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iPhone’s limited RAM struggles under the stress

February 28, 2008

iPod Most iPhone users may not be conscious of problems with software crashes, but for some owners this happens all the time. Applications close without warning and the iPhone returns to the home screen. It can happen while surfing the ‘net on Safari, while selecting or playing music, watching video, anything. The effect is indistinguishable from using ‘Force Quit’ to close an application (by holding down the home button for 6 seconds) except that it happens unexpectedly rather than at your instigation.

The same thing happens with the iPod Touch, particularly the new 32GB version, only worse.

It is not a widely reported issue, but is definitely real. It was confirmed by Engadget when they reviewed the iPhone in July.

“We managed to continuously crash the iPod app while listening to music and doing other things, namely browsing. We wouldn’t call it incredibly unstable, but we wouldn’t say it’s rock solid, either.”

ipod touch 32GB

My son Alex recently bought a brand new iPod Touch 32GB and promptly loaded it up with 20 or so GB of music, videos etc from his computer. It started misbehaving. He would flick through albums using Cover Flow and would suddenly find himself looking at the home screen. It was starting to get difficult to play music without a song crashing halfway through.

He thought he must have messed up the setup so he returned the device to its factory settings, flattened the memory and started again. Same result. He went straight back to the Apple Store and they seemed puzzled, had no explanation, but replaced the device without a quibble.

Alex set the new iPod up with the utmost possible care and for a time all seemed well, but later on the problems started to reappear. Ultimately, it became clear things were no better than before.

What then? A bad batch of iPods? Some rogue corrupt music or video file? If the latter it could be a real needle in a haystack job to find it.

I tried Google and found that many iPhone and iPod Touch users have had the exact self-same experience. It is all there on Apple Discussions. All there, that is, except an explanation or solution.

A Hard Reset (hold Home and Sleep/Wake buttons simultaneously for at least 10 seconds) does make the problem go away, at least for a while. That got me thinking, as did the fact that using Safari (via the domestic wifi) seemed to encourage the misbehaviour. In particular, under no circumstances could Alex fully open the home page of my personal blog without his iPod crashing. As the images downloaded it would get to the point where it gave up and died. Now there are a lot of images on my blog home page, and many are large high resolution files, so memory, or insufficiency thereof, would seem to be implicated.

My conclusion is this. It is not that hard to completely run out of RAM space on an iPhone or iPod Touch. It depends on how many applications you leave open and the memory usage demands placed on each application.

Early on some iPhone users thought it was a Safari related problem because they first encountered it while surfing the ‘net. It wasn’t though anything to do with Safari specifically – it is just that the easiest way to crash an iPhone is by navigating to a web page with a large amount of embedded content, particularly images. If there is more on the page than RAM can hold it will just crash. I do not think there is an equivalent of a Windows Swap File or this would not happen – slow down yes, but not crash. Alex still has a fair few GB spare on the iPod’s flash memory.

With the iPod Touch there is greater likelihood of a crash while, say, using Cover Flow particularly if a large proportion of the 32GB is filled up with music files. It means Cover Flow has that many more album art images to display. Overdo the flicking back and forth from A to Z and at some point it will crash. Less likely to be an issue with the iPhone or Touch 16GB because the flash memory doesn’t hold as many albums/music files.

There is no solution reported in Apple Discussions because there is no solution. The 128MB RAM in the iPhone/iPod Touch will simply run out if challenged too hard. Users just have to live with this, adapting their behaviour to minimise the impact. That means avoiding some websites, closing down applications (with Force Quit) when not using them, using Cover Flow just to locate music not as a pretty plaything.


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Posted in Consumer Products, Internet, Technology | Tagged , , , , | 22 Comments »

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iPhone a “flop” in the UK

December 7, 2007

iPod Maybe flop is too strong a word, but the early indications are that iPhone sales in the UK are bright rather than incandescent.

It’s all relative. Still, the hysteria in the US has not been repeated here.

From The Register, 23 November:

“Reliable channel sources tell us that Apple’s exclusive UK operator has activated just 26,500 iPhones since its launch two weeks ago, below the company’s expectations.

This doesn’t reflect the true number sold … but the gross is unlikely to be significantly higher. It’s far lower than first-weekend sales guesstimates of 100,000, a figure reprinted by tabloid and broadsheet alike.”

I’m not honestly surprised. I can think of lots of reasons:

Price

This is the single biggest factor. The first year cost of an iPhone to an American buyer is $1,118.88* which translates to around £550 at current exchange rates. Now that’s quite a lot, but not compared with the £689** it actually costs a UK purchaser to own and run an iPhone on the O2 network for 12 months.

Note that the basic O2 contract only includes 200 free minutes a month (cf 450 for the basic AT&T contract in the US) so the UK cost for the equivalent service is probably around £750-£800. In other words, the iPhone is 45% more expensive to the UK buyer.

Now compare with the cost of buying a typical alternative high-end phone in the UK. The equivalent twelve month outlay if you plump for a Nokia N95 on a 400 monthly minutes contract is just £360. And in many ways the N95 comfortably out-specs the iPhone (eg HSDPA, 5MP camera, onboard GPS), even if the UI is not as cool and unique as the latter’s.

Market norms

It’s really part of the point above but Brits are used to getting their phones free when they subscribe for a contract. Having to pay a considerable up-front sum on top of a hefty monthly outlay goes against the UK phone market culture. It rankles.

Similarly, and unlike in the US, Brits are used to being able to get their phones unlocked so they can use the carrier of their choice. Being locked in to O2 also rankles. It’s not that O2 is hated, like AT&T is in the US, it’s the principle. Also, O2 does not provide the best signal strength in all areas.

Note that the French are able to buy their iPhones unlocked entirely legally, for an additional €100. Not surprisingly many are taking up the option and sales there look to be considerably brisker than in the UK. Sales in Germany are lacklustre.

