Jul 31 2010
iOS 4.0 on the 3G iPhone is not awesome, but this video is
As you may know, there has been a shift in focus here at MacMerc from reporting every bit of Apple news to focusing more on what is awesome and amazing about what we, as users, can achieve with these devices. I’m trying to steer away from the scandals and the failures that inevitably come up to spotlight the clever and the remarkable. As I like to say, it’s my ongoing pursuit of Mac awesomeness.
I’m going to seeming to break from that with the story, but I’d like to argue that this is still awesomeness. The video embedded below is a brilliant parody by Adam Burtle. Here’s his story:
As a generally happy Apple customer, I bought two 2G iPhones on the first day they hit the market (one for myself and one for my romantic partner at the time). When the 3G came out, I bought that model too.
The first iPhone captivated the world because the interface was so well done, so snappy, so interactive; it was like nothing before it. Of course it was, it was an Apple product. That, right there, is why I buy Apple products. And I didn’t even mind that it was missing “copy and paste,” MMS, ringtones, etc — because I knew Apple would eventually get to these through software updates. And eventually they did. Unfortunately they kept coming out with new phones. With faster processors. And they wrote all their software updates for these phones, with little attention to deprecated models. I don’t really use third party software on my phones, I honestly don’t even use ringtones. I just use my phone for SMS, web, maps, and occasionally as an actual phone, so the 3G model was more than I ever needed.
Except over time, it’s fulfilled my needs less and less. And it’s not because my needs have grown. It’s not because I’ve installed a bunch of laggy software. It’s because Apple’s firmware has become bloated, with respect to the processing power of the 3G iPhone. I just installed iOS 4 two weeks ago, and at this point, I’d be happy to roll back to the first firmware I ever had, just to have that original speed again; forget about the copy and paste, I don’t need it that badly.
So, tongue firmly in cheek, I decided to compare my phone to the first iPhone commercial that Apple ran. That commercial lasted twenty-eight seconds. How long will my phone take for the same tasks?
Adam’s story is similar to my own and his video is pure awesomeness in how it understands my pain. Evidently, Apple is looking into the problem. If they hold a press conference to talk about it, I hope the open the proceedings with Adam’s video. 
