iPhone 2.1

OK so I now have the 2.1 update and here is what I have found so far.

It took about 20 mins to download and install
Backup is much faster but still slow it took 6 mins to backup
All the Apps that wouldn’t update STILL will not update VERY POOR
Looks like I will have to delete Apps and reinstall or restore my iPhone as new
As soon as I turn on 3G I get no service NO CHANGE THERE it did find the Edge network after a few mins this is a LITTLE better

Just noticed that I again have no service. After leaving it for 20 mins and still no service I turned 3G off, straight away I had 4 bars. Looks like this is no better.
iPod App Looks alot better
Genius Playlists work well but you are limited to 25 song playlist
You can expand them when they are synced back to iTunes
I will monitor the Battery over the weekend
Doesn’t look like there is Push data for IM

More Options under Sounds
Contacts are faster

I decided to do a full clean install so that my Apps work and update OK. After I finished the install it took just 30 mins for 1 of my Apps to crash.

iTunes has just crashed syncing my iPhone, is this a new feature?

GREAT Job Apple

Any thoughts?

Apple “it just works”*

* iPhone “it just doesn’t”

iPhone Why Back it Up?

OK so after I have had MORE problems with my iPhone and it continued to crash I figured it was time for the MONTHLY restore, yes since version 2 I have to restore my iPhone at least once a month.

After previous restore having problems with corrupt backups I decided to let the backup run, so after 2 and a half hours the restore started.

After the restore it ask’s me if I would like to build the iPhone as new or restore from the backup, I opted for from backup. After another 1.5 hours the iPhone rebooted and asked me the same do you want to rebuild new or from backup. The iPhone is fully restore and working problem is iTunes thinks its in a state of rebuild I have no option but to restore from the new backup. After another 2 hours Yep you guessed it I have the same options.

The only way I can get my iPhone back and iTunes to see it as working is rebuild as new.

So my question to any one at Apple is why oh why are we taking 2 hours to backup the iPhone when the restore does not work????????

Come on Steve give me an answer……….

I really am getting sick of this Beta phone, Please Please let the update fix all these problems. Again I have no faith in Apple at this moment in time.

Apple “it just works”*

* iPhone “it just doesn’t”

OK now I have had my rant I can go back to setting up all my App’s, oh and thanks Apple for loosing all my App data so happy about that.

Photo problems with my iPhone

Anyone else having problems with photo’s on there iPhone ????

After I take pictures with any app, mainly airme but I have tried others including the official camera app, I get a corrupt photo and then my photo app just crashes when I try to open it. Then all I can do to get any of these apps to work is connect my iPhone to my mac and delete the photo.

I have tried to rebuild the iPhone but still get the same problem. I have tired a restore and a whole new install with the same results.

I am really starting to HATE my iPhone now as I am loosing to many great photos.

I really can’t wait for the next release this month but have a bad feeling that it isn’t going to be much better.

Starting to loose a lot of faith in Apple right now.

Apple “it just works”*

* iPhone “it just doesn’t”

iPhone 2.0.2

Well update 2.0.2 to out and after 24 hours of using it I have to say it is no better than 2.0 and 2.0.1.

I still have all of the following problems

• The ring volume sometimes works sometimes doesn’t
• Backup is still very slow
• Battery life is still as bad as ever lucky to get 8hr’s on standby right now
• App Store still doesn’t updates my Apps

On the plus side over the last 24 hours I have only had 1 App crash and that is a big improvement.

Lots more work please Apple, I think there is a long way to go yet!!!!!!!

The iPhone getting WORSE

So after Apple sent out the iPhone update (2.0.1) I was so hopefull that the software would be far more stable but boy was I so wrong, so so wrong.

One of the first thing I noticed after the update is I was having problems opening applications. The I was unable to update any Apps as the phone was telling me that my iTunes password was wrong. After speaking with support I was told to try and rebuild my iPhone so this I did.

