iPhone 2.1 Reactions and Additional Features

[Phil A.]

That's an interesting question. Doesn't the iPhone have only one memory type? It's all flash memory that can be mapped for storage or "RAM" type usage. There must be a portion reserved for "RAM", otherwise you could overload with songs and data to the point the phone wouldn't boot, but I'd think that otherwise you could map as much for your needs as OS X (lite) would allow.

The iPhone (and iPod touch) has, I believe, 128MB ram in addition to the flash memory (you can't use flash memory in place of RAM, except perhaps for virtual memory as you would a hard disk). Running out of memory is what causes most App crashes, so letting apps run in the background would definitely make things worse.

 

[imcquill]

The basic 2.1 seems to improved a lot. However, I wouldn't expect push to come too soon though. Push Mobile Me email is a mess. In the Apple discussion forums for mobile me on the iphone, there are loads and loads of people saying that it is not pushing consistently. It will just stop for a few hours until you manually check mail or reset the phone. And 2.1 doesn't help.

 

[GregA]

The basic 2.1 seems to improved a lot. However, I wouldn't expect push to come too soon though. Push Mobile Me email is a mess. In the Apple discussion forums for mobile me on the iphone, there are loads and loads of people saying that it is not pushing consistently. It will just stop for a few hours until you manually check mail or reset the phone. And 2.1 doesn't help.

I think that they're exactly the same thing. It's not a matter of "get mail fixed first, then worry about the rest".

ie: Fix MobileMe's push, and push for applications is fixed.
(and vice versa - if MobileMe isn't working yet then apps aren't either!)

I mean, really the challenge is getting the phones attention. Whether it's to say "you have mail" or "AIM has messages" makes no difference. I assume Apple is working hard on it wonder when it'll work?!

 

[imcquill]

I think that they're exactly the same thing. It's not a matter of "get mail fixed first, then worry about the rest".

ie: Fix MobileMe's push, and push for applications is fixed.
(and vice versa - if MobileMe isn't working yet then apps aren't either!)

I mean, really the challenge is getting the phones attention. Whether it's to say "you have mail" or "AIM has messages" makes no difference. I assume Apple is working hard on it wonder when it'll work?!

Yeah, I agree that they are probably exactly the same thing.. or likely they are using the same back end infrastructure for both. It just may not be too easy to get it working properly. I personally am a little peeved that they advertised push email at all two months ago.. I would have rather they said it will work in three months. Getting email inconsistently is not cool.

 

[docal97]

They have 15 days to give us Push, Copy Paste and Notes Sync.

EDIT:

Okay, they promised Push, and have to deliver it within 15 days, but common!! HOW HARD can it be to enable Notes Sync with Mail??????

The Notes sync seems so basic that I am shocked that it hasn't been added long ago. I figured it would be added last year with the release of Leopard. I've been using the EverNote App and I have been very pleased with it.

I think that Apple will be releasing Push by the end of the month or several weeks later. Just a guess of course, but we know that they have developed the software, b/c it was pulled from 2.1. I think they just wanted to get alot of the problems with 2.0 ironed out b/f releasing new features. Makes sense to me.

 

[cameronjpu]

I've been very happy with one new feature I've never seen mentioned in any article - the fact that podcasts now automatically go to the "next" podcast when they finish. I listen to radio shows that have 9-12 minute segments, and it's really nice not to have to turn on the iPhone every time to start a new segment. Love it!

 

[blackcrayon]

The iPhone (and iPod touch) has, I believe, 128MB ram in addition to the flash memory (you can't use flash memory in place of RAM, except perhaps for virtual memory as you would a hard disk). Running out of memory is what causes most App crashes, so letting apps run in the background would definitely make things worse.

You sure about that? Running out of memory causes *most* app crashes? I've seen tons of crashes that happen as soon as an app is launched, seems unlikely for that to be the cause of that.

iPhone OS X does use virtual memory, i'm assuming in a way not unlike Mac OS X does (i.e. it's always being used, things are constantly being paged in and out of it).

 

[imcquill]

You sure about that? Running out of memory causes *most* app crashes? I've seen tons of crashes that happen as soon as an app is launched, seems unlikely for that to be the cause of that.

iPhone OS X does use virtual memory, i'm assuming in a way not unlike Mac OS X does (i.e. it's always being used, things are constantly being paged in and out of it).

