Top five iPhone gripes
Yes, the iPhone is today's "it girl." Everyone wants to see and be seen with her. But life with the iPhone isn't all champagne and bon-bons. Here are our Top 5 iPhone Gripes. If yours isn't on the list, please let us know.
5. No multimedia text messages
My parents live in Florida, because they're in their 60s and that's the rule. Recently, they purchased fancy-dancy cell phones with cameras. Even more exciting is that they know out how to use them, and constantly send me pictures of manatees, their kitchen and so on.
At least, they try.
My iPhone beeps and displays a message which says, "I sent you a multimedia message. You can view my message w/in the next 7 days via the web at viewmymessage.com using MSG ID [Obscure ID] Password [Obscure Password]."
Clicking on the link launches Mobile Safari which produces a web page asking for Obscure ID and Obscure Password. Since each is a collection of upper- and lower-case letters plus numbers, it's difficult to remember. So, I must return to the text message, write Obscure ID and Obscure Password on a piece of paper, go back to the web page, type Obscure ID and Obscure Password on the tiny keyboard and wait for the teeny, tiny pictures to load.
So that's fun.
Read more gripes after the jump.
4. No video
The scene is my daughter's soccer practice. Proud parents are ignoring the coaching staff's requests to just sit down and let them do their job by lining the edge of the field, cell phones held aloft. I'm there, too, with my Flip video camera pointed towards the action.
My iPhone chirps. I pull it from my pocket and find that my parents have sent me another photo that I'll never see.
"Is that an iPhone?" says the guy next to me.
"Yeah," I say, turning off the Flip.
"Well, why don't you just shoot video with that? Does it do a bad job?"
"It doesn't shoot video."
"Wha - Your $500 phone doesn't shoot video?!"
"It was $300 and shut up."
But it was too late. The sounds of his laughter muffled my correction. Seriously, why doesn't this thing shoot video? iPhoto stores video clips, and transfering video from an iPhone to iMovie (and back again) should be a no-brainer.
3. AT& .... no signal ... T
Forget the pricing issues. Yes, AT&T has decided to charge 3G owners $30/mo for unlimited data (vs. $20/mo for 1st gen. iPhone owners), $5/mo for text messages that were previously free and raised the minimum monthly plan by $10 over the past 12 months.
What you're paying all that money for is service, and for me, the service isn't always there. I'll preface this gripe by admitting that I live in the boonies. Cape Cod, Massachusetts isn't exactly Gotham. My town is home to roughly 6,000 souls. So, we aren't high on any service provider's list of "hot spots."
Still, I rarely see five bars on my iPhone. It doesn't work at all inside my house (as soon as I step out the door, however, it's fine). There are certain spots of certain roads where my signal dives from four bars to zero for no reason that I can determine.
I have friends with other providers who claim a full five bars most of the time. So it can be done. It just hasn't been my experience.
2. The Trifecta
For point number two, I've rolled three minor annoyances into one, in order to clear the way for my top gripe.
The recessed headphone jack. Yes, I know that the 3G iPhone has a flush headphone jack. But I don't have a 3G iPhone, and I won't be upgrading anytime soon. Now, the switch on the earbuds that lets you take calls and skip music is pretty cool, but my ears have an aversion to earbuds. I couldn't use the headphones I like until I bought an adapter from Griffin for twenty bucks that crapped out after 11 months. Awesome.
No copy and paste. Viewing those multimedia messages from my parents would be so much easier if I didn't have to get a pen and paper involved. I don't know how copy and paste could be implemented on the iPhone, but it's not my job to figure that out.
The location of the ringer switch. I can't tell you how many calls I've missed becasue I accidentally toggled the ringer switch to silent mode. It must be the switch's location or the way I hold it as I move it in and out of my pocket, but I accidentally flip that thing all the time.
1. The Activation Nightmare
Last year, Apple sold a boatload of original iPhones in the US. That was the good news. The bad news was that many of those customers sat at home with useless iPhones on their desks.
