French operator pooh-poohs iOS4 French network operator SFR is thumbing its nose at Apple by telling customers to think carefully before upgrading to iOS 4. In a text message sent to subscribers the operator explains that upgrading to iOS 4 significantly slows down the menus of iPhone 3G and 3GS*, and that should they be tempted to go for it anyway the …
they might want to keep quiet about it, before anybody asks, why a device that contains all of the hardware, by default, necessary to be a full gps run tracker, should need extra chips and extra external hardware just so that it can count someone's steps and calculate speed/distance from a pre-calibrated stride?
whoops, i just asked!
Fair play to the french for admitting there's a problem.
No idea about the 3gs, but it absolutely crippled my 8gb 3G , it went from responding to commands instantly to being incredibly sluggish and hanging a hell of a lot.Nothing better than not being able to answer a call because the phone has waited 15 seconds to recognize that you've swiped the screen. The only "fix" I can find (bar downgrading which isnt that straightforward to do as far as I've seen) is to reset (home and top button) twice in a row , once a day (possibly there's some sort of cache clearance going on there,I've no idea why but its seems to work , at least for a while.
ifI didnt know better I''d assume Apple were recommending an update that knackers their 'older but still on sale until fairly recently 'model to force people to start upgrade to a newer model? But they'd never do that ....right?
On the 3G, as reported by others, turning off the Spotlight search options (Settings > General > Home Button) and switching off/on again definitely makes a difference. How much is hard to quantify, and reports are mixed as to whether it's ok if you turn them back on again afterwards.
After upgrading to iOS 4 my 3G was terrible, things in generally were slow even trying thing such as "Double Hard Resets" only worked for a short while, many apps were prone to crashing and were slow and worst of all for me it stopped playing nice with the car stereo.
So I reverted it back to 3.1.3 and it really did highlight the performance difference between 3.1.3 and iOS4.
Perhaps it's a function of how you use it and the apps you have on there, but just because it didn't affect you doesn't mean everyone else is mad. By the same token if I was the only person with issues doesn't meant everyone else is - but I think it's established that there are issues with iOS4 - particularly on the 3G.
Just as soon as they fix the inherent design flaws, give it to me for free and don't make me sign another 2 year contract but rather let the second year of my existing 2 years contract continue as normal. If that doesn't happen and they don't sort out the iOS4 problems then there's no way I'll be upgrading my 3GS, and even if they do I still won't upgrade until I can jailbreak it again so I can have my apps (which I paid good money for) that Apple decided I wasn't allowed. So all in all, customer experience fail from Apple. Yet again.
When will people stop buying into the bullshit PR and think for themselves? Sure, they make a couple of nice products (and a number of pointless, over priced ones of limited use), but my god the utter contempt with which they treat their consumers is staggering yet because jobs (intentional lower case) trots out some fancy pants PR statement everyone fawns over them and forgives them practically anything. As Keyser Soze said, the greatest trick the devil pulled off was to convince everyone he didn't exist. Apple's equivalent is to convince everyone that they're really a happy-go-lucky kinda company that really cares about it's consumers.
"don't make me sign another 2 year contract but rather let the second year of my existing 2 years contract continue as normal"
"When will people stop buying into the bullshit PR and think for themselves?"
So after your rant you still use the phone instead of simply cutting your loses and going somewhere else?
...is anyone else getting a bit tired of all the iPhone/iOS 4 dead-horse-flogging in all corners of the press (yes, even including you, my dear beloved El Reg)?
Does the iPhone 4 have an antenna problem? Almost certainly.
Has it still sold like hot cakes? Looks like it.
Do all of the people who now have an iPhone 4 experience difficulties due to the antenna problem? Almost certainly not - in spite of all the reports and rants that I've read in the press, I've yet to meet an iPhone 4 owner who has suffered from it. OK, so I only know a handful of people who have an iPhone 4 thus far, anecdotal evidence, etc. etc. But...I have asked the folks I know who _do_ have one and precisely _none_ of them have reported any issues. At all, under any circumstances, grip-of-death or not. And that includes at least one person who lives/works in the same, occasionally marginal, O2 coverage area as me.
Can the iOS 4 upgrade cause problems on iPhone 3G and 3GS? It's looking like it.
Is it absolutely necessary to install the iOS 4 upgrade on your 3G or 3GS? Hell no - it's not as if it's bringing anything really breathtaking to the party is it? Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, the 3G and 3GS do what they do quite well enough for most people's day-to-day purposes just as they are.
