Time for a little rant

**mowbixby** · 01-28-2009, 05:47 AM

Hi Guys,
Fanboyism aside, I found myself yesterday morning saying another cellphone wouldn't do it for me, it had to be the iphone, in spite of all the things that had gone wrong with mine. But today, I'm sorry, I take it all back. I think my wife and I need to get off the iPhone bandwagon to rediscover our Nokia roots.

Thanks to the iPhone, I discovered the Mac OSX Leopard operating system. I was amazed by it and I spent 4 days trying to get it on my HP laptop. I was so in love with the OS (wifi not working, regardless) that I advised a colleague to ditch the PC and get a MacBook. I've gone ahead and ordered a MacBook Pro (unibody) and I just can't wait!!!

But that was all before the lower half of my iPhone became unresponsive. This had happened to my cousin's iPhone a couple of months back. That was before I googled the entire web in search of a solution short of returning my phone to Apple for a replacement, while hoping they wouldn't notice my phone was jailbroken. And of course that's not an option for me because I don't live in the states! This was all before my wife's iPhone (yep! I got her one too) took a dive downstairs, and while we celebrated the sturdiness of the phone, we now lament the fact that we can no longer put the phone to sleep because the sleep button is stuck, and we cannot change the dead (just) battery without finishing the job of the fall. Plus, the proximity sensor no longer works, and I can only hear calls when the phone is on speaker. So I've got a pretty expensive walkie-talkie!

Ok, so the fall wasn't Apple's fault, but it was just enough to pull the wool off my eyes! So what if the phone is intact on the outside when the insides are all messed up?! And what's with the "only Apple can fix this" crap?! I really don't want to be bothered with changing my battery (I was one of those happy folks when I saw the non-user replaceable battery, at first), but if Dell can make a battery that lasts 16 hours, why can't the almighty Apple? And does it occur to any of us that we've only spent the best of 2 years trying to get the iPhone to act at least like a regular phone?

In my opinion, the device itself isn't what makes the iPhone, it's the community support for it. We're happy to own a device with "endless" possibilities, but, all I'm saying at this point is that Apple needs to show us a little bit more respect and give the customer what it wants for a change!

I love the iPhone. As I type, I'm putting my coins together order a new iPhone 3G to replace my semi-to-non-functioning phone, just so I can jailbreak it and go install all that good stuff on Cydia. I guess this is a new culture in mobile telephony. We don't just buy phones to make calls (duh...!), no, we buy phones that we can turn into pocket computers and GPS devices and wotnot. And the fact that these apps (well at least a few of them) are free, makes the whole exercise so much fun! But I need my iphone to do the basic things like um...say... ring loud enough for me to hear when someone calls, or perhaps send an sms to anyone and everyone I want to with ease.

Ease. Apple sure did forget about that word, midway through creating the phone. Guys, lets be honest. The buzz is over (been over for about a year now), and I believe we're trying to make the best out of what could have been a terrific phone. It's not that easy to use, and it's even worse for non-geeks (like my wife).

That said, anyone in this forum who's got strong links to Apple should please take this little excerpt to Steve (or whoever) and tell them, that iPhone firmware 2.3 better contain so much more, and iphone 3G v2 better have better sounding speakers!!!

**gQstatus05** · 01-28-2009, 08:12 AM

If you have an 8GB iPhone I'm willing to buy it off you for $200 bucks, what you paid for it. I broke my iPhone and really need another one for school and sanity purposes.

**mowbixby** · 01-28-2009, 01:42 PM

Well, the phone isn't exactly working right now, the "slide to unlock" isn't functioning, hence my frustration.

**Eurisko** · 01-28-2009, 02:00 PM

It never fails to amaze me how people don't take responsibility for their own actions. If I get your rant correctly, you're pissed off because you broke your phone, and now your having a hard time validating your admiration for it. You complain about the battery when it has nothing to do with your current dilemma, you say "we've" spent the last two years trying to make the iPhone into a "regular phone". What does that mean? Your rant just seems to be alot of baseless complaints.

**thatruth132** · 01-28-2009, 03:31 PM

Originally Posted by Eurisko

It never fails to amaze me how people don't take responsibility for their own actions. If I get your rant correctly, you're pissed off because you broke your phone, and now your having a hard time validating your admiration for it. You complain about the battery when it has nothing to do with your current dilemma, you say "we've" spent the last two years trying to make the iPhone into a "regular phone". What does that mean? Your rant just seems to be alot of baseless complaints.

agreed +1

**Renblade** · 01-28-2009, 03:45 PM

My iPhone fell in the toilet and now there's poo all over my "slide to unlock". Now everytime I want to use my phone, my finger becomes really smelly.

I hate you Apple.

**mowbixby** · 01-29-2009, 06:19 AM

Well, I can't say I didn't expect this.

