please empty your brain below

Nicely done. Such a shame today's phones don't have a button A and a button B...
That's why I didn't get an iPhone, I got a phone with a qwerty keyboard, removable battery (so spares can be kept charged) and the ability to do whatever you like to the hardware and software, not only what Apple lets you do.

That is probably why nobody else got one. Even though there appear to be hundreds of thousands of users on the forums, I've only ever seen one in real life on a bus. That's why the company which made the phone is no longer a major player.

In reality I may have been better off with an iPhone. I don't have time to configure and customise a device which is meant to save me time.
Shoulda got a Nexus 4 - bigger screen (easier to type) and has a notification light (which glows a different colour depending on the type of message). Half the cost too so it's not the end of the world if you drop it. Its also got a 'swipe' keyboard option which some find easier to type on.
Just... have a USB cable at work that you can charge your phone your PC at work today. I bet someone else in your office already has one, simples.
Oh, and my "case" for my iPhone is a soft plastic bumper that I bought from Tiger for £3, and it's marvellous. None of this £20+ splashed out on a case nonsense. I've dropped my phone three times now, and it's absolutely fine.
In addition to what Geoff said you can also buy a portable battery which, for around £20, will hold enough charge for you to recharge your iPhone on the go. Some even have enough capacity to charge your phone four or five times over. Amazon has a good selection to choose from.

I bought one last year as my iPhone would always die halfway through Geocaching and it has been a godsend as I now no longer have to worry about my battery running out in the middle of nowhere.
If it makes you feel any better, many of these problems happen on other smartphones.

The battery life issue is universal. This is why some people won't buy phones that do not have a removable battery. Although the thought of charging and carrying around two batteries doesn't appeal to me either. My personal strategy is to use a tablet instead of a phone whenever possible to eek out the battery of the phone.

The failure to connect on emerging from underground I've seen on all platforms, although some models seem better at it.

There are a lot of crappy apps. This podcast might direct you to some you want to try: http://twit.tv/ifive
A very timely blogpost DG - I have just upgraded from an old reliable phone to a new-fangled smartphone and can empathise with just about every one of your quibbles and observations. I'm off to find a lead-lined case for mine today to avoid exactly the kind of bumps and drops you mention, as the cost of repairing or replacing will be prohibitive. Still that's progress, no?
I don't want an iPhone. I love my iPad and my old Nokia, circa 2007 model does me fine as a phone. It drives me NUTS when my students tell me they could not do the reading because 'it was too long and the text too small' on their iPhones. Scream. Phones are for, like, phoning and texting and not for reading long journal articles.
DG, your typing issues might be mitigated a bit by using a great app called "Fleksy". It was originally designed for visually impaired people and might take a bit of getting used to, but it certainly speeded up my typing. R.
Can you get Swype on an iPhone? It took me a while to train both me and its database, but now it's almost as fast as typing when I'm out (on a Samsung Galaxy S2, which at the time had a significantly large screen than the iPhone, though I think later iPhones have caught up with that).
I too have a simple case for my phone (an Android) - but then my phone also has Gorilla Glass as well. I've never seen an Android phone with a cracked screen, although I've seen plenty of iPhones with it. Maybe I just know more people with iPhones.

I don't know how true it is, but I was once told a reason for the iPhone smashed screen issue. Apple did some research and found scratched screens were an annoyance. But the alternative option they had was for the screen to simply crack instead. And that was seen as the lesser of two evils. No idea how true but the person who told me that is well read in technology so I felt it was plausible.

And the iPhone doesn't have a removable battery? I mean I don't ever remove my battery but if I wanted to, I can.
Ironically, the reason your iPhone doesn't find a signal straight away is down to battery saving. If it can't find a signal for an extended period if time, it starts to only look every few minutes or so rather then constantly.

I get round this by switching it into airplane mode and off again which forces it to look for a signal.
If you realy have battery problems, put the phone into aeroplane mode - this way you save significant battery usage from all the mobile network interactions, but you save the time wasted each time you turng the phone off and then have to reboot it.

