Hate is a strong word, but I'd say 1) Battery life, 2) lack of copy/paste. The camera's not great, but OK for a phone.
Beyond that, my complaints mostly fall under the heading of griping about unrealized potential (something my teachers in high school all did re me). posted by adamrice at 2:51 PM on February 27, 2009
I feel like a jerk for saying this, but honestly, the call quality sucks. It is awesome in every way, but as a phone, well, ummmm sub-par. :) Go figure. posted by CwgrlUp at 2:52 PM on February 27, 2009 [1 favorite]
Overall, it's damn useful, nothing to hate, but there are a few little things that grind my gears, and all could easily be fixed with the next revision.
- no video component to the camera
- no sending photos by text message, (though it is possible to email photos).
- crippled Bluetooth posted by limited slip at 2:53 PM on February 27, 2009
- No copy/paste
- No bluetooth A2DP profile which means no stereo bluetooth output (headphones, speakers)
- No email search posted by junesix at 3:01 PM on February 27, 2009 [1 favorite]
It's heavier than my old flip phone, and the shape makes it more likely to fall out of my pocket. posted by The corpse in the library at 3:01 PM on February 27, 2009
Having to login to a website to view a multimedia text message is ridiculous. Half the time the site doesn't even load.
I don't really get a lot of mmtxts so I don't really care too much but that's def. the worst part of the phone.
Once you have it unlocked, plus with how huge the app store is now it's pretty amazing everything that the phone can do.
I don't agree about the call quality. I think it sounds fine and use it as my only phone (no business line, no house line, no other mobil phone) posted by zephyr_words at 3:03 PM on February 27, 2009
1) Speakerphone not that great.
2) Battery
3) can't do group texts
4) Have to be pretty careful with the screen. I am on my second one, and the screen does get scratched, not easily, but it happens.
Also, my call quality is fine, it may be the lovely AT&T network that is causing problems depending upon where you live, but in my neck of the woods, the network is pretty good. Given all that, I still love my phone. posted by hazyspring at 3:09 PM on February 27, 2009
Oh, I also hate how trendy and ostentatious and brand-politicized it is. People have opinions about people who own iPhones. In most places it's fine, but there are some locations where it's downright embarrassing to pull out. posted by painquale at 3:11 PM on February 27, 2009 [2 favorites]
email search, definitely. posted by vilthuril at 3:25 PM on February 27, 2009
1) Lack of texting options (forward/resend mostly)
2) Ability to set up groups for email/texting for sending to a set list of people with one touch
3) Battery life
4) Lack of A2DP
If I could merge the Bold and iPhone together, it'd be about the perfect device.... posted by joshgates at 3:25 PM on February 27, 2009
No picture texts. posted by quodlibet at 3:35 PM on February 27, 2009
Tucking it in my pants pocket ruins my awesome silhouette.
hazyspring, 3) can't do group texts group texts are now enabled. posted by roger ackroyd at 3:43 PM on February 27, 2009
I feel weird about holding it between my head and shoulder. I used to have a flip phone, and for some reason I just get more nervous about the iPhone falling or accidentally pressing a "button" with my ear :P
The Facebook app is not working, and Bloglines doesn't want me to log in!
It's bulkier than my old phone, and although I can still put it in my front pocket (and thus not carry a purse), it isn't ideal with some pants. But that's the fault of idiotic small-pocket-making women's clothing manufacturers. Jerks. posted by Madamina at 3:45 PM on February 27, 2009
The camera is pretty dreadful. My old Sony Ericsson captured much better images a lot faster than this thing does. And it shot video. posted by bunglin jones at 3:49 PM on February 27, 2009
After a while, it's just a phone. That's the worst part. Also, pretty much the only part. posted by Rinku at 3:55 PM on February 27, 2009 [1 favorite]
Having to use ITunes. My gawd, what a turd of an application. posted by '' at 3:55 PM on February 27, 2009 [5 favorites]
Formerly, trying to hold it between my head and shoulder - the 'discovery' that the default earphones double as a headset/mic has changed my world
Nowadays, battery life *in certain areas* - just outside downtown Boston with moderate usage my 3G will see 48 hours of life. Downtown San Francisco - right outside the Apple store on Mission street - it didn't even make it 6 hours on a full charge. What that hell?!
