Apple recalls millions of iPhone 3G power adapters

Well folks, I signed up online for the adapter replacement upon the notification of the recall and as promised by Apple I received the replacement by “mid-October” (actually the replacement arrived on October 10 - Thank you Apple!!). I will be sending the “defective” adapter back on Monday 10/13 via Apple’s provided prepaid shipping label and as promised the issue is resolved free of charge and with no further problem. In the meantime, as figured, it was no problem whatsoever recharging my iPhone 3G via the USB.

Thanks Apple, you continue to set the bar for current and future technology and I will continue to place my faith, trust and hard earned $$ in your products.

Hey Anonymous posted 9/30/08. Electric is electric and the iPhone can’t tell where it is getting the juice from. The USB gives it the same charge as an electrical outlet and charges the phone just as quickly and fully. You need to update your iPhone to the latest 2.1 firmware and most of your battery issues will be resolved………..at least mine were. Is the iPhone power hungry………you bet it is but at least now I only have to charge it every other day. Suggestions for power saving. Set phone to lock after 1 minute (the screen uses a lot of battery). Turn off bluetooth when not in use (bluetooth sucks the most power from the battery). Turn off location services unless you feel you need to see your exact location on the Google Maps. Turn off Wi-Fi unless you actually need to hook up to a network otherwise the phone will constantly search for networks and use up power. On the other hand use Wi-Fi when you can as it uses less battery than 3G. Turn off keyboard clicks/sounds unless you feel you need them.

I hope this helps. The iPhone is truly amazing and you just need to make a few adjustments and give it a chance.

I have a 3g that I bought after the recall, have been charging it with my laptop and I think that is why my battery power sucks. I only get about 5 hours standby. What the hell, give me a new phone with a battery that needs conditioning, say “your computer will charge it just fine” (a santa rosa macbook pro) and it doesn’t. Punks at AT&T, they should have warned me that USB changing it does a below par job–especially since I have to live with this battery for years.

this is such a minor issue that it barely warrants a story as this adapter is an accessory that the typical user may not even use very often, it at all. most iPhone owners charge their phones via the usb sync cable, or cradle/dock or car adapter.

I have had my iPhone for 6 weeks and it is the best electronic device I have purchased in the last decade. I have had very good 3G and Edge connections from across southern and northern CA.

I had Verizon with a Motorola Q just before and, while Verizon does have better coverage, I have found the AT&T coverage to be adequate.

The iPhone is so much easier to use and so much better designed than my blackberry, treo or the Q., that I would never consider switching back.

In general, I have found Apple’s service and tech support to be far superior to Dell and HP(at home and at work I have been supporting many Dell’s and HP’s for over 10 years.)

Apple isn’t perfect, but compared to the competition, they provide a much better overall experience.

C’mon people………it’s a stinkin’ adapter!!!! Apple is replacing it for FREE so what’s the big deal? Go online, answer a few questions and you will have the replacement by mid-October. In the meantime just charge your iPhone via the USB. It’s the same as plugging it into a power strip now isn’t it? As for the battery life and the 3G signal, just make sure you update to the latest 2.1 firmware (released 9/12/08) and you will notice a VAST improvement in both. The iPhone 3G is without question the most incredible hand held device created to date………….and no I don’t work for Apple!!

As I’ve always said, Apple products are simply electrifying.

my goodness everyone. you guys need to calm down. it is just a phone. you guys are fighting about a stupid invention, when there are wayyyyyy more important things to be handled in this world. jeeze people, u guys are tooo worried about your “3g iphones and their power adapters” when people in Africa are just praying that they will survive. listen to you guys…lighten up about these things and just realize how fortunate you are to even have an iphone 3g {for all of you that are complaining}

All of you complaining about a company that has only made two phones…look at the first two from any other company and guess what they had problems too.

While I agree that the “bars” measurement is totally ridiculous and means nothing, I have to say that my iPhone 3G reception is worse than my wife’s Razr on the same AT&T network. I have to disable 3G often - fair enough, I didn’t assume they had perfect coverage in my area (even though the 3G map shows complete coverage where I live…). But, even on the Edge network, my phone consistently drops calls in areas where my wife’s is perfect.

Obviously, the power adapter has nothing to do with the reception issue. The idiot who sticks a pair of pliers into a live electrical socket is, well, an idiot. It does, however, open up another forum for owners to complain about what they don’t like. All in all, I’m pretty happy with the device - but it’s not perfect. I’ll be curious to see how Google’s Android platform plays out over the next year and a half…

I wonder why it is AT&T’s problem that the iPhone also has problems connecting to 3G networks in Europe also. I didn’t think AT&T had a network in Europe… Perhaps they really are the evil Empire.

It amazes me how some people believe everything that Apple spews.

I can’t help but wonder how people still point fingers at the wrong people for their “issues”…

Let me break this down for you:

1. AC Adaptor is NOT an iPhone problem, it is an AC Adaptor for God’s sake. Just because it comes with an iPhone people think “oh another problem with the iPhone”.

2. AC Adaptor is NOT related to the reception problem (duuuhhh) - Hey I had to say it just in case there are some out there that do believe this :)

Yeah, for sure, get it replaced when it becomes available for safety reasons… but don’t relate it to the iPhone just because its included.

3. Bad Reception is AT&T’s problem, not Apple’s. Plain and simple. No ifs ands or buts about it. Read below:

4. Just because a different phone has more “bars” sitting next to an iPhone, doesn’t mean that phone has better reception. It actually means absolutely nothing at all. Bars are a marketing tool, nothing more.

1 bar on the iPhone could = 4 bars on a Nokia when it comes to signal strength received by the unit, for example. There is no standard “5 bars is 100% signal” or “1 bar = x amount of signal”. It’s whatever the company uses as a standard unit of measure. If you really know what you’re talking about, you would compare the -dbm value of two phones side by side in field test mode, sitting under a cell tower to see which PHONE is more sensitive.

So please stop saying “…my other cell phone has better reception because it has more bars sitting next to the iPhone” etc etc… that’s baby talk from an uneducated user.

Kudos to Bob from his post above for knowing what he’s talking about.

Wow. I just told my roommate about this article becuase she just bought the 3G (new) phone. While she is not happy with quote, “another problem with my Iphone?!” she told me she does no intend to get a new one. I wonder how many others in the world feel the same way about this problem?

hahahaha

“That’s the word from Apple Inc. (AAPL), which is warning users that in CERTAIN CONDITIONS those little metal prongs can break off, get stuck in the power outlet and give you a very bad shock.”

well ideally in CERTAIN CONDITIONS you might want to turn the breaker off, or unplug the power-strip before trying to remove those “little metal prongs” from the socket……

“Apples recall is a defect on it’s phone and is a very mechanical problem. What does Sony’s or anyone elses issues have to do with this?

Call this what it is. Don’t try to justify with an unrelated story.”

As one of those whose Sony battery exploded and burned down my house, I beg to differ. Any recall that deals with electricity is justified and related. Just get it exchanged immediately.

phew, how did a post about an adapter turn into a bitch session?Oh wait, that name Apple must have been involved. The company everyone loves to hate. I used to be one if those people, might even still be… but you know what? I freaking love this device, I read all these posts and wonder how my phone is so different from what is made to sound like everyone eles’s . I’ve. Never been unhappy with the 3g, but the way everyone talks I sure should, never have I read “my reception is bad.” it’s always ” 3g reception is bad.” No, no it’s not. This phone is amazing,it goes far far beyond what I even expected. Have I turned into a “maccy” F-no! I hate the whole apple elitism, and ljteraly moaned when I saw the first iPhone commercial “great, now I have to buy an apple product.” But it’s a great phone, sure some people have had problems “some” not all 4 million phones, even if 10,000 people have problems there doing pretty good.

I’m ready for copy and paste now.

Stop blaming either AT&T or Apple.

It’s a combination of both of their stubbornness that has created these connectivity problems.

While they have this “partnership” they don’t appear to work together. Apple didn’t really make the phone FOR AT&T, they just made it and gave AT&T exclusive rights (which was stupid). In other countries that I’ve been to, the iPhones have wonderful service and reception. It’s AT&T’s network that delivers poor service to the iPhone, not other phones, just the iPhone.

If they had a little bit more teamwork and cooperation then maybe you guys wouldn’t be having these problems. Or the iPhones just need to be on ALL carriers so we can experiment for ourselves without having to jailbreak them.

i am very happy with the fact that i never buy any product that has just been released into the market, one too many times there is a call back and the hassle is too much for me to go and return or replace the products. only now in this case will i consider buying th iphone but maybe after understanding what the problem is with the 3g. that might be reason enough not to buy the phone after all

I love the 3G comments.

iPhone 1 - OMG it doesn’t have 3G.
Apple - There is not enough 3G coverage and the battery life would suffer.

iPhone 3G - OMG I don’t get 3G coverage everywhere and my battery life sucks.
Apple - *facepalm*

If you have a weak 3G signal you should have researched the 3G coverage before buying the phone. It is AT&T’s issue not Apples. Also, the phone is great for surfing the web and checking e-mail. Not many other phones (if any) have the web surfing quality of the iphone. Just because the power adapter is bad is no reason to dis the iphone. I mean come on…you could have returned it if you really didn’t like it.

Try downloading the latest 2.1 software. Works great for me. By far the best phone I’ve ever used. Posted with my 3g

Apples recall is a defect on it’s phone and is a very mechanical problem. What does Sony’s or anyone elses issues have to do with this?

Call this what it is. Don’t try to justify with an unrelated story.

Any Apple fan can do some research and see that the new iphone is an issue latent peice of equipement and then you add this on top of it and it makes it worse. How could the prongs on one of these little gadgets come loose? Let me guess, PROFITS!!! Cheap products with the look of elegance!!!! Its all about fooling the consumer and creating a set group that will keep you afloat no matter what you do.

3g service on iphone is very poor. i use edge network all the time.

Mike, The reception problem IS the IPHONE3g not AT&T-do your homework, you are in need of doing some homework. My nokia sat on the counter side by side to the IPHONE3g at the Apple store with full 3g signal quality and the IPHONE3g only produced 1 or 2 bars of reception at best. So it went like this for me–July 11th IPHONE3g was released to the public and on July 17th I released my IPHONE3g back to the APPLE store I bought it from for my full refund and couldn’t have been happier. I’ll be purchasing the new Blackberry Storm next month, because RIM has no problem fully testing their hardware and software, something APPLE obviously did not do with the IPHONE3g POS.

Calm down, Mike. You’re a bit testy. Why so defensive…is Apple’s armour wearing thin?

Apple has repeatedly had power adapter problems. They go back to their first PowerBooks, continued with the initial iBooks, and again with the MacBooks.

It’s all about turning the revenue crank with little regard for the consumer.

I don’t know why Mike expects people to research if its the phone or AT&T service or a chip in the phone or in the tower or the software which is crappy. The user experience while using the phone sucks. Its a cool device but can’t be used as a phone.

Andy,

The 3G signal has nothing to do with the iPhone, but the service itself. When you have problems, why don’t you actually RESEARCH them for solutions before whining?

it’s not a charger, it’s a power adapter

thanks steve job for not beta testing your hardware and software.
my iphone has weak 3G signal and now the charger has problem.