iPhone 3G owners who have installed iOS 4 and regretted it can take heart. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has apparently promised a software update "soon" that may bring the handset back up to speed.
Not only the original iOS 4.0 update but also the subsequent 4.0.1 and 4.0.2 tweaks have failed to run as quickly on the 3G as iOS 3 - then …
Is provide a reasonably straightforward* way of downgrading again if you're not happy with an update. Even the restore function will upgrade rather than restoring the existing version.
*I realise it is pretty straightforward if you know what you're doing, but the average user would benefit from an option direct through itunes.
You have to make allowances for the fact* that half the population are now only semi-literate. They would (wrongly) be expecting to see an apostrophe as in "3G's" - me, I blame teh teechas!
*as in "it must be true, I read it in the Sun / on Wikipedia / etc."
People may moan about the slowness, but there is at least a fix in the works. I can't think of many phone makers who would bother to support a two year old handset.
Look at the poor HTC Hero owners, phone released July 2009, took a year before they got a 2.1 upgrade and 2.2 isn't planned. 2.1 apparently also erased all user data.
Erm, no. Apple haven't confirmed anything (or even acknowledged a problem), there's just 3rd hand evidence of an email from Steve. I imagine his real thought is "just buy a new phone, not a big deal"
The real perspective to have is not to rejoice at the fact Apple are "supporting" a 2 year old phone, rather they've effectively neutered the phone via the largely automated update process and then, as ever, gone dark as to whether the problem exists, and denied there being a way to go back.
For me, I refused to upgrade my 3G having seen what it did to my partner's and friend's. This left me vulnerable to the PDF exploit, which I could either accept or jump on board with crippling my phone and hoping Steve Jobs may email me to hint at a possible fix. That's worse than no support.
It's too late now anyway. I've finally taken the leap to jailbreaking and will never look back. The only thing I was missing for iOS4 was folders, and frankly I'm much happier to pay $0.99 for Categories SB. I'm also about to make the leap to $9.99 for wireless syncing - yet another lost revenue stream.
And to think, about a year ago I'd probably have described myself as borderline Apple Fanboi. Where do I return my badge?
Other handset makers wouldn't ever release such a shoddy patch, so you'd be able to use your 2 year old phone with 1 year old software. Apple, on the other hand, completely neuter your phone making it useless irrespective of what software it has.
Forced me to upgrade the handset, grudgingly....
#
Turning off multi-tasking specifically for 3G made me think that iOS4 had been optimised for the 3G too - after all Windows 7 had been shown to work better on older machines than Vista so that's not wholly improbable. I expected a bit of roughness around the edges but was truly astonished as to how badly the 3G fared and there's no easy way to downgrade again.
I'd been planning to but a iphone 4 anyhow so this forced my hand to make the switch sooner, and I could only wonder if that was Apple's plan all along. My two year old handset was amazingly robust. Maybe the hardware was proving too durable for the software division's business plan, so they needed an upgrade to sabotage that legacy kit to force the upgrades.
This pretty much had me shopping around for an Android handset, but none of these was quite what I was after and I also realised that I'd have to spend money on replacing all my apps. So I stick with Apple, but not at all happily.
The penny drops. Welcome to the new world of smartphone ecos-systems. It will get to the point very soon where switching platforms will be as painful as going from a Canon to a Nikon SLR or Windows to Mac.
All that said, the iPhone 4 has been an absolute dream to use and to own and far exceeded my expectations (as I imagine would any of today's top handsets compared to a three year old model).
The point is, if you're buying in now for the first time, you should look very carefully at how well each of these brands aims to interact with its existing customers. Apple have set out their stall as being great for those who keep pace with their own corporate roadmap (a plan that will only work as long as the hardware continues to fulfil its promise). I'd be interested to see how things shape up with Google (and Android vendors) and Microsoft. We know about Apple now, but how will these alternative providers want their users to behave?
