iPhone 4.0 update is slow. Do not upgrade

7/28/2010, 3:21 pm, Poor Design Workshop, Product Reviews

I just got off the phone with Apple support who said, “You installed the 4.0.1 upgrade for your iPhone 3G? Ha! Sucker! You are so screwed and there is no unscrewing that pooch!”

After the upgrade, my iPhone does everything much slower. The rep told me, “yes, it’s much slower… It was an optional update so we’re not responsible… If you try to downgrade, you’ll brick your phone.” I embellished that first quote but the second one is pretty much word for word.

If you have an iPhone 3G like me, DO NOT get the 4.0 update. It offers no improvements, only a huge performance hit. For example, it now take 8-14 seconds to start my calendar app, making it MUCH less useful than the previous 4 second startup time.

I will call Apple a few more times and if it keeps looking like Apple really has pulled the trigger on a planned obsolescence program for this 1.5 year old device, I will dump Apple for another platform. Eff you right back Steve Jobs.

4 Comments

lee says:

7/30/2010 at 11:32 am

Here is a possible fix to help improve performance on you iPhone 3G with IOS4:

Lifehacker iPhone 3G performance fix

Go to Settings- General -Home – Search Results, and shut off everything you don’t need (I disabled Music, Podcasts, Video and Audiobooks; leaving Contacts, apps, Notes, Mail and Calendar checked). Made my phone a lot quicker, more like it was with v2 (I’m still running v3.1.2, jailbroken).
Before, there was a good 2-4 second lag when exiting or loading an app. Now it’s back to it’s old speediness.
Someone on the WSJ forum mentioned a bug in spotlight, but didn’t say how to disable spotlight search. I don’t see an option to disable it entirely.

Then do a hard reset twice

“To perform a Hard Reset, press and hold the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons on your iPhone simultaneously for 5 to 10 seconds. After a few seconds the Slide to Power Off notice will appear, ignore this and keep holding down both buttons. In another few seconds the device should abruptly turn off, followed by the Apple logo and a reboot. Now release the buttons.

If your iPhone remains powered off, wait about 15 seconds then boot the phone by pressing the Sleep/Wake button.

The tip mentions that it may be necessary to perform the Hard Reset twice to get the desired effect”
lee says:

7/30/2010 at 11:48 am

I tried the “Disable Spotlight” and it helps a little. It now takes 7 seconds to start Calendar instead of 14. Before this (fucking) “upgrade”, it used to take 4 seconds to start Calendar.

I found a way to downgrade back to IOS3.1.3. I will do so this weekend.
lee says:

8/5/2010 at 12:14 pm

I spoke with “Mike” at Apple today who recommended I do the Spotlight Search fix. I told him I already did that. He said that’s all he’s got “until the engineers figure something out”.

At least he was nicer than “Ha ha, you upgraded and now you’re screwed!”
Lee.org » Blog Archive » Downgrade your iPhone to 3.1.3 from 4.0.1 says:

8/6/2010 at 10:13 am

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