richl.com » iphone

Apple release iPhone 2.1 this Friday

Rich — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 07:52:56 +0000

Amid other announcements at Apple’s “Lets Rock” event, they announced that the iPhone 2.1 firmware will be released this Friday as a free update. The much anticipated version upgrade will address many of the issues that have been plaguing iPhone users, including:

- Significantly better battery life
- Fewer call drops
- Bug fixes
- Faster backups to iTunes
- No App crashes

No mention of background push notifications were made, however, which were originally planned for a September release. Let’s hope this finally fixes the lag when selecting a contact after composing an SMS message…it could happen!

O2 begins pre-orders on 3G iPhone…sort of

Rich — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:27:54 +0000

This morning i got an email from O2 stating that i could now pre-order a new 3G iPhone for delivery on it’s 11th of July release date. Now i’ve been waiting for this for quite a while as some of you may know from my previous attempts at iPhone ownership, this is my hope that V2 will be an improvement on V1. Anyway, after half an hour of attempting to pre-order one i gave up and started work.

A few hours later i check various forums and it turn’s out hardly anybody has had any luck ordering one, mainly a few people that got in around 8am seem to have had their orders accepted, but nobody else seems to have had much luck due to huge periods of O2′s servers being down. They’re now reporting to be out of stock of all 8GB and 16GB 3G iPhone’s and “to check back on the 10th of July”. According to several different sites, nobody has been able to upgrage their V1 iPhone using the O2 code’s and website.

So, well done again O2 for making an absolute balls up of what should surely be a fairly straight forward task…it’s really not inspiring me to sign up for an 18 month contract with you. Never mind though, from the looks of it i won’t be able to get an iPhone (or contract) unless i try my luck in the shops on Friday morning and i’m not sure i’ll bother, as the most disappointing thing is the knowledge that after all the man hours put in to dedicating myself to getting a 3G iPhone – i’ll be bored of it after 8 days.

The final episode of the O2 saga

Rich — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:24:32 +0000

Carrying on from this story, the saga has been completed. After a month and a half of hassle i have finally received all my money back from O2 after returning my faulty iPhone. The £582 “mistake” was reversed and they agreed to pay me back the money that had been taken for my first months “usage” that i never got to use, so generally all is well. Now i have another problem…i want an iPhone.

Apple will undoubtedly be revealing some new information and possible updates to their products on the 15th of this month so whatever happens i’ll wait until then before i even remotely think about getting another iPhone, but what i don’t understand is why i want one. The thing crashed on me, made me late for work, broke completely…and yet i still forgive it, i still want to hold one again. Dam you Jobs and your scheming ways!

The story of me, my iPhone, and O2.

Rich — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:05:40 +0000

On the 21st of November 2007 i was a fool. Well, even more of a fool than normal. I purchased an iPhone. When the little beauty arrived the next day my foolishness felt like genius, i was holding what looked like the most beautiful piece of kit i have come across. It glinted, it sparkled, it rocked my tiny world. Off i went to work for a day of merryness and anticipation as to when i could return to hold this unit of wonder again, it couldn’t be soon enough. I get home, charge her up and play around until the night draws in. Awesome.

I did everything i could possibily want and decided to go to bed with my new found friend – had a play on the YouTube application for 5 minutes and then WHAM, “FUDGE YOU RICHL – I’VE CRASHED. YOU TIT”. Frantically i booted my good old PC and searched t’internet for how to reset the piece of crud, found! Rebooted! Sorted! Or so i thought. Morning rolls around. 9.30am. NINE FREAKING THIRTY?! What happened to you waking me up you twatty sodding iPhone? Hello? ANSWER ME! You can’t. You’ve crashed. Reboot. Go to work. Late. This continues over the next few days and on the weekend i have major problems, it crashes as soon as it turns on – cannot even enter my PIN code to get in. After 14 (yes, i counted) attempts i got in and managed to reset it to factory defaults. It worked! For 3 hours. Then tried “restoring” via iTunes and same problems. Even tried calling Apple, in so many words they told me “its ballsed”. So i look into my options.

I can either return it for repair/replacement or return it under the 14day returns period the O2 store has and get everything back. This black brick has angered me to the point i just don’t want to look in its eyes again – she’s going back for ever. The end? P*ss off.After several days of arguing O2 admit that they have received my iPhone (even though i paid for Royal Mail Special Delivery and my tracking number shows it was delivered days and days ago), things go through (with me chasing it every few days to ensure its being cancelled without issue) and i get my “first bill” for £36 as it was ”produced before i returned the phone and they couldn’t possibily amend it”. 2 and a bit weeks later i find a refund for the iPhone on my credit card – minus the shipping. Knobs.Keep in mind all this time i am chasing it with many different people/departments and am told everything is fine and i will receive my “final bill” which will be nothing apart from a refund for the line rental i didn’t use but was charged for in my “first bill” which is fine.

This morning i get an email stating my “final bill” is now ready. Its £582. I’m not going to write that again in capitals as i assume you understand my anger.TBC…