I Have the Dropsies

It's the worst in my house. The reception on my new iPhone 3G, that is.

Lousy reception, dropped calls, the phone freezing up and my email application not working are the major complaints that I've had since I got the new iPhone last week. The Woman in White. In other words, the phone isn't working very well.

When people ask me how I like my new phone, I respond:

I like it, when it works.

I'm not exactly the best ad for the iPhone walking around. The irony of it all is that the very reason to upgrade to the new iPhone is the 3G feature, which is the biggest problem that I've had with my new phone. I have to turn it off most of the time, so I'm back to the Edge system.

Misery loves company, so I guess I can find some solace in the fact that I'm not alone with my tech woes. The Financial Times reports, in Signal gripes mount over new iPhone:

The ranks of unhappy iPhone users continued to swell at the weekend as Apple customers complained about problems maintaining a signal on the company’s new 3G handset.

Over the past few weeks, customers have flocked to Apple’s online support forums to complain about weak or fluctuating signals leading to dropped calls and long download times.

“I have had my iPhone since this past Sunday,” wrote one iPhone customer on an Apple support forum last week.

“The reception issues began immediately with 3G flip-flopping between ‘no signal’ and up to four bars – but usually hovering between none and two.”

Not all iPhone users are reporting problems but a growing number of anecdotal reports from around the world indicates that the phenomenon may be widespread.

Apple has yet to publicly acknowledge the problem, compounding the frustration for some users.

As I've said before, as an early adapter, I expect glitches and bugs with a new product. It happened with the original iPhone and the bugs were eventually fixed, Not the Apple of My (i). But this glitch negatively impacts the use of the product itself, which is not exactly a good thing.

Hopefully, help is on the way soon. iPhone Matters reports, iPhone 3G reception issues to be resolved in next firmware update:

AT&T must be experiencing a significant amount of angry customer phone calls, because they’ve told Apple they want the iPhone 3G’s reception issue to be fixed in the next software update. A specific group of users have been experiencing severely limited cell reception, although Apple isn’t admitting any problems. A report by Nomura analyst Richard Windsor brought the issue a whole new level of attention, and mainstream media outlets have started to pick up on customer complaints.