Apple and the myth of working beautifully part 5...

You may well be as bored as I am by now of my trials and tribulations of iPhone 3G ownership. But anyone who thinks the flakiness of my particular device is a rarity should try to get some time with a Genius (I kid you not) in an Apple shop right now...

(For the record, as of this very moment I can't connect to the internet via my phone once again... a network reset will likely resolve it, but Jeez!!!)

On Sunday I went to the Apple store in Cambridge (having previously been informed at an 02 store that effectively Apple wants to control the customer service. I had to go see a Genius. That's a techy to you and I. The fact that Apple thinks it takes a Genius to solve its user experience issues perhaps tells its own story...

Anyway. Turned out I had to make an appointment. I had to make an appointment to get 10 minutes with a Genius. No slots available today. You can book up to three days in advance. Ooops, all the slots up to three days in advance (that I can get to, at least) are taken.

And in the meantime no one in the store can tell me even whether the issues I am having with my iPhone are isolated or part of a iPhone 3G meltdown (the fact you can't get to see a Genius may guide you to your own take on that...)

C'mon Steve Jobs. It's time for some Lean-Too Marketing to seep into your organisation.

I am getting quite angry with apple's reticence and arrogance when it comes to keeping anyone informed. I want to know if the issues I face with my iPhone are being addressed. I want to know what each of the firmware updates I have tried are striving to achieve (2.01 and 2.02).

I want to know if my phone is a dud that needs replacing, or if its par for the course and being sorted by the next firmware update.

And when I complained of all this to a member of staff they whispered quietly to me that I should try working for Apple - the lack of information is endemic.

In short Apple: I want dialogue. And, by the way, so do your staff...

The rest of this sorry story:

Apple & The Myth of Working Beautifully Part I
Apple & The Myth of Working Beautifully Part II
Apple & The Myth of Working Beautifully Part III
Apple & The Myth of Working Beautifully Part IV

Apple & The Myth of Working Beautifully: Part IV

I really hope this is the fourth and final part of a series I never planned to begin...
I have finally achieved sync up between google contacts and my 3G iPhone.

The (not wholly satisfactory*, but I'll live with it) solution to this problem reveals the core issue with the itunes/iphone experience currently for me.

I don't mind things going wrong. I get that we're living a life in beta. I am a fan of unfinished symphonies after all.

What I would like is a bit of a steer. Experimentation, playfulness, building as we go, is all fun if we can learn from our mistakes. But apple's error messages are not helping us learn. In fact, they are misleading. Read frustrating.

Every time I tried to sync my gmail contacts via itunes I got the message that my google password was incorrect. I was damn sure it wasn't. Some kind folk I know suggested I reset my password and retry. Nowt. Most people simply couldn't understand what could possibly be wrong. Many nodded, smiled knowingly and muttered N95 ( a clearly better visual content creator compared to the iPhone's superior visual content consumption).

When I gave it a final role of the dice last night at home itunes wouldn't open on my pc. Complete freeze up and worrying beeping noises.

When I restarted I tried to repair itunes. It said it had succeeded. It had not (those misleading error messages again).

So I uninstalled itunes, restarted (again) and reinstalled. And this time, this time! It worked. gmail synced up contacts. I even took the opportunity to whack a load of pics into the 16GB void.

The error was not that I didn't know my google password. It was that apple didn't know itunes was phucked.

Finally; 3G is working, itunes is working, syncing is working. At last my iPhone world is beginnning to smell of roses.

And it could have done so much faster and more easily if only apple's error messages were anywhere close to accurate. C'mon apple. Give us a clue!

The rest of the story? 

• 1. Apple & The Myth of Working Beautifully.
• 2. Apple & The Myth of Working Beautifully II.
• 3. Apple & The Myth of Working Beautifully III
  

*Not wholly satisfactory? Well, all my gmail contacts (which I synced from my N73 via Nokia PC Suite) are now in my iPhone... but every field bar the name has been aggregated into the iPhone contacts 'Notes' field. So I have email addresses, phone numbers et al - but I'd have to dial each number or type each email address to use it. Better than nowt... just.

