iPhone 3 GS updates.

plug iphone into your computer (the one the iphone is synced with for ease), boot up itunes. you should see an update button next to the iphone visual. or you may even be prompted to download it anyway.

hope this helps.

quote:

phone software to 3.2

What is it? I am curious.
The current iphone OS is iOs 4.1 and current firmware is 02.10.04

Peter and RW thanks.

I'm not sure, getting this via e-mail, I'll try and and get more info.

If she was to come here to try and update, what happens when she plugs her phone into my iMac?

I'm sure she don't want my music on her phone , or vice versa.

It is a bit long winded - After plugging in, you do backup, restore and the select what you want to put on the iPhone and then sync. You just need to pay more attention to what iTunes is saying.

I'll wait until I can see for my self.
Just for reference how does one find the S/W level and firmware of the phone.

Try Settings -> General -> About.

quote:

Originally posted by BigH47:
Peter and RW thanks.

I'm not sure, getting this via e-mail, I'll try and and get more info.

If she was to come here to try and update, what happens when she plugs her phone into my iMac?

I'm sure she don't want my music on her phone , or vice versa.

It is the operating system, does she have a standard 3G? AFAIK, you cant use OS4 on the standard 3G, you can however on the 3GS.

You may be able to upgrade it using your imac. it will guide you through the process and inform you what you are doing before you actually do it (delete library etc).

I am sure someone with more knowledge will be along shortly.

Sorry it appears I was a bit premature as my daughter is working away(Milton Keynes ) until next week. So I'll not be able to see what's what.
I'll report back then .

Thanks for all input so far.

I really must get one of these devices soon.

quote:

Originally posted by Right Wing:
It is the operating system, does she have a standard 3G? AFAIK, you cant use OS4 on the standard 3G, you can however on the 3GS.

OS4 works fine on the 3G but it is noticeably slower than on the 3GS. But then, I only use my old 3G as a hi-fi remote control.....

OS4 on a 3G was intolerable. So mch so that the whole family moved onto the 4 and I downgraded my 3G to 3.x and gave it to a friend with instructions to never upgrade the OS.

As far as little BigH is concerned there's little point in her doing an OS upgrade on BigHs Mac unless she's previously logged onto his iTunes; authorised an account and sync'd so it has all her apps, music etc. If she hasn't find that and goes for an upgrade on his Mac she needs to be careful about losing what she has and gaining what he has. Far better to do on her own machine.

BigH - the iPhone4 is a wonderous thing. Along with Sky+ it was a real game changer for me BUT

- indoor reception is poorer on the 4 than on the 3GS. I would wait until the next iteration.

- call quality is a real weak point.

- always buy the largest capacity. False economy to buy smaller else OS upgrades slow each phone down to an appreciable extent

- beware the charger socket on the 4. It's a tight fit on the phone and wobbles around a central point like no previous iPhone. One wrong yank of the cable and you're in trouble. I've had to replace my 4.

Mike

Strange. My 4 has better reception and call quality than my old 3GS, and just today had a data connection when the lady next to me had no service, both on O2. Variable QC?

Tony

It is not strange. iPhone4 is better than previous models overall.

BTW, unlike the iPhone 3G(S), there is no hook in the charger socket on my iPhone 4, I yank it in and out of my iPhone everyday.

I've had considerable opportunity to compare the performance of the 4 compared to the 3G in both rural and urban areas recently. I can't comment on the 3GS but I can say that

- overall call quality is poorer in terms of sound quality.
- once it has a call it is no more prone to drop it than the 3G.
- outdoors it shows "No Service" in most of the places the 3G gave me some service. Bear in mind this is my second 4 after connection issues so I am commenting based on use of two in identical circs.
- indoors it is much weaker than the 3G even with a free case on it.

Is it better than previous models overall? It's debatable. We are a 4 family so we use FaceTime. Video and camera are now decent and video matches my Flip with ease. Editing is poor so thank goodness for apps. Multi-tasking is a function of the OS not the phone. Can't say it's a life-changer tbh bar a couple of situations. Folders are nice (2 pages not 6 now) bur again hardly life-changing.

The form factor is a personal thing but I think the 4 is am error on ghat front. Volume control is much better.New slow charger is not.

For me it made sense to go 3G to 4. Overall I couldn't live without it but is it appreciably better overall. I think there is much to debate.

Mike

I have upgraded the 3G software to 4.0 as well and agree that it's quite slow. Mine did improve however to a very acceptable speed after the whole rest back to factory default. Sure you have to re-install everything but it did make an appreciable difference.

Re. capacity. This just impacts the volume of file storage (music, video, etc) it's not RAM as such so won't impact system performance. The 3GS had a faster processor over the 3G hence the ability to run 4.0 better and some of the more advanced features (like multi-tasking).

iPhone 4 is much better than the 3G. A big leap ahead. Couldn't live without multitasking now and I have no signal/calling problems at all. You get used to it but the sceen is excellent.