Ok, so you are incommunicado whilst in aeroplane mode, but you can still swap back to normal mode every now and then to check if you have any calls/SMS you missed.

A bit of hassle perhaps, but maybe a price worth paying to have the battery later when you need it.
If you've still got that Moves app installed that takes a 3-4 hours off the charge per day. Removing it will help. Saying that I'm persisting with it (managed a record 13,000 steps yesterday commuting from Hitchin to Canary Wharf via an office near Chancery Lane) but I am forced to charge the iPhone whilst at working at my desk to keep it going until I get home in the evening.

I've also stopped reading the Metro and Evening Standard as of my new year's resolution so that means I'm browsing the web on my usual commute a lot more too and draining the battery.

The trick of switching into Airplane mode for 15 seconds and back is usually works (but right irritating) to get the signal back - wish Apple would get some Londoners to test their next iPhone
Completely agree with your comments but I have tried a lot of other smartphones and they all have similar shortcomings. The best way to fix the battery issue is to get a Mophie Juicepack. This pack doubles the battery life and clips onto the back of the phone.
Your network connection issues sound like a phone fault - take it into an Apple store and if it is a defect they will give you a new phone (they will even back it up for you and transfer the data if you ask).
I do have an oldish smartphone but not an Apple one. I encounter all of the issues you list. I recognise the capabilities of the phone but it is a shame it has the "downsides" that it does.
You can get a stylus from the 99p shop which should help with the typing. I bought one in anticipation of getting a smart phone.

The packet even comes with a smaller one that plugs into the jack socket.
Why did you actually get an iPhone? When the iPhone 3G came out I got one but it had such a low battery life (even with battery case) I just left it on the shelf and forgot about it (bad news later because I realised I spent over £120 in that year on 3G connectivity when I used it for about 2 months - O2 must have loved me). It now sits redundant on the shelf, and I have upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy.

I can't say Samsung's interface is as good as the Apple's, but I've also got an iPad, which allows me the best of both worlds. OK, I know you can't keep an iPad in your pocket, but it is like an iPhone and has a better battery life. I'd even consider getting two phones - one for work and not as expensive and more robust - and an iPhone for home.
As others have said, a portable battery recharger (or a second mains charger at work) might help.

It doesn't cost that much to replace a cracked screen. Muh less than a replacement phone.

Fleksy in interesting. Thanks for that.
I only turn on mobile data when I want to use it, otherwise its a waste of energy. This means I can get 6 days out of my galaxy nexus with the extended battery
If you want offline content, then I can recommend Pocket (http://getpocket.com). You can save content on the web to Pocket (with a browser bookmarklet, or emailing the link, or using the sharing functionality built into Android), then can retrieve it from any device, and the smartphone apps save content locally so you can read offline.
From the Moves website: "Location tracking does consume battery power, so nightly charging is recommended." Get rid of the moves app and your iPhone battery lasts up to two days even in London.
I suspect we have reached the limits of battery technology, cramming more energy into them will probably be dangerous - already tried with the Boeing Dreamliner!
What's an I-Phone?

I am 56.
Mobile phones are by definition designed to be used outside. I find it baffling manufacturers *still* don't design them to cope with getting rained on. I suspect they make quite a bit of money on people buying new phones to replace their water damaged ones though...

It's also a shame smart phones can't be switched to "dumb" mode temporarily, where they behave like an old phone that can make and receive calls or texts but no more to preserve battery life.
My iPhone battery lasts for ages, but that's because I'm astonishingly unpopular and never get calls or texts.
I have a smartphone, my gripe is that it and iphones(?) don't have that little light that blinks when you've received a text, missed a call, etc.

