Thursday, August 7, 2008 -- 11:33 a.m. -- on my couch

I received a comment this morning from Bruno, who alerted me to a thread about 200 deep at Apple's discussion forums regarding a serious problem where the iPhone crashes and is stuck forever at the Apple logo. The only way to "fix" it is to put the iPhone into recovery mode, but the problem seems to return for many people.

So even though I've done it before, I feel I have to at least try again to reach out to our fearless leader Steve Jobs and ask him for some help.

The following is the text of an e-mail that I sent out 4 minutes ago.

Thanks for calling.

Dear Steve,
My name is Scott Kleinberg and I'm the editor of iPTIB, a popular iPhone blog with readers in 55 countries.

I won't get into the usual stuff that I say when I write you ... I'll get right to the point. There's a thread on the Apple discussion boards that's about 200 replies deep about a very serious problem that's been occurring with all iphones -- 3G and first gen -- since the 2.0 software was released where the phone doesn't finish rebooting and gets stuck at the Apple logo.

The ONLY way to fix this problem is to put the phone into recovery mode and hope that a viable backup exists that allows for a restore.

I'm working with someone right now who has been through multiple trips into recovery mode, and all he's done is sync. There's no jailbreaking ... nothing sinister here. For some people, they've been forced to reboot for whatever reason and were greeted with this increasingly major problem.

I have gone through the steps with at least 100 people on how to successfully put the iPhone into recovery mode. Many of those people have reported success, only to be writing me again or posting to this thread over at Apple support telling me that they are back in the same situation and are at a loss for words.

Steve, it might be application related. We just can't tell. But the overall theme in the thread is that all of these people write and write and seek some sort of help and get no reply whatsoever from Apple. I thought at one point that you wanted the support forums to be staffed by Apple employees who could help folks out of situations like this -- or at least keep the right people posted on what to do in situations like this.

It's bad, Steve ... As an iPhone blogger with a full-time job who spends a large part of his day troubleshooting and answering e-mails, I can tell you that this is absolutely NOT in any way isolated. There's 200 posts in this thread and it's one of many threads with people talking about the same thing. I attached this one because a reader sent it to me earlier today and I had the chance to look through it and assess the situation.

Steve, I'm the first one to complain about things and tell you what the iPhone needs. That's not the purpose of this e-mail. Truthfully, I'm writing on behalf of all of the people who have suffered through this problem and really just need some guidance as far as what to do now.

I'm e-mailing the text of this post to you now ... I know that you read your e-mail, and I also understand that you can't write everyone back. But I'm a firm believer in that you care about your customers and that if there's something you can do about this situation that you'll do it on our behalf.

Thank you in advance, Steve. Please write me back and allow me to give everyone here a little bit of good news regarding this problem.

Sincerely,
Scott Kleinberg
Editor
iPTIB (iPhone, Therefore I Blog)

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Hi Scott,
I got the iPhone last year on day 2. Anyway I never really had any problems and I wasn't planning to get the 3g phone. A week after 3G was released I dropped my 1st gen phone and cracked the screen but it still works. Now having both phones is a good thing because when I need to restore my 3g I switch sim cards. I have restored my phone(new and old) about 12 times. I went back to the basic phone apps for a while to reduce the number of restores. After the 2.0.1 update I got brave and put a few apps on with no problems, until today. I am doing a restore right now and I don't know if any apps will be added again until I see others not having problems, this also means I won't be buying anymore apps until I can use the ones I have.. I never owned a Mac before I got my iPhone last year, because I liked the iPhone so much I now have a Mac mini and a Macbook Pro. I don't think someone who is new to Apple now will switch like I did last year.
Waiting for another update,
Jim

SCOTT'S REPLY: Oh that update can't come soon enough, Jim. It just can't.

I wrote to you earlier about my problems with the new software. I was stuck in recovery mode for 2 days. I have a 3G and after I upgraded to the 2.0 iTunes couldn't recognize the iphone. I talked with Apple, ATT, uninstalled and reinstalled then finally after a little prayer it worked.

