Tag Archives: Connectivity Issues

Jobs Vows Still Another iPhone Fix for September

August 20, 2008 – 1:59 pm

Let’s hope Steve Jobs isn’t making promises he can’t keep. Earlier I wrote that, in one of the short, brief emails that sometimes respond to questions made directly to Jobs, the 3G connection problems many have been seeing were acknowledged, and a fix was promised.

We are working on some bugs which affect around 2% of the iPhones shipped, and hope to have a software update soon.

Steve

Now, according to further reports, a similar promise was made with regards to the crashing bug which has hit the 2.0 software; many non-default apps crash almost immediately and return to the home screen.

According to AppleInsider, the email response was short and to the point:

This is a known iPhone bug that is being fixed in the next software update in September.

Aha. If in fact this is another terse message from Steve Jobs (or his stand-in, as it were), it appears indeed that we will be seeing an update in September.

While I’m sure the crashing bug is important to some, the 3G bug is more important to many. Particularly, I have to point out, since we are paying $10 more for our data plans than original iPhone owners with EDGE.

While USA Today reported that Apple admitted (finally) that the 2.0.2 update was supposed to partially fix the 3G issues, it didn’t work for many (including me), and a broader fix is planned for September.

Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock said on Tuesday:

“The software update improves communication with 3G networks.”

Well, it did absolutely nothing for me, and some report worse 3G coverage after the update.

Meanwhile, Michael Gartenberg, Vice President for mobile strategy at Jupitermedia, implied the connection issue may be overblown.

“We’ve seen these isolated reports about people having connectivity issues with 3G and Edge, and frankly I have those issues on a variety of phones. Cellphone coverage is tricky.”

He has a point. Except for the fact that I work with mobile phones, and I can stick several 3G phones in a row on my desk and the only one with 1/2 bar at my office will be the iPhone. Everything else will have 4 - 5 bars. Sorry to disappoint, but it’s a real issue.

By trompyx | Posted in Interesting | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

T-Mobile, Vodafone Point to Apple for iPhone’s 3G Problems

August 13, 2008 – 4:07 pm

The finger-pointing has begun. Much has been made over the iPhone’s 3G connectivity issues on AT&T’s network, and some (including me) have pointed to the fact that AT&T’s 3G network performance isn’t exactly stellar. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s still not an Apple issue.

T-Mobile, on the other hand, made no bones about it: the issue lies with the iPhone 3G itself, either in software or hardware.

In a blog post, T-Mobile pointed to the iPhone as the culprit, not the network (it should be noted that they backed away slightly from their original post, probably under pressure from Apple, stating that they did not mean to imply the issue was with the handset itself.)

Paraphrasing from the Dutch at the site, T-Mobile says that the 3G network coverage of is as good as their competition, and that they suspect that it is a device specific issue. They advise their users to watch carefully for an update.

T-Mobile isn’t the only one pointing fingers. On Wednesday, Vodafone Australia also said that the issues were device-specific. They even went so far as to say Apple secrecy, with carriers not getting the handhelds until the day before the launch, was partly to blame.

Additionally, Jessica Forrest, Vodafone Australia’s spokeswoman said:

“We are aware of the issues on the iPhone 3G and we’re working with Apple to provide a solution.”

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