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Cranky Windows Guy: Apple's iPhone Bugs Stopped Me From Switching to a Mac | |
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| Time: 14:39 EST/19:39 GMT | News Source: Gizmodo | Posted By: Todd Richardson | ||
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I've always been a Windows user, which means I've always been subjected to the ridicule of holier-than-thou Apple fans. You know what I'm talking about: blue screen of death jokes, spelling Microsoft with a $ in place of the S, saying "it just works" with a smug, chubby-faced smirk. It's always been annoying, and it's always made me want to avoid using Apple products just so I wouldn't turn into one of those people. But then the iPhone came out, and I wanted it. But I being a Windows dude, I knew to wait a year for what I thought would be a more complete, less buggy version. It was Apple's opportunity to get me into the fold, to make me a member of the cult. And boy, did they blow it. | ||
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| #1 By 8556 (12.206.195.4) at 8/22/2008 3:04:24 PM |
| Quite a different perspective from the ones we normally read about. The rejected suggestion from Apple as a work around for a lack of a signal in Manhattan puts the writer into the "just a bit arrogant" catagory of users that started with an expectation of perfection. The statement that he won't use Vista says much about the writer's attitude since he doesn't say why he won't use Vista. Is he so influenced by bad press that he gives up withour trying? Does he have 12,000 images of XP that would need to be switched over and he doesn't want to do it? That I would understand. Instead, he might he be just a bit lazy. |
| #2 By 44902 (92.236.252.16) at 8/22/2008 4:56:08 PM |
| Same story as mine. I am "windows guy", I like(ed) Apple products, I owned iPo 3.5G" , I own iPod Touch. In result I DON'T WANT iPHONE ANYMORE. Because of UI stupidity, bugs, and Apple's greediness and arrogance. Enough. I'm not sick anymore. |
| #3 By 143 (74.129.193.136) at 8/23/2008 12:57:19 AM |
| "iPhone is the other candy." |
| #4 By 140154 (221.128.201.96) at 8/23/2008 2:05:29 AM |
| Here in India, the iPhone is priced at 31000 and 36000 for 8 and 16 GB models = US $715 and $831. WTF! This is not how you treat "only-First-World-exists" markets. I can buy any Nokia, BlackBerry or Windows Mobile-based phone for the same price as the US/EU/international market. No wonder Apple's products are called overpriced. India's mobile market is the fastest growing currently and 2nd-3rd largest in the world. I'm not satisfied Apple, are you listening? |
| #5 By 12071 (83.20.175.230) at 8/23/2008 5:01:05 AM |
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So this guy ruled out a desktop OS based on his experience with a mobile phone! Genius! Who is this guy? Parkkker? I'm not a windows fan by any stretch of the imagination but I'd have to kick my own ar*e if I ever ruled out the OS based on the Zune for example (which is literally a piece of sh*t). Then again so is Vista so perhaps this guy has a point ;) hehehe
#4 Go right ahead and buy the Nokia, BlackBerry or Windows Mobile phone then. They may even suit you better than the iPhone based on your needs. Personally I'm never going to touch another Windows Mobile phone until they finish "innovating" the rest of the features that are standard on the iPhone - although given their history of being completely incapable of creating apps with a consistent look and feel I don't hold much hope for them! I'm not saying that the pricing is right - but let's be honest, that sort of pricing is done across the board all over the world on a wide variety of goods not just Apple's mobile phones. That's where the internet comes in handy - ordering it from O/S where you can get the goods at their original price, not the local inflated to all h*ll price. |
| #6 By 21203 (76.27.192.67) at 8/23/2008 5:33:16 PM |
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Chris,
It's completely reasonable to rule out a desktop platform based upon the mobile one. 1. It's a smaller subset of the same code, therefore theoretically easier to refine refine refine and polish polish polish. 2. It shouldn't crash. 3. No really, it shouldn't crash. The sentiments of the original post I agreed with completely. I am a windows junkie, but also a music junkie. I was >< this close to going out and getting a mac because of music needs that just couldn't be met as easily on Windows (and stubborn mac music coders). But no. A month after this release and I've changed my mind. Added with the instability, it just doesn't offer that much that is unique to the platform, except extra costs and much more limited support options. So, treating something like your phone as a development sandbox is one thing, but it better have a rock solid backend/kernel, not drop calls, etc. And if this is how they treat their "limited subset" device, I can expect an order of magnitude worse from the full enchilada. Oh yeah. Lets compare the Zune. Microsoft never claimed it was running a subset of the Windows API like Apple is touting quite clearly with the iPhone. So basically, whether I agree or not on it's usability for anyone, it's immaterial. This post was edited by mram on Saturday, August 23, 2008 at 17:34. |
