Comments on: CNET readers share their iPhone 3G stories

iPhone 3G reception issues were reported in 32 states across the U.S., and while Apple has yet to officially acknowledge the problem, technical support staffers are well aware.

[Kings X Rocks!]

Mr. Jobs:

If it is in fact an issue with the firmware, just let us know. We won't abandon you. We just want to be informed.

Mr. AT&T:

if it is a 3G problem with your network, just let us know...and we'll add it to the list of problems we had with EDGE. And, a word of advice, TRAIN you customer reps. Once they finish their script, they're lost.

[drewcohen]

Having just switched from a BlackBerry Pearl to the latest iPhone 2.0 there are some basic functions that it is surprising Apple missed. Prior to rolling out the iPhone they may have wanted to look closer at how these types of devices are used by business users:

1 - Battery life - the iPhone won't last a full day without charging. If I leave for work in the morning and don't plug it in at the office or in the car, it is dead by the drive home.

2 - Integration of calendar functions with the phone. The BlackBerry does an excellent job of letting you call a phone number based on a calendar event. This is a big help on the go when you have a meeting. The meeting notice comes up, and you can click on the number and dial into a conference call. On the iPhone you have to exit the calendar, go to the phone, select the number pad, and then enter the number. If the number is a conference call with a passcode, if you are like me, by the time you do all that you've forgotten the passcode (very frustrating). I found myself having to get a pad of paper (or back of a napkin) just to write the numbers down (seems to defeat the purpose).

3 - e-mail - On the BlackBerry you have an option to delete e-mails from the phone, and not from the server. This is very helpful if you have get alot of emails a day and want to quickly look at the new e-mails on your phone. Granted everyone may not want to use the function this way - but I sure miss it.

4 - Voice calling - the BlackBerry has a great voice calling feature. While AT&T offers something similar, it is harder to use and set up. Also on the BlackBerry the feature can be set to a favorite button on the phone, making it really usefull for hands free calling in a car (you can even access the function from a bluetooth headset and not touch the phone). The iPhone implementation of this through AT&T is just clumsy in comparison.

Don't get me wrong, I love the browser, the integration with iPod features, and the e-mail and calendar are easy on the eyes, and the keyboar typing while not as good is acceptable, but I am seriously considering switcing back. If you really want a phone for business use, the iPhone is not there yet (I am hoping the items I mentioned can be fixed soon with a software update because I don't know how much longer I can keep the iPhone). At a minimum don't through away your BlackBerry yet.

[rranger1]

Your comments are well-taken. I'm particularly disappointed with the way the Calendar function works with Exchange. For some bizarre reason, Apple chose to have the calendar entry changes synch with the server, but not allow you to send those changes to meeting recipients. So, you have to go back onto the computer to send the update. This is just silly.

But, I think you're mistaken about your third point. The default behavior on my phone is exactly as you've desribed. I can delete e-mails to my heart's content on the phone and not have those deleted from the server.

[aristotle_dude]

Blackberry phones are 2G devices. If you are going to compare against the Blackberry, turn off the 3G and then compare battery life.

[JonathonStriker]

The 3G network is kinda shady. I have the AT&T "Tilt" which uses Windows Mobile 6 with the touch screen and supports 3G of course. In my own house alone I can go between 3G, G, and E without even moving from my computer down here in the city of Bowie. Many areas around here are also the same as I do my little travels, although at the Baltimore convention center I was running 3G with ease from one edge of the building to the next. I kind of feel like the 3G is not supported enough and we should have more 3G towers before we fully start going into the 4G technology.

[mraf]

The ATT/iPhone combo also has a major glitch in international data roaming. They billed me for downloading a series of phantom xMb files -- total overcharge charge for 2 weeks = $2.5K! At this point, I'm 12 reps into the argument and counting...

My advice: do not expose yourself to this program and turn off data roaming internationally.

[kr3bstar]

Kings X:

In response to your second point, it's doubtful that AT&T's 3G network is the issue. I've used my Motorola Q9h with AT&T 3G for about 11 months now with absolutely no issues. In fact, I'm writing this post through my Motorola over 3G now.

