[Sherman Homan]

I'm too busy using mine.

[quiklee]

i've already read of people having a hard time activating the phone . . . anything else?

[Sherman Homan]

Uh oh, another time warp thread...

[quiklee]

its ok . . . any problems yet? have you tried commenting on this thread "from your iphone?" . . . . how's the call quality . . . meebo? youtube videos?

[osiris]

My official complaint is I don't have one.

[Too Artificial]

FWIW, activation for me was painless. Took less than 5 minutes.

[MacinTommy]

I'm having the activation problems.. I called ATT and they said it was because of a high volume of activations. But now my old cell phone is saying "unregistered SIM".... so hopefully it will go through soon..

[stevesnj]

No Complaint!!!!!!

[dawho9]

Not a complaint, because I know its more on Qwest's deal, but my activation will not be complete for 48 hours. So I guess it gets to charge for a while before I can use it. It looks really pretty on the dock however. :-)

dw9

[pooka]

Issues here too. Awesome. Deactivated my previous phone, and the iphone is a brick. It would be nice if I could at least play with the damn thing.

[Mrjinglesusa]

No problems here. Activation was a piece of cake (less than 5 minutes). Everything works as advertised. This really is a fantastic phone. Typing on the virtual keyboard is effortless - a lot easier than I thought it would be. EDGE speed is not too bad at all - especially for checking email and sending SMS messages. It really is a very intuitive phone...

[pooka]

48 hours??? Are you kidding? Where did you hear that? We have to go without a usable phone for 2 days?

[dawho9]

That was in my e-mail message. You may be different. I called them because I'm not that attached to the number to find out if I could just activate under a new number. They said it was impossible to do once the activation process started, but he did tell me on the phone that it would be done tomorrow by 11:30 AM which is MUCH sooner than the e-mail.

So we will see.

dw9

[pooka]

So you're new to ATT? That is a bit different. They've deactivated my previous SIM and now I don't have a phone... period. What a ****ing joke.

[zubo]

Same here, Been waiting waiting an hour for activation to complete.

[dawho9]

Originally Posted by pooka 

So you're new to ATT? That is a bit different. They've deactivated my previous SIM and now I don't have a phone... period. What a ****ing joke.

Kinda new. Have one phone with ATT and one with Qwest. So this line is new so yeah, waiting around. But yeah, just moving a phone number from one ATT phone to another shouldn't take much time. But just talked to the roomie who grabbed one also and his old one isn't taking calls but he can make outgoing calls on the iPhone right now.

dw9

[Mrjinglesusa]

That sucks. But remember, it's now past 6:00 pm West Coast time so now the ENTIRE country is trying to activate as opposed to just the East Coast earlier.

[::maroma::]

Yeah that's the bad part about being on the West Coast (well, one of the bad parts).

[Cadaver]

I got an email stating 24 hrs for number transfer from my previous carrier (Verizon) before iPhone registration can complete. Can't even play with the non-phone features. Bummer.

[pooka]

I think that is what pisses me off the most. Without an active SIM, the iphone is completely useless. You can't even access the non-phone components.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by pooka 

I think that is what pisses me off the most. Without an active SIM, the iphone is completely useless. You can't even access the non-phone components.

Hmmm... No flight mode? Lame. There goes the iPod usage on the plane. Surely they have to correct this with a firmware update soon...

P.S. This whole activation thing seems pretty annoying. I really, really hope I don't have go thru this once I get one in Canada (hopefully with 3G, or else with fast cheap EDGE).

[mattsgotredhair]

Originally Posted by Eug 

Hmmm... No flight mode? Lame. There goes the iPod usage on the plane. Surely they have to correct this with a firmware update soon...

That's not what he said at all.

He was saying that his SIM isn't active yet, so his phone isn't allowing him to do anything with it.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by mattsgotredhair 

That's not what he said at all.

He was saying that his SIM isn't active yet, so his phone isn't allowing him to do anything with it.

Oh OK, understood.

Still irritating though. So, is there a flight mode with the iPhone?

EDIT:

Yes it does.

[frdmfghtr]

Complaints? Price.

My 20 GB iPod is showing signs of impending doom, so I'll be in the market soon for a replacement. Being a Cingular/AT&T subscriber already, I heard I can add the unlimited data to my account for $20/month--better than the 4 MB/month BlackBerry service ($35/month) I just canceled.

