“We are aware that a small number of iPad 2 customers have experienced connectivity issues with the Verizon 3G network and we are investigating it,” the company said in a statement to Mobilized. A Verizon representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some six pages of comments are devoted to the issue on Apple’s forum pages, with additional reports cropping up on many Apple enthusiast sites.

Apple has been said to be working on an update to the iOS that would be coming shortly and may well fix the issue.

The issue does not appear to be affecting any users of either the Wi-Fi only models or the ones that connect with AT&T’s network.

Apple’s iPad 2 went on sale last month, in three models: One has only Wi-Fi, a second has both Wi-Fi and the ability to connect to AT&T’s network while the third has Wi-Fi and the option to connect to Verizon’s network.

What’s more is that this update isn’t even the one that adds features like copy and paste, performance improvements and support for CDMA carriers like Sprint and Verizon. This update is just the one to prepare for that update, which is due later this month.

In a blog post late on Friday, Microsoft said that it believes only about 100 people globally were affected by the second issue and that now more than 90 percent of customers are able to update their phones successfully. Most of those that are having problems at this point are either encountering Internet connectivity issues or don’t have enough space on their computer’s hard drive. (The update is available only via a PC or Mac, not as a direct, over-the-air update to phones.)

For those that are still having problems getting the update to install, Microsoft has posted a workaround, though it is an involved process that requires users to delete music and videos and, in some cases apps, from their device and then reinstall them.

It’s not the most encouraging sign for a company that is counting on two important software updates this year to help close the gap between its software and that of its rivals such as Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone. Beyond the imminent copy-and-paste update, Microsoft has said it plans a more significant upgrade later this year that will add broader multitasking, improved Web browsing and integrated Twitter support, among other features.

“We’ve been working on this for a very long time. We expect unprecedented demand, bigger than anything we’ve ever seen before. We feel good about being able to handle it.”

– John Stratton, Verizon Wireless COO.

AT&T must be snickering into its cornflakes this morning (okay, perhaps it’s more of a hollow chuckle). Verizon began taking pre-orders for the forthcoming CDMA iPhone this morning and is suffering some of the same issues for which AT&T has been taken to task in the past (though AT&T’s problems were substantially more severe).

I received multiple reports from eager buyers whose purchase attempts were thwarted by infuriatingly slow page loads and/or error messages. Twitter is full of similar notes. This despite Verizon’s claim that the iPhone’s launch on its network would go flawlessly. “We are not going to have any flaws on the execution of the iPhone launch,” Fran Shammo, president and CEO of Verizon’s telecom and business unit, said ealier this year. “We’ve been preparing the network for the last year anticipating the launch of the iPhone.”

Well, perhaps a few flaws, as Verizon Wireless conceded this morning. Still, nowhere near as bad as the ones that troubled AT&T, which had to issue a formal apology.

“We have been processing orders all morning and most customers are not experiencing problems,” spokesperson Brenda Raney told me. “On balance this has been a smooth availability launch. In instances where customers get an error message, they tend to be specific to that individual versus a system wide issue. For example, if customers on a Family SharePlan log in and use a mobile number other than the one belonging to the primary account holder, they will get an error message. We are working to address that now.”

Of course, “on balance” doesn’t help if you are the one who has waited for years for the Verizon iPhone and find yourself unable to order one.

PREVIOUSLY:

• AT&T Now Dropping iPhone Calls and iPhone 4 Pre-Orders
• Apple: Sorry We Sold So Many iPhone 4s Yesterday
• Time to Cut AT&T Some Slack, iPhone Users?

[Error Image Credit: Business Insider]

It started with some simple graffiti that Ben Berkowitz wanted to get removed from a wall near his office in New Haven, Conn. 

“And not the nice kind of graffiti,” he added. 

Instead of knocking on the door of City Hall to get the unsightly spray paint dealt with, Berkowitz and his fellow co-founders developed SeeClickFix.