Like I said somewhere in my message, I love the iphone. But tell me something: what kind of app is the "1.2 volume fix"? Is it an apple update or did some nice guy realise that the phone had some issues and grew tired of waiting for apple to fix and went ahead to develop something he thought might just work? I certainly cannot take away from all the innovation and whotnot that the Apple iPhone brought with it's arrival, but come on let's be honest, before the iPhone came out, how many other cellphones had a problem with the volume or sound quality?

Finally! We have copy and paste for our idol!

That's precisely my point.

For your info, it was my wife's iphone that fell (still works with some issues), not mine. Mine was working 100% and the next second the "slide to unlock" stopped working.

Then again, it's probably not Apple's fault. Maybe it's the kind of consumers that apple caters to, who either make excuses for Apple or end up fixing the problems on their own, that makes Apple feel so confident about pulling some of the stunts they pull.

I summarize. The iPhone is a magnificent phone, but it's a magnificent phone with a few basic things missing. Can I get a "duh"?

**BarcaMagic** · 01-29-2009, 06:37 AM

you have no one to blame but yourself .

**Eurisko** · 01-29-2009, 07:24 AM

First off, the 1.2 Volume app isn't a "fix", it's a mod. Apple didn't make a mistake that some Dev had to "correct", it's the way they designed the device. Apple has priorities as to what features will and will not be added immediately, and because they don't feel Copy&Paste should be on the front burner, again doesn't mean the phone is lacking in anything.

People really need to stop b*tching just because the phone doesn't incorporate what they want, and then blame Apple for having a less than stellar device.

And lastly, things don't "just stop working", there is always a cause. You, your wife or maybe someone you let handle the phone bumped it, or dropped it, or whatever and broke the digitizer screen.

**mowbixby** · 01-29-2009, 08:01 AM

Originally Posted by Eurisko

First off, the 1.2 Volume app isn't a "fix", it's a mod. Apple didn't make a mistake that some Dev had to "correct", it's the way they designed the device. Apple has priorities as to what features will and will not be added immediately, and because they don't feel Copy&Paste should be on the front burner, again doesn't mean the phone is lacking in anything.

People really need to stop b*tching just because the phone doesn't incorporate what they want, and then blame Apple for having a less than stellar device.

And lastly, things don't "just stop working", there is always a cause. You, your wife or maybe someone you let handle the phone bumped it, or dropped it, or whatever and broke the digitizer screen.

Cheers Mate. You keep making my point. Fix, mod, whatever. Apple bumped up the volume in the 3G (search for initial reviews of the 3G in this forum). Now, maybe to you that sounds like designing it the way they wanted, but to me that sounds like correcting a mistake. We can all name a bunch of other "fixes, mods" and rightly put it down to updating the product. But let's see, if Apple finally incorporates copy and paste in version 4.x of the iphone firmware, 1 year after everyone's been using copy and paste courtesy of the great Devs, would we say that the iphone was perfect prior to the upgrade?

The issue I am talking about (slide to unlock not working) has been reported a dozen times on this and other forums. Apple is well aware of the problem but refuses to discuss it. If you're lucky, Apple will replace your phone with no questions asked, if you're not, you might have to raise your voice a bit before you're heard. And someone on this forum wants to tell me that I "bumped it" so now it's broke. I have a friend (cousin) with a 2 month old iPhone that had the same problem. What are we talking about here?

All I was trying to say here was that I think we as consumers need to make a little more noise in order to get the things we need.

Where would you have been without the devs that brought us those cute mods/fixes that made your phones so special?

Imagine your iPhone without a single game on it. Without copy/paste. Without landscape SMS. Without the ability to forward or send SMS to multiple receipients (before apple incorporated half of these into the iPhone). The list is endless. And someone here wants to tell me about designing a product the way he wants it and not the way the customer wants it? Get your mind right mayne, you are the customer not apple!

**Eurisko** · 01-29-2009, 08:21 AM

Keep making your point huh? Strange since you continually keep missing the point. Seems you can't be educated on anything. Looks like we're very different types of consumers. If I have a device that doesn't have something I want on it, I don't whine and stamp my feet because the company "failed me". I move on to something that does have the features I want.

Imagine my iphone without Games? The only game worth its weight before Appstore was Crayon Physics. I have tons of games, all courtesy AppStore. No mods necessary there. Copy/Paste? I installed Clippy just for fun, never had a need to use it. Landscape SMS? Who cares, also never craved it. The only "mod" I have on my iphone is different icons on my Dock.

As for the well known problem with the digitizer, I've had 4 iPhones so far, never had one fail. Two of my friends however did have their digitizer fail, both of them dropped their phones.

Where would I be without the Devs, exactly where I am rigtht now. You might hold them up on a pedestal, I don't.

**boe_dye** · 01-29-2009, 10:32 PM

Good Lord, I am agreeing with Eurisko... that warm place might be freezing over :-P

But yeah, seriously I dont think i get this particular post. You dropped your phone, sh!t happens, I had to return my first iPhone after 3 days cause of a faulty headphone jack...

