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What's the Problem With iPhone 3G Reception?
CWmike writes "Apple's iPhone 3G was just a couple of days old when reports began trickling onto the company's support forum from dissatisfied customers complaining about poor reception. Although no one outside of Apple and AT&T — and maybe a chipmaker or two — really knows, that has not kept others from speculating, or in a few cases, making claims based on unnamed sources. What's going on? We may not have all the answers, but we do have questions. Gregg Keizer put together everything we know in a FAQ on the griping about iPhone 3G reception."
We've all made our own Canadian version of the iPhone:
1. take your regular plain old cellphone
2. buy an iPod touch
3. buy duct-tape
4. if you can't figure out step four by yourself, please return your Handyman membership card to Red Green.
And there is an article (auto-translated article in link) in the Swedish magazine Ny Teknik (New Tehcnology) about this too.
So it's a problem that is well discussed these days.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Apple sells crappy products! If you stick with a majority company like MS you will have no problems people! http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/
It is extremely frustrating the amount of dropped calls and call failed's I get. I had a sony-erickson for 3 years and had maybe 3 or 4 dropped calls and maybe 2 or 3 times when i cannot make a call. I do those numbers in like 3 days of iphone use. It is not my area, I always have 3g, but the bars do fluctuate wildly from 1 or 2 to 3 or 4 in the same location. I love the phone but i am worried if this is a problem they can fix or will it get worse?
...it's because you're not praying hard enough. Try prostrating yourself towards Cupertino five times a day.
Is anyone really surprised that the reception is that poor when you have your head so far up Steve Jobs' ass?
Relax, it's a joke. I want one too.
My reception's fine, but I really wish Apple would hurry up and fix the slow typing bug...
It sounds like a trivial thing, but coupled with the inherent inaccuracy of the iPhone keyboard it makes the phone barely usable for text messaging...
Bloated, shiney and overpriced!
We have now reached Whiny, artistic types post lengthy diatribes about how this terrible design flaw has made the device unusable and scarred them emotionally.
If J.K.R wrote Windows: Puteulanus fenestra mortalis!
"Users started complaining about crappy reception -- lousy signal strength, dropped calls and slow data speeds -- just days after the iPhone 3G's July 11 debut."
I have the old iPhone and have those problems. I'm about to switch back to Verizon because AT&T, well, sucks.
Come on, it's jewelry, not a phone.
There are several reasons that might lead to these
problems:
- bad antenna design
- interference noise from other electronics in the handset
- bugs in protocol processing
The most surprising aspect is that Apple and AT&T
probably knew about this much before the launch. The
amount of testing required on a cell phone to get
certification is enormous. Unless, at&t waived all testing for the iphone, it is pretty certain that they have seen the problems in the lab. And
this is the question. How can they release the
product if they know it has problems?
For anyone interested see the process for GCF and PTRCB certifications, that include both
Over-The-Air tests, drive tests and protocol tests.
I live in a relatively rural area, but close enough to a large city that I can get 3G service at home. I was (and returned to) using a Samsung BlackjackII. I was able to use it without any issues at all and got 3G and EDGE service at and near my home. When I brought the new iphone home, I was unable to get anything other than a standard connection (no EDGE and no 3G) and sometimes I couldn't even get a reliable enough signal to make simple phone calls. After a few days of frustration, I returned it to the store and went back to the BlackjackII.
Just another datapoint.
Although no one outside of Apple and AT&T â" and maybe a chipmaker or two â" really knows, that has not kept others from speculating,
Wait a minute - you think only Apple, AT&T, and a chipmaker really knows? That's where you're hugely mistaken.
A lot of people know. In fact, in the past week there have been hundreds of blog entries and posts on this, and some magazines and newspapers have since picked it up since the groundswell!
It is important to report that it is being talked about all over the world - in Europe, Canada, and and United States. That kind of discussion helps keep the focus on Apple and the chipset manufacturers, and keep it off the carriers. Of course, some have fallen away from that strategy and are also including a discussion about their "excellent" or "sucky" carrier, depending on who they like or dislike.
For a bloated overpriced phone, you get what you paid for. I am, without a doubt, going for a Verizon phone with a new LG Dare - 3.5G technology, powerful touchscreen, corporate support, backed by America's most capable network.
AT&T has had these kind of problems for years with their 3G service, it only took a successful platform to bring their shortcomings into the public light.
Mine is Good
It needs iReception.
A Cellphone is a radio, a radio transceiver, If they didn't hire a real good company with a Good RF design to build and design it , ,the public concerns themselves with only the cute stuff the computer part of it .
the receiver may have poor sensitivity and what is called inter modulation
this inter modulation is extra unwanted undesired signals getting into the phone along with the desired signals.
