4 ms·

How Apple Took The Fun Out of Owning an iPhone

25 points by mcantelon 16y ago

modeless 16y ago
Apple already got plenty of flak for leaving out features like wallpapers in the name of performance; if they hadn't released iOS4 for the 3G at all they would have been crucified by the same people. Releasing the update and telling people not to install it would also have been a dumb idea. The only thing they can reasonably do is allow downgrades back to 3, or improve performance in 4.1.
- cheald 16y ago
  I agree with you that Apple could not really have feasibly avoided releasing iOS4 on the 3G/3GS, but the author makes a fair point that they do own the whole stack, and either didn't test performance or didn't care enough to tell people that it would perform slower on older hardware. It's not like iOS 4 on 3GS hardware was an unforeseen combination. From what I've seen from friends and on Youtube, the problem isn't minute, either - it's a drastically worse experience. It seems like something like that should have been caught.
  - ChRoss 16y ago
    I don't have iPhone 4, and can't say much how is the performance. But according to my experience, it's software issue (memory management). After upgrading my 3GS to iOS, my daily task is to kill all apps in the multitasking bar when it feel sluggish. I can check from iMemGraph, the free memory is increased substantially.
- jinushaun 16y ago
  And I'm sure these same people are also complaining about the lack of iOS 4 support on the original iPhone. These same people probably also complained about lack of video recording in the iPhone 3G. In all cases, jailbroken phones have shown that these features simply don't perform on the lower end models. It seemed like the original author spent an unseemly amount of time complaining about the performance of the iPhone 3G when running iOS 3 and iOS 4. Not to defend Apple, but before the iPhone, you had to buy an entirely new phone in order to get the latest OS. I think it's incredibly impressive that I can "upgrade" the iOS on my phone to a new whole number release. Twice! Even if it doesn't, my phone isn't gonna magically stop working because iPhone 5 or 6 comes out. I don't HAVE to buy a new iPhone just because Apple calls it magical.
dieterrams 16y ago
> Of course, I could downgrade the OS back to a previous version. That is, if I wanted to go through a long, involved, and potentially brickifying process. But I shouldn’t have to do that. Cry me a river. I bet it would have taken less time to downgrade than it took to write that post. And there's not much risk of bricking. (He seems to think his phone is unbearably slow now, so why not?) He also never mentions attempting to do a restore, which has fixed the problem for a lot people. There's obviously just something buggy that'll likely get fixed with 4.1. In the meantime, how many of these trivial stories are going to get FPed on HN? (In fairness, this has probably affected more people than Antennagate. I just can't believe every tech issue is getting trotted out here like it's an Apple bug reporting tool. This isn't even a new problem.)
fmora 16y ago
I wonder if this is the beginning of the end. It seems that Android has Apple rushing to deliver products that are not up to their usual standards. They've had problems before but this seems much more systemic.
- mitjak 16y ago
  You're so right! Let's drop our phones, iPhone apps, and run off to sell Android applications where the soil is fertile and customers just don't know what to do with all of their cash.
  - fmora 16y ago
    Right about what? All I did was to ask a question. Take it easy. I'm asking this question as an iPhone developer.
- anigbrowl 16y ago
  As an Android user I'd say no. No company can consistently outdo its own hype, let alone Apple; while the new phone/OS has proved anticlimactic (especially after the great launch of the iPad), it's hardly a disaster. The only end I see is to their having the smartphone market largely to themselves. They'll lose a bit of market share over the next year, between increased competition and an indifferent response to the new iPhone. The biggest challenge I see in the immediate term is how to differentiate their next offering from the competition. Of course they can further reduce size and weight, but this is an area of diminishing returns. The current generation of smartphones are not much more bulky than a wallet, which is Small Enough for most people. Speed is kind of limited by the quality of the carrier, so I think the next gen fight will be all about battery life.
  - Tycho 16y ago
    I had a go of the iPhone 4 in the shop on launch day. My only complaint was that it was actually a bit too light! I like the solid feel of the 3G (no idea why this is... Maybe something to do with associating weight with heavier and more expensive metals)
anigbrowl 16y ago
It's a bit self-centered, but seems to capture a mood all the same. I'm struck by the contrast between the fevered increase of AAPL prior to the launch and the resigned decline in its price since then. It's rather a shame that all the genuine effort and progress that went into their latest device has been overshadowed by this antenna issue, but so it goes. I'm reminded of the G4 Cube.
ilkhd2 16y ago
And that was such cosy begining, with 6502 and a garage....
thethimble 16y ago
There's no end to the whining. It's either: 1. Apple didn't put feature X into its product. or 2. Apple put feature X into its product. Either way, the same group of people end up crying.
ben1040 16y ago
Installing iOS 4 on my iPhone 3G made me think back to when I upgraded to Windows XP in 2001. The computer was top of the line when I bought it just 2 years prior, but XP was a total dog on it. However, a 2 year old PC would run Windows 7 just fine when it came out. It seems like there was a tipping point where PCs became overpowered relative to what most people ask of them. As a result they have more staying power in the face of software updates. It doesn't look like we've hit that point with smartphones yet, but I wonder when we will...
- dieterrams 16y ago
  This isn't actually a problem with the 3G being underpowered. Something is buggy with the 3G build.
BornInTheUSSR 16y ago
Waaah!
ryanjmo 16y ago
I actually prefer not having multi-tasking on my iPhone. I really like that when I close an application it is gone and not running in the background taking up memory or doing unknown things. No multi-tasking keeps things simple, which is how I like them on a device with a such a small screen (since you can only look at one thing anyway). I also think not allowing multi-tasking encourages good development practices. It encourages software that can deal with a quick exit by the user at any time, but at the same time get them back to where they were. I find a lot of the iPhone software nice for this reason. In my opinion, no multi-tasking is a feature. If it were an option on iOS4 I would turn it on.
- trezor 16y ago
  For some applications (like Spotify) that is simply not an option.