No copy-paste.
No video camera functionality.
No email search.
It made me buy a Macbook Air. No, really. The integration with Macs is just too damned good for my wallet's health. posted by Ryvar at 4:00 PM on February 27, 2009
- Suck phone quality (for a first-gen iPhone). Fortunately for me, I'm phone-averse, so I rarely use it as a phone.
- Lack of copypasta.
- Crappy camera/no videocamera.
- Occasionally it gets into areas with crap service and just. keeps. trying. to check email and drains the battery like a big dog with no indication this is happening.
hazyspring, you can get film screen protectors for both 1st and 2nd generation iPhones. I have one and my iPhone, which is coming up on 18 months old, has never had a scratch on it. (If you're already using one, my apologies.) posted by immlass at 4:06 PM on February 27, 2009
Yeah, no copy paste...
I have my friend's two cell phone numbers (personal and business) stored on her "contact card" and when she texts me I can't tell from the cutesy "chat" interface what phone she's using to text me from (and hence which one to call if I want to just give her a ring rather than text back).
The camera is unutterably awful: it just can't seem to focus.
Can't use your existing mp3s as ringtones without a third-party converter (because ringtones are one more way for Apple to get your money that they're not giving up).
iTunes won't let me put music on from both work and home computers: it's one or the other or constant reassociating and blanking the device and starting over. This problem somehow wasn't am issue with my old ipod (i could put music on it at work that i couldn't then move to my home computer, but could still listen to it on the ipod!) but it is with the iphone. I'm sure too that when I was using an iPod with it it didn't enter a lengthy process of "backing up" when I plugged the thing in to put a new album onto it. There's no more "eek! Bus comes in five minutes! I'll just quickly chuck that song stuck in my head onto my music device then run!" that sucks.
As far as nuking your head goes, the iPhone's death rays are strong relative to other cell phones. posted by springbound at 4:28 PM on February 27, 2009
The keyboard is dismal. The camera is similarly dismal. I think they made some bold strides in UI and then did some horrible things with the technical capabilities of the phone software and hardware (no multiprocessing, bad Bluetooth).
I really like my Blackberry Bold. I carry both. I like the iPhone for everything that doesn't require typing although the autocorrection definitely helps (but it's not a panacea). posted by arimathea at 4:35 PM on February 27, 2009
I hate not being able to use it with my gloves on when it's really cold out. posted by you're a kitty! at 4:39 PM on February 27, 2009 [3 favorites]
The main problems with the iPhone are borne out of Apple's intentional doing. Apple loves to feature-bait - hold things back and release them slowly in sucessive future versions. It's a good sales model.
That being said, I hate these things about the iPhone (and yes, I will echo earlier sentiments made above):
- No video recording capability (though video chat is rumored to be coming in the next iPhone - see what I mean?)
- The email client is not very robust. It sucks in handling large amounts of email. Can't attach more than one picture per email. Silly stuff.
- Cut/Paste. A feature that is so basic yet apparently so difficult.
- Can't delete (or rename) the standard applications that come installed. I never use Stocks or Notes by but god I have to keep them.
- Can't open links from one Safari "window" into another.
- A lack of good quality, useful, and fun FREE apps. (OK, this is more of an App Store thing, but still).
- No MMS messaging.
- No ringer profiles. Would love to be able to set up profiles such as "Meeting" or "Outdoors."
- No counter for text message length. I have a feeling this was left out for obvious reasons.
Otherwise, it's an incredible device. posted by karizma at 4:53 PM on February 27, 2009
Speaking as a former treo user who was forced into an iPhone by a significant other and a shared plan:
Basically, the iPhone is near perfect as a device for consumption. It kicks the crap out of the treo when it comes to things like browsing content, text, listening to audio, whatever.
That said, the iPhone is terrible at generating content. The camera sucks. The keyboard (or rather, lack of keyboard) sucks. Etc.
The fit/finish and polish are great, but that doesn't stop me from looking covetously at G1s and the upcoming palm pre. Oh, and the closed environment (yeah, yeah, jailbreak jailbreak - I shouldn't have to jailbreak in the first place) is a real downer, too. posted by NoRelationToLea at 5:00 PM on February 27, 2009 [1 favorite]
I agree with you're a kitty--taking off your gloves to answer a call is really annoying. Although I can generally use it when I am wearing leather gloves.
