After having a month to ponder the somewhat shaky rollout of iPhone 3G, AppleInsider is out with a curious pronouncement. They cite sources at the Apple retail stores as saying that sales of iPhone 3G are being slowed by handhelds running Microsoft Windows Mobile/WinCE. There’s no report indicating whether the Windows Mobile/WinCE devices played into shortages at the AT&T corporate stores, whether the new requirement of 100% activation may have everything to do with the slow sales process or if the crashing of the iTunes/activation servers was caused by Windows Mobile/WinCE. The rather lengthy article slings a lot of mud goes into great detail about how the handheld devices take forever to boot, etc. I’ve never worked retail - but don’t all retail folks hate their point-of-sale systems? You may recall that James Kendrick over at JKOnTheRun was one of the first to note the irony of Apples handheld point-of-sale terminals running on Windows CE - in his post iPhone 3G - brought to you by Microsoft.

AppleInsider - iPhone 3G sales hampered by Windows Mobile

I’ve been having one heck of a time with my iPhone 3G.   I really have…and YES, over and above the problems that everyone and their brother have been documenting all over the Internet.  I’ve been tweeting up a storm lately about how my iPhone 3G has been dropping calls, crashing, and more importantly, had the worst battery life known to man. At best, my battery would last about 90 minutes between charges, at the outside, 120 minutes; but that’s only if I had the thing in front of an air conditioning vent, keeping the battery cool.

I took my iPhone to the Oak Brook, IL Apple Store today, and had resident Genius Extrodinaire, Pat take a quick look at it. Yep… Totally defective.  He said the battery had the worst standby time he has EVER seen in an iPhone/iPhone 3G; and it was likely the first defective iPhone 3G that he has seen.  To make a long story short, he swapped it out without any other questions.  I got the very LAST white replacement model they had in stock.  I then watched him as he totally wiped my old iPhone of all content so that my “top secret” information wouldn’t fall into “enemy” hands.

I am in the process of restoring this new iPhone from a backup, and we’ll see how things go from here on in. It did NOT come with the 2.0.2 update on it. I had to update the device to that version before the restore would work.  Then I’m gonna sync it, and see how things go…

I’m planning on giving it a full charge and then leaving it off the battery until I go to bed tonight, or it dies, which ever comes first.  I need to give the battery a bit of exercise, and see how long it will last after a full charge…ESPECIALLY with the 2.0.2 software, now that I have a device with a (supposedly/hopefully) non-defective battery.

In recent weeks Apple has taken a good deal of heat over everything from the MobileMe debacle to some apparent iPhone 3G reception issues. Much of the criticism is, in my opinion, well-deserved and the on-going silence from Apple certainly doesn’t help the situation. All that aside, however, I am absolutely loving my iPhone 3G and upgraded iPod Touch. While I had some instability issues at first, after a simple reinstall of the firmware both are now rock solid. Moreover, while there is an abundance of garbage available, the iPhone App Store also offers some fantastic applications that I’m finding indispensable. Best of all, many of the top applications are actually free.

In addition to the privilege of being the most recent member of the Gear Diary Team, I have the good fortune to be one of the individuals who started WhatOniPhone, an iPhone application news and review site, just over seven weeks ago. Because of my involvement with What’sOniPhone, I’ve been spending a good deal of my free time this summer looking at the wide range of available iPhone applications. Here are some of my favorites and links to our reviews.

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Until recently, both Apple and AT&T were pointing fingers at each other indicating that [the other] was responsible for resolving reception issues on the iPhone 3G.  Reports are now coming in that both companies are looking into resolving the problems.  All I can say is, it’s about time!

I noticed on iLounge that AT&T spokesman, Mark Siegel said,

…while customer concerns were being looked into, it is difficult to know if they are widespread or related to individual circumstances. “How a device performs in individual situations depends on circumstances like where you are in the 3G coverage, how close you are to a cell site. Things like terrain and buildings all come into play,” Siegel said. “I’m not denying that people are having a less than satisfactory experience, but overall, the phone is doing great.”… Nomura analyst, Richard Windsor, has said in a note to clients that the problem may stem from an immature chipset from Infineon.

There are further articles related to iPhone 3G reception and connection issues at MacRumors; and C|Net has been monitoring this thread at Apple.

It would seem that Apple put in an untried and very new 3G chipset into the iPhone 3G, instead of a [perhaps more expensive] more mature, tried and true chipset/radio.  Ok… show of hands… Who here bought the iPhone because Apple’s stuff “just works?”  Who here bought the iPhone 3G thinking that it would be a more mature product than the original iPhone, because the iPhone has been around for a year already?

Yah… that would be me, too…

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I’ve seen this on a lot of mobile device sites, including MacRumors, iPhone Freak and iPhone Alley (to name but a few); but it appears that the iPhone tethering application, NetShare, won’t be coming back to the US-based App Store…EVER.

According to information that I’ve read on these and other sites, the app was removed for one reason and one reason alone-it violates AT&T’s Terms of Service for both iPhone and iPhone 3G: No tethering allowed. AT&T is specifically prohibiting tethering on its network from these two devices. It’s not a matter of CAN’T. It’s a matter of thou shalt not.

My guess is this is a band width issue. I pushed well over 1GB of data through my iPhone 3G last month, and I really didn’t do THAT much. Yes, I surfed the internet a bit more with that device than I ever did with my WM devices (though I didn’t do YouTube or AOL Radio much with it).  However, I think that AT&T is affraid they will clog The Pipe if people start tethering their iPhones; and THAT’S why we won’t see NetShare back in the App Store.

