Starting to doubt my future iPhone purchase...

[soccerphysio]

I have been eagerly anticipating the day I purchase the new iPhones for my wife and I (we both currently have BB Pearls on T-Mobile). I replaced my recently deceased PC with an iMac, and opened a new .mac account so that the organization of my electronic life could be easily synced.

I am finding myself beginning to question purchasing the iPhone, and look at some of the upcoming "challengers." All of the reported problems with the 3G, and all of the synching problems with MobileMe have me questioning whether the iphone is worth it.

So what are your thoughts? Are you still happy with your purchase/upgrade to 3G? Would you still recommend it to those that have not purchased one yet?

[dturner]

I still have the V1 and am VERY happy with it. It is a great phone. There are some short falls (no copy/paste-mms)but nothing that would make me consider another phone. This phone was also a big factor in me ditching my windows PC for a MBP. Love it to death and wish I had made the move years ago.
Having said all this, I will not be getting the 3G iphone. There are too many problems which IMO start with the chipset. ATT is catching heat from some people,but I think this is an Apple problem. This phone was brought out too soon and not tested enough. I am eagerly waiting for the next generation phone which I hope will be something really special.
The responses from here on will probably be telling you to get the phone, but this is just my thought.

[soccerphysio]

I still have the V1 and am VERY happy with it. It is a great phone. There are some short falls (no copy/paste-mms)but nothing that would make me consider another phone. This phone was also a big factor in me ditching my windows PC for a MBP. Love it to death and wish I had made the move years ago.
Having said all this, I will not be getting the 3G iphone. There are too many problems which IMO start with the chipset. ATT is catching heat from some people,but I think this is an Apple problem. This phone was brought out too soon and not tested enough. I am eagerly waiting for the next generation phone which I hope will be something really special.
The responses from here on will probably be telling you to get the phone, but this is just my thought.

Thanks Don. I also have made the switch to Apple (with the iMac), and really wanted the 3G to be the icing on the cake. Several months prior to the release of the 3G, I posted a question on these forums asking how long should we wait to purchase an iPhone in order to let them work out the "bugs." The consensus was that there wouldn't be any bugs because the iPhone had been out a full year and the kinks had been worked out. :rolleyes:

Right now, I'm leaning towards just purchasing a new BB, or checking out the Android, until Apple gets their act together.

[acosmichippo]

i'm another V1 user who has not felt the need to upgrade.

Although, i will say that if i didn't have a V1, i'd get the 3G in a heartbeat. Try it out for 30 days, and if the 3G service is crap, return it.

[kokogirl]

I had a Pearl before I bought the iPhone last year in late September. I just got 3G on Friday. I have a .mac account and Macbook that I got earlier this year.

I would not trade my iPhone for anything. And I am loving the 3G so far. Except it is eating battery power if you use it a lot. I take the iPhone interface with it's imperfections over the BB. The internet was not good on the Pearl at all.

[jarofclay73]

I'm not regretting my move to the iPhone 3G. I have had very little of the problems that other people are having and I have great 3G coverage where I live. BTW, I never had the v1 and I had a dumbphone before this.

Here's some of what I've been doing with my 3G:


Uploading my pictures straight to Flickr, where I can see GPS coordinates of all my iPhone photos. (See my signature.)


Tracking my favorite MLB team the St. Louis Cardinals on MLB At-Bat. Being a Cards fan in Hawaii is tough because they're never on TV here, but with the MLB At-Bat app, I can see every scoring play. :smile: And having a 3G connection to see those videos helps a lot.


Tracking my walking distances and pacing using the Distance Meter App (which utilizes the GPS). Today, I walked 4 miles at an average of 17.7 minutes/mile, which is a personal best.


I've been making some cool beats using the BeatMaker app. Here's a link to one of my sample songs: http://www.everythingicafe.com/forum/332147-post22.html


I've been able to stream my entire iTunes library using Simplify Media. That's a nice feature to have!

