTE coverage is pretty well 99% with Big Red. That's great for streaming Pandora or Spotify. It will be even better when we road trip out to New York City next year and Linus is able to watch Netflix the entire way on a tethered iPad. By the way, tablet tethering is free on Verizon.

"But wait! Don't you have a data cap on Verizon? I've got unlimited data with Carrier XYZ."

Yes, I do -- 4GB. I had unlimited data with my last carrier. Unfortunately the 3G speed was so slow, it would have taken dogged determination to push past 2 GB in a month's time. Also, Verizon has a handy account manager app. You can add a couple gigs quite easily for the same price as the next-tier plan. So, no price gouging on extra data unless you run over accidentally.

 

Verizon's app makes it easy to manage your account and check data usage.

So, how fast is Verizon's LTE? If you've got an LTE signal, you should get a minimum of 5 MB/sec download speeds (though I've seen as fast as 31MB/s). That's in St. Louis, or anywhere else with LTE coverage. And like I said, unless you're in a fairly rural area, LTE is there. I even have a strong LTE signal in my hometown of Rolla, Mo.

Proof that I've seen LTE speeds of more than 31 MB/s. The WIFI indicator is in the upper left because I took the screen capture at home, while connected to the WIFI network.

Anyhow, the next time you're looking to lock yourself into a two-year contract, remember, that sweet new device will only perform as good as the network allows. Samsung, HTC, Apple or Blackberry (Seriously though, ditch the Blackberry. It's 2013, not 2005.) -- they all work well when your data is clicking along at WIFIesque speed.