SCOTT'S REPLY: I remember, Vernadette, and sadly ... back then, it was hard to tell just how widespread this problem is/was. I'm just glad you are back on board and everything is ok.

i had that problem and i got so frusturated i took my phone to the genius bar and they gave me a new one

SCOTT"S REPLY: I'm glad you got a new one, because not all geniuses are offering them. Some are telling folks to go home and restore.

Well said, Scott. I'm an experienced Apple evangelist and thus far I've spent over 15 hours restoring my iphone on multiple stuck reboots. Each time, it will NOT allow the backup file and I have to basically start over---redownloading all apps...setting up all preferences, etc.. This is an OS problem of major magnitude that I'm hoping Apple will want to fix. 2.0.1 didn't fix it. Try again, Apple--we need our iphones to be stable!

SCOTT'S REPLY: And what kills me, Babs, is that Apple knows all about this ... and not replying and making us aware of their thoughts on the subject is as bad as if not worse than the MobileMe fiasco. And in fact, I may write that one up tonight.

ditto.

i miss the good old days when 'things just worked'...

it's a shame that, when things start to look up, a lot of new people are entering the world of apple, some after years of 'it just works' going around in their heads, the constant nagging of apple using friends and family, to find out things don't actually work, and for them it just feels like any other brand, with the same issues and lack of support.

a shame.

SCOTT'S REPLY: A shame indeed.

Thank you! I personally have had to restore my original iphone over 20 times in one month(Six times over this past weekend alone! That's three - four hours of downtime EACH time.) I ended up taking my phone to Apple and they replaced it on the spot. I am grateful, but ended having to restore the phone ONCE AGAIN.
My solution? I removed all applications from Itunes. The applications I can't live without have been reinstalled using the app store on my phone. I no longer sync my phone... and I won't until a solution has been found.

SCOTT'S REPLY: It's a shame that it had to come to this ... it really is. But I think you are being smart in this situation.

Hey, thank you VERY much, Scott! :-)

SCOTT'S REPLY: You are most welcome, Bruno, but I should say ... although I am one of the most positive people you'll ever meet, I don't expect a reply. It's rare to hear from Steve Jobs about anything, and while my PR sense tells me that a response could be among the best things he could do right now for Apple, I don't see it happening.

Bruno, if you want to link back to this post on the Apple site, that could help get the word out too.

As a long time frustrated Windows/Microsoft user, I purchased a new IPhone 3G looking for the experience to really push me over the Apple edge. I *want* to like Apple's products. I want Apple to convince me that I really do not have to put up with random crashes, blue screens of death and the complete lack of care for the customer that Microsoft and their products exhibit.

Nothing about this entire experience had done so. The horrible AT&T direct fulfillment ordering experience (and their complete lack of concern), the complete piece of cobbled together junk that is iTunes (3 versions of same apps showing, horrendously long backup time, buggy new version, etc.), the crashing of my new iPhone itself (Safari crashes multiple times/day), a MobileMe product that is so bad I quickly jettisoned it and went with a dedicated Exchange account...not to mention the legions of customers screaming out for some kind -- any kind -- of news and help...

Apple is not any different from Microsoft. I'm going to be subjected to the same junk with either company apparently.

Guess I'll just stick with Windows and MS. At least I don't have a whole new learning curve...

SCOTT'S REPLY: As an Apple user since 1984, I can tell you that it's hard for me to read and put Apple on the same page as Microsoft when it comes to usability. I still prefer Macs over PCs and always will, but truth be told ... when I look at some of the serious issues with the iPhone, I find myself comparing things to my Windows Mobile device and thinking ... well, this never happens. I think my Windows Mobile device is far behind the iPhone, but sadly I can't tell you that switching over is going to be a guaranteed breeze. For many people, the iPhone experience is a fantastic one and I don't want to sound like that's not the case. However, there are problems now that I think should have been worked out already.

