Comments on: iPhone 3G: From 'must have' to 'maybe later'

Apple has screwed up the emotional connection to its products by reminding us of all the technology involved to make them work. I just want beautiful things.

[mouseclick]

I have yet to figure out what on earth is worth waiting in a line 2+ hours for - wasting my life away. Patience is a virtue. Wait to get it after the dumb long lines to buy it are gone and perhaps while you are waiting, some of the bugs will be fixed. I'm not sure about the fascination with Apple in general. I've used a PC/Mac extensively and both have their problems. I think there is a self-fulfilling prophecy with Mac. All those that buy into the idea that "you're gonna love it" and make the jump and get one actually end up loving it - despite the fact there are weaknesses - only because they've convinced themselves of it. We've lost our ability to critically reason things out.

[boychuk]

I was one of the first iPhone 3G purchasers in Canada. Not having the experience of the original iPhone, I must say that this is the best piece of silicon and glass I've ever purchased in my life! There are couple few beefs such as battery life and the fact that I'm forced to buy a data plan because there's no way of disabling data on the local network (I mostly use Wi-Fi).

That being said, I haven't had any issues with bugs in the software, nor any performance problems. Other than initial network delays, activation up in Canada seemed to be a cakewalk compared to what our southern cousins were experiencing with AT&T.

I salivate every time I use Google Maps, and our company doesn't need to invest thousands on an IPsec VPN Blackberry server because Cisco's VPN client is built-in to the iPhone. It worked like a charm right out of the box!

Every new product is going to have bumps in the road come launch time. Fortunately I didn't experience these.

I hope Apple soon releases a Finder app for the phone so I can copy, store and read files right on the phone.

[alGalli]

I am unwilling to pay the $30 per month data charge so as much as I would love to have one I will not get an IPhone. If the data plan had stayed at $20 per month I would have gotten one even though I would not use data services very often, if at all. Too bad

[apcarandang]

I'm an apple plan myself but after seeing people in line and seeing my roommate having activation problems i would wait for the next upgrade. I was more concerned with the GPS tracking than anything else when I saw my roommate's GPS moving in my house when we put his on satellite view. It was a bit unnerving watching a dot move from one end of my house to the other end when the GPS was on.

I really don't like to be tracked LOL.

The new APP's work well on the old version so I also don't have any compelling reason to upgrade.

APC
Houston, Tx

[whythee]

"I'm a Mac fan" - that pretty much explains why Matt Asay would stand in line to get the '3G' phone when he bought the 2G version just a few months back. Did you not know that there was not much added or improved in the new version other than 3G and GPS? Heck, leave it to Apple to make 'copy/paste' a feature worth waiting years for.

[scooterg55]

I have to tell you that my experience with Apple has been wonderful. I upgraded from the original IPhone which I gave to my daughter to use. If you check the website daily you can see which stores have phones available the next day. I went to the Irvine, CA store on Monday and was told that they were sold out. The store was opening early @ 8:00am and lines were forming at 7:00am each day to get the available phones. AT 3:00pm the same day I drove to the Mission Viejo, CA store and phones were in stock. I got the white 16GB and was activated and in & out of the store in less than 15 minutes. Now in regards to the 2.0 software upgrade. No issues at all so far. The SYNC has worked fine on my phone, IMAC 24" & 15" MacBook Pro.

As far as battery life, so far it seems to be fine. I do all my sync's manually and this helps save on battery life etc.

So not all Apple experiences are bad. If you were out looking for the phones for the first couple of weeks good luck. I also checked at my local AT&T store and they told me fulfillment on white IPhone was taking 48-72 hours only.

No company is perfect but Apple certainly is a winner in my book.

[blancpain]

I had one HUGE disappointment in the phone after playing with it and deciding to buy. There are NO unlimited data plans that cover Europe. Blackberry offers that and it is essential for any business person who travels abroad. $50/mo for 50MB is simply a joke. I get more than 10MB a day of email, counting the attachments.
The absence of an unlimited data plan, competitive with Blackberry ($69/mo) means that for now, despite pretense of synching with Exchange, ATT does not consider the iPhone to be a business tool.