Negative press about “bricked” iPhones in the US

This is related to the lock-in point above, in that the instances of iPhones getting bricked in the US are connected with attempts to break the carrier lock-in. But the point here is that Apple are seen as having penalised their customers unduly harshly, even if the latter did breach the licence terms. It’s all about whether a corporation projects an image of caring for their customers. The brickings damaged Apple’s brand, crucially before the iPhone’s UK launch.

The Yanks had it months ago

By the time the iPhone came to the UK it no longer presented a world first opportunity to get ones mitts on a piece of gadget history. The buzz at secondary launch locations was never going to be as big as for the original launch in the US.

Teething problems with reception

There have been reports of early adopters in some areas having to send their iPhones back because of signal problems. For some reason Matlock seems to have been singled out as a particular trouble spot. We know O2 coverage is weak in some places anyway, but this is different: iPhones are getting weaker signals than other phones on O2 even when the two are held side by side. This may be a technical fault due to a glitch in the system that conserves battery when the phone is on standby.

Timing of UK launch

Launched too early in the run-up to the festive season? Maybe sales will pick up as XMAS shopping gets into full swing.

Rumour that 3G version is around the corner

Reliance on EDGE for Internet browsing is definitely a drawback, but the rumours of a forthcoming 3G version are stronger now than when the iPhone first launched in the US.

Waiting for the post XMAS price drop

Apple have already annoyed early adopters in the US by dropping the price too soon after launch, creating a sense of having exploited their own greatest enthusiasts. Who would like to hazard there won’t be a significant price drop in the UK shortly after the XMAS rush?

*$399 for the phone from Apple (free shipping), $59.99 pm for basic AT & T basic plan (450 monthly mins)

**£269 for the phone from O2 (free shipping), £35 pm for O2 basic plan (200 monthly mins)

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Touched by the Zune

November 20, 2007

iPod Paul Thurrott made two interesting observations in this week’s episode of Windows Weekly, which got me thinking.

The first was that the iPod touch is really for video not for music, because you need to be looking at it to use it. You can’t control it when it’s in your pocket (while you’re, say, walking the dog) because you can’t use the controls by feel.

Ironic. You can’t control the iPod touch by touch.

apple ipod touch

That probably rules it out for me. I do use my iPod when out with the dog and I often need to pause it or advance to the next playlist item. I had long been of the view that an iPhone without the phone would have been the perfect iPod, but this looks like a showstopper for me.

The second interesting thing Paul said was that the second generation 80GB Zune can fill the role of an Apple TV, ie build a bridge for video content between your computer and your TV. This is because the Zune has built-in wifi which will automatically sync with Zune Marketplace (equivalent of iTunes) provided the Zune is plugged into a power source.

It’s a very attractive proposition. You come back from listening to music/podcasts while walking the dog, pop the Zune into a powered docking station on top of the TV, it syncs with the PC and by the time you’ve made a cup of tea you’re ready to sit down and watch the latest downloaded TV shows.

microsoft zune 80GB

It’s not quite there yet, though. The Zune only supports 320 x 240 resolution, which falls well short of the Ipod touch’s 480 x 320, so picture quality would be disappointing. There is also a dearth of content. No movies or TV shows for the Zune yet, in the US or UK. It would only be any use with video podcasts and home movies.

Another killer is the lack of audiobook support. But I’m sure that will change, just as I’m sure there will be a 3G Zune with better video resolution and one day more video content via the Zune Marketplace.

So if it came to a choice between an iPod touch and a Zune … right now I’m surprised to find myself gravitating towards the Zune.

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Posted in Consumer Products, Entertainment, Microsoft, Technology, Wireless networks | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments »

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An iPod named Lazarus

October 28, 2007

iPod Dead as an iDodo as it might seem, your old defunct iPod may not have made its way irreversibly to iHeaven after all.

As mentioned in my post about audible.com, I wanted to revive my son’s long discarded, non-functioning 4G iPod so that my wife could listen to audiobooks in the car. We had never had the heart to throw the thing away and it was still kicking around the house, useless and inert, having given every indication that the hard disk had rotated its last.

iPod

I had it in the back of my mind that there was a way of salvaging iPods where the disk appeared to have failed. I was sure I’d seen something on the Internet. I found this set of instructions. I’m not sure if this is the exact same website I’d come across before but it covered the same ground.

The revelation is that the hard disks on older iPods sometimes stop working because the disk cases get misshapen over time, particularly with iPods that get heavy use, due to the temperatures generated. The curvature of the case stops the disks spinning, or something, even though they are otherwise sound. If you can get the back off the iPod and introduce a piece of card or similar to hold the disk casing flat then it can spin up again.

Well it had to be worth a try. The hardest bit by far was getting the silver back off the iPod. You can apparently get special plastic tools to help you, but as I was more concerned about getting the thing working than preserving its dated looks I used a kitchen knife (shame on me). It was still very hard to prise the back off but I managed it without, as it turned out, inflicting any visible damage. I used an old business card between the disk casing and the inside of the back of the iPod to achieve the required flattening effect.

With the iPod case back on and the device connected to my PC via the USB dock connector I was amazed to see the Apple sign appear and then a very long wait for the battery to charge up from flatter than a Des O’Connor joke. After all, the iPod had not been used in around two years, my son having switched to a Creative Zen Vision:M. In due course the iPod made a complete recovery and all the music was still there and playable.

I had thought my efforts had been a waste of time when my wife decided she wasn’t all that interested in listening to audiobooks, but my son was very glad to have his iPod back as he had lost the original source for a lot of the music on there and had thought it lost forever. So there was a happy ending after all. Aaaah!

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Posted in Consumer Products, Entertainment, Internet, Music, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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