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Concerns of iPhone 3GS Overheating and Discoloration Gaining Publicity
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If the 3GS has sold over 1 million units and we have only heard of a handful of cases, what percentage of units is that? Think about it for a minute.
A recall would require how many defective units? At 10%, that would be 100,000 units but we have yet to hear of 100 cases let alone in the thousands.
@ chrismac00: How many smart devices (PDA's Smart phones) have you owned in the past? What was going through your mind when the phone gave an error message that it was too hot and you thought it would be a good idea to leave it turned on and to put it back into your backpack on a 100 F day?
Did you think that it would magically cool down in the bag while still turned on?
A recall would require how many defective units? At 10%, that would be 100,000 units but we have yet to hear of 100 cases let alone in the thousands.
@ chrismac00: How many smart devices (PDA's Smart phones) have you owned in the past? What was going through your mind when the phone gave an error message that it was too hot and you thought it would be a good idea to leave it turned on and to put it back into your backpack on a 100 F day?
Did you think that it would magically cool down in the bag while still turned on?
No, because it would still overheat. Every battery will overheat when it is either above optimal ambient operating temperature or being constantly discharged and charged which is what happens if you use GPS and hands free in a car while plugged into the car. Your phone draws more power than the USB cable can supply so it draws from the battery and then USB recharges when the peak usage subsides.If the iPhone had a user-replaceable battery wouldn't it be so much easier?
I love how people are saying it's an "overheating problem"... such BS. Yes, it gets hot with use. It has 3 powerful antennas in it, if they're on and you're using it those antennas are going to heat up, and so will the battery. Playing a game, especially a networked one mine will get very warm. I have never gotten any error messages or anything, it just gets warm. It's a 32GB white and I have no discoloration or other BS. I use mine all day every day for work and play.
BTW, people recommending a case... a case is just going to help trap the heat in, if you're actually worried about the iPhone "overheating". If you're worried about burning your precious hands... well I guess that would help, but no one is going to suffer burns from an iPhone.
1 or 2 people post pictures saying their iPhone is overheating and discoloring and dozens more (most not owning the actual iPhone) jump on add more BS to the pile. Welcome to the real world, where nothing is perfect and yes, a phone will warm up with use.
Not that I need to qualify myself or anything... but I am a technician who welcomes a debate about this.
BTW, people recommending a case... a case is just going to help trap the heat in, if you're actually worried about the iPhone "overheating". If you're worried about burning your precious hands... well I guess that would help, but no one is going to suffer burns from an iPhone.
1 or 2 people post pictures saying their iPhone is overheating and discoloring and dozens more (most not owning the actual iPhone) jump on add more BS to the pile. Welcome to the real world, where nothing is perfect and yes, a phone will warm up with use.
Not that I need to qualify myself or anything... but I am a technician who welcomes a debate about this.
Cool. New iPhone 3G (PRODUCT) PINK™, with revolutionary Phased Color Evolution™ technology.
(aka HyperColor iPhone.)
(aka HyperColor iPhone.)
Heating problems...
Battery problems...
And Apple's thinking of going multi-core
https://www.macrumors.com/2009/06/16/multi-core-arm-iphone-chips-due-in-2010/
I'm not really surprised by the over heating issues - in fact, it was almost somewhat expected. Apple crammed a new processor, new graphics chip, more ram and other things in the SAME case as the other devices. In other words, they didn't even attempt to test the case for heating issues with the new components. No matter how you slice it, Apple skipped proper testing almost entirely this time around and I'm sure once someone gets burned they'll issue a recall.
In regards to people saying "one person posts pictures and all of a sudden it's widespread" (you know who you are) you have to keep in mind that people are retarded and most people would never submit a story online. However, try calling AT&T customer service (as I did) and I the response I got was "yes, we're aware of that issue"... so that tells you that plenty of people have called about the problem. Just because everyone doesn't have a website doesn't mean it's not widespread.
Beyond that, much like a ton of people on this board are trying to defend apple i'm sure there are thousands more out there that would just deal with the issue until they get burned to not tarnish the apple name in any way.
If the 3GS has sold over 1 million units and we have only heard of a handful of cases, what percentage of units is that? Think about it for a minute.
A recall would require how many defective units? At 10%, that would be 100,000 units but we have yet to hear of 100 cases let alone in the thousands.
@ chrismac00: How many smart devices (PDA's Smart phones) have you owned in the past? What was going through your mind when the phone gave an error message that it was too hot and you thought it would be a good idea to leave it turned on and to put it back into your backpack on a 100 F day?
Did you think that it would magically cool down in the bag while still turned on?
I think that is true i am getting mine next week now as i am sure its only a couple that have this issue and not all of them, and i am sure apple to give new ones to the people that have this issue.