What I really don't like is now having to watch how much data I am using with O2 now that they have changed the data plans.

Jay

Jay,

Capacity has very clear impacts on performance. We have three 4s in our family. 2x 16GB and my 32GB. So, at the outset we loaded each with the same apps and ran some speed tests, given that both 4s have the same processor. The 16GB was measurably slower to install and start apps. At first OS upgrade it was slower to install 4.1 and so on.

You need to bear in mind that it might not be called RAM but, in effect, that's what it is. Thus you can Google for the many reports of the 3G and 3GS having to be cleared of data before upgrading to OS4 because effectively the upgrade needed space to use as a swap file equivalent and so on. The reports of people taking quite literally many hours to upgrade were pretty much all down to this. I'm afraid that capacity on an iPhone is directly related to performance and demonstrably so.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Jay:
What I really don't like is now having to watch how much data I am using with O2 now that they have changed the data plans.

Jay

I moved to vodafone because of the data change. After the initial excruciating pain of trying to get on their network, I have to say I think their network is better than O2 for my iPhone usage.

I have found 4 a huge leap forward over my old 3G.

Mike

I still think you are getting confused.

There's a difference in RAM between the 3G (128mb) and the 3GS (256mb). That will impact performance in a general sense.


Check out this site as it features the full technical specs for each model.

The reports for folks upgrading to 4.0 due to capacity (16gb, 32gb, etc), well that's a bit of a one off.

Jay

Mike

Think we are talking at cross purposes. Notice you specifically reference installion in your reply to my post. I was referring to overall performance.

Jay

Hi Jay,

I don't think we're at cross purposes at all. All iPhones have different hd capacity and RAM. However, all the lower capacity ones, whether 3G, 3GS or 4, are outperformed by the higher capacity ones because of the hd space available to use as a swapfile for both instalation of apps and OS upgrades as well as starting and running those apps. If you have two iPhones of the same generation test it out. It's easy to verify.

It is also as you would expect. Higher spec should equal higher performance. However, that was not my point. My point was that all such phones remain at the stage where their spec retains an element of compromise and so at present going for the higher spec always represents better vfm. An 8GB 3G full of music and photos could take 2+ hrs to upgrade or fail because of this whereas an empty 8GB or 16GB with the same quantity of data had fewer issues. This remains true of the 4 and, at the point it gets upgraded to OS5(?) the 16GB will also be full of data and is much more likely to have issues than the 32GB.

Multi-tasking is an interesting one. Whereas on a PC it tends to slow things down I have found that it tends to the opposite with OS4. Start times are enhanced etc. However, in general I have found little use for it.

There are plenty of other things that people fail to mention. The fact that apps with Location Services generally install and default to "on" if Location Services are already on. The huge battery drain this causes. The fact that a number of apps use LS and don't even tell you. The fact that all apps will continue to use LS in the background unless you close them down fully.

Overall I could not be without it but the life-changer was, for me, the 3G. The 4 is enhanced wonderfully in many ways but let's not pretend it's perfect. Potentidl buyers ought to know the issues.

Now, "water damage" anyone? I was one of the two guys who appeared on Watchdog about that. Much as I like my phone I could never evangelise for anyone pulling a stunt like that.

Mike

Mike

You neglect to point out that you need each to be running at the, or close to, the full capacity of the storage for the performance of the swapfile to impact on performance. If you're not then the amount of storage will have negligible impact on everyday performance.

quote:

Multi-tasking is an interesting one. Whereas on a PC it tends to slow things down I have found that it tends to the opposite with OS4. Start times are enhanced etc. However, in general I have found little use for it.

Slows things down on a PC? At the moment I have iTunes, Mail and Safari open at the same time and flicking between. If it wasn't multi tasking I'd be opening and closing down each one in turn when switching. If you have enough RAM then it's a not a problem under normal use.

quote:

There are plenty of other things that people fail to mention. The fact that apps with Location Services generally install and default to "on" if Location Services are already on. The huge battery drain this causes. The fact that a number of apps use LS and don't even tell you. The fact that all apps will continue to use LS in the background unless you close them down fully.

That IS painful. Fully agree that location services need to be better managed.

Some common setting like, data on/off and wifi on/off would be much better as a homepage switch than something you need to find in the menus all the time!

Atb

Jay

Hi Jay,

Not sure I neglected to mention it. My inference was that at the point you have had your phone a year or more it is likely that near full is where you'll be with the lower capacity phones and so yes you will have a daily problem and big problems with OS updates.

PC multitasking - debatable. Depends again on PC spec; memory leaks from closed apps and the software in use.

LS - glad we agree.

Bring on OS4.2. Wireless printing. Will it be a joy or, as it currently looks, a kludge. Once they get that right and sort out Office style apps I see little reason to ever own a PC again (or a Mac)!

Mike