Let me say at the outset: I love my iPhone. The App Store and its contents are amazing.
But I have had my problems.
Many have experienced various application crashes. They don't really surprise me. Its only been a little over two weeks since the App Store opened, and between this being a new version of the iPhone's OS, combined with the foibles of multiple developers, I think some recoverable crashes are to be expected. The situation should improve as both the OS and the apps become more stable.
But last week, I experienced an apparently unrecoverable crash. Some application, I don't remember which, froze the iPhone. Holding down the lock and home buttons caused a restart, but that restart stalled on the Apple logo. Forever. Or at least the minute or two I gave it to recover.
I tried again. Same result. After about 2 minutes, the iPhone vibrated twice, but the Apple logo never disappeared. I plugged in a cable to keep the battery going, and let it stew for about 3 hours.
I attempted to get the iPhone into Restore mode, but it was no dice. It was then that I called Apple Care.
I believe I was talking to a non-US support center, as the CSR I spoke with had an accent. But she went through the usual support stuff, having me try things I had already tried. She also had me remove the SIM card and blow into the slot. Nothing helped.
The CSR offered to make an appointment for me at the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue here in Chicago; but could offer nothing earlier than 7pm. Unfortunately, my job requires that I be at work at 4am, so 7pm isn't practical. The CSR transferred me to a local human at that store, Peter. When I explained my situation to him, he offered to help facilitate getting me on the standby list, to try to get me seen in a reasonable amount of time.
I arrived at the store at 12:30 the next afternoon, after work. Peter was working the front door, and took me right up to the iPod Bar, where I was seen by Mark in about 20 minutes. We spent the next three hours together. Mark seems to be one of the smartest people in the store. Many other store workers came in him with questions, and Mark tried to help 3 people at a time with their varied iPod and iPhone problems.
First, Mark managed to get a Restore going, using a slightly different technique involving holding down the home and lock buttons for a longer period of time. The phone appeared to restore as a new phone. But when turned on, Safari was nowhere to be seen. Mark declared the phone dead, and set up a second phone.
The second phone was activated, but kept alternating between 3G and "No Service." So Mark tried a third phone.
Even before opening the shrink wrap; Mark scanned the box, and his computer reported that the SIM card was already registered! So Mark when for a fourth phone.
This one, too, scanned as already registered. So Mark broke out a new SIM card. Finally, the phone set up, it saw the 3G network good and strong, and I left the store with a new iPhone.
I took it home and synced it as a new phone, with my additional 20 or so Apps, and music, movies and photos. All was well until the next night, when I was rearranging the layout of the Apps. I moved most of them, but when pressed the home button to lock them in place, the phone froze up.
I restarted the phone... and the Apple logo returned forever.
If this were a ghost story, I'd stop there. But I now knew the alternate method of getting the phone into Restore mode; and I managed to restore it myself.
It's now 4 days since that latest restore. I have not rearranged my Apps, but all is currently working well.
I do wonder if moving too many of the Apps without saving taxes the phone's memory. I'll try rearranging again, but I think I may move only 3 or 4 apps at a time.
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