Shorty got the iPhone 4

[purbeast0]

heh i'm sorry but reading the first few posts by shorty is amusing ... never in my life have i heard someone having so much trouble setting up and using a freaking iphone.

 

[yh125d]

*From the PoV of someone who has never owned an iphone nor used one with itunes, and only uses itunes for podcast subscriptions and a small music library on my work computer*


This program stinks. Half the time I try to open it, it either doesn't open at all, or opens as a process but never really opens up so I have to kill the process and start over.


When I get it open though, it works fairly well. It crashes maybe once or twice in a 40 hour week, usually when I ctrl+m to or from the miniplayer.

Subscribing to podcasts was pretty simple and easy, but whenever it was downloading new ones, it would crash when downloading two simultaneously, so I had to disable that. Not just itunes crash, entire computer crash. Yeah, its pretty screwed up. Pretty common problem according to google.

The music player is so-so at best. I've messed around with the display a bit but I can't find anything I really like. Individual song list sucks, individual song list with artist/album tag on left side sucks, artists as tiles you click on to see albums is close enough I guess. WMP is much better in this regard imo, or I'm just not seeing the right options


Every few weeks it'll prompt me to install an update, which I will install hoping it fixes the crashes, but it hasn't yet. Oh well.

 

[alent1234]

*From the PoV of someone who has never owned an iphone nor used one with itunes, and only uses itunes for podcast subscriptions and a small music library on my work computer*


This program stinks. Half the time I try to open it, it either doesn't open at all, or opens as a process but never really opens up so I have to kill the process and start over.


When I get it open though, it works fairly well. It crashes maybe once or twice in a 40 hour week, usually when I ctrl+m to or from the miniplayer.

Subscribing to podcasts was pretty simple and easy, but whenever it was downloading new ones, it would crash when downloading two simultaneously, so I had to disable that. Not just itunes crash, entire computer crash. Yeah, its pretty screwed up. Pretty common problem according to google.

The music player is so-so at best. I've messed around with the display a bit but I can't find anything I really like. Individual song list sucks, individual song list with artist/album tag on left side sucks, artists as tiles you click on to see albums is close enough I guess. WMP is much better in this regard imo, or I'm just not seeing the right options


Every few weeks it'll prompt me to install an update, which I will install hoping it fixes the crashes, but it hasn't yet. Oh well.

have you tried to

gasp........ update to the latest version?

i've had podcast issues and it's mostly when trying to download a bunch of them from the same source

 

[yh125d]

have you tried to

gasp........ update to the latest version?

Have you tried to


gasp........ read my post before making a stupid response?

Every few weeks it'll prompt me to install an update, which I will install hoping it fixes the crashes, but it hasn't yet. Oh well.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Have you tried to


gasp........ read my post before making a stupid response?

Maybe do a clean install?

 

[yh125d]

Maybe do a clean install?

Have done that as well. No luck

I mean, it really doesn't bother me much. I only use it at work, and having to disable simultaneous downloads is a minor annoyance at best (it will still do them automatically, just one by one).

having to redo starting it up isn't that big of a deal either, but its definitely not an amazing program like a few people have said.

 

[shortylickens]

Shorty, I applaud your giving the iP4 a shot, it appears you put out a valiant effort to make the platform work for you.

This is what I am saying but no one wants to believe me.

I am very sorry if anyone was upset by my words.
I swear to god, THIS TIME I was not trolling. I just wanted to share my new gadget experience, nothing more.
For reference, I'll admit to trolling ATOT and P&N. But I dont do that in the tech forums. I just share opinions. The problem is difference of opinions here ends up turning into a P&N fest sometimes and its hard to squash.

I am almost afraid to tell you guys I ordered an iPad 2 last week on Amazon and its arriving today.

 

[alent1234]

Have you tried to


gasp........ read my post before making a stupid response?

and apple just came out with a new version 2 weeks ago that solve most of the issues that 10 shipped with

podcasts can be a PITA mostly because they don't sit on apple's servers. they are just RSS feeds of mp3's or some other media file. i don't know what the criteria is with getting them listed in the itunes store, but it can't be too high since i've had podcasts not play on iphones.

the podcast part of itunes is just a RSS reader that downloads the files and organizes them a little. download issues usually involve the source server.

i've used podcast apps before itunes had the capability and it wasn't very different. lots of bad feeds, download issues, etc

 

[alent1234]

This is what I am saying but no one wants to believe me.

I am very sorry if anyone was upset by my words.
I swear to god, THIS TIME I was not trolling. I just wanted to share my new gadget experience, nothing more.
For reference, I'll admit to trolling ATOT and P&N. But I dont do that in the tech forums. I just share opinions. The problem is difference of opinions here ends up turning into a P&N fest sometimes and its hard to squash.

