iOS 4.2 to Bring More Performance Improvements to iPhone 3G?

[wizard]

Reading this thread is interesting because so many don't have a clue!

They just should have never put 4.0 on the 3G. That would have solved this problem quickly and easily.

The problem is not the 3G hardware, the problem was that 4.0 was not suitable for release on any hardware! The fact that faster hardware made it bearable does not make up for the fact that 4.0 had a negative impact on all iOS devices. The OS was (and still is to some extent) buggy, and prone to excessive battery consumption on all devices.

There is a whole history on these forums about issues people have had with 4.0 and how to some extent they where corrected with 4.1. The problem isn't just bad performance on the 3G. It just amazes me that people have such a short term memory these days.

As to the lawsuit I think it is highly justified in this case. If you have the time and ability to take on Apple for releasing software on a deadline instead of waiting for it to be finished, then I say go for it. Lets face it folks Apple screwed up and saddled everybody with a questionable software release, it really doesn't matter if it was intentional or not, they need to hear that it is unacceptable.

 

[Maxipeg]

No one is forcing 3G users to update. If you don't like the performance, stay at 3.x.

Yeah, thanks for reminding us... apple recommended the upgrade and once you did it there was no way to downgrade

 

[Maxipeg]

"Wofford claims that Apple was aware that iOS 4 would cause degraded performance on older iPhones, and she accused Apple of purposely creating an incentive for customers to purchase newer iPhones."

Sorry, but regardless of iOS4.0's performance on the iPhone 3G, I didn't need any "incentive" or push by Apple to go out and buy the iPhone 4.

The iPhone 3G is old hardware, it's no more powerful than the first generation iPhone except for adding a 3G/GPS chipset. Apple should actually be commended for trying to keep a dead horse alive by even supporting it into iOS4, if I were the team at Apple I'd have left the 3G out along with the original iPhone.

However, if Apple had done that there would be ANOTHER lawsuit filed by some idiot who would moan that Apple had abandoned their device.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

Let's be blunt and honest here, post 2.2 the iPhone 3G is a laggy piece of crud. It's woefully under specced compared to the latest handsets from not only Apple, but HTC, Motorola, Nokia, etc. It was usable on 3.0, but 4.0 was a step too far even without multi-tasking and homescreen wallpaper which, contrary to the sceptics on here, the 3G cannot handle. Even jailbroken iPhone 3G handsets prior to 4.0 would struggle with Winterboard themes; I know this from experience.

As I said, Apple can't win. They're sued by the lawsuit happy Americans if they release an update and they're sued by the same people if they don't who claim they're abandoning them.

There is no incentive or agenda being forced by Apple to make you buy the iPhone 4 or even latest HTC handset. Using the iPhone 3G, even on 3.0, and then using an iPhone or Desire is more than enough to make the most sensible user think, "This handset is showing it's age".

For all those stuck with a 2-year contract there was no way to go out and buy an iPhone 4

 

[nniicckk]

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Do people just luv to mouth off? Or do they?

No company wants to support multiple software releases at one time if they can avoid it. You don't have to add new features to old releases but they still need security updates. Ergo 4.0 with no way to go back. Unfortunately 4.0 sucked and apple probably ran out of time to QA and fix it properly.

Running 4.2 GM now (posting this from iphone) and it rocks! So stop complaining folks, Apple done good on this one.

 

[Maxipeg]

3G owners, like original generation owners, will have to be left behind by certain developers as the devices become more powerful.

My God, you don't hear people unfortunate enough to still own a PlayStation moan about their console not playing the latest PlayStation 3 games.

It's called progression, and one day the iPhone 3GS and then the iPhone 4 will be left behind in the big tech graveyard to rot as better tech takes priority.

OK, but at least hey could have offered a downgrade towards 3.x once they found out that 4.0 on a 3G was a disaster

 

[LAS.mac]

My fear is that iOS 4.xx will be the death of iPad. My shiny new iPad really rocks as fastness, as well as battery life. My iPhone 3G never had such performance with iOS 3.1. And I tried iOS 4.0 on my 3G iPhone, which became unusable. I had to downgrade to 3.1 again. I wonder if 4.xx on iPad won't do the same, reducing speed and responsiveness, as well as battery life, sensibly. Hope not, but I'll remain waiting at the window, once released, hopefully I'll resist for a couple of weeks this time...

 

[Glideslope]

So okay -- I'll admit where I'm wrong if the "Restore from Backup" feature does not do this for you. I was under the assumption that "restore from backup" (which I've used to recover my mother-in-law's iPhone would actually restore the operating system).

If you are telling me that restore from backup does not do the trick here, then Apple needs to provide a way and they are liable for that. If she just failed to take a backup before upgrade and that iTunes feature does work, then shame on her.

The Class Action is based on the inability to restore to iOS 3.3 from a backup once iOS 4.0 was installed. This was intentional by Apple, with no warning at the time of the initial release of iOS 4.0.