I live within sight of several cell towers, including the one operated by my carrier. It's almost certainly less than 1km away and perfectly located for maximum strength. I've always had full signal strength (all bars) on every device, no matter how I hold them. But the very latest iPhone update dropped the display on my 3GS back to 3 (and sometimes just 2) bars. Hilarious. An obvious fraud to cover up the iPhone 4 antenna fiasco.
Aerials on cell masts can be highly directional, they are capable of excluding/including diferent locations, eg a 'heart shaped ' coverage is easy.
No defence of any 'phone, but just because you can see the back of someone else's head doesn't mean they can see you does it ? Its the same for (some) aerials.
It's in Apple's interest to support the iPhone 3G because 3G + iOS4 + iAds + iBooks + more supported apps = more money. Any older than the 3G, then they can encourage users to upgrade the handset resulting in, well, more money too.
It's good news for 3G owners, but it's not exactly an act of kindness that's their motivation.
I´´m depressed that there´s no mention of a fix for a problem that has befallen 3GS owners foolish enough to upgrade to iOS4.n, that of the spontaneous random reboots of the phone during a phone call. The Apple iPhone discussion forum is bulging with over a thousand complaints (and heading for 200,00 views) from disgruntled owners - me included.
Call me unreasonable but I do think it would be nice to be able to make uninterrupted phone calls with a phone every now and again.
I need to read El Reg before doing anything else on a Monday!
#
I was so frustrated by 4.0 performance on my steam driven 3G that I downgraded it to 3.13. Not a hard process, but you can't restore apps, settings, etc. from backup. To stay on 3.13 you have to set it up as a new unit. I lost Exchange, VPN, etc. settings, not to mention Angry Birds progress.
Now I read of relief in sight. Crap.
BTW, iTunes won't let me restore from backup, even after a firmware upgrade because it's a different machine. I think I'll relax and read The Register until I calm down.
There's really no compelling reason for the "geek set" to stay with iPhone anymore - it's restrictive, controlling and above all else, too damn prevalent amongst the talentless marketing middle men monkeys.
Anyone who wants a phone as a status symbol deserves to be lined up against the wall and pelted with specially crafted Steve Jobs Jobbies. Public humiliation is the only saving grace for these purveyors of pointless techno-babble, these mindless scrubbed faced pouting preening wankers, these 'trend-setting' tits without a cause.
Wield your hammers against iPhones plonked on the pub table, crush them underfoot and let the great Google, friend of the geek, take arms against the marketing machine, the evil Apple, his almighty Jobiness, touting his wares like a cheap pimp trying to hook you onto a special brand of candy.
Just say NO to the untold evils, the jack boot of technology, the stinking wave of technological shackles.
OH yes, dear geeks, rise up against this tide of woeful poo, this turd posturing as a shining example of goodness, this pretender to the crown.
Turn away from the Dark Side and open your mind to the Chocolate Factory, go Android I say!
Id love to move away from iPhone, but being a ipod owner since the mini came out, I have now amassed a collection of products explicitly designed for ipod/phone... No other phone integrates as universally well with 3rd party consumer electronics...
Yes i can plug most phones into a hifi and listen to music, using the heaphone socket or USB connection - as a mass storage device... But my Iphone charges, is controlled by my steering wheel buttons, displays album art, playlists, etc on the car display and handsfree...
Oh how I larf reading all these sad morose comments from the broken fanbois. The funniest one was the luser who upraded his hardware, talk about a slow learner. Surely Apple has no cool points left.
for iOS 4 on iPhone 3GS, I think you should read this guide "iOS 4 Upgrade Guide: Install iOS 4 on Your iPhone" -> A guide helps you upgrade your iPhone or iPod Touch to Apple's new iOS 4 which located in iFunia iPhone column first, to learn the need info on iPhone upgrade to iOS4.