When I see threads with 200 posts with everyone having the same problem and a thread about cracked iPhones being closed by Apple, it makes me reconsider my stance and I find myself being a lot more negative than I usually am.

I am an Apple fan and people accuse me of being a fan boy, but truth be told ... I truly have no problem coming down hard on Apple when they deserve it and right now, they deserve it.

Add me to the list! This thing is not made for business. My family has 5 iPhones one 3G the rest 1st Gen. and it makes no difference. If Apple can't get it to work give us the option of going back to 1.1.4! If Microsoft can do it with XP surely Apple can let us upgrade back to 1.1.4...

iPhone...it's not for business!

SCOTT'S REPLY: Thanks for commenting, Ken. Stay tuned. I am on the lookout for a surprise reply from Steve. I really hope he uses this opportunity.

Scott, why can't this guy take it to a genius bar?

SCOTT'S REPLY: He can, but because Apple won't recognize it as an official problem, they tell them to just go home and restore.

Thank You! I am now restoring my EDGE iphone TWICE while just syncing from this stupid loop. -BOYA

SCOTT"s REPLY: Let us know how it goes, boya. ... sorry to hear this.

I'm one of the many who commented on that lengthy forum post you linked to.

In my case even the restore failed. My advice to others is never skip the backup process when you want to sync something, because evidently it invalidates/corrupts the previous backup you made.

The iPhone has me in two minds. On the one hand I've never had so much fun using a mobile device the last seven days since I got my iPhone 3G. On the other hand it's beyond doubt the most unstable device I've ever used. Here's hoping Apple pull their finger out and release a 2.0.2 update well before they roll out 2.1. I'm not sure many can wait that long.

SCOTT'S REPLY: I agree totally!! Well, about interrupting the backup, yeah, that's just dangerous. But you are right ... the iPhone is the coolest phone in the world but also among the world's most unstable phones and that's a bitter pill to swallow.

Thank you for this article. Spent the better part of yesterday panicking and repeatedly trying to get my iPhone back into the world of the living. I was successful after several tries and did need to do a full restore and then recreate all my settings.

Received a $170 bill from ATT today. Lot of money for a device that barely functions! I am waiting for some help from Apple, and from the look on the various forums, I have LOTS of fellow iPhone owners in the same situation.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Sorry to hear about that. That's really annoying, of course. I know it's bad and I really hope that something is done soon.

How come I have no problems? Seriously. No problems.

SCOTT's REPLY: Shhhhhhh. Don't type that too loud :-D

it is possible to downgrade to 1.1.4, but I'm sure there are multiple steps since you also have to downgrade the baseband.

Still running 1.1.4 unlocked. Something about never trusting a x.0 release. Seem I was right this time.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Mmmm-hmmmm.

Has anybody found a link between the white screen of death and what carrier they are using?

It would be interesting to find out if it is carrier specific.

i presume most will be from AT&T in the US, but the iPhone is also in many other countries.

just a thought

SCOTT's REPLY: Andrew, that's an excellent question!! Is everyone affected by this problem in the U.S.?

Why would Apple be any different than MS? They're both giant, multinational corporations.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Because Apple has always traditionally been more about customer service than Microsoft. It seems as though they used to care more about quality than they do now.

I had the white screen of death the second day of owning the iphone 3G. Did a hard reset and it never turned back on. Brought it in and got it exchanged for a new one. I would die if this happened again.

SCOTT's REPLY: My goal in doing this post, Daniel, is to make sure that so many people know that this is an ongoing problem that Apple has no choice but to respond with a new iPhone in case it does happen again. Thank you for taking the time to comment today.

T-Mobile USA 2.0.1 has had no problems so far. The keyboard lags like he'll safari crashes constantly and contacts is still laggy. I tried to reset all settings a few days ago and that caused a strange crash on start up. But as there was no way to turn the phone off and I was out on a boat, the phone finally turned off from the batteries running out. Did a restore to 2.0 and then upgraded to 2.0.1. Everythings been peachy for the last week or so, other than the other probs with 2.x :(

SCOTT's REPLY: A week of peachiness is great news, Ryan!