It will result in a premature loss of the desired signal
and No, in a digital cellphone system, you wont hear the interference but only the result;t , dropped calls poor range
the Computer part of a cellphone is only a very small part of it, and has little to do with dropped calls or poor reception
and Yes people despite it name this so called I phone is STILL Just a cellphone with a trade name.
Cell phone stores are Not usually equipped at all to test the radio transceiver part of the phone
If it connects they deem it works, if not its bad and Thats it.
It wont tell you anything about the radio part.
This a foolish consumer mentality and the manufacturers know they can get away with it
Radio equipment is what a cellphone truly is. These specification are not in the public eye
Rather
Forgetting it's a radio transceiver
What's interesting is the fact that even after this and other numerous problems with this particular device, majority of the post (on /., Engadget, Apple forums etc) about them would include something like "I love the phont, but..."
What's wrong with you? How would you "love" your phone if you can't use it for its primary purpose? Is it mandatory to "love" this phone? Would you burn in hell if you don't? Or most of the people just lack balls to say that you don't "love" it anymore?
Mass acceptance by following the herd is one thing, not having guts to call a spade a spade is another.
I've had a Treo with AT&T (Windows Mobile 6) for about 1.5 years. I live about 4 miles north of downtown Chicago and I only get 1-2 bars (out of 4) of 3G reception in my 3rd floor apartment. When I go downtown I can get 3-4 bars. Interestingly, when I get to work (high rise building) I can consistently get 4 bars unless I go to the top floor (where I cannot get any signal).
I don't think this is an iPhone problem.
All of this being said, with 1 bar or 2 bars, I don't drop calls and when I tether the phone to my laptop (which the Treo and AT&T support) with the very simple and straight forward Windows Mobile software I can get 100-120 kilo bytes / second download speeds over a USB cable and 50-60 kilo bytes / second over Bluetooth. When tethering over USB, i can at the same time use my bluetooth headset and make a phone call without either suffering. All with 1-2 bars of signal.
I really don't have any problems with AT&T except when I'm on the top two floors of a 49 story building.
Slashdot comments over the years were pretty quick to slam Microsoft for problems like this, but go out of their way to avoid blaming Apple. We need to start replacing the E in Apple the Euro symbol. They are easily as greedy and aggressive as Microsoft ever was. Sorry fanbois.
I have no problems with the touchscreen on the iPhone, but my wife doesn't like it.
I seem to be able to two thumb type on it faster than my previous phone.
Do you have fat fingers possibly? I really like the error correction, and the fact that it "learns" new words. One of my Farsi speaking friends has added a whole new vocabulary to her phone via this way.
..........FULL STOP.
Im posting this from my samsung inatinct. I was given this phone for work and what i thoight was a shitty iphone wannabe phone has led me understand and love many of the samsungs unique functions and designs not to mention sprints fantastic data services...anyways ive always been an avid tmobile fan and cant wait to see htc and google this september. iphone lacks basic phone functionality...
Trying to install linux on my microwave, but keep getting a kernel panic...
Infineon chips. (ex-Siemens)
I had the displeasure of working with products from this company, it is as fun as having a fork stuck in your eye.
Crappy documentation, flaky concepts, incompatible versions, etc.
how long until
I seem to have the opposite problem, very poor wifi speeds!
My new iPhone 3G works great with 3G. No problems there so far, although I've not traveled around too much with it.
What seems to be a problem is the iPhone connecting to wifi spots... in that the attained speeds are so arrevatingly slow that I turn it off! This of course is fine since at the momen since I've not exceeded the monthly ball and chain set by the money sucking service provider.
However, it's supposed to work with Wifi modems. I have a linksys N wifi modem that my mac book pro is connected to so there are no speed problems with my internet connection. That's just fine. It's the wifi connection.
Apple seems to have trouble with their iPhone and Mac Books connecting to Wifi modems by other manufacturers. At one point I had to shut off the burst mode on my linksys because it was crashing my mac book pro with OSX 10.5 no less!!!
Now I don't even bother with wifi at home with my Apple products. Sigh.
I'm an idiot, I admit it: I've had BOTH versions of the iPhone. They're the same, folks, no better, no worse. If you're tinfoil hat's a little too snug (or you're holding it with either left or right hand) it tends to drop calls.
Really: the emperor's latest fashion is made of the same material. The instrument is no better as a phone, no faster as a PDA, no cleaner as a browser. It is still a very poorly designed phone, a not-TOO-bad PDA (esp. for Mac users) and a darned superior portable internet device.
