Apple Investigating Problems Running iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G

When Apple introduced iOS 4.0 earlier this summer, it also released upgrades for some of its previous smartphones and handheld computers. The company is now looking into reports of significant problems with the iPhone 3G running the new version of this operating system.

Users of Apple's second-generation smartphone have been complaining that iOS 4.0 runs very slowly in this device, while quickly draining the battery and heating up the unit.

These are severe enough that many experts are recommending that iPhone 3G users not upgrade to the latest version of Apple's operating system.

Apple is reportedly looking into these problems, but whether it can do about them depends on what their source is.

Might Not Be Fixable
The iPhone 3G was Apple's oldest model to get an operating system upgrade, and some of the features in iOS 4.0 had to be stripped out in order for this software to run on the phone's slower processor.

If the problems being reported by iPhone 3G users is a result of a bug or inefficiently-written code, Apple might be able to clear them up.

On the other hand, if this smartphone's older hardware simply isn't capable of running this new operating system, there's little that Apple can do.

Users of newer iOS-based devices, such as the iPhone 3GS and  iPod touch (Gen 3), have not had similar problems after upgrading, but these models have much faster processors than their predecessors.

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