So here we are. It’s four days since we saw the launch of the all-singing, all-dancing 3G iPhone. Yes we also got to have our first play with MobileMe, but the latest and greatest smartphone is what we were all wanting to see. Unfortunately however, it seems all didn’t quite go according to plan.

In the UK at least, we saw what can only be described as a laughable launch. Once again the O2 systems went down just when they needed them the most. This meant that most people buying iPhones had to go through the long-winded manual sign up process and some are still waiting for their shiny toys to be activated. Not good, not good at all.

But that’s not the worst of it. Friday morning saw reports across the internet of stock shortages, with some stores getting unites in the single digits. O2 and Carphonewarehouse don’t really seem to know when they will get getting stock back in, and if you want a white one you’d best get the paint out and do it yourself ! If you’re lucky enough to have an Apple Store nearby though, you may just be in luck. Apple have put a page on their website that gets updated after 9pm every night, and shows what sock levels are like in their UK stores. Check out the page here and good luck !

Users who did manage to get their hands on the device seem happy with their purchase. Some complaints of ‘yellowing’ of the screen have been knocking around various websites, though Apple claim this was intentional. The official line is that the V1 iPhone’s screen was deemed too cold, hence the warmer, more yellow screen for the 3G. I’m not convinced myself. If this is indeed true, why don’t they all exhibit this trait? It would appear the iPhone screen lottery from last year is back with us !

Other problems revolve around the new firmware, 2.0. Users of both iPhone versions are having problems with lockups, applications crashing and so forth. Until there is an unlocking method available for the new firmware I can’t comment myself, but I know at least one of our contributors here has had to restore his iPhone 5 times to get it to work correctly ! I’d be very interested to hear how you’ve all got on with this in the comments section.

Last but not least there’s MobileMe. Apple’s redesigned .mac service also launched towards the end of last week, and it’s had even more problems than the iPhone ! The me.com website didn’t work, then it did. I couldn’t log in, being told that my details were wrong. I knew they weren’t, but after resetting my password I was allowed in. Things didn’t get much better though. The web applications were simply broken. They didn’t work. At all.
Syncing/pushing was the same. Changes made in the web apps weren’t being reflected in either iCal or Address Book, and when they were it was a LONG time afterwards. I decided to put these problems down to teething problems, and the fact everyone and their Grandmothers were trying it at the same time. Thankfully when I got up the next day all was well. Syncing works, the web applications work (most of the time). I’m itching to try the iPhone side of things, but that’s going to have to wait……

One serious bone of contention though is the way information is ‘pushed from OS X to the MobileMe cloud. Basically, it isn’t. If you make change, say your add an appointment in iCal, it won’t be reflected anywhere else until your next sync. Not quite push eh?! Check out this thread over on MacRumors for more info on this. Some VERY unhappy people.

So there we have it. It’s been an interesting few days for the guys over in Cupertino. We’ve got the 3G we’ve all been waiting for, and MobielMe is out in the wild. Do you have/use either? Let us know how you are getting on below !