Perhaps after the furor has died down and we've seen how they perform in actual use, I'll pony up, but for now, I'll stick to my trusty RAZR as I can't justify the dough.

[pooka]

Screw this. I guess I'll drive back to the AT&T store since they're open late and throw this thing at them. I kinda need a phone to work sometime soon.

[sicembears]

Turn the phone off for a minute then turn it back on. It should work.

[LeeG]

I turned it off, left it off, and restarted it. Still:

"Your activation requires additional time to complete"

Still waiting on that email....


L

[hyteckit]

My complaint?

I waited in line for 3 hours and didn't get one from the AT&T store. Should have gone to the Apple Store.

[DigitalEl]

Activation was painless for me, as well. Five minutes. What wasn't painless was syncing. It took quite awhile to sync 925 songs, 1,175 photos and 22 videos. I was used to Firewire on my aging iPod photo.

Once synced, things were well.

Annoyances after an hour or two of playing around.

1. iPhone drops wifi connection when synced and does not rejoin automatically. It reverts to Edge. I have to reconnect my wifi network manually, through settings. As I type this, my iPhone is on its (included) dock (nice surprise!) and is still connected to wifi, so it's obviously not something that happens every time. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

2. A bunch of my videos (some music videos, some TV shows ripped via TiVo to Go) aren't synced. iTunes pops up a message "Some videos were not synced to iPhone because they are not in a supported format." That's not an exact quote, but that's the gist of it. Only problem, ALL my videos are ripped the same way, from TiVo to Go and using the "iPod" settings format. Some sync and play, others don't. What gives!?
_____________

Other than that, random initial impressions:

- Heavier than I though. I like it. Feels substantial.
- Dock included. Wasn't expecting that.
- Screen is INCREDIBLE
- Typing is easier than I thought. Already using two thumbs with a modicum of success.
- Home button is a real button, not solid state. Hope it holds up over time.
- Reviewers weren't kidding... AT&T network SUCKS.

[hyteckit]

Okay. I just drop by the Apple Store at The Grove and got my iPhone. No lines!!!

[DigitalEl]

Originally Posted by DigitalEl (lame to quote yourself, I know)

A bunch of my videos (some music videos, some TV shows ripped via TiVo to Go) aren't synced. iTunes pops up a message "Some videos were not synced to iPhone because they are not in a supported format." That's not an exact quote, but that's the gist of it. Only problem, ALL my videos are ripped the same way, from TiVo to Go and using the "iPod" settings format. Some sync and play, others don't. What gives!?

This is fixed. If anyone else has a problem getting iPhone to recognize videos, open the videos up in Quicktime and Export them using "Export to iPod" as the settings. Not sure what Quicktime did differently than TiVo to Go with those particular 7 videos, but they now work.

[Stogieman]

7 hours later and I'm still waiting for my phone to be activated. I'm an existing AT&T customer so it's not like I have to wait for my number to get ported over. Ugh! Looks like I'm making a trip over to the AT&T store this morning.

[UnixMac]

Originally Posted by quiklee 

i've already read of people having a hard time activating the phone . . . anything else?

I did too until I realized that I had to update iTunes. Would have been nice if the guy at the store told me to!

[LeeG]

Originally Posted by Stogieman 

7 hours later and I'm still waiting for my phone to be activated. I'm an existing AT&T customer so it's not like I have to wait for my number to get ported over. Ugh! Looks like I'm making a trip over to the AT&T store this morning.

Over 10 hours. Still waiting. I've been an existing customer for 6 years. Not porting a number. Old phone shut off. I have no phone service at all. Not happy.

[laird]

I bought an iPhone at the "cube" store on 5th Ave in NYC. Fantastic phone, fantastic packaging, fantastic BAG! The Apple employees cheered and clapped each iPhone purchaser! My kids were so excited that they fought over who got to hold the iPod box on the drive home. And opening the box, the iPhone design is perfect. Stunning. Feels great. The "please activate" screen looks crisp and beautiful, even if it won't do anything (other than let me call 911).

Then it came to activation. I have a Blackberry on AT&T (Cingular), which I want to replace with the iPhone. Unfortunately, AT&T sells blackberries to "business" accounts, and the iPhone to "consumer" accounts, so they can't activate the iPhone on my current account. OK, I say, how about if I make a new consumer account and migrate my phone number to the new account. That would work if you weren't an AT&T customer, they say, but AT&T customer support representatives can't migrate a business account number to a personal account, so I have to talk to the "business center" to see if they can do it. And the business center is only open Monday to Friday, 9-5.

