iPhone firmware 2.0.2 is out... and angry
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Aug 18th 2008 5:18PM
posted Aug 18th 2008 5:18PM
Update: Well we've got the new firmware up and running, and it's true -- those bugs have been fixed. Which bugs? Well, it's still hard to say, but our voice suddenly sounds deeper, and we've noticed improved grammar during calls.
Yeppers!
what did the first update fix???
Bugs.
wow the iphone is amazing, its a wonder why anyone still buys other phones :)
Mac OS X is amazing. I wonder why people still use other environments.
The iPhone - well. For people who mainly have used their phones to make calls and some basic texting, I guess it will do - with some slick UI to boot. (And these users are typically new to mobile browsing as well). That said, its feature set (even the 3G) is very limited - even compared with your standard low- to midrange handset. For instance, the Bluetooth stack is essentially useless, it only supports the HSP/HFP to do handsfree calling - not: A2DP/AVRCP to do music streaming, DUN/PAN to allow connection tethering with a bluetooth-enabled internet device (e.g. laptop), HID/SPP to connect an external bluetooth keyboard, OBEX/FTP to send/receive files. Even the otherwise crappy Motorola RAZR supports most of these profiles.
Not to mention that its 3rd party application support remains virtually non-existent - the only applications allowed will be those sanctioned by Apple through the iTunes store. No J2ME, for instance. There is nothing similar to e.g. the Nokia Internet Radio application to let you listen to live radio streams over the internet, or AmazeGPS, TomTom, Garmin etc. mobile applications for voice navigation, encryption utilities for personal information ("eWallet"), video recording feature/app, and so on.
So: Slick UI - sure. Baffling - sure. Features? Not so much.
Ill take Apples commitment to updates over MS Mobile (or any manufacture for that matter) anyday.
I guess everyone else gets it perfect the first time around.
Whatever.
now another round of waiting for pwnage tool, for great tools that are not available on appstore, such as textreader, bossprefs, pushr, terminal, etc
does 2.0.2 make 3g reception better?
i only get 1-2 bar 3g at home (previous-gen iphone has almost full bar on edge). the worst is, when the 3g bars are low, the power consumption is fast. when i'm in office where i get full 3g bar, the battery consumption is more normal.
Standard mobile procedure: it 'hunts' for a signal, even upping the output where there's poor reception. That explain why phones often run hot when there's poor or no signal and quite cool when there's a strong signal. The problem with the iPhone is that it doesn't handle network handoffs (from 2G to 3G and vice versa) particularly well, only switching after a complete absence of signal.
doesn't break pwnage or jailbreaks!
I can't download it til I get home but was curious what size this upgrade is?
Is it another 250+ meg file?
248.7 meg, to be precise.
I had windowz mobile before my Iphone. I have to say... it wasn't user friendly at all. (and I'm a windows guy, OK?). Even with the problems, I'm much much happier with my iphone than I ever was with windows mobile. Apple got the interface and a fully functioning web browser down pat. Their execution... needs a little work.
I'm guessing they kind of rushed this one to market.
Sam
Improved grammar? About time! My ipod touch was really embarrassing me during calls
Is it just me? I'm two hours in and it's two thirds into the backup. Normally I dump that when syncing, but there's no option to do that. So I'll just let it go...and go...and go.........
Wow, downloaded it, sent some texts, made some phone calls...verdict: return of the snappy :)
happily there is a corresponding fix for the iPod Touch.
i dont know if anyone else experienced this but when i updated to 201 my home button - well i had to hit 3 times to get it to work. was gonna go back to the apple store tomorrow but after updating to 202 it seems fine now, though i still get the lag with email and text.
i have to agree with light man.. i had an ipaq PDA... OMG...issues! apple has got it right and i would never go back to another windows/windows mobile pda again..
the 2.0.2 update is great... surfing on wifi is faster as pages load quicker without that sluggish feel that something's dragging them down; albeit however i still get edge connection more often than 3g in los angeles. I also noticed faster page transitions in the app store - images of different apps load to completion and review pages show up in its entirety at once, all this within a second. I'll update on other things that may have been fixed, but in general things seem to be 'snappier'
asdf
oh yeah.. does anyone have problems with the gps where it works one time but subsequently later doesn't work.. i think this has something to do with the fact that the gps automatically turns off when not in use, but perhaps maybe fails to turn itself back on when you want to use it..
Hey Dave - I'll bet you know all about taking it in the ass...
I'd rather have Apple's stream of updates than deal with AT&T again like I did with my Blackjack. The Blackjack shipped w/ WM5, WM6 was out and released for over a year before AT&T finally allowed an official upgrade. AT&T would not allow the upgrade until the Blackjack 2 had been out for something like 3 or more months before allowing WM6 to be installed as they didn't want to loose sales due to the upgrade.
Screw that Apple has this model down, sell the phone and software to the people and more or less lease service from a provider.
the "return of the snappy" is because cache gets cleared when you reboot for the update. you'd get the same result just by rebooting the iphone when it starts to slow down. it's got nothing to do with the update itself. whatever bugs the update fixed are not obvious.
Firstly WM cant touch the iPhone. I have had multiple WM phones and none came close. And I dont remember MS often updating OTA when a bug was discovered. Also I dont remember ever a software update with additional functionality in short order. Unless I bootleged it off xda.
But still sitting my office with edge data, two blocks from ATT Phoenix headquarters downtown in the tallest building in AZ. Go figure.
Maybe it is because the fixed the software problem with the 3G chip? they said they would fix it this week.......
Still waiting on MMS...
Most cell phone users are not geeks- they care about features that will be useful to them like texting, three way calling, etc. Until the iPhone cell phones had complex and poorly designed interfaces, if you could call such interfaces 'designed' at all, so when Apple comes along with a cell phone with an interface that actually makes sense and is consistent, naturally the common user loves it.
Geeks will stick with their button-laden complex mobile devices, but they are a fraction of the overall market that the iPhone is addressing.
http://www.learnucd.com/kevlar/why-is-the-iphone-popular
Hmmm, sure still feels like beta software to me. I presume v2.1 and a new baseband chip will fix all our woes.