Comments on: Report: iPhone app crash fix coming next month

An AppleInsider reader says he received one of Steve Jobs' rare personal e-mails in response to a complaint about instability of third-party applications.

[sanenazok]

Uhm the iPhone runs supposedly "bullet proof" OS X. I guess that's what happens to a platform when it's opened to a larger number of third party developers. Windows 2.0 was also super stable! Wow more beta testing done by customers for Apple.

[billmosby]

I still occasionally encounter situations where a reboot is necessary after Word blows up. Probably not due to my still running a version from about 2002, since it's done that through all versions of OS X since that time. I think Xcode has also caused me to have to reboot, but very rarely. And my iPhone app under development has locked up the phone once now to the point that a restore was needed to get it going again.

Not bulletproof for sure. But not all that bad.

[pjhenry1216]

You couldn't just restart the iPhone? You can force quit an app by holding the home button for 6 seconds. You can cut the power by holding the home button and power button for a few seconds and it basically cuts the power to the iPhone forcing it to reboot.

[ballmerisanape]

Sanenazik, the third party apps crash, not the OS. Also, all you have to do to avoid this is to reboot after the insallation. This is annoying ....and something us apple fanboys are not used to doing. Maybe Apple did this on purpose so windows users feel more at home?

[Vegaman_Dan]

The simple solution is to never use any third party apps. Only use those that come on the iPhone as it comes out of the box. There is no reason to install, let alone use, any application other than those. if you choose to do so, then you must blame the third party, not Apple.

Sound like a familiar argument in the industry?

[T543212345]

True enough, but Sanenazik's larger point still stands. If you are not going to blame Apple for 3rd party app crashes than you shouldn't blame MS either (of course you CAN blame MS when Office crashes :) ).

[givemeglenn]

My biggest problems are:

1) I have found that I may one notification of an update on my iPhone and another notification on a totally different application on iTunes.

2) When I get a notification that I have an update to an app/apps, I am not able to update the app/apps on either iTunes or on the iPhone itself.

The resolution to my issue/issues, as suggested by iPhone support until they get this issue identified and resolved, is to physically delete the app/apps from my iPhone and iTunes and totally reinstall it/them as well as to reset my iPhone.

[scatlizard]

This is really hurting Apple's reputation as a good company. They say to reset your iphone if your experiencing problems with it or worse yet to restore it. If you go to the Apple store this is what they tell you to do. There isn't as far as I can know a hardware test or software test to diagnose the iphone problems. If your iphone backup on your mac is littered with problems restoring isn't going to help, then you have to go into the music/iTunes/mobile applications to see if your applications have duplicates and possibly the older versions of those apps can be deleted and the newer versions can be reinstalled. Hopefully the newer versions are working properly. NOW I have no problem doing this but if you think that most other iphone owners understand that forget it.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Telling someone to reset their phone or reflash the firmware is all very well and good from the OEM's viewpoint, but for those of us that have third party apps we've bought through the iTunes store that have data on them can't really afford to do that so easily. The checkbook app I use, for example, keeps all the data on the unit itself and while iTunes backs the application up, it doesn't back up the user data. So doing a firmware update means having to start over and after you've entered in 50+ business names and a 100+ transactions, being told to wipe and reload it again to fix a problem with the device itself simply isn't acceptable. If there was a way to synch the user data to the host system it is synching with, that would be a great help, but that is also one of those things that Apple is preventing at this time in applications. Everything must synch through iTunes or web based services, not with content on your computer. It wouldn't be hard though. Just add a tab to iTunes like they have for photos and put end user data there. Then doing firmware updates and such wouldn't be any trouble at all.

[michaelo1966]

Releasing bugs happens... The question is how one responds to them; how quickly and how honestly. MS says that Vista's instability and slow speed is my "perception" problem. I say I'm upgrading ... to XP. It's been a long time since Apple has had this volume of units in consumers hands; I'd like to see the iPhone w/ absolutely no bugs -- who wouldn't!? -- but at least I see proactive, honest work going on to fix the issues.

[MaggieRed]

I'm having absolutely no issues with my iPhone 3G. Apps run fine, whole system runs great.

So you folks are blaming Apple for defective Apps that third parties develop. Sounds to me like Apple should ratchet up the criteria and quality testing before allowing them on the App Store. Perhaps a poorly written App is the culprit.