I frequently use my phone when I am working outside and if the screen gets damp from sweat I find that it won't recognize my input to "end call." I have to wipe the screen off before it will respond or just wait for the other person to hang up. posted by horses, of courses at 5:09 PM on February 27, 2009
I don't hate anything about my iPhone in fact I keep expecting Apple to award me some sort of award for selling these things to anyone who will listen. That being said there are some downsides.
I agree with most of the things listed above. The lack of copy/paste, no mms, and crippled Bluetooth (WTF the most amazing iPod ever won't let me use my wireless stereo headphones?!)
Also I haven't seen anyone mention that third party apps can't run in the background. There are so many possibilities big and small that would be opened up by allowing this one feature. posted by Bango Skank at 5:28 PM on February 27, 2009
The camera's not so great. In fact, it's pretty awful.
I don't really miss copy and paste, but then I'm not a power user. Email client is okay, but could use some improvements.
The notepad application is a joke, in that its contents do not synchronize with any desktop OS X application. There are plenty of third-party alternatives, though.
Battery life is pretty decent. I'm surprised, honestly, that it doesn't go down faster with an LCD screen that big.
Its touchscreen is difficult to use without taking off one's gloves, and the symmetry of the enclosure means that I sometimes have to take it out and look at it, to orient it properly. I can't "feel" for the orientation.
I really like the phone, in all, especially after years of being treated like a pariah by Verizon and AT&T for wanting to use a cell phone with Mac OS X. It took Apple to show the way, and the iPhone does about the best job of this than any other phone out there. posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:40 PM on February 27, 2009
I don't actually have the phone service, just the iphone (1g). The recessed headphone port drives me absolutely crazy. Also the speakers are too quiet to really listen to anything. You *can* type, just not well or too quickly or comfortably. It works in a pinch, but there are many many things I just put off until I'm in front of my laptop.
I think, like a lot of people here, it's the missed opportunity that is most frustrating. If it had copy/paste, or better bluetooth support or persistent (background) apps, a decent camera, this thing would be unbelievably great. As it is, it's only almost magical :)
My laptop is overkill for almost everything I do. But the iPhone is underkill because of Apple's software limitations. If I could have a wireless keyboard, and almost-computer functionality (c/p, bkg apps) I could do sooooo much with it and leave my laptop at home. Also, I wish I could use it in conjunction with my laptop/desktop while it's plugged in. Like have it become part of the desktop (as in showing just my IM client on it's screen or just itunes, or mail) and be able to interact with it the same way I can using Synergy across machines. posted by gofargogo at 5:58 PM on February 27, 2009
My boss has one and hates how you cannot reject a call if the phone is in locked mode. He just sits there and lets it ring, and of course he has the "Old Timey Phone" ringtone.
I would be eternally grateful if someone can tell me whether there's a way around that. posted by odinsdream at 6:12 PM on February 27, 2009
@odinsdream: hit the volume key to mute the ringer.
I hate the lack of copy/paste (natch) and the lack of voice dial.
I also hate that I have to keep 3G turned off because either the iphone or AT&T don't handle 3G handoffs very well, apparently.
But, on balance, I love it. I used to read websites like Engadget Mobile all the time, waiting to see when the next big thing would come out. No longer. It doesn't do everything, but it does the key things very well, with a few small gripes. posted by socratic at 6:22 PM on February 27, 2009
My boss has one and hates how you cannot reject a call if the phone is in locked mode. He just sits there and lets it ring, and of course he has the "Old Timey Phone" ringtone.
I would be eternally grateful if someone can tell me whether there's a way around that.
You can press the "volume down" key to mute an incoming call, even when the phone is locked.
Other people already gave most of my complaints, but one I haven't seen is that the speakerphone volume is unusably low (this is on a first gen, maybe they fixed it). posted by myeviltwin at 6:22 PM on February 27, 2009
oh, one more rather esoteric thing: The email client doesn't handle folders very well. They're always expanded. I use a LOT of folders for organizing a vast number of transactions, and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrol--oops--scrolling up scrolling up (etc.) gets old. posted by socratic at 6:24 PM on February 27, 2009
The keyboard doesn't bother me, although I wouldn't want to write an essay on it.
