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Other Is every release on a new model iPhone as fraught with as many complaints, problems, and concerns as I'm reading here?
- Thread starter Splitrail
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I know.
As a customer service and technician person in the powersports industry for forty years, I saw a bellyful of that.
People do tend to look for a reason to be outraged (and enraged).
As limited as my experience with this area of tech, it makes me wonder how much of it is consumer incompetence, unrealistic expectations, how much of it is design and manufacturing incompetence, and how much of it is marketing incompetence.
I guess that's my original query.
I've seen a careers worth of all of the above.
This year is actually pretty tame tbh, from previous releases I'm thinking back on. Like Bendgate, Yellowgate, etc.
People (like me) whose phone is working fine don't post about it much. My 14 Pro Max is a dream - the main reason I came back here was to see if anyone else's EE Insurance policy hadn't turned up.
I went from 5 posts an hour on the UK thread to AWOL as soon as the phone arrived lol.
I went from 5 posts an hour on the UK thread to AWOL as soon as the phone arrived lol.
Human nature, people like to complain, some are craving attention, some are craving affirmation, some are experiencing buyers remorse and then you have the ones posting just for the hell of it 🤷♂️
It's not a smartphone thing in my personal view.
Every time something is new, there will be complaints and issues. Most of the stuff will be fixed soon thereafter and some will require workarounds. It applies to cars, computers (especially Software) and even things like changing your diet.
People tend to complain about the stuff that isn't working (as expected) and take the improvements for granted. Myself included. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just part of the human condition.
Every time something is new, there will be complaints and issues. Most of the stuff will be fixed soon thereafter and some will require workarounds. It applies to cars, computers (especially Software) and even things like changing your diet.
People tend to complain about the stuff that isn't working (as expected) and take the improvements for granted. Myself included. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just part of the human condition.
Nobody is prepared for the numbers of new activations. Apples servers, the mobile phone networks, the calls you might have to make to banks and other organisations to get a new activation code of so more sort… everyone’s pretty much trying to do it at the same time.
It’s like when a new must have console and pc game comes out. Every time the servers crash because so many people are trying to get online to play.
Nobody ever learns. Or more to the point, nobody ever improves it back end because money. Same thing will happen next year.
It’s like when a new must have console and pc game comes out. Every time the servers crash because so many people are trying to get online to play.
Nobody ever learns. Or more to the point, nobody ever improves it back end because money. Same thing will happen next year.
Some of it is legitimate, some of it is not. It would be very easy for competitors to pay people to pile onto sites such as this and make claims that can’t be verified. It would also be easy to send bots to do the same. I rely on my own experience. And if I don’t like something, I don’t run to the internet and shout about it — that’s either childish or troll/shill behavior.
But on the flip side, no product manufacturer will ever be able to produce 100% problem-free products. This is why we have warranties. Any problems experienced should still be minor or just frustrating, but this won’t stop some from making a mountain out of a molehill.
In my experience, having bought Apple products since 1988, I have had very little issues with the hardware. I would never consider anything over the iPhone, iPad, MacBook, Watch.
Some people on here are ridiculously OCD, one guy last year or the year before returned something like 16 iPhones because the screen was too yellow.
My thoughts exactly.. its been a while since my last upgrade, trying to figure whether this is customary
Thankfully, managed to secure a launch weekend pick up without preorder but it's still sitting in the bag, unopened.
It was because I was waiting on a case initially. Now I see this forum is flooded -- Software/hardware problems galore!
Does this mania REALLY happen every year?
Thankfully, managed to secure a launch weekend pick up without preorder but it's still sitting in the bag, unopened.
It was because I was waiting on a case initially. Now I see this forum is flooded -- Software/hardware problems galore!
Does this mania REALLY happen every year?
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This has certainly crossed my mind, so thanks for this take.
Guess the issue is despite the wobbly camera lens or dodgy GPS complaints... can they go to the store and swap it for another handset since stock levels could be limited until november??