| #7 By 11888 (70.48.238.201) at 8/23/2008 6:34:58 PM |
| Does anyone here with an iPhone have anything to add? I don't have one, but friends do and so far they haven't complained to me about it. I'll have to ask around. I do have an iPod Touch though and sometimes a 3rd party app will crash but never the whole OS. I don't think I've seen that happen on any OS revision on the Touch. Could a bad batch of phones with hardware problems be the culprit? There could be a parallel to the Xbox 360 here. I'm on number 3 now but the OS on the box has never crashed on me. |
| #8 By 8273 (71.231.198.243) at 8/24/2008 4:35:44 AM |
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I bought an iPhone around this time last year (I think it was early September). That was my first iPhone and first Apple product. While updating that phone to firmware 1.1.4 the day it was released it was bricked with error 1603. I took it to the "Genius" bar, where they told me that I had tried to hack it - which I did not do - and that it voided the warranty. Foolishly, rather than paying to get out of my AT&T contract, I bought a new one which means that I had reset my 2 year contract. Later Apple admited it was a problem, but their solution - it is a Windows problem and using a different computer will fix it (I tried on multiple Windows computers and 2 macs, without it being fixed). A few months later on my new phone all audio stopped working, and it was back to the "Genius" bar. They took my phone, and a few weeks later (during which it was back to my old Blackjack) they decided that it was broken and so they gave me a new one.
Then one morning the battery was almost dead, so I plugged it into my new Mac mini to recharge. That was the day that the 2.0 firmware was released. It told me that a new version of iTunes was released, so it wanted me to upgrade iTunes. I did that. Then it wanted me to upgrade to the 2.0 firmware. I clicked OK, and did not have a phone for 7 hours because it wanted to contact Apple to authorize it (don't the Apple fans criticize Windows for doing this?). Because their servers were down, I could not authorize and hence had no phone. Eventually it was activated. But now on my Mac and Windows computers I have Mobile Me. Updating to the newest iTunes installs Mobile Me. I was never asked if I wanted to install software which Apple admits to not working, it ust installed it. Iimagine if Microsoft did this, the uproar. Since installing the 2.0 firmware I have dropped calls, crashes while making a call, and often have to redial a number 2-3 times before a connection is made, all in my home where I did not have any problems with the 1.1.X firmware, and never any problems with my old Blackjack. Downloading apps from the App Store usually causes a crash of the phone diring install - not with just one or two specific apps, but all. Updating apps often causes a freeze where pressing and holding the button on the top does not reboot, but locks to the point where I need to let the battery drain and then recharge before it will restart (remember - no removable battery), and this is something that Steve Jobs admitted to and will be fixed "in a future update". My favorite bug, which started a couple days ago, is that suddenly my iPhone started asking me for a password when trying to get to voice mail. I never entered a PW, so when it asks me for a PW, I do not know what to enter so I cannot listen to voicemail. I have had problems with audio on this phone, also. The official Apple solution? Plug in and remove the headphones a couple times because it gets "stuck" in headphone mode. Safari is the most unstable program I have ever used - the well known Black Screen Of Death happens at least a couple times a day. I will say that the web browser is much more usable than IE on my old blackjack, when it works. But after all this my Mac mini has become a email only computer while I do real work on my Vista computers. I bought the Mini to try it out, to see what all the hype is about, do testing of web pages I write for compatibility, and keep the GF happy (she uses a Mac) knowing there is one available to her. But when Mac fans tell me that the iPhone, even with the 2.0 firmware, is absolutely perfect, if this is perfection then using my Mac for anything than mail is not a priority and has left a bad taste of what Apple products are like. |
| #9 By 11888 (70.48.238.201) at 8/24/2008 10:01:01 AM |
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I still haven't had any of the software problems on the iPod Touch that you're experiencing on iPhone. This would be last gen hardware but you said you had problems with your first gen iPhone. The web seems to have the ability to amplify average rates of consumer hardware failure. Could that be it?