[apflemming]

I truly believe this is an AT&T network problem. I have an iPhone 3G on the Fido network in Ontario, and I have not had a single problem with the 3G reception. In fact, I'm typing this on 3G.

I have noticed all of the 2.0 bugs, but my experience has been incredibly positive. One gripe I have is that once a calendar event is created you cannot change which calendar it's in.

[ed state--2008]

I feel lucky that, so far, here in NYC my service has been great. Although I have to agree w/ the above comment about battery life. I would've gladly given up a few more millimeters of depth and width and had this puppy last longer than 5 hours on stand-by. And use the internet, or iPod, and forget it. You're toast.

A couple of other things:

The lack of a LANDSCAPE KEYBOARD is criminal. Seriously, what bone head decided to only allow it in Safari?

The backup times in iTunes are excruciating. There's no reason I should have to wait 20 minutes each time I plug in.

Upgrading apps from my phone crashes it. Every time. ...And since it takes 20 minutes to get into iTunes, my choices are not pretty.

Overall though, a great phone. But definitely released before all the kinks were worked out. And the fact that Apple and AT&T are acting like there are NO kinks, is pretty awful.

[DigitalFoobar]

Kings X Rocks, Apple is already working on a fix for the 3G signal loss problem.

drewcohen, on your 3rd point regarding email, depending on who your service is through, you should be able to delete the email on your phone, but not on the server. For example, gmail has a pop3 setting that allows you to only download new messages, and to always keep a copy on the server.

If you set it up with imap - thats an entirely different story, and that will sync up in real time, so if you delete it - its gone from the server as well.

[fdunn3]

There is a difference between MS ActiveSync which Apple licensed and IMAP. IMAP was already on the 1st gen phone.

[Michael_R_08]

I love my iPhone - let's just hurry up with the updates. I'm ready for my turn by turn directions!

[pjhenry1216]

I'll honestly be surprised if they give us turn by turn directions. The GPS signal doesn't update reliably enough. I was in the passenger seat with it trying to help navigate after we got lost and the dot wouldn't update sometimes and suddenly it'd jump a bit. Plus, if you lose the signal, it takes way too long to get it back. Turn by turn just doesn't seem feasible. Seems more of a hardware issue than software. The GPS receiver just isn't that strong.

[joetesta70]

LET'S FACE IT....$TEVE JOB$ PUT OUT A CRAPPY PRODUCT.

CLOSED and PROPRIETARY. Can't wait for my Google G1 Phone. Open. Fresh Air. Great!

[anilsudh]

you mean G(VAPOURWARE)1

[whizkid454]

Analogy from Brangelina: My baby will be the next top supermodel!

How do YOU know what Google will come out with? It could be just another Razr-type phone. Think before speaking.

[Kevin Boggs]

Please don't yell.

[aeldars]

I bought an old 2G iPhone and then a 3G iPhone - the new one does not match the hype. Battery life is an issue, reception, call quality, sluggish response on the interface. 2.0.1 seems to have fixed somewhat for a couple of days the battery issue but nothing else all is back to old this. Battery life is really BAD, reception is worse, call quality not up to par, interface SLOW, buying experience a big disaster and a nightmare. I really fail to see why should I be forced to accept a 2 year contract for something that unacceptable. Apple get your act together I guess follow up is a problem Apple is a ONE HIT WONDER!!! there is still hope for Nokia and Motorola the people that can really make phones that WORK!!!

[CrashPad63]

I believe the telling issue is 82% respondents are experiencing some problem with their Iphone. 82% should shut down this product line, Xbox360 had a 16-30% rate and folks wanted MS head. Comeon folks stop this candy coated" well its ATT fault or its ok Steve just fix it", demand action and openess, Apple is screwing the pooch on almost every realease now. Wakeup!!!