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The dodgy GPS complaints are related to the 16.1 beta, so this shouldn’t be an issue if you don’t run the beta (even if you did, you should be able to roll back to 16.0.1). And a camera lens should not be wobbly. If you are near a store, I would bring in and explain the issues — I think stores might have extra stock on hand for situations like this so a customer doesn’t have to wait. You could also call Apple before going to a store to verify that they have replacements in stock.
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Given the massive amount of products that Apple sells, a level of mania is expected, but the % of legitimate complaints is small. I just ignore the noise and make up my own mind.
Many people just complain and make it seem like anything that pops up is a mushroom cloud.
In fairness the issue with activation wasn’t the best look but it seemed relatively innocuous. I personally had no issue and things went as planned.
In fairness the issue with activation wasn’t the best look but it seemed relatively innocuous. I personally had no issue and things went as planned.
There is a group that thinks that the new phones are best pieces of tech that have ever existed and another group that thinks they’re absolute trash and will bankrupt Apple. Either way, it’s always high-drama.
With some of the iPhone versions being the most expensive phone in the world by a large margin, especially outside the States, I think it's fair to be upset about small issues.
There are people upgrading in order to finally have that always-on display that's been around with Android for a long time only to find out it turns off at night, thus preventing them from using it as a nightstand clock. Others have found restoring their 1TB backup takes 12 hours because Apple couldn't be bothered to use the same USB 3.0 lightning connector they had in iPads years ago in a 2022 flagship device. And forget shooting ProRes 4k video like Apple did in their advertising, when you do run out after a couple hours it will be another 12 hours yet again to move the data to your editing workstation.
Syncing music via iTunes is worse than ever before, a perfectly tagged and playlist-ed library will get garbled up for no apparent reason...
I lately had to assist an older family member remotely with their iOS device and we ended up with a Facetime call to troubleshoot things. I checked beforehand that Facetime is explicitely what Apple recommends for this and apparently it's also the only way to access a remote iOS device - so we did it the Apple way. Except it wouldn't let me control the screen, I couldn't find the button. Turns out the way Apple imagines remote assistance is that I can only see the screen with no way to interact with it. One of a few tasks was to enter a password and since it was a random one from a password manager I ended up having to sync an encrypted text file and then I had to guide them how to enable split screen and open the file on one side and the service login on the other (it didn't allow copy-paste). Then I had to make sure they enter _ instead of - and so on. What could have taken a couple minutes on any other device turned into an hour long support session...
Point is, people like to do things different ways, and with Apple your only choice is the Apple way, and if that doesn't work so well all the Apple Silicon "up to 2x" performance charts won't change the fact that you paid 1.5k for something that has shortcomings, minor one such as the AOD not being always on, but often things Apple explicitely advertised in a different way.
It's especially frustrating when even their own support doesn't know how their hardware is supposed to work. I want to sell my current iPhone until the new one arrives, but on an Apple support call yesterday they couldn't tell me if Apple Pay will still work on the watch until my new iPhone arrives in November. Apple support seriously expects me to just walk into a store and "give it a go" when I dropped a couple grand on Apple hardware just this month alone. They can't try it out for me either, they have their support script and if the answer isn't in there they just can't be bothered.
There are people upgrading in order to finally have that always-on display that's been around with Android for a long time only to find out it turns off at night, thus preventing them from using it as a nightstand clock. Others have found restoring their 1TB backup takes 12 hours because Apple couldn't be bothered to use the same USB 3.0 lightning connector they had in iPads years ago in a 2022 flagship device. And forget shooting ProRes 4k video like Apple did in their advertising, when you do run out after a couple hours it will be another 12 hours yet again to move the data to your editing workstation.
Syncing music via iTunes is worse than ever before, a perfectly tagged and playlist-ed library will get garbled up for no apparent reason...