Register
Jobs offers relief for iOS 4-running iPhone 3Gs
iPhone 3G owners who have installed iOS 4 and regretted it can take heart. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has apparently promised a software update "soon" that may bring the handset back up to speed. Not only the original iOS 4.0 update but also the subsequent 4.0.1 and 4.0.2 tweaks have failed to run as quickly on the 3G as iOS 3 - then …
This topic is closed for new posts.
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 11:54 GMT
Sooty
what they need to do #
Is provide a reasonably straightforward* way of downgrading again if you're not happy with an update. Even the restore function will upgrade rather than restoring the existing version.
*I realise it is pretty straightforward if you know what you're doing, but the average user would benefit from an option direct through itunes.
Posted Tuesday 24th August 2010 08:32 GMT
dave 93
Jailbreak and downgrade #
Jeez, there's this thing called the internet - all the (very simple) instructions are there.
It took about 20 minutes, not like the 2 hour upgrade to iOS 4!
A fresh install of iPhone OS 3 and all my apps (albeit in alphabetical order?)
Sweet
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 11:56 GMT
F'tangF'tang
3G Affected.. Not 3Gs #
Although my compass hasn't worked since updating the software on the 3Gs...
Constantly asking to wave it in a figure of 8...
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 12:02 GMT
Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware
Re: 3G Affected.. Not 3Gs #
Erm... lower-case 's' indicates plural, not that we're talking about the 3GS (capital 's').
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 12:34 GMT
Andy ORourke
Perhaps...... #
You should have used an apostrophe as well, just in case :-)
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 12:34 GMT
Anonymous Coward
But don't forget, Tony... #
You have to make allowances for the fact* that half the population are now only semi-literate. They would (wrongly) be expecting to see an apostrophe as in "3G's" - me, I blame teh teechas!
*as in "it must be true, I read it in the Sun / on Wikipedia / etc."
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 13:13 GMT
Seanie Ryan
@andy and AC #
since when is there an apostrophe in plurals? its usually used in places to denote ownership
eg: the cat's bowl ( the bowl belonging to the cat)
eg2 : the cats are black ( plural, no apostrophe)
go learn engrish ! at least you have pointed our what half of the population you are in !!! ;-)
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 14:20 GMT
Sean O'Connor 1
Title #
Seanie, your sense of humour firmware needs an update.
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 11:57 GMT
Giles Jones
To put things in perspective #
People may moan about the slowness, but there is at least a fix in the works. I can't think of many phone makers who would bother to support a two year old handset.
Look at the poor HTC Hero owners, phone released July 2009, took a year before they got a 2.1 upgrade and 2.2 isn't planned. 2.1 apparently also erased all user data.
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 14:20 GMT
Anonymous Coward
REAL perspective #
Erm, no. Apple haven't confirmed anything (or even acknowledged a problem), there's just 3rd hand evidence of an email from Steve. I imagine his real thought is "just buy a new phone, not a big deal"
The real perspective to have is not to rejoice at the fact Apple are "supporting" a 2 year old phone, rather they've effectively neutered the phone via the largely automated update process and then, as ever, gone dark as to whether the problem exists, and denied there being a way to go back.
For me, I refused to upgrade my 3G having seen what it did to my partner's and friend's. This left me vulnerable to the PDF exploit, which I could either accept or jump on board with crippling my phone and hoping Steve Jobs may email me to hint at a possible fix. That's worse than no support.
It's too late now anyway. I've finally taken the leap to jailbreaking and will never look back. The only thing I was missing for iOS4 was folders, and frankly I'm much happier to pay $0.99 for Categories SB. I'm also about to make the leap to $9.99 for wireless syncing - yet another lost revenue stream.
And to think, about a year ago I'd probably have described myself as borderline Apple Fanboi. Where do I return my badge?
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 17:32 GMT
Adam 38
Perspective? #
Other handset makers wouldn't ever release such a shoddy patch, so you'd be able to use your 2 year old phone with 1 year old software. Apple, on the other hand, completely neuter your phone making it useless irrespective of what software it has.
