Was today my last iPhone restore?
Filed under: Hardware, Opinion, Rumors, bugs, iPhone
Dare I hope?
This morning, just as I was set to leave for work, my wife asked me to sync her iPhone for her. “Sure, no problem,” I thought (looking back, I am not sure why I thought that…).
BAM! The thing freezes up, “Silver Apple Logo screen of death”, the whole nine yards. Immediately realizing I am now going to be at a minimum a half hour late for work, I forge ahead, wiping the iPhone clean, and beginning the restore process.
Between my wife’s 1st gen iPhone and my 3G iPhone, we have had over 23 forced restores/clean installs of our iPhones since updating to the 2.0.x firmware. Granted, I have bought a TON of apps for “review” purposes, but recently I have tried to keep my apps down to 10 or less 3rd party apps, hoping the crashes would stop. Well, they didn’t, but they DID slow down slightly.
However, it looks like there may be a light at the end of my chunnel. Rumors are now saying we may very well see the iPhone 2.1 firmware rear its hopefully not-so-ugly head at this afternoon’s “Let’s Rock” press conference, and it may even have “secret features“.
Ooohhh…
Well, here’s hoping one of those secret features is that my iPhone stops crashing twice a week.
iPhone 3G temporarily replaced with Siemens C65
Above: Hmmm… not sure what Marian’s problem is…
As I prepare for my 4th iPhone 3G restore in the first 2 weeks since buying it, even I am getting tired of all the complaining about the iPhone’s version 2 firmware (although, I’m not as sick of the complaining as I am of the smart-asses who say “I have never had a problem yet, you must be doing something wrong“).
So that’s why I found it so refreshing to receive a CC on faithful Slovakian Macenstein reader Marian’s heartfelt e-mail to Steve Jobs detailing his iPhone 3G woes. First of all, unlike most of the recent iPhone bitching, what we have here is a good old-fashioned dead pixel story, the kind we 1st gen iPhone users grew up on. But more importantly, there is a twist to the story that will likely make you appreciate the customer service you’re getting wherever it is that you live (assuming it isn’t Slovakia). Read more
If your iPhone 3G has lost all its data and your 3rd party apps crash on launch, clap your hands!
CLAP! CLAP!
Yes, that’s right, I bought me a new 3G iPhone this Saturday, even after all my whining about how I was going to wait for a 32GB model to be released before updating my 1st gen. And honestly, I would have waited, if not for a series of somewhat odd circumstances which occurred over vacation last week involving an emergency room. (If you care to hear about them, I’ll throw them at the end of this article, as it is not really what the article is about).
Above: Hmmm… What does my iPhone think is taking up all that space?
My first 3G crash, 4 Days in
So, you know those reports of the 3G iPhones not launching 3rd party apps and user data disappearing? Well, I had assumed I lucked out, as I had updated the iPhone’s software with 2.0.2 Saturday night (right after buying it) and had been using it trouble free until yesterday. That’s when my boss Read more
Apple threatens MobileMe customers with an additional 60 free days of service – haven’t we all suffered enough?
Apple has announced that in order to make up for the numerous and seemingly unsolvable glitches running rampant throughout their MobileMe service, they will be offering yet another free 2 month extension to MobileMe subscribers in addition to the 30 day extension they already have doled out.
To me this like going to a restaurant and ordering a thick, juicy steak, only to be served a rancid bowl of overcooked broccoli instead. The out comes an apologetic waiter carrying out 2 more bowls of broccoli to make amends for the mistake instead of just bringing out that steak you ordered in the first place.
Actually, I think if I tried a little harder I could come up with a better steak-based analogy, but suffice it to say, Read more
Apple: “We still have no idea why MobileMe isn’t working”
Remember when “David G.” started that MobileMe status blog at the personal request of Steve Jobs to keep everyone up-to-date on MobileMe’s flaky outages? “Be assured people here are working 24-7 to improve matters,” wrote David, “and we’re going to favor getting you new info hot off the presses even if we have to post corrections or further updates later.”