Perhaps you just don't use the same or many of the iPhone's features? Just getting media on and off a bigger capacity iPhone is harder than it needs to be for no good reason. People keep complaining about similar or even precisely the same issues again every year, and Apple doesn't fix them. Sure it will do calls and texting and taking great photos just fine, but if that was enough I could just use my Pixel as a daily driver (and I do prefer the Pixels for many applications, such as launching a true Chrome or Firefox with all my plugins instead of a Safari with a Chrome/Firefox skin on top of it).
I lately had to assist an older family member remotely with their iOS device and we ended up with a Facetime call to troubleshoot things. I checked beforehand that Facetime is explicitely what Apple recommends for this and apparently it's also the only way to access a remote iOS device - so we did it the Apple way. Except it wouldn't let me control the screen, I couldn't find the button. Turns out the way Apple imagines remote assistance is that I can only see the screen with no way to interact with it. One of a few tasks was to enter a password and since it was a random one from a password manager I ended up having to sync an encrypted text file and then I had to guide them how to enable split screen and open the file on one side and the service login on the other (it didn't allow copy-paste). Then I had to make sure they enter _ instead of - and so on. What could have taken a couple minutes on any other device turned into an hour long support session...
Point is, people like to do things different ways, and with Apple your only choice is the Apple way, and if that doesn't work so well all the Apple Silicon "up to 2x" performance charts won't change the fact that you paid 1.5k for something that has shortcomings, minor one such as the AOD not being always on, but often things Apple explicitely advertised in a different way.
It's especially frustrating when even their own support doesn't know how their hardware is supposed to work. I want to sell my current iPhone until the new one arrives, but on an Apple support call yesterday they couldn't tell me if Apple Pay will still work on the watch until my new iPhone arrives in November. Apple support seriously expects me to just walk into a store and "give it a go" when I dropped a couple grand on Apple hardware just this month alone. They can't try it out for me either, they have their support script and if the answer isn't in there they just can't be bothered.
I’m all about happygate every year!
Unless someone gets a device that has a defect, usually they complain about something they think the phone should’ve had, or came with something they didn’t want.
Majority of the time it’s user error with tech they don’t understand (yet), or a setting they didn’t know about or couldn’t find.
And then you have the rotten apples that just aren’t happy unless they’re complaining about something.
Unless someone gets a device that has a defect, usually they complain about something they think the phone should’ve had, or came with something they didn’t want.
Majority of the time it’s user error with tech they don’t understand (yet), or a setting they didn’t know about or couldn’t find.
And then you have the rotten apples that just aren’t happy unless they’re complaining about something.
This is normal... in that on a forum of obsessive enthusiasts, people ALWAYS come up with problems and blow them out of proportion. It's the tech version of hypochondria.
Phone is too big, too small, not big enough, not small enough, has too many cameras, doesn’t have enough camera, why does a phone even have a camera at all, goodbye notch welcome island, I miss the notch etc..
Any mass produced products will have issues one way or another. And like many have said, people who had problems tend to be the one asking questions/posting in forums to get answers. People who had no issues tend to move on with their lives. Thus if you read a tech forum, the content is skewed towards problems, as if the product is bad.
The 13 lineup is one of the best that Apple had done. It's 2nd revision of the design, meaning any issues on the 12 are probably fixed on the 13. The 14 itself seems to be a good launch, with many issues are mostly software bugs, not manufacturing issues.
I switched from a non-Pro 11 to the 14 Pro and I couldn’t be happier. The switch was so easy and quick, including the eSIM, my Watch etc. I was impressed. And the 14 Pro is just great.
Do I come here to open a thread about it? No. For one I have other things to do. Also nobody cares. The whiners, haters and sad people get most of the attention. So I don’t even bother.
Do I come here to open a thread about it? No. For one I have other things to do. Also nobody cares. The whiners, haters and sad people get most of the attention. So I don’t even bother.