Is it sensible to install the upgrade on your 3G or 3GS? Probably not, unless you're absolutely gagging and frothing for it.
Right, I think that covers all the major bases doesn't it? Can't we just talk about something else now?
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This is so typical of ALL upgrades that put a new OS on older hardware (except tiny Linux installs!). I mean, it's the equivalent of putting Windows 7 on a 486-based PC. It....will....be....painful. And not really work, unless you strip out a lot of the features. The new OS was designed for hardware a generation or two more powerful - if you want it, then get new hardware.
I haven't even tried to upgrade my 3G, nor would I. It is a shame that Apple even tells people to try....
Have a 3G and my experience of the upgrade wasnt great but not catistrophic. After the upgrade the phone was so slow it was awful. Scrolling was a dog, heck everything was a dog. I actually thought it was a massive downgrade.
BUT, I turned the device off and after a reboot the phone was ok. Actually I think it was better.
I have since done a complete clean reset as Ive upgraded to the 4G and gave the handset to the wife. Old phone is still running iOS4 and I really dont see any issues with it. Wife super happy with it and I dont see any issues when i use her phone.
I would 100% testify that post upgrade the phone is crud but in my experience rebooting sorted things out.
The French attitude is if it looks pretty its OK. I live in France and am appalled by the old spec stuff mainly due to the govts attitude it must be in French. Motherboards are old spec, the ISP's give out software that allows them to "see" into your computer, the modems frequently are designed to "drop out" after so long causing skype and messenger to have problems, viz cannot be used like a phone system, mal working ISP and mobile phone systems are "just accepted", fraud mobile phone and domestic phone calls are allowed and nothing done so it surprises me not about SFR which incidentally is erm.. vodaphone!!!
I don't recognise France from the picture that you paint;
"Motherboards are old spec "
France has many online IT retailers who will sell you the latest kit.
"due to the govts attitude it must be in French."
Not sure what you mean. Motherboards used in France are the same as anywhere else. There aren't special French versions. Most manufacturers internationalise their products so manuals etc come in many languages.
"the ISP's give out software that enables them to "see" into your computer"
Name them, I don't know of any that do this.
"modems are designed to drop out"
Modems and routers in France are basically the same as every where else. i.e. comply with international standards and are manufactured in the far east. If your modem is "dropping out" its probably because you live in a rural area (France has lots of countryside) and you've got poor line quality.
Problems with phone systems and phone fraud are not unique to France.
Sorry but you sound to me like a little Englander expecting everything to be the same as it was in the UK.
Had to google the phrase to understand. Two forced shutdowns in a row? Cures the problem apparently? And then "it just works"? I think its a little bit much when a company recommends the update for your phone and you end up having to kick it in the arse repeatedly to get it to work properly.
In order to install firmware, you need a code form apple unique to your device id and the firmware version. So you can only downgrade with Apple's permission and they are not giving it.
You can use a program called TinyUmbrella saves the code for your current firmware giving you the freedom to revert to that firmware at a latter date. But you have to run it prior to updating.
There are work around for the older models, but currently if you have a iPhone 3GS with the new bootrom and you don't using TinyUmbrella (or Cydia) to backup your "shsh blob" before upgrading to 4.0 you are forever stuck on 4.0.
I have a 3GS. It did seem a little slower upon upgrading to iOS 4. iOS 4.0.1 seemed to improve things a little though.
Right now the problem seems to be running multiple apps. By default apps just stay open when you leave them (so far I haven't found a way of exiting any app). Once you have a fair few open, it seem that everything is a little laggy on the phone. Perhaps not when you're within apps, but generally navigating around the phone's interface. To fix this, every so often I'll close all of my open apps. That and a reboot seem to be to have the same effect of making the phone more responsive.
It's a shame, especially since Apple went to such pains when introducing multi tasking, wanting to avoid these kinds of issues.
I wouldn't say it's such a large problem as a reason not to upgrade to iOS 4. There are a lot of features which make the upgrade worthwhile. The fact that it's slightly laggy doesn't make it slow. It's noticeable since the iPhone is usually extremely responsive, specially when compared to other smartphones.
Here's hoping that 4.1 will address these issues :-)
so...typical usual 'upgrades' - where the new OS is bloaty and far less snappy.
imagine how fast the iPhone4 would be should it run an OS lighter and more efficient - eg IOS 3 - what are the features being put into the system that require so much more RAM and CPU ? are they really required for a phone? in the age of worries about energy we get smartphones that require more power and more charging. makes sense? nope.
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