iOS, iPhone and iPad Hardware Catch All - WWDC Today at 10PST

Finally upgraded my personal dumbphone (an old RAZR) to a 5S which also allowed me to relinquish the iPhone 4 work was providing me and I'm now just BYODing. Setting up all my apps this weekend and doing some side-by-side comparisons and the 5S is a huge improvement over the 4.

EvilDead wrote:

I just went from the 4S to the 5S and when setting it up realized that the new ones don't work with the gmail as an exchange server. What have others been doing about this?

Use the Gmail app.

shoptroll wrote:
EvilDead wrote:

I just went from the 4S to the 5S and when setting it up realized that the new ones don't work with the gmail as an exchange server. What have others been doing about this?

Use the Gmail app.

It's quite good these days, especially when compared to the poor excuse for an app they launched years ago. Alternatively, try Mailbox. If you really want all your mail in one app, options get more disappointing: Sparrow is one of the best (and only) mail client that supports Gmail directly as well as more generic interfaces, but doesn't support push.

EvilDead wrote:

I just went from the 4S to the 5S and when setting it up realized that the new ones don't work with the gmail as an exchange server. What have others been doing about this?

I thought Apple fixed that in one of the iOS 7-point-something updates?

That's not an Apple issue, that's Google sunsetting the ability for new devices to connect using the Exchange protocol, which is how push worked before.

psoplayer wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
EvilDead wrote:

I just went from the 4S to the 5S and when setting it up realized that the new ones don't work with the gmail as an exchange server. What have others been doing about this?

Use the Gmail app.

It's quite good these days, especially when compared to the poor excuse for an app they launched years ago. Alternatively, try Mailbox. If you really want all your mail in one app, options get more disappointing: Sparrow is one of the best (and only) mail client that supports Gmail directly as well as more generic interfaces, but doesn't support push.

OK, I will give it a try.

Also, just in time for this topic, I got my invite to the SquareOne beta this evening. PM me your email if it looks like a good option for you and you want an invite. It's definitely beta at the moment (encountered a handful of bugs in just my first 5 minutes with it) and doesn't support multiple accounts yet, but it's built around organizing mail the same way I already do mentally (categorizing by sender and reducing notifications by muting less-than-urgent categories, much like, but not integrated with, gmail's built-in category tabs) unlike Mailbox's postpone model.

Mailbox is so good.

Retiring my 4S today, I gotta say I miss the way it feels in my hand. The weight and form factor are just more satisfying than the 5S.

I use the Gmail app as well. The key thing I don't like about it is that it does not load the email before you open the app so you have to wait a few seconds.

Mailbox drive me nuts over time. It began to feel like a chore to get my mailbox to 0.

Does SquareOne allow you to set rules or are the just smart views of inbox? I have a bunch of rules running for one mail account on my laptop, but when it isn't running everything clogs my inbox, and that provider doesn't have server-side rule support. I'd love if my phone could handle this instead.

complexmath wrote:

Does SquareOne allow you to set rules or are the just smart views of inbox? I have a bunch of rules running for one mail account on my laptop, but when it isn't running everything clogs my inbox, and that provider doesn't have server-side rule support. I'd love if my phone could handle this instead.

They aren't just the smart views of the gmail web interface. They are custom filters that you maintain from within the app and unfortunately have no effect on how mail is viewed through any other gmail interface. So far it's just a more flexible way to filter out which emails result in a notification on my phone, with a fairly attractive minimalist interface to boot.

Now that I have had quite a few months with it I'm really disappointed with the 5S coming from a 4S which for the most part was a rock solid experience (aside from some battery issues). I should have waited for the 6 or looked at other options.

I can't specifically say whether its the 5S or IOS 7 but I had IOS 7 on my 4s for a couple months without problems before trading it in.

-Sometimes it takes 5 seconds to turn on after pressing the home button. This also randomly happens to my girlfriend's phone and she received hers through her work.

-Hard resets itself a few times per month. (also happens to my girlfriend)

-Poor battery life compared to previous iPhones (everyone I know that has one has noticed this).