This means that the iPhone that I just bought is a PAPERWEIGHT until Monday morning, when they MIGHT fix things.

The other options are:

1) Get a new phone number, and tell everyone that I know how stupid AT&T is to force me to change phone numbers within AT&T.

2) Transfer my number to another carrier and then back to AT&T.

Good thing that nobody else would want to replace their Blackberry with an iPhone, or AT&T customer support people will be in for a LONG weekend. <sarcasm/>

[Cadaver]

^^ I say go with option 1.

[Cadaver]

I have a wish more than a complaint - it would be nice if iTunes had the option of converting high bitrate songs to 128Kbps AAC to save space like it will for the iPod Shuffles.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by Cadaver 

I have a wish more than a complaint - it would be nice if iTunes had the option of converting high bitrate songs to 128Kbps AAC to save space like it will for the iPod Shuffles.

It does.

You can do it with a couple of steps. But yeah, a built-in option would be nice.

[MindFad]

Is there a vibrate feature?

[stevesnj]

Originally Posted by MindFad 

Is there a vibrate feature?

Yes

[ideasculptor]

I was overwhelmed with positive thoughts initially, but as I use it, the complaints are starting to outnumber the benefits.

1. You cannot use any headphones other than those supplied by apple because the jack is countersunk in the case, and the diameter of the hole is VERY small. I have 7 different sets of headphones and not one of them would work, so I'm stuck using the awful white apple headphones. At the very least, if they are going to take a standard connector and make it dysfunctional with all products that adhere to the standard, provide an adapter.

2. My ipod function crashes within 5 minutes if I surf the web, read email, or browse around google maps with music playing. I have never successfully completed an entire song while using the phone for anything other than listening to music. Even worse, when the music dies, the iPhone goes back to the home screen, and more often than not, whatever I was working on is lost when I re-enter the app I was ejected from. What the hell is the point of an iphone as ipod replacement if you have to carry a secondary ipod in order to listen to music while you use it?

3. Not being able to manually manage your music is freakin' ridiculous, especially when there isn't even an autofill function. My music library is 100GB, not including video. I cannot sync my entire library. I have no interest in creating tiny little 3GB playlists manually. I want to autofill my 4GB iphone and walk out the door. I want to be able to delete tracks from the iPhone from the iPhone interface (you can delete videos, but not music, for some insane reason).

4. No flash support in Safari

5. No java support in Safari

6. The typewriter sucks ass. I'm sure I'll get better at it, but still, that thing is very slow to use, and where the hell are you supposed to hold the phone if you use the suggested 'thumb typing' method? And how do you navigate within a text field? There is no way to control the cursor (you'd think some arrow keys on the keyboard would have been sufficient). If I am looking at an address bar in which the address is very long, how do I get to the beginning or end (depending upon whichever is currently diplayed). Even worse, if I select a location in google maps, and then want to, for instance, find a pizza place nearby, how do I get to the beginning of the address so that I can type "pizza near" in front of the bookmarked adresss? I finally gave up and typed the whole damn thing in. That only works when you know the address by heart, though.

7. Why doesn't google maps recognize your bookmark names. In a web browser, if I type "pizza near home" it prompts me with a change to "pizza near 1234 anywhere st. my town, ca. 90002." In the iPhone, it just asks me if I'm looking for pizza in the town of Home, Kansas or some such place.

Anyone want to buy an iphone? The interface is revolutionary, but the functionality is crippled and defective in far too many ways for me to want to keep the thing.

[UnixMac]

ouch... I guess you got a Friday phone as mine works just fine. I'm even using my Sure hi-fi headphones with it (so long as it's not in the belkin case).

as for editing with a cursor, try just pointing with your finger at the spot you want to edit until the magnifying glass appears and then position the cursor.. that's a lot better than arrow keys.. I mean arrow keys are so PC!

[UnixMac]

Here is one shortcoming that I came across, but then it could just be user error..

I type "BMW X5" into the search on the Youtube website (using my Mac) and I get a ton of hits for movies on the X5.. I do it on the iPhone, and I get "No Videos" however, if I just do a search for "BMW" I get a bunch of hits..

What gives?

[Eug]

Originally Posted by UnixMac 

Here is one shortcoming that I came across, but then it could just be user error..

