Like It, Love It, Hate It: iPhone 3G Edition
With the launch of the iPhone 3G behind us and many of us lustily fondling our new toys, I have to wonder what everyone thinks about Apple's latest offering?
From my experience, I'm about 50% on the new gadget. I like the general sleekness of the phone, and the App Store is fantastic, but I've been having plenty of problems. For one, the reception is wonky as hell. I've been hearing that is a regional problem, but it doesn't matter. I'm in Chicago. In theory, I should be able to get a strong 3G signal almost constantly, and if not 3G, a great EDGE signal. But that's not the case. My phone randomly jumps from 3G to EDGE and then even to GPRS without cause, which wreaks havoc on my conversations. I've had more dropped calls due to that than any other phone I've had.
Second, Apps are constantly crashing. Or locking up. Or completely freezing my phone to the point where I have to hard boot it. Understanding that this is just about the main reason why Apple didn't want 3rd party applications in the first place, its still annoying, mainly because it's not just the 3rd party apps crashing. YouTube and Safari crash just as often. Still, this phone allows me to be way more productive on the go than any phone I've previously had, but I have to wonder if the business set will think the same thing?
Finally, I've been getting random issues. Slow keyboard response will kick in from time-to-time, forcing me to restart the phone so I return to regular functionality. Occasionally, my GPS will decide its tired and doesn't want to work. And the battery life... well, let's just say if I'm worried that my using all the phone's abilities on my hour and fifteen minute to and from work will kill a fully charged battery, there's a problem (admittedly, it hasn't yet, but I've managed to work it down to 20% in that time frame).
Even with these problems, I like the phone. I like the freedom I feel like I have now. I like the hyper-connectivity of it. I'll admit it, I even kind of like the lusty glances I get when people see me on the train with one. But it could be better. So now it's your turn. Why do you like/dislike about the iPhone 3G? What about the 2.0 firmware? Are you one of the unlucky masses that has been trying to get one ordered through AT&T? Or did you wait in line and snag one in the first few days? Sound off in the comments!
(I just need to say that I'm slightly disappointed in Google Image Search this time around... I typed in hot guy holding iPhone and got the above image... c'mon mac fanboys, Steve Jobs? Hot? Really??)
Jesse James
Posted to In Your Pocket, Miscellany on 22 July 2008
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: iphone 3g, Like it love it hate it, like or dislkine
Within one hour of its unboxing, The One became the undisputed ruler of Tiny's entire home. Buy this or despair.
I wanted an iPhone. But, I keep hearing about problems, like yours, and other ones. The closest 3G coverage is 1 1/2 hours away at least, and where I travel doesn't have 3G coverage (except chicago, but you just said that it kind of blows).
I'm not in a real rush, so I think I'll wait to see how the Blackberry Storm everyone is buzzing about comes out for my current network, Verizon (exclusively, with much better EVDO (3G) nationwide coverage)
I've played with an iPhone for a couple hours when I visited a friend. I liked it, but with more and more alternatives coming out on different cell carriers, with smaller price tags (including plans), I think I'll just be going with the iPhone's competition.
Running into the slow keyboard problem on my iPod Touch 2.0 - seems to go away after a few seconds. I haven't loaded any crazy apps (some apps) but I also noticed that Safari is crashing way more often too.
I'm blaming the 2.0 software for most of it.
Not only does Safari crash, it also gets stuck in the portrait or landscape view instead of repositioning itself. The only app I've had a lot of trouble with is Twinkle. Others have crashed, but not to an obscene degree.
Also an iPod Touch owner and I've been experiencing these same issues. I've only downloaded two apps (Bomberman Touch and OmniFocus). The keyboard will occasionally slow down, the screen won't reposition itself in a responsive fashion (this was a problem that used to be just in the Music function, but now Safari is the same), and Safari crashes even more now. Very annoying.
Safari multiple crashes while browsing a site makes surfing the net a very frustrating, time-consuming exercise. I called Apple tech support about the Safari crash problem-- they said go into settings clear the cookies and cache settings in the Safari settings. Did that-- helps a little, but the browser still unstable.
Also, concur that sometimes typing input slows down to a crawl via some glitch in 2.0.
People have complained that the camera opens slow slowly they lose the opportunity to take quick candid shots.
This 3g unit is slow. There's lags 7-10 seconds long often when switching between programs.
The new search feature in Contacts is slow, often not responsive immediately to the fingers on the touchscreen.
Battery life is a nightmare-- enough said.