Actually, the thing that annoys me most is when I try to check my email, but realize that I'm connected to a WiFi network that requires me to go to a stupid Web page before I get connected.
If I avoid this by turning off WiFi, then I try to check my email and realize that I'm in a building where there's no signal. But I can get WiFi... posted by sesquipedalian at 6:41 PM on February 27, 2009 [1 favorite]
Oh how could I have forgotten(!): no standalone ringer volume control! If you use the iPhone to listen to music or videos or whatever through earphones, you may (if using good quality canalphones anyway) turn the volume down pretty low. When you're done listening and pull out your headphones from the jack so it can be "just a phone" again, you have to remember to crank that volume right up again, or you'll miss all your calls. Really, how idiotic is that? Why can't the music player volume not affect ringer volume? Ditto with the little taptaptap typing sounds... I like them for feedback purposes (they let me know I'm hitting keys successfully without keeping an eye on my typing) but I want them soft so as not to annoy fellow commuters... But again, that turns the ringtone down. Silly. posted by springbound at 6:43 PM on February 27, 2009
I agree with most of what's said above --- while still deeply in love with the thing -- but what I'm really wondering is whether the OP or someone is going to send this thread to the wizards we might hope are hard at work on improvements in Cupertino or somewhere. Good list of common complaints. posted by Rain Man at 6:44 PM on February 27, 2009
iTunes. Hate hate hate.
Mildly annoying: On very humid days, the touch screen doesn't work until I wipe it off. posted by PatoPata at 6:45 PM on February 27, 2009
No unified e-mail in-box if you are checking multiple accounts — you have to switch up-up-down-down every time to read all your mail. posted by nicwolff at 7:21 PM on February 27, 2009
terrible reception in san francisco. posted by TimeDoctor at 7:31 PM on February 27, 2009
You know what I hate? Like, really, really hate!?!? You can't f*$(ing hang up a call until you click, CLOSE, CLOSE, CLOSE, CLOSE on any text messages you received while you were talking. WHAT. THE. posted by iamkimiam at 8:19 PM on February 27, 2009 [2 favorites]
@odinsdream: Even if iPhone is locked, any call can be sent directly to voicemail by pressing the power button twice – kinda like a double click with a mouse.
That said, my biggest gripe about iPhone is re-arranging apps on the screen. The way to do it now is very clunky. Someone put together a proof-of-concept video of how to make this work in iTunes, but whether Apple will implement it (or something similar) is another matter entirely. posted by fredosan at 8:40 PM on February 27, 2009
No one has said this yet, but I wish the ringtones were louder. In any kind of noisy environment, you will not hear the thing ring. posted by Rock Steady at 8:42 PM on February 27, 2009
AT&T's scorn for their customers. They are easily the worst of the three cell phone companies I've dealt with.
Poor and varying reception. Often I will get a voicemail alert even though the phone hasn't rung, and even in my office where 90% of the time I have full bars of 3G signal.
BTW the speakers in the 3G are much louder than in first generation iphone. The ringer I think is adequate (assuming the phone actually rings, see above), but was not on the first gen phone. posted by exogenous at 8:46 PM on February 27, 2009 [2 favorites]
No across-the-room visual indication you have a new email. BB has their little red flashy light. The iPhone should pulse the screen or something.
Can't selectively mute certain alerts. I use the thing as my alarm clock, and I can't prevent it from alerting me about new emails in the middle of the night. posted by schoolgirl report at 9:14 PM on February 27, 2009
schoolgirl report - the alarm will work even if the iPhone is muted. posted by ClarissaWAM at 9:41 PM on February 27, 2009
Can't delete certain apps, like Stocks.
Constabtly logs you out of sites like Mefi and new York times
Spellcheck overcompensates for shitty keyboard. posted by Jason and Laszlo at 9:49 PM on February 27, 2009
just as an fyi, you can copy and paste on the iphone in safari by using a bookmark.
my minor gripe is that you can't download video via the itunes store on the phone. it's bizarre that apple wants to lose the money they could make from having that available. i suppose they assume it'd take forever on 3G, but the whole point of embedded wireless in the device is that people often use it on open wireless networks. posted by groovinkim at 10:33 PM on February 27, 2009
It keeps changing fuck to duck. I wish the spellguesser didn't censor my swearing ;-)
Otherwise yeah, having to take off gloves is unfortunate, the cost is unfortunate (I'm sad I can't get just text+data, I rarely use the phone part)... the lack of copy paste, and so on.