Yes, but if you invite a turn-by-turn navigation maker to present in your WWDC keynote you are certainly implying some things.
Good luck with asking for a black iphone. I tried this since I have a white iphone and I was told that they have to give me the same color iphone in return. Why I do not know. It shouldn't matter to them.
Anyone see battery fail to hold a charge in hot weather?
I have been in 100 degree weather recently, driving with my iPhone. I didn't see any temperature warnings, but I did get a low battery warning WHILE ON THE CHARGER. The phone was sitting on the dash in the sun, with A/C blasting. Moving it out of the sun and cooling in the A/C fixed the problem.
Also, when I put my partially charged iPhone in a hot car, the battery level dropped very quickly. It seems like the battery actually discharged in the heat. No lasting effects that I've seen.
PS: After RTFM, it actually says this exact behavior may occur, so no mystery.
I have been in 100 degree weather recently, driving with my iPhone. I didn't see any temperature warnings, but I did get a low battery warning WHILE ON THE CHARGER. The phone was sitting on the dash in the sun, with A/C blasting. Moving it out of the sun and cooling in the A/C fixed the problem.
Also, when I put my partially charged iPhone in a hot car, the battery level dropped very quickly. It seems like the battery actually discharged in the heat. No lasting effects that I've seen.
PS: After RTFM, it actually says this exact behavior may occur, so no mystery.
You must work for Apple
Thanks for straightening us out. You must be very busy approving all the apps in the App Store.
Not being able to operate at 100 F is really a pretty poor standard for any mobile electronic device - simply outside on a summer day in the shade! Certainly not an issue with other, simpler phones, calculators, etc. Don't know about other smart phones.
Note: Blackberry Bold operating temperature = 104 F. A little better, not much.
Thanks for straightening us out. You must be very busy approving all the apps in the App Store.
Not being able to operate at 100 F is really a pretty poor standard for any mobile electronic device - simply outside on a summer day in the shade! Certainly not an issue with other, simpler phones, calculators, etc. Don't know about other smart phones.
Note: Blackberry Bold operating temperature = 104 F. A little better, not much.
3.0 seems to give lots of problems ...
Quite a few people, me included, have big issues with memory, heat, wireless and bluetooth after upgrading to 3.0 (See http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2043310). No reaction from Apple as yet.
Bummer.
Last week, Nowhere Else began receiving reports [Google translation] from owners of the white iPhone 3GS that had experience significant overheating, leading in some cases to distinct pink or brown discoloration on the iPhone's back case. A later report from Wired suggested that faulty battery cells may be the cause of the overheating and could lead to a significant recall of the affected iPhones.
Image from Nowhereelse.fr
A number of reports today have pointed to an Apple support document providing advice on how to keep iPhones from overheating as an acknowledgement of the problem on the part of Apple. As Macworld points out, however, the document was originally posted many months ago, and was recently updated only to add references to the iPhone 3GS to the existing ones for the iPhone 3G. According to the Apple document, an overheating iPhone will display a warning screen and become inoperable with the exception of allowing emergency phone calls to be made. Apple also describes several situations that can lead to activation of the temperature warning screen.While heat is definitely a concern for any electronic device, particularly ones like the iPhone that pack a significant amount of power into a small space, Apple assures its iPhone 3G and 3GS customers that the devices do meet international safety standards for such devices. At this time, Apple has made no official response to these latest reports of overheating and discoloration on the new iPhone 3GS.
Article Link: Concerns of iPhone 3GS Overheating and Discoloration Gaining Publicity
Quite a few people, me included, have big issues with memory, heat, wireless and bluetooth after upgrading to 3.0 (See http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2043310). No reaction from Apple as yet.
Bummer.
100 F (38 C) is certainly pretty normal summer weather here.
I've never had a smartphone or PDA have a problem with those sort of temperatures, and I don't even bother turning on the air conditioning until it hits 40 C.
If the iPhone can't handle that kind of warm weather, then there's something seriously wrong.
Is it me or is the coloring on the Logo inconsistent. The leaf is darker then the main part of the fruit. I smell Photoshop.