[jarofclay73]

I would not trade my iPhone for anything. And I am loving the 3G so far. Except it is eating battery power if you use it a lot.

Here's a cool video I found useful for saving battery life when you can't charge your phone:

http://cnettv.cnet.com/9742-1_53-50003307.html

[BigCiX]

Right now, I'm leaning towards just purchasing a new BB, or checking out the Android, until Apple gets their act together.
I was in the same position as you were. I was closing to staying with t-mobile for that android phone but with no new info about the release I went to AT&T. I believe the new bb thunder comes out next month or so but as of now it's a verizon exclusive. Wait for the next update to see if the majority of these bugs are gone to make your decision.

[Tug]

I had a Voyager from Verizon before I switched over to the Iphone 3G and am glad I did. I really liked the Voyager and Verizon has excellent customer but the Iphone is such a better product IMO. The only complaints I have about the Iphone is no MMS capabilities and by the end of the day the battery is nearly dead.

[soccerphysio]

I was in the same position as you were. I was closing to staying with t-mobile for that android phone but with no new info about the release I went to AT&T. I believe the new bb thunder comes out next month or so but as of now it's a verizon exclusive. Wait for the next update to see if the majority of these bugs are gone to make your decision.
Thanks for all of your input; I may just be have "pre-buyers remorse," if that is even possible.

BigCiX -- when you mention the next update, do you mean the impending software "fix" for the 3G problems?

[billnye97]

Well I had the v1 iPhone and 3 days out of warranty I was forced to get the 3G (or pay $200 to get the v1 fixed) and I must say I'm kind of dissappointed with it. There weren't enough upgrades but if you do not have an iPhone it definitely is a good purchase, but like Dturner said you might be better off waiting till the next one comes out.

[BigCiX]

Thanks for all of your input; I may just be have "pre-buyers remorse," if that is even possible.

BigCiX -- when you mention the next update, do you mean the impending software "fix" for the 3G problems?

yes sir!!!

[ravman]

I just checked out Simplify Media. I have to say, it's amazing. No more messing about with having to put any songs on my iPhone now. I have 3G all over LA, so I should be able to get decent bandwidth.

Thanks for the hint.




I'm not regretting my move to the iPhone 3G. I have had very little of the problems that other people are having and I have great 3G coverage where I live. BTW, I never had the v1 and I had a dumbphone before this.

Here's some of what I've been doing with my 3G:


Uploading my pictures straight to Flickr, where I can see GPS coordinates of all my iPhone photos. (See my signature.)



Tracking my favorite MLB team the St. Louis Cardinals on MLB At-Bat. Being a Cards fan in Hawaii is tough because they're never on TV here, but with the MLB At-Bat app, I can see every scoring play. :smile: And having a 3G connection to see those videos helps a lot.



Tracking my walking distances and pacing using the Distance Meter App (which utilizes the GPS). Today, I walked 4 miles at an average of 17.7 minutes/mile, which is a personal best.



I've been making some cool beats using the BeatMaker app. Here's a link to one of my sample songs: http://www.everythingicafe.com/forum/332147-post22.html



I've been able to stream my entire iTunes library using Simplify Media. That's a nice feature to have!

[FlwrPwer]

I didn't have a V1 (my dad and sis do) so when the 3G came out, I HAD to have it even though I don't live in an area with 3G coverage.

I LOVE my iPhone. I'm addicted to it. I'm starting to think about joining a support group. :wink:

Sure, there are bugs and glitches, but you are holding a mini computer in your hand. They all have them. I mean, when my Safari crashes or something on my iMac, I dont go running complaining about it. It's a computer. Stuff happens. It's a lot of technology in something very small. People sometimes need to keep that in mind, IMO. Sure, it's $200 but my iMac was a lot more and I still have problems. Even as I was typing this there was an error with my time machine and i figured it out. That's what happens.

