It’s becoming a piece of bad news a week for Apple’s over-hyped wonder-gizmo, as reports from around the world now claim that the 3G iPhone has poor 3G reception that is “well below the standard”, which as a result, causes the battery life to be shortened.
The latest one today comes from a Swedish weekly, which said the fault is due to Apple’s hardware.
“The most likely cause of the 3G problems is defective adjustments between the antenna and an amplifier that captures very weak signals from the antenna. This could lead to poor 3G connectivity and slower data speeds.” (Source: Associated Press).
Another report from Information Week quoted an analyst saying that this could be down to an “immature” chipset from Infineon.
Wherever the problem lies, Apple appears to be keeping silent on the issue, despite consumer complaints from Australia to Europe.
Even carriers, which likely paid through those noses to get the “exclusive” phone of the year are now feeling the backlash of the Apple hype. T-Mobile in Netherlands, for example, says in a company blog that it has received complaints from users about poor speeds and suspects it’s the iPhone hardware that’s causing the problems.
The iPhone woes come on the back of earlier complaints from users about iPhone cases that crack and the poor MobileMe service.
Presumably SingTel, which is shipping the phone here on Aug 22, will be selling the same models as the rest of the world.
What will its users make of these problems on the wonder-gizmo, which was supposedly “twice as fast, half the price”? Will they wait for the updated, patched-up version later, which means its exclusivity would count for nothing as M1 and StarHub would also be selling the improved model later on?
No difference to you of course if you already want an iPhone 3G, no matter what. But for everyone else, it’s clearly wiser to stay away until Apple releases a patched-up version later.
If you want the excellent touch-screen functions, there’s always the iPod Touch. Just don’t junk your Nokia or Samsung yet.
You can’t mms…unless you donwload third-party software to do it. That’s something which I find really strange!
Oh I forgot to mention, what I heard (which you need to verify)
– no stereo Bluetooth
– you cannot forward SMS from third party to you to someone else
– you cannot create an SMS group
– you can’t do video calls
How about the bloody thing hangs?
I tested the new App Store on an iPod Touch pre-installed by Apple Singapore with the new 2.0 software. I used Wi-Fi to download and install the games like Texas Hold Em, Crash bandicoot, etc and my article came out in this week’s Digital Life.
What I didn’t say in that article – the iPod Touch hung halfway while I was trying to install Texas Hold Em. You ever heard of the apple screen of death? yeah it was there. Funny thing was I was trying to reset the device but there were only two buttons – the on/off anf the main menu button. I figured that maybe if I held both buttons for 6 seconds it might hard reset. But it didnt work. Later I realised you had to hold both buttons for like 20 or 30 seconds. That’s ridiculous! I tried to remove the battery but as you may know by now there is no accessible compartment to slide out.
So, I just left the device on the dining table (because it was so bloody hot I was afraid it might explode or something). Next morning the device was accessible again, after the battery was drained to almost zero!
Wanted to ask my uncle to buy it in the States. Luckily I chose wait and see tactic to see if the 3G iPhone is good.