Cracker by Damian Christie

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Cracker: Jobs Blows

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  • Rich of Observationz,

    Not gloating or anything, but Androids got substantially faster with Froyo and a better Java VM.

    Then again, they filter updates so a device will at some stage stop being updated due to hardware support.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Damian Christie,

    That's the thing Rich, I'm fine being told my current phone/PC/etc can't handle the latest software. I'm used to that after 25 years or so of computing. I don't try and put Windows 7 on my old PC. Certainly a lot happier being told that than being told it works fine when in fact it ruins my weekend...

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1164 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I feel guilty having told Damian that iOS4 was running fine on my iPhone 3G. Down the line, I can see it's running a bit slower, but I've seen nothing like the terrible problems some people have described.

    In retrospect, Apple should probably have simply said iOS4 wasn't compatible with the 3G -- but then people would have called them a whole other kind of bastard for making the 3G obsolete.

    Happily, it appears that the forthcoming iOS4.1 will fix the problem, going by tests with the beta version.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • James Butler,

    will fix the problem

    Holy reflexive hyperlink, Batman!

    Auckland • Since Jan 2009 • 856 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Anyone else facing the same issues as Damian might want to try this before going to lot of downgrading trouble:

    iPhone 3G apparently has trouble keeping up with indexing, ever since 3.x. Two days ago, I turned off Spotlight search (Settings-General-Home Button-Spotlight search-switch off all you don’t use) because I rarely, if ever, used it.

    Up to this day, my poor old 3G with iOS is way snappier than it was before, and I wouldn’t hesitate to say it’s as snappy as with 3.1.3.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Holy reflexive hyperlink, Batman!

    Whoops.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Damian Christie,

    but then people would have called them a whole other kind of bastard for making the 3G obsolete.

    Wouldn't you rather have a phone age gracefully rather than have it try and squeeze into the new operating system and end up like something from those "when cosmetic surgery goes wrong" shows?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1164 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    There's something called DFU mode which the Cactuslab guys told me about to help with my iOS4-crippled phone. I tried the Spotlight thing and it worked for an hour or so before getting back to it's old tricks.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • Matthew Poole,

    Been waiting for an excuse to break out this classic comic from Oatmeal about the "joys" of buying (I'll get my coat as soon as I finish this post) into The Cult of the iJobs.

    I think Apple make beautiful products, aesthetically, but I'm one of these people who objects to not even being allowed to change the colour of a window's title bar (one of the main ways I tell which window has focus, and don't you dare tell me that I need to drag my eyes away from my work area to look at the top of the screen!) without having to jump through ridiculous hoops. Don't believe me? Try it, Apple lovers. You can't do it. You have to create a whole new theme, and to do that you have to go hunting through Google to find out how. Windows, Gnome, KDE, all of those lesser systems make it a matter of a handful of clicks, but oh no, the Holy iJobs has decreed that users may only change the appearance of the Blessed Operating System through much effort and angst.
    Fuck that shit, Silent Bob!

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 4097 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Honiss,

    What I did to fix mine was to go to Setting > General > Reset > Reset all settings.

    This maintains your call and message history but blows away wallpaper, Favourites and stored Wifi logins so it's not without its downsides. I was trying to find the post on Whirlpool which detailed everything that was reset but can't find it amongst the flurry of recent postings.

    I had previous done a full restore and clean install of all my music and photos but that didn't help nearly as much as the reset. Now not quite as quick as 3.1.3 but live-able until a more permanent fix is provided.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Holy iJobs has decreed that users may only change the appearance of the Blessed Operating System through much effort and angst.

    It's not that hard, but it's really not an issue for me. I've never once thought about doing it. And the third-party themes all look butt-ugly.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    Wouldn't you rather have a phone age gracefully rather than have it try and squeeze into the new operating system and end up like something from those "when cosmetic surgery goes wrong" shows?

