The mute bug

Now that the talk around the battery problems has died down at the Apple Support discussion forums, the new star of the show is a flaw with outgoing calls that sees them often automatically muted. It doesn’t seem to be limited to any one carrier, so the problem seems to be something specifically with the 4S’s hardware or software. I’ve also experienced this myself, though only a couple of times near the beginning of my time with the device. Still, I don’t often make outgoing calls without a headset, so I may just not have noticed since then.

While users wait for an official fix, you can get voice working again by turning speakerphone on and off, or by using a headset to call as I mentioned I usually do anyways. This hasn’t been acknowledged by Apple in any official documentation yet, but it does seem like the kind of thing that could be addressed in a future update, so you may want to pause before scheduling an appointment to make a return.

The 3G or network data drop

Another common complaint at Apple’s support discussions is that the iPhone 4S drops network data connections seemingly at random. Besides being well represented on Apple’s forum, it’s also something I’ve heard of a lot personally from other 4S owners I know. The problem isn’t something that totally disables your device; often data just drops from 3G to EDGE and eventually goes back to normal after a few hours. But sometimes, data can be dropped altogether, which means you won’t know about new voicemail, or get push emails, and measures like turning Airplane Mode on and off are often required to get a connection back.

I’ve seen this on my own iPhone 4S, too, and as mentioned, it’s hard to identify a cause. It seems to happen most frequently when I get or make a call, but not exclusively during those activities. Also, just opening Safari and browsing can sometimes re-establish a connection if you’ve only dropped 3G but still have EDGE.

Again, this one hasn’t been officially acknowledged by Apple, but if it’s happening to you, it’s probably not worth exchanging your device just yet. The problem seems widespread enough, based on the discussion threads related to it, that a replacement will just display the same issue, so waiting to see if a forthcoming software update is the least inconvenient option.

The Siri volume bug

Siri has a nasty habit of maxing out the volume just after use. You’ll notice if you activate Siri, and then press the home screen button to cancel your request, then lock the device. After a short time, the volume goes back to wherever you set it, but for a little while, the volume is ear-splitting, and this applies system-wide. There are many threads in the Apple Support Communities about this issue.

Mostly minor, but majorly irritating

All the bugs listed here are actually quite small, which is why a lot of users report not having returned their devices as a result of encountering them. I, too, have run across each but have yet to ascribe it to hardware fault, since each seems pretty likely to be a software problem. It’s troubling, however, to see no mention of these apparently common problems in any of the information circulating about Apple’s upcoming bug-busting iOS 5.0.1 release. Hopefully they’re filed under the category of “general bug fixes” and do arrive with that update. Otherwise, Apple will have to tackle them head-on sooner or later.

Anyone else seeing these or other persistent problems?

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Of course, I noticed the bump in download capacity when I absentmindedly tried to download a podcast that exceeded both the old and new limits, so it’s hard to say as of yet how much of an improvement in user experience this actually represents. Likewise, so far every other article I’ve seen regarding the change has found out about it by trying to download something that’s far larger than 20MB.

So why the change? Well, presumably there actually are some apps, video or podcasts out there that are between 10 and 20MB in size, so there is that. Maybe it indicates that a milestone has been reached by AT&T in terms of its ability to handle greater bandwidth usage, but somehow I doubt that, too. I can’t help but think that the real reason has to do with the upcoming iPad.

Since half of the iPad models will sport 3G connectivity, it makes sense to expect users to want to be able to access more content using that connection, especially given that they won’t be using the cellular connection for making calls or doing anything phone-related. I’m just speculating, but I think it’s also possible that the sweet spot for Apple’s visually rich e-book and e-magazine content will fall somewhere in that 10 to 20MB range.

Pocket Gamer has another interesting take on why Apple upped the limit. According to them, many iPhone developers were tailoring their games and apps to fit just under the 10MB cap, so that it would be easier for customers to purchase the software on the go from anywhere. An impulse buy, after all, isn’t nearly as likely to be made when you’re at home in the comfort of your Wi-Fi network, where you have so many other diversions vying for your attention.

Accordingly, a cap increase should result in a corresponding increase in the level of App Store software releases. As Pocket Gamer’s Spanner Spencer puts it:

Double the available app size for remote users should therefore make for some doubly impressive products. In all likelyhood this is in preparation for the inherently larger size of iPad games and apps.

Let’s hope this analysis proves correct, because it should mean promising things are on the horizon for iPhone and iPad users alike.

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At any rate, this morning I was greeted by some interesting news regarding the 3G options found in the Beta 5 Firmware plist file. As you can see, the ability to turn 3G on or off is present — accompanied by the standard message about decreasing battery life for data speed.

From this random and very unverified blog post (via MacRumors):

Note that this is not fake, it is in the beta 5 .ipsw, but will normally not show up on an EDGE iPhone. Turning 3G on will just crash the phone if you use an EDGE phone. If you do not believe me, then decrypt the beta5 rootfs dmg, and see for yourself in /Applications/Preferences.app/Network.plist

So what does this mean, exactly?

It appears that the old Edge phones are going to run the same set of software as the new models when released. Unless there’s further implementation of features that expand upon the options for screen size, battery life optimization and other factors, it’s likely we may not see a drastic change in iPhone hardware in this next version.

If they both can run the same software and that software doesn’t account for a lot of differences, there might be some heavy depression in the camp of people that were expecting high end new features (like videocalls, believe it or not).

Nope, it’s starting to look like the device will simply be a bit lighter, look a bit different (for example, the all black cover rumors) and support 3G. This would be somewhat of a disappointment for me. I was hoping to see a fairly different phone. Now that I really give it some thought, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Apple has a winning model here, they need to tweak some things to broaden the market availability of the device. And… that’s about it. Other than 3G support, we don’t need to go too crazy with features that involve a lot more than simple software updates for this round.

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