No Scott, it's not isolated to the US. There are people having this problem all over the world, myself included.

I'm in Australia, and so are several others on the Apple discussion boards. There's also one person on that board in Tokyo who has had this problem for a long time, and has gone through over 30 restores :P

This needs to be fixed. I love my iPhone, but I don't want to feel like I'm walking on ice every time I load up a third party app! The restore process is no fun, no fun at all.

SCOTT"s REPLY: Thank you for confirming that it's outside of the U.S. too ... wanted to make sure it wasn't carrier based in some way.

I had this problem also, I restarted the phone about 10 times but to no luck.

I got rid of the problem by simply waiting it out after a final restart attempt. When you see the apple logo screen wait about 10 minutes and it should be fixed :)...mine did anyway!

SCOTT's REPLY: Well, I think, Papa, that you are one of the lucky ones as far as that goes ... but regardless, I'm glad you had some sort of success.

I purchased a 3G iPhone 16 gig on July 11.
I have never had to do a restore.
It did hang during a reboot after I installed an app.
But I just held down the Sleep button and Home button for 10 seconds and it re-booted.

I have had problems installing apps from the iPhone.
No problem if I use iTunes to purchase apps and then sync them.

Rich

SCOTT'S REPLY: Really, really nice to hear this, Rich. Thanks for taking the time to comment.

I stumbled across this page while reading through the Apple Support Forums thread you mentioned, as I've been affected by this bug since day one. I bought my iPhone 3G on launch day, and in that first week I had to restore nine times.

After my 26th restore, I finally got fed up enough to take my iPhone in for an exchange. The new one has had to be restored seven times.

However, this problem is not limited to the iPhone. I also have an iPod Touch, which has worked PERFECTLY since I bought it in November of last year. It too has frozen at the Apple logo (after spontaneously rebooting during a sync with iTunes, installing apps) ... The problem seems to be with the 2.0 software. I've tried doing all app installs directly on the phone, I've even tried restoring and syncing with a different computer - nothing helps.

In any case, I'm glad to see this problem FINALLY getting some media attention. As popular as the iPhone is and as widespread as this problem seems to be, it needs to be out there. Hopefully the bad press will encourage Apple to finally correct the problem.

SCOTT's REPLY: Thank you for taking the time to write, Mavis, and to share your situation with us ... That's just unacceptable. I hope this attention is a start, but I don't think it's going to make the difference. But my goal was to push it to the forefront and hopefully make people take notice.

@ Ant.

This is the exact way I describe the iPhone to anybody who asks how I like it: it's the coolest phone you'll ever use, but it is buggy as hell and makes you want to pull your hair out.

This is a major issue for Apple, by the way. I bet that most of us are tech oriented and do a lot of mobile browsing, mail management, etc. This makes us value the phone a bit more than the average user, who really is only interested in being able to make calls and send/receive text messaged. I've heard two people refer to the iPhone as a "piece of shit" (literally), because (they explained) as a stand alone phone, it can be aggravating to use. Some people really do just want a phone that works, but bought an iPhone for the "cool factor".

Nice work Scott for shining a light on this issue. Too many people out there want to give Apple a free pass, not realizing that this hurts consumers in the end. I, for one, have decided to exercise my consumer rights by not buying the 3G and staying w/ my 2G until Apple addresses all the nonsense with the new version - including the battery issues. If this means I have to wait a year, then wait I will. If this means that I switch to a different product that becomes available, then switch I will.

SCOTT'S REPLY: We all just can't give Apple a free pass ... they have to be held accountable for things as major as this. And I believe that Steve Jobs knows that ... I really do. He was very upfront finally about MobileMe and he needs to do the same here. If you check out the comments here, he might have made an appearance. I just can't tell for 100 percent certain that it's him, but I hope so.