 

[squirrellydw]

Again no one forced you to upgrade, you choose to do it. Just because apple or any other company says something is great is not a reason to upgrade, do your research. I have an iPad and I want 4.2 bad but I will not upgrade for at least a week till I see what other people say and might even go to a store and test it out myself.

So you upgrade your 3G to 4.0 and it was slow, apple then came out with 4.1 and fixed some problems now they came out with 4.2 and it fixed more issues. How quick do you think apple should come up with these fixes?

You will say apple should have waited and not release 4.0 till it was better, how do you know it didn't run fine on there test phones? I'm not trying to defend apple but I hate stupid lawsuits and class action lawsuits but they can help keep companies in line but never get the consumer anything and if AT&T wins it's court case class action lawsuits will be a thing of the past.

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Supreme-Court-Case-Could-Cripple-Your-Legal-Rights-111252

 

[Glideslope]

My fear is that iOS 4.xx will be the death of iPad. My shiny new iPad really rocks as fastness, as well as battery life. My iPhone 3G never had such performance with iOS 3.1. And I tried iOS 4.0 on my 3G iPhone, which became unusable. I had to downgrade to 3.1 again. I wonder if 4.xx on iPad won't do the same, reducing speed and responsiveness, as well as battery life, sensibly. Hope not, but I'll remain waiting at the window, once released, hopefully I'll resist for a couple of weeks this time...

Previous posts are correct. iOS 4.2 Rocks. Your iPad will love it. It's what 4.1 should have been. Relax and upgrade in a day or two.

 

[WiiDSmoker]

IOS 4.0 even on a 3GS is sluggish compared to the glorious 3.1.3. I had to jailbreak my phone just to disable the "multi-tasking" that Apple implemented; otherwise my phone would lag unbearably.

 

[mrboult]

I never said they were sued for abandoning the first iPhone, so your entire post is presumptuous, misinformed, and uneducated. . . . . .

I said that IF Apple had not supported the iPhone 3G with iOS4.0, no doubt some lawsuit happy American WOULD have sued Apple for not supporting their device.

No dude, you are missing his point!

People are not suing Apple for leaving the original iPhone out of iOS4 because they are happily using their original iPhones on iOS3.

General users of the 3G who didn't know any better just clicked 'update' one day in iTunes (as one does very often in itunes) and suddenly their phone was totally f^#*ed !!!

And it has been like that for many months.

If apple had just left the 3G out of iOS4 then most users would still be happily using their phones not even really being aware that they are now a little out of date.

 

[mrboult]

Apple is held to a high standard for a reason. We expect a lot from them. That's part of the premium way pay for their products. This iOS 4.x situation shouldn't be acceptable and the enduser should not be held to blame for trusting Apple.

Exactly.

 

[Amdahl]

No one is forcing 3G users to update. If you don't like the performance, stay at 3.x.

iOS 3 isn't getting security updates. The day they released iOS 4, they announced a ton of security fixes. And they did not also release those fixes that same day for iOS 3. They basically said 'suck it iPhone 1 owners!' and 'Upgrade iPhone 3G owners, and then suck it, and buy an iPhone 4!'

This whole process is just Apple learning that they are now too big to play 'screw our customers' every 12 to 24 months. It's a good thing.

 

[mrboult]

This whole process is just Apple learning that they are now too big to play 'screw our customers' every 12 to 24 months. It's a good thing.

Erm. . . . OS X Leopard was released when, 2007-2008 maybe? And that ran on computers from 2001 (and even earlier maybe)? I think people said it even boosted performance on some of those old machines.

And this is the FIRST time apple have released an iOS software update not compatible with all iOS devices. . . No?

My point is that I've been an apple customer for a long time and have never felt that i'm getting 'screwed every 12 to 24 months'.

 

[reticulate]

A couple of points people appear to be missing when they're busy blaming 3G owners:

• The 3G was still available for sale, on contract until just prior to the 4.0 release.
• Whenever a user plugged their 3G into iTunes, it would offer an update.
• There is no 'legit' Apple-approved method to downgrade the phone after installing 4.0 and realising it more or less bricked the handset.
• Owners of the original iPhone never received this update notification, and further were under no illusions their devices were EOL as far as Apple was concerned. The same cannot be said for the 3G.

While it's fun to play Apple apologist, they were still selling these phones and already had a large install base of 3G owners by the 4.0 release. Basic QA would have established the update was sufficient to render many owner's handsets completely useless. They took your money and then handed you a brick shortly after.

Feel free to explain to a tech-phobic friend or family member that they're an idiot for trying to install an update on their relatively new phone that iTunes provides and offers to install every single time they sync. I'll wait here.

Apple dun goofed. 4.1 fixed a lot of the issues, and I'm happy 4.2 continues to improve performance - but in reality this should never have happened in the first place.

