I upgraded from the iPhone 3G to the 3Gs over the weekend… here are my initial thoughts.ADHERER
After dropping over $300 on the 32GB iPhone 3Gs, I got it home and got it set up, with some issues, and was off on my way. But there are some bigger problems.
First, I am fuzzy on the restore thing in iTunes. When I first plugged the 3Gs in, it asked me if I wished to restore from the backup of my previous iPhone, the 3G. I thought, “hm, well let’s give it a go.” Well, guess what. It wouldn’t let me because the new iPhone wasn’t on the current version of the firmware, which my 3G was.
Well, I started to treat it as a new phone and as it was updating, I had a power outage. And that’s when my UPS that my Mac Mini was attached to decided to tell me that it was no longer going to give me battery backup. That leads me to issues over UPS devices, but I’ll save that for another rant.
Well, the recovery went okay, it just put me on pins and needles for a while. And my cussing and kicking a box scared the dog. But otherwise, the upgrade took and then it asked me if I wanted to restore… um, okay. And guess what, the restore went very well. Everything except the location of my icons was restored.
This leaves me to wonder… what’s the true upgrade path? It wouldn’t let me restore at first. Only the interrupted upgrade let me restore later. Very odd.
Note, the restore just gives settings. So saved games, browser history, call history, all that was restored. But as far as the content (apps, music, movies), the restore only says that’s what you have, the next sync will then put those things on your phone. I guess that’s how they keep the backup times down.
In any case, as it was syncing, I was able to use the iTunes 9 app arranger to put my icons right. Excellent.
But then, some things started going wrong. I would have 5 bars and then no signal, instantly. My girlfriend’s phone (my old 3G) would stay pegged on 5 bars while my phone, right next to hers, was getting maybe 2 bars. And then, as I was trying to demonstrate push Gmail, my phone wouldn’t connect at all. It just would spin and spin and then say, “can’t connect to server.” Meanwhile, my girlfriend’s phone was humming along perfectly. Made for a crappy demonstration, too.
Last night, suddenly, the phone dropped to Edge connectivity from 3G. And it stayed like that all night. This morning, I reset the phone and the 3G came back. A little later, I was looking at it and it dropped back to Edge again. Then No Service. Then it came back up to 3G. All in the span of about a minute.
Fast forward to this morning’s commute. I was driving to work, streaming a podcast to my car stereo via Bluetooth, when the audio just dropped out. I checked the phone, and sure enough, it thought it was playing. I switched it to the iPhone’s internal speaker output and there came the sound. So in the end, it seems to have dropped its Bluetooth connection just long enough to screw everything up.
This is leading me to believe that the radio communications in my 3Gs periodically decides to drop out, and then it may or may not come back very graciously. Is this a common problem? Has this been reported elsewhere? Is it the hardware or is there something about the AT&T network that it has to get my phone totally into the system before it settles down?
If anyone has any idea, please comment below. Otherwise, I’m thinking to give it a few days to see what happens and then return it if it doesn’t settle down.
the UPS issues aside, I’ve also experienced issues with my 3gs. The 3g network sometimes is terrible. i could walk to the website faster. I’ve read this is because AT&T’s network can’t handle all the iphones on it that it has sold, and they are hogging bandwidth. I’ve also experienced the iphone dropping connections to my bluetooth earpiece, thinking I dropped the call, but the phone says it is still connected. WTF?
I’m surprised, after so many years with the 3G, Apple was only able to make a few minor changes, like adding video to the camera (5-year old technology) and upping the RAM and adding a compass, and this phone still has vasic issues with its connectivity. I’m not terribly happy with it either.
What city are you in? I understand that the poor throughput can depend on where you are.
I am in Birmingham, AL, and haven’t had too much trouble with the connectivity… it’s not broadband speed and the iPhone isn’t fast enough to process JavaScript near as fast as a desktop computer, so I don’t have any illusions about it being slow.