I had heard that the iPhone does not use virtual memory and once you fill up the RAM, your app needs an escape procedure. If it gets totally filled, your app 'crashes', which just means it gets unloaded and you go back to the home screen.

 

[sparklesgirl2]

I'm not impressed with the update. I haven't had to make too many calls yet, so I'm not sure if call drops are improved - but Safari is crashing more than ever and apps just as much as before. I've also had major trouble syncing apps installed on my phone back to my computer since iTunes 8.0 came out, and updating apps from both sides. I'm angry that a restore is going to probably be necessary to get a firmware update to work properly.

 

[NokX]

i tried to send an MMS and it just gave me an error message saying, "If you would like to send a picture message, please use any other phone made in the last 10 years. We only handle text on this multimedia phone."

 

[maiden16tiger]

not sure if it was already there, but:

IF YOU GO TO MAPS, UNDER THE REGULAR MAO VIEW, LOOK AT YOUR TOWNS BUILDINDS(IF ANY) AND NOTICE THEY ARE 3D ISH AT BIRDS EYE VIEW

 

[Marzzz]

Continued Bluetooth problems

While I am generally very happy with all the improvements with 2.1, one extremely annoying problem that persists is the horrible bluetooth echo when paired in with a car. This is documented extensively over at the Apple Discussion Boards, and it seems to be related to the 3G firmware- my wife's original iPhone pairs perfectly with her car, and my prior T-Mobile RAZR worked perfectly with my car. This SO needs to be fixed, I sound like a cheap AM radio station....

 

[skiphunt]

clean vs update?

I was having a good deal of problems with my iphone 3g. Most of them I'd worked around and waited for the 2.1 update.

After the update... everything was snappier... bugs appear to be fixed... mail works great.... better battery life, etc.

But now, after reading here that you can turn on AM/PM in the Date/Time settings.... I went to reset mine. ALL settings features seem to work except for one now. When I go to General Settings/Date and Time and click.... there's a pause and then I'm returned to the home screen. :-(

Does this indicate I don't have a good OS install anymore and have to start all over from scratch with a clean install?

 

[blackcrayon]

I had heard that the iPhone does not use virtual memory and once you fill up the RAM, your app needs an escape procedure. If it gets totally filled, your app 'crashes', which just means it gets unloaded and you go back to the home screen.

I'll go with the possibility it uses virtual memory *differently* than Mac OS X, but if you look at top:


Processes: 26 total, 2 running, 24 sleeping... 107 threads 09:24:43
Load Avg: 0.88, 0.93, 0.81 CPU usage: 17.39% user, 20.00% sys, 62.61% idle
SharedLibs: num = 0, resident = 0 code, 0 data, 0 linkedit.
MemRegions: num = 3873, resident = 41M + 0 private, 58M shared.
PhysMem: 39M wired, 12M active, 7100K inactive, 58M used, 3120K free.
VM: 717M + 0 204511(0) pageins, 579(0) pageouts

PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE
2191 locationd 14.4% 0:48.46 9 97 140 1336K+ 1728K 3528K+ 29M+
2190 Twinkle 0.0% 0:17.23 5 352 488 3760K 21M 16M 74M
2188 MobileMail 0.0% 0:02.85 4 106 204 2200K 11M 4444K 61M

(truncated)



certainly looks like it's using virtual memory to me

But yeah maybe there are some safeguards that will exit an app if it behaves badly with memory. I just didn't think it was the cause of *most* app crashes. (Actually before 2.1 i thought turning the iPhone on was the cause of app crashes

 

[ibwb]

I had heard that the iPhone does not use virtual memory and once you fill up the RAM, your app needs an escape procedure. If it gets totally filled, your app 'crashes', which just means it gets unloaded and you go back to the home screen.

Techie time!

The iPhone uses a virtual memory system but does NOT make use of a pagefile. The way most people are used to talking about this stuff, this basically means no "swap", but leaves room for mapped pages to be flushed -- in other words, data that is already on the flash (like executables, etc) can be dropped from RAM.

