Posted on 07/18/2008
at 11:38 AM
Category: Technology
Posted by Tim
I love my iPhone but considering the impact on usability based on issues I’ve experienced while using it, I’m not so sure it’s worth what it costs. Considering the bill is around $90 a month after one accounts for the taxes the fed tacks on, I feel that it should run pretty flawlessly. As I have found, unfortunately, it does not. This list isn’t about what iPhone is missing (Flash, cut and paste, etc.), but more about what it has that just doesn’t work.
1. Terrible 3G reception
This isn’t so much a problem with iPhone (maybe) but more of a complaint against AT&T. Their 3G network blows. I find myself using Edge almost all of the time, except when I’m at my girlfriend’s since that’s the only place I get good 3G reception, unless I’m in her backyard or about a block down the street. Then my phone gets 0 to 1 bar on 3G and usually switches over to Edge. I’m not necessarily pissed that 3G isn’t so great; it’s more the fact that I’m paying for a service that doesn’t really work and I have no choice but to stick with it for two years. I also live right outside of Philadelphia in one of the most densely populated areas in the U.S. What’s your excuse AT&T?
On a side note, Engadget posted about this and apparently their issue was a faulty iPhone. Two of my friends also have iPhone 3G and their reception is about the same as mine. Is it possible that all three of us received faulty iPhones? Of course, but it seems rather unlikely. There’s also a thread on Apple’s forums about this.
2. Mail hangs when checking for new messages
I have way too many email accounts. One for personal use, two for work, two for Soggypickle, a newly created Yahoo! address for push support, and another address or two that I have for some odd reason. Regardless, I’m not sure if my mail issue is caused by the amount of accounts I have or if it’s just a flaw in Mail. What happens is Mail will get hung up checking for new messages and will never stop checking. This kills the battery pretty quickly and usually I don’t catch it until I notice half of my battery drained within an hour or two. Simply rebooting iPhone resolves the issue, but doing something as simple as checking a POP3 server shouldn’t hang the application.
3. Type lag
I love it when I’m trying to send a text message or an email and the typing starts to lag. Something that should take about 30 seconds ends up taking several minutes. Is this because iPhone’s OS is to powerful for the hardware it’s running on? I’m not exactly sure but it drives me crazy and needs to be addressed.
Although this post only covers the problems I’ve experienced with my iPhone, there are plenty of perks to owning one as well. Maybe at a later date I’ll write something about that. If you’re experiencing issues that I haven’t mentioned here, please email me and if valid, I’ll add them to the list.
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