Apple and the Myth of Working Beautifully: Part III

My battle with my iPhone is settling into a series of guerilla skirmishes. A little fire-fighting here and there. I still have the syncing of contacts from either outlook (which I'd prefer not to have to use) or gmail (which itunes insists I don't know my password to) to tackle, for example.

But I thought I'd update you on the issues I had on the day I first used my iPhone in anger. On Friday I headed for London for a day of meetings - in several locations.

I travel by train. On my Nokia N73 I am able to check gmail and use twitter (via slandr) facebook, linkedin etc as pretty effective mobile versions. And these work all the way down the line between Huntingdon and London (barring the tunnels, of course).

But all the way down on Friday with my iPhone I got no signal. Safari said it couldn't reach anything - so no internet.

Arriving in London I wandered through King's Cross station and picked up the Cloud automatically - big thumbs up apple/O2. That worked a treat.

But as soon as I was away from wifi I got no 3G. No internet. Importantly for me; no googlemaps.

I ended up asking a copper for directions when I arrived at Waterloo station on course for a meet at the Young Vic. Haven't done that for a long time! Thanks iPhone.

I texted twitter for help (in the hope I'd find some wifi later to pick up the answers). Text and calls were working. So why no internet even at 2G (or 2.5G) speed?

Among the responses I got from fellow iPhone sufferers were:

"richjm @davidcushman If you get normal signal, chances are it's not the 2.0.1 update. 3G coverage is sketchy. Good around the City, Livp st though"

Chris_Reed @davidcushman is your network setting right? Might be just set to O2 not O2 3g? general>network>enable 3g on. Sorry if it's granny ...

otoburb @davidcushman settings->network->wifi. Disable it and then 3G should lock on. Make sure 3G is enabled somewhere under General->netw

And there was outpourings of sympathy/fun-poking too, of course.

Bear in mind that the people I tweet with are a fairly early-adopter technically adept bunch (certainly compared with the general population). Apple should have a little wobble at this. No one was able to solve my issue (Apple seems focused on enablijng self-help networks rather than centre-out customer services, so it relies on my fellow geek).

I stumbled on it myself, through frustrated experimentation ( I can't call it play, it wasn't any fun). If you can't get the internet on your iPhone try this: Reset the network settings. To do this, choose Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.

And finally the beast came to life.

I popped into a Starbucks on Saturday morning to check the O2 claim about free wifi there. I could fine none. No surprise really as it's a T-mobile hotspot. Happy to be corrected though so if you know how I can get free wifi at Starbucks on my iPhone, post away!

I wandered into the my local O2 store to fill them in on my experience. Lots of sympathy but I was also told in almost these words: Apple doesn't want us to get involved in customer service. They want us to sell you the box.

Staff aren't even allowed to open the iPhone boxes - so they weren't even aware about the secrets of inserting the sim card.

One final criticism of the iPhone for today: I can't text with my thumb on it - which means I can't text and walk. That's a hardcore (read killer app) mobile phone function.

I'm getting used to the touchscreen typepad and starting to like it and what it can do... but it's not a joyful journey.

• Apple And the Myth of Working Beautifully
• Apple And the Myth of Working Beautifully II

Apple and the myth of working beautifully, Part II

I finally got my hands on an iPhone yesterday - the 16GB 3G version. And while the unboxing was a very fine experience... (see qik video with this post) most of the rest was not.
First things first; in store. I got a tip off that phones were in so I headed off for an 02 shop (I won't name the location to protect the uninformed) and avoided the queue nastiness that has put me off in the past.

See Apple And The Myth of Working Beautifully

Experience so far, good (cartoon, right, by Hugh). Asking questions of the staff revealed some flaws in the training (I'm being charitable).

To be fair, my first encounter was with a young girl labelled 'trainee' and wearing a iPhone promo t-shirt.