Too bad

[ScottRiqui]

I must have gotten very lucky. I got two 3G iPhones the very first day by showing up at an AT&T store about 30 minutes prior to opening time. I also didn't have to wait around the store for activation, because they just told me to go home and activate them through iTunes on my computer. (It took my wife and I about 45 minutes to get both of our iPhones activated, but at least we were at home sitting on the couch, rather than waiting in the AT&T store).

I didn't have a first-gen iPhone for comparison, but I've been very impressed with the new iPhone so far. I've had phones in the past with internet capability, address books, calendars, the ability to play music, etcetera, but the iPhone is just so much more usable for me, because it automatically syncs with the mail client, calendar app, address book, and music software *that I already use*, rather than me having to chase down multiple "one-trick pony" conversion and sync programs to get information from my computer to my phone like I've had to do in the past.

[bishop1641]

The iphone itself is an amazing little device. I purchased one for my nephew. However my problem with it is the following :

1) Activation. Not all phones have to be activated in a store. One can activate a phone at home by calling the customer service line. The in-store activation was just plain silly. When I first purchased my Blackjack I activated it from home. In store activation may be the norm for some folk but in this day and age to force someone to do it from the store under the pretense of stopping folks from unlocking the phone for use on other carriers is just plain silly. The allure that Apple produced with the first iphone (like the product or not) was just innovative. Buy your iphone and activate via itunes. That in itself was genius. AT&T decided to make things difficult.

2) AT&T's pricing structure is just plain horrible. The logic in paying extra to synch with my Exchange Server is silly considering that I am using the data connection of my phone to do this. I have read in various places that AT&T tried saying that this was necessary because they were relaying the data through "their servers." It was very weak indeed. For those not wanting to pay extra to synch you must fall back on imap.

There are more reasons but they have been more then covered in other places. I could overlook the fact that the iphone doesn't have an sd card slot (one would have been nice), or any of the other short comings. However in order to do so the provider should have at least come to the table with a reasonable voice and data plan. While I am no fan of Sprint , a flat fee of $100 for unlimited voice and data would have had me purchasing one on the same day.

To often folks are quick to allow mobile providers off the hook for bad service. In order to maintain your subscribers you have to give them something worthwhile to hold on to you. Until then I will wait for an ipod touch with bluetooth.

[dreidogg]

You're kidding me right?! You can go to any mobile service provider online or brick and mortar purchase a phone. From there you can activate it online or call customer service from another phone to activate it. You don't have to sit in a store to activate any other phone with the exception of the iPhone.

Just as with computers, tv's, cars, pasta sauce, there's no one item that suits everyone. If it doesn't fit you, that doesn't negate it for everyone else, and vica versa.

My experience was one of the positive ones. The activation took 10 or 15 minutes, which was less than when I got my prior Verizon phone. It's worked as advertised from the first day. We had constant battery problems with the LG before, so I've not been bothered by this one, as it actually works. Maps with GPS has been a great convenience. Even better is the handful of location based services I've used. Much nicer to have that with me as I travel, rather than have to plan ahead at the start of the day and grab everything I can think of off the desktop.

Call quality is at least as good as when I had Verizon. And having 3G internet access has been a great convenience be/c I'm regularly in places that don't have wireless access. My wife has an iPod Touch and can find relatively few places to use it's data features, so 3G's been a big deal for us.

My favorite function is the automatic synchronization with my desktop--contacts, calendar, bookmarks, and more all automatic. When I watched my wife upgrade her Verizon plan this weekend from one LG to another LG, and the store couldn't even transfer the contacts, and she lost all the photos, etc, the automatic synchronization of the iPhone seemed even better (though I didn't tell her that).

I can't speak toward upgrading, because I didn't have the original, but I've used 3G and location-based services heavily, and would miss them if they weren't there. And when comparing to other phones, the sync between the iPhone and my desktop has been incredibly useful. (Visual voicemail has been a nice change from our Verizon setup, too.)

