Like probably 10 million others, I updated my iPhone today to the new 3.0 software. The download and process was pretty fast, but getting my phone back to life still hasn’t happened yet.
The symptoms
- Your iPhone displays “slide for emergency” message and only allows emergency phone calls.
- Your phone no longer drops down for options in iTunes
- You see the following error when you connect the phone:
The cause
It would appear that the iTunes store is just overloaded. I’m only speculating here, but I imagine the connection to the iTunes store is to validate and update any apps you’ve purchased and downloaded. If iTunes needs to re-download any apps for any reason, you can imagine the rush on the iTunes servers with everyone upgrading all at once. This looks like something Apple may have overlooked.
The solution
If this is, in fact, an issue of Apples iTunes store servers simply being overloaded, the solution will be to just wait. Unfortunately, those of us with now “bricked” iPhones are left without service while we wait for Apple to fix the problem or for the swarm of requests to Apple’s servers to die down. Either way, it feels like incredibly bad planning on Apple’s part. To get it to come back to life, just repeat the following process until it works:
- dismiss the error message
- eject (See the second update below first)
- unplug
- plug back in
The most frustrating part is that I can’t use the phone at all now. I’d be ok with not getting to some of my apps for a while, but this is just crippling.
UPDATE: After following the above process a few more times, it came back to life quickly. If your iPhone still doesn’t work, just keep trying the above and it should be back in no time.
UPDATE 2: While linking back to this post, Mashable pointed out that there’s another way to force iTunes to try again and again. Just click the iTunes Store and then click the phone again. My process worked for me, but Mashable points out that it comes with the risk of data loss. I partly assumed that everyone does a backup first. In any case, keep that in mind.
Today, Apple announced the introduction of it’s all new iPod Shuffle. Redesigned, it is smaller than a AA battery and can actually speak your song titles to you with the new VoiceOver feature so you know what you’re listening to. For those who stayed away from previous Shuffle models due to the lack of display, this should come as great news. Here’s more from the Apple press release:
CUPERTINO, California—March 11, 2009—Apple® today introduced the all-new iPod® shuffle, the world’s smallest music player at nearly half of the size of the previous model, and the first music player that talks to you. The revolutionary new VoiceOver feature enables iPod shuffle to speak your song titles, artists and playlist names. The third generation iPod shuffle is significantly smaller than a AA battery, holds up to 1,000 songs and is easier to use with all of the controls conveniently located on the earphone cord. With the press of a button, you can play, pause, adjust volume, switch playlists and hear the name of the song and artist. iPod shuffle features a gorgeous new aluminum design with a built-in stainless steel clip that makes it ultra-wearable.
It seems like so long ago that the iPhone hit the market with a bang and it’s still considered by many to be the best cell phone you can get. Over the last year or two, many speculated about various concept phones and if any of them would be an “iPhone killer”, including me. One of those hopefuls was Google’s promise of a Google phone, which people quickly dubbed the “Gphone”. A few months after Apple brought us the second generation iPhone, T-Mobile announced the release of their Android-running G1 and people started to get excited about owning one.
I’ve seen a lot of other phones come out that seem to follow the iPhone’s lead in many of their features, but none have swayed me from my opinion that the iPhone is far superior. The only one that comes close so far is the HTC T-Mobile G1, so when I had a chance to compare the two side by side, I jumped on it. I played with the G1 for hours, taking pictures along the way before creating a comparison video and finally putting together my conclusions.
First, the technical comparison
(image from Wired)
(Note that the G1 also plays video)
One of the things I think the G1 really could have used is a multi-touch screen, but I guess I’m just spoiled by my iPhone. There have been rumors, but nothing solid yet. A standard headphone jack would be nice, too. You can always listen with USB headphones, but that limits your options. One area the G1 technically surpassed the iPhone was the built in camera. Delivering 3.2 mega pixels, it offers a much better picture than the iPhone’s 2.0 mega pixel camera.
Getting hands on
Part 1:
Part 2:
The videos above cover most of what I’ve played with, but here’s some of what I found that’s worth noting:
- The iPhone offers a sliding software lock and optional password protection, while the G1 employs the old method of hitting any button and then hit “Menu” to unlock the phone, but it also offers another cool option where you store a gesture pattern like a happy face or a cursive G and you repeat that gesture to unlock the phone.
- Both phones allow for multiple pages to display icons for key features and applications. The G1 sets itself apart here, though, allowing its owner to also display search boxes and widgets like the big clock we keep seeing in G1 photos. Better still, these can all be moved anywhere. The iPhone makes you stack your icons neatly, gravitating to the top left of the screen, but G1 is a wild child, letting you throw those suckers wherever you want. Rebel. To accommodate all this freedom, G1 tucks most of its icons in a little slide-out panel, so you can hide the stuff you use rarely and keep your key items on the main screens.
- Both platforms offer Google Maps. My iPhone has Google Earth. I’m not sure if the G1 offers Google Earth, but it includes Street View and Compass Mode, which is very cool. Just watch the video to see what I mean.
- Oddly, the Google Search app on the G1 didn’t work nearly as well as on my iPhone.
- It doesn’t appear that I can create picture folders in the g1 like I can in the iPhone, but that may just require more testing.
- Setting up email was incredibly easy on the g1. The iPhone requres me to go to the phone’s settings area to add or remove an email account which is a little annoying.
- Both phones offer easy access to a wealth of third-party applications, both paid, and free. They’re both, hands down, vastly better than the alternatives I’d become used to with Windows Mobile phones.
- Adding music with the g1 is as easy as dropping MP3s from my computer into the phone’s shared storage, but the sound quality pales compared to the iPhone. The iPhone’s music play back is loud and clear, while the G1′s is a bit muffled and tinny.
- G1′s roller ball can easily switch away from the text box in focus on accident if bumped, but is very handy in Street View. The integrated keyboard is tiny, but useful. My main problem here is that I have to physically slide it out every time I need to type something, which can be hard one-handed, unlike the iPhone, where the software keyboard just appears as needed. The mix of a hardware keyboard and an optional software keyboard that could be accessed with a quick tap would be a great improvement.
Those of you who have been paying attention know that I posted a review of the green laser that Warnlaser sent me. Then I followed that up with a contest to give away my green laser, and all you had to do was comment, favorite, tweet, or stumble for entries.
There were only a handful of entries, but I still saw some avid participation. It should be noted that there were a lot of comments on various photos, on Flickr, when only comments on the single laser photo counted as entries. So here’s the breakdown of entries:
Comments on either post (12):
Comments on the one Flickr photo (3):
Fav on Flickr photos (2):
Tweeted post (2):
Stumbled post (8):
As always, I headed over to random.org to pick a winner:
Our winner is MarixD. Get me your address privately and I’ll send your new laser out.
Don’t worry. If you didn’t win this contest, I’m sure I’ll have another very soon. If you can’t wait, check out some of the other cool contests around the web:
- Kid Tech Guru is celebrating 3 months of blogging with over $400 in prizes
- MiniSpace.com is also giving away a Macbook Air in their design contest, which I will be entering for sure.
There’s tons of contests out there and lots of free stuff to be had, so search the web for them, or just subscribe to my blog and I’ll mention more when I do another contest.
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