I second Papa's comment. I thought I was stuck at the Apple logo after my Touch locked up and I had to perform a manual reset. Minutes passed with nothing but the logo. I'd get tired of waiting and try resetting again. Finally walked away in frustration, came back a short while later (10 mins sounds about right), and things were back to normal. Sometimes you just have to be patient. Still, a little feedback that some sort of processing/cleanup may be happening behind the logo would be nice...

SCOTT'S REPLY: Absolutely. Something to show us that it's loading. A wheel. A progress bar. I know Apple doesn't want to dirty up the look, but geez.

I recently had what I think is the same problem. It didn't happen on a restart, but when I clicked on the Google app. My iPhone then went to the white apple screen and started to vibrate. Nothing I did could break this cycle, so I simply left it until the battery ran out. When I came back a few hours later, the battery was dead. I plugged it in to charge, and it then functioned as if nothing had ever happened. No lost data, nothing. Very strange.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Well, that's certainly similar and perhaps the same thing ... interesting to let the battery run out ... at that point, I'm not sure what your other choice was.

I had this happen once i upgraded to 2.0 on my first gen iPhone and could not get it back. I could not get the phone into recovery mode or anything. Luckily it was under warranty for 3 more days and after a trip to the genius bar at my local apple store, I had a new first gen phone.

At least my problem was fixed, and apple stands behind their product, but the problem needs to be fixed for sure!

SCOTT's REPLY: Yes, Brett ... and in this case, you know, I know it takes time to fix big problems, but just like the MobileMe fiasco ... take a minute and admit to it ... tell us that you know about it ... give all the users suffering a reason to hope. That's all I'm really asking for.

I Personally had the apple logo stuck for a while on 2.0 about 3 times. I would just leave it on and go make a cup of coffee. It should go to the home screen in 5 to 10 minutes. No need to restore.If not try force rebooting it again by continuously pressing home and sleep/wake button.
I read somewhere that this is a memory leak from some of the apps that is forcing the iphone to reboot.

This issue never happened to my phone again after 2.0.1 though it is suggested you limit the apps to the ones you really need and restart your phone daily if you use and download a lot of apps as that will help clear the memory.

Remember guys, this is a computer after all. But more QC is expected from AAPL.
1.1.4 was very very stable even though I had jail broken the phone and I am sure it will get to that level of stability soon. It's just hard to manage the quality of all these developers apps. This just reminds me of badly written computer apps crashing your operating system.

SCOTT's REPLY: Only issue, though, is that in some of these cases, there's no waiting for the home screen to finally appear. In some cases, yes, but in others, there's vibrations going on and funky lines and things that are causing this loop that can't be fixed.

And yes ... there are bound to be mistakes ... I agree ... and there should be better quality control ... but there's something to be said for Apple simply acknowledging a problem.

In the case of the cracked white iPhones, there was a giant thread over at the Apple support forums. This morning, they shut down the topic. They being Apple. That absolutely pains me to see. That is no way to acknowledge a user's problem.

We are aware of this issue, and a remedy will be made available as soon as is possible; rest assurred that our FW team is diligently working to resolve the problem.

- S.J.

SCOTT"S REPLY: Real S.J.? Who knows. But I'd like to think so.

I have only had my iPhone 3g for 5 days. Only had the phone act strange one time. It was stuck in the phone menu and pressing home just brought me to the favorite contacts page. That problem cleared on it's own after letting the phone sit. Haven't synced anything with iTunes yet. Nice to know about this issue incase I run into it myself. Thank you Apple USER base.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Thank you, Alex, for commenting and being a caller.

This is an issue with the computer that you are using that iPhone with.

SCOTT"S REPLY: Aneudys ... intriguing comment ... what makes you say that?

I had same problem with 2 different iPhones. Im not even sure how I put them into recovery mode.. it just happened. It was annoying.