-Will indicate it's connected to a WiFi network in the WIFI setting but will show the cellular data network usage indicator on the home screen. This happens with 2 of the 3 routers I commonly connect to. Never happened on my 4S. It Seems to me like a firmware issue with the wifi adapter.

-Stutter / slowdown in games when I receive a text or notification. This also happened on my 4S and I think its an IOS 7 issue that is not overcome by the faster processor.

-Harder to get the camera to focus for document "scanning" which I use quite a bit. Its close up auto focus in general just doesn't work as well as the 4S.

-Push no longer supported with Gmail. I know this isn't Apple's fault but it still sours the experience.

-Finger print reader works about half the time. It is just faster to punch in the password.

-Email indicator randomly displays incorrect number of unread mail. (IOS 7 bug)

-Reminder fails to pop up notification (probably bug but haven't looked into it)

there is probably more stuff that I'm forgetting. This is just the list I can come up with on the top of my head.

This phone has been factory reset and the issues still persist.

-Poor battery life compared to previous iPhones (everyone I know that has one has noticed this).

4G, especially LTE, is a battery killer. It's unfortunately how it is and there's a reason why a lot of Android phones come with huge batteries. That and their screen size. But anyway...

My anecdotal experience (from briefly working in a retail store) is that many people preferred their 4 to their 5, but complainers are louder and more frequent in-store, so take it with a grain of salt.

My mom, for one, loves her 5 though she never had a smartphone before.

I don't hate it, it just feels like a downgrade from the experience I had with my 4S. I have had my fair share of problems with my N7 which kept me from seriously considering a Android phone. However, when stacked against the 5S those Android problems don't look so bad.

That is too bad about the LTE being a battery hog. I mostly use cellular data for email and GPS apps anyways so the speed benefit doesn't really make a difference for me.

The 4/4S is the razr of our generation.

I just upgraded from the 4s to 5s and I regret nothing. NOTHING!

If battery life is an issue for you, I suggest googling for fixes. You can disable LTE in the Cellular menu, turn off the parallax screen, and you may want to take a look at Privacy->Location Settings->System Settings (way down at the bottom). In short, I think most/all of the problems you're having are software related, and some can be improved with the right settings.

trueheart78 wrote:

The 4/4S is the razr of our generation. ;)

Funnily enough I upgraded from a Razr to a 5S. Quite happy with it.

Edit: EvilDead, get the gmail app ASAP if you want push notifications.

Also the notification slow down in games on iOS 7 is nowhere near as bad as it used to be with iOS 6 or lower where it did that flip animation when the notification closed. I don't think their GPU can do overlays on animated content all that well, but 7 is a huge improvement in this regard.

Speaking of battery life, anyone else noting problems with battery life when the phone is cold?

In the winter, I keep my phone in an accessible coat pocket, which happens to be largely uninsulated, and I've had problems where if I've been out for a while, the phone shuts down when I try to pull it out, showing the low battery indicator briefly before shutting down. Once the phone is warmed up again, it works fine.

Obviously the easy solutions to this are to put the phone in an insulated case, or in an interior pocket, or add a chemical hand warmer to the pocket, or to stay inside until spring. But I'm wondering if it's just a symptom of how the battery's designed, or a larger problem I'll run into down the line.

"Out for a while" means "skiing in 15-20F (-5 - -10C) weather for a couple of hours". "warmed up again" means "10 minutes at room temperature in the car or shoved into my mitten with a hand warmer".

shoptroll wrote:
trueheart78 wrote:

The 4/4S is the razr of our generation. ;)

Funnily enough I upgraded from a Razr to a 5S. Quite happy with it.

Edit: EvilDead, get the gmail app ASAP if you want push notifications.

Also the notification slow down in games on iOS 7 is nowhere near as bad as it used to be with iOS 6 or lower where it did that flip animation when the notification closed. I don't think their GPU can do overlays on animated content all that well, but 7 is a huge improvement in this regard.