Cellphone-to-cellphone reliability and call quality are illusions, get used to it. It's not how well the bear dances, it's that the bear dances AT ALL. Next, we'll rant about the fallacy of packet-switched vs. circuit-switched, at least as regards telephony.
a nice girl like you doesn't need a penis
Oh yeah, AT&Ts famed certification testing specs. Right. The one that have made sure they pushed Motorola handsets out into their market, handsets that so royally screwed up DTMF signaling that nothing worked. Wow. AT&Ts integration testing on the handset side is nothing to worry about. And if the same neurotic people are still working on the network integration testing on the system side, let's just say that the backends aren't much better off.
I've had a wonderful time, but this wasn't it -- Groucho Marx
The iPhone only has a b/g chipset. Performance of a MBP against a 802.11n access point isn't really indicative of how the b/g network would perform. You could be having considerable interference you'd never notice with the laptop.
Burst mode on the Linksys isn't part of the 802.11n draft but rather a proprietary Linksys extension - so really it's no wonder it isn't working well with non-Linksys clients.
I've turned 3G off because Edge gives me better battery life; with 3G I also have coverage problems.
I wonder how long before there is a class action lawsuit?
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
shoulda bought a nokia n95 instead. :)
I worked with a guy who was involved in the testing at the FCC lab in MD. He said word came down from above to "rubber stamp" the original iPhone without ANY testing on their behalf.
How amazed would you be to suddenly find that you just forgot what I wrote and you needed to reread my post.... again.
... we have this discussion EVERY TIME someone mentions an apple product. "Apple users are sheep" "No, they're creative breakaways"... I wish both sides would shut up and wallow in their respective feeling of superiority. No one is going to get converted on slashdot, so grow up and stick to the topic rather than scoring a point for one side or the other.
Cellphone-to-cellphone reliability and call quality are illusions, get used to it.
I think you meant to say - cell reliability is an illusion in the United States, on the AT&T network. I've *never* had a dropped call, on any phone (including 3G iPhone).
No, a lawsuit is not the first thing on people's minds... they obviously first tried contacting Apple and AT&T on this; but Apple isn't responding/acknowledging?
For Apple to fix the problem, they would first have to acknowledge the problem. As far as I can tell from that FAQ, all I see regarding Apple response is "Apple's not talking". All I can see regarding AT&T is that AT&T "has not admitted that a widespread problem exists, but spokesmen for the firm have acknowledged complaints from customers".
So Apple is saying "..."
And AT&T is saying "Yeah, there's people complaining, but it's all in their heads until we say otherwise"
Now, another direction -would- have been to get together, hire a research firm, and let them check the 3G reception compared to, say, 9 other 3G phones ranging in a wide variety, but that's not really the users' responsibility. With any luck, Apple/AT&T are already doing this as they remain silent, however.
We've got one _securities_ (not engineering) analyst speculating that it's a problem with the chipset, and that it's unfixable. Yeah. Then we've got Businessweek echoing that claim, citing two unnamed sources (one of which is probably the securities analyst, the other of which is likely someone repeating the securities analyst). No technical data whatsoever on those claims.
Then we've got Ny Teknik, which cites a problem between the antenna and the amplifier (I would speculate they are referring to antenna impedence matching). They again cite unnamed sources, but they at least claim there was actual testing done. If this is the case, it would not be fixable in firmware, but it's at least not a design flaw.
On top of that, there's the nature of the problems. Poor signal strength and low speeds both could be caused by the problems of the nature Ny Teknik suggests, but dropping calls when switching from 3G to Edge argues for some sort of firmware problem, dropping calls during the handoff. Of course, it's also possible there are multiple problems; low signal strength exposes a problem with the handoff.
Finally there's the question of how Apple missed it during testing. It seems widespread enough that it would have been noticed, which argues for a manufacturing problem or perhaps a last minute software change.
That's interesting, but I'm not very surprised!
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
I find that many times when I am in poor coverage areas (areas without 3G reception, for instance). My iPhone 3g (2.0.1) will show 1 or 2 bars of signal strength, yet my Blackberry 8700c (also on AT&T), will show full signal. In these times, sometimes call to the iPhone will go right to voicemail where as calls to the Blackberry come through just fine.
I have not (thankfully) experienced dropped calls, but that may be just luck. However I have certainly noticed this signal strength issue -- at least compared to the Blackberry when in areas with poor 3G reception.
