Troubleshooting tips for iPhone apps

While I've REALLY enjoyed my new iPhone (despite its flaws), one thing you bump into a lot is problematic applications on the phone.

Even the best of programs (like NetNewsWire and Bloomberg) get crashy and it is amazingly common for apps to either freeze up, crash or (to my surprise for an OS X running machine) take down the whole phone entirely.

Often just restarting the app works fine (after a crash) or force quitting it if it has frozen (force quit by pressing and holding - for around 5 or so seconds - the menu button on the bottom of the iPhone).

Sometimes however, this doesn't work and often in the case of a new download you can erroneously (mistakenly, in error?) think that the app is, for a better word, crap. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. A particularly handy to-do app called Zenbe seemed to crash on start-up, then I discovered lots of my apps were crashing. In this case, rebooting the phone often works (and in Zenbe's case it did when other things didn't). Reboot the phone by pressing and holding the power key (the one at the top) until you're prompted to turn it off.

Sometimes, if it's an app you've had on your iPhone for a while, it's best to make sure there are no updates available - most apps are updated regularly. This can be done either on the phone through the App Store or through iTunes by clicking in Applications in the library sidebar and going Check for Updates.

And, if the other reviews on the App Store indicate people are happily using things, the last thing I normally try is to delete the app off the iPhone (press and hold on the app in the menu window until it "jiggles" and click the cross) and off iTunes (select it in the Application list and hit backspace) then download it afresh from the App Store (it will be free if you've purchased it already).

So, to sum up, try:

• restarting the app;
• force quitting the app (if it has frozen);
• rebooting your phone;
• making sure the apps are up-to-date;
  
• deleting the app from both the phone and iTunes and re-downloading.
  

Anyway, NetNewsWire went all problematic on me (which is a pain as it is perfect for the iPhone) and I ended up doing the last thing which got it all working happily again :)

Buying the iPhone 3G

Well, it took a while but I got an iPhone 3G on launch day here in the UK.

I'm not normally one of "those queuing people" but I was on late shift that day and have 2 Carphone Warehouses and 2 O2 stores (the UK partners of Apple) within 100 meters of my flat - did I have anything better to do? Probably not.

The stores opened at 08:02 (a play on the O2 network name) and I headed out just past 7am. The O2 store in Kensington's mall seemed to have the shortest queue so me and my book (Terry Pratchett's Making Money) joined at the end of a queue of about 15-20 (only one of which was a woman).

As the store was the main thoroughfare out of High Street Kensington Station and I worked nearby, I wholly expected to see people I knew walk by (and I did) and in any case I was joined by a colleague who'd decided to come to work early to queue too.

The store opened on time but o2's systems had collapsed under the load of credit checking, checking for existing customers' ability to upgrade, and a wholesale collapse of their activation abilities.

It took about 15 minutes to process 2 people (let in to the store bit by bit) so it took until just after 10 to get my new iPhone 3G 16GB - if you were much further down the queue you would have missed out - the 16GBs were in short supply and we were only lucky that a delivery of 4 more came while we were queuing.

Fortunately we had a good chat in the queue and all the people watching was superb - lots of people going by thrying their hardest not to look curious about why there was a big queue here :)

The customer service was orderly given the circumstances and the store manager did a great job of keeping the queue updated on the availability of the different models. As I neared the front of the queue, the queue went down a bit as people had to rush off to work or left because of the lack of available 16GB models. As I left, mainly women were in the queue - either not fussed with the 16GB version, or maybe just wise enough not to get up early!

Back home, I wasn't expecting the phone to be activated until at least the evening or the following day (as it turned out - after o2's systems were up and down all weekend - it didn't activate until 32 hours later) but fortunately no problems with Apple's servers at that time so I had a fully functioning wifi browsing machine - just no phone.

Supposedly the number transfer from my old network (Orange) will happen by the 16th - 5 days after I gave them the number transfer code. A long time but I have my old phone in the meantime and my iPhone with a temporary number too.

All-in-all, an alright experience - much better than in the US (where Apple's downed serves left quite a few "bricked" iPhones around) and here at Apple stores (where Apple staff weren't used to O2's systems being down).