IPhone is a great product or concept but execution is wanting. I've had some issues with calls but frankly the cell phone component was not a big draw. What was is the portable computer / Internet access functionality. With respect to this usage the iPhone is wanting. That mostly due to bugs in all the software. The apps (mail, Safari, contacts and the like) do what I want when they don't crash. But frankly what good is an E-Mail program that crashes after two SIMPLE messages are read.
I guess that is the #1 thing that burns my behind, mail crashes when you open up nothing but simple E-Mails. It would be a bit different if the crashes happened on really complex multi media E-Mail but this is not the case at all.
Then we get into the issue of syncing through Mobile Me. To much corruption and difficulty here. Moreso I'm wondering why a sync over USB can't fix this. Worst is trying to find the work around on Apples support web site. The killer is that all the need to do is add a button that just completely resuncs an app. So if my calendar gets screwed up I can just tap a button to get a refresh from "me.com". Seems like a good solid solution to me.
Now understand these are frustrations! I now use my iPhone every day, with crashes or other issues every day. It certainly solves a need but I did expect a little better out of Apple for core functionality. The only good thing is that I have confidence that Apple will address the bugs which is more than can be said for the majority of hand set makers.
So I won't suggest to anybody not to buy an iPhone, it is a good machine but you need to be aware of the bugs. In any event I'm hoping most of these issues are dealt with before the end of next month.
Dave
The only problems I've had so far is the erratic 3G reception, and one program not behaving properly after a few days (ScoreMobile), though after a reload its been ok.
No sync issues, nothing else.
Considering that so many of these problems are not happening to everyone, just as our computer issues whenever an update or upgrade comes along are just happening to some people, I suspect that not all of it is directly related to either the phone or iTunes itself, but some other third party problems which not everyone has. Or possibly, corrupt installs.
These things do happen.
P.S This should have been posted in the early afternoon, but I couldn't get into the ---- site with the post, and had to leave until a short while ago.
Certainly, traffic can also be a big problem... my reasons for not believing it to be the big reason here:
- Calls dropped when sitting still during a low-volume period (with adequate tower coverage).
- Calls dropped when moving through low-call-density areas (w/ adequate coverage).
- It is a convenient problem, in terms of having a ready-made solution to present to the audience.
If it is solely a call-density/congestion/traffic problem, then at low-traffic periods people would not have problems. Question: is this the case? It sure sounds like people are having trouble all the time, and not just during peak periods of the day...
It is a convenient problem because the PR answer is: we're solving the problem - we're building more towers! It sounds like a good way to say, "no, really, we're working on it!" It's better than my more pessimistic assertion of, "it's the fatal flaw of our network that a 5th grader wrote our tracking software for his intro to c++ class. We could fix it, but we'd just be hiring another 5th grader..."
I don't mean to belittle your point at all because there certainly could be truth to it. My contention is that the problems are too pervasive, and that explanation too convenient, for it to be entirely correct. It most definitely could be part of the problem, though.
How do you know it's a low volume period? That's just supposition.
You also don't know that those are low density areas. Those areas also tend to have less towers, so the statement remains valid.
Your third statement is simply another supposition on your part made to make your argument seem correct. You don't have any idea that it reflects reality. You simply don't want to accept any of the reasons being given.
We also don't know how pervasive these problem really are. How many of the apparently 3 million plus have these problems? No one knows right now, but it's been stated that it's not much.
The explanation of tracking makes no sense when the problem occurs with a perfectly immobile phone. and don't forget that it takes three towers to properly track you, and thats used for location purposes.
I agree that location tracking can be a part of the problem, but not more than a part, perhaps not even the largest part.
You are forgetting that towers don't have perfect coverage. Often, signals weaken before another tower takes over, with its own weak signal. As you get closer to the tower the signal strengthens. If the towers are too far apart, you could lose the signal before the next tower takes over. Apparently, as AT&T have themselves said, the 3G power is being raised. This is all apart from tracking.
what's interesting is that in the middle of Manhattan, in the middle of the day, in the basement of my daughters school, where rehearsals are taking place, not only was I able to make and receive calls, but was able to use the internet as well, while two people couldn't get any signal from Verison at all. This was for two days in a row now.
[QUOTE=vinea;1298155]They need more towers and additional spectrum...followed by a beefier backbone.[/quote}
Which backbone are you talking about? The AU or the core network infrastructure. They could put on STM-16 and it will not necessarily help the problem.
