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Apple's IPhone 3G Firmware Update Bombs
JagsLive writes "After lots of complaints about iPhone 3G connection issues, Apple released a firmware update Monday with hopes it would fix the issues. But early reports suggest it didn't work as planned.
Complaints have included dropped calls, abrupt network switches, poor reception, and service interruptions.
Apple declined to offer details about its iPhone 2.0.1 update, other than saying it included 'bug fixes.' However, comments in Apple's support forum say plenty about the latest attempt to rectify poor user experiences. In fact, the update seems to be causing new issues, apparently interfering with the GPS function, among others."
"Just Works" post.....
Interestingly, I find it fairly insightful to see how the great unwashed masses are complaining about this, yet, for the most part, Apple is getting a "free pass" from pundit's, media, and most of the public because of past marketing.
What would the reaction have been if this was some other company?
Just a though that rattles around in my brain.
I've been stung before by buying new apple hardware immediately (core duo macbook pro).
:)
Right now, i'm feeling pretty damn happy I decided to wait on the iphone 3g. I do have an iphone and it works perfectly. I think i'll wait for a few more months before I upgrade to the 3g
Ummm, the most recent update was 2.0.2. Kind of hard to take the rest of the article seriously when it gets the most basic of facts wrong. Not that I doubt the existence of these 3G problem, just tired of reading poorly researched, poorly edited "news" articles. I don't have a 3G iPhone, so this article doesn't really apply to me, but for my Edge iPhone, 2.0.2 seems to have improved a number of issues, particularly the email.
Because Apple gets a premium for its product based on the style and the "just works" philosophy. Nearly everyone will agree that apple products do not have the breadth of features or the extent of customization of many other products in their respective niche. Their market success has been based on the basic feature set being nearly bulletproof - a claim that many others cannot make. This is exactly the thing Apple users have come to forget happens with mediocre CE.
It also means that someone wasn't minding the store when it went out, and it can mean a serious problem with their growth process. Steve can't be around to hold their hand forever.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Reason 1 - Hype - people are pissed off at those who sound so happy with their apple stuff that they'd fellate the great steve, when technically it's not that special (even if the user experience generally is)
Reason 2 - Hype - the hype is always "It just works". It's virus free and PERFECT out of the box. This is what Macfans use to slag off both MS and Linux. It's delightful to see this falling down.
Reason 3 - Actually, with most mobile phones (see Nokia/LG etc) they do just work and firmware isn't updated.
Why are bug reports on the iPhone always blown way the hell out of proportion?
My twenty dollar Nokia doesn't drop calls, nor have service interruptions, or any of the other problems the iPhone has.
A six hundred dollar telephone ought to work. Period. There is no such thing as "blowing it out of proportion."
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Why are bug reports on the iPhone always blown way the hell out of proportion?
Maybe it's because some are insisting that a phone should be able to make phone calls, while other are using a metric based on "user experience"?
It's what else is on the market. It is a perfectly fair comparison, the iPhone doesn't live in a vacuum.
The update killed your parents!!!!!eleven11!!
Reason 1 - Hype - people are pissed off at those who sound so happy with their apple stuff that they'd fellate the great steve, when technically it's not that special (even if the user experience generally is)
Reason 2 - Hype - the hype is always "It just works". It's virus free and PERFECT out of the box. This is what Macfans use to slag off both MS and Linux. It's delightful to see this falling down.
Reason 3 - Actually, with most mobile phones (see Nokia/LG etc) they do just work and firmware isn't updated.
You're going to hate me then, because I have an iPhone 3G and It Just Works. No dropped calls, no data losses, no unusually low battery life, and I'm on the 2.0.1 update (haven't updated to 2.0.2 yet). Sorry your self esteem is hurt by my lack of misery.
You sneer at user experience, but if the experience helps you get things done, then inevitable technical issues won't bother you as much. I'm also unaware of any Mac users slagging Linux for being virus-ridden.
Dunno why, in order to be happy, you want to see others do badly. I'd love it if MS made reliable stuff with a great user experience that Just Worked. I'd love it if Linux had a great user experience.
The "great steve" actually addressed this attitude back in 1997: "We have to get over this idea that in order for us to succeed, they have to fail."