I am almost afraid to tell you guys I ordered an iPad 2 last week on Amazon and its arriving today.

the system requirements even say you have to use itunes

my wife's iphone 4 only gets synced once every few months only because she has a GB of apps on it and that's about it. other than that i touch it once a day to turn on slacker radio for the classical station to put the baby to sleep

 

[yh125d]

and apple just came out with a new version 2 weeks ago that solve most of the issues that 10 shipped with

podcasts can be a PITA mostly because they don't sit on apple's servers. they are just RSS feeds of mp3's or some other media file. i don't know what the criteria is with getting them listed in the itunes store, but it can't be too high since i've had podcasts not play on iphones.

the podcast part of itunes is just a RSS reader that downloads the files and organizes them a little. download issues usually involve the source server.

i've used podcast apps before itunes had the capability and it wasn't very different. lots of bad feeds, download issues, etc

There was a fresh update waiting for me this morning, still hasn't fixed my issues


And whether it's a problem with itunes or the podcast servers, I don't know. But I'm not the only one (google itunes crash when simultaneously downloading podcasts), so I definitely wouldn't rule it out.

 

[shortylickens]

the system requirements even say you have to use itunes

my wife's iphone 4 only gets synced once every few months only because she has a GB of apps on it and that's about it. other than that i touch it once a day to turn on slacker radio for the classical station to put the baby to sleep

I did use itunes.
itunes told me I needed a system update.
I tried the update, through itunes.
itunes told me my device needed a master reset.
I did the master reset.
itunes tried to apply the update and it still didnt work.
And even before I used itunes I didnt like the way the phones app market or music market worked. Too many complications for something that "just works".

 

[vi edit]

I must be doing something wrong because I'm using an iPhone without iTunes on my PC. Heh. I can still get pictures and video off the phone without it which is all I need to do anyway. I don't load music to it because the Rhapsody app does that for me.

So do you need itunes only to load music on there?

 

[alent1234]

update the phone
the photo part of the sync will import photos directly to iphoto, picassa or a few other apps
podcasts and itunes U
manage apps. my itunes manages which apps go on the iphone 4 and which ones on the ipad.
import epub files to sync books onto your idevice
i download videos from youtube and create playlists of them in itunes for easy syncing
sync your own movies to idevice

 

[alent1234]

I did use itunes.
itunes told me I needed a system update.
I tried the update, through itunes.
itunes told me my device needed a master reset.
I did the master reset.
itunes tried to apply the update and it still didnt work.
And even before I used itunes I didnt like the way the phones app market or music market worked. Too many complications for something that "just works".

plug in new idevice
it asks if you want to restore from backup or use as new
input name
put in a few options like syncing contacts from outlook or email from email apps

it sets up your idevice. very easy

for updates i usually download first and then update it. once or twice i had it where it failed.

haven't bought music on itunes in years but apps are easy. put in CC# or gift cards. click buy app. if you want it can even save your password so you don't have to retype it every time. only does it on the computer version.

there are even links on websites that will automatically open itunes to the right app page

i don't understand the complications

there are some bugs like duplicate contacts issues but overall it's very easy. the iphone 4 is so good that one time i was trying to figure out an email issue for a client. set it up on my 3GS and used that to see which special port for email the provider was using. i tried to set up my yahoo account as push on my android phone last week and it doesn't work. almost everything works as push on the iphone if the email provider supports it

 

[Spoooon]

This seems timely: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/25/editorial-hey-apple-why-does-it-take-an-hour-to-put-an-album-o/

edit: Maybe someone can report back on how accurate some of that is.

 

[shortylickens]

plug in new idevice
it asks if you want to restore from backup or use as new
input name
put in a few options like syncing contacts from outlook or email from email apps

it sets up your idevice. very easy

for updates i usually download first and then update it. once or twice i had it where it failed.

haven't bought music on itunes in years but apps are easy. put in CC# or gift cards. click buy app. if you want it can even save your password so you don't have to retype it every time. only does it on the computer version.

there are even links on websites that will automatically open itunes to the right app page

i don't understand the complications

there are some bugs like duplicate contacts issues but overall it's very easy. the iphone 4 is so good that one time i was trying to figure out an email issue for a client. set it up on my 3GS and used that to see which special port for email the provider was using. i tried to set up my yahoo account as push on my android phone last week and it doesn't work. almost everything works as push on the iphone if the email provider supports it

WOW!
I've noticed a strong penchant for Apple fanboys in this forum to NOT read what is written but instead see keywords and just talk about whatever they wanna talk about. I sincerely hope thats just an amazing coincidence and not an indicator of the community as a whole.

 

[cheezy321]

WOW!
I've noticed a strong penchant for Apple fanboys in this forum to NOT read what is written but instead see keywords and just talk about whatever they wanna talk about. I sincerely hope thats just an amazing coincidence and not an indicator of the community as a whole.

Honestly, do you think your experience is indicative of the majority of iPhone users? Do you think its even close?

I tried my hardest to stay out of this thread, but come on man. Be realistic.

 

[zoiks]

Honestly, do you think your experience is indicative of the majority of iPhone users? Do you think its even close?

I tried my hardest to stay out of this thread, but come on man. Be realistic.