I type "BMW X5" into the search on the Youtube website (using my Mac) and I get a ton of hits for movies on the X5.. I do it on the iPhone, and I get "No Videos" however, if I just do a search for "BMW" I get a bunch of hits..

What gives?

It was my understanding that the availability of YouTube clips for the iPhone was very limited.

(YouTube for the net is Flash, and the stuff on YouTube for the iPhone is H.264.)

[ideasculptor]

Originally Posted by UnixMac 

as for editing with a cursor, try just pointing with your finger at the spot you want to edit until the magnifying glass appears and then position the cursor.. that's a lot better than arrow keys.. I mean arrow keys are so PC!

Well, that works great for setting the cursor somewhere within the text that is visible. But if there is more text than fits in the text box, how the hell do you scroll to the beginning or end? The point and drag thing only allows me to move the cursor around within the visible text. Dragging off the end of the text box just places the cursor after the last visible character, rather than scrolling the text within to expose more of it. I've still not been able to figure out how to move to the beginning or end of a block of text within a textbox that is too small to display all of it at once.

[vln2]

Originally Posted by UnixMac 

Here is one shortcoming that I came across, but then it could just be user error..

I type "BMW X5" into the search on the Youtube website (using my Mac) and I get a ton of hits for movies on the X5.. I do it on the iPhone, and I get "No Videos" however, if I just do a search for "BMW" I get a bunch of hits..
What gives?

They said that YouTube is workign on making their videos playable on iPhones but it may take them until September to complete that. Perhaps simply some videos are already done and some not yet ready for iPhone.

[stevesnj]

ideasculptor

a lot of your concerns were discussed on here and by multiple reviews online and on tv before the iphone was released. You may want to return your iPhone if you are that dissatisfied.

[sanford]

Originally Posted by ideasculptor 

Anyone want to buy an iphone? The interface is revolutionary, but the functionality is crippled and defective in far too many ways for me to want to keep the thing.

Well, you're in luck. You can pay AT&T for two years for service then cancel and your $500 or $600 iPhone won't work at all, no features whatsoever. Or you can pay the $175 contract cancellation fee, again your iPhone won't work at all, but you can return it to the Apple Store, pay the 10% restocking fee and only be out $225. That's kind of a lot to rent an iPhone for a day, but it might be better to cut your losses if you hate it, as you'll pay about $2,400 plus the original cost of the phone to hate it until your contract expires -- and then AT&T will brick the whole works when you cancel service.

You want what I want: a full-featured iPod with that revolutionary interface. Forget the phone part.

p.s. Yes, I'm being sarcastic, but I am truly sympathetic. I almost bought two of them today, one for my wife and myself, and left our current carrier to sign up with AT&T. But I kept reading on and on bad things about AT&T's network and policies -- although some people are quite happy with them -- and, mainly, the idea that if I don't remain an AT&T customer until I'm ready to throw the iPhone away or use it as a paperweight, even after the contract expires, I will lose all the other features like Wi-Fi e-mail and web browsing, calendar, iPod music and video, and camera, all for which I would have paid a lot -- let's face it, the phone part is the cheap part. Well, that just gave me the creeps when it came right down to it. I felt like I'd be spending $1,200 to buy two iPhones as gifts for AT&T, and then let them rent them back to me for about $120 a month for two years.

[livemotion]

Embarassed to say but I was one of those waiting in line for 30 somewhat hours...got the phone, went across the street to a restaurant, took out my laptop, got a drink, downloaded itunes 7.3, and activated it all in less then 6min... got mine activated around 6:30... even got my wifi connection from the apple store ...having POP3 email problems at the moment...not all of my pop3 accounts are working with edge...go figure...overall I'm verry happy...

[ideasculptor]

As far as I can tell, of all my complaints, the only ones that were known priot to release was the lack of flash and java. The rest is just bugs, oversight, and bad design (the headphone jack thing). I will be returning mine, and it isn't going to cost me all that much. $50 on restocking, sure, but I was already a cingular customer, and I already had unlimited data and unlimited SMS, so I didn't even upgrade my service, all I did was reset for 2 years, but my work pays that, anyway. But an ipod that crashes every time you play music is unacceptable. Sure, I can fix it by rebooting the iphone, but the condition always comes back within 2 hours. And honestly, with a bug like that, I doubt very much I'll be paying a restocking fee.