Their activation servers got nailed and more than a few people were left hanging. Some for days. It got so bad, that companies other than Apple were posting activation work-arounds and tutorials.
What has Apple learned from that experience 12 months ago? Apparently, not a lot.
The 3G iPhone went on sale earlier today, and activation issues are rampant.
People are reporting muti-hour delays via Twitter, customers walking out of stores, etc. It seems the activation servers are taking a dirt nap.
I know that lots of people are hitting these things, but there are two multibillion-dollar companies overseeing the process (one of which knows a thing or two about computers), each of whom has experiene with this exact scenario.
Oh, Apple. You got so much right, I hate to post a list like this. But I did anyway. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a text coming in.
Share
Categories
Yes, the iPhone is today's "it girl." Everyone wants to see and be seen with her. But life with the iPhone isn't all champagne and...
Add a Comment
My gripes:
1. No custom message sounds. Ringtones - Sure. But a Wookie delivering me a new email? Not a chance.
2. No Email Search. My boss sent me the conference call passcode on...
3. No Email Sort. ...wednesday...shit. Can't do that either.
Ah well, at least I won't lose any thumb wrestling contests after a week or so, nor will Chewie interrupt that conference call I was 5 minutes late for.
YOUR POST MADE NO SENSE...
so why does Apples Activation Fiasco Of This year bother you if you have an original Iphone? if you have an original Iphone then that fiasco wouldn't of affected you! come one now! lets make a REAL post.
Also,
you state that you dislike the recessed head jack, but that the iphone 3g has the reagular 3mm headphone jack, but you won't upgrade...
BOO WOO!
don't complain then...
WOW....
other than that your complaints are valid.. and quite overly complained about if you reall dislike it so much then why did you get an IPHONE?
When original iphones were upgraded to v2.0 software they had to be reactivated. Problem was....the activation was down. THAT is how it affected the author. Pays to know the whole story. ;)
July 22 2008 at 2:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replywhat gripes me about iphone is when I go online to a site that I have to type in a password for. It won't let you type a capital letter in the password box & as some passwords are case sensitive you can't sign in.
July 21 2008 at 5:58 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyBefore my fiance got his 1st gen iphone we used to send random pictures through MMS to each other all of the time. Now that he has his iphone, I'm still using a basic phone and don't have email so our goofy messages have come to a halt. He thinks not having MMS sucks, but not enough to overshadow all of the iphone's other features. Personally, I'm just too big a fan of keeping in touch through random pictures of the day with my friends to get an iphone. So until apple adds MMS, I'll stick to the basics.
July 21 2008 at 2:16 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyOK, I'm a newbie and a bit behind the curve as I post my first iphone rant. But am I the only one who didn't know about the ACTUAL pricing structure for the 3G-- that is, that the $199 price is only for current iphone users and those who aren't currently with AT&T?
I switched to AT&T last month in preparation for getting an iphone. Big mistake on my part, because Apple charges $399 for the 8G not $199. Had I waited until the day of purchase to switch carriers i would have saved $200. Does anyone else know this?
I even called AT&T and I am getting no sympathy.
Brad
Some more gripes:
1. No spare battery. The 3G is on its last legs by 6pm in a normal day. My old HTC handset had the same problem, but at least I could fit a spare battery before the 7pm networking event.
2. On the home screen, why does the calendar icon change with the current date, but the clock icon doesn't? And why doesn't the weather icon show the current weather?
3. Why is there no link from the location of calendar entries and the map feature? Again, no copy and paste means that looking up the location of an appointment is a memory test.
4. Where is the offline newsreader, like Egress for Windows? i.e. when I'm out of network coverage, say, for example, every weekday in the subway, is there anything on the device that I can actually read?
5. Why does the Exchange email service need to be online to move messages? Imap doesn't have this problem, nor does exchange email on windows devices.