    Yup, my old Sony Ericsson still works despite being, shock, horror, over 7 years old. It does everything I've ever wanted in a phone - it takes and makes calls, txts, keeps phone numbers, and fits in my pocket. A bunch of stupid extras I thought I wanted are in there too, like internet access, bluetooth, camera, voice dialling etc. I'm sure I'll insist on having them for the next phone too, whatever that is, and I'm equally sure they will be as worthless as they ever were. If I could still get batteries for this phone, I'm inclined to think I'd never see the point in buying another phone. I don't upgrade my land line handset every 3 years either.

    None of which is to say that iPhones aren't awesome. They're just awesome in ways I seem to not need or want.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Matthew Poole,

    It's not that hard, but it's really not an issue for me. I've never once thought about doing it. And the third-party themes all look butt-ugly.

    I don't want a third-party theme, I want to set my own colour scheme. And if I want my title bars to blur from fire engine red down to a delicate shade of magenta today, and then tomorrow change it so they go from azure to gunmetal, that ought to be my prerogative. Apple makes that incredibly difficult to do, and pointing me at a link to pre-made themes doesn't change that in the slightest.

    You've been working with Macs for over 20 years, I haven't. I'm used to a flick of the eye to determine which window has focus (all the more so with sloppy focus on open OSes), not a concerted re-focus of my view to look to the top of the screen. With large monitors and multi-layered windows, the effort required is all the more significant. That people think it's at all normal to re-focus their view to determine which window is active just strikes me as bizarre. Maybe it's down to how I work, with many applications open doing different things, layered and overlapping, often side-by-side.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 4097 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    You've been working with Macs for over 20 years, I haven't. I'm used to a flick of the eye to determine which window has focus (all the more so with sloppy focus on open OSes), not a concerted re-focus of my view to look to the top of the screen

    Honestly, I don't doubt that it's an issue for you. I'm just so assimilated that I don't even understand the problem :-)

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Kirsten Brethouwer,

    I just always WAIT and SEE. When both husband and brother enthusiastically told me there was such a thing as OS 4 for Iphone i said yeah but my Iphone is 3G and at that stage it was already slow as f&&^@#$&k AND i've used macs for 20 years too so I'm not going anywhere near THAT, because I know what THAT was made for. it's like a relationship Damian, not a cult, you get to know your man and you know how he 'operates', so you hang back and don't stress yourself out, until the upgrade for the upgrade has fixed the problems with the upgrade. I know that makes me sound like another sucker. at least i'm a cool sucker.

    Waiheke Island • Since Nov 2006 • 35 posts Report Reply

  • Stuff n Things,

    I've had a few iPods over the years too. The first died just outside of its 12 month warranty, the replacement (I kicked up a fuss) a few months later.

    This. <begin rant>

    About 3 months out of warrantee the one button on my ipod touch died. I had made the unfortunate mistake of ordering the device through Apples 0800 number, so had the fun of trying to explain to guys from Australia and the US that we had a Consumer Guarantees Act and that I believed they should replace it, even though the warrantee had expired. To be fair, they were friendly and polite, but it took 5 phone calls over the course of a couple of week ("have you tried resetting it using itunes" "well no, 'cause I'm at work...") before I got through to the right person. After a fair amount of discussion that they did agreed to replace it...

    And within 3 months the audio socket on the replacement started cutting out. By which stage I worked out the device was 3 (now 4) generations old, and Apple didn't care. I gave up.

    </end rant> (that felt good)

    On the plus side, because I no longer care, I had a go at jailbreaking it last night, and look forward to see what I can do with that...

    The devices are lovely - but my albeit brief experience has indicated that Apple products are no more stable (in terms of software or hardware) than the other brands. Maybe this is less true of their computers, but I'm not sure.

    Wellywood • Since Apr 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Stuff n Things,

    Also bear in mind that I had paid almost $700 for the original device, and had only had it for 15 months. They lovely bits of gear, but I'm a bit jaded about the idea that something that cost THAT much would not have a more reasonable lifespan.