Current problem is some apps have updates... however they can NOT be updated. Not by syncing or by manually doing it on phone... only thing that works is to delete the app and then resync... which is silly since there is an update feature.

SCOTT"S REPLY: But actually, Shawn, as annoying as having to delete the app and then resyncing is, it appears to help cut down on the problems and is actually a good step to avoid the serious crashing described in this post. Sure, silly since there's an update feature ... but at least something that could save you from all the trouble.

Had no idea this was this widespread- makes my lagging contacts etc seem trivial by comparison. Sounds as bad or worse than MM debacle. They have even more customer relations work and remedying to do than I imagined, especially if this is a worldwide condition. All these new Apple adopters and this is their 1st time experience...WOW! That's bad news for any companies' rep. They better keep the update/patches coming fast and furious to patch things with their consumers. New ground for this company- bit off more than they could chew at one time it sure appears. Love the phone; it's outstanding when things are hitting on all cylinders- problem is rarely functions that way for most people it seems. Get after it Apple!

SCOTT'S REPLY: It's also magnified coming off of the whole MobileMe thing ... it's a worldwide thing and I'm pretty sure Apple is working on it ... but it really makes the experience a bad one for so many people.

The new iPhone pulled me towards it. WHAT A BIG MISTAKE. Yes the iPhone has a great UI, but thats where it ends. Steve got on stage and grinned about 3G. Well 3G isnt all that great, yes it does load data faster, but thats how fast your battery will drain also. The app store is great, if you have money. The free apps suck, only a select few paid apps are good. GPS on this phone stinks. If it does find you, you have to keep dragging your finger to keep up with your position because the maps dont move with your position. No turn by turn GPS. Bugs kill this phone. Too many of them, and for some reason it moves from screen to screen slower than the original. The biggest thing about this phone is the monthly plan. Wow at&t $30 no text? They reason it by saying 3G costs more. Well if the battery life was any good maybe I could use 3G. I have returned my iPhone because I had to charge it 2-3 times a day. I have bought myself a Blackberry 8330. What a great phone. GPS, Video recorder, MMS, applications, real push e-mail. Battery is great. Thanks for letting me post this Scott.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Post anytime, my friend. Thanks for writing.

I'm joining in with the 10 minute crowd. I've had it lock up twice now.
The very first time it happened i tried restating it several times with no effect and i eventually just left it. Somewhere between 10-30 minutes later it was fine.
It happened again and i just waited it out, 10 minutes is about right.

SCOTT"S REPLY: See I admire this crowd. Simply because if 2 minutes went by, I'd freak out. I don't know that I can give it 10 minutes. Kudos to those of you who could and did.

Recovery mode: Hold the sleep/wake button and home button through the initial reset while connected to power. iPhone screen will show a usb connection and itunes symbol, then restore.

There is so much to complain about, but also so much to praise. The App store is a bonus, if it doesnt work right, right away. Go without temporarily. Unfortunately, as proven by the "Mobile Me Fiasco" changes and fixes take time. I am sure Apple is working out the kinks. All continue to be patient, Apple will make it right.

SCOTT's REPLY: I know, Melanie ... I mean, that makes perfect sense. But it seems like a lifetime has passed since these complaints started, doesn't it?

I've become an expert at restoring my iPhone since 2.0 came out, I've had to do it that many times. Part of the key is having a recent backup available. I've been backing up with 2.0.1 for TWO hours now and it's not halfway through yet. Next time I'm just gonna delete all the apps, backup and reload the apps. It'll be a helluva lot quicker. Why am I waiting four hours for a back-up when all I really want is not to lose my SMS messages?

*hits x and goes to bed*

SCOTT'S REPLY: Sorry that you are an expert in this, Pat. We all want to be experts at something, but not this!

I have not had any major issue with my 3G iPhone which I picked up at a Fido store on the 11th of July. I have to say that I am disappointed that this blogger has chosen to sensationalize this issue some users are apparently having and making it sound like it is widespread.