I just started my free trial of MobileMe and I have to say I love it! It's not so much for the calendar and the contacts for me as it is the idisk. I am a teacher and I do a lot of work at my house for work. This allows me to upload the information to my idisk and access the work anywhere. That, to me, is great. No more jump drives. Which is good, cause I misplace them and sometimes forget them at home/work and I need them at the other location. In addition, with a jump drive, I have 8 copies of the same file in like 8 different locations.

I would say get it. If you want to wait for the update, then do that, but overall, I have no complaints with the 3G. I'm confident Apple will fix the bugs anyway they can....obviously trying software updates first.

[iChristian]

In a way, I'm very satisfied with my iPhone 3G. Its only flaw is the network, which is in my opinion and probably mostly everyone else's, the most important factor for a phone because it determines speed for almost every application (for the iPhone at least). I'm happy I bought the 3G but there are many times where I regret buying it and thinking how satisfied I'd be with the V1. I purchased my 3G on iDay and thought it would be great but you know how deceptive these companies can be... its part of the business... its why they make billions of dollars a year and are the largest market for technology. Overall, I like having my 3G but I think I like the idea of it more than I do the phone. =/

[sonicwind]

I still recommend it over any other current phone. With the 3G and the App store it rivals any other phone with the best interface in the business.

Beware, that any "phone" that is really a small computer (vs. a phone that is more dedicated to being a phone with limited additional functionality and the without the possibility of installing additional programs) is prone to all kinds of problems including short battery life, memory problems, crashing, and slower than desired operation.

For best results, with any smart phone, the more you read up about it and learn the tricks and work-arounds, the more useful it will be to you.

I think most people can avoid jailbreaking, but I recently jailbroke mine. The only thing I really wanted to do that I couldn't without jailbreaking was to tether the phone to use as a modem for my laptop. I wasn't willing to pay for the program in the app store since I knew there was a free version for jailbroken phones. I also understand that for some reason, the 3proxy program delivers a 60% faster connection than the App Store program. I just tried it today. I am very impressed with the results. I've tethered other 3G phones in the past, and I don't know what the difference is, I guess the connection from the laptop to the phone, but the browsing was awesome compared to any other tether I've done before (with Windows Mobile or Palm). I hope nothing interrupts this feature, as it is one of my favorite, though it's not as necessary as it used to be with most hotels having high speed internet these days. Though I hate having to pay 10 bucks at an airport for wifi for an hour.

[iChristian]

I do agree with you when you say people should avoid jailbreaking. I find it unnecessary and it completely defeats the whole purpose of the App Store and the variety it has.

[BigCiX]

I do agree with you when you say people should avoid jailbreaking. I find it unnecessary and it completely defeats the whole purpose of the App Store and the variety it has.

People jailbreak because the app store doesn't give us (buyers) what we want. IE, swirly mms and custom menu backgrounds.

[iChristian]

People jailbreak because the app store doesn't give us (buyers) what we want. IE, swirly mms and custom menu backgrounds.

This is true. I just don't see why people just take advantage of the variety of the App Store.

[acosmichippo]

This is true. I just don't see why people just take advantage of the variety of the App Store.

The point is that there are things that apps from the app store CAN'T do due to apple's strict limitations.

[firewire]

This is true. I just don't see why people just take advantage of the variety of the App Store.
People take advantage of the Apple store AND take advantage of the jailbreaking scene by installing apps that are just not allowed/available in the store. You don't have to be limited to one or the other.

[Indy]

Warning:

http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/soapbox/soapbox.jpg

I have to admit, hearing and reading all these problems arising for the 3g iphone have got me a bit worried.

At first ya know, you see a thread here and there about someone's iphone exploding or melting and you just think to yourself, "well, that's not everyone's iphone or even the majority, that's just one more poor sap that got unlucky, really unlucky".

But I read alot (and I mean alot) of iphone related website rumors and news and I listen to alot (and I mean alot) of podcast, particularly once geared towards iphone and in the last month or so, I havn't really been to thrilled with what I've been reading and hearing.

I mean, it's one thing to see a thread or 5 with people complaining of various problems, but when you read in top-rated sites and listen to top-rated podcasts and the topic of discussion usually revolves around "iphone bugs and problems", that's not good people!

