Since the iPhone was launched on Friday in the UK I have heard from a number of you on your experiences and I thought that it might be fun if you shared those experiences in purchasing, activating and posing with your new ‘best friend’.
So if you feel so inclined leave a comment below with your experiences and initial impressions…….
Hi,
I’m loving the phone it fits my needs really well. Plenty storage for music and video.
The hassle of getting the phone itself was not so much fun at first though, I thought that at launch in the UK o2 stores would be accepting cash. I was wrong. After sprinting to the bank to find it closed. I asked a cool in line if he would mind buying two phones and I would give him the cash for one. He agreed and we’ve been sharing our iPhone experiences since.
So a big thank you to Mark!
That is interesting – I know that had said no cash and only two purchases per person but to see that they are adhering to it is interesting.
And as for Mark – super* eh 🙂 That was really nice of him and shows what a great community the Mac one is!
Having just got my hands on one of those Cool devices on Friday evening I must say that I am very impressed with it.
User interface is very clear, activation only took a few minutes using the iTunes interface. The only real issue i had was moving my Business mobile contract / number to the iPhone.
If you are like me and are moving from a current contract simply proceed to creating a NEW o2 customer and then you get a new iPhone number. Once you have this number you need to email iphonebusiness@o2.com with the new number for your iPhone + the existing number you wish to migrate.
No fee’s are incurred for this if your contact is pre-september 17th 2007.
Annoying things I’ve found:
1) Lack of good ringtones (although thanksfor the heads up from Adam a guy i met in the queue for the iPhone on Friday)
2) Bluetooth support for other PC / Handhelds outside of the headset range etc.
3) SMS seems ok but we’ll see.
4) Lack of MMS Support.
5) No Jailbreak for o2 1.1.2 firmware yet.
Cheers,
Mark
What are you using for ringtones? For the life of me I can’t remember what I used!!!!
Enjoy it, and you seem like a great guy for helping Adam out like that 🙂
Mayne iToner Chris from ambrosia soft? There is a free way too that tuaw.com have described on their site.
I was 1 of 2 buying in the carphone warehouse in Crawley saturday morning.
I crashed their system and had to wait a while for it to go through (not good), Im still setting up the device to how I want it (as I have been busy) but the bits that I have got going I absolutely love.
The iPod is just breathtaking, same with safari. No delete all or mark all as read button in mail is a pain but the way everything just syncs over is pretty darn neat.
Will get back once Ive been using the device for a few more days.
@Adam- that is the one!
@Danny – too busy partying all night and flashing your iPhone at any girl within a 20 yard radius you mean!!!!!!!
There might of been a certain “Oh my god! Is that the new iPhone?!” I admit…. ok… kids if you want to draw a crowd and feel cool, just pull the iPhone out of your pocket in a crowd of teenagers – its a tried and tested method :p
@Danny: Dude when heard people in the states saying they were getting attention from the ladies i was sceptical but when I got my phone out on Friday night every girl gathered round for a demo. My jaw hit the deck.
Tell me about it I felt very much like kevin rose was talking about on diggnation, you just have to place it on a table.
2 quick additional points: this was sent from my iPhone and the site looks great on it. I also think that typing is incredibly fast, much faster than people were claiming, and I rarely make a mistake.
[quote comment=”18445″]you just have to place it on a table.[/quote]
Care to rephrase that 🙂
I don’t find the typing that great yet – am all fingers and thumbs!
ha! I was wondering what you might say to that! I’ve picked up the typing very quickly, something that I wasn’t expecting at all and the auto replace is great!
I also forgot to add that the activation process took seconds and was as painless as you can get. I decided against keeping the same number but that looked like it was just as simple.
My typing in it isn’t great but the auto-correction fixes that so I just type without looking at what is really going on the screen. The vast majority of the time the correction picks it up and fixes it for me. The feature i really want though is landscape typing in sms.
Oh if only I could get my new iPhone activated! I queued for 5 hours got home asap and then couldnt activate it as i kept getting an error message from O2 ‘we cannot activate your phone at this time – try again later’ Well 2 days later and im still not activated and the 5 hours i queued is nothing compared to the time I have spent on the phone to their customer services(??!!). Ive been told its the handset….that the sim card is not authorised …..that my PC is probably at fault….that they know of this problem….that its a unique problem……that i need to provide them with my iPhone mobile number before they can help with my activation query…….you name it!! I am now on my 3rd iPhone and its staying in the box so that I can go into the genius bar at apple and they will do it for me and deal with O2 themselves if required. The staff in the apple store in Birmingham are superb. O2 are saying that they have had to employ a number of new staff to deal with the iphone and they arent very experienced……..really??? Oh i hadnt noticed!!
