iPhone 3G Problems
July 13th, 2008
Apple: You’re on my ****list till you get these issues fixed and add some enhancements…
1. Slow 3G network. It’s nowhere near the speed that was promised. This is an opinion more than anything else as I have not tested this scientifically. There seems be a slight boost in speed compared to the original iPhone, but not much. I blame this part mostly on AT&T.
2. Sluggish UI: I understand with the launch of iPhone Apps that there will be some issues but the whole experience is reminscent of when I used to own a Treo. The old iPhone had a snappy UI. Version 2.0 crawls. Opening up SMS takes 10 seconds. Contacts (a relatively new app) made me think my phone had froze…also about 10 seconds. These are just the Apple made apps. Don’t get me started on third party apps like AIM.
3. Battery Life: This is where the iPhone is really terrible. My new iPhone didn’t even last a day. I’ve disabled 3G during various parts of the day and turned off wi-fi and bluetooth and still it died. Something needs to be done about this fast.
4. GPS: I don’t know what happened here besides the fact that the GPS could not locate me in various locations around NYC. I had sporadic success in midtown. I had no luck in the Financial District at all where I did when I had the original iPhone. Guess aGPS works a bit better.
5. App Store/3rd Party Apps: some of the apps are working but those that don’t require a redownload and reinstall. That’s fine if at the end it works. Sadly it does not. AIM for example does not. It says that I’m online but buddies do not show up in the buddy list. I’ve Googled around and was told to install from iTunes App Store instead of installing from the iPhone. Regardless, this is a terrible UX. A message to the 3rd Party Developers out there: Shape Up!
That’s it with the rants. I’m done for now.
I will say that there are some bright spots to this phone like the Remote app. It’s super well done. I just hope that Apple can put that polish on this phone that it sorely needs through a firmware update very very soon.
July 13th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Wow dude. I haven’t had any issues with my phone so far. The battery lasted just as long as my old iPhone (a full day). I definitely was on the 3G phone non-stop, so I consider that decent. I’ve downloaded about 6 apps from the app store, and they all worked on the first install. Facebook App does crash occasionally when trying to browse photos and AIM doesn’t send notifications but the rest seem cool, especially Shazam which I got to work at the bar last night. The 3G speed is WAY faster than edge but I did notice that ATT’s coverage is a little spotty.
July 14th, 2008 at 9:15 am
I haven’t had a chance to grab a 3G phone yet, but my 2.0 update is sluggish too. Safari crashes frequently and Mail.app takes forever to open up. Third party apps seem to be working fine (including AIM).
Really looking forward to the next update. Let’s get some snappiness back in play.
July 14th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
I’m there with you with the slow 3G, short battery life, GPS issues… PLUS my iTunes won’t recognize the iPhone as a device, although the Macbook will recognize the iPhone as a camera. What’s the point of getting an iPhone if I can’t sync anything… I’m meeting with those geniuses tmrw to try and resolve this.