I've been using 3G in one of the pilot cities since it rolled out many years ago and the problem has always been limited coverage. Even now that the infrastructure is more mature. Going from 3G to non-3G networks isn't a smooth transition, so you might have a very weak signal where there is potential to have a better one.
Go buy a European phone that only works on our 1900MHz frequency and you'll see how limited certain types of coverage can be.
If AT&T were to make a commercial like Verizon's, the subscribers would be followed around by a bunch of retards (apologies to all the retards that may read Slashdot).
I have calls that sound crystal clear one second and then get dropped the next...while both parties are stationary.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
I honestly don't feel too sorry for people who have gotten hit by this. Haven't people learned that being an early adopter is just downright stupid? If smart people stopped jumping on the bandwagon every time a hip new functional tool pops up on the market, then such smart people would avoid all the problems by waiting a few months until all the problems are fixed.
Even if the iPhone is "revolutionizing" your life... you've lived for years, possible decades, without an iPhone. You're telling me you can't wait another 3-6 months? BS.
I am one cool mofo with this iphone - I got one and you don't - 'nuf said fred //
I worked with a guy who knew a guy who said you were full of shit. Oh wait, that was me.
Actually you'd have trouble finding a 1900MHz phone in Europe... maybe go for 1800 instead ;)
OK, my first cellphone was a Nokia 210 or something. Ancient brick from around 1993 or so. The only exciting thing about it was that it was like the one Mulder first used on the X-Files. Then a Motorola Startac. Pretty much the first flip phone.
I've had many since then and they all suck in various ways, including many a Nokia (though the 6310i was a damn good phone for basic phone stuff).
Honestly, having the iPhone and now the iPhone 3G I can say that the phone and AT&T are pretty good. I live in the DC area and have my dead spots, but so does every carrier. I had the same thing with T-Mobile and a Nokia E61. The 3G seems (subjectively) no worse for me in DC or Atlanta, or Cleveland (places I've been with it so far) than the original iPhone.
As for the signal bars fluctuating, that's a given. They do that all the time and here on /. they had a post not too long ago about the signal-to-noise ratio issue. The bars tell you how strong the signal is from the towers to you, not the other way around, and don't factor in the noise that can mess it up.
As Marcus Ranum recently said in a SANS NewsBites about people complaining about the iPhone app kill-switch, if you don't like it, "So use another phone" !!
Besides, the games and apps are so much fun and so cool, who cares about phone calls?? :-P
Ich suche die Leidenschaft, die keine Leiden schafft.
...certainly has no reception pr
Hey, thanks for the excellent information. I'll pick up a couple of cheapo b/g wifi modems for the three rooms in my place...
As for interference there are plenty of modems in the neighborhood... too many... but it could be the layout of my place.
Well even thought the burst mode isn't part of the standard it shouldn't cause Apple's wifi driver to bring DOWN the WHOLE OSX!!! with a Gray Screen Of Death! (GSOD).
Apple has serious problems with their mach not so microkernel since they bloat it with drivers. They need to learn a thing or two from Minix3 it would seem. I've complained to them EACH AND EVERYTIME about their microkernel design with each of the over 100 GSODs that I've gotten since owning this particular MBP.
I have a linksys n/b/g router and have absolutely no problems whatsoever. So, if there *is* a problem, it doesn't effect every phone OR its only effecting your phone. It may be the router's b/g signal sucks, though the n-signal is fine, therefore you have no issues with the laptop, but would with the phone. I say try finding another wifi hotspot to see if the problem continues. If it does, bring it into an Apple store and see if they'll replace it, because it should be performing pretty well.
If its so poorly designed... why'd you get the new one after already owning the original one? I can understand someone thinking its poorly designed and not buying one and I can understand someone who likes it AND buying one... or even someone who likes it but still doesn't buy one. But why would someone buy something they don't like AND even buy the next version of said phone?
My Treo is:
radio
computer
iPod (via PocketTunes or mOcean)
Internet Communications device (via Blazer, Safari)
Internet Modem (Legal too using PDAnet)
Checkbook (Pocket Quicken)
Blogger
Camera
Video Recorder
Games Machine
Mapping/Traffic device (Google Maps)
Diary
Calendar
Instant Messaging Device
SMS Device
TV Set and YouTube/RedTube/YouPorn device (via Kinoma)
Voice Memo
It is thicker than an iPhone. My girlfriend says thick is real good.
I guess "lack of imagination" fits better there. Inability to imagine you can actually call people from a better device.
I have had my iPhone for a week now. Nice, but some problems.