[Mystigo]

The survey is not scientific. 82% of respondents experiencing a problem does not reflect an 82% failure rate. People experiencing problems were vastly more motivated to respond to the request for comment. People without problems largely moved on. There is almost certainly a smaller element of falsified reporting as well. These forums are trolled by a small group of people that absolutely, fanatically hate Apple. They renounce Apple and it's user base at every opportunity they get and would not hesitate to make up a completely false report to put Apple in a worse light if possible. Of course real users are having real problems, but you need to remember that the survey is not random, the participants are not verified, and as a consequence the percentages reported are essentially meaningless.

[aflkjssdfjlsdflkj]

This phone is terrible. I live in Atlanta, and my 3G has not worked once for me since about 3 days after I bought the phone. I used to be a blackberry owner, and I want to switch back to my Blackberry. 50% of the time, the keyboard on the 3G is delayed and takes 3-5 seconds for a letter to insert. Causing me to have to restart my phone. Complete waste of my money, I wish I just waited for the new Blackberry Bold to come out. DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE.

[aztec92154]

Fake.

[aflkjssdfjlsdflkj]

not to mention the battery life is TERRIBLE! i'm lucky if it lasts a whole day. I have to carry my damn charger around with me everywhere I go. terrible product, now I know why i didn't get the first iPhone, and I wish I didn't get sucked into this whole iPhone hype. People are so in love with this phone they refuse to just admit Apple is putting out a terrible product, its like a religion to these people.

[anilsudh]

Why don't you insert a small piece of Uranium. Maybe the battery will go on for ever then.

[aztec92154]

Fake.

[mpitogo]

I've been an iPhone user since day one of the 2G iPhone and now the 3G. I use it as my primary business phone/e-mail device. Yesterday I had a really long conference call from my home where I normally get 2/3 Bars 3G and 5 bars of Edge. Surprisingly I did not get dropped the entire time. Yes I did NOT get dropped. There are so many factors involved but has anyone looked at saturation and testing 3G under high loads? With the huge inrush of iPhone 3G users the cell towers suddenly got mobbed with traffic. There's got to be a rate of diminishing returns where it gets so bad packets get dropped.

One thing I can guess, I live in Bergen county NJ and can probably count with my hands and toes the number of iPhone users which would explain why I didn't get dropped.

[pjhenry1216]

I live in Rutherford, NJ and I've had little to no problems with 3G. The only issue I've had is that it seems a little slow on webpages, but honestly, I didn't have a 3G web browsing phone beforehand, so I've nothing to compare it to except when its on WiFi. It's significantly slower than WiFi, but I'm assuming that's likely to happen. I've never had a dropped call, but honestly, I'm not a heavy user of it for phone calls. I don't use it for business and I don't talk on the phone much.

[Drmt007]

I had the first gen iPhone and it was such a bad experience that I sold it and switched to a blackberry. Phone calls dropped, the screen froze (I did not add any new apps or unlock it). Worst was the screen freeze. I am so unhappy with the phone that the UI just did not make it for the phone quality. Without the phone working, it is worthless.

[ferdmani]

I've had the iPhone, now known as 2G, since it's release last year. The ringer is still way too weak for me to hear it in most public areas and I still think they need to turn up the volume on the earpiece. At inception, reception on the phone itself was awful. After a few months it gradually got better, but it is hardly respectable. in fact every time I see one of those AT&T commercials ("more bars in more places") I want to pick up the phone, call ATT, and find out how they can make such outrageous claims. I used to be a Verizon customer and had service just about everywhere, I never dropped calls at all. In fact I thought that problem was left in the 90s all together, until I made my switch to ATT and noticed that not much had changed as far as service. I can't drive on major highways without dropping calls and forget about going anywhere outside major cities. As a device the iPhone is incredible. Fun to use, functional, really makes things easy and intuitive. But as a Phone this thing is a disgrace. A free phone from Verizon has more connectivity, not to mention you can send Pictures via text and other standard features on everyday phones that Apple chooses to continuously omit even with all the public outcry over their omission. They should have called it iMobile or iDevice because you can hardly consider it a Phone.