Also I wish there was a way to force the screen to stay a certain direction; sometimes i'm lying down and want to look at something but the screen has the wrong idea about what up is! posted by nat at 11:17 PM on February 27, 2009 [2 favorites]
Am I the only one that is still upset about the lack of 3rd party push notifications? Seriously, the promised it months ago and still nothing. I just want to be on a chat program in the background.
Aside from that, people have mentioned others I agree with. Expensive monthly cost, noemail search, no mms, etc.
Overall, though, I am totally thrilled with my iPhone. But that's probably because it was my first smart phone. posted by carpyful at 1:28 AM on February 28, 2009
I have a first generation iPhone, or iPhone Classic as I like to tell friends who brag about their fancy new 3G iPhones, and there's not really anything I hate, just some annoyances.
In the US, AT&T coverage is really lousy compared to other carriers. In my experience you can forget about getting a signal in a rural area. I've also had problems in urban areas with weak signals. This is an AT&T thing though, not a problem with the phone itself. Besides, I hardly ever use my iPhone to actually talk to people so even that isn't that big of a deal.
As for features of the phone, copy/paste would be nice, and a better camera would also be nice. Though I've been able to get some nice low-fi, holga-esque shots from it. But if you're looking to take quick snapshots of friends/things in your day, it's pretty weak.
These aren't things that I hate though. I really like my iPhone. I don't think I have gotten so much enjoyment and bang for my buck as I have with my iPhone and my MacBook. I can't say with a straight face they improved my quality of life but it's pretty close. I use them all the time and get a tremendous amount of enjoyment out of both. posted by cptspalding at 6:48 AM on February 28, 2009
Oh and don't try to text while driving. I nearly kill myself everytime. posted by CwgrlUp at 7:01 AM on February 28, 2009
AT&T. Terrible carrier. Here in the middle of San Francisco, with one of the highest density of AT&T customers in the country, I get 3 bars on the street, and 0-1 bars in my house. -97 dBa if I'm lucky. I can't use it for phone calls anymore. I've got an original EDGE phone, I'm told the 3G is even worse.
It's a great laptop substitute if you're on WiFi. Shame about the phone service. posted by Nelson at 7:32 AM on February 28, 2009
Battery, lack of copypaste. Everything else is just short of amazing. Note: posting from iPhone. posted by Mach5 at 8:21 AM on February 28, 2009
First and foremost is the ATT network. Not only is the coverage poor even in urban areas, but bandwidth for the cells is horribly underprovisioned leading to major network contention problems when trying to use any of the Internet features of the phone. At times (midday, 4:30 on a weekday, Friday nights) it's hit or miss if a web page loads at all because of packet loss over the saturated uplink. On some occasions the network simply becomes confused and refuses to make the PPP connection or doesn't pass traffic at all, requiring the phone to be put in "airplane mode" for a few minutes to force it to reestablish a session.
Typing on it is better than I expected it to be, but still utterly awful. A physical keyboard is many times more accurate and productive. There are certain keystrokes the iPhone keyboard always, always misinterprets, every single time. The iPhone keyboard is better than trying to type on a dial pad, and worse than all other options.
The bundled, default earphones are absolutely terrible. They're massive -- like wearing a cinderblock in your ear -- and physically painful to use, and the sound is not so great. Unfortunately nearly all replacement products lack either a "clicker" control or a reasonable price. There's no product that is otherwise an identical replacement in quality and features but with a normal-sized earbud. There must be a fortune to be made here.
I'm also not pleased about the fact that I have to jailbreak the thing in order to avoid being subject to Apple's whims about third party software, but at least jailbreaking provides a workaround for the time being. Still, the hassle of doing so every time there's fresh firmware is annoying.
" I just want to be on a chat program in the background."
This is one of the most critical missing features, and baffling -- no, I take that back, not just baffling but downright stupid -- in light of the way Apple pushes AIM integration on the desktop. Any mobile that emphasizes SMS in preference to IM is flawed by design. There are lots of contributing factors to the need for jailbreaking, and this is just one of them. posted by majick at 8:29 AM on February 28, 2009
I've learned to type on the iPhone fairly well - just had to adapt my methods to the phone and while I hated it at first, I've learned to love it - I had to go from two-thumbs typing to three-fingers on either hand and that helped a lot.
