Very upset... Was doing well with my iPhone4 -- but when I heard the latest was out, just had to get it.
iPhone 4s (which I use here in Japan via SOFTBANK) turns out to be hit and miss...
meaning, some have got bugs, while others don't.
In the case of my particular iPhone there's...
--> a worse battery drain than the iPhone 4. (irresolvable to date, but not so bad when I use an extra battery pack.)
--> Audio lost on outgoing calls... Had to go into the Apple store... unit replaced with also had the bug -- but luckily I tested it before I left the store.
There's also a STUPIDLY engineered fix to the battery drain bug that requires manually shutting down APPS after you've closed them... As with many
bugs, when you ask reps about it, they giggle and say, "I know, we're working on it!"
In fact, with every recent bug (including the infamous iTunes Password Loop disaster) that's how they answer things -- they giggle and say they're working on it.
The way to save some extra battery time is double click the home button, hold down the apps until you get a minus sign, then close down all the ones running
in the background. Also, if you tweet a lot you BETTER have a battery back up.
Also frustrated -- had to spend almost 2 hours on the phone with an Apple rep to determine that it was a hardware, not software issue and the rep on the
phone had me restoring and backing up the unit dozens of times to the point I was almost shaking.
That said, the camera is AWESOME, I really mean it!!! I'm not a professional photographer of course, but as a person who blogs and tweets a lot, I find the
quality of the photos very vivid and natural, even at night without the flash -- SiRI is funny, and iPhone is with me every minute of my life.
Unfortunately, one of the reasons I switched from WINDOWS to APPLE was becasue of Apple's reputation for putting out products that are well designed, well engineered
and that work... Post Steve Jobs APPLE to me, is like downgrading from TIGER to WINDOWS 97...
If the iPhone were a FREE piece of BETA software the various bugs (some which I haven't experienced) would be excusable, but this is a pricy product rushed to market.
As things stand, my phone is currently stable -- and I like it, but when iPhone5 or whatever it'll be called comes out, I definitely won't be as likely to get it... at least not until its
been out long enough to see what the bugs are.
As for iCloud -- its great to be able to have access to more stuff that's on my computer wherever I go, but then I remember the PASSWORD bug apple had and previously MOBILE ME
mail outage which they said would be resolved once iCloud was out... With this poor attitude, I'm not sure if I can really trust APPLE to serve as my cloud server.
In conclusion... The iPhone is a nifty device... They also seem to have improved the screen (it seems a lot less smudgy) - however, it might be worth getting the iPhone4 instead unless you're SURE that
you'll be able to deal with potential problems if you get them, or wait for the 5 and see if they get their act together. On the other hand, you might be lucky and get a unit that runs perfectly swell...
take your gamble.