ModifiedLogic

Last weekend I was fifth in line at one of my local Apple stores for a 16gb black iPhone. I was knocked out of line because I had a discount on my AT&T account and Apple basically said, if you have a discount on your account, their system throws up an error, so it’s a no go. I was told the change would take a minimum of 24 hours to even take effect, so I just watched my friend get his shiny new toy hoping that this was a sign to hold on to my silver iPhone.

Later that day, I called AT&T to remove my discount in anticipation of getting a new phone in the near future. I called a different local Apple store and asked them if they had 16gb black phones in stock and they did. When I got there, the lady at the store told me they only had white ones left so I just went for it.

After a few days of usage, I was very disappointed with the battery performance. I couldn’t believe that it was THAT bad or as bad as some on the internets were saying it was. It got so bad I started to do tests. One thing that was truly wrong was, when plugging in the phone at 10% charge in red, the phone would charge to 100% within an hour. But I was getting mixed comments from Twitterers and friends. Some say 2 hours of usage between charges was normal. Other friends were getting between 4 and 6 hours of usage with 40-50% battery left. The most I was getting was 2 hours of usage with 10% left. I knew that couldn’t be right.

Mix this with the fact that the white ones were starting to crack, I really thought it was time to get a replacement. I was able to do a retail swap for a black 16gb iPhone and the results were staggering. My usage went way up to about 6 hours of usage with 50% battery left. With this in mind it’s easy to say that the white one I was using had something wrong with it. And to the people who told me that they thought 2 hours of usage was normal should really take a look at their phone as well. When a product like this comes out to less than stellar battery reviews, it can be hard to tell if your battery is actually performing properly. I wonder how many people, like me, actually have a defective battery and think it’s normal.

I’ve had the worst luck with iPhones in general. Last generation, I had gone through two different replacements because my iPhone had the washed out black issue. I’ve actually had bad luck with Apple hardware altogether. My first Macbook Pro had a defective ambient light sensor. My current Macbook Pro had a whacked out keyboard which I just got replaced. Now, I am reading that all of the nvidia graphics cards in Penryns (mine) are defective. It never ends with me and this “luck”.

Technorati Tags:
Apple, hardware, iPhone, Macbookpro

I really wanted to test this battery out in a real situation. I took the phone up to full charge last night and left it in the charger until I was heading out to the mall.

In my car, I do not have a charger that works. I played music from my library on the way to the mall. I sent a few text messages here and there and also made a few phone calls.

To the surprise of no one, stores like Target, FYE, and the AT&T store did not have any updated 3g ready branded car chargers. On the way home I listened to Last.fm over 3g in the car. The day started around 2pm. Then, when I got home, I did my regular browsing, app, gaming on the unit before and after taking a nap. By the end of my use, it was about 6pm. At this point, I was already down below 50% battery.

With my first gen iPhone, I was very preventative with battery life and it was always a non factor. I charge overnight, I charge at work if necessary, and I charge whenever in the car. I never had to think about my battery. Now, with this new 3g version sucking down more juice, I think I just have to follow the same routine. The only missing piece is a car charger, which there seems to be a lack of and also a lack of a web page or list that states which chargers are compatible.

One positive thing I noticed is the 3g iPhone wifi signal seems to be a tad better. In a couple spots in my house, the 3g gets a bar or two more than the first gen iPhone.

On a side note, while in Radioshack looking at their iPod accessories, an employee there saw my white iPhone and said “Is that a white iPhone?”. And I said “Yeah”. And he said “Oh, I never seen one of those”. I said “It’s new”. I thought everyone was at least aware of what was going on with the iPhone, especially someone who works for a store that sells competing products and accessories for the iPhone.

Technorati Tags:
Apple, hardware, iphone

I literally JUST got my iPhone 3g. They only had White left so I dared to be different. Here are some notes on things I noticed before it’s even done restoring.

1. My Belkin car charger / amplifier is not compatible. I love this charger because it plays the sound from the usb / power port which is amplified by the charger as opposed to an unamplified signal through the headphone jack. This was also SUPER convenient because I only had to plug in the charge connection and never anything into the headphone jack. I hope Belkin makes a new version or some kind of adapter to turn the firewire juice into usb juice. Until then, I will have to get a plain jane car charger and the sound quality will be less through the headphone jack for the time being.

2. Not only is it not compatible, but the temporary case I bought, the Contour iSee, is not cut out properly so as to accomodate the Belkin charge cable. Double fail.

3. BONUS: The Contour iSee fits PERFECTLY into my Contour Showcase belt clip. That will come in handy for the time being.

4. Whatever charge the iPhone had out of the box was used up in the time it took me to get home from the Apple Store which was about 30 - 40 minutes. I was using it to listen to a podcast through Safari half the ride and then used the GPS real time for the rest with a few phone calls in between.

5. The first calls I made didn’t seem to have the echo effect when using my V-Modas which was an issue with my first gen iPhone.

6. Restoring this phone from a backup is going slower than dogshit.

Technorati Tags: apple, iphone, iphone3g

I emailed Contourcase asking when my one and only favorite case the Showcase would be available for 3g iPhones and here is the response i got.

"This is Matt from Contour.

The Showcase for iPhone 3G will be ready sometime in early
August.

Thanks

"

Awesome. Can’t wait! If I were a famous sports star or Hollywood superstar, this would be the iPhone case I endorse. It has protected my current iPhone for the greater part of a year successfully. When holding an iPhone out of a case, it feels foreign to me because the form factor of this case is so much more comfortable to me.

The keynote has come and gone. There were no real surprises. I feel pretty lukewarm due to the simple fact that I cannot buy a new iPhone, Me.com account, or download iPhone 2.0 right now.

The iPhone 3G - Yes I will be buying one immediately. I am however, FURIOUS that I have to leave my house and wait in a shit line for it though. It does not have ALL the features I was looking for in an update. I’ll take better battery, GPS, and 3G though. My missing feature list mirrors that of this one on Macnn. It’s the same crap I’ve been asking for forever that I thought would be "no brainer" material. But things like A2DP, referred to in this article as "headphones support for music listening" would most definitely eat up further the battery optimizations Apple figured out for its challenges with 3G. So maybe that will come in the iPhone 4G when gadget batteries run on oxygen or dust particles.

Me.com / MobileMe - While I don’t have an immediate need for MobileMe since I have Exchange support at work, I feel like I can make some good use out of the service. Ultimately dropping $100 on a yearly service is fine with me as long as I think I can get my money’s worth. I think I can.

Sidenotes -

- macrumorslive seemed to hold up the whole way through

- twitter had it’s share of issues

- it would be nice of Apple to have a live QT feed

- Scott Forestall’s evil grin each time he walked back to the stage after each dev did a demo bothered me

- So did Phil Schiller’s polo shirt

- The 3G is being touted as thinner, yet it’s widest measurement is wider than current gen (12.3mm to 11.7mm) I guess they mean the weird curved empty space around the edges?

- When Apple’s website came back up, it didn’t come back up all at once. It took about 10-15 extra minutes for the new pages to show up. Wonder if someone got yelled at for that. It’s been smoother in the past

- So far the 3G cases I’ve seen look like shit. I can only hope that Contourcase ignores the new curve and makes a case VERY similar to the showcase. it is THE BEST cell phone case I have ever owned.