iPhone 3G

This is long but the short story is that you just don’t want this phone unless you can pay to replace it!

Yes, all of the cool things you hear about the Iphone 3G are true. All of the email sync problems are true as well. No you cant copy and paste cant do video blah blah blah. Fine. I can live with the good and bad of a product i research and choose to buy.

What I cannot live with (well I guess I have no choice) is what is clearly a scam. And if you own an Iphone you are likely a victim already. How does it work you ask?

Like this. On the outside of the phone is a moisture detector. Yes I know many companies have these now... just not physically on the outside of the phone. Now your phone breaks and you make you appointment to go to an Apple store after spending several hours talking with a tech, rebooting rebuilding, standing on your head blah blah blah. the Tech has told you to go to the store or exchange via mail. Mail is a 7-10 day process so I drove 60 miles to an Iphone store. Oh so polite they are... ist enough to creep you out (I just don’t buy that people are that happy... especially after I got finished they shouldn’t have been smiling, but I am getting ahead of myself). Well at first I am greeted handed off to an second person who takes me to my very own "genius" (being a professor I find that a very loose use of the term). The genius promptly gets my serial number then goes for the stethoscope, looks into the small slit behind the power/data port PCB and shakes his head. "sorry sir you have dropped this in or stilled water on your phone, this voids the warranty."

Well after escalating the "I did not expose this to water" argument to a point where a customer had to remind me that his kids were in the store (that has never happened in my life) I finally left with my broken phone in hand and another 1 and a half hour drive home in front of me.

Needless to say I certainly did not spill or otherwise expose the phone to water in the 5.5 months I owned it. Quite frankly of all of the cell phones I have had in the 15-20 years I have been using cell phones, this is the one phone I took the greatest care of and yet it is the ONLY phone that has ever failed. As anyone who owns one will tell you, its just too cool to not be careful with. And to further drive the point home, I am a neuroscientist/electrophysiologist. For a living I work with very sensitive electronics that have to come into very close proximity to water and are so sensitive that I can frequently detect lightning strikes from approaching storms when they are 50 miles or more away. So I am fairly confident I know how to handle sensitive electronics; Just not the Iphone.

Subsequently I have completely taken the phone apart just to try to convince myself that I did somehow get it wet; there was no evidence of the phone ever having water on the inside. There was a lot of lint in the phone that I would imagine would have clotted up had it been submersed. I can tell you however that there are several moisture sensors in and on the external surface of the phone; at least 2 on the main board, two in the plug socket (1 external) and one in the headphone jack (also external) at the very bottom. only the one that was at the jack was red.

How could this happen? Simple; condensation. Put a cold phone into a warmer and even moderately humid environment and you will get condensation. This IMO is a clear scam on Apples part. They know these phones are going to fail, mine did in just over 5 months and there is no evidence that water had anything to do with it except a sensor that is directly exposed to the outside environment. I have now heard or read of several of these examples (I am sure you can find some on this site). I have had ATT tech support tell me that you should never take the phone into a bathroom or locker room and yes I have had ATT tech support tell me that he deals with more Iphone related complaints than any other phone "I deal with broken Iphones all day long." Now of course the funny part of the story is that ATT cant even sell me a replacement Iphone because I haven’t owned it long enough to qualify for a contract renewal!

So after spending more time than the phone is worth, I will spend 300 dollars to get out of my contract with ATT and switch phone services; I will never own an Apple product again.

I sincerely hope that this helps you consider

What good is a phone when you can not hear a ring, a mail message coming in or a text message coming in.

Phone: 3

-stylish
-best touch interface on any phone
-no video recorder
-no flash player

iPod: 5

-16gigs of tunes
-easily accessible thanks to touch interface
-music is well organised
-cover flow is cool

Internet: 4

-3g
-edge
-gprs
-wifi
-not uncommon among current phones (nokia n95)
-safari browser can be dodgy

Bundeled software: 3

-coulda included video recorder (even 10yr old phones hav this feature)
-coulda included voice recorder
-it sucks that u can only synchronise one 'set' i.e either office settings or home settings, not both at once
-phone can sometimes crash and never recover (permanent apple logo...can put in recovery mode and restore original software but problem still persists)