The Web and mobile app, from the company of the same name, has been aiming to help users document and report civic annoyances since its alpha launch in 2008.

Now SeeClickFix has just completed a $1.5 million Series A round of funding led by Bryce Roberts at O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. EBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s Omidyar Network also invested.  

The round closed very shortly after a major upgrade of its Apple iPhone app and formalization of partnerships with San Francisco’s 311 issue reporting system, as well as Washington, D.C.’s similar service.

So issues submitted in those cities via the SeeCickFix apps will actually create a work order in the cities’ official system, rather than just being directed to the appropriate agency’s email “tip line.”

Berkowitz said the infusion of cash will allow the addition of a sales and business development staff, as well as the hiring of two developers to focus on its apps and Web presence.

The concept behind SeeClickFix is simple, if not entirely original. In fact, Berkowitz admitted, it began as an outright copy of FixMyStreet, a pothole-reporting Web app from the U.K. 

“We looked at the FixMyStreet code when building SeeClickFix, and quickly realized that it was built specifically not to scale outside of the U.K.,” Berkowitz said. ”We had to rebuild the concept from scratch so it would be useful here in the U.S. and so it could scale.”

SeeClickFix took the pothole concept and added the ability to report graffiti, speeding school buses, broken infrastructure and just about any kind of civic breakdown one might imagine. 

People have even used it to request beautification, other than blight removal, such as asking for a tree in their neighborhood. 

Berkowitz claimed the resolution rate for issues filed with SeeClickFix is approximately 45 percent nationally, although he wouldn’t elaborate on given municipalities. 

He did say that he hoped the new formal partnerships would close the loop and allow SeeClickFix to more accurately list the issues that had been fixed through municipal reporting, rather than waiting for citizens to document the fixes. 

I asked about the somewhat unusual funding situation SeeClickFix is now in, having a venture investor best known for supporting micro-finance and political engagement campaigns in the developing world. 

But to Berkowitz, it seemed like a pretty natural partnership. 

“Citizens are our users. That’s who we serve,” he said. “Governments just benefit from it.” 

Berkowitz actually had quite a bit to say about the larger motivations behind SeeClickFix, and you can watch the video interview below to hear it all from him:

(Early Adopter is a new column on early-stage start-ups and ideas that will be written weekly by Drake Martinet.)

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110114/early-adopter-pothole-reporting-app-seeclickfix-raises-1-5-million-to-help-you-be-a-squeakier-wheel/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090401/ipo-market-just-really-really-lousy/ http://allthingsd.com/20090401/ipo-market-just-really-really-lousy/#comments Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:25:06 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=15825 To hear tell from the National Venture Capital Association, the VC landscape is as burned out and desolate as the ashen vistas of Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.” According to its latest data, not a single venture-backed company went public in the first quarter of 2009 or the one that preceded it. That’s the first time the association has ever recorded two consecutive quarters with no issues. Worse, six venture-backed IPOs were withdrawn from registration in Q1. “We predicted that the venture-backed IPO market was going to get worse before it was going to get better, and we were unfortunately correct,” said NVCA president Mark Heesen. “Today our concerns are not limited to the zero IPO issues but have now expanded to the shrinking pipeline of companies in registration. Once we begin to see a recovery, there won’t be many companies prepared to take advantage of it, effectively extending the lackluster market until the pipeline rebuilds.”

Until then, the market will have to make due with merger-and-acquisition deals, which themselves aren’t doing so well. There were just 68 M&As in the first quarter of 2009, the lowest number since 1999. And they generated just $3.2 billion–down 65 percent from a year ago. Seems acquiring companies are on the lookout for bargain-basement deals and there are unquestionably few to be had given the souring economy. “Acquiring companies are simply looking to be very aggressive buyers and frankly are looking for rock-bottom pricing because that’s what they should be doing in this kind of environment,” Jim Watson, managing general partner at CMEA Capital, told VentureWire. “If you’re a seller now it’s because you have to be a seller.”

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