iPhone OS 2.0 Release: Really a Public Beta?

July 11th was an ambitious launch day for Apple. The iPhone 3G rolled out, with several glitches, to Apple and AT&T stores nationwide, and the since-maligned MobileMe service debuted. The crux of that launch day, however, was iPhone OS 2.0, which made its way onto three devices: the iPhone 3G, first-generation iPhone and iPod touch. Unfortunately, the release has been similarly marred by technical flaws.

OS issues, combined with the hardware problems like poor battery life, difficulties with GPS, newly reported cracks in the white iPhone cases, third-party application crashing, slowness, and instability have resulted in a sour taste for many adopters, and the overall feeling of a beta rather than final product release.

Here’s our laundry list of complaints on stability and performance of iPhone OS 2.0. If we missed any, please let us know.

System slowness

In general, iPhone OS 2.0 is categoically slower than OS 1.x. Many users are complaining that the interface is not as capable as before. Numerous delays accompany navigation within OS elements and Apple’s own applications. Sometimes the phone responds quickly, but begins to slow down over time, potentially indicating some serious issues with resource usage (i.e. memory leaks).

Users comments regarding the iPhone’s overall performance include the following

• Transitions between Apps work intermittently – either not at all or very slowly.
• Moving between Apps is slow.
• Opening the SMS App can take a long time up to 7 or more seconds.
• Opening the Camera App can take longer than 5 seconds – causing you to miss most candid shots.
• Interface freezes during user input then suddenly it catches up unexpectedly. Jerky input and may not keep up with fast keyboard input.
• Poor response from music controls in the iPod App.
• Lagging response to touch gestures.
• Inordinately long back ups in iTunes. Some backups literally taking hours.
• Scrolling between screens of application icons can be jerky, slow or freeze sometimes as you flip through them.
• Scrolling inside of Apps themselves where their screens support this can often be jerky, slow or freeze as you scroll up and down.
• Inordinately long restarts

In many cases, the lag can be eliminated by resetting the iPhone: Turn the iPhone off completely, by pressing and holding the Sleep/Wake button (on top of the device) for a few seconds then slide the red slider. Turn it back on by holding the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears.

Poor performance generally returns after a period of normal operation post-reset, however.

Location (including GPS) services

Apps on the iPhone prompt the user for permission to locate them using the GPS. While such a measure is necessary for security and privacy purposes, some applications apparently forget the setting, prompting users for permission over and over. This delay is especially disheartening if you are trying to grab a candid snap shot with the iPhone camera.

GPS is non-functional for some, a possible result of interference from the 3G network and/or the users current location. In some cases the iPhone locates itself very far away from your actual position.

Tom Tom, Garmin, Dash and various mobile cellular handsts provide turn-by-turn directions, usually verbally, and track a path. The Maps app on iPhone OS 2.0 uses the improved GPS hardware of the iPhone 3G but it does not do any of the above. It will show your current location on a map, track you as you move along and thats about it. A neat trick, but one that’s not practical for most users. Using the Maps application’s directions while driving is more likely to lead to an accident than a destination.

Interface bugs

Users have lamented the iPhone desktop interface’s inability to sort or arrange app icons or Web shortcuts easily. The simple act of installing an update to an application can easily destroy the way the Apps are currently arranged. Apple should have included some kind of sort feature and possibly some kind of anchoring feature.

Volume controls do not always retain selected settings. Raising the volume can result in the volume level being reduced randomly and without warning.

The iPhone’s battery indicator in the upper right portion of the screen may not report levels correctly. In some cases, when the indicator is very low on the iPhone plugging it into a computer or A/C adapter for charging and the large green battery on the syncing/charging screen displays a fuller charge and the iPhone subsequently takes less time to charge.

There’s a method for checking whether or not your iPhone has a faulty battery indicator: In the Settings application, tap Usage and look at the Time since last full charge. If no data is displayed, your iPhone has likely never had a full charge reading. In fact, this is apparently the method some Apple retail stores are using to determine whether or not iPhones might be eligible for replacement

Application bugs

Among them:

• Apps crash or hang on a regular basis.
• Apps freeze the phone, requiring a restart.
• Apps that are deleted mysteriously reappear next time you sync.
• The Phone App poorly handles 3G to 2G network switching when there is poor signal strength. In other words, the phone does not switch to 2G resulting in poor quality calls or dropped calls.
• The iPhone SMS application does not send or receive multimedia SMS messages.

Generally, one of the three following procedures will resolve this issue. Try them in order.

Full reboot Perform a hard reboot of your iPhone as follows: Turn the iPhone off completely, by pressing and holding the Sleep/Wake button (on top of the device) for a few seconds then slide the red slider. Turn it back on by holding the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears. This can clear potentially problematic data, preventing some crash-types.

Restore the iPhone Try performing a restore of your iPhone. Connect it to your Mac or PC and, in iTunes, click the Restore button under the Summary tab. Restoring the phone will erase contacts, calendars, photos and other data on the phone, but will restore automatically backed-up information including text messages, notes, call history, contact favorites, sound settings, widget settings, etc.

Reinstall the application

• Touch and hold any application icon the icons begin to shake.
• Tap the “x” in the corner of the application you want to delete.
• Tap Delete.
• Press the Home button.
• Download the application again, either from your iPhone or your desktop computer (there will be no additional charge for the redownload)

If an application freezes or becomes unresponsive, force-quit it by holding down the home button for several seconds. This can eliminate problematic or hung processes that might be draining the battery.

To prevent future crashes, keep adequate free space on the iPhone’s internal memory. Like its desktop relative Mac OS X, the iPhone’s OS X operating system needs some head-room on the internal flash memory in order to operate properly. Try keeping at least 10% of the total space free to potentially prevent some crashes in applications, freezes and other problems.

As a last resort, go to the Settings application, tap General then select the Erase All Content and Settings. This will delete all media and data on the iPhone, as well as recent calls, etc., and all other settings. If you perform this operation and stop experiencing crashes, you might have problematic data being synchronized to the iPhone that is automatically put back when the phone is restored. In this case, you might want to go to iTunes, select Preferences from the File menu, then iPhone and delete your backed up iPhone settings — this includes text messages, notes, call history, contact favorites, sound settings, widget settings. Again, one or more of these data might be problematic.