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 11:59 GMT
Pabs
has the reboot problem fixed? #
My 3GS reboots during calls, and is unusable. From the Apple forums 4.1 doesn't seem to fix this issue....
iOS4 pile of poo...
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 11:59 GMT
Alan Denman
Twice as fast. #
Although it will certainly be visually slower than OS 3 mass hypnosis affect will perceive it as faster.
Hail the king of perception.
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 11:59 GMT
Adam 38
Advice #
It's just a little slow. Not that big of a deal.
Steve
Sent from my iPhone 4
-------
Why is this fix taking so long? My 3G has been nearly unusable for nearly 2 months.
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 11:59 GMT
manicseacreature
Forced me to upgrade the handset, grudgingly.... #
Turning off multi-tasking specifically for 3G made me think that iOS4 had been optimised for the 3G too - after all Windows 7 had been shown to work better on older machines than Vista so that's not wholly improbable. I expected a bit of roughness around the edges but was truly astonished as to how badly the 3G fared and there's no easy way to downgrade again.
I'd been planning to but a iphone 4 anyhow so this forced my hand to make the switch sooner, and I could only wonder if that was Apple's plan all along. My two year old handset was amazingly robust. Maybe the hardware was proving too durable for the software division's business plan, so they needed an upgrade to sabotage that legacy kit to force the upgrades.
This pretty much had me shopping around for an Android handset, but none of these was quite what I was after and I also realised that I'd have to spend money on replacing all my apps. So I stick with Apple, but not at all happily.
The penny drops. Welcome to the new world of smartphone ecos-systems. It will get to the point very soon where switching platforms will be as painful as going from a Canon to a Nikon SLR or Windows to Mac.
All that said, the iPhone 4 has been an absolute dream to use and to own and far exceeded my expectations (as I imagine would any of today's top handsets compared to a three year old model).
The point is, if you're buying in now for the first time, you should look very carefully at how well each of these brands aims to interact with its existing customers. Apple have set out their stall as being great for those who keep pace with their own corporate roadmap (a plan that will only work as long as the hardware continues to fulfil its promise). I'd be interested to see how things shape up with Google (and Android vendors) and Microsoft. We know about Apple now, but how will these alternative providers want their users to behave?
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 12:02 GMT
Anonymous Coward
I love these terse emails from Steve #
I love these terse emails from Steve: "Software update coming soon."
I hope the reply was: "Not soon enough."
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 13:12 GMT
JeffyPooh
New_and_improved signal bar display #
I live within sight of several cell towers, including the one operated by my carrier. It's almost certainly less than 1km away and perfectly located for maximum strength. I've always had full signal strength (all bars) on every device, no matter how I hold them. But the very latest iPhone update dropped the display on my 3GS back to 3 (and sometimes just 2) bars. Hilarious. An obvious fraud to cover up the iPhone 4 antenna fiasco.
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 22:59 GMT
peter_dtm
Aerial's near by means nothing #
Aerials on cell masts can be highly directional, they are capable of excluding/including diferent locations, eg a 'heart shaped ' coverage is easy.
No defence of any 'phone, but just because you can see the back of someone else's head doesn't mean they can see you does it ? Its the same for (some) aerials.
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 14:20 GMT
MAD
Reason to support #
It's in Apple's interest to support the iPhone 3G because 3G + iOS4 + iAds + iBooks + more supported apps = more money. Any older than the 3G, then they can encourage users to upgrade the handset resulting in, well, more money too.
It's good news for 3G owners, but it's not exactly an act of kindness that's their motivation.
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 19:41 GMT
Roger Gann
The 3GS elephant in the room #
I´´m depressed that there´s no mention of a fix for a problem that has befallen 3GS owners foolish enough to upgrade to iOS4.n, that of the spontaneous random reboots of the phone during a phone call. The Apple iPhone discussion forum is bulging with over a thousand complaints (and heading for 200,00 views) from disgruntled owners - me included.