After the restore of the phone I was then asked do I want to restore my old settings I said yes at this point I was told that ALL my backups were corrupt (NICE) so I had to start from new.

I manually loaded everything, songs, apps, movies, etc.

I then deleted all my backup and let the iPhone backup again. I was under the impression that one of the fixes in 2.0.1 was to speed up the backup after an hour of backing up I found out that wasn’t the truth. I not had a true backup at least I hoped so.

Now I have the problem when I try to look at some of my Photo’s the Photo application now crashes. The first time this happened I deleted the pictures in the camera roll via iPhoto, this fixed the problem so i guessed it was a corrupt photo. The 2nd time there was nothing in the camera roll, I was told that the only way to fix the problem was to, yes you guessed it, restore the iPhone. I then found out my backup was corrupt again. GREAT. 5 hours later I got my phone back.

Well after a week with 2.0.1 I have had to restore my iPhone 4 times all taking at least 4 hours and only once has the backup actually worked. Tonight I got the application cannot be opened again and I only restored the iPhone earlier today.

Well I was a huge fan of the 1st iPhone and v1 of the software I am starting to dread using the App’s of my new iPhone as I really don’t want to restore my iPhone again.

I have had more App’s crash since they updated to 2.0.1 some that won’t even update without a full removal and not just from the iPhone I have had to remove the App from iTunes and download again. Now with the error above I have to remove and reinstall the App, a simple reboot is not even working. Oh the worst App for crashing is the App Store App itself that crashes way more than it works.

I have also noticed that the phone sometimes never rings and very rarely gets the individual ring tones correctly.

Then there is the battery life or the lack of it. On Saturday I was taking a few pictures using AirMe (One of better Apps) I took 12 pictures all loaded up to Flickr over an 8 hour period and that’s all I did with the phone and it was OUT totally OUT of power. In a few weeks I am off to Vegas I just hope I have enough power so I can watch a Movie on the 3.5 hour flight. Notice the battery in the graphic, that after it was fully charged just 3 hours ago and I haven’t even used the phone apart from trying to open 1 App and that didn’t work. 3G is also turned off as that never works when I am in doors.

I can’t wait for version 2.1 lets hope that works better

Apple “it just works”*

* iPhone “it just doesn’t”

Synchronizing my iPhone

Dear Steve Jobs

Please fix the iPhone synchronization problem. It has just taken me about 1 hour to synchronize my iPhone all because of the very, very poor Backing Up that is happening.

This is not acceptable

Thanks

Delboy

***** UPDATE *****

Looks like this could be fixed with Update 2.0.1

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/08/04/apple_releases_iphone_2_0_1_software_update.html

This has NOT been fixed with my iPhone still takes over an hour to backup the phone very poor.

Apple “it just works”*

*iPhone “it just doesn’t”

Apple’s App store and App’s Review

The Apps store was a major part of iPhone 2.0 but I still think there is some work to do here. I have downloaded a number of Apps now and the initial install and setup worked well. The problem I am having is that the Update part of the App store doesn’t seam to work to well. A number of my Apps are now due for an update and when I checked on my iPhone it only found 3 updates to install. When I checked from with in iTunes it found 13 updates but would only download 1.

When I installed the updates from my iPhone the update was like a new install and as such put my update at the end of my App list, this was very annoying as I had my Apps in a certain order that made sense to me. The good news is when I did the 1 update that iTunes downloaded it put the App on the same page at least. I am still unsure if I have 9 other Apps that need updating as both iTunes and iPhone are now saying everything is up to date.

Again more work needed here Apple.

On to the Apps them selves, I have now downloaded a number of Apps and here is my review of the ones that I have found most useful.