Quote:
They can't do towers at any greater pace than they have because it's expensive but they are building out their network. The current towers are a tad too far apart but they know this and are building as fast as their pocketbook allows.
You do not always have to build towers. The sides of buildings work just as well, so do silo's, etc... 3G BTS's do not have to be as high as regular GSM towers.
Quote:
Spectrum they are getting from shutting down their legacy TDMA service...giving them back the 850Mhz spectrum which should give them more building penetration capability. Coupled with the 700Mhz spectrum they purchased should fill this gap eventually.
Uhhhh...... But to use these additional spectrums, don't they need matching radios? Is there a radio in the iPhone for 700Mhz, if not your point about this makes no sense. Explain to me again, how TDMA has to do anything with WCDMA which 3G is.
Quote:
Plus, as one AT&T engineer stated, they went from EDGE experts to 3G novices. This will improve naturally over time.
So things from their side will get better.
Smart money would have been better spent on hiring some Nokia or SonyEricsson engineers to show AT&T how it is done. Nokia and SE have only been doing this for years and years successfully.
Quote:
Whether it gets better faster than they get more 3G users is questionable...but certainly they know what needs to be done.
Not so sure they do know what to do. AT&T seem to screw it up at every turn.
Not true. Reviews of the sound quality were regular phone calls to land-based lines, not cell to cell calls. They claim the sound quality was better, but not substantially better to recommend using 3G all the time. Don't know what the quality would be when a cell to cell call is made with 3G on one end and 2G on the other. But it would be safe to assume the 3G cell would remain on the 3G network while the 2G cell remained on the 2G network. The 3G phone would not drop to 2G simply because the other caller is on 2G.
Also, I don't know who would be talking on the phone, doing email and surfing the net at the same time just to take advantage of multi-tasking with 3G. If I am on the phone, I can wait to finish email or surf the net. I actually turned off the push feature on my original phone because it was annoying having it vibrate all the time whenever I got mail. I will check my mail when I am ready to check my mail.
Unless the two people are sharing the same exact cell, chances are the call is going over copper anyway and breaking out at the BTS. Most cell calls transit via copper via the switch. It is a gross misperception that all calls stay in the air. They don't.
Comments
IPhone is a great product or concept but execution is wanting. I've had some issues with calls but frankly the cell phone component was not a big draw. What was is the portable computer / Internet access functionality. With respect to this usage the iPhone is wanting. That mostly due to bugs in all the software. The apps (mail, Safari, contacts and the like) do what I want when they don't crash. But frankly what good is an E-Mail program that crashes after two SIMPLE messages are read.
I guess that is the #1 thing that burns my behind, mail crashes when you open up nothing but simple E-Mails. It would be a bit different if the crashes happened on really complex multi media E-Mail but this is not the case at all.
Then we get into the issue of syncing through Mobile Me. To much corruption and difficulty here. Moreso I'm wondering why a sync over USB can't fix this. Worst is trying to find the work around on Apples support web site. The killer is that all the need to do is add a button that just completely resuncs an app. So if my calendar gets screwed up I can just tap a button to get a refresh from "me.com". Seems like a good solid solution to me.
Now understand these are frustrations! I now use my iPhone every day, with crashes or other issues every day. It certainly solves a need but I did expect a little better out of Apple for core functionality. The only good thing is that I have confidence that Apple will address the bugs which is more than can be said for the majority of hand set makers.
So I won't suggest to anybody not to buy an iPhone, it is a good machine but you need to be aware of the bugs. In any event I'm hoping most of these issues are dealt with before the end of next month.
Dave
The only problems I've had so far is the erratic 3G reception, and one program not behaving properly after a few days (ScoreMobile), though after a reload its been ok.
No sync issues, nothing else.
Considering that so many of these problems are not happening to everyone, just as our computer issues whenever an update or upgrade comes along are just happening to some people, I suspect that not all of it is directly related to either the phone or iTunes itself, but some other third party problems which not everyone has. Or possibly, corrupt installs.
These things do happen.
P.S This should have been posted in the early afternoon, but I couldn't get into the ---- site with the post, and had to leave until a short while ago.
Certainly, traffic can also be a big problem... my reasons for not believing it to be the big reason here:
- Calls dropped when sitting still during a low-volume period (with adequate tower coverage).
- Calls dropped when moving through low-call-density areas (w/ adequate coverage).
- It is a convenient problem, in terms of having a ready-made solution to present to the audience.