No question, the iPhone is a great device, but when it comes to reading the news and managing my business email, my old HTC windows device was better.
I am interested to see how well the 3G Iphone works on cape cod. Judging by AT&T's 3G coverage map it looks pretty solid. I have stuck by verizon on the cape since my first cell and the iphone is the first thing to tempt me away from them. Keeps us updated if you decide to upgrade.
July 15 2008 at 2:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyMMS can be annoying, but you can get around that by teaching people to send multimedia to your email instead of MMSing your phone number :/ and additionally, I hated being forced to use the overpriced ability to send a picture between phones versus you know, just hooking it up via USB to my computer and transferring photos, or you know, emailing them directly to someone [Which many MANY "normal" phones wont let you do whatsoever due to ATT wanting to milk you for every dime :3]
Of course, I'm "weird" for someone my age, because I dont care about MMS or Text Messaging (And in fact the only reason i HAVE the second is because the iPhone made me take it/i have stupid friends and wanted to cover my ass when one of them decides to text the shit out of my phone despite how much it irks me)
Personally, i dont give a shit if it has video, really, honestly, I'll buy a ^%&$ing camcorder thank you very much, I only use the camera in my cellphone for notes here or there (Instead of say, writing down the model number of something at say, Best Buy, I photograph the price tag thing) And could honestly do without it in lieux of a nice compact SLR
referring to these things as "Basics" is stupid, Basics on a CELL PHONE means it makes and receives calls with excellent call quality and battery life, two things my iphone has done just fine thank you very much, and its not like my previous phones were a cavalcade of mediocrity (Nokia's 3600 and E62 are included in the list, both of which were superb phones)
Personally, my complaint is just the lack of storage space, which i knew getting into the deal, so thats truthfully my fault (Buying an 8gb iphone when i had 6.5gbs of music is not the most truely intelligent thing i guess) And the lack of a hard foreward/back button for music (For when im in my car because i dont have a place to mount it in my peripheral vision to hit the buttons, a bluetooth remote would work as well, just some TACTILE way to go forward and back)
The one nobody mentioned is no email to groups. I stood in line 8 hrs Friday to get my shiny new toy. Was sitting at a baseball game and got an email I needed to forward to a group in my contacts list. ('Course I couldn't have done this from BB game a week ago but still...) I had to select the names one by one, s...l...o...w...l...y... and missed a coupla good plays. This could have been a quick forward, w/o missing a single pitch.
July 13 2008 at 4:07 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyGood point, I have email forwarders set up for my work email, but I'm in the IT dept and have the credentials to set it up. It would be very frustrating if I had to enter every name every time I email to my team.
July 13 2008 at 5:26 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI'd pay big money for a simple envelope icon or message indicator on the top status bar. I hate that I have to quit an app and then slide back to the sms icon to see if there are new messages. I don't understand why they don't have this standard, useful UI feature.
July 13 2008 at 1:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHot Apps on TUAW
Deals of the Day
more deals- miFrame Picture Frame Dock for iPad for $64 + $8 s&h
- Refurb Apple iPod nano 8GB MP3 Player for $99 + free shipping, 16GB for $119
- Hannspree Apple-Shaped 28" 1080p LCD HDTV for $270 + free shipping
- Philips wOOx Alarm Clock Radio for Apple iPod / iPhone for $60 + free shipping
- iWatchz Elemetal Collection Bracelet for iPod nano for $75 + free shipping
- iFrogz Luxe Lean Hard Case for iPod touch for $10 + free shipping
Software Updates
more updates- EFI Firmware Update brings Lion Internet Recovery to 2010-model Macs
- OS X Lion 10.7.3 released with Safari 5.1.3, Wi-Fi bug fix
- Aperture updated to 3.2.2, addresses Photo Stream issue
- Apple updates Keynote to address Lion issues
- Google Search app gets new look on iPad
- Apple releases Apple TV Software Update 4.4.3



118 Comments