I have been a member here since June 29th 2007, and have wanted an iphone ever since that day. As most of you know I'm with T-Mobile myself right now and my quest continues to cut them off ASAP and get my AT&T service up and running. I'm waiting until MacWorld '09 in January before I jump on board and PLEASE GOD tell me they have a more stable phone available!

I would almost say that I would be cautious enough to wait until WWDC '09 like some of you have mentioned might bring us the "next" iphone, but I'm sure I'd get rode pretty hard here by the regular's so I won't take the risk.:tounge:

Get this, as loyal as I've been in my quest for iphone ownership and this site, these problems all across the board I've been hearing of lately kinda spooked me the other day and I walked straight into T-Mobile and asked about the Android phone, and I have the best available phone upgrade package waiting for me if I wanna jump to any other phone, of course with a new 2 year contract.....uh.....nuh uh, no thanks.

Anyways, from one fellow Birmingham resident to another, if I were to give you any advice, I'd say, see what happens (if anything) come MacWorld '09.

Peace.

[sonicwind]

This is true. I just don't see why people just take advantage of the variety of the App Store.

There's an App Store?!:eek: Which apps allow customization of the home screen, the locked screen, the battery indicator, or allow installation of apps the stay running while other apps are run, or provide direct access to files from a laptop, or terminal access on the phone, or tethering (for free) or NES emulation or ...

[nobopyon]

Despite all the bugs and such, I still LOVE my iPhone3G.
I'm addicted it still ever since I got mine on 1 day after iDay.
Somehow, my phone doesn't get as many issues/problems as people have here.
I sure do get so-called "lag" sometimes when texting, however, I just go back to home screen, then back to text again, and it usually fixes it.
When app crash right after it just opened, then I restart my iPhone, or force quite...
I pretty much do what I would do for my Mac Pro (even it's 8 cores).
I do not use Mobile Me, instead I use google calendar and yahoo mail... I don't know how instant Mobile Me supposed to be, but my Iphone sync with my google calendar in a sec! (love it!). Yahoo mail pushes, so do not have compalin there neither.... GPS, it freaked out once for me, but most of that time is pretty accurate.
Battery life.... I keep charging when I can, because my phone never rest but working.... either me use it as iPod... or surfing/serach on Safari, talk on the phone same time check my mail, and ALWAYS, texting... (LOL).

I do not think, any other phone right now truely support multi-language like iPhone does.
Japan is big on cell phone email. (they don't text, but they email from phone to phone like we text here), now I can email my family and all my friends in Japan from my iPhone "IN" Japanese, and I can read their email on my Iphone!

oh... I think i can go on and on what I love about my iPhone more than what I hate about my iPhone3G... so I shouldstop here...

I would say, of course, you will see many complain/issue threads here, because that's what the forum for.... people come here to seek for fixes/solutions when they have problem.... I even went to check out sprint's Instinct forum website (just to make sure my theory is right or not...lol), and I did see many people post their instincts' complains/issue. (and also "this is why you don't buy iPhone"... :P)

I would say, if you CAN wait, then you should wait, because technology always improve as time goes, and of course, it will be better phone than current ones, AND if you can wait even longer and you will get for even better one... lol.

Me, myself, I COULDN'T wait, so I got it... I still LOVING it!

[Vambo]

For crissakes...stop whining...it's a great phone and you know they will fix the issues everyone's having....no phone, or service is perfect....there's always glitches and updates....so just be patient or go buy a Dare, and deal with Verizon, nickle and diming you for every application,and be stuck with only being able to use what they let you.....go see how many free apps Verizon hands out...

[dturner]

Warning:

http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/soapbox/soapbox.jpg



I would almost say that I would be cautious enough to wait until WWDC '09 like some of you have mentioned might bring us the "next" iphone, but I'm sure I'd get rode pretty hard here by the regular's so I won't take the risk.:tounge:

Anyways, from one fellow Birmingham resident to another, if I were to give you any advice, I'd say, see what happens (if anything) come MacWorld '09.

