Demo iPhones crashing

[daysleeper]

So, my Verizon contract is up in a couple of days, and I went to the apple store in Clarendon VA yesterday to get some 'face time' with the iPhone. There weren't many people in the store, and I had the entire kiosk of six iPhones to myself.

I was all set to be convinced to walk out with a new phone, but my experience with the demo units was horrible. On all phones but one, each web page loaded strangely in safari-- no pictures, jumbled text, or nothing at all. And without fail, on each of the six demos, when a page loaded and I started to pan around, the screen would inexplicable revert to the main icon menu. This happened over and over again, mostly in safari, but also in Google maps and the ipod. The apple store rep who stopped to help me said it was because I was using EDGE (I disabled wifi to see how slow it would be), but when I switched back to wifi I had the same problems. She then said, "Oh, you know, these phones get used a lot, so they get buggy." Really? After about an hour of getting increasingly more frustrated with the iPhone crashing and difficult touch-typing, I walked out of the store disappointed that the device was so unstable and difficult to use.

Has anyone else had this experience in stores? Do your iPhones crash regularly, for no apparent reason? Does instability increase with frequent usage?

 

[avalys]

I have had extremely infrequent crashes in Safari. Occasionally annoying, but I'm sure Apple is working on it.

 

[Canuck4]

That can be fixed but clearing the cash and deleteing cookies.
Also to do a restart/reset sometime is helpfull.
Mine does that once or twice a day if that but not that often.
I know display units get abused alot.

 

[kaidomac]

That's a poor answer - "these phones get used a lot so they're really buggy". Okay, so what happens when you take it home and use it a lot?

I'm wondering if they are running the latest firmware. My crashes have gone down with each new firmware upgrade. 1.0.2 is quite stable. Safari and Maps crash infrequently, and once in a blue moon the entire phone locks up. Can't say the same about my previous Windows smartphones/PDAs, which crashed much more frequently.

 

[gceo]

Yup, the least buggy smart phone I've ever had.

With frequent use, Safari will crash a couple of times in a week. But on the other hand, I do a lot of online shopping, and have checked out of secure sites several times, buying dozens of items (dickies.com, walmart.com, amazon.com, etc) and have NEVER had a crash during checkout. Most other phones won't even let me checkout on a secure page.

 

[KittyToy]

not for me

I got my iPhone on 7/26/07, and it has never crashed on me and I'm on the net most the time on sites like this and playing online games, but I guess i'm just lucky. but I do know the demo versions don't work right because those been on display since the phone launched and people just mess with all kinds of things. the demo version I used in AT&T couldn't even show youtube video's and I was like your stuff is broken and he told me the same thing she told u, everyone be using them so things get messed up.. still bought it, still love it. and even happier since AT&T gave me my 200 bucks back...whoo hoooo

 

[DMC-12]

I first tested out an iPhone at an Apple Store in Ohio, and Safari crashed while trying to load one of the first pages I typed in. Yesterday I tried an iPhone in an AT&T Store in Tennessee, and although Safari did not crash, the home screen would freeze up and become unresponsive a lot, forcing me to put it to sleep, and then try again.

 

[aristobrat]

Yup, the least buggy smart phone I've ever had.

Same experience here.

Even with the occasional Safari crashes I get, I find myself using the iPhone to surf the web at least 20x more than I ever did on any Windows Mobile or BlackBerry device I've owned.

 

[jlanuez]

Firmware Updated & power on/off

...I'm wondering if they are running the latest firmware.... My crashes have gone down with each new firmware upgrade. 1.0.2 is quite stable...

My guess is that the display phones might be buggy because:
1) they are not getting updated firmware (needs iTunes connection)
2) they don't get the power cycled on/off enough?
3) maybe people are going to many many sites, and doing other odd stuff (compared to one owner might do) and creating an unstable environment (if the phone is not power cycled on/off).

My AT&T rep has told me to make sure all AT&T phones (not just iPhone) get powered on/off once daily. This had more to do with cell connection problems, but I know when I power off our MACs and network, it always gets "faster" as a fresh hard-reboot.

I power of all the studio computers (all MACs) once a week and the iPhone about 1-3 days (when I remember to).

 

[daysleeper]

Alright, you guys have talked me into it. I'll take the plunge and hope *my* iphone is much more stable than those at the store.

Apple should really pay attention to this stuff, though, because a lot of people will come into the store curious and figure the phone is a POS when none of them work right.

And really, the answer that "they get buggy when they're used a lot" is a terrible, terrible excuse.