25 points by mcantelon 16y ago

Apple already got plenty of flak for leaving out features like wallpapers in the name of performance; if they hadn't released iOS4 for the 3G at all they would have been crucified by the same people. Releasing the update and telling people not to install it would also have been a dumb idea. The only thing they can reasonably do is allow downgrades back to 3, or improve performance in 4.1.

cheald 16y ago
I agree with you that Apple could not really have feasibly avoided releasing iOS4 on the 3G/3GS, but the author makes a fair point that they do own the whole stack, and either didn't test performance or didn't care enough to tell people that it would perform slower on older hardware. It's not like iOS 4 on 3GS hardware was an unforeseen combination. From what I've seen from friends and on Youtube, the problem isn't minute, either - it's a drastically worse experience. It seems like something like that should have been caught.
- ChRoss 16y ago
  I don't have iPhone 4, and can't say much how is the performance. But according to my experience, it's software issue (memory management). After upgrading my 3GS to iOS, my daily task is to kill all apps in the multitasking bar when it feel sluggish. I can check from iMemGraph, the free memory is increased substantially.
jinushaun 16y ago
And I'm sure these same people are also complaining about the lack of iOS 4 support on the original iPhone. These same people probably also complained about lack of video recording in the iPhone 3G. In all cases, jailbroken phones have shown that these features simply don't perform on the lower end models. It seemed like the original author spent an unseemly amount of time complaining about the performance of the iPhone 3G when running iOS 3 and iOS 4. Not to defend Apple, but before the iPhone, you had to buy an entirely new phone in order to get the latest OS. I think it's incredibly impressive that I can "upgrade" the iOS on my phone to a new whole number release. Twice! Even if it doesn't, my phone isn't gonna magically stop working because iPhone 5 or 6 comes out. I don't HAVE to buy a new iPhone just because Apple calls it magical.