Now, as far as those of us lucky enough to get NetShare before it got permanently pulled (yes, I was able to get a copy; no, I haven’t used it yet), use of the app is a bit on the grey side. I don’t think AT&T will be able to to tell what app you are using on their network without specifically sniffing for NetShare packets on specific accounts; and since they pulled it before it got too much air time, I’m not certain how many copies they actually sold, or how often it really is used. I’m also not certain what AT&T will do if they catch any user tethering their iPhone to their laptop.  From my understanding, it does violate your ToS and contract.

What do you think?  Were you able to get NetShare?  Have you used it? How does it work for you? Is it something that you plan to use a lot? why don’t you join us in the discussion and give us your thoughts?

[This is a joint review between  Dan and Doug.  Dan's comments are in normal font and Doug's are in bold italics.]

I’m liking a whole lot about the iPhone 3G I picked up the other day. It feels good in my hand and, even though it is a bit thicker, the curved sides make it feel smaller and lighter. I am liking the 3g speed a lot more than I expected. While home and work have WiFi, the 3G speeds make a much bigger difference than I expected when I am out and about. I’m pleasantly surprised how common 3G is in my area and those  speeds make a far bigger difference than I expected when using my iPhone for browsing or updating RSS feeds. I am especially liking the increased cellular signal strength. On my Gen1 iPhone I was lucky to get one bar when I am home, while my iPhone 3G gets 2-3 everywhere. Because of the increased signal I can even live with the cheap, easily scratched, plastic back. (Thank goodness for Invisible Shields!)
I don’t have the iPhone, but I do have the iPod Touch.  And since many of the applications for the iTouch involve Cloud computing or utilizing data stored online, I find myself frequently connected to the Internet via Wifi.

Thanks to the new firmware, my iPhone 3G is pretty stable. I’m finding myself having very few crashes and far fewer lockups then I did when I was using my Gen1 iPhone with the 2.0 firmware. Yup, I like almost everything about my new iPhone. “Almost” but not “everything”… The battery life is horrible. I need to be able to rely on phone to work when I need it and the battery life… well the battery life scares me. It is lousy. It is weak. Horrific. A shanda. It makes me want to throw the phone out the window.

The battery on the iTouch is not nearly that bad.  Since I do not have to contend with a phone or 3G signals, I have found that I get some pretty good use from a single charge.  Still, using Wifi for everything from checking email to syncing my RSS feeds, weather, todo lists and more, can also be trouble for a battery.

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Word is Apple has ramped up iPhone production to over 800,000 a week. Wow, that’s a whole lot of iPhones. Now I haven’t heard anything but I sure hope invisibleSHIELD is ramping up production as well. Why? Because having used my iPhone 2.5G for a year and jumping into the iPhone 3G yesterday… there is no question in my mind that people are going to need them. Continue Reading

This is kinda funny because I was talking with Chris Gavula on the way home today about dumping my iPhone back on AT&T. I am sick and tired of all of the bugs and problems with the iPhone 3G!  Low and behold, I get home, do a backup on my MacBook Pro (hard drive issues…I was planning an upgrade anyway), and I get a Tweet from Ryan Block (I follow him, he didn’t send me a direct tweet), indicating that the iPhone bug fix release is available.

I am downloading now, and hope that this thing resolves some of my issues. I am at my wits end with this thing. I have to turn it off and restart at least 1-2x a day. If I wanted this kind of instability, I would have bought an obscure Windows Mobile device or something…  

Seriously…some of the issues we are seeing with the iPhone 2.0 software are SERIOUSLY reminiscent of some of the earlier WM implementations.  Multiple soft resets a day, multiple application crashes, signal retention issues…it’s killing me!

If you haven’t already, go!  Click the Update button in iTunes, grab the firmware, and then come back and let us know how things went for you!

I saw this at iPhone Alley and had to relay the information.  It appears that one user’s iPhone 3G’s battery got so hot, it melted the plastic backing, killed the sync connector and burnt his leg.  You can see the article here.  The picture, below, came from their site, so all credit to them for the pic. (Thanks, guys!!)

I’ve noticed that my iPhone 3G gets very hot, and it seems that when it does heat up, the battery drains very quickly, in under 2 hours, in fact. However, I’ve noticed that if you cool the phone off and keep it cool, the battery drain stops and returns to normal. I’ve got a phone cradle tatooed to my dash, and it sits right in front of the air conditioner vent. 

I kinda did this on purpose, not to cool the phone, but because it was the best place to put it. The decreased battery drain is just a bonus, I guess. However, I wonder if better venting might help increase battery life?  Why not join us in the discussion and give us your 2 cents..?

Apple’s retail stores will now open at 8 am in all locations to help alleviate the iPhone 3G backlog. Previously only some higher volume stores were opening earlier, with other Apple stores opening as late as 10am. This information is according to a notice posted on the Apple Retail Store iPhone 3G availability site (say that 10 times fast!). In addition web site Appleinsider reports that at least some of the Apple corporate stores will issue a raincheck for phones to be reserved and picked up later in the day (in case someone cannot stand in line due to that nasty thing called “a job”). It appears that some type of rain checks may already be in use at the New York 5th Ave store as I observed significantly shorter lines today and several people in line being handed slips of paper.

Apple via Appleinsider