Discovering problems with the iPhone 4’s is a bit like realising you no longer love your spouse. The few annoyances, you find endearingly cute – “oh, the signal drops when I hold you there”.
Then comes the slightly bigger issues, such as when you peer into their Retina and see yellow blots, instead of that magical display you’re used to. Or when you draw them close to your face and you don’t get the reaction you want. Finally, they set alight to themselves – and that’s when you know it’s got serious.
Despite the issues listed above, we’re still sure of our 24-month commitment – if not just for the super model-esque looks. If you’d like to know the potential pitfalls of this relationship, however, read below for a comprehensive list of the major iPhone 4 and iOS 4 problems.
The Death-Grip Antenna
The pin-up of iPhone 4 issues – if you haven’t been ridiculed for queuing for hours to get the mobile (despite everyone other than O2 posting out the handset), then your peers will certainly ask you about the reception issue. And it is a pretty important issue – there are plenty of videos on the internet to prove that if you hold the phone in the bottom-left corner, your reception will drop.
While we haven’t been able to consistently replicate this issue on our handset, it has caused both lawsuits and demands for free cases from people all over the world. And there is currently no solution for the problem, although cases, nail varnish and tape have all been banded around as potential fixes. These seem a little too much like voodoo for us, although they provide a step-up on Apple’s official advice – with Steve Jobs telling users: “just don’t hold it that way”.
The Software Antenna Issue
The one issue that Apple has claimed responsibility for is one that, conveniently, won’t result in a mass recall. Also relating to the phone’s reception, Apple announced that the way they worked out the display of signal strength on the iPhone is incorrect and will be fixed in a software update in the future. Great if you are a stickler for correctly displayed information, less of a balm if you are experiencing dropped calls and reception issues.
Proximity Problems
Another problem discovered in the last week (and witnessed by us at iPhoneAppCafe) is a sporadic proximity sensor. Sometimes it works perfectly, other times it fails to find your face (its sole purpose) and results in muted and hung-up calls. Unfortunately, there is no fix for this one, home-made or otherwise.
Starry Screens
Initial reports from iPhone owners claimed that the beautiful and unparalleled Retina Display had yellow smears and white stars across it. Discussion surrounding this issue has died down recently, however, and some people suggested that it was simply the drying glue.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/24/iphone-4s-yellow-spot-issue-goes-away-with-a-bit-of-time/
USB Fires
Spontaneous fires are usually the death-knell for a product, and the iPhone 4 had its first one this week. When you consider that over two million handsets have been sold, the likelihood of this happening in your home is very slim. If it does burn down your house and all of your possessions, however, Apple will give you a new iPhone 4 free of charge.
http://capitaltalk.org/read/3698/default.html
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iOS 4
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Photo Orientation
When iOS 4 takes a picture, it rotates it using JPEG orientation flags instead of rotating the image pixel by pixel. Because these aren’t very well supported around the world, online services such as Facebook (and at least one old PowerBook) interpret portrait-oriented photos as landscape and twist them around, leaving my current Facebook picture upside-down.
In-Car Audio
A few drivers have been complaining on Apple’s forum that the iPhone 4, as well as iOS 4 updates, cannot sync their audio with the car’s media player, stating “no media found”. Confirmed issues are with the Renault Megane 3 and the Arkamys Audio system, the Ford Focus with Alpine IDA-X303, some Pioneer systems, the Kenwood KDC-BT40U. Suggested fixes include doing a hard reset (hold down the power button until everything disappears), connect the iPhone while it is turned off, or delete the phone’s “General” profile in phone settings.
http://discussions.info.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2471357&tstart=0
Camera Trouble
There are some reports that the camera closes the shutter graphic… And then does nothing, locking up the phone.
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/06/24/and-now-there-are-camera-problems-with-the-iphone-4/
Incoming MMSs
There is also some discussion of the iOS 4 update breaking incoming MMS messages – full discussion available here.
3G Killer
We’ve covered this issue before, although it seems that iOS4 is still killing 3G phones all over the world. Check out our previous discussion here, titled “The Ugly”.
http://fanappic.com/ios-4-software-update-highlights-and-limitations/
Love this tweet by Jason_pollock: Apples Announcement: “Get duck tape. Use left hand, angle 45 degrees. We didn’t know. Thank u. iPad 2.0 soon” /@pabl0godoy
I know it’s all blown out of proportion by media but would be interesting to see what apples says today
Jack,
Good points all around. This week I published some actual data I collected concerning connectivity (throughput) performance – you might find it interesting.
http://iphonecto.com/2010/07/15/iphone-4-connectivity-performance-bad-bad-heres-proof/