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iPhone 3G Connection Issues Related to Software or Hardware?
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I agree, Apple's quality control has really gone downhill, buy maybe its because of them treating the people who work there like crap, they are getting revenge by making phones with no signal.
Lets hope its all sorted soon and Apple becomes its good old reliable self again.
this is nonsensical.... a chip can't know how popular it is... nor should higher sales affect its operation.
the level of data consumption is also irrelevant as the problems are most visible on simple 9kbps phone calls, not high bandwidth activities.
The speed tests are mostly US based so are pretty useless for UK users - any delay in the packets over that distance skews the results horribly.
eg. iphonespeedtest.com measuring my mbp connected via gigabit LAN to a fast network says it's running at 524kbps. Which is complete bollocks.
For the UK try http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/speed-test.asp
Select O2 Mobile Broadband, up to 8Mb (closest to the 7.2Mbps HSPDA speed.. if you're in London you may have to select 16Mb), wireless, run the test then hit cancel when it asks about flash (you can still see the results).
I'm currently getting 6.89Mbps over 3G (close to the theoretical max!!). So I'm happy (sort of.. O2s network seems to be up and down like it's in an olympic trampolening event).
There is a speed test app for the iPhone, you can install it through the App Store... Its called "Speedtest".
One look at the reviews rules that out - 1.5 stars!
That contains a link to iNetwork test which is supposed to be more accurate.. and costs money and doesn't work over 3G! That gets an amazing 2 stars.
Websites are far better - you can find one that produces results that make sense on your main machine first, before putting the iphone to test.. that means you're getting somewhat useful results (although these things are never truly accurate.. too many variables).
How about mine lasted less than a month before about a half inch strip across the screen randomly stopped sensing touches?
Then it took Apple 3 (THREE!!) months to repair it and it ended up costing me $80. ($30 for "loaner phone" and another $50 they just didn't refund for some reason.) I had already worked for about 5 months trying to get the $400 back that they had charged me randomly during the repair, so I didn't feel like pursuing any further.
I just pray I don't ever have to send another product in to Apple for repair.
The root of all this trouble is Apple's battery fascism. They're so obsessed with conserving power that they compromise functionality in all sorts of ways just to make the battery time figure look decent.
It's a 3G phone, it's a browser, it's a mail client, it's a calendar, it's a GPS unit, it's a music jukebox, it's your TV and your movie screen, it's a gaming platform -- basically it's everything you need to be entertained, connected and informed 24 hrs a day. Just make sure you don't actually use it for any of these things, or you'll run out of power in no time. Or, make sure to stay near a USB dock or wall outlet at all times. Who wants mobility, right?
The only way to release the iPhone's full potential is to allow customers to leave home with 2, 3 or why not half a dozen extra Li-Ion batteries in their pocket. That way you don't have to worry about 3G power draw, backlight power draw and all that crap. But noooooooo, the iPhone just can't have a battery door like every other phone on the planet, it has to be glued and welded shut. Because otherwise it would be 2 millimeters thicker and the back surface wouldn't be completely flush, and then Ive and Jobs would cry like rabid babies and scream for mommy until they drowned in their own tears and mouth foam.
The Logitech G7 gaming mouse has the perfect solution for the iPhone. One battery in the mouse, the other in the USB charger/receiver. Eject both batteries, swap. 3 seconds of downtime and you're good to go. Apple could easily design something similar on a coffee break.
It's a shame that such an innovative company with such an innovative product refuses to come out of the stone age in this respect.
It's a 3G phone, it's a browser, it's a mail client, it's a calendar, it's a GPS unit, it's a music jukebox, it's your TV and your movie screen, it's a gaming platform -- basically it's everything you need to be entertained, connected and informed 24 hrs a day. Just make sure you don't actually use it for any of these things, or you'll run out of power in no time. Or, make sure to stay near a USB dock or wall outlet at all times. Who wants mobility, right?