Facebook – Great App for Facebook user and work with out a problem.
Twitterrific – Another good App that I have not had a problem with.
Pownce – This is a good App WHEN it works the problem is it crashed probably the most times of any App.
Evernote – As everything else with Evernote its great.
WeatherBug – This really is a great App especially when you live somewhere that the weather can change quickly like Chicago.
AOL Radio – This really is fantastic no more over the air radio for me.
Pandora – As AOL radio this is a great App to listen to the music you want to listen to.
SportsTap – I have found this App great for Sports information and results and I cant wait to see how it works with the English Premiership.
Remote – This has the potential to be the best App out there but as with everything else at the moment Apple has a lot of work to do. I have used this App a number of times with my AppleTV and 90% of the time it crashed the ATV and twice has made me resync everything to the ATV. Working with iTunes on the Mac however works very well.
AirMe – This is a good App for Flickr user’s. There is still some work to do and I am told the next version will be a lot better. (Updates Here) I love the GPS interaction of this App.
Bloomberg – A good App for keeping up to date with the financial markets.
WordPress – This looks good for reading my Blog. I am yet to write a blog post with it and will update when I do.
AIM – I believe that this will be better with the update that Steve Jobs talked about coming out in September.
Movies.app – A great App for movie information.
Google – Does what Google does and does it very well.

If anyone has any good infotmation on the Apps they are using then please let me know.

MobileMe Review

So it’s been over a week now since MobileMe was released and time for a review. We all know that Apple messed up and the release of MobileMe was very poor, we also now know that Apple’s “Push” service is no more at least for the time being, and we all get a free month of MobileMe.

I have far more issues than just these problems, first of all MobileMe is nowhere near “Exchange for the rest of us” here is a list of what the calendar is missing

•    No Sharing calendars WHY OH WHY IS THIS MISSING
•    Unable to invite people to an event from the web
•    Unable to invite people to an event from my iPhone
•    No Calendar search

My wife does not like using a mail client for her PC and uses the web and her iPhone and so cannot send out an invite for me to attend a meeting, this is just crazy and one huge over sight from Apple.
On top of this I often get events in the wrong calendars on my iPhone so if I just want to look at 1 calendar I am then miss events.

So for me the Calendar App and MobileMe calendars have a lot of work to do before they are classed as a “good” calendar service.

On to contacts and online version does work well the problems start when you have them synced with your iPhone. I have noticed that when you go into the contacts app that this can be slow to bring up your contacts and some times doesn’t even bring up the contacts. When the iPhone does loss your contacts and then resync’s them I have noticed that it losses the individual ring tones and you have to reset them up. Again this is not good.

Mail is probably the only part of MobileMe that does work well apart from the whole “Push” issue that I am sure everyone is now aware of.

The galleries have so much potential yet are missing so much. First why have the picture albums now been limited to 500 pictures, as 1 friend said “Do Apple not want us to have too much fun on vacation.” Also with the addition of GPS on the iPhone why has this not been incorporated with in MobileMe galleries I know they show the GPS location but why not a button that links you to the location with in Google Maps, this is a great feature that Flickr as. Also has anyone tried to use the GPS location that Apple gives you? I couldn’t get Google Maps to understand it, yet when I do the same thing from Flickr Google Maps takes to me the exact location the photo was taken.

After using MobileMe for a week or so now it gives me the feeling that this was something that was rushed out and not really tested and it certainly isn’t something that “Just works”. This was one of the reasons I moved to Apple and away from Microsoft and I really hope in the future Apple does not continue this trend.

Apple needs to put a lot more work in to MobileMe before it becomes “Exchange for the rest of us”

iPhone 3G Review

I have now had my iPhone 3G phone for a few days so I think its time to write about my experience so far.

I decided that this year I would line up on Friday morning for the iPhone, I got a bit of luck in that the weather in Chicago on Thursday night was very bad rain so when I got to the AT&T shop at 7am there was only about 20 people in line in front of me. As there were a number of techy people in the line the time flew by. At 8 the store opened and the 1st 5 people were allowed in. 8:45 must have been the time that the systems started to go down and it was then the line started to move. I was in and out of the store with in 30 mins and back up by 9:30.

