My wife and I picked up the iPhone 3G (she went black and I went white). There was a long line to get it at 8AM at the mall on a Saturday, a full month after the launch, with about 60 people ahead of us. However, like many people out there, we’ve encountered some problems.

My reception has been fine, but my wife’s iPhone had weak 3G reception in NY where she works. We’ve also encountered various issues with App updates via iTunes after upgrading to 7.7.1. Clearing out the iTunes App Section and re-downloaded the apps we had helped with that issue. We were both on 2.01 firmware, so when 2.02 came out, we eagerly updated. That firmware upgrade actually helped with the 3G reception issues for my wife in the City, but we started encountering issues with Syncing Apps purchased on the iPhone back to iTunes and downloading updates to our apps from the iPhone AppStore. I encountered errors that said that downloads/updates have failed and that they would be available the next time I synced my phone with iTunes. Checking for Purchases from iTunes allowed us to download the updates and sync them back to the iPhone, but not being able to update via the iPhone and not being able to transfer Apps purchased on the iPhone back into iTunes (the transfers look like they start, but then they fail without an error) was becoming a major pain.

After searching the web and various forums for days, I found the solution. The problem seemed to be that we restored from a backup made on our old iPhones to the new iPhone 3Gs we upgraded to. The Solution? I had to fully restore my iPhone to Factory level without utilizing a backup and build off a fresh version of the 2.02 (latest) Firmware. The process was painfully long: first restoring the iPhone to scratch, then building it up slowly with my Apps, Settings, Photos, Music/Videos, Podcasts, Movies, TV Shows, MobileMe Settings, Ringtone settings, Settings for each App that took forever to move over, re-downloading my eReader books, etc... and on...and on...


But when I was done, and all my Apps were back in their proper places... TADA!!! My phone was fixed!!!

I was now able to:

• Sync iPhone AppStore purchases back to iTunes
• Download updates from the iPhone AppStore successfully
• have GPS come up MUCH quicker than before (satellite acquisition was much faster)
• have no 3G issues (so far)
• have no lag for Contacts screen loading from MobileMe
• have no lag for onscreen keyboard anymore

I thought I would have to wait for another Firmware or iTunes update, but now everything is pretty much perfect. The process was tedious but well worth it!

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Tags: iphone, 3G, bugs, issues, problems, solved, solutions, restore, transfer, apps, itunes, firmware, apple, att

After a day of shopping for our Aruba trip and seeing the iPhone lines at the Apple Store in the mall (oddly enough we didn't see a line at all at the AT&T store in the mall even though there were two security guards waiting there for one), we headed over to the local AT&T store for a few hours of line-sitting. I took a few shots to commemorate the frenzy. Contacts at other lines text-messaged me throughout and told me that it sold out at the locations they were at. Some jumped to multiple locations to find available iPhones. It amazed me that so many locations had short supplies (some under 40 units) while ours seemed fully stocked and ready to meet demand. In fact our location's manager announced that the only limitation was the closing time of 10pm, but that there would be plenty more available of both SKU's (8GB and 4GB) tomorrow morning. Luckily we were in first 40 in line and had about 80 behind us. Unlike some AT&T stores that let in 5 at a time, our store took groups of 20. So now Gene and I are proud owners of two 8GB iPhones. Adding to our luck was the fact that it didn't rain during our time in line.



There are scattered reports of problems activating via iTunes, but both Gene and I were able to transfer our old numbers into a Family Plan fairly quickly. We even activated via 2 macs so that our individual iTunes libraries would sync correctly. All-in-All it was a good experience moving to AT&T's service and activating the iPhone for us. The two things missing that I wish it had: GPS linked to the Google Maps app and iChat/AIM functionality. The first could possibly be added as an accessory later, but could prove bulky. The second could easily be added via a Software Update. Many bemoan the fact that this is a 2.5G phone on the EDGE network rather than the much speedier HSPDA 3G network. I've been surfing on my HTC based WinMobile smartphone over EDGE for a long time and can attest to its slowness at times, but the iPhone is definitely smoother and more tolerable on EDGE than any other EDGE phone I've tried. The seemless WiFi switchover also makes this less of an issue for me as long as there is a nearby hotspot (and there are many around the metro-NY/NJ area).

We still have to set them up to connect to both our car's built-in Bluetooth Handsfree and respective audio connections, but hopefully those will go smoothly as well.




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Tags: iphone, apple, att, itunes, cingular