For those having problems, have you removed the suspect App to determine whether or not that was your issue?

[Constable Odo]

Apple needs to have some sort of survey to find out why some people are having problems and others aren't. Have people send in some info about the firmware they're using, apps they're using, etc., to maybe make it easier to pinpoint problems. Maybe Apple is rushing things too quickly and getting sloppy in the process. It's not going to be easy to sort out problems on millions of iPhones and with more apps being developed the more problems are likely to crop up.

[Vegaman_Dan]

To have a survey would require admitting there is a problem and that simply isn't Apple's method of operation in anything they do. If you disagree with Apple or talk negatively about their products in their forums, the threads are locked and mysteriously disappear completely. This isn't anything new. I do not expect it to change.

[jaybarrow]

Weirdest thing that happened before the update, I would see the iPod controller (skip back, play, skip forward, volume control) appear at the top of my screen... not my home screen but on top of my wallpaper just below the time/date. Clicking the Home button would solve the problem but it did happen on several occasions when unlocking my phone. So far, haven't seen that quirk after the 2.0.2 update. I have only three 3rd party apps installed, one of which crashed frequently. But now so far, so good.

[xanpyzz]

Is this an official leak ! Give me a break! One of my family members had the same update crash on 2.0.2 as I had on 2.0.1. For the average person this is a big problem I have the knowledge to get past it. There appears to be something seriously wrong when the updates are semi-bricking the phones. We love the Iphone - why all these problems!

[Vegaman_Dan]

In two months we've already had two major bug fix updates to fix the OS. Now in September we'll be at #3 in three months. I sense a pattern. Instead of Windows Patch Tuesday, we'll have Monthly iPhone Rebuild. Since you can't just apply the patch, but instead go through the backup process and hope the patch doesn't screw it up, you're down for an hour or more based on comments on Apple.com's forums along with Appleinsider.com.

All are signs which point to Apple leaving the testing of the device up to the customers. This product was not ready for the marketplace and Apple is having very real world problems with scaling. It's gotten to the point that even those people who typically stick their fingers in their ears and shout 'Lalalalalala' about any possibility of an Apple product not working perfectly are starting to complain.

It's a tricky situation. Perhaps they need someone from Microsoft to help them with such things. Microsoft is used to admitting there are problems and that they are working on them.

Apple's silence is doing more damage to their reputation than admitting there is a problem, I believe. When the high and mighty faithful Apple fanboys are starting to complain to others about the device, then you know you have a serious problem.

[rgtahoe]

I have an original iPhone and after applying the latest release the phone frequently freezes, often when I am trying to take an incoming call. The only way out of this is to reboot. Also when I try to sync with Outlook it never completes, even after leaving it overnight to finish!!

[gggg sssss]

I am having absolutely no problem swith my phone - because, its a WIndows Mobile phone from HTC, Sorry Apple. Maybe after I try the new Blackberry.

[gpclarke]

Yeah well, the crappy 2.02 upgrade also jacked my non-3G iPhone, as it doesn't want to charge anymore. I bet I call support and they tell me to reset or something...which is real convenient! Ahhh...this thing with the battery life problems is starting to be NOT worth it.

[nickj1088]

as much as i think ballmer is an ape, i wanna kick you in the face. mostly cus youll just cry and whine to king jobs

[Magicland]

What I like about my phone, it just works. Sure there's the music & video playback (with stereo bluetooth support), wifi, tons of 3rd party apps, voice dialing and commands and decent battery life (with a removable, replaceable battery), and a full qwerty keyboard, but in the end, it just works. Of course it's a T-Mobile Dash, made by HTC, running windows mobile 6.0...

[theveggiedude]

Well, I know of at least one journalist that says despite the crashes on his iPhone, it's still not as bad as the crashes he's had on his Blackberry. It comes with the territory I guess, and Apple is new in this field. Give them some time and it will get better.

[Didato]

Looks like Apple is Triing to Hide its issues by Removeing Threads. Thank you Google Search Cache.

If your phone crashes while deleting photos withing windows. Your Not alone.

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:9UegxlmV-1wJ:discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa%3FmessageID%3D9282115+messageID%3D9282115&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us