So I've have to keep looking at the screen to find out if I've received anything (very annoying / sad).
'Dumb' mode on an iphone is easy - one setting to turn all mobile data off. Another for wifi if you're going to be away from it.
Something I've been doing with my iPhone is turning off 3G data. 2G is fast enough to download e-mail and notifications in the background while consuming FAR less power. Plus I have WiFi access at work and home anyway so just don't need fast data most of the time. As a result three days without charging is normal even with WiFi and bluetooth turned on constantly. 3G only goes on when I need to use the web or other data-heavy application.
Phone from Tesco £10'. Buy £15 credit and tesco treble it, not smart phone smart user.
Also forgot to say a full charge lasts about a week.
Battery life depends on the network quality too. If there's a strong network, it doesn't have to transmit with much power, so saves battery life. If the network is weak, it has to pump out more power.
An example: I have a Samsung Android. In London the battery just about works all day, even though most of it is in an office with a poor (though energy-sapping) wi-fi signal. Last week I was on holiday in Venice. Even though I didn't use the phone, by mid-afternoon the battery was dead.
Check out "Time Travel Explorer". Various maps of London from different years. You start with a current map then switch to a different year and it displays exactly the same view. Must admit it looks better on an iPad
Tha\t's why I got the HTC Desire Z - comes with a proper flip out keyboard and its got Gorilla Glass so when I drop it, it's fine. My Memory are doing something similar for £34 ... Apple is a triumph of style over substance.
For the record, the iPhone almost certainly does have Gorilla Glass or very similar, but the way it is installed in the case means the glass is more likely to be struck than most other phones.

Battery life is awful on all phones except Windows Phones. Android is often worse than iOS as iOS takes more control of what's going on.
Top of the list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_devices_with_Gorilla_Glass
Hmm. My Samsung Galaxy Y (cheapest of the cheap Android phones) will easily go several days without a charge, used a lot (mainly for tweeting via Wifi and checking my emails). Of course, I've just dropped it and knackered the screen, but that's one of the perils of riding a bike - and it will only cost me 70-odd quid to replace.
Kirk, the shell glass design was an absolute flaw in the iPhone 4. The glass front and back formed the side walls of the phone so if you dropped it the glass was virtually guaranteed to shatter as the force was absorbed through the rest of the phone.

The 5 is somewhat better in this respect as the narrow edge and rear is made of continuous Aluminium and the screen is set back from the edge, so a lot more force will go around the glass (front only) rather than through it. Not to say it's perfect now- but the 4 was a really, really bad design that they must have made a massive amount of money on replacing screens.
Thanks everyone, some useful tips there.
Is such a short battery life really usual for a new iPhone? Mrs Planarchy's iPhone 4 lasts several days.
I think I must be the only person on the planet who had to replace their lovely 2006 flip phone a few months ago, and ended up with a hugely downgraded, crappier flip phone! :(
Andrew: Neither Apple or Corning have ever confirmed that it is Gorilla Glass. I think it might be confirmed the glass is produced by Corning, but that's all.

Another Andrew: I have to admit, it's been a while since I've seen an iPhone 5, so I wasn't sure how they'd dealt with it in the redesign, but you are absolutely right, the 4 was a massively flawed design in many many ways.
Basement meting room. Is that a deliberate typo?

dg writes: Nah, it's a typo. Fixed now, thanks.
First mobile phones: Size of a brick, battery lasted an hour. 15years later: Size of a matchbox, battery lasted a week. Now: Almost back to size of a brick, and batteries lasting not much longer than an hour. And apparently, that is progress.
As to the battery not lasting: get yourself an external battery pack like the TechNet 7000. Only £26 or so from the internet. It has two USB ports so can charge two things at once (its not iPhone specific so will charge your camera or whatever that has a USB cable) AND it charges my iPhone four times. Perfect for long days out where the iPhone takes most of the pictures and thus runs down even quicker.
I took my lovely Google Nexus 4 out of my pocket to take a picture, and it went flying and hit a rather hard floor, breaking the touchscreen in the process - not just cracked, but entirely inoperative.

And so I've been back on my 2008 non-smart-phone for the past few weeks. I can get Gmail on it, and Google Maps at a push, but I miss the flexibility, and the WiFi, and the half-decent camera.

(at least it's insured - I just need to wait until Friday before I can be in for the courier.)










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