Apple’s iPhone obfuscation

August 20, 2008

It is possible - probable, even -  that Apple’s latest iPhone software update was designed to address the bad reception and frequent dropped calls that have frustrated iPhone 3G customers over the past few weeks. But if so, Apple isn’t telling.

An Apple spokeswoman called me Tuesday morning to confirm what was already self-evident:  that yesterday afternoon, Apple had indeed launched an iPhone update. When asked for details, Apple would only say that the update was designed to “improve communication with 3G networks.”

Outside of this vague statement, Apple gave no details about the nature or extent of the problems the improvements were designed to address, or whether the fix had been effective. When asked for these details, the Apple spokeswoman read back the original statement verbatim.

Judging by comments around the blogosphere today, users remain frustrated. Take this comment on the New York Times’s Bits Blog:

“It would be nice if Jobs actually made some statement to help his customers out. We dont even know if this was supposed to be the fix, heck if we go by Apple we still wouldnt know there was a problem.”

Indeed.

One Response to “Apple’s iPhone obfuscation”

Comments

  1. I have the original iPhone and can say that the software update vastly improved its ability to locate itself on the map function.

    Posted by: Mike Smith | August 20th, 2008 at 3:57 pm | Report this comment

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