The only way to release the iPhone's full potential is to allow customers to leave home with 2, 3 or why not half a dozen extra Li-Ion batteries in their pocket. That way you don't have to worry about 3G power draw, backlight power draw and all that crap. But noooooooo, the iPhone just can't have a battery door like every other phone on the planet, it has to be glued and welded shut. Because otherwise it would be 2 millimeters thicker and the back surface wouldn't be completely flush, and then Ive and Jobs would cry like rabid babies and scream for mommy until they drowned in their own tears and mouth foam.
The Logitech G7 gaming mouse has the perfect solution for the iPhone. One battery in the mouse, the other in the USB charger/receiver. Eject both batteries, swap. 3 seconds of downtime and you're good to go. Apple could easily design something similar on a coffee break.
It's a shame that such an innovative company with such an innovative product refuses to come out of the stone age in this respect.
While I agree 3g reception is where Apple needs to work on, my phone doesn't have a problem switching from 3g to EDGE. It has a problem dropping calls.
Severe Iphone 3G Hardware Related Coverage Issues
I am a long time Vodafone Australia 'power user' with a monthly bill of $1K and above. I rarely had any issues with my HSDPA Mobile Broadband data card, 2G Blackberry or 3G voice device in all of the areas I travel to (mainly Sydney CBD and metro). I bought the iPhone 3G early on, and have consistent dropped calls, 'no service' in good service areas (i.e. all other VF devices still functioning without issue).
I get strange messages like 'PDP authentication' failed despite full bars and 3G on the screen.
If I do lose reception, only voice comes back... no data connection for Internet until I reset the Radio by switching the device on.
I have taken screen grabs with obscure error messages to the 'Genious Bar' at Apple store and they have no answers other than blaming the VF network and recommending a hard reset followed by a full restore (which I have done on numerous occasions).
I can be in a good coverage area and attempt 'call back' at least 8 or 9 times to get through to to the 'B' party.
I'm struggling to comprehend the poor quality of the Radio in this device, it's very much 1st generation 3G like I used 3 or 4 years ago.
It's not up to scratch when I compare it to other 2G and 3G devices of the same nature.
Also Data speeds - Wifi and 3G - I cannot get over 400 KBPS, yet often over achieve this on all other devices at the same time and same location.
Battery goes to 20% at 3pm daily with moderate usage and 10% by 5pm which is unacceptable next to a BlackBerry Pearl.
I'm on 2.1.01 software but no improvement...hopefully will be cured by later upgrades
I am a long time Vodafone Australia 'power user' with a monthly bill of $1K and above. I rarely had any issues with my HSDPA Mobile Broadband data card, 2G Blackberry or 3G voice device in all of the areas I travel to (mainly Sydney CBD and metro). I bought the iPhone 3G early on, and have consistent dropped calls, 'no service' in good service areas (i.e. all other VF devices still functioning without issue).
I get strange messages like 'PDP authentication' failed despite full bars and 3G on the screen.
If I do lose reception, only voice comes back... no data connection for Internet until I reset the Radio by switching the device on.
I have taken screen grabs with obscure error messages to the 'Genious Bar' at Apple store and they have no answers other than blaming the VF network and recommending a hard reset followed by a full restore (which I have done on numerous occasions).
I can be in a good coverage area and attempt 'call back' at least 8 or 9 times to get through to to the 'B' party.
I'm struggling to comprehend the poor quality of the Radio in this device, it's very much 1st generation 3G like I used 3 or 4 years ago.
It's not up to scratch when I compare it to other 2G and 3G devices of the same nature.
Also Data speeds - Wifi and 3G - I cannot get over 400 KBPS, yet often over achieve this on all other devices at the same time and same location.
Battery goes to 20% at 3pm daily with moderate usage and 10% by 5pm which is unacceptable next to a BlackBerry Pearl.
I'm on 2.1.01 software but no improvement...hopefully will be cured by later upgrades
I havent seen any issues with my iPhone. I have done extensive tests comparing to a motorola razr v9 which is an excellent reception phone.
I think people are typically making it up. Reception can always be better. AT&T network coverage is not that good. People love to nit pick apple products and this is no exception.
Unfortunately there will be no easy fix to appease people.
