Over the weekend I decided that I wanted more out of my phone, so I purchased my first Apple product, an iPhone 3G. The device is just great. The size is wonderful, it feels perfect in my hand. The screen is magnificent, both clear and responsive. The UI is head and shoulders above anything else I've ever used. It really is an amazing gizmo, and I love me my gizmos. =)
However, I have run into some issues. I've run into a lot of general instability, or at least a lot more than I would have expected. I had a total of 24 apps already on my computer before I even bought the phone, so some of it might have to do with all those. Some apps would quit before fully opening, others would reset the phone entirely after a couple min of use. 3rd party apps I kinda expect some from, especially the ones that look like they were an after school project, but the big ones like Yelp and Urban Spoon I did not expect to have trouble with. I even had Safari repeatedly quit to the 'desktop.' (or whatever you want to call it) Overall it hasn't really affected my (limited) time with the device too much, but it's certainly had more issues than I expected. Hopefully 2.1 will bring some extra stability.
I've also run into some curiosities, like how it seems there is no way to turn off the sound from EA's sudoku or Aurora Feint. I thought turning off the ringer would do it, but no such luck. On my old cheesy VZW phones every game would ask if I wanted to have sound, and I pretty much always said no. Sure, this is limited to certain apps, but I expected turning off the ringer to kill all sounds from the speaker.
I'm sure I'll step on a few toes in saying this, but so far the worst part of using the iPhone has been dealing with iTunes. I've heard so much praise from people over the years, but I always avoided it, and if I didn't have to use it with my phone, I still would. Still, perhaps my problems with it are more to blame on my ignorance, so perhaps someone would be so kind as to answer a couple questions. First of all, is there a way to turn off the constant backups it performs? Since I'm playing around with the phone so much, I keep adding little things, a couple new pictures, a new album or podcast, and I want to sync it and see if it worked, and most of the time it tries to backup the whole phone. A once a day or manual backup would be much preferable. Also, does iTunes not automatically update folders? I'm on a PC, but i feel like if I add something to my music or photo folders, I have to tell iTunes to find that folder again for any changes to show up. Also, of the times that I've synced it so far, it hasn't always made every change it should have. For example, it took three or four consecutive syncs just to get all of the apps I downloaded. It would say sync completed, but it would only get maybe 6 or 7 at a time, not all 23. After 2 days of iTunes, I wish I could use the Zune software or even WMP. Sad but true.
I suppose most of this post sounds more like whining and complaining than it really should. I love this phone, and after two days of almost non-stop use I'm left far more impressed by it than any other gadget I can remember. I suppose when something is so good it's just easier to notice the little nagging things that keep it from perfection.
P.S. screw MMS, gimme voice-dial and copy-paste!
However, I have run into some issues. I've run into a lot of general instability, or at least a lot more than I would have expected. I had a total of 24 apps already on my computer before I even bought the phone, so some of it might have to do with all those. Some apps would quit before fully opening, others would reset the phone entirely after a couple min of use. 3rd party apps I kinda expect some from, especially the ones that look like they were an after school project, but the big ones like Yelp and Urban Spoon I did not expect to have trouble with. I even had Safari repeatedly quit to the 'desktop.' (or whatever you want to call it) Overall it hasn't really affected my (limited) time with the device too much, but it's certainly had more issues than I expected. Hopefully 2.1 will bring some extra stability.
I've also run into some curiosities, like how it seems there is no way to turn off the sound from EA's sudoku or Aurora Feint. I thought turning off the ringer would do it, but no such luck. On my old cheesy VZW phones every game would ask if I wanted to have sound, and I pretty much always said no. Sure, this is limited to certain apps, but I expected turning off the ringer to kill all sounds from the speaker.
I'm sure I'll step on a few toes in saying this, but so far the worst part of using the iPhone has been dealing with iTunes. I've heard so much praise from people over the years, but I always avoided it, and if I didn't have to use it with my phone, I still would. Still, perhaps my problems with it are more to blame on my ignorance, so perhaps someone would be so kind as to answer a couple questions. First of all, is there a way to turn off the constant backups it performs? Since I'm playing around with the phone so much, I keep adding little things, a couple new pictures, a new album or podcast, and I want to sync it and see if it worked, and most of the time it tries to backup the whole phone. A once a day or manual backup would be much preferable. Also, does iTunes not automatically update folders? I'm on a PC, but i feel like if I add something to my music or photo folders, I have to tell iTunes to find that folder again for any changes to show up. Also, of the times that I've synced it so far, it hasn't always made every change it should have. For example, it took three or four consecutive syncs just to get all of the apps I downloaded. It would say sync completed, but it would only get maybe 6 or 7 at a time, not all 23. After 2 days of iTunes, I wish I could use the Zune software or even WMP. Sad but true.
I suppose most of this post sounds more like whining and complaining than it really should. I love this phone, and after two days of almost non-stop use I'm left far more impressed by it than any other gadget I can remember. I suppose when something is so good it's just easier to notice the little nagging things that keep it from perfection.
P.S. screw MMS, gimme voice-dial and copy-paste!