@Danny – you better send me that new number then 🙂
@Maggie – that really sucks!!!!!
@maggie – that’s terrible! You would think that if it was a bandwidth issue it would have resolved itself by now! The guys at carphone warehouse said their system crashed the minute the iPhone was launched. Perhaps the quantities were bigger than expected but I doubt that I think its just a case of companies not preparing their system properly.
Just wondering what implications there would be if I was to downgrade to 1.1.1 firmware from the o2 stock 1.1.2 firmware.
My query is:
1) Would the phone number given at the intial activation be the same if I had to re-activate?
2) Would I have to sign a new tarrif, what is the implication of re-activation? Pro’s – Con’s?
Cheers,
Mark
Well im quietly confident that when I do get it up and running I wont be disappointed in the slightest! The suspense is killing me. My iPod Touch is the best thing ever and to have to turn it off and find my mobile when someone calls is a nuisance that I wont have to deal with ever again…….bliss!
@mark – what are you hoping to do with the downgraded firmware? If you just want to hack the phone I would just wait till the latest firmware is hacked I believe there is already a beta of the hack out there
@Danny,
I just want to be able to put my own 3rd party applications on the device. I’ve already activated the phone for an o2 iPhone Tarrif.
Cheers,
Mark
First off – yes I know I am weak willed. But at least I held out to Sunday!
Second – some info for anyone who reads the blog and is a business customer on O2.
I have had a nightmare getting reliable information from the support phone numbers (I have been passed through 4 different O2 support phone numbers in my quest to switch to the iPhone). I was told:
1. It’s not possible.
2. You can’t do it yet – it is coming.
3. You can only do it over the phone via the iPhone specific support team.
4. You have to go and do it at the O2 store – please take all your paperwork.
So I went to the store today armed with any O2 paperwork I own in a neat folder. The guy in the store look at me as if I was stupid and said – no, you just buy it and set up a new account. Soon as it’s done you cancel your old account and you can transfer your old number.
So far I have a new account, but in theory still have my old account running, so I hope he was right.
Certainly the O2 website states that if your last contract renewal was before Sept 18th 2007 you can cancel the contract for an iPhone switch without incurring any early cancellation charges. (If you last renewed after Sept 18th you get hit with a £219 cancellation charge!)
Hope that is of use to someone and I certainly hope O2 support gets better!
From the point of view of my activation and first sync. Seamless. Absolutely seamless. Everything where it should be. Picked up my wireless network – just the issue of entering my completely random 63 digit wap-psk later!!!
Agree with one of Chris’s early comment about the reassuring weight. Screen is awesome – really impressive. Safari browsing very good but will take some time to be fluent with the pinch move. Yet to type in any anger so reserve judgement.
So far very very happy, if feeling a bit daft at all my ‘will I, won’t I’. It was inevitable really wasn;t it!!!
[quote comment=”18463″]I just want to be able to put my own 3rd party applications on the device. I’ve already activated the phone for an o2 iPhone Tarrif.[/quote]
Personally I would wait a couple of days, get used to the iPhone in its virgin state and wait for the latest Jailbreak. According to reports it is a matter of days away.
[quote comment=”18461″]My iPod Touch is the best thing ever and to have to turn it off and find my mobile when someone calls is a nuisance that I wont have to deal with ever again…….bliss![/quote]
That makes you a genuine Mac Geek goddess without question!!!!
[quote comment=”18464″]So far very very happy, if feeling a bit daft at all my ‘will I, won’t I’. It was inevitable really wasn’t it!!![/quote]
Yep I couldn’t find anyone to bet against it and I was giving great odds!!!!
That activation process seems a total nightmare!!!
@mark I would seriously hold off for at least a couple off weeks and see what the iPhone hackers come up with. I know fora fact that its round the corner.
That makes you a genuine Mac Geek goddess without question!!!!
haha thanks i actually take that as a compliment!!
Absolutely!!!!
Just wanted to let you know – I’m still holding out!
