macnn
07/11/2008, 10:35am, EDT
Friday, July 11th
iPhone OS 2.0 available: issues, first look
Apple officially released iPhone version 2.0 via iTunes on Friday morning. And as thousands of users upgrade their first-generation iPhones, reports of glitches have begun to surface on Apple support discussion boards and MacNN's forums. One user says after waiting an hour and 15 minutes for the upgrade to install, his iPhone was bricked. He and a number of other users say the iPhone needs to contact the iTunes Store for reactivation but the process doesn't appear to be working.
MacNN installed the v2.0 on an writer's first-generation iPhone. The update, installed via a Macbook, took about 20 minutes, and went off without a hitch. The user's contacts, music and other material were restored with no apparent data loss.
The interface appears a bit snappier -- switching between functions seemed to take less time. After a visit to the AppStore, it took about a minute to download an install a free copy of AIM, which supports MobileMe. A quick test showed the chat client worked just like it's Mac counterpart.
Other users have not been so fortunate making the switch, Forum postings show delays with in-store activation of new iPhones, problems activating upgraded phones possibly due to heavy demand on iTunes servers, and other glitches. Many users have reported that the update left their iPhones "bricked" either during or after the installation process. But a number of other users have reported similar experiences to our own, with trouble-free installation.
Filed under: iPod, iPhone
Other story tags: iTunes, iPhone 2.0
, 
, 8
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
Top
subscribe to comments
for this article
I wonder...
If someone bricked their phone by attempting an unlock, it seems that they might try to upgrade to 2.0, then when it stayed bricked, they'd claim it was due to the update. I haven't updated mine yet, so I can't give any first-hand info. Hope it goes smooth.
Two choices
Well, readers would only either have problems or not with their iPhones or not. Thank you for pointing out the only two available options.
It IS bricked....
I have an original iPhone that is no longer working after attempting to install the 2.0 upgrade. It has never been unlocked or had any non-Apple software installed on it. Now all it shows is the diagram to connect it to the computer, but when I do, I get an error message from iTunes. I can not restore it to the previous firmware version because the tabs which usually appear on the iPhone screen in iTunes do not appear, just a white screen with the word "iPhone" in gray. The phone says "no service" and no bars appear. No outgoing calls can be placed. Incomming calls go directly to voicemail. I assume this is what people mean by "bricked."
Unbricking
You can unbrick you iphone. The process is not straightforward and involves downgrading iTunes and manually installing the older software by putting the device into DFU mode.
thats not going to fix it
downgrading will not fix anything. the problem is Apples servers are so severely hit right now that the iTunes software cannot connect with the activation service to unlock your phone. so after the install of 2.0 was complete it needs to talk to Apple to reactivate the phone which isn't happening. any software change will do that so downgrading will cause the same problem. we just need to wait until the volume drops and the servers are available. I wish Apple had thought about this and released the 2.0 software either yesterday or tomorrow so people upgrading and new purhcases would not clash with each other. imaging the original 5-7 million owners plus thousands of new owners around the world hitting the same set of servers at the same time. its basically caused a denial of service attack.
It is NOW unbricked.
I'm the guy who posted the "It IS bricked" message, and the phone is now functioning. The phone eventually completed a connection to itunes and finished the installation. Everything that should be there is, and calls work as they did before. Just figured I'd advise anyone reading. Yea.
still no 2.0
still no 2.0 here ... itunes tells me 1.1.4 is the latest. :(
ziphone unlocked and 2.0
I have an existing unlocked Iphone (ziphone was used to unlock it) - anyone know if I can safely upgrade to 2.0 or if it will kill the phone? Any advice please!