It's fortunate that there's a 30 day return policy. I returned my iPhone 3G at 29 days and went back to Verizon and got a Blackerry Curve. Though the Blackberry doesn't have as nice of an interface, it's much more stable. In the argument of stability vs usablity, stability wins. I had a friend who also returned his. I'm not sure how many more will return theirs, but I don't feel like taking chances with my $200.
If you don't care then don't click on the link. If you don't want it on the front page visit the firehose and vote against it.
I don't have an iPhone (I might get one if they come down to $50) but I thought the summary, at least, and the ensuing discussion was worth my time.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
just ignore my above comment, I realized I wasn't on the front page, just looking at the apple page, and making myself look like an idiot.
I'm surprised any negative comments are showing up in the Apple forums. When the iPod first came out Apple was very good at deleting any negative comments in the forums.
Comparing a $20 candy bar Nokia with an iPhone is much like comparing a sundial with an atomic clock. With added complexity comes added problems. Now, if you were to compare a similarly priced Nokia smartphone with the iPhone - you might have a point. But not surprisingly Nokia has had their fair share of issues with their higher-end smartphone line as well.
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. - Albert Einstein
Why would they? There are countless iPhones that do work correctly, and it seems most of the issues are a software problem. I would expect if the problems were consistant across all the iPhones they can fix the problem quicker. However I suspect it is one of those conditions that A then B then C need to meet and the cell towers need to aligned right for the problem to occur. Making it difficult to track down. So except for fixing the problem like an engineer where they can duplicate the problem then apply the fix and know it will work they will need to work more like doctors. Using their knowledge of the system and think of what possible could cause this (not an easy task as when they developed it they tried to think of all situations already) then apply a patch in hope it may fix it, with hit or miss results. Returning all the iPhones will not do any good as it reduces the number of people who report the problem and may finally get the clue on what is the problem.
Yes you paid to be a Beta Tester it kinda sucks at least if they fix the problems you will have a nice phone.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
...however, since everyone is offering anecdotal "evidence", I'll point out that we have two 3G iPhones in our home, and neither have had 3G issues. A few applications crash on startup, but most of my apps run just fine, before and after the 2.0.2 update.
My biggest gripe is -- Apple has neither stated there is a known 3G connectivity problem, nor did they state the 2.0.2 patch contains a 'fix' for any such problems. So ask yourself, how have these people writing articles about it able to claim such a thing? The answer is, the same reason everyone thinks there's a widespread problem with 3G... hear-say.
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
I haven't used a Macs enough to complain about them, but I've been using an iPhone for a few weeks now. I'm not going to say the device is crap, it's not, but I definitely would not call the UI a gold standard. I'm still trying to figure out who's nephew they hired to make the decision that you should need to plug the phone into an entire computer to get audio onto this wifi device. I mean really. They shipped a wifi enabled, web surfing music player that cannot download PODCASTS from the internet. I do find it funny though that when Apple implemented a UI element that has been in Lotus Notes from the beginning, the UI element magically went from being the worst thing ever to being a gold standard.
You mean the people quoting the idiot financial analyst who is trying to manipulate the stock? The same financial analyst that also claimed the first iPhone would have to be recalled because the touchscreen was defective? It's interesting that every article claiming a hardware problem goes back to the same source.
While I do agree that WiFi transfer would be nice, I would hardly call that a UI problem. That's more like a missing feature than a UI problem or inconsitancy. I've never used Lotus Notes, so I have no idea what UI element you are refering to with the last statement.
What I don't understand is, where is the BLUETOOTH transfer? Isn't this what Bluetooth was DESIGNED to do, is to sync hardware devices by simply being in proximity? My Mac Pro has Bluetooth, my iPhone has Bluetooth, so where's my auto-sync?
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Funny, my two hundred dollar iPhone does work. No dropped calls, no service interruptions, or any other significant problems. Such is the case with most iPhones. When every little fart the iPhone has gets slammed up to the front page, then it is "blowing it out of proportion". Where are all the articles on inevitable issues with Blackberries? Treos? Any other smartphone?
Yes I know what you mean. I haven't drank beer since 1984 either. I shotgunned a six pack of Animal Beer and I can't imagine trying a real beer today because of that bad experience at 11.