Apologies, forgot to mention in my last comment.
Had a phone call from my sister-in-law this afternoon.
Went along the lines “You’ll never guess what I’ve just bought?�. Of course it was an iPhone. Interestingly she is a die-hard PC user.
Heh that is two girls in a day that have bought one that we know about (well three is we could Danny!!!)
The site is broadening out its reader base in a good way – keep all us males in place I suspect!
Anyway Darren, I have you down for the Touch before an iPhone 🙂
The 1.1.2 firmware has a final version of the hack, I would still wait though:
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/11/11/1-1-2-jailbreak-software-released/
@danny,
wow! this is the hack i’ve been waiting for it seems? Do we still need to downgrade to 1.1.1?
Cheers for this great community.
@mark – It seems that this hack downgrades to 1.1.1 then hacks then upgrades in a safe way or something similar.
I would wait for a but till all the kinks are worked out. Im loving it as it is… for the moment!
My US hacked iPhone is still on 1.0.2 🙂
I aam torn between leaving well alone and resetting it to the original state and then upgrading to the latest version and hacking it again.
@Mark – the community is only as good as the ‘members’ so thank you!
@Danny,
do you have msn? mine is: info@voxia.co.uk would like to pick your brains on this one.
Cheers,
Mark
@Mark – will add you, will be able to chat when I get back from college around 6. However I will be available via email during the day (due to some phone I just bought) danny@crimsonskysoftware.com
@Danny: ah, but if you had hacked it you could add Apollo and IM as well 🙂
Then I would get even less work done!
ok first time really testing out safari over edge for a good period of time. Its painfully slow. It has just confirmed my thoughts that it Its pretty much just good for email. I’m also typing with cold hands which has slowed me down a little.
Just noticed that my headphone socket is a bit dodgy. Although it could be the headphones themselves. If you nudge the jack slightly to one side you get a noticable squelch and sometimes no audio in the left ear. Anyone else having this problem?
I still think that the method released by TUAW is not yet at the point where I feel comfortable doing it. When the jailbreak is working on jailbreakme.com with 1.1.2 I think is going to be the time I do it. As far as I know the back end that was used for 1.1.1 can be used again, the team just need to find another way in since the TIFF exploit has been closed.
@Danny – so wifi hotspot surfing acceptable?
@Adam – agree totally. Was talking with Mark earlier and the advice for the UK iPhone is to wait
Definately WAIT before trying to do anything with this phone. At the end of the day we’ve all spent a lot of money for the device and to brick it now for the sake of a few more days waiting would be crazy (in my opinion).
Bootloader issues on the o2 firmware are all that appears to be preventing a successful Jailbreak at this point from what Information i’ve peiced togther from various sources such as online forums, blogs and IRC Chat with some very knowledgable people.
Regards to EDGE @ danny,
I’ve not noticed any slow issues with Safari whilsts browsing, could be a contention issue perhaps? Not too sure but my emails et al all appear to be good at the moment.
Not had a chance to try the audio input yet but be assured I will give you my opinion of it tonight when I get home.
@ Adam, definately wait, you know how impatient i’ve been from chats on MSN re this firmware but hell, to say it again, waiting for a few days is a lot better than having an attractive / expensive paper-weight.
Cheers,
Mark
ps.
I’m opening a forum for UK iPhone discussions over at iphonedev.co.uk (site not up yet, not had time to provision it on my dedicated server yet)
Just wanted to do an update here:
Received my first Bill cycle from O2 for the iPhone so they’re pretty on-the-ball!
Thankfully my Business tarrif is now written off so nothing more to pay over there 🙂
@ Mark: Glad to hear they have got yours right mines still a bit weird but not so much that I need to get n touch with them. I think it’s only going to be a few days till we see jailbreakme.com updated. Fingers crossed.
@darren – wifi is fantastic absolutely blazes.
In regards to hacking WAIT as has been said.
I didn’t realize but you can surf without edge perhaps that’s what I have been experiencing.
@Danny – thanks mate. Just thinking re: my ipod touch purchase. Whenever I have managed to get near one in the Apple Store it has always seemed a bit laboured.
Might be something to do with the other 42 people trying to simultaneously surf the net on ipod touch’s in the same store!
You never know, so just thought I’d ask!
Glad to hear it‘s working out for you.
I can second (or third) the WiFi comments – it works a treat!