But since I went from my 3G, which was fine, to the 3Gs, now the connectivity is very spotty. And it’s not just the 3G… it’s also the Bluetooth, leading me to believe that the handset is having issues.
I have an appointment with the Apple Store this afternoon since AT&T said they can’t touch it. I would be SO upset if I were somewhere where there aren’t any Apple stores because then I’d have to send the phone in and be without for who-knows-how-long.
Overall, I love the iPhone… but it could be better.
-Mike
Update: I took my iPhone to the Apple Store yesterday afternoon. I was flabbergasted that I needed an appointment for a Monday. I don’t know if this is a sign that Apple products are extremely popular or that they’re not so great and are breaking all the time.
In any case, the Genius there was very helpful. He hooked the iPhone up to his laptop which was running some diagnostic software and he instantly knew the problem.
His diagnosis was that the phone had a corruption out of the box and my restore made it worse. Of course, it could also have been the power outage I had. But nonetheless, the resolution was that he wiped the phone and re-imaged it with the 3.1 firmware. He said not to restore from a backup, to treat it like a new phone (which is a pain because of all the apps I have to sign into, but a working iPhone is the better of the deals there).
So far, it’s been working fine. I’ll keep you all informed of any further issues and how the phone is behaving.
-Mike
Perhaps I spoke too soon… just looked at the iPhone and it was on Edge.
I put it into Airplane mode and then back off and it’s on 3G now, but that doesn’t bode well.
-Mike
Hey, you guys are all wet.
I know this because I’ve seen lots of Apple adverts that confidently assert that everything Apple is slick and problem free.
Well, in the final chapter of this saga (hopefully final, actually), I went BACK to the Apple Store again because the 3G modem appeared to be bad. It wouldn’t stay in 3G, dropping to Edge constantly. The Genius just replaced the phone, no muss no fuss. It seems to be working fine now.
Well, except for the bluetooth, which is a tad flaky. Very odd.
-Mike
Epilogue: the 3G modem was wonky, so Apple replaced the phone. Now it works 98% great! But it has this odd habit of occasionally just losing ALL radio communication. 3G connectivity disappears, signal drops to 1 or 0 bars, and any bluetooth connection dies. After a handful of seconds, everything comes back up. But it’s such a pain.
-Mike
I have bought I phone 3gs 32 GB, the phone interface and touch screen is beautiful but I am really annoyed with the reliability of the phone. Its keep crashing and most of the time I don’t get any service and from last 2 days no service at all. I tried to switch off and on but no luck. Some times it does find even wifi.
Now I was trying to sort this problem of no service and if service comes then it does call…..
I have unlocked this phone maybe because of that I am getting that problem but now I seen how many people having same problem on internet its just stupid Apple.
Does anyone have any idea how to fix? I don’t want to restore it as I will loss all my applications.
Any one genius out there?
khan, go to an Apple Store near you and get them to check it out. It sounds like a similar problem to what I was having. You may have a bad unit and they will replace it if it’s still under warranty.
Good luck, let me know how it turns out.
-Mike
Bought my iPhone 3GS (BlackBerry convert) on 04/14 and starting getting random “No Service” message. Never in the same place, had to either turn device on or off or take out SIM and put it back in to get service again. Had a Genius Bar appointment today and they swapped it out for a new one (ran diagnostics and said it isn’t performing as expected)
Haven’t really been able to test it out though, because it has been “restoring from backup” for two hours…
I hope the replacement works for you. Let me know how it turns out.
The more we get into this realm, the more I think that 3G and wi-fi and other wireless technologies are just voodoo. Last night, my 3Gs iPhone had no connectivity, which then went to Edge connectivity with 1 bar. Meanwhile, my girlfriend’s iPhone 3G (no ‘s’) was less than 10 inches away from mine, with 5 bars and full 3G connectivity. Very odd.
Hope your phone problems get resolved.
-Mike