Sites like the Apple discussion boards are where people go to complain and you are not likely to see any of the million+ iPhone users having no major problems posting there.

One should be careful to draw conclusions from what you think you see on the Apple discussion board. Some of the posters could simply be posting to troll without even owning an iPhone of any sort.

SCOTT"S REPLY: Ahhhh, Ari ... true ... but since I've personally helped 147 people and counting now on how to restore and put their iPhones in recovery mode, I'd say I have a little more insight into the problem than you do. That said, I'm thrilled beyond belief that you are one of the lucky ones. And while the overall percentage might be small, that doesn't mean the problem isn't a serious one.

I was going to go tomorrow morning to buy the iPhone but after reading all these posts I have become very hesitant. Currently I have the Blackberry Curve and my brother convinced me to switch to the iPhone although I don't think I should now. What do you suggest? Will Apple be able to fix this problem? Should I buy and take a chance or wait until a solution is available? Thanks!

SCOTT's REPLY: Akash, I definitely am not saying that you shouldn't purchase an iPhone. As caller Ari pointed out in the previous comment, the overall percentage of people with trouble is small, but it's real. That said, you always run a risk of problems in everything you buy. I would not say that you should avoid the iPhone.

No, I'm not doubting the validity of these claims, HOWEVER, 200 posts regarding this issue? How many phones were sold? I think the 3G is well over 1E6 now, so I would hazard-to-guess that this may not be a widespread problem. What is an acceptable failure rate? 1 in 100,000; 1 in 10,000? I guess it's easy for me to say, I'm not among the "ones". I'm just asking for some perspective here.

SCOTT'S REPLY: I understand, and I'm well aware that it's a small percentage, but just because it's a small percentage, well, does that mean it's not something that needs to be discussed? That's where I'm coming from.

No iphones here BUT we have 4 3g phones on ATT in SW WA and the last few weeks have had nothing but terrible QOS issues. I wonder if it ATT was prepared for the iphone in the network and that is what is being seen.
I have considered the iphone, but if i can't make calls or do data with a plain Mobile6 or simple nokia why should i believe ATT isn't the problem?

SCOTT"S REPLY: Well, if you are having problems on other phones -- multiple phones -- then it sounds like it could be an AT&T issue ... if it's on one phone, well, it might be too early to declare it the carrier.

You know, what makes me really angry is people saying "Hey, it's just a MINORITY of people reporting the problem! Why should we care about it?".
Even if just ONE person is reporting the problem, Apple MUST fix it! I've *paid* for that phone. Apple Stores don't know how to fix it (and don't tell me that "Restore your phone!" is a solution...), and this is already my third replacement phone.
Well, thanks again Scott for writing this... your article is on the Digg homepage right now, and this could mean that the problem is much more widespread than we thought!

(BTW, sorry for my English: I'm Italian!)

SCOTT'S REPLY: Actually, Bruno, your English is excellent ... in case you don't often hear that.

I agree and that's why I champion causes like this. It takes one person to make a difference and I might not be the person, but I'm sure as heck going to try.

When EDGE was down in a small part of Southwestern Britain last summer, I was the ONLY person in the entire world to cover it live while it was happening. It was a mention 8 days later in a local London newspaper.

The point is, not everything affects every person, but if that was our attitude with everything in the world, nothing would get done.

I'll keep on this, Bruno.

Scott

I will look into it. Thanks for you update.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Thanks for you update? Ummm, ok ... and thanks for you post from IP address 203.112.90.136 at HSBC banking and financial services in Hong Kong, Steve.

You moonlighting now at a Hong Kong bank? Oh, man ... are things that bad?

"White Apple Logo Screen of Death" is the best they could come up with? Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Nope. But it wouldn't be a bad bug without the term Screen of Death :-D

My iPhone 3G locked, crashed, hung, and stalled constantly over the seven days I owned it... Luckily I found someone else just as eager as I was to part with cash in exchange for the phone.

The unit was useless to me - it failed to work as a telephone and, well, if it can't even do that...