[MayorQuimby]

1. This is the "reporter's" opinion. We all have one only he gets paid to write his. Ridiculous.
2. The iPhone is one of the MOST revolutionary devices created to date. Seriously. It gives you access to HUNDREDS of radio stations at all times (aol radio app), thousands of books at all times (Stanza), hundreds of games, crosswords, news apps, the full internet, music, movies etc. It replaces such everyday items as guitar tuners, metronomes, line-levels, dictaphones, chronometers, subway (and all other) maps, stock info with interactive graphs and displays, drum machines (Beatmaker), weather forecasts etc. It can listen to a song playing in the room and not only tell you what song is playing, but allow you to buy it or go to a youtube video of it (Shazam). You can search for nearby locations such as bookstore or pizzeria and it will give you a full list based on your GPS. You also get one press links to call those places or to go to their website (Yelp). The weather apps give you radar, webcams etc. Accelerometer based games from Scrabble to chess to Pac Man etc., paint programs, scientific calculators, hundreds of free apps, book programs that can mimic the look of text and papar (Shazam - under general phone settings). You can even remote control to your home computer (VNC Mocha) and actually control your home computer from anywhere, and at any time (it works 100%). Your home computer desktop actually appears on your phone and you can pinch in or out to control everything. A cursor is provided and locks out the home one.

In the end, the iPhone is MIND BLOWINGLY powerful. It works beautifully and has a ton of space. Criticism of this device is just ABSURD. As for battery life. TURN OFF WIFI AND 3G WHEN THEY'RE NOT NEEDED AND YOU WILL GET 2 - 3 FULL DAYS OF USAGE. Apple has to keep these turned on by default to keep the carriers happy (who promote the new technology).

Sheesh!

[iamreallypicky]

"Indeed, the Web is swarming with lots of reasons to not "upgrade" to the iPhone 3G. "

Please, for the sake of Journalism and the English Language, do NOT split the infinitive! Sentence should read, "Indeed, the Web is swarming with lots of reasons not to 'upgrade' to the iPhone 3G."

I cringe every time I see/hear this common mistake. For this reason I cannot stand Star Trek, "To boldly go where no one has gone before." Boldly TO GO, or TO GO boldly!

I like the article, otherwise!

[dehall622]

the split infinitive is not inherently incorrect

and your name is correct

[kill_minus_9]

We activated in an Apple store on 7-11 the night of the opening. We had no problems. Battery life is good enough for both our phones even with WI-FI enabled, and better on 3G only. I am not an apple fanboy but I find this article unduly harsh and unfair. The day of the launch it was and apparently still is as though the media wants to see Apple have it's nose bloodied. As if the many Apple product failures of the last 30 years are not already enough.

Actually, just for a different perspective, I have a 2g phone on 1.1.4. I waited until the storm of early adapters passed by and now just two days ago took delivery of a 3 g. I have two different phone numbers so, when I did the initialization of the 3g, I had the back up of my 2 g on itunes and now both phones are identical. I then upgraded my 1.1.4 to the 2.x.

I spent the day with both. And frankly, this is how I came to this blog. I wanted to find out if anyone else thought the differences between the two were trivial (other than the bigger memory)? I only use about half of the memory on the phone so for me, memory wasn't an issue. As I write this I have 3 gigs available. If you need a bunch more songs or video or what ever, then I suppose that is a big issue for you, but it wasn't for me. I take 15 play lists for everything from hard to slow workouts, reading, blue skying and so on and find it more than enough in the music side. I use Google docs when flying so I can edit and review. I got a little notation app from the free jail broke side that allows both voice and text notations and love that to bits as it is extremely effective.

I found the battery life on the 3g worse than the 2. I found the call clarity the same and the dropped calls the same. The gps was one difference and I suppose it could be a big deal, but I got so used to using Google maps and now Google earth, that GPS doesn't seem so importantl. Still, if Paris were a completely strange city it might be handy.

I've now jail broke both phones, and installed some cool non Apple apps. I travel to the EU and Canada with the old 2g and it worked fine. My biggest complaint was lousy battery life. 4 hours of browsing, messaging, talking on the phone, listening to music, and reading email is just not enough. Lousy battery life is still my big complaint.

On the other hand, I'm not happy with my laptop either in this regard, and get little more. I suspect if I got twice the power I'd still complain. So, until someone makes a virtual battery, I won't be happy. On the other hand, I'm thinking of getting one of those external battery packs that doc the iphone and triple your life. Though they seem damned ugly and the trade off is that I like the design aesthetic of the phone.

So, all in all, not much of a difference from my point of view. If anyone wants to know btw, jail breaking the phone is a super great thing and totally worth the effort.

I'm wondering what anyone else's experiences are like and if perhaps I am missing something?

cheers!