For example, I noticed a problem with the sound quality being unpredictable. This was on phone calls with the speaker on and playing music or videos. Always when I was holding the phone. Now I tried to figure it out by moving my fingers around and low and behold it seemed like the problem was touching the metal bit near the bottom power/data port! It felt like one of those electrical interference problems you sometimes get when you touch metal on a stereo or whatnot. On closer examination it turned out that that was a silly notion. What really was going on is that my finger was covering the speaker grill and blocking the sound!!! Apple in their infinite wisdom put the speaker (and on the opposite side the microphone) ports next to the data port on the BOTTOM edge of the iPhone!!! That's about the worst possible place for the speaker as that is just where MY FINGERS like to hang out to support the weight of the iPhone against that annoying pesky aspect of Earth known as Gravity. The iPhone thus FALLS, er, fails the most basic Human Interface Guidelines since it puts the speaker just where my finger wants to go all the time! If I drop the darn thing they are going to get an ear full!
Also the battery life isn't what is advertised with regards to videos. I only get about an hour to an hour and a half playing videos (downloaded flash videos from you tube converted with VLC to mp4, 2mbps, 128kbps audio). Sucks. I have power plugs by all my computers - home, work, play (as in that special kind of play).
Because it's SHINY and NEW !!! Seriously, it used to be the case that cars were considered penile extensions. In this millenia, anything Apple spits out has surely superceded the humble motor vehicle.
I'm posting this to demonstrate just how loony the accusations can be. Okay, back to reality, folks.
I apologize for my lack of clarity, see Xenocrates. I bought the new one because the mobile internet access tools are worth it. I've decided that having seamless email, some web, and relatively updated maps are indeed worth it. As to the other poster "never" having lost an AT&T call: Bullshit. Unprovable, and clearly this thread's existence posits that the opposite might be true. (It is certainly true, but I'll stick to the more conservative case.)
Beyond this the issue we are seeing is that Apple is one again trying to compete on specifications instead of overall performance. It is like buying a computer based on processor speed and memory and the number of USB ports, but ignoring bus speed and the fact that USB is the slow version 2.0. Apple knows that for consumer products it can't compete on overall performance, because consumers will inevitable choose the cheaper product that has the biggest penis/cup size.
What this means in this case is that Apple probably put out the 3g stuff earlier than it should have because the consumer market demanded cool specifications even if it meant worse overall performance. Even thought the iPhone worked well, few wanted it because it was not buzzword complaint. So now we have a phone that does not work so well, eats the battery, and is a less satisfying experience. Oh well, at least it still looks cool and has the proper features listed on the box.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
My iPhone works, 3G and all, in Saint Paul. Reception is much better than Verizon was for years
So sorry I don't have a rant or snide remark. Just a positive comment for once.
The fact is that digital signals on radio frequencies is retarded. (at least with 0.5W transmitters) It will never work. There is a reason that amateur packet radio is 1200 baud, THAT IS WHAT RADIO WILL SUPPORT AT KILOWATT LEVELS AT THAT. All of these cellphone and wireless companies are selling a service that does not /cannot exist.
Criminals, plain and simple. All of them, yet they all have government support, there must be some pretty hefty pay-offs being made with all your cell phone bills.
I do not have a cell phone and will never get one. They do not work. Period.
After the revolution (or collapse), government supported organised crime will be a thing of the past.
1) Samsung handsets use the same Infineon 3G chipset and side by side have been shown to not have the same problems as the iphone
2)I have an iphone. It worked great for 1 week and then the data service stopped working.
The phone hasnt changed. It's a network issue. As more iphones have come on in big cities they just cant serve the demand.
So its the phone which could be performing better (as seen by the side by side Sansung comparison) >and its the network (as seen by many people whose service only recently went to hell but used to be fine)
If you're tinfoil hat's a little too snug...
I'm not a tinfoil hat!
myselfmusic
A bit of seriousness here. One bar, four bars, five bars - this is no real info at all. At least in the Amateur Radio world, there is objective testing as to what S-9 on the meter means (50 uV @ 50 ohms).
There is no such testing done on cellphones. I have never seen it done. If there was objective testing done, I wonder really how bad the results would be.
I was out on a bike ride and right under a AT&T tower resting and I was getting only two bars. Go figure.
Personally, signal strength displays are orchestrated frauds foisted on the public by the cellphone manufacturer and carrier working in collusion and marketed as being truth when in reality they bear nothing of the sort.
"So I suspect that we haven't heard the last of this story yet."
Especially when it's been discussed elsewhere for weeks now.
Sigh. I remember when you read about breaking news on Slashdot FIRST. Now, it seems that it only exists to hash and rehash week-old news.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
> my samsung inatinct. [...]what i thoight was [...]
