Every time I link my phone via wifi to spark RC it takes what seems like forever for phone to see the RC wifi signal (and then finally connect). Many times I have to turn off RC and turn back on. My phone easily sees all other available wifi's. Is this normal for remote to take what seems like several minutes to connect to iPhone 6?

I did have this problem at first, I thought bug fix last week sorted it, now it's fairly quick. It's such a short time on battery it could drive you insane. Hoping they bring out a more powerful battery for spark they did for P4 extra 4 minutes would be great.

What bug fix? I have the latest firmware. I think.

How do you check the version of firmware on remote as opposed to spark itself?

After it is powered on, please wait until the LED status on RC turns to be solid green, then search the WiFi SSID on your iPhone, it will be there.
The phone will not pick up the WiFi signal when led is flashing red during initialization.