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iPad Wi-Fi Woes?

John Paczkowski — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:56:13 +0000

Though a marvel of design and engineering, Apple’s iPad, like most first-generation devices, is not without flaws. Just two days at market and already some new iPad owners are flocking to Apple’s support forums, complaining about temperamental Wi-Fi connectivity.

“I have…noticed very weak wifi signal in my 16GB iPad,” one post to Apple’s iPad support discussions reads. “Even when standing in front of the wlan router the signal fluctuates from strong to very weak. The router has very strong signals as every other computer here has full signal strength, even 20-30 meters from the router. So there is definitely a wifi signal issue here with the iPad.”

“I’m having the same problem,” reads another. “iMac, Macbook, Macbook Pro and iPhone all work great 3 rooms from my house (all connecting through an airport). My iPad is only getting 1/3 on Wifi and frequently dropped the connection.”

This is obviously a supremely annoying problem since Wi-Fi is the iPad’s only means of connecting to the Internet.

It is not yet clear how widespread this issue is. As I write, there are several iPad Wi-Fi-related discussions on Apple’s support forums, the largest of which hosts about six pages of comments.

That said, I have not had any problem with my iPad–moments ago, I streamed a Netflix (NFLX) movie to it from the sidewalk in front of my house–and my informal poll of friends and colleagues who own the device turned up no reports of weak or temperamental Wi-Fi connections. Which is not to say they don’t exist or that they’re the result of user error, just that they appear to be fairly limited in scope at this point.

In any event, Apple (AAPL) has posted two support documents (1, 2) for iPad owners to troubleshoot ornery Wi-Fi connections.

UPDATE: A commenter below points out a list of potential fixes.

Blink Different, Redux

John Paczkowski — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:50:34 +0000

Apple on Monday delivered another firmware fix intended to resolve the display issues that have plagued some of its 27-inch iMacs since the new machines debuted Oct. 20. A 294KB download available directly from Apple (AAPL), the update promises to “address issues that may cause intermittent display flickering” for iMacs released in late 2009. It follows by about six weeks another update that claimed to do the same thing, evidently without much success.

As I write, there are some 270 pages of comments and complaints about the issue on Apple’s support forums. Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that Apple has halted production of the 27-inch iMac until it can resolve its display issues.

Decent Nexus One Customer Support Apparently Not on List of Things Google Makes Universally Accessible and Useful

John Paczkowski — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 08:03:47 +0000

With Android and Nexus One, Google claims to have “improved” the rate and pace of innovation in mobile phones and the manner in which they are distributed. Sadly, the search giant doesn’t seem to have done much for the way in which they are supported.

Not a week after the device’s debut, Google’s support forums are rife with complaints from Nexus One owners who are clearly not getting the level of customer support they expect.

Like most other Google (GOOG) offerings, Nexus One support is self-help driven–FAQs, troubleshooting guides and email forms offered with this earnest caveat: “in most cases you won’t receive a personal response.”

That might fly with folks availing themselves of free Google services like search and email, but it doesn’t with those who’ve just spent between $179 and $529 on a new superphone. Buyers expect their devices to work properly out of the box, and if they don’t, they expect their complaints to be approached with at least a modicum of urgency, preferably by a human.

But that’s not the experience Google is currently offering Nexus One users. As PC World pointed out earlier today:

If you buy a Nexus One manufactured by HTC, directly from Google’s Web site, and use it with T-Mobile’s wireless network–who do you call when you have a problem? Google is only accepting support requests via e-mail, and users are getting bounced between T-Mobile and HTC as neither seems equipped to answer complaints, or willing to accept responsibility for supporting the Nexus One.

So while Google’s new Nexus One distribution paradigm might excel in versatility and simplicity, it fails when it comes to support. Which isn’t all that surprising, I suppose. Google was never really set up to provide customer service. That said, you’d think that a company that takes great pride in improving things and making them accessible and useful, would have made more of an effort to do the same for Nexus One customer service.

Did Google launch the Nexus One with a half-assed customer-service solution? I put a variation of this question to the company and here’s what I was told:

What, exactly, was your customer support solution at launch? I’d assumed that you would initially pay the carriers to handle support, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
We developed a dedicated, comprehensive Google customer support team for the Nexus One. Our support site can be found at google.com/phone/support, which has pointers to our help center, where there is lots of troubleshooting information. HTC provides telephone support for device troubleshooting and warranty, repairs, and returns. Google also offers self-help through our help center, user-to-user help through forums, and email support to customers who are unable to find answers to their questions online. We promise to answer email inquiries within 48 hours. T-Mobile USA fields calls regarding their service (including service billing inquiries).