I asked about contracts and tariffs. She knew nothing about the costs of data. Pretty critical on the iphone you might have thought?

When a more senior colleague could join us they claimed the 02 iphone contract meant you could use wifi free whereever wifi is available. "Mcdonalds" she quoted (it's free there anyway) and Starbucks (which I think there is a deal in place with).

I assured her it was not possible that they could have done a deal to offer everyone's wifi for free. It's not an issue for me - just an odd and misleading claim to make while selling an iPhone.#

Signing up was easy enough.

And so the evening, and trying to make the bleeding thing work.

Instructions say simply connect to computer and iTunes will do the rest. What iTunes does is tell you nothing is going to work for you, sucker, because you haven't got a valid sim card in.

I know, I was kind of hoping you were going to tell me how to instal it since there are no instructions.

The 02 site and phonelines couldn't cope with the demand for help, so I went to ask my twitter pals.

Turns out there is a piece of card rattling around in your box with some archane heiroglyphics on (no words) which purport to show you what to do with an odd-shaped slither of metal - the sacred key that opens the secret door to sim card placement. A case of apple being blinded by its own brilliance.

Here's some of the tweets that followed:

Latest live from Qik [qik] - Iphone 3g http://qik.com/video/150269

• f'ck me. how stupid can o2 be? no instructions on how to open iphone or insert sim. genius
• otoburb @davidcushman It's that picture on the black insert with the strange looking metal piece.
• @otoburb er? ah thankyou.
• bellhead @davidcushman in the US they have the SIM already in them (done way upstream).
• btinternet downloaded itunes 7.7 at a stately 180kb at best. stand by my post re apple and the myth of working beautifully
• rmmarshall @davidcushman So good to hear someone else who isn't falling into the fanboy irreality trap.
• if i should die before i finally start this iphone, who would like it left to them
• ilicco @davidcushman thanks, but you can take it with you. also, if you want proper 3G, use JoikuSpot on a Nokia N82 and WIFI your iPhone
• hadn't appreciated iphone comes with watching paint dry app pre-installed
• @rmmarshall nokia would die before making it this hard to make a phone call!
• spanx @davidcushman iPhone tip. Turn 3G off unless you're using the Internet on the move. It's a battery killer.
• @spanx cheers. how's it done?
• spanx @davidcushman It's under the system settings thing. Badly needs a one-click 3G switcher app.
• rmmarshall @davidcushman It's such a UScentric idiom - they don't get phones. Like the paint dry app analogy - 59p from the appStore!
• technokitten @davidcushman ooh I'm feeling left out! I want a 'watching paint dry' app too ;)
• hmm a flaw. iphone opens itunes then insists on installing new version, without auto closing itunes first. dumb.
• golly. now its restart time. this better be worth it mr jobs
• apple. the walls of the garden arent meant to be for banging my head against
• superb. itunes install failed. now trying to repair
• ok. lets try a second restart. am very bored now
• finally itunes opens up. cant access some synch or other. i should try later?
• @gapingvoid thank you. apple and i aint buddies 2nite
• andrewgrill @davidcushman you should have bought an E71 ;-]
• 6consulting @davidcushman May I suggest placing it in the blender? seems to have worked for others!!
• neilperkin @davidcushman thanks for keeping me entertained whilst working at home :)

Testing qik live from a glider!

I've been playing with qik recently as anyone who has caught any videos from me will know.
Qik allows you to broadcast live streaming video from your mobile phone. There's usually a small delay before it'll appear in my live channel (see latest from the channel below) but it's close to live.

This evening from 6.30pm (UK, BST) I'm going gliding - and I'm taking my mobile and qik with me. I managed to broadcast on just a couple of bars of 2G signal recently from a forest in Norfolk. I reckon hundreds of feet above the Cambridgeshire countryside should offer an even tougher challenge! Here's what I've written about qik before.

UPDATE The rather disappointing outcome appears below: