iPhone 3G crippled by software update

Its reputation has already been tarnished by iPhone 4 antenna problems, but now Apple faces a new PR nightmare as iPhone 3G owners say their handsets are barely usable after Apple pushed out a software update.

Anthony Agius, founder of the popular Australian MacTalkcommunity website, described the update as a "disaster" for iPhone 3G owners.

"It's just so slow, apps don't run properly; to launch the SMS app for example might take 30 seconds, Safari chugs ... the OS [operating system] itself will freeze," he said, adding the problems persisted even with the recent minor iOS 4.0.1 update.

"Apple blocked it so you can't go back to version 3, so if you don't like it you're stuck with it. Personally I think they just made a bad choice by releasing iOS 4 for the 3G without checking it properly."

Some users posited that Apple may have deliberately wrecked their phones so people would be forced to upgrade to the newer models, the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4.

Think you're seeing conspiracy theories here RLMK 

I am having the SAME problems! iPhone is now sooo slow. Will try an upgrade to 4.0.1 but am not feeling confident. 

I am struggling too. Was thinking even of doing a system back-to-basics restore to see if I could return to an earlier version. Apple being the size they are, surely more attention to Q&A?

Agree! Think Apple has really some issues, issues that shouldn't happen for such a company..