Why was this solution chosen?
Solving customer support issues is extremely important to us, because we want people to have a positive Nexus One experience. Therefore, we felt this was the best approach to quickly resolve any customer support inquiries.

We felt this was the best approach to quickly resolve any customer support inquiries.

Really? Hard to believe that “we promise to answer email inquiries within 48 hours” is “the best approach.” Clearly, it’s not.

Google VP of Engineering Andy Rubin conceded as much during an onstage interview with Walt Mossberg last Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show: “We have to get better at customer service,” Rubin said. “We have to close that three-day gap [in response time] to a couple of hours.”

[ See post to watch video ]

Video clip: Andy Rubin on Nexus One customer service issues.

That’s great to hear, but it doesn’t really explain why the gap exists in the first place or why Google felt comfortable launching with it.

So what’s the plan going forward? Says a Google spokesperson: “We are working quickly to solve any customer support issues as they come up, and we are trying to be as open and transparent as possible through our online customer help forums. We’ll continue to address all issues in as timely of a manner as possible, and we’re flexible and prepared to make changes to our processes and tools, as necessary, for an optimal customer support experience.”

Doesn’t sound like much of a plan to me. You?

Oh, Snow Leopard Frees Up Disk Space All Right

John Paczkowski — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:00:08 +0000

Apple has finally acknowledged that a bug in its new Snow Leopard operating system can, on rare occasions, result in a catastrophic loss of data. The glitch, which first surfaced in support forums in early September, is triggered by logging in and out of a guest account and wipes the main user account of all data.

“When I logged into my MacBook Pro this morning, it was as if I had logged into my Guest Account and not my standard user profile,” one Snow Leopard user explained in Apple’s Support Discussions. “No icons on the desktop, the desktop wallpaper was the default ‘space’ photo and not the one I had assigned, no documents in the docs folder, apps behaved as if I’d never opened them before.”

Clearly, this is not what Apple (AAPL) meant when it claimed the OS would free up as much as seven gigs of space upon installation.

Obviously, this is a nasty flaw, and it’s a pity it has taken Apple this long to cop to it. But it has and, as the company told News.com yesterday, a remedy should be forthcoming. Said an Apple rep: “We are aware of the issue, which occurs only in extremely rare cases, and we are working on a fix.”

Class-Action Suit Patch Sadly Absent From iPhone OS 2.0.2 "Bug Fixes"

John Paczkowski — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:15:29 +0000

Apple may soon regret the “twice as fast, half the price” slogan it chose for iPhone 3G. A first lawsuit has been filed against the company over the device’s performance and reliability, and it seeks class-action status. Brought by Birmingham, Ala., resident Jessica Alena Smith, the suit (PDF) alleges that while the iPhone 3G may be half the price of its predecessor, it is almost certainly not twice as fast. Worse, it’s prone to dropping calls. “Immediately after purchase, Plaintiff soon noticed that her Internet connection, receipt and sending of email, text messages and other data transfers were slower than expected and advertised,” the lawsuit reads. “The defective iPhone 3G appeared to connect to the 3G standard and protocol less than 25 percent of the time. Additionally, Plaintiff experienced an inordinate amount of dropped calls.”

Familiar complaints to some iPhone 3G owners, or to anyone who’s spent any time in Apple’s support forums lately. Indeed, Apple recently acknowledged the device’s reception problems. That said, the company’s “twice as fast, half the price” messaging does include the caveat “actual speeds vary by site conditions,” which would seem to absolve it of Smith’s charges of false advertising. And, beyond that, those who are disappointed by the performance of their new iPhone 3Gs had 30 days to return the device without consequence. Which is not to say that iPhone 3G’s performance hasn’t been disappointingly subpar or that it’s unreasonable to demand that Apple (AAPL) fix it. Just that Smith had recourse other than a suit demanding that Apple pay unspecified damages in addition to repairing or replacing all defective iPhones.

Class-Action Suit Patch Sadly Absent From iPhone OS 2.0.2 "Bug Fixes"

John Paczkowski — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:15:29 +0000