Blog:: Craig Pringle

I actually quite like my iPhone but I cannot buy into the zealous frenzy that some people whip themselves up into over the iPhone. 

The iPhone – and for that matter every other phone on the planet – is far from perfect.  Here are 10 things that actually really annoy me about the iPhone.

10 - No copy and paste.  The iPhone does not support copy and paste and this can be really annoying. 

9 - No support for A2DP bluetooth profile.  The iPhone is a personal media device, but it does not support the bluetooth profile that enables you to use bluetooth stereo headphones.  Why not?  Sure it will impact battery life, but shouldn’t that be my choice?

8 - No support for AVRCP bluetooth profile.  This is the remote control bluetooth profile that would let you control the media playback with a bluetooth remote.  Many bluetooth stereo headphones also have controls that let you play/pause, control the volume and skip tracks.

7 - No Support for HID bluetooth profile.  This is the worst of the lot.  Why can’t I pair with a bluetooth keyboard so I can type a longer email or blog post?

(7-9 could all be summed up as half-assed bluetooth support.  More on bluetooth profiles here.)

6 - call failed.  I hate that message.  You are in the middle of a call and it goes silent.  you look at the screen and there is a two word error message on the screen.  Grrrr.

5 - no true multitasking.  This, IMHO, will hold the iPhone back as an application platform.  Decent instant messaging, SIP and turn by turn GPS navigation are just some of the apps that would greatly benefit by being able to run in the background.

4 - Can't create a meeting request.  If I am in a meeting or having a coffee with someone I can’t book a follow up on the spot.  I can create an appointment for myself, but not a meeting request with an invitee.  PITA.

3 - Can't search GAL for phone numbers.  From the email app if I type a name it will search the Exchange and give me their email address.  But I can’t search my corporate address book for a name and get their phone number from the contacts application or phone application.   It is a phone – don’t you think I may want to get someone’s phone number and call them?

2 - No search for Exchange mailbox.  If something is in my Exchange mailbox but not synced to my phone, tough.  There is no way to search the rest of my inbox or the other folders on Exchange from the phone.

(2-4 are pretty freaking dumb for an “enterprise” smartphones.  If you have your mailbox on Exchange 2007 then Windows Mobile leaves the iPhone for dead.)

1 – Apple are not listening!  This is the worst of all.  Some of these issues, like copy and paste and the bluetooth issues, have been raising the ire of iPhone users since the first generation.  All of these issues are software related and as such CAN be fixed.  Why haven’t Apple been listening and fixing some of these issues?

The perfect phone for me would have the styling and UI of the iPhone, the business features of Windows Mobile and the reliability and battery life of a good old Nokia brick.

It is hard to believe it but I am on iPhone number four.  As I blogged a while back my first iPhone was DOA, the second developed a screen fault on the first day of use.   Both were replaced without a problem.  After a couple of months of use the vibrate function on my iPhone III stopped working.

I took it in to the Apple store here in Sydney and it was replaced on the spot with no hassle.  The service was, again, exceptional.  But - IMO that is just not enough.

You might think that I must be treating my devices really badly to have them fail so often.  I've been using both smartphones and MP3 players for years and I've had just about every brand out.  I've never had one die before.

Over all I like my iPhone, but I have to say it is just not there yet.  Apple clearly has some quality issues to work through.  In addition to that there are a number of feature gaps that just leave me wanting more.  I want to be able to send a meeting invite to someone from my phone.  I want to be able to use a bluetooth keyboard, or stereo bluetooth headset with audio controls.  Alas the bluetooth stack on the iPhone is knobbled to the point of uselessness. 

None of these are flaws that Apple couldn't fix.  They are all things others have commented on as well.  But, instead they invest in putting in features that are cool but that I will probably never, ever use - like adding street view to the Google maps app on the phone.  Give me a break! 

Apple - you still have some work to do.  I like the iPhone, but it is not good enough to be a business device yet.

When the first generation iPhone was released I looked at it and thought it was cool, but I said at the time there was no way I was going to give up push email.

When the 3G version has released with Exchange ActiveSync support I decided to buy one and try it out.  Initially it looked like I was going to have to wait a while as the Telcos in Australia were only selling them on a plan, except for Optus which had a pre-pay option available.  That is they said they had a pre-pay option available but if you went into an Optus shop and tried to buy one you would be told that they did not have enough stock and were only selling them on plan. 

Then - the week before last - I got word that some Telstra dealers were selling the phones "outright".  I put it in quotes because unlike every other phone you can buy from Telstra outright the iPhone comes locked to the Telstra network and you have to pay AU$150 Telstra Tax to get it unlocked for use on any network.  None the less I trundled down to the local JB Hi-Fi and picked up a 16GB iPhone.

So why have I not posted about this before now?  Well suffice to say that I have had a few issues.  In fact I am now on my third unit in a week and a half!

The first unit I got looked fine, but when I got it back to the office I found that it could not see or connect to any wireless networks.   It would just constantly search, even if I was standing within inches of the access point.  A colleague had also bought one and had no issues.  I tried the usual troubleshooting steps such as soft reset, hard reset and flashing the firmware, but to no avail.  Then next day I returned to the point of purchase and uttered the magic words "not fit for purpose" which under the local trading laws means they have to refund or replace it and got unit number two.

Unit number two functioned brilliantly - for almost a whole 24 hours.  Then on the first day I actually carried the device in my suit pocket it developed what appeared to be a small crack in LCD.  Not the glass over the LCD, but the display itself.  This manifested itself as a vertical line of dead pixels a few millimetres long surrounded by a cluster of off colour pixels around it.  this was centred in the bottom right corner of the display roughly where the "9" key sits when the phone keypad is up.  The real bummer is that I noticed this late on Thursday afternoon and I was leaving the next morning for a family holiday, so I was not going to be able to take it back again for more than a week.  The phone was still functional - so I took it with me.  Over the next week horizontal lines of dead pixels slowly crept across the screen from the original vertical line, eventually reaching both sides.

So today I took iPhone II back to Sydney's Apple store.  This is where the story improves greatly.  The service I got was excellent.  I approached one of the greeters at the door and asked how I submit an iPhone for warranty.  He said the best way was to make an appointment with one of the geniuses and walked me over to one of the Macs and booked a session starting in about 20 minutes.  I went up to the genius bar about 10 minutes later after grabbing an espresso and my pre-booked guru (Roger) was already free and waiting. 

Roger was brilliant. He didn't accuse me of dropping the phone, trying to fold it or using it as a hammer.  He just took me at my word that I had not abused the phone (which was true, btw) and said "it shouldn't do that - I'll just check stock and see if we can swap it out now for you."  It was in stock, he did swap it out and because I had already unlocked phone II from Telstra he unlocked phone III on the spot as well.  He even took the time to ring me to ensure that the unlock had gone through and gave me a sticker with the new IMIE number on it to stick on the original box.

This iPhone is the first Apple product I have ever bought.  Had they not handled my screen issue so well it may well of been the last.  While it has not been smooth sailing I am willing to write this off as bad luck, especially since everyone else I know who has one has had no hardware issues at all.  The good service I received as a decidedly unhappy customer has gone a long way making me a happy camper again.