Value: 3

-great price
-it sux that its on contract
-cant use other networks
-can get other phones worth round about the same price tag but with MORE features - n95, htc touch etc

Bottom line, GREAT PHONE, but coulda been better..the best. Only if apple listened to the public. The phone is on contract because at the end of the day, apple wants money. What steve jobbs doesnt realise is that apple coulda made more money if IPHONE 3G WAS NOT UNDER CONTRACT. Think about it...all over the world, there are hundreds of networks..and apple decide that only a dozen of those are to be used...WTF! 100 networks + iphone 3g = $billions in apples pocket!!!!!!! and for us pay as you go customers, it is completely useless!!!! (though you can get sim-adapters that allow you to use any network of yr choice..but that'l only last till the v3.0.0 is releasde..2yrs from now)
IPHONE 3G ROCKS...wulda rocked harder if IT WASNT ON CONTRACT. Thats the biggest issue!!!

why did i give the phone a 3? remember, this is a cell PHONE first and foremost.

My 7 year old kyocera 6035 had 3 things my the 3G iphone dont:

1. Voice dialing


2. Speed dialing (okay... the FAV screen is close)


3. Voice recording (okay... i know 3rd party apps exist. but come on apple... this shoulda been at least a very small app.




One more: copy and paste. my 6035 had a C&P that i took for granted. when i read reports about the 3G not have it, i overlooked it.





But know... 3 weeks into it... i SOOOO miss it. come on APPLE... stick in ver 2.5!!!!!!!





iPod a 5. i never had an ipod before. sony PSP and a pioneed INNO (which is more of an XM radio than an MP3 player).





Internet a big 5!!!!! come one, this was the selling point for me. granted, i wish the safari could do stuff like XM radio and SIRIUS radio media players...





Bundled s/w a 4. i dont know. maybe a voice recorder would be nice. speed dialing... voice dialing... oh wait... it should be less... lol...





Value a 4. i got the kyocera 6035 back then for free after the rebates. i cringe everytime i think i just paid $300 for a cell phone.





oh well. i hope the 2 years go fast. and that apple include the 4 things i mentioned.

Pros:



3G speed is much faster than EDGE



The iPhone usally renders out the desktop versions of some sites instead of the mobile version



Very scratch-resistant



Email, SMS, and web works well and it's fast, Enterprise also is stellar



Very responsive touch-screen



No dropped calls







Cons:



Battery life suffers with 3G on



Price can be very high in some circumstances ($399-$699)



If you live in a small town, I bet you don't have 3G coverage.



Still lacks video recording and flash



No copy and past (C+P app coming soon the App Store)







Overall a great Phone, worth the price, you should defintley get the black model, it looks better in person.

I've had 3 weeks to get used to my first iPhone, The 3G. Now is an appropriate time to give it a proper review of the things that I like, and dislike, about the 3G.

At first, i think we were all a little frustrated with the performance of 3G out of the box. The 3G connection has not been the most consistent since launch, but I have noticed improved overall coverage. The speed that 3G allows iPhone users to have at their fingertips is impressive to say the least. It really makes the iPhone finally more than just a phone, but rather a computer in your hands.

Likes:

• VERY user friendly


• Design is improved over v1 iPhone. I like the sleeker presentation and feel of the 3G in the palm of the hand.


• Email, Internet and App functionality all impressive (speed, form and functionality all intersect with the 3G)


• Glass is very scratch resistant


• Customer Support has been stellar to date.

Dislikes:

• 2.0 software is LAGGY. Awaiting a patch to fix this - I wish I could give the software rating a 3.5, rather than a 4.


• Dropped calls happen in areas where 3G signal is low (i.e. inside buildings, etc).


• Apps have been failing (2.0 software issue I believe).


• Data plan seems a little over-priced....But worth it. ;)

I would suggest it to any person who wants something more than a phone. I am not paying for a phone, IMO. I am paying for a multimedia device, and web browser, a place to share photos with others, a Digital Music Player, and a phone...all in one, perfect package.

The Bad:

Although this is a huge upgrade from my 2005 Motorola ROKR E1, there are a couple bothersome traits to this phone.