I don't have the gripes that most of the other people do. The one that kills me - big time - is that I cannot sort messages for searching. I keep a business and a personal email account on it, and I often have to search through older business emails. This can be a massive pain when I can't sort them by sender or subject line.
The A2DP would be nice, but isn't a dealkiller.
Also - for those of you with battery issues: There is a case for the iPhone that combines and integrated, extended-life LiIon battery that doubles or quadruples the batt life on the phone, without making it much bigger, and also converts the interface jack to a mini-USB so you don't have to use proprietary cables to charge/sync. A co-worker has it and swears by it. It's about a hundred bucks but he swears it's worth it. YMMV. posted by Thistledown at 8:52 AM on February 28, 2009
I hate the lack of push on most/all apps. You either have to let the phone check every 15 minutes or hit refresh to get new email with gmail. Same with gchat, aim, etc.
If it just operated more like a bb in that regard (notification anytime new info comes in - rather than waiting for me to remember and check on it) I'd be great. posted by jourman2 at 5:26 PM on February 28, 2009
Also - lack of a proper 'frontpage' is really annyoing. What I mean is a start page with calendar appointment, new emails, new texts, and tasks on. You can forget you have a new text if you're on the same page as the 'text' application when one comes in.
I guess what I'm getting at is the data should come to me - i shouldn't have to go to the data. posted by jourman2 at 5:28 PM on February 28, 2009
My iPhone 3G has:
• Copy & Paste (including a Quicksilver/Launchbar-esque clipboard stack)
• Video recording through the built-in camera (as well as Qik video streaming)
• Full search of email, SMS, bookmarks, etc.
• Selective background application execution (so nice to be able to stream online radio or IM running while using another app in the foreground!)
• Password-protection for launching specific apps (great for when someone wants to play with your iPhone, but you dont want them looking through your SMS messages or email)
• 5-icon dock
• Home screen application categorization. I have over 150 applications on my iPhone, but only need to use 2 screens to contain them all.
Yes, all this goodness requires that I Jailbreak my iPhone. It's really annoying that you have to resort to Jailbreaking to get what I consider to be basic features, but it's really not difficult at all (especially with idiot-proof Jailbreaking apps like QuickPwn), and contrary to Apple's FUD, it neither compromises performance nor stability. Jailbreak features like Backgrounding, for example, at least give me the *choice* of sacrificing battery life if all I want to do is listen to online radio streams on the bus while simultaneously reading my RSS feeds in another app.
Which is a long-winded way of getting to what I hate most about the iPhone, which is Apple's insistence on depriving even power-users of choice. The thing about backgrounding, in particular, just drives me nuts. If they applied that same logic to thier Macbook products, there would be no WiFi, multi-core CPUs, backlit keyboard, optical drive, or internal hard-drive, because they are all significant contributors to battery drainage. Makes no fucking sense. The backgrounding feature I have on my jailbroken iPhone only invokes background processing for an app if I specifically tell it to run in the background (i.e. global backgrounding is not a default option). Why is it so goddamned hard for Apple to come up with similar functionality>
Oh, the other thing that really annoys me is the interminable 5-10 second delay that it takes from the moment you tap on an application icon to the point where it actually becomes functional. This seems to have gotten much worse when the 2.x software was released. posted by melorama at 8:33 PM on February 28, 2009 [3 favorites]
You may not be able to truly delete stocks, but you guys know you can remove its icon, right? That way it's more or less invisible to the user. I'd forgotten I had stocks installed. posted by dance at 7:34 AM on March 1, 2009
Oh, the other thing that really annoys me is the interminable 5-10 second delay that it takes from the moment you tap on an application icon to the point where it actually becomes functional. This seems to have gotten much worse when the 2.x software was released.
That went away for me when I un-jailbroke my phone. posted by myeviltwin at 11:57 AM on March 1, 2009
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Beyond that, my complaints mostly fall under the heading of griping about unrealized potential (something my teachers in high school all did re me).
posted by adamrice at 2:51 PM on February 27, 2009