In my tests the iPhone does show fewer bars but gets reception at least as good as the v9. I do not have any more dropped calls on the iPhone than we do with the v9.
I guess it's possible that there are some problem units out there that may account for some of the complaints.
Maybe there's some particular scenario of network frequency or reception scenario such as multipath interferance which could be causing an issue in some cases where others do not experience issues.
I think reception of the phone is great. I wish safari didn't crash so often.
I think people are typically making it up. Reception can always be better. AT&T network coverage is not that good. People love to nit pick apple products and this is no exception.
Unfortunately there will be no easy fix to appease people.
In my tests the iPhone does show fewer bars but gets reception at least as good as the v9. I do not have any more dropped calls on the iPhone than we do with the v9.
I guess it's possible that there are some problem units out there that may account for some of the complaints.
Maybe there's some particular scenario of network frequency or reception scenario such as multipath interferance which could be causing an issue in some cases where others do not experience issues.
I think reception of the phone is great. I wish safari didn't crash so often.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5B108 Safari/525.20)
I live in a very good HSDPA area and I only get 1 bar on O2 UK with my iPhone. They is something wrong somewhere!!! Also exchange mail is useless as it does not push through as it did fine with my windows smart phone and blackberry. Apps crash. I've even forced a corporate policy on my device to see if this would make the software more stable fir my exchange connection. Apple sort it out!!! The iPhone is fantastic - just get the software right?!!!!
I live in a very good HSDPA area and I only get 1 bar on O2 UK with my iPhone. They is something wrong somewhere!!! Also exchange mail is useless as it does not push through as it did fine with my windows smart phone and blackberry. Apps crash. I've even forced a corporate policy on my device to see if this would make the software more stable fir my exchange connection. Apple sort it out!!! The iPhone is fantastic - just get the software right?!!!!
With data speeds, I get as high as 1.63mbit/sec on 3g, typically 250kbps on edge if I get decent reception. Seems great to me. That's testing at testmyiphone.com.
Have you compared to other iPhone users or other 3g phones at the same time and place?
Define "sufficient bandwidth." Does that mean you'll only get 10 KB/s or does Apple find 300 KB/s too slow?
This is good news. I have been getting speeds of around 400-500kb/s on O2 3G, but I wasn't sure if this was good or not. My home broadband Wi-Fi was giving a reading of around 600 even though I thought it was supposed to be 8Mbit*, so I trust those speed tests with a pinch of salt.* yes I know that the actual throughput is way lower than that but still...!
Technically 8 Megabits = 1 Megabyte = 1024 Kilobytes (or sometimes 1000). Of course, in real life the actual throughput you'll get will depend on your distance from the source, interference, how good your wireless hardware is (antenna, etc.) on your device is, etc. But Zign is right, 600 KB/s is still pretty good. That's about what I get at home w/ my 8 Mb cable modem/wireless router.
Please remember. there are other providers than AT&T. I'm not nit picking. My crappy 3G is a fact. Im not complaining about speeds of 1G iPhone cos I know what I bought. But issues with network on 3G are unacceptable. They need to fix it either by software or recall. I do not care.
This sounds like a major flaw to me. And if the hardware turns out to be defective... just imagine the massive recalls
Its, like the article mentions, probably a software issue and I hope that software updates all the crashes and bus I am experiencing
Its, like the article mentions, probably a software issue and I hope that software updates all the crashes and bus I am experiencing
If you don't mind waiting ~1 year for the next revision, sure. I have bought many, many apple products on release (mostly by chance, not out of a need to have the latest and greatest), and would do so again.
this could be interesting as a piece of research/evidence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__WIB_TdYbQ
user didio has just posted this on the apple forum. seems there is a large batch of defective phones - and some that work fine. this yould explain the flame wars going on between those who have the problem and those who think the iPain 3G shows excellent reception.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__WIB_TdYbQ
user didio has just posted this on the apple forum. seems there is a large batch of defective phones - and some that work fine. this yould explain the flame wars going on between those who have the problem and those who think the iPain 3G shows excellent reception.