Why Did Apple Just Wreck My iPhone With This New iPhone Software?

So everyone was raving and hyperventilating about some new iPhone software Apple released a while ago -- a new operating system, I think.

So two days ago, when I clicked my iPhone into its umbilical cord and a pop-up screen asked me if I wanted to download it, I said fine.

Then I had to sit there for 20 minutes while it downloaded (annoying).

And now my iPhone (3GS) is different. In ways that thus far have been annoying.

First, there's the picture that just appeared on my Home screen. Not the front screen -- the Home screen. The screen where all my icons live. That screen used to be black and therefore provided nice contrast for my icons. Now, there's a picture on that screen, and it's bright and colorful, which means I can't see my icons very well. I can't figure out how to get rid of it.

I asked the iPhone geniuses in my office how to get rid of it. They said I had to download something. Or take a picture of blackness and figure out how to transfer it to the Home screen. Or something. And maybe someday, if the business goes bankrupt and my kids disown me and I have some free time, I'll figure out how to do that. In the meantime, I'll just be annoyed that Apple wrecked my Home screen without asking me and didn't offer me an easy way to get my old one back.

Then there was my email, which suddenly started appearing in the heinous Google "conversation" format. Yes, I know that some people LOVE that format. I hate it. It causes me to miss emails. If I never see email in "Conversation" format again it will be too soon.

Fortunately, with a dip into settings, I figured out how to turn off the "Conversation" format. Apple, I note, calls it "threading." Whatever it is, I hate it, and I didn't ask for it, and I'm thrilled that it's gone.

Lastly, this morning, my iPhone slowed to a crawl. It has locked up before, but I've never had the type-a-letter-and-wait-three-seconds-for-it-to-appear phenomenon before. This persisted. So I rebooted the phone, and the problem went away. I'm assuming that this might have something to do with the new software, which would be annoying.

So is there anything GOOD about this new software? Or did Apple just download it to annoy me? (Or to encourage me to spring for the NEW iPhone?)

See also: 10 Things We Love And Hate About The iPhone 4

 

Follow Henry Blodget on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hblodget

Comments

[sl26]

11:59 PM on 07/01/2010

Get rid of the background is easy. Take a picture with your camera of something black or dark brown. Then go to settings and choose that as your wallpaper.

[vtblom]

08:03 PM on 07/01/2010

At least yours still works, I did the OS download and upgrade and it bricked my phone. After 3 days with Apple support they overnighted a new(old) phone. Not my fault, and they had no idea why it bricked. My new phone is still at 3.1.3 until I can spare another week of no phone.

[ed bamboozle]

01:45 PM on 07/01/2010

Perhaps Mr. Blodget should trade his iPhone for an idiotPhone to help him with these complex settings issues he seems to be having.

[sl26]

12:12 AM on 07/02/2010

Agree ed. Upgraded mine and the only problem i had was with wallpaper which i easily fixed.

[Steelsil]

01:20 PM on 07/01/2010

Which is why an Apple phone would be my very last choice in a smart phone - because it belongs to SJ and not me, and he messes with it at will, as well as telling me what software I can have.

[NHBill]

01:00 PM on 07/01/2010

Yo HB!
You might have run your post by a techie friend before publishing it for all the the world to see.
You come across as a complete tech bumpkin.

[maverick77]

01:03 AM on 07/01/2010

Pop-up screens asking "Do you want to do this, click yes or no" are for PCs. Why would you want control over your own device? Steve Jobs is god and your device will only do what he allows.

[van CA]

06:12 PM on 06/30/2010

one day, you will look back at this post with anguish and regrets.

[mlaiuppa]

06:10 PM on 06/30/2010

I'm thinking #3.

[eXpresso]

04:31 PM on 06/30/2010

the real news in this article is the story about a CEO of a major business publication who is not technically savvy enough to change the wallpaper on his phone, but astute enough to eB|tch about it on a blog.

[sanfranciscomermaid]

04:10 PM on 06/30/2010

I agree 100%. I panicked, thinking water had gotten in my iphone - stripped off the rubber, pried off the Otter case, water droplets still there. Turns out it is their default screensaver! I had the same issue with the iPad - the screensaver made the screen look scratched. The tech said it was supposed to be shooting stars! And I received many emails that had no content, no sender, and were undeletable - had to reset the whole thing. AARGH! Still trying to figure out the Paint thing, but am looking for a free app...

[Parducci]

03:25 PM on 06/30/2010

You say:
"...a pop-up screen asked me if I wanted to download it, I said fine."
"...Apple wrecked my Home screen without asking me..."
"Or did Apple just download it to annoy me?"

What are you thinking? They asked you. You downloaded it. Without bothering to find out what you were doing. And you were a dot com analyst? Right.

[MrVee]

03:10 PM on 07/01/2010

I agree he should have never upgraded his phone. Apple has never reliable in the upgrade game. They can't even upgrade itunes. They call it an upgrade but you are starting all over, everything has to be backed up prior or you LOSE EVERYTHING. Weird how that works huh?.

[tayo65000]

10:04 AM on 07/02/2010

hmmm...... I upgrade whenever there is a new upgrade and I have never lost anything.

[Jay Johnson]

10:39 PM on 07/01/2010

this explains the dot com boom/bust.

[Joel Cloralt]

02:49 PM on 06/30/2010

Did you write this article on a piece of paper and faxed it to the Huffingtonpost? Making such a big deal about the wallpaper and how you have to see yourself bankrupt or find some free time to change it is just ridiculous. You took longer to write this article than you could have taken changing the wallpaper on your phone.

[sl26]

12:13 AM on 07/02/2010

Ha Ha Ha...good one Joel.

[Jonnn]

02:42 PM on 06/30/2010

This article is awful and needs to be noted that it seems as though you don't actually know much at all about your phone nor the software. That in fact you're assuming anything that goes wrong MUST be the software, which it's obvious that you know nothing about. How is it you're so comfortable with complaining about something you don't have a clue about? And perhaps next time you decide updating the software on your phone, you should read the information that Apple provides for you that lists all of whats new/different about the software before installing it, rather than writing an article about how it's ruined your phone. Apple designed iOS 4 to cater to people like you, so before assuming it's "wrecked" your phone, perhaps consider about using all of the abundant resources that Apple have supplied for us to gain an understanding of it. Because after reading this article, you definitely should think about using them.

[Orion Miller]

02:32 PM on 06/30/2010

Making the background black again is literally the easiest thing. Make a 320x480 picture in Paint, make it completely black, put it in the folder you sync your photos to your iPhone with, go into photos on the iPhone, choose the black one, set as wall, both, bam. It takes literally 5 minutes and is simple enough that a child could do it.

That said, I don't know why you'd want to, or why you're upset with Apple over this. Adding wallpapers is probably the best thing they've done, ever. I've been playing around with it since getting the update yesterday, and so far, I haven't come across a single wallpaper that has clashed with the icons at all.

Also, folders are an amazing addition, and you're overlooking them completely (although considering you don't even know how to make the wallpaper black again, you probably wouldn't be able to figure out how they work, either.)

[Gudrun]

11:31 AM on 07/01/2010

Thanks for the instructions, but this is hardly intuitive.

[XCARTELX]

02:27 PM on 06/30/2010

This article is ridiculous. Basically, you're saying that your intelligence level isn't high enough to adapt to rather simple, more efficient software changes. I'm honestly surprised that you were able to post a digital blog post. What happens when wordpress updates their backend? Do you cry in the corner and call for IT?