As for the API, it provides a provision for the iPhone OS to notify an application that RAM is running out, and it's up to the app designer to try to do something about it. This is basically a punt, as most programmers don't go around loading up a bunch of RAM that they don't have any use for. If an app ignores the memory warning and things get worse the OS will force it to close. I don't know how often this is really happening as there are lots of ways for an app to crash.

 

[dwd3885]

Hey.
I am still so much waiting for Bluetooth Sync. Do you think they will add this feature one day? It should be possible via Software Update, I guess.

this is what they need to do. it would be awesome, and why not?

 

[zedsdead]

I am happy with 2.1 overall. It is still not as bug free as 1.1.4, but the major issues have at least been improved. The contacts still take a little too long to load, but that will likely improve more.

The major things I am hoping for are:
(1) To-Do-List / Notes Synching
(2) Video Recording
(3) Copy/Paste
(4) Turn By Turn GPS, although I would prefer Google Maps to have it vs. the others.
(5) Leopard-Style Reflective Dock from the original iPod Touch. I wish Apple would at least give us an option. Not a fan of the grill style dock, especially after the reflective one came out (and then got revoked).

The Push is coming, it just likely was delayed because there was so much devoted to getting the bugs out of the iPhone.

 

[mooty]

Why do I still need to unlock and/or go to homescreen to check if I got any unread emails? Other phones have a small email icon next to the battery icon when new messages.. That works really well.

Anyone else missing this basic feature?

Man I want this so much. I am filling in a feedback form as we speak...

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

 

[blackcrayon]

Techie time!

The iPhone uses a virtual memory system but does NOT make use of a pagefile. The way most people are used to talking about this stuff, this basically means no "swap", but leaves room for mapped pages to be flushed -- in other words, data that is already on the flash (like executables, etc) can be dropped from RAM.

Thanks for the clarification...

 

[sunfast]

i tried to send an MMS and it just gave me an error message saying, "If you would like to send a picture message, please use any other phone made in the last 10 years. We only handle text on this multimedia phone."

Hilarious

 

[dwd3885]

Man I want this so much. I am filling in a feedback form as we speak...

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

thanks for the link. i did it too

 

[websyndicate]

Yes I am serious. Having a stable/fast phone is far more important then push notifications.

Genius is just a special version of smart playlists. The technical challenges to create it were far less then what it takes for push notifications.

Plus, I rather have push notifications that work well then a buggy release. Get it right before releasing it, regardless of time.

I agree with you 100%. The OS has been very buggy. Im happy now that they are working on stability. Features will come in time. We have 3rd party pass what more do we need right now? Okay Copy Paste. I really was starting to think 1.1.4 was th last great OS

 

[blindzero]

I think they should just drop Push notifications and allow background programs. Apple's first blunder was to close the iPhone to programmers. Now they've fixed that, they should avoid making another mistake with this stupid workaround. It would be as simple as adding a little indicator on the icon of the application that is still running on the spring board, a-la-dock if you prefer. No need for task managers of gimmicks of that sort!
Programmers would be happy and users would get all the benefits.
In fact, I can already think of some programs that should be background tasks but don't require constant connection!
Just my 2 cents...

I don't know about this...coming from a "smart" windows mobile phone that allowed this - it caused the whole system to be sluggish and reboots were a daily necessity. While I'm sure there would be some great applications for this - It only takes one or two bad programmers to completely slog down hundreds of thousands of phones...and then people blame the phone (not the horrible programming of one of their 3rd party apps they just had to have).

Not to mention the nefarious background processes that will start popping up.

Just allowing 3rd party installs and such has created a bit of a monster for the phone...it's like night and day as far as how stable the phone was before and after apps were allowed. Apps were worth it.

 

[jayducharme]

I wonder if anyone else has noticed that after the 2.1 software update, the sound quality of voicemails seems a bit worse?

Yeah, I've noticed that too. I thought it was just me. And it really is only on the voicemails. It's like the sound has been compressed to death. Otherwise, the sound from the speaker and earpiece seem to have been given a big boost.

 

[skiphunt]

date/time

I would have guessed that date and time are set by the network and that I couldn't change it. But after clicking "General Settings" and then "Date and Time" I'm taken back to the home screen. Is this normal? Or, do I have a bad 2.1 update and need to start over with a clean install/restore? Anyone else getting this result?