 

[KTF]

upgrade to a newer phone, people

No

 

[KTF]

A couple of points people appear to be missing when they're busy blaming 3G owners:

• The 3G was still available for sale, on contract until just prior to the 4.0 release.
• Whenever a user plugged their 3G into iTunes, it would offer an update.
• There is no 'legit' Apple-approved method to downgrade the phone after installing 4.0 and realising it more or less bricked the handset.
• Owners of the original iPhone never received this update notification, and further were under no illusions their devices were EOL as far as Apple was concerned. The same cannot be said for the 3G.

While it's fun to play Apple apologist, they were still selling these phones and already had a large install base of 3G owners by the 4.0 release. Basic QA would have established the update was sufficient to render many owner's handsets completely useless. They took your money and then handed you a brick shortly after.

Feel free to explain to a tech-phobic friend or family member that they're an idiot for trying to install an update on their relatively new phone that iTunes provides and offers to install every single time they sync. I'll wait here.

Apple dun goofed. 4.1 fixed a lot of the issues, and I'm happy 4.2 continues to improve performance - but in reality this should never have happened in the first place.

Great Post

 

[Muscleflex]

I'm still on the white 3G and have refrained from upgrading because i was waiting for the white iphone 4 even tho i do think the black one looks better than the white one but since everyone seems to have the iphone 4 now (even our cleaner has an iphone 4 ), but anyway.... when OS4 came out, that just killed my 3g - it was so unuseable i had to find a hack to revert back to 3.1 something which i have been using for a while. last month, i decided unlock my phone as i moved away from O2 and in doing so, was forced to upgrade to 4.1.
to my surprise, 4.1 wasn't as bad as 4. it was definitely faster and useable. i'm on 4.1 now still and if this 4.2 is better - then i welcome the improvements.

regarding my upgrade path - since the white iphone4 seem to have disappeared and will not come out, i guess i will have to get a black iphone 4 and be like everybody
oh well - can't win!

 

[iDrinkKoolAid]

upgrade to a newer phone, people

I would gladly update as soon as the mythical white iPhone 4 is out...

 

[zacman]

Well iOS has become a bloat OS. For the latest version you need the latest hardware. Reminds me of Windows back in the 90s to push new hardware.

 

[buckers]

hmm. well, as an avid gamer, its a long-standing fact that there is a very real difference between "compatible" and "optimal". many games can be purchased for a computer and are playable, but just not super great. in fact the same goes for any productivity software, too.

I always thought Apple was quite strict on their 'minimum' requirements because they like the user experience to be 'optimal'. Always felt these iPhone 3G compatibility issues to be a little weird, to be honest

 

[8ate8]

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I wonder how many of you guys that are saying the lawsuit is a bad idea, or to just buy a new phone, or that "hey no one is forcing you to upgrade to 4.0", actually HAVE a 3G? You're probably all 3GS and iPhone 4 users and haven't experienced the inoperability of the 3G with iOS4.

I have a 4, but my wife has a 3G, and the performance is dismal considering they stripped most of the iOS4 features out for the 3G.

 

[pmjoe]

Nice list, but the #1 reason:
The iPhone 3G was released on July 11, 2008; iOS 4 was released on June 21, 2010 - everyone who purchased an iPhone 3G was still under a 2 year contract.

Apple rendered our phones useless while millions of users were still under contract.

While I am quite happy with 4.1 - Apple owes all iPhone 3G owners damages for the 2.5 months they ruined our phones for.

A couple of points people appear to be missing when they're busy blaming 3G owners:

• The 3G was still available for sale, on contract until just prior to the 4.0 release.
• Whenever a user plugged their 3G into iTunes, it would offer an update.
• There is no 'legit' Apple-approved method to downgrade the phone after installing 4.0 and realising it more or less bricked the handset.
• Owners of the original iPhone never received this update notification, and further were under no illusions their devices were EOL as far as Apple was concerned. The same cannot be said for the 3G.

 

[pmjoe]

It's probably been said, but I think that lawsuit is bogus. [...] And users can also roll-back to older firmware, so they are not locked in.

Apple has never supported rolling back to older firmware. Anyone who called Apple or went to an Apple store was told they were stuck with 4.0.

 

[EvilC5]

No one is forcing 3G users to update. If you don't like the performance, stay at 3.x.

I agree with this, but.....I had to replace my 3GS last friday because the lock button kept coming off. I had apple care on it, and the apple store replaced it no questions asked.

I got home to find out it had 4.1 on it. I had not upgraded my 3GS for the performance reasons that have been discussed.

they told me I could probably upgrade to a iphone 4 with AT&T, but since its my company phone and not my personal phone it wasnt really an option.


so in the end, im curious to see how 4.2 does. the only upside to getting 4.1 was I could use the VLC app I downloaded before it goes away.