Now I find myself on the verge of selling my MacBook because the only way to get a wireless connection to WPA networks is to boot Windows.

Shame.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Hmmm. Your MacBook problem sounds isolated. Usually, connecting to the Internet via MacBook is pretty painless. Have you exhausted all support options with Apple on that one?

I have lock-ups the "Apple Logo" issue on my iPod Touch, occasionally under 2.0 and 2.0.1. I have fifty-two apps installed on my iPod. When I connect it to my computer, even though it seems to be stuck, iTunes will recognize the device, and sync it. The iPod will even shut the screen off while this is happening. When the sync is finished, my iPod is usable.

I restored it a few times before I realized this worked.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Well, you have part of the problem then because in the other cases, Samuel, the iPod definitely isn't usable. In several instances, it's vibrating the whole time and the battery is draining rapidly.

This just happened to me last night and at an incredibly bad time since I had taken some notes from a business meeting that contained important numbers with my iPhone, and now they are lost and I'm in huge trouble without them. I'm 100% sure this is application related, since I was in the process of installing an appstore application when my phone locked.

EDIT.

This is enough to make me stop using this device, since I've just lost all of my pictures and notes since my last sync, I can't afford to have this happen again.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Ouch. Sorry to hear that, Tom. Frustrating only begins to describe that.

Sorry about the EDIT, Tom, but unless you have proof that it's that particular app, I'm not going to post them as a culprit. And since I use both and don't see the problem, I'm pretty sure you can rule that out as the official culprit.

Regarding "SCOTT'S REPLY: I understand, and I'm well aware that it's a small percentage, but just because it's a small percentage, well, does that mean it's not something that needs to be discussed? That's where I'm coming from."

If its just a small percentage of total sales then why not be transparent about this...? Its what... 200 people out of over a million phones.

This hasn't happened to my 3g iPhone, but if was I'd of returned it for a new one, asap. (As allowed under UK Consumer Law -- surely there are US Consumer Laws that are applicable).

Yep, problems with the iPhone should be reported, but only when they're problems affecting more than a tiny percentage. This is sensationalist journalism at its worst...!

SCOTT'S REPLY: And wait ... you think it's just 200 because 200 posted in that one thread? There's 10 threads and that's not counting the hundreds of emails I got about it. And it's probably several million phones.

Joel, did you read the post?I said I'm aware it's a small amount but I believe it needs to be talked about. I don't think you know the definition of sensationalist journalism.

Let's try it this way ... what should I have said? You just wanted me to say in the post that I knew it was a small percentage?

I did.

It's not about percentages. It's about the fact that it's happening.

And guaranteed, you'd be writing the other way if it did happen to you.

Unrelated question; when you delete mail from iPhone me.com inbox, shouldn't it delete from me.com web inbox and Outlook also? Doesn't for me- if I delete from me.com web inbox, it will delete from phone etc. Want it to work that way, especially if you're out of town and want to have your desktop inbox cleaned up when you get home. Can't get through to MM chat- though you would know. Thanks.

SCOTT'S REPLY: It should, yes. It's hit or miss from me. Sometimes it takes several minutes or longer for everything to match under mail. I'm not sure what the issue is there but it's definitely an issue.

Also unrelated- what's with the vetting of apps like BoxOffice etc? What potential harm or conflict do they cause? Still have it on the phone but disappears a few seconds after selecting something. Maybe you could post and explain about this a little. All new to me and interesting, whether a good or or bad thing.

SCOTT'S REPLY: To be honest, Brad, only reason I haven't written about it is because it's a mystery. No one -- not even the developer, he says -- can figure out why this app was pulled. There was no comment or communication from Apple. That right there might be the bigger problem. I'll try to dig and find out, but so far, I haven't been successful.

To me, though, the only thing I can see it being on the surface anyhow is a security issue with GPS location ... there's nothing else I've seen in this app -- I've used it -- that indicates a problem. It's actually one of the more stable app store apps.

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