He's giving his account of his experience with the device. How fucking hard is that to understand?

Tone it down, Zoiks. There's two warnings in this thread already. There's nice ways to phrase things and then there's ways that just get the war of words going again.
Moderator PM

 

[WelshBloke]

I try iTunes every now and again.

Now I know that there's no perfect media software but its the only one that wants my credit card info before it will let me download album art.

Whats up with that?

I think the problem is some people don't like to be told what software they have to use. Now if you like iTunes thats fine, if you dont life is going to get a lot harder.

With Android people have gotten used to using whatever software they like (as long as it supports USB storage) to manage their media. Also I like the fact that with Android you are pretty independent of your desktop, hell you can even flash a new ROM without plugging into a PC.

 

[Rayb]

What do you expect from iTunes, it is a mediocre piece of software even after a lot of revisions, it hasn't improved the reliability. One unlucky update can and will screw with your sanity while you're looking for answers, but it is a fact of life in the Apple ecosystem that you can't deny. It's not IF but WHEN your turn comes up, you'll be singing a different tune away from iTunes.

Then, there are people whose sole purpose is to deflect any intended criticism away from Apple, since they can do no wrong, it's all user error by default.

 

[alent1234]

I try iTunes every now and again.

Now I know that there's no perfect media software but its the only one that wants my credit card info before it will let me download album art.

Whats up with that?

I think the problem is some people don't like to be told what software they have to use. Now if you like iTunes thats fine, if you dont life is going to get a lot harder.

With Android people have gotten used to using whatever software they like (as long as it supports USB storage) to manage their media. Also I like the fact that with Android you are pretty independent of your desktop, hell you can even flash a new ROM without plugging into a PC.

i haven't rooted yet, but i've read that it's possible to brick your phone to the point where you have to buy a new one since it's out of warranty. with iphone/itunes it's not possible since your PC controls the OS upgrade

i know you can do it with android, but with itunes it's very easy to backup your apps since they are all .ipa files on your hard drive. just in case there is an update you don't like and you want to use an earlier version.

a lot of times i'll download free apps and just delete them and put them on a hard drive. a few months later i'll install them again to see if they are worth using now.

good and bad parts of iOS and Android, and itunes can be flaky on windows

 

[WelshBloke]

i haven't rooted yet, but i've read that it's possible to brick your phone to the point where you have to buy a new one since it's out of warranty. with iphone/itunes it's not possible since your PC controls the OS upgrade

You dont have to flash your phone, it was just an example to show how independent of the desktop an Android phone is.

i know you can do it with android, but with itunes it's very easy to backup your apps since they are all .ipa files on your hard drive. just in case there is an update you don't like and you want to use an earlier version.

a lot of times i'll download free apps and just delete them and put them on a hard drive. a few months later i'll install them again to see if they are worth using now.

Theres a bunch of backup options on Android as well, some of them back up to the sd card some to the desktop.

Its nice to be able to restore your phone when your away from home if you install something dodgy or delete something vital.

good and bad parts of iOS and Android, and itunes can be flaky on windows

There are undoubtedly good things about iOS, millions of people happily use it. I just think that tying it to iTunes on the desktop (and is it tied to one instance of iTunes?) is not one of them.


Edit: Apparently its not tied to one instance of iTunes, my bad there.

 

[cheezy321]

He's giving his account of his experience with the device. How fucking hard is that to understand?

Tone it down, Zoiks. There's two warnings in this thread already. There's nice ways to phrase things and then there's ways that just get the war of words going again.
Moderator PM

He basically did the equivalent of someone going into a Toyota supra forum and proclaiming the turbo'd car sucks. later everyone finds out they have been putting 87 octane in it. There is a reason its not performing up to par.

Obviously, this phone is not for him. He tried swimming upstream, it didn't work out.

 

[RampantAndroid]

OK. Did a system reset from the phone cuz the itunes app couldnt do it.
Now I have no service, and itunes is still giving me shit about the device being full and I need to empty the recycle bin. Cant do an update.


Well, that will be the shortest lived phone i ever had.

Uhhh, the iphone has no recycle bin. You sure it didn't mean your PC is full?

FACK!

Now its telling me the device could not be updated because its full. I need to delete files.
I havent actually installed anything on the phone yet except a couple music apps and one game. According to the system notes its got 10.0 gigs free.

Suggests I reset the whole system, wiping out everything, and trying the update again.

Did NOT have these issues with any Droid I've seen or owned. THIS is the easiest smartphone to use?

Only time I had to reset my iphone was when a jailbreak failed. I thought the iphone was idiot proof...guess I was wrong.

I did use itunes.
itunes told me I needed a system update.
I tried the update, through itunes.
itunes told me my device needed a master reset.
I did the master reset.
itunes tried to apply the update and it still didnt work.
And even before I used itunes I didnt like the way the phones app market or music market worked. Too many complications for something that "just works".

You said early on you used something other than iTunes to sync. Who wants to bet that messed something up?