dieterrams 16y ago

> Of course, I could downgrade the OS back to a previous version. That is, if I wanted to go through a long, involved, and potentially brickifying process. But I shouldn’t have to do that. Cry me a river. I bet it would have taken less time to downgrade than it took to write that post. And there's not much risk of bricking. (He seems to think his phone is unbearably slow now, so why not?) He also never mentions attempting to do a restore, which has fixed the problem for a lot people. There's obviously just something buggy that'll likely get fixed with 4.1. In the meantime, how many of these trivial stories are going to get FPed on HN? (In fairness, this has probably affected more people than Antennagate. I just can't believe every tech issue is getting trotted out here like it's an Apple bug reporting tool. This isn't even a new problem.)

fmora 16y ago

I wonder if this is the beginning of the end. It seems that Android has Apple rushing to deliver products that are not up to their usual standards. They've had problems before but this seems much more systemic.

mitjak 16y ago
You're so right! Let's drop our phones, iPhone apps, and run off to sell Android applications where the soil is fertile and customers just don't know what to do with all of their cash.
- fmora 16y ago
  Right about what? All I did was to ask a question. Take it easy. I'm asking this question as an iPhone developer.
anigbrowl 16y ago
As an Android user I'd say no. No company can consistently outdo its own hype, let alone Apple; while the new phone/OS has proved anticlimactic (especially after the great launch of the iPad), it's hardly a disaster. The only end I see is to their having the smartphone market largely to themselves. They'll lose a bit of market share over the next year, between increased competition and an indifferent response to the new iPhone. The biggest challenge I see in the immediate term is how to differentiate their next offering from the competition. Of course they can further reduce size and weight, but this is an area of diminishing returns. The current generation of smartphones are not much more bulky than a wallet, which is Small Enough for most people. Speed is kind of limited by the quality of the carrier, so I think the next gen fight will be all about battery life.
- Tycho 16y ago
  I had a go of the iPhone 4 in the shop on launch day. My only complaint was that it was actually a bit too light! I like the solid feel of the 3G (no idea why this is... Maybe something to do with associating weight with heavier and more expensive metals)

anigbrowl 16y ago

It's a bit self-centered, but seems to capture a mood all the same. I'm struck by the contrast between the fevered increase of AAPL prior to the launch and the resigned decline in its price since then. It's rather a shame that all the genuine effort and progress that went into their latest device has been overshadowed by this antenna issue, but so it goes. I'm reminded of the G4 Cube.

ilkhd2 16y ago

And that was such cosy begining, with 6502 and a garage....

thethimble 16y ago

There's no end to the whining. It's either: 1. Apple didn't put feature X into its product. or 2. Apple put feature X into its product. Either way, the same group of people end up crying.

ben1040 16y ago

Installing iOS 4 on my iPhone 3G made me think back to when I upgraded to Windows XP in 2001. The computer was top of the line when I bought it just 2 years prior, but XP was a total dog on it. However, a 2 year old PC would run Windows 7 just fine when it came out. It seems like there was a tipping point where PCs became overpowered relative to what most people ask of them. As a result they have more staying power in the face of software updates. It doesn't look like we've hit that point with smartphones yet, but I wonder when we will...

dieterrams 16y ago
This isn't actually a problem with the 3G being underpowered. Something is buggy with the 3G build.

BornInTheUSSR 16y ago

Waaah!

ryanjmo 16y ago

I actually prefer not having multi-tasking on my iPhone. I really like that when I close an application it is gone and not running in the background taking up memory or doing unknown things. No multi-tasking keeps things simple, which is how I like them on a device with a such a small screen (since you can only look at one thing anyway). I also think not allowing multi-tasking encourages good development practices. It encourages software that can deal with a quick exit by the user at any time, but at the same time get them back to where they were. I find a lot of the iPhone software nice for this reason. In my opinion, no multi-tasking is a feature. If it were an option on iOS4 I would turn it on.

trezor 16y ago
For some applications (like Spotify) that is simply not an option.