> love many of the samsungs unique functions
Spell checking not being one of them :-)
I don't care why the problems are occuring. What I care about is that people continue to buy the thing despite it's many short comings based on brand loyalty. It seems from everything I've read that this is a lemon of a phone missing basic features (MMS for pity sake?! "Jailbreak" to record video??). Instead of people calling it a lemon, they try to imagine what it would be like if it worked and even justify the lack of features. If people continue to do that, what incentive is there for a company to actually produce a working product instead of a hunk of junk? It costs less money to make a broken piece of junk and market it well. In the end the market becomes saturated with iRubbish and we all suffer.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Odd, I noted that "I really hate Apple users" seems to work much better.
Try "I really like Apple products, but I really hate Apple fanboys"
Most Apple users (these days) are just like normal clueless inoffensive windows users. It's only the Apple fanboys that piss off normal slashdotters.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
Don't forget that there is an army of PR-people working for iPhone competitors in Scandinavia as well as in Japan. There's been a lot of weird articles in Sweden with headlines like "The iPhone Fiasko" and such, and in every single article there has only been anonymous sources but no hard numbers or any facts what so ever. Of course, that might be surprise to no one. After all, this is still Ericsson County
Actually it has spell check i just didnt use it because i was in a hurry :)
Trying to install linux on my microwave, but keep getting a kernel panic...
law 1 - Always wait for the second release of any Apple product
law 2 - The only reliable Apple products are those which don't need batteries.
Even my graphic designer apple fanclub belonging wife agrees with these two laws.
The first because I think Apple rushes their products out to market in order to be the newest and shiniest. The second I have NFI - eg with my creative Zen, if I run out of battery - easy, I just swap in a new one. Why is this not possible with the ipod, iphone etc? It defies logic.
I'll see your hokum and raise you a boondoggle.
AT&T,
Apple,
and
Infineon?
Sunspots, maybe?
Sig this!
Wait a minute, I thought Law 1 was "always wait for the second release of any IT product"? At least, that's the golden rule for Windows releases, and now seems to be what some people are talking about regarding KDE...
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Heh... I guess that it's kinda hard to explain if you don't already have one.
The iPhone 3G is an amazing little phone that does practically everything that you would want an MP3 player or a smart phone to do, but it still has a few version x.0 bugs that need to be fixed. That doesn't mean that it's a BAD phone, just a phone that needs a few patches.
Personally, I had to disable the 3G network on my phone as well, mostly because the AT&T 3G coverage in my area is lousy and it was causing the poor phone to lose calls and suck down the battery quickly. That's not totally the phone's fault... it's more AT&T's than anything else. Turning off the 3G at home fixes the problem, and I can turn it back on at work where I have good 3G coverage without any issues.
My hunch is that a future firmware update will make the iPhone smarter about when it should be trying to use a 3G network, but we'll need to wait and see. Until then, I'm not regretting my purchase... It's still an amazingly useful tool!
What's wrong with you? How would you "love" your phone if you can't use it for its primary purpose? ... Mass acceptance by following the herd is one thing, not having guts to call a spade a spade is another.
I'm glad you got that off your chest. Actually, *my* primary iPhone purpose is not voice, but Net & applications. I haven't had any trouble with calls, but it's also possible that I'm not using voice intensively enough to notice.
I *love* my iPhone- and that's "calling a spade a spade."
...If you'd paid as much for a phone (including the contract) as the iPhone owners have, you'd 'love the iPhone' too, because the alternative is admitting you wasted a huge pile of money...
At least in the US, most people end up in a contract anyway. So here, at least, the "huge pile of money ... including the contract" is in no way unique to iPhone.
To read a lot of these critiques (even from the US), you'd think Steve Jobs invented the cell phone contract...
...the iPhone is supposed to be above all else, a phone.
I see this all the time, and I just disagree. I view the iPhone as "Blackjack Joe" does: "To me, despite the name iPhone, I consider it a Internet access device first, an iPod second, and a phone last."
Being a phone is the most important thing for many people -- but not all...
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Repeat after me... It Just Works It Just Works It Just Works It Just Works... Now you can see that there are no problems - Steve told me!
He made his point and clearly you missed it. Hilarious. The iphone spell checking happens and corrects AS you type. No need to go back and 'spell check' after you've typed something.
