I was in Manhattan, NYC yesterday because my wife had to work. She’s Assistant Director of Student Rights and Responsibilities at The New School and Saturday the university had Parent Sessions prior to the beginning of the school year. Code of conduct, etc. blah blah.... I’m really here to talk about the 3G reception problems NYC has been having recently.

As I mentioned in my previous entry, my 3G reception (voice and data) has been fine after my full restore with the 2.02 firmware and no backup, at least in New Jersey. Even with a smidgen of a single bar, I’ve been able to transfer data over 3G faster than Edge and Voice has been crystal clear. The same holds true for Voice in NYC. I actually had at least four bars outside with 3G and Voice was crystal clear. Inside, only a single dot, but voice communications were fine. Data is where everything fell apart though. I could not transfer anything in any internet capable App (Safari, Mail, Google Maps, Twitterific, etc.). Data transmission wasn’t just slow, it was non-existant! Switching to Edge restored data functionality at a somewhat good clip. WiFi of course was the way to go for wherever I had a connection.

In further research on the Apple Forums and on other forums online, I found that this was a shared experience across NYC for the past week. Many have said that they had fine data transmission until about August 18 or maybe a little earlier. At that point it was spotty, non-existant, or only seemed fine late in the evening. Much has been said about 3G dense areas and corresponding saturation of 3G data causing outtages in many cities. I experienced this first hand yesterday in NYC. A few blamed this on the iPhone and Apple, but my experience (and that of many other people) show that 3G data is fine outside the confines of population centers. Some forum entries have AT&T customer service responses showing this to be a problem on their network specific to these population centers and that they are building out the Hardware in the areas affected. Let’s hope they get the situation fixed soon. Whatever the case, this is DEFINITELY not just an iPhone 3G software problem. AT&T must get their 3G network up to snuff in one of the largest markets in the world before the iPhone gets further bad (and undeserved) press.

UPDATE: Follow the link for more proof that the iPhone 3G data problems are Network related and not Hardware related at AppleInsider.
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Tags: 3G, data, reception, voice, iphone, apple, firmware, Update, new york, nyc, new jersey, manhattan, newschool

My wife and I picked up the iPhone 3G (she went black and I went white). There was a long line to get it at 8AM at the mall on a Saturday, a full month after the launch, with about 60 people ahead of us. However, like many people out there, we’ve encountered some problems.

My reception has been fine, but my wife’s iPhone had weak 3G reception in NY where she works. We’ve also encountered various issues with App updates via iTunes after upgrading to 7.7.1. Clearing out the iTunes App Section and re-downloaded the apps we had helped with that issue. We were both on 2.01 firmware, so when 2.02 came out, we eagerly updated. That firmware upgrade actually helped with the 3G reception issues for my wife in the City, but we started encountering issues with Syncing Apps purchased on the iPhone back to iTunes and downloading updates to our apps from the iPhone AppStore. I encountered errors that said that downloads/updates have failed and that they would be available the next time I synced my phone with iTunes. Checking for Purchases from iTunes allowed us to download the updates and sync them back to the iPhone, but not being able to update via the iPhone and not being able to transfer Apps purchased on the iPhone back into iTunes (the transfers look like they start, but then they fail without an error) was becoming a major pain.

After searching the web and various forums for days, I found the solution. The problem seemed to be that we restored from a backup made on our old iPhones to the new iPhone 3Gs we upgraded to. The Solution? I had to fully restore my iPhone to Factory level without utilizing a backup and build off a fresh version of the 2.02 (latest) Firmware. The process was painfully long: first restoring the iPhone to scratch, then building it up slowly with my Apps, Settings, Photos, Music/Videos, Podcasts, Movies, TV Shows, MobileMe Settings, Ringtone settings, Settings for each App that took forever to move over, re-downloading my eReader books, etc... and on...and on...


But when I was done, and all my Apps were back in their proper places... TADA!!! My phone was fixed!!!

I was now able to:

• Sync iPhone AppStore purchases back to iTunes
• Download updates from the iPhone AppStore successfully
• have GPS come up MUCH quicker than before (satellite acquisition was much faster)
• have no 3G issues (so far)
• have no lag for Contacts screen loading from MobileMe
• have no lag for onscreen keyboard anymore

I thought I would have to wait for another Firmware or iTunes update, but now everything is pretty much perfect. The process was tedious but well worth it!

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Tags: iphone, 3G, bugs, issues, problems, solved, solutions, restore, transfer, apps, itunes, firmware, apple, att