What us the safari black screen of death? I haven't seen it (yet.) |
| #10 By 8273 (71.231.198.243) at 8/24/2008 12:44:40 PM |
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These are some of the problems I have personally had, and more. Not exaggeration because it is on the web. And no, I am not including stupid little bugs like when you delete all your mail, it says you have -4294967295 unread messages - it is a bug, but does not hurt anything (even though Apple supposedly puts so much polish into their code).
The black screen of death is when you are browsing and Safari disappears (crashes) and a few seconds later returns you to the home screen. It reportedly is caused by Safari not being able to handle anything beyond simple CSS. |
| #11 By 12071 (83.20.167.240) at 8/24/2008 1:33:49 PM |
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#6 "It's completely reasonable to rule out a desktop platform based upon the mobile one."
Perhaps only to yourself (and parkkker) - I stand by my comment that regardless of the similarities shared between the iPhone and OS X, ruling out OS X based on the experiences with the iPhone is literally nothing short of insane. Sure the core OS should be stable but who is to say that the problems experienced with the iPhone aren't due to hardware that is not present in the Mac? I'm not saying that is the case, but it's not unreasonable to assume that given that they are two completely different devices. "Microsoft never claimed it was running a subset of the Windows API" I never said they did... I was just comparing two completely different devices made by a single manufacturer to try and illustrate how ludicrous it is to discount a desktop OS based on experiences with another device. Perhaps you're be happier if I compared it to that piece of sh*t OS - Windows Mobile - I'm more than happy to do that as well, the conclusion is the same. #7 "Does anyone here with an iPhone have anything to add?" Everyone's experiences are different so it'll be hard to get a consensus on anything especially if biases come into the equation. I myself have the iPhone 3G (I upgraded from my existing Windows Mobile device) and have never looked back. I have had Safari close on me once in the time I've had it and go back to the home screen and I use it on average for 30 minutes a day - to and from work and irregularly at home - so all in all I would say that's fairly good. IE on the Windows Mobile phone was never used as it literally is unusable for just about every single site on the web. I haven't had any issues with call quality or drop outs or poor performance or anything - my experience has been completely fault free. The only thing I can really complain about it the battery life. It happens to be "just" long enough for me but it means I have to recharge it on a daily basis - with the amount of time I spend using it for the ipod, wifi and 3g it tends to drain the battery enough to require a charge ever day (plus one of the games that I like to play on it - Aurora Faint - drains the battery like a b*tch). The only positive side to this is that the time to charge the phone is quick. I'm not about to buy a Mac though and if I did it wouldn't be based on my experiences with the iPhone! |
| #12 By 20505 (216.102.144.11) at 8/24/2008 3:29:28 PM |
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I just purchased a 16GB iTouch and I've been goofing around with it a few days. In many ways it is a truly beautiful device. My beef is with iTunes.
Am I the only one who believes this is the worst program ever written for the PC? So...maybe it's fine on a Mac, but on a PC it's sloooooow and seems to be two generations behind Windows Media Player. BTW - I took back a Zune to buy the iTouch. Talk about stupidity. The MS product doesn't work with Media Player. What idiot though of that? It's not "plays for sure" with Windows! The included Zune software also sucks. The device doesn't have an equalizer. A deal breaker for me. Sigh. Three+ generations later still a lot of very mediocre MP3 players out there. #8 - Thanks for the tip. I wasn't about to give Apple another $10 for a firmware update that should be free. Guess I saved myself some hassle. |
| #13 By 12071 (83.20.167.240) at 8/24/2008 4:31:34 PM |
| #12 Good point - I completely forgot... I agree, iTunes IS quite possibly one of the clunkiest, slowest, horrible to use programs for Windows! I don't think there is any reason for it being that way unless they used some middleware application to convert it to run on Windows so that they wouldn't have to have a completely new version. And the sync ability really is only suited to having iTunes handle it for you - trying to do a sync and manually handle your music seems cluncky. |
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