If it is solely a call-density/congestion/traffic problem, then at low-traffic periods people would not have problems. Question: is this the case? It sure sounds like people are having trouble all the time, and not just during peak periods of the day...
It is a convenient problem because the PR answer is: we're solving the problem - we're building more towers! It sounds like a good way to say, "no, really, we're working on it!" It's better than my more pessimistic assertion of, "it's the fatal flaw of our network that a 5th grader wrote our tracking software for his intro to c++ class. We could fix it, but we'd just be hiring another 5th grader..."
I don't mean to belittle your point at all because there certainly could be truth to it. My contention is that the problems are too pervasive, and that explanation too convenient, for it to be entirely correct. It most definitely could be part of the problem, though.
How do you know it's a low volume period? That's just supposition.
You also don't know that those are low density areas. Those areas also tend to have less towers, so the statement remains valid.
Your third statement is simply another supposition on your part made to make your argument seem correct. You don't have any idea that it reflects reality. You simply don't want to accept any of the reasons being given.
We also don't know how pervasive these problem really are. How many of the apparently 3 million plus have these problems? No one knows right now, but it's been stated that it's not much.
The explanation of tracking makes no sense when the problem occurs with a perfectly immobile phone. and don't forget that it takes three towers to properly track you, and thats used for location purposes.
I agree that location tracking can be a part of the problem, but not more than a part, perhaps not even the largest part.
You are forgetting that towers don't have perfect coverage. Often, signals weaken before another tower takes over, with its own weak signal. As you get closer to the tower the signal strengthens. If the towers are too far apart, you could lose the signal before the next tower takes over. Apparently, as AT&T have themselves said, the 3G power is being raised. This is all apart from tracking.
what's interesting is that in the middle of Manhattan, in the middle of the day, in the basement of my daughters school, where rehearsals are taking place, not only was I able to make and receive calls, but was able to use the internet as well, while two people couldn't get any signal from Verison at all. This was for two days in a row now.
Which backbone are you talking about? The AU or the core network infrastructure. They could put on STM-16 and it will not necessarily help the problem.
They can't do towers at any greater pace than they have because it's expensive but they are building out their network. The current towers are a tad too far apart but they know this and are building as fast as their pocketbook allows.
You do not always have to build towers. The sides of buildings work just as well, so do silo's, etc... 3G BTS's do not have to be as high as regular GSM towers.
Spectrum they are getting from shutting down their legacy TDMA service...giving them back the 850Mhz spectrum which should give them more building penetration capability. Coupled with the 700Mhz spectrum they purchased should fill this gap eventually.
Uhhhh...... But to use these additional spectrums, don't they need matching radios? Is there a radio in the iPhone for 700Mhz, if not your point about this makes no sense. Explain to me again, how TDMA has to do anything with WCDMA which 3G is.
Plus, as one AT&T engineer stated, they went from EDGE experts to 3G novices. This will improve naturally over time.
So things from their side will get better.
Smart money would have been better spent on hiring some Nokia or SonyEricsson engineers to show AT&T how it is done. Nokia and SE have only been doing this for years and years successfully.
Whether it gets better faster than they get more 3G users is questionable...but certainly they know what needs to be done.
Not so sure they do know what to do. AT&T seem to screw it up at every turn.
Not true. Reviews of the sound quality were regular phone calls to land-based lines, not cell to cell calls. They claim the sound quality was better, but not substantially better to recommend using 3G all the time. Don't know what the quality would be when a cell to cell call is made with 3G on one end and 2G on the other. But it would be safe to assume the 3G cell would remain on the 3G network while the 2G cell remained on the 2G network. The 3G phone would not drop to 2G simply because the other caller is on 2G.
Also, I don't know who would be talking on the phone, doing email and surfing the net at the same time just to take advantage of multi-tasking with 3G. If I am on the phone, I can wait to finish email or surf the net. I actually turned off the push feature on my original phone because it was annoying having it vibrate all the time whenever I got mail. I will check my mail when I am ready to check my mail.
Unless the two people are sharing the same exact cell, chances are the call is going over copper anyway and breaking out at the BTS. Most cell calls transit via copper via the switch. It is a gross misperception that all calls stay in the air. They don't.
Clearly, this is the iPhone's fault.
I'll just go along with all the haters:
Clearly, this is the iPhone's fault.
It can't be the fault of the iPhone. The iPhone is an inanimate object. It can't be blamed for anything.