Well, that first post was July 25th, followed by a quick update on July 27th, followed by another on July 29th. So far, so good. Unfortunately, that July 29th entry was followed by… nothing. Yes, the July 29th post, which ended with the line “Next post later this week” has been the last update for nearly 3 weeks now, and some folks who are still experiencing daily outages, such as faithful Macenstein reader drfunk, have gotten fed up.
“I sent an email to Steve Jobs and Eddie Cue complaining about MobileMe telling them that after 4+ years using my .mac as my work email, I have to change it because its flat out just not reliable. Well someone from Steve’s office called me, actually, and they’re getting me some sort of in house support guy, sounds like he does inside tech support for them. Plus she sent me her contact info, and said feel free to reach out directly any time i have a problem. But when I talked to her, she acknowledged that they’re not putting any info out on it [the MobileMe status blog] on purpose, because they can’t iron out what is causing it. It sounds like they get one thing fixed, something else goes bad, etc…”
So, the good news here is that Apple’s MobileMe customer service seems very nice, apologetic, and about as helpful as they can be, however the bad news is that Apple still doesn’t seem to know how to get MobileMe working the way they intended for all of its customers.
I suspect a different type of “fire” will be hitting Apple’s MobileMe division soon if things don’t work themselves out soon, as in “here’s your walking papers now beat it” fire.
Another update, another glitch. Why does iTunes now constantly think ALL my apps have updates?
Just when I was beginning to think Apple had run out of buggy behavior it could shoehorn into the iPhone/iTunes dynamic duo, they have managed to come through yet again.
First, beginning with last week’s iTunes 7.7.1 update, if I select “Applications”, then hit “Check for updates”, I am given a list of ALL my apps that have ever had an update, even the ones which were currently up to date. If I hit “download all updates”, it will download all 60 every time (over 240 MB with Apple’s Texas Hold ‘Em), and a good 70% of the time it appears iTunes is actually re-installing them on my iPhone during syncs, adding to the already ridiculous sync/backup times. I would think just to save bandwidth, Apple would have wanted to fix this glitch by now.
The work around, I suppose, is to check for app updates via the iPhone, which will correctly tell me I have 3 updates, not 60, and then transfer those to iTunes during a sync. While the updates thus far have all been free, I still get an e-mail receipt for all 60 each time it does this, so I am hoping this is fixed by the time an app I own puts out a paid update, so I do not get charged every day for any paid updates.
Attack of the clones
While I half-expected the update problem above to be fixed by the new iPhone 2.0.1 update (and it did get rid of about half the updates) I certainly didn’t expect it to create a new update problem, yet take a look at this.
Ever since upgrading the iPhone to 2.0.1, iTunes also thinks I have 2 to 6 copies of each app that need updates.
I must admit, this one made me laugh out loud when I saw it, and since I like a good laugh, I am not as angry at this glitch as others (like the way my iPhone keeps syncing 10 playlists that I do not have set to sync), but it still looks sloppy and unprofessional on Apple’s end.
Of course, I have long since given myself over to the “Cult of Mac”, so it will take more than this (and the recent MobileMe fiasco) to turn me off to Apple, but I can only imagine the reaction of folks who are perhaps being introduced to Apple products for the first time via the iPhone.
Are white iPhones cracking?
If there’s 2 things I don’t understand in life, they are 1) Why Apple made a white iPhone, and 2) Why anyone would buy it. At least any guy. I have previously called the white iPhone “The Girliest thing since breasts“, and I stand behind that.
However, while a black iPhone may simply be my preference, there now seems to be a bonafide reason to stay away from the white iPhone. Reports are popping up on Apple’s Discussion forum and on sites like Mac Rumors from unhappy white iPhone owners who are experiencing hairline stress fractures on their week-old devices, reminiscent of the G4 Cube and the original white MacBook. This cracking does not appear to be affecting the black models, Read more
Where the #$%@ is the iPhone 2.0.1 firmware?!