Also sex. I had a bad experience in 1984, and swore it off.
Also breathing. My family ran over a skunk while on vacation, and it smelled so bad I just stopped breathing.
I hate beer, sex, and breathing now. I can't imagine ever revisiting those decisions again. But the IIc I really liked.
Will Windows Mobile Play DOS to Appleâ(TM)s iPhone?
Are any of these complaints about Mac OS X itself? Seems like a lot of bitching about iphoto, mail, acrobat, and itunes.
...You're kidding. You're asking: OTHER than all the software that comes with the OS, that they ADVERTISE as coming with the OS and making it awesome, and which they specifically promote as integrating so SEAMLESSLY and making your experience with the OS that much f'ing better than Windows -- implying that you're actually supposed to USE it -- do I have any complaints about the OS?
Right...
And let me guess: OTHER than the waitresses with tits hoisted up and crammed into each other, what did I think about Hooters?
OTHER than the fighting, how did you like the war?
OTHER than the death of your husband, how did you like the play?
OTHER than the lack of substance, how do you like the void?
Information theory is life. The rest is just the KL divergence.
So you've uploaded a picture that's being managed by iPhoto to a neutral site like photobucket before? Because for me, that has on occasion been so unusable that I had to upload the photos straight from the external drive. Sorry, iPhoto is completely unintuitive, and it's been really flaky before with letting me edit and use a photo I brought over from photobooth.
Sure. Just drag the photo from the iPhoto window to wherever you want it, including the upload dialog for a website. It just works, and if you think about it, it's VERY intuitive if you're not trying to do things the hard way. I can't address your flakiness from photobooth, I've never seen that fail to work perfectly.
Mail: So do you like how it darkens the background of the the subject lines in the view that lists all of your emails? Because it sure did that for me and Help was no help.
What are you talking about? I've never see it do that unless you've got a rule set to change the background color of a message - and you'd have to do that intentionally.
Do you think it's acceptable for a Rules window in Mail to be uncloseable? In my case, it spilled over onto the dock so I couldn't click cancel to get out. NO, COMMAND-W DID NOT WORK, THANKS FOR ASKING, not that that would be acceptable anyway.
Try command-period to cancel, or return to accept. Or hiding the dock. Yes, it's a bug. No, it shouldn't do that. I've written it up and submitted it to Apple - I hadn't seen it before today.
Do you think it's acceptable practice to make it look like my emails to others have photos embedded in the text, when in reality, the photos will only show up to them as separate attachments?
Yes. Those photos will show up as inline images on any mail reader that displays inline images.
Do you think it's acceptable to immediately and meticulously hide the actual email address I'm sending to and replace it with the person's name? (Yes, Having to double click on it is a big issue when all you have is a trackpad to move the pointer around with.)
That's actually a nice feature. It lets you know that person is in your address book. And you don't have to double click to edit the address, just click the triangle that appears to the right of the name. It's not a problem, it's the correct behavior.
Do you think it's acceptable that iTunes can't do something basic like play podcasts in chronological order automatically and starting from the first one you haven't listened to?
If you think it's a problem, write it up as a bug. I'm fine with it, I rarely listen to hours of podcasts all at once.
Or that you need good reflexes to stop it from deleting your library when you plug into a new computer unless you have good reflexes?
It doesn't do that. It asks if you want to replace the library.
Acrobat isn't an Apple program. Apple doesn't ship it.
No, but it damn well ships Safari. You know, the web browser that I'm supposed to access online pdf's with? And I know Apple is perfectly capable of implementing the PDF standard. So, to the extent that it makes "you must download Adobe to view this online pdf" the default option, yes it is fair game.
I'm calling bullshit on this one. I happened to have a clean install of 10.5.4 sitting here on a customer's machine. Safari doesn't say a thing about Acrobat. It displays the PDF, just like it's loading a web page. Acrobat is not installed on, and has never touched, that machine. It's not an Apple bug, it must be an Adobe bug.
Furthermore, on Windows, when Acrobat wants to update, I get precisely one warning -- when it starts. But on Safari (that's an Apple program, btw), I get the warning every 5 seconds, unless I have good enough reflexes to catch it in the one-second interval