The software can be buggy. Safari being the only Apple software that really doesn't like my iPhone. It often shuts down by itself and goes back to the home screen, and I have to wait for the page to load all over again. The system software is also kind of funky. I don't like the way it rearranges my icons on the "desktop" after the apps update. Maybe I am missing a setting somewhere, but that's another maze to go through. I've also just ran into the problem with getting no sound from a ringtone or text message alert, even though the ringer is switched to on. This only required a restart to fix, but still a slight annoyance. A lot of the 3rd party apps seem to just get thrown on the app store, without thorough testing, as some of them have gone as far as crashing my phone. Restarting it is also a difficulty as well sometimes.

No MMS? For being the best invention of 2007, and the "most advanced phone," I find it annoying that I can not receive picture or video messages from friends. The phone has no problem browsing the internet with all the graphics piece of cake, as well as receiving anything in Mail that I can on my desktop computer. I don't mind not being able to video record things, but having my friends, and even mom say "what? you can't receive picture messages on your phone?" is slightly embarrassing. Why can't it do this?

The camera. Great camera quality, if it's bright out. Maybe I am a bit biased as I am used to using my D-SLR, but if I am on the go and want to capture something, the camera can be slightly difficult to use. It has no image stabilizer and takes forever to snap a picture when indoors. The quality of the end result is good, however.

My biggest problem I want to see fixed, is the lag between typing on the "keypad." It strikes more often than not, and can be very annoying when you are a fast typer and realize you have to go back and fix several words. I can deal with the lag opening apps, as I realize it takes time on a normal computer.

The Good:

Great looking phone. When it isn't buggy, it is the best UI for a phone hands down. The case looks great (although I've heard reports of recent "crackings", I have yet to experience this).

No dropped calls. I have yet to experience a dropped call from my end on AT&T. I've been with them since 2005 and I love the service.

The Battery life is not as bad as people make it out to be. You have a kick-ass phone, you are going to want to play with it a lot. If you wear the battery down ALL THE WAY a few times and recharge it fully, you should see an extent in your battery life. I can leave mine on for 2 days straight with moderate usage and "play" time. Not to mention the battery charges quickly.

The touch screen is slightly more on the good side than bad. If you get a nice case (I am still waiting for the updated T2 from ivyskin.com, the T3) you will not have as many smudge problems. The response is fairly accurate and usually immediate. The screen does get smudgy fast however.

The phone sounds great. I can hear everyone loud and clear. People can hear me when I talk on speakerphone at times. The rings are loud and clear (if you choose the correct ones).

The Wifi is another big plus. It remembers your locations if you've already told it to "allow" you to connect. This is helpful for those of us with encrypted WEP routers at home.

All in all, I love the phone. It is a great Apple product, and a lot of these problems I mentioned hopefully get fixed in any kind of software update.

Pros:

• Great rendering of internet sites


• Amazing and fun apps (even good free ones)


• Good for email, videos, and music


• Scratch resistant screen and durable product (even with plastic back)


• 3G is twice the speed of Edge

Cons:

• Battery life is not as good as a crackberry (but only if you text, watch videos, and surf the internet continously for five hours)


• Sometimes the iPhone crashes on apps (but can be fixed by either restore or deleting problem app)


• Takes a long time to sync (minor issue)


• No true turn-by-turn nav (hopefully in 2.1)


• No copy and paste (hopefully in 2.1 also)

Overall, a great product, absolutely love it, and well worth camping out at 4 am on June 11th for. Can't compare it to V1 because it was my first iPhone.

When it first came out, I was so hesitate to get it. So I waited until the 2nd gen. came out. I got black 16GB 3G iphone. The more I use it, the more I love. The main function I use my iphone is Internet access, 3G!. I am running a couple of websites and I need to provide support on a move. iPhone has done an excellent job. Other than that, the ipod, sms, camera, notepad are great as well.



Another thing I love about it is it's interface. I am a web developer myself. I am so impressed with it's interface. It's so easy to use.



Overall I really recommend it.



PS: Apple's customer service is great!



Johnny

Web Developer

http://www.myiphonetalk.com

http://www.datingsitebuilder.com

Love the new 3g! I had to change some of the settings for the battery life to be better. Also restored and upgraded the version of the 2.0 and this made a difference for the applications. Overall great device! Beyond any other!