    Wellywood • Since Apr 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I just always WAIT and SEE.

    I was thinking about this just now. The iPad is actually the first first-generation Apple hardware product I've ever bought -- apart, perhaps from my brilliant little LC 575 in 1996, which was a new model at the time.

    But yeah, previous iPhone system upgrades have all added value, so we all took the plunge on iOS4 ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    A bunch of stupid extras I thought I wanted are in there too, like internet access, bluetooth, camera, voice dialling etc. I'm sure I'll insist on having them for the next phone too, whatever that is, and I'm equally sure they will be as worthless as they ever were. I

    I used to get given phones. So I've had a Sony Ericsson 3G (a badly made piece of shit), a Motorola (tolerable, quite good video camera), a high-end Nokia (to try out a music service that I found completely hostile and unfathomable) and a Blackberry (which made me want to smash capitalism).

    The iPhone was the first phone I actually liked, and although three of the above had internet access, it really wasn't worth the bother.

    I use my iPhone for: voice, text, email, contacts, music, Twitter, the (crappy) camera, maps/GPS and CycleMeter. Also, the Light Sabre app.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    And if I want my title bars to blur from fire engine red down to a delicate shade of magenta today, and then tomorrow change it so they go from azure to gunmetal, that ought to be my prerogative.

    Someone needs to take a chill pill!

    The window with focus on my 10.6 imac is dark grey. All the other windows are light grey. Fixed it for ya.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Matthew Poole,

    Kyle, the difference wasn't sufficient for my purposes when I was using a Mac. Plus, it's just one example of Jobs' over-arching need to control every. single. bloody. thing that users do with Apple's products.

    As for the quality of Apple's computers being higher, this is the company that's the subject of a class-action lawsuit for lying about the quality of its displays. Having used a 27" and a 20" I can confirm that the display on the 20" is vastly inferior despite Apple's marketing implying that the only difference is the size. I also experienced a drive failure and a memory failure within four weeks of delivery of a 24" that I was using at work. For something retailing at $3200, that was a very, very poor hardware reliability level. Worse, in fact, than the reliability of the numerous PCs I've built and used at home over the years, with precisely zero failures and only one potentially dodgy RAM DIMM.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 4097 posts Report Reply

  • Martin Barry,

    I had terrible problems with my 3GS after the iOS4 upgrade, continually dropping calls, freezing and then resetting date and time back to 1970. A right pain when you correct the date and all the old alarms go off for a years worth of appointments and reminders.*Life flashes before eyes*

    Good news though is that a restore to factory settings (done in Itunes with iphone connected to its home computer) fixed everything up and the itunes backup restored everything (calendar, email settings, apps) except my music which was easy enough to copy again from itunes.

    Very annoying though and patience with Apple is running very thin, I will certainly not be joining the iphone4 or ipad users until they have been around for a good 6 months and preferably in 2nd generation mode.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 13 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    I must say, although I'm not having a completely dreadful experience with my upgrade, the launch time of the camera on a 3G running iOS4 is just ridiculous. Come on, Apple, I have a self-imposed quota in place: I have to take 400 photos a week of my child! And he's very fast-moving! By the time the damn thing starts working whatever brilliant genius thing he's done that I just *had* to capture is well over.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    it's like a relationship Damian, not a cult, you get to know your man and you know how he 'operates', so you hang back and don't stress yourself out, until the upgrade for the upgrade has fixed the problems with the upgrade.

    You must tell us how you upgrade your man.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    I use my iPhone for: voice, text, email, contacts, music, Twitter, the (crappy) camera, maps/GPS and CycleMeter. Also, the Light Sabre app.

    I might appreciate the GPS. Although I'm more tempted to just get a GPS, then my wife can use it too, it's not stuck in my pocket as my phone. Everything else I've got in one form or another, usually tailored for that use so consequently high quality and easy to use, and around when someone else wants to use it.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

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