Peace.
Very well stated Indy. Couldn't agree more. I love my V1 and wouldn't consider any other phone but I will wait until next year for what I hope is a really good phone with a wow factor. This one just has too many wide spread problems. Why should I pay $15 more a month minimum for something that may or may not preform as it should. The next one will have a more reliable chipset with all the bugs worked out.:smile:

[miggs1310]

Warning:

http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/soapbox/soapbox.jpg

I have to admit, hearing and reading all these problems arising for the 3g iphone have got me a bit worried.

At first ya know, you see a thread here and there about someone's iphone exploding or melting and you just think to yourself, "well, that's not everyone's iphone or even the majority, that's just one more poor sap that got unlucky, really unlucky".

But I read alot (and I mean alot) of iphone related website rumors and news and I listen to alot (and I mean alot) of podcast, particularly once geared towards iphone and in the last month or so, I havn't really been to thrilled with what I've been reading and hearing.

I mean, it's one thing to see a thread or 5 with people complaining of various problems, but when you read in top-rated sites and listen to top-rated podcasts and the topic of discussion usually revolves around "iphone bugs and problems", that's not good people!

I have been a member here since June 29th 2007, and have wanted an iphone ever since that day. As most of you know I'm with T-Mobile myself right now and my quest continues to cut them off ASAP and get my AT&T service up and running. I'm waiting until MacWorld '09 in January before I jump on board and PLEASE GOD tell me they have a more stable phone available!

I would almost say that I would be cautious enough to wait until WWDC '09 like some of you have mentioned might bring us the "next" iphone, but I'm sure I'd get rode pretty hard here by the regular's so I won't take the risk.:tounge:

Get this, as loyal as I've been in my quest for iphone ownership and this site, these problems all across the board I've been hearing of lately kinda spooked me the other day and I walked straight into T-Mobile and asked about the Android phone, and I have the best available phone upgrade package waiting for me if I wanna jump to any other phone, of course with a new 2 year contract.....uh.....nuh uh, no thanks.

Anyways, from one fellow Birmingham resident to another, if I were to give you any advice, I'd say, see what happens (if anything) come MacWorld '09.

Peace.

every smartphone has issues and bugs, there are no exceptions. no smartphone is perfect, but as a long time smartphone user and first time iphone owner i can say with confidence that the iphone comes closer than any other phone. most forums/podcasts about products are going to mainly focus on the negative, it's common sense. Just like sports radio, the team could be doing great, but let's magnify everything they did wrong so we have something to talk about.

i have had no problems with the iphone and it is by far my favorite out of the 8-10 that i've "tried".

[iChristian]

There's an App Store?!:eek: Which apps allow customization of the home screen, the locked screen, the battery indicator, or allow installation of apps the stay running while other apps are run, or provide direct access to files from a laptop, or terminal access on the phone, or tethering (for free) or NES emulation or ...

Loving the sarcasm. I was just trying to make a point.. The bricked Installer and Cydia don't offer nearly half the amount of apps the App store offers.

[kevlar08]

i would recommend it 100%

[ravman]

The only downside I have with buying Apple products, is their horrendous customer service (Genius Bar). I've read a lot of people talking about how good they are, but I've had nothing but bad service from them. I can only compare it to the extremely poor customer service of Circuit City.

I've only had to use the Genius Bar 3 times and each time I had nothing but problems. I just came back from one appointment, and what a waste of time it was. I took my iPhone and told him about the light leakage and wanted my phone replaced. He told me he had no idea what I was talking about and there was no issue with light leakage. He even asked his fellow nerds and they said the same, they had no idea as to what I was talking about. I asked him if he kept up to date with the internet and the various forums talking about this issue. His reply was that he was the Apple Genius and not these people on the internet. He then went on about how he knew more than people like us on these sites. I could have argued with him, but I wasn't going to waste my time and effort. I just took my phone and left.