Not Nessasarily true. Ok in the USA, GSM technology may be nascent. Certainly 3G is not so widespread. Here in Europe, especially UK, 3G has been around for much longer. We already make heavy use of it, and you can buy USB dongles with a SIM card, to have mobile internet, at up to 3.6Mbps (in some cases, up to 7Mbps). This is already popular amongst Business users, and also Tennants, who do not wish to fit a DSL line, yet require fast internet. So the technology is pretty mature, and usable.
Yet the iPhone 3G is having problems here too. You cant really blame O2's network, as it is a mature network, that has been around for a long time (O2 used to be BT Cellnet....)
Have a nice day!
Although the keyboard issue worries me as even the one in the 02 store was lagging (ive just ordered one of ebay :S),I think the signal problem is down to those countries who have younger 3G networks.
3G has been around in the UK for quite some time, and my mates who work in 02 have not had a complaint about 3G reception. Although I'm inclined to believe that the carriers in the states' are exacerbating a problem with the iphone
Now Ive just gotta hope that my unlocking procedure works, as 02 sucks balls.
Since the new iPhone I keep hearing about this new super-high bandwidth 3G network that it uses. I look up 3G on wikipedia, and to my surprise it turns out 3G is simply a name for the collection of all sorts of old data protocols like UMTS and HSDPA.
So what's so special about this new iPhone? Did the old one really not support UMTS? I find that really hard to believe.
you will find, when a airtime company does a "test".. they mainly check if a phone will break the network. Although they do check if a phone does connect and the rate of dropped calls, how they deal with it, may depend on the desirability of the phone.
IF this was a LG phone, you can expect that they would do full testing and work with LG to make sure any faults are fully rectified.
However, in the case of the iPhone, and its higher desirability, and the fact that "fans" may be more willing to put up with faults, just for that desirability. Plus Apple backing it with warrenty (hopefully). They may have been willing to put up with a few more faults, because in the grand scheme of things, people will still pay, and buy it, and they still make a profit, as Apple purchasers, they feel, would be more apologetic than those who by an LG Shine.
Have a nice day!
And you didnt get HIS point either.. He was in a hurry, and even the Jesus Phones instant "predictive" type would have "slowed him down" (I woudl NOT call the iphone a spellchecker! its just predictive text!).
Have a nice day!
are they saying it's WORSE than my first model iPhone?
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Except that at this point, it doesn't really feel like being an 'early adopter' with an iPhone. The iPhone itself has been out for over a year. It isn't magic. This isn't some amazingly new technology. There ARE other phones that can perform on 3g networks.
This is certainly not the 'bleeding edge'. If the iPhone claimed to use 4g technology, then I'd expect some issues, but this is mundane stuff that already exists across several commercial vendors.
It is irrational to attack the customers for not expecting problems with a fairly established technology. And it is unfair to expect them to wonder about cellphone antenna/chip design when they are just purchasing a phone. For a mass-market push, it is up to the corporation to perform due dilligence testing and accept the consequences if they miss something.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
I am not sure why this person was marked as a troll. The iPhone is a triumph of Style, and general spec, instead of overall performance.
Apple have looked at what specifications people "understand" and included it in the phone (with a very American-Centric view), and used the clever UI to sell itself.
And yes, It has a nice swishy UI, and does indeed succeed based on that. Its not a "bad" phone. but its low on features that other phones have, but most people probably wont understand, or care about.
I own a SonyEricsson K800i Phone, a Nokia N95, an iPhone 2g (which I have returned under satisfaction guarentee), and an iPod Touch, which I still have.
By far, the iPhone was "amazing" when it came out, and for the first day, I was thrilled, but after a few days, I returned the phone, and went back to my K800i (and bought an iPod Touch a month later)
Why?
The iPhone, once the flash factor wore off, i foudn it harder to use overall. Sure it has a great screen, and was great to interact, and listen to songs, watch movies, and video podcasts. ITs web browser metaphore was great.It is still unbeatable for those things.
But. this is where it started to fall down.
- Call Quality/Reception. Was NEVER as good as my K800i. I just could not rely on it.
- Lack of buttons. The K800i simply felt right to use. you knew which button you are pressing, and often can easy answer the phone without looking at the screen. the iPhone, you HAVE to look at the screen, and answer.
- Music Quality. What i felt immediately, with the iPhone was the sound output from it was just not as good as the k800i. This did surprise me. I tested using high quality non lossy formats, and I found the iPhone lacked the dynamic feel of the K800i. I later found an article where various different phones and music players were compared for sound quality, and the K800i came very high in the list (beating the iPods, and even sony's own Walkman phones despite sharing the same sound circuits. It was only beaten by some of Sony's Walkman Players). The reason begin that the phone had a Xenon Flash, therefore better attention was made shielding critical parts, together with the high quality components used. Plus the k800 was easy to operate in the pocket, especially when playing music.