[Benf]

I have had AT&T since they started selling cell phones, I have used my Nokia in Los Angeles and Orange County in Southern California for years without ever having a reception problem, my Daughter however had Verizon and was constantly dropping calls or getting "no bars" using a similar phone,we now live in eastern Riverside County CA, a sparsly populated desert region and still have excelent coveraage, this leads me to beleive that the iPhone was the problem not the AT&T network, My Son's iPhone even works here.....occasionaly

[gonzomatic]

I agree with some here that this is an AT&T problem. I have a Cingular 8525 3G phone, and ever since Cingular was acquired by AT&T, I've had problems with 3G service. Frequent dropped calls, poor reception, etc. I finally found some blogs and websites that had discussions outlining possible solutions, since AT&T was not forthcoming about helping me out. They were in complete denial about anything being wrong with either the phone or the network. I tried one of the hacks, which basically involved upgrading to WM6 and using a registry editor to change the system to only deal with EDGE, and that seemed to finally alleveiate the dropped call issue to only a handful per month. I'm glad that this is being brought out by the IPhone users, since they are not only a more vocal lot, but the phone is the jewel of the AT&T lineup so it will get more attention than my lowly 8525.

[fdunn3]

Let's gace it people...Apple laid an egg on the second gen 3G iPhone. Here are some link for the people who refuse to let AT&T off the hook entirely:

EETimes.com - Apple shuns leading chip makers in 3G
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=JY5T4PKLR54TGQSNDLPCKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=209100058

'Slow' iPhone 3G glitch blamed on secrecy - iPhone Insider - Digital Life (Australia)
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/08/13/1218306957900.html

The Sydney Morning Herald Blogs MashUp
http://blogs.smh.com.au/mashup/archives//019724.html

Swedish magazine blames iPhone 3G woes on hardware - Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080814/ap_on_hi_te/tec_apple_iphone

Now I ask you: When three completely seperate international 3G providers are having issues with the iPhone what is the common denominator?

[nrama]

I hear Steve Jobs uses only a N95. I think he learnt from the saying "Real men carry Nokia".
..the story goes as far as saying, he used the iphony to call and annoy Starbucks crew , in the SF Bay area to give fake orders. I think, with rate even that was dropping calls , he did not find it funny anymore.
......There is nothing wrong with the Infineon chip , the only thing is Apple engineers didn't take the time to read the data sheet. This leads me to believe they would have cut and pasted some other phones firmware (Samsung ??)

But then this raises bigger questions :-
1.) Does ATT have the sufficient bandwidth to meet all these 3G Users ?
2.) Does it vary from tower to tower , how is the bandwidth distributed ?
3.) Is the perceived 3G bandwidth a real scam , made possible by clever algorithms , which is being exposed now ?
4.) What are the criteria for dropping a call ?
5.) If there is a senario , in which a person in grave emergency needs to call 911 in the same pipe as a guy watching youtube ..whose packets will be dropped ?
6.) What happens to ATT 3GB when the real 3G phones like Google G1 , XPERIA etc come out later this year ?

[jack_russell]

The concept that Apple has for the iPhone is great the implementation is pathetic. I had one of the first iPhones and after being replaced three times the fourth seemed to work great. The new 3G has bad battery life, the network drops constantly and the phone reboots itself at least twice a day and most of the time in the middle of doing something.

The ATT told me that the reception issues were due to the iPhone so I pulled my Blackjack out and started using it, the use of the 3G network is no better than the iPhone but it does not drop the calls when switching from 3G to Edge like the iPhone does. It does not reboot itself like the iPhone does but does have bettery life issues like the iphone does.

What bothers me more than anything is that they rolled it out before it was ready and ATT as has always been the case has a weak network. Verizon is absolutely a better network without question, Apple made the wrong choice when they chose who they were going with as a network provider.

[skillingssucks]

Cluetard, Apple asked Verizon first...and they refused.

[jason99825]

Well first of all Apple went to Verizon first. Verizon turned Apple down so they where forced to go to AT&T. I am not sure who was the dumb on yet. If the Iphone was on the Verizon network I would buy it in a heart beat but that is not the case.