I'm going to wait until Apple officially acknowledges the problem and has a fix in place. I will then return my phone then. This time I will make sure I see the same nerd and shove my phone where the sun don't shine. He'll be walking for a limp for a very long time after then.

Don't get mad, get even.

[Arcano]

To be honest hype apart the Iphone 3G is not worth the effort IMO, is more than evident that the phone has serious quality problems, to ignore that is to live in denial.

The version 1 Iphone is another history, that's a really good piece of hardware.

[blueprison]

I was a treo 650 owner for 3+ years, and absolutely love my 3g phone. I've only had it for 10 days, but it has worked great for me. No crashes at all. Performance is fairly good where I live also. The great part for me are the apps. It seems like there are quite a lot of app developers, which will only add value to the phone. And most of those apps are free or relatively cheap.

My wife will be eligible for one in November, so we will be getting her one around then, I'm sure.

I think you should go ahead and get one. I think there are more people that are happy, than not - otherwise I would think these boards would be jam-packed.

[Indy]

every smartphone has issues and bugs, there are no exceptions. no smartphone is perfect, but as a long time smartphone user and first time iphone owner i can say with confidence that the iphone comes closer than any other phone. most forums/podcasts about products are going to mainly focus on the negative, it's common sense. Just like sports radio, the team could be doing great, but let's magnify everything they did wrong so we have something to talk about.

i have had no problems with the iphone and it is by far my favorite out of the 8-10 that i've "tried".

Actually listening to a podcast today while mowing the lawn, they were discussing the problems that have been arising lately but overall each one of the guest and host really like the phone, and as one stated if I can remember right, "the iphone on it's worst day is still better than most other smartphones on their better days". :wink:

[iLobster]

Actually listening to a podcast today while mowing the lawn, they were discussing the problems that have been arising lately but overall each one of the guest and host really like the phone, and as one stated if I can remember right, "the iphone on it's worst day is still better than most other smartphones on their better days". :wink:

Very much agreed. I had an HTC Hermes / TyTN / Softbank X01HT before switching to the iPhone, and despite not being perfect, the iPhone is leagues beyond the HTC phone in terms of ease of use, stability, and style. While my iPhone crashes about once a month, it does so gracefully with no memory loss and a quick and stable reboot. The HTC phone crashed about once every other week and made me lose my data everytime (that's running stock, without any ROM flashes).

[VTDr0p0ut]

Just skimmed the last few pages -- didn't see where the OP had purchased yet or not. I just switched from a two Spring SERO plans at $84/month for 1000 minutes/unlimited everything for an HTC Touch and an HTC Mogul to now paying $180/month for two iphones with no MMS, no Copy & Paste, etc, and I think I have a much better value for my money and I don't regret the decision one bit. The iPhone has quirks, but it just "works." Just my two cents.

[greenjbhsd]

I am waiting till the turn of the year then will consider upgrading my V1 phone to a 3G phone. Like Indy stated, to hear a few murmurs is nothing, but I am seeing volumes of info across many sites that are stating there are issues with the 3G phone. I think they have some software issues they need to resolve and once they do I will consider it again. I am waiting for the apps I really want in the app store but am getting closer every day to jailbreaking my phone to get the ones they dont offer. I have purchases a bunch and don't care about paying for them, but they need to let the doors open a tad more so we can get things like customization in there. I hate the stock apple stuff....

[miggs1310]

I think the problem is iphone users.

[chrismmm]

I am waiting till the turn of the year then will consider upgrading my V1 phone to a 3G phone. Like Indy stated, to hear a few murmurs is nothing, but I am seeing volumes of info across many sites that are stating there are issues with the 3G phone. I think they have some software issues they need to resolve and once they do I will consider it again. I am waiting for the apps I really want in the app store but am getting closer every day to jailbreaking my phone to get the ones they dont offer. I have purchases a bunch and don't care about paying for them, but they need to let the doors open a tad more so we can get things like customization in there. I hate the stock apple stuff....


iagree and have said that before...fools rush in..