- Lack of a real camera. The SonyEricsson with its AutoFocus 3.2 mp camera, with Xenon Flash, Video, and built in picture/video editor, was miles ahead of the iPhone. And lack of MMS????????? What the hell.. this is 2007, not 2001.
- Lack of 3G. Yes i was aware the original iPhone did not have 3G, and I was aware when I bought it. The promise of the WiFi "cloud" never worked. and I was stuck on 2.5g. In Practice, it just was not workable. the K800i was 3G.....
- Data Connectivity. Nice as the browser is, I cannot access my bank, or even SSH to my server. So I try to connect the iPhone to my laptop, to use a real browser/ssh client (i didnt care that it wasnt 3g, just needed to connect it to the net, no matter how slow). Oh dear, not possible. The tiny k800i, has bluetooth (both Dial-up modem and 'Zero Config' Pan Area Netowrk, where the phone performs as an accesspoint), infrared (modem only), and usb (both dial-up networking, and Ethernet emulation with the phone acting as a router), and it connects to anything with ease. Oh and it is 3g. I found myself using my iPhone less, and my K800i more. Especially as the K800 worked well under Windows, Linux, and MacOSX. No need to install ANY drivers on any of those operating systems (especially when bluetooth is used)
-Only Headset bluetooth profile. This is probably the most annoying part. it only supports the one Mono headset profile. It doesnt even support the Stereo music profile (A2DP) criminal for a music centric phone, so i was unable to use my stereo Bluetooth headphones. No ability to send files via bluetooth, no data via bluetooth, nothing. my k800.. everything supported, including A2DP.
- Reliance on iTunes for anything. Although i was aware of the iTu
Have a nice day!
3. If you want a free, objective way to check the reception in your area BEFORE you lock yourself with a specific carrier, you should really check out âoeGot Reception?â (http://www.gotreception.com).
I experienced a similar problem. When I bought my iPhone though, I first checked Got Reception? (http://www.gotreception.com) - a great resource for finding out where reception problems are most likely to occur BEFORE you lock yourself with a specific carrier.
http://www.macrumors.com/2008/08/18/iphone-3g-connectivity-a ffecting-2-of-customers-software-fix-soon/
By legitimate means, do you mean "contacting Apple"? If yes, please go to apple forums and search for "3g reception problems" and see number of posts there. Then try to find an answer from Apple. Now also try to see how many posts were deleted. Now come back and tell me about other legitimate means.
I'm a service rep for ATT... This problem is not as wide spread as the article would have your believe. That being said the coverage maps are very inconsistent and often outright lies, just like the bars depicting signal strength have no meaning. The truth is that if you want 99.99% consistency with your internet or phone wired is the only way to go.
How can you cover the microphone hole and still hold the iPhone in a comfortable position? Pictures or it didn't happen.
AT&T, from my experience anyway. Cingular service went to hell since the AT&T group crawled out from under the rock. I am stuck with the cellular account for various reasons, one being my employer, but I simply killed my land line account as it was expensive and useless. I had a pretty decent relationship, with average or slightly better than average service with Bellsouth for many years prior to the merger, acquisition of AT&T, recreation of AT&T or whatever the heck it was. Simply put ever since service has been rotten from my POV. Maybe they need another breakup ;).
wabi-sabi
matthew
Interesting. Here are three more datapoints. I have a first gen iPhone that had crappy reception (and zero Edge) at my workplace--underground downtown Minneapolis. Recently I get -no- reception in the office... But two co-workers (also underground) got the second gen iPhones and they are getting great signal strength AND 3G, too. I am tempted to upgrade, but as a smoker I am forced to the surface a few times during the work day where the reception is fine.
"...objectivity resides in recognizing your preferences, subjecting them to especially harsh scrutiny." -Gould
I have been with AT&T since before the 1st iphone released and I dropped plenty of calls on my blackberry. Then I got the 1st gen iphone and dropped a couple more a day. I upgraded to the 3G iphone and have noticed an improvement in regards to dropped calls. I drop about 1/3 as many calls as I did with my 1st gen iphone. I can actually travel to one of my clients offices while on the phone without dropping the call. On my previous phones I dropped the call 4 times on the same trip without exception.
So seriously I have to wonder about these claims. Are we sure these people aren't just switchers from verizon? Someone switching to AT&T from another carrier that doesn't suck as much as AT&T would certainly account for all these 3G "issues" of which I have no personal experiences with despite my crappy AT&T coverage at home.