Did you have a 4S or 4? I didn't get slowdown the the 4S on 6 but got major slowdown when I upgraded it to 7. On the 5S the slowdown is less then the 4S but it has still managed to mess up a ton of my Superstickman golf games.

Katy wrote:

Speaking of battery life, anyone else noting problems with battery life when the phone is cold?

Batteries don't work very well in general when they're cold. I took my SLR to take night photos one winter and had to stop after a little while because the (new) batteries had died. They were fine after I got home and the camera warmed up. This was alkaline batteries, but I imagine the same rule applies to Lithium batteries. I suggest just keeping your phone in an interior pocket.

You can also go to Privacy->Location Services->System Services (it's at the bottom) and turn off Location-Based iAds and Popular Near Me.

EvilDead wrote:

Did you have a 4S or 4? I didn't get slowdown the the 4S on 6 but got major slowdown when I upgraded it to 7. On the 5S the slowdown is less then the 4S but it has still managed to mess up a ton of my Superstickman golf games.

I had a 4 from work and I'm pretty sure the notification banner stutter was worse in Jetpack Joyride on 6 than it was on 7.

shoptroll wrote:
EvilDead wrote:

Did you have a 4S or 4? I didn't get slowdown the the 4S on 6 but got major slowdown when I upgraded it to 7. On the 5S the slowdown is less then the 4S but it has still managed to mess up a ton of my Superstickman golf games.

I had a 4 from work and I'm pretty sure the notification banner stutter was worse in Jetpack Joyride on 6 than it was on 7.

I always thought the Game Center banner stutter was because of the phone trying to connect to the service as soon as you fire up a game. I have real crappy wifi at work, and I've gotten into the habit of putting my phone in airplane mode when I am ::ahem:: taking a break. No stutter then...

PaladinTom wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
EvilDead wrote:

Did you have a 4S or 4? I didn't get slowdown the the 4S on 6 but got major slowdown when I upgraded it to 7. On the 5S the slowdown is less then the 4S but it has still managed to mess up a ton of my Superstickman golf games.

I had a 4 from work and I'm pretty sure the notification banner stutter was worse in Jetpack Joyride on 6 than it was on 7.

I always thought the Game Center banner stutter was because of the phone trying to connect to the service as soon as you fire up a game. I have real crappy wifi at work, and I've gotten into the habit of putting my phone in airplane mode when I am ::ahem:: taking a break. No stutter then...

The game center banner will do it as well as any notification banner. Unfortunately can't do airplane mode in multi-player stickman golf.

After a day with iOS 7.1 on my iPhone 4, I'm pretty satisfied. The phone definitely feels faster than it did after upgrading to 7.0, and while it's not world-shattering, it's a not insignificant change. Even 7.0 wasn't iOS-4-on-a-3G bad, but it did make everything a little less pleasant. My contract is up next month but now I've no complaints keeping this 4 until the 6 comes out.

7.1 definitely fixed some performance issues on my iPad 3, much happier

Similar experience here -- iOS 7 seemed sluggish on my iPhone 4, 7.1 feels like a bigger improvement than the benchmarks I saw on Ars Technica led me to expect.

I haven't upgraded my iPad 3 yet because I was okay with how 7.0 ran on it, but now I'll have to try 7.1 on it and see.

Anyone tried 7.1 on an ipad 2?

Eh I am not a big fan of the big Gray bar at the bottom. I liked the subtle transparency. Any way to get it back?

For some reason contrast turned itself on in general/accessibility. Weird.

Edit:
It turns out that it does reduce transparency automatically if you don't have a 5S or iPad air to increase performance.

Chaz wrote:

Anyone tried 7.1 on an ipad 2?

Seems to be working OK here, although it refused to install over Wifi and I had to resort to using iTunes to update. I like the faster animations, but it's still slightly slower overall than iOS 6.

Actually, I got my iPhone 4 out of the drawer to try out 7.1 and I'm kind of regretting 'upgrading' to an Android phone a little...