I would take an assumption that you are new to the "modding world". The simple answer is, is that there is always going to be someone who says "wouldn't it be cool if...", and they figure out a way to do it. And chances are that someone such as myself who has no real programming ability outside of batch files, and some light script editing, will have the same idea and benefit from someone elses work.

I've been modding things for a few years now, tweaking and customizing to my own standards because I find that I what I have could be improved, not fixed.

My Motorola L6, in my opinion had to quiet of a volume. Motorola clearly felt that their volume standard was addequate. For my purposes I disagreed. Someone else had the same qualm and came up with the proper HEX and was able to increase the volume (GO M3!), he posted I learned.

My HTC wizard or Cingular 8125, ran windows mobile. Windows mobile 5 through 6 inherently doesn't shut down programs when you close them, it merely minimizes them, the exact opposite of the iPhone that doesn't allow you to background apps. For a while you actually had to buy a program that ran as a daemon to close the damn programs before someone came up with a better way. Can you imagine running 5 apps in the background and not even know about it?

On a 233mhz processor its very counter productive, especially when you have to open up task manager just to close your emai client...

The simple answer really is that what you might find important (landscape messaging, MMS etc) might not be intersting to me. I prefer backrounding, copypasta, and more system tweaks.

Motorola, HTC, Microsoft, Apple, they all have their priorities, they all have to sort of guess what they should include and what they shouldn't. Your simply not going to make everyone happy. In many cases its like hindsight, "i didnt think anyone would care about that...".

The ability to turn off corrective spelling was initially a mod, but is now a standard feature.

Yes, the modmyiphone community is large, but but small if you compare how many people own an iPhone to how many actually mod it. Out of 4 iPhone users in my group, I am the only one who cared to mod.

That's a 25% ratio, meaning 75% are satisfied enough with their phones not to care to improve it.

What I honestly don't get is how you go from saying you want to go back to your Nokia roots, and then you go on to say that you are preparing to by another 3g...

Look, the iPhone is a great phone, Apple is a great company, and their products are top quality. They are designed for ease of use. Other then the common gripe of the keyboard being tricky getting used to, this phone is so retarded simple, that there is nothing to it. What is so difficult about it?

To answer your final question, "where would I be without the dev team?"

Unlike Eurisko I do hold them at high esteem, I generally purchase a phone based upon the community of modders. If you noticed all my phones I mentioned, Motorolla, HTC, iPhone, all have a large modding community as compared to say, RIM, or Nokia, or Samsung. I know that eventually somewhere along the lines with any device I own that something is going to nag me about it. Like sitting at home all day long, you start to nit pick at the things that you normally never notice.

In my daily usage with my phone, something might come up, and not function in a manner how I think it should. Like backgrounding an app. I understand why backgrounding is not part of the package. Because generally speaking those 75% non modders that I mentioned above wouldn't get it (backgrounding) and wind up locking their phones and getting pissed off, blame apple, and then return their phones and stop buying them.

Modders get (or hopefully get) that you really should only background 1 or 2 things at a time or else everything will crash.

So the reason a feature like that ISN'T included is because it would ruin the so-called iPhone experience...

Annoying yes, but wrong or broken or needing to be fixed? Not at all. Mistake? A mistake would be shipping a phone that touts a great touch keyboard that out of the box doesn't work.

Remember, 75% of users are impatient, instant gratification seeking, individuals who don't care to learn how something works. They think that they should turn on a computer for the first time and right a symphony.

That's why OS X is great. You have a ton of hardware resources, an OS that is idiot proof that wont let you screw yourself. It is limited in it's choices so you the user don't screw it up.

Same way with the iPhone. It's simple to absurdity. By itself, it works adequalty, produces enough bells and whistles to keep people occupied, and not notice and nit pick as much.

**cpjr** · 01-29-2009, 10:36 PM

Name me 1 single device that will give you 100% perfection.....just 1.

You cant.

And the iphone still trashes anything else on the market.

As far as issues, such as hardware malfunctions....you'll get that with any device you buy too........and IMO, NOBODY beats Apple for customer service. I have NEVER had a retailer so quickly/easily, no questions asked, swap my phone out for a new one for even the slightest of issues.

**mowbixby** · 01-29-2009, 10:53 PM

Thanks boe,
And on this note, I humbly throw in my towel and thank all who replied to my little rant.

Yes the iPhone is a great device. I've had mine for about a year and a half, and it's been fun while it lasted. The moment I get some extra dough, I'll go pick up a 3G for meself, and an E71 for wifey.

**jeproks77** · 01-30-2009, 12:20 AM

Originally Posted by Renblade

My iPhone fell in the toilet and now there's poo all over my "slide to unlock". Now everytime I want to use my phone, my finger becomes really smelly.

I hate you Apple.

this cracked me up lmao

**Grassmasta** · 01-30-2009, 12:46 AM

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Whine: To complain or protest in a childish fashion.

Ah, whining.

**one1** · 01-30-2009, 01:54 AM