And that is why children, you don't put a very powerful processor anda very powerful GPU and more ram in a thin package. You will end up like little johnny in the apple hospital. they had to give him a shiny new plastic white back because he was in the sun too long.
what i am really wondering though is, if apple underclocked the cpu to from its max potential during release, i wonder if the iphone would have had holes in it if the CPU was running full power. the iphone would just be brown from iphone skin cancer, it would be dead from overheating w/ a big black crater where the processor is. i have a solution for this though. perforate the iphone shell somehow or maybe make the iphone out of carbon fiber so that heat dissipates quicker. a solution is to mix metal flakes with the molten plastic. so that the metal removes heat better but to keep the original plastic look close enough( kind of like metallic paint)
what i am really wondering though is, if apple underclocked the cpu to from its max potential during release, i wonder if the iphone would have had holes in it if the CPU was running full power. the iphone would just be brown from iphone skin cancer, it would be dead from overheating w/ a big black crater where the processor is. i have a solution for this though. perforate the iphone shell somehow or maybe make the iphone out of carbon fiber so that heat dissipates quicker. a solution is to mix metal flakes with the molten plastic. so that the metal removes heat better but to keep the original plastic look close enough( kind of like metallic paint)
The article referred to exposing the iPhone to DIRECT sunlight. You could be happily using the iPhone in 30+ centigrade heat with no problems at all but of course if you place it on a surface where the sun is DIRECTLY heating it then the heat in that area will become significant and yes, most electronic equipment - be it an iPhone, Nokia, Ericcsson Motorola, camera, camcorder, etc. will eventually suffer quite badly. If you stand still in the same area you yourself will become uncomfortably hot and will eventually suffer severe sunburn for the same reason.
Honestly this to me is a blindingly obvious non-issue, with the caveat that of course there will quite possibly be examples of faulty batteries, which will have issues whatever the weather....
Vanilla
Honestly this to me is a blindingly obvious non-issue, with the caveat that of course there will quite possibly be examples of faulty batteries, which will have issues whatever the weather....
Vanilla
Concerned
Well, this certainly isn't good news but I am still going to go ahead with my purchase of a 32GB White 3GS and hope that the issues cited are indeed isolated. What worries me the most about this is that one of the primary reasons why I want a 3GS is for the GPS functions and the TomTom application, which seems like the perfect fit for what I want. However, if the thing dies on me during a trip then I will be very annoyed.
It is hard to say how widespread the issues are but it is clear that there are issues and they need to be fixed, either in the form of replacement units (if the problem is sporadic) or a complete recall if there is a fundamental design issue. Certainly you should be able to expect that a device that costs EUR 675 will do everything that it claims to without putting little caveats in that restricts how you should use it. For example, my iPhone will be mounted on my car windscreen by the TomTom holder and I have no intention of directing the air conditioning at it, not least because I want it fully directed at me at the moment. If the unit dies due to this then it is a problem with the iPhone and not a problem with how I am using it.
I'll wait and see how things work out but it does seem that this thread is largely populated by people either panicking or doing those doing their best impression of an ostrich with its head in the sand.
Well, this certainly isn't good news but I am still going to go ahead with my purchase of a 32GB White 3GS and hope that the issues cited are indeed isolated. What worries me the most about this is that one of the primary reasons why I want a 3GS is for the GPS functions and the TomTom application, which seems like the perfect fit for what I want. However, if the thing dies on me during a trip then I will be very annoyed.
It is hard to say how widespread the issues are but it is clear that there are issues and they need to be fixed, either in the form of replacement units (if the problem is sporadic) or a complete recall if there is a fundamental design issue. Certainly you should be able to expect that a device that costs EUR 675 will do everything that it claims to without putting little caveats in that restricts how you should use it. For example, my iPhone will be mounted on my car windscreen by the TomTom holder and I have no intention of directing the air conditioning at it, not least because I want it fully directed at me at the moment. If the unit dies due to this then it is a problem with the iPhone and not a problem with how I am using it.
I'll wait and see how things work out but it does seem that this thread is largely populated by people either panicking or doing those doing their best impression of an ostrich with its head in the sand.
I didn't bother to look up carbon vs plastic, but aluminum would do far better for cooling. I heard they went to plastic because the 3G had reception problems with a metal case at the higher data rates.
Gee ... materials choice vs data rates vs overheating ... these wouldn't be a real engineering tradeoffs, would they? :>D
Sometimes it isn't easy & you have to make a choice.
1. Everyone is gunning for Apple right now. Expect an endless stream of FUD. I smell Ballmer - gearing up for the ZunePhone Ultimate Professional Platinum Edition announcement.
2. Sensational stories about Apple generate traffic. Would the general public care that an HTC running WinMo was overheating? Of course not. Why do you think Green Peace pickets Apple stores and not Best Buy? Media coverage!
3. People hold Apple to a higher standard. If an Apple product even smells a little off, we (the customers) are all over it. And rightly so.
I'm guessing this is a problem with a tiny minority, so the press coverage (they mentioned it today on Fox News or MSNBC, I can't remember which) is probably due to 1 or 2.
Apple really don't seem to do any sort of quality control/testing on anything they release these days.
If it's not laptops over heating, or with screen defects, it's their bloody phones
If it's not laptops over heating, or with screen defects, it's their bloody phones