Not sure yet. Email updates are still buggy, for example it hasn't updated the ISP inbox since 9:57 this morning despite me trying muliple times to get it to refresh, I will have to do a full shutdown and restart of the phone to get it to work, so that's one issue 2.02 doesn't fix

The singal bar is as low as it ever has been, there doesn't seem to be any improvement there, but I haven't had enough time to see if phone calls are better or not. It has been pointed out before (by Hugo I think) that the bars don't mean too much.

For me I can't see many changes in 2.02 yet, everything seems much the same.

Edit - Yep just did a full restart of the phone and my inbox refreshed straight away (10 new mails waiting on my ISP account), phone hasn't moved, it's on my desk at work. I think that's a bug!

Cheers

Cris.

I learned yesterday that you can dial and call *3001#12345#* on the keypad to access the field test menu. My signal meter turns to a dB meter in this mode. Most other readings are pretty cryptic (to me).

For the win.

Okay, so your message got me looking at http://www.macosxhints.com today, searching on "iphone" in their database of hints. Some gems in there. Example, how to take a screenshot:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080710074630863&query=iphone

With all the problems people have been having, it sounds like the usual adage of don't buy first revision Apple hardware seems to be holding true.

Well, this is the second revision (depending on how you look at it), but I know what you're saying.

Personally I'm quite happy with my iPhone and I haven't been having any major connection problems. Occasionally (rarely) I need to reboot it to get internet surfing to work, and I think this might be related to that problem. But I've had no overall connection issues like some folks have been reporting.

Cool! Not terribly informative to somebody who doesn't know what it all means. Somebody should build an iPhone app to capture all this information along with GPS coordinates, and let you build signal maps and so forth.

One of the EricaUtils will grab your current coordinates. I bet CoreTelephony has a signal strength variable. Hm.

Not the iPhone antenna that gives bad reception.

Maybe the iPhone reception issue is actually a power issue?

Has everyone tried the new firmware?

I have noticed the charge is holding longer on standby, I don't need to charge it every night now, but I think all they have done is replace the signal meter with a fixed graphic

Mine now shows full signal where ever I go.

Cheers

Cris.

I'm extremely happy with the new firmware. It's solved a few annoyances. When I do an update to one of the App Store applications, it no longer rearranges my icons. It installs apps faster, and synchs/backups are faster.

I'm curious what they did to improve the unit's battery life. I haven't really put that one to the test yet.

Nor me, I just noticed that this morning when I picked it up I still had 50% battery after forgetting to charge it last night, and I was able to use the phone for the day without leaving it home to charge up.

Cheers

Cris

Is there any way to get an iPhone 3G with only a 1 year contract and pay $399 or something? I'm only planning on being in the states for about a year and don't want to pay for the phone for another year after I leave...

Wasn't planning to get one at all, but the wife dropped the Treo two times too many and now the screen is permanently damaged.

The longer battery life is nice. I noticed.

I got streaming WMA working well on my jailbroke unit today, too.

I'm looking for a way to get a fully warrantied, supported iPhone in the UK without dealing with the shower of sh*t that is O2. I'm way too happy with the service I get from Orange to even think about leaving them.

From speaking to Hugo it appears there a couple of EU countries that are selling unbundled phones (Belgium was the only one he could think of at the time).

Has anyone else tried this?

I believe they're sold "without contract" but still locked to the network - same situation as the O2 pay and go phone that is available from today I would guess (although historically O2 haven't locked pay and go phones, but I suspect the iPhone will be!)

I think you can get unlocked ones in Hong Kong...a cow-orker said that's what she did and just popped her SIM in once she got back here. She isn't around to ask for details right now, but it seems reasonably plausible.

I would guess that would be a 2G iPhone though, the 3G (afaik) remains unhacked with regards to network unlocking.

In Australia you can buy a phone outright for around A$729 and have it network unlocked for just A$80 if I remember correctly.

Hmmm: Looks like they canned that idea:
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/09/what_happened_to_optus_pre-paid_iphone_3g_offer.html

And this link isn't available from anywhere on the normal Optus site it would seem:
http://personal.optus.com.au/web/ocaport...p;site=personal

I have been thinking about the same thing, but the price is keeping me back (and invested in upgrades for my games pc too) €615 for the 16G in belgium:

http://iphoneprijzen.nl/ (the little opened padlock means unlocked, so italy and belgium)

The iphone is different with warranty then other apple hardware too:



http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/service/faq/#repair3

iPhones in Belgium and Italy are really unlocked. It's against the law overthere to lock phones to networks.

In Holland, Vodafone has special offer for buyers of Italian and Belgian iPhones, just to annoy exclusive seller T-Mobile.

Pim

Am I reading that right? 200m plus unlimited Internet for €13.50? Or maybe €23?

Picked up my 16GB black in the Apple store at Bluewater today. I have to say the actual purchase experience was very un-Apple. It involved:

- booting XP in VMWare on an iMac (because O2's registration websites don't work on Safari/FF)
- reading my credit card details to the sales assistant in the middle of the store
- multiple websites that have to be filled in (with the same details each time)
- the assistant running off repeatedly to a backroom to collect the printed out contracts etc
- the assistant having to run around finding out the passwords for the O2 websites, because they change regularly
- having young kids wander up and nearly close down the registration pages while the sales assistant was off trying to find another password
- having the O2 site say my credit check had been "referred" only for the sales assistant to ring O2, give my name/order number and then wait silently for 5 minutes before someone at the other end said it was approved

Thankfully my experience once I got the phone in my hands has been exactly the opposite, it works even better than expected. That isn't to say that it doesn't need a few extra features in some areas, but what it does do it does almost magically well. To me the UI is far better thought out than any other device (including PCs, Macs and assorted phones) out there.

That's a cracker that one.

It's getting so difficult to not to just pull the trigger on this one. The problem is remembering the nightmares I had when my work phone was on O2, not that Vodaphone is any better.

I just signed up for Three here (Sydney) and it was... interesting. The sales process was conducted on a web browser on PCs in the middle of the (small) shop, all the name/address/bank stuff was typed up, with the same rushing around to printers, stapling, signing etc. A lengthy credit check on screen, and I was approved despite having nothing other than a bank account which was opened the same day. Amusingly I needed to open the bank account first because the same documentation I gave to the bank wasn't good enough for Three!

I got an HTC Hermes/TyTN off ebay back in the UK (in the shape of an Orange SPV M3100), unlocked it and upgraded to WM6. I had previously realised that Three's "Mobile Broadband" service (designed for use in a USB stick/modem) was enabled for voice, at their standard PAYG type price, and the data pricing was less than adding a data pack to a standard voice contract.

I took advantage of the still mildly weak US dollar and bought a 2nd Gen 32GB Touch in LA. I've downloaded the free SDK and compiled and run a few of the demo projects inside the emulator. But now I've reached a snag. Am I right in thinking that if I actually want to run the code on the actual hardware I have to sign up for the development programme and therefore cough up $99?

I'd still love to get an iPhone. I'm thinking I'll probably wait until someone figures out how to undo the SIM lock then I'll get a Pay as You Go iPhone and throw the O2 SIM away.

Yeah. One of the benefits of the $99 fee is that you can actually load it into a real iPhone or iPod to test.


PAYG O2 or another network?

Thought as much, might leave doing that until I've got something worthwhile to upload.


I'd be sticking my Orange contract SIM in it.