I was not happy when I got home, after the AT&T store telling us it was the “Store’s” computers that were down, to find that it was Apple yet again letting everyone down. At about 3pm on Frinday I finally got my new Phone working and it wasn’t until 10am on Saturday morning that my Voice Mail was working.

So how am I enjoying the new iPhone, well first the bad news.
The Battery – I have found that the battery is not as good as my old iPhone even with 3G turned, I have found that I need to charge my phone at least once again, my old phone was every other day.
The Camera – Although I believe that the camera takes a better photo its still only a 2Mb camera and this could have been a lot better especially with the New Apps and location services. Also still no Video.
SMS & MMS – Still no multi media messages and you are still unable to forward text messages.
IM- Still no IM apart for AIM that only works when the App is open, although this is to be fixed in September we are told.
Crashing – I have noticed that the iPhone does now crash at least once a day I am hoping this is going to be fixed in a future update.

Now the good!!!
GPS – This is one of the best parts to the phone and all the Apps that are now using location services is great, the fact that I can take a picture and upload to flickr and I can see a map of were it was taken is great.
3G – This is a definite plus to the phone and the Internet is faster when using 3G. I do however thing that there is still work to do as when I use 3G for calls I do get some dropped calls.
Push email – Push email is good but not great as only about 80% of my mails get pushed I guess this is more to do with Apple’s lack of infrastructure for MobileMe and will improve in time.
Apps – The Apps are one of the best things about iPhone 2.0 and I will cover this in another blog.
Settings -  I do like the fact that I now have more control over what I turn off when in Airplane mode I can now have wifi ON something I really wanted.

All in all I am very happy with the new iPhone, Apple still has a lot of work to do but I am sure this will be done soon. I hope so!!!

My MobileMe review can be found here http://delboycarter.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/mobileme-review/

My Apps/Apps Store review can be found here http://delboycarter.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/apples-app-store-and-apps-review/

Mozy Redeem Themselves

Late last night I received the following email for Tom Metge of Mozy.

“I’ve been postponing an answer until I’ve had something concrete to give
you.  My apologies for the silence- unfortunately, we’re still buried in QA.
Anyhow, until you get back on your feet, there’s no point paying for the
service.  I’ve taken the liberty of refunding your last payment… That will
hold you out until 5/28/09.

I do have some good news for you- from your last log, I can see a number
connection errors and other network interruptions, but Mozy seems to be
plodding along, getting the job done.  You have 1.1TB backed up right now,
which is no mean feet

Hopefully the refund will help us keep things moving.  I’ll try harder to
keep you up-to-date as we get a fix out on this.  Believe me, we’re making
it a priority.  As soon as I’ve got even an alpha build of a client that
addresses this, I’ll fire it off to you.

Nice blog post, by the way.  Let me know what I can do to help turn your
opinion around.  We have nearly 1 million users, so I can’t say I’m
surprised to hear that you’ve found people having a few problems.  What may
not have come across (and that is my fault and I offer my apologies) is
that, regardless of the number, we have a vested interest in solving every
single one of those problems.

Let me polish this off with a personal promise- until we have this fixed,
you won’t pay a penny to Mozy.  That refund stands and will stand until May
of next year, at a minimum.  As we work through this, I will also make sure
that your help is appropriately rewarded, beyond the refund.  Helping us to
push the boundaries of what Mozy can and was designed to do is enormously
valuable to us.

Thanks again for the help and the patience.  Once more, I offer my apologies
for the silence.  My intention was to have a solid answer for you.  I hope
the refund and renewed commitment will stand until I can hand that solution
to you.”

I now feel that Mozy has done the correct thing and does care about me as a customer. I will continue to recommend Mozy as a god backup option as until this problem I had no issues and I now believe that Mozy IS doing everything they can to fix my problem. I still do have an issue with the current version but I am able to get some backups done using an older version of the software. I would like to thank Tom for the update and I will update my blog once I get the new version of the software.