Filed under: Not Cool, Opinion, WTF, You Bet I'm Pissed, bugs, iPhone, whining
In the first 13 months of owning an iPhone I restored my iPhone ONE time, and it was a voluntary act I performed to see if it would get rid of a little sluggish behavior (which it did). Since upgrading to the iPhone 2.0 firmware, however, I have had to restore my iPhone six times, in just 8 days. And this 6th iPhone restore really hurt.
Yesterday I went on a trip into NYC with the family to see Miley Cyrus perform in Bryant Park (not exactly my idea of fun). The 4am trip involved quite a few headaches, but we made it, and despite the concert, we had a great time. We went to the top of the Empire State Building, we went to Jim Hanley’s Universe, The Disney Store, Mars 2112 (well, that sort of sucked), FAO Schwarz, and of course, the 5th Ave Cube. And all along the trip, I took pictures with my (formerly) trusty iPhone camera. We brought along a real pocket camera too and took some shots, but I grabbed quite a few stills on the iPhone of some of the more bizarre Apple stuff I saw, some of which I planned to use in upcoming articles here and at Son of Macenstein.
Well, needless to say, after such an exhausting day, I did not pull off those pictures when we finally got home around 8PM, and thanks to this morning’s iPhone crash I lost them. I had gone a solid 3 days without a crash, and perhaps had been lulled into a false sense of security, but needless to say, I am now more or less viewing my iPhone as simply a phone and iPod that may or may not work. The idea of traveling alone to the city or even being on a long car ride now gives me pause, as I know if I want to do something crazy, like, oh, I don’t know, rearrange my icons, or play the $10 game of Scrabble I bought, it could mean I am without cell phone service until I get home.
I realize for many the iPhone 2.0 firmware has been working flawless, but I also know I have seen an amazing amount of horror stories that mimic my own. Having a buggy version of iPhone software runs a very close second to having a buggy Mac OS on my computer on my list of things that screw up my life (a rather long list, btw), and in some ways it is actually more annoying. Perhaps it is time Apple widen the beta testing pool a bit on the iPhone so not so many of us feel like beta testers ourselves when the final release comes. I want my (thoroughly tested, of course) 2.0.1 firmware, and I want it NOW.
The iPhone “stowaway” playlist glitch
Hey kids, here’s something fun to try! Connect your iPhone to iTunes, and then hit the little arrow that shows you what your iPhone thinks you have synced. On mine, despite only having 4 playlists set to sync in iTunes, the iPhone thinks I have 17 playlists on it.
Above: I only have 4 playlists checked to sync, yet the iPhone is showing me 17 in iTunes.
When I actually open the “iPod” app on the iPhone and check my playlists, I see that it has put 9 playlists on my iPhone, desite me checking only 4.
Above: there are 9 playlists where only 4 should be.
If I open one of these non-sanctioned playlists, something really interesting happens (well, interesting to me, anyway). All of them show Read more
WTF? All iApps now have a “0″ popularity score
Hmm… well, we know at least 290 people must have downloaded that…
Remember how we got those first quick stats about Super Monkey Ball, where we learned it had sold 3927 copies in the first couple hours after the leaked iPhone firmware came out? That’s because Apple includes a “popularity” counter below each app that allows you to see just how many people have downloaded each app (this is not viewable via the iTunes version of the app store, just the iPhone/touch version).
Well, for whatever reason, all apps are now registering a “0″ in their popularity ranking. We’re not sure if this is just yet another iTunes server glitch, or an intentional move (although odds are if Apple really wanted to get rid of it they wouldn’t leave the ranking stat there at all).
Still, it must be nice for the developers of such lame apps as SimStappler and Yes|No to see they are doing just as well as Remote and Aim, even if it is only for a little while.