Call me unreasonable but I do think it would be nice to be able to make uninterrupted phone calls with a phone every now and again.
Posted Tuesday 24th August 2010 08:35 GMT
Anonymous Coward
RE: The 3GS elephant in the room #
Mine is fine (and no it hasn't slowed down either).
You hadn't done anything *dodgy* with it beforehand, had you?
Posted Monday 23rd August 2010 23:00 GMT
Prof. William Waterman Sherman
I need to read El Reg before doing anything else on a Monday! #
I was so frustrated by 4.0 performance on my steam driven 3G that I downgraded it to 3.13. Not a hard process, but you can't restore apps, settings, etc. from backup. To stay on 3.13 you have to set it up as a new unit. I lost Exchange, VPN, etc. settings, not to mention Angry Birds progress.
Now I read of relief in sight. Crap.
BTW, iTunes won't let me restore from backup, even after a firmware upgrade because it's a different machine. I think I'll relax and read The Register until I calm down.
Posted Tuesday 24th August 2010 00:18 GMT
Matt 89
... vote with your feet... #
... go Android ...
There's really no compelling reason for the "geek set" to stay with iPhone anymore - it's restrictive, controlling and above all else, too damn prevalent amongst the talentless marketing middle men monkeys.
Anyone who wants a phone as a status symbol deserves to be lined up against the wall and pelted with specially crafted Steve Jobs Jobbies. Public humiliation is the only saving grace for these purveyors of pointless techno-babble, these mindless scrubbed faced pouting preening wankers, these 'trend-setting' tits without a cause.
Wield your hammers against iPhones plonked on the pub table, crush them underfoot and let the great Google, friend of the geek, take arms against the marketing machine, the evil Apple, his almighty Jobiness, touting his wares like a cheap pimp trying to hook you onto a special brand of candy.
Just say NO to the untold evils, the jack boot of technology, the stinking wave of technological shackles.
OH yes, dear geeks, rise up against this tide of woeful poo, this turd posturing as a shining example of goodness, this pretender to the crown.
Turn away from the Dark Side and open your mind to the Chocolate Factory, go Android I say!
Rise up and embrace the light!
Posted Tuesday 24th August 2010 09:39 GMT
Matt_payne666
not so easy... #
Id love to move away from iPhone, but being a ipod owner since the mini came out, I have now amassed a collection of products explicitly designed for ipod/phone... No other phone integrates as universally well with 3rd party consumer electronics...
Yes i can plug most phones into a hifi and listen to music, using the heaphone socket or USB connection - as a mass storage device... But my Iphone charges, is controlled by my steering wheel buttons, displays album art, playlists, etc on the car display and handsfree...
Posted Tuesday 24th August 2010 08:30 GMT
dave 93
Jailbreak and downgrade #
Jeez, there's this thing called the internet - all the instructions are there.
It took about 20 minutes, not like the 2 hour upgrade to iOS 4!
A fresh install of iPhone OS 3 and all my apps (albeit in alphabetical order?)
Sweet
Posted Tuesday 24th August 2010 08:55 GMT
k d
giggle #
Oh how I larf reading all these sad morose comments from the broken fanbois. The funniest one was the luser who upraded his hardware, talk about a slow learner. Surely Apple has no cool points left.
Posted Tuesday 24th August 2010 09:33 GMT
John Murgatroyd
ios4 #
http://www.andrewstechnology.co.uk/reference/tips/38-iphone-3g-lag-fix.html
Posted Tuesday 24th August 2010 09:42 GMT
lemon
not too long #
hope this will not too long.
pat
for iOS 4 on iPhone 3GS, I think you should read this guide "iOS 4 Upgrade Guide: Install iOS 4 on Your iPhone" -> A guide helps you upgrade your iPhone or iPod Touch to Apple's new iOS 4 which located in iFunia iPhone column first, to learn the need info on iPhone upgrade to iOS4.
This topic is closed for new posts.