Sensational lawsuit accuses Apple of turning iPhone 3G into "iBrick" - Page 2

Angry? No i'm F U C K I N G pissed. So pissed in fact that I went through the hassle of signing up for this shit site to maybe help some of you retards see through the Kool-aid inebriation you all have in common. (fat chance- hu?)

And thanks for the advice, you clearly have a strangle hold on the obvious. Most sites won't allow profanity, thus the... ugh- nevermind

PS- who's "we"? you and the turd in your pocket? Get over yourself man

I actually do expect my device to be supported for more than just two years. I don't know about you, but a disposable iDevice is not what I want to spend my money on.

We're not talking about an "it's my word against yours" type situation here. Exaggerate all you like about how bad your phone functions, but when it comes down to it, you'll have to demonstrate just how poorly your phone functions. If you can't, it won't matter how much you exaggerated, you'll be on the losing end of that lawsuit.

I've seen you say that in other threads as well and I disagree. Apple makes mistakes. They make some big mistakes a few times a year. I don't see any exponential trend however. Business is complicated; when every new product you sell is bought by millions of people around the world in the first month, problems will surface quickly and noisily. Apple tends to deal with problems in atypical ways, but they are quite consistent in their quirkiness.

I highly doubt Apple deliberately built iOS 4 to brick the 3G but I will say it crushed my wife's phone. I told her not to upgrade because I was reading all the issues with it but when she hooked it up to her Mac and the upgrade ability came up my daughter told her to do it. Well because of that she now has a shiny new iPhone 4. Of course I downgraded her back to 3.1.2, Jailbroke it, unlocked it and sold it on Ebay for $180, near the cost of her new phone so all is well but I can see where the plaintiffs are coming from, she was so mad with her phone she stopped carrying it.

Wow! You need to get a life if you've let an electronics company hold your life hostage. I've been an Apple user and customer for over 25 years and I've never had the life shattering issues you seem to be having. Honestly, I don't even see how that could ever happen? Perhaps I live a normal life and only use electronics to enhance certain aspects of it?

...nvm

nvm..

One word: fragmentation.

Well, might be roundabout, but pretty straight forward nonetheless. Here's the one I used: http://www.iphonehacks.com/2010/07/h...-os-3-1-3.html

2 years is certainly not a long time when some places (like here in Canada) have 3 year cell contracts. Apple (and other mobile OEMs) should be supporting their mobile devices for at least 3-4 years.

Apple certainly had an issue with some 3G phones on that update, but your case proves just how loony this lawsuit really is.

In the first place, you had the same issue but reacted in a much less insane way and moved on. Also, your first sentence highlights the legal bar this case has to jump over, which is they basically have to prove that Apple bricked some 3G's on purpose, or with wilful disregard etc. That simply ain't going to happen. No judge or court in the world would make Apple take the blame for an inadvertent action that they subsequently rushed to fix. Unless these folks can prove that it was all some kind of plot, they haven't got a hope.

It certainly affected mine. It slowed down to a crawl. Fortunately I didn't install it on my wife's and we both had 4s a week after the release date. I certainly would have been furious if I hadn't been upgrade eligible and been stuck with a 3G that barely functioned for months.

And I can't say that the 4 was fabulous until the OS update was released. The proximity sensor was driving me crazy, but all seems fine now..hopefully.

Now I'm waiting for a patch for the new MacBookAir to fix the screen problems before I buy one which I had been hoping to give myself for my birthday at the end of this month. I'm definitely going to wait until that problem is resolved.

I still adore Apple and all of its products (as well as how the stock is doing!).

Apple sold more than 15 million iPhone 3G. We really don't know the number of devices affected by this. I am also wondering if those were of a certain patch.

Personally I think Apple should stop offering the 3GS right now. Last year it made sense to sell both the 3G and 3GS because they shared exactly the same features. But now the iPhone 4 is so different and offer features (Retina display, Facetime, cameras, and design) that are not available on the 3GS.

Dr. Evil! Is that you?

Folks, leave this up to the courts. If simple progress has rendered the 3G obsolete, then Apple is not guilty. However, if the plaintiff can prove that Apple purposely crippled the 3G in the upgrade, to force owners to buy new phones, then Apple is guilty as hell and should cough up money. The burden of proof is on the plaintiff, and we'll see how this shakes down. Otherwise, everyone is just playing armchair quarterback and have no idea what they're talking about.

BTW, I think that 3 years of support for electronics is what should be acceptable - not 2 years. That's the typical lifespan of electronic devices.

Consumer laws (at least in California) require a manufacturer to provide replacement parts and other support for five years after a product has been discontinued, IIRC.

Oh crap! I gotta go get me a new iMac, my current one is 3 years old!

Apple being held accountable for knowingly releasing an update that would make their product unusable, that is SENSATIONAL!

What Apple should have done is release iOS 4 for only the 3GS.
Then, once they had time to optimize the software, then release 4.1 for 3G.

It also would not hurt if Apple published some type of speed benchmark for new OSes like they do for new computers. Customers can then make a more informed decision about whether they want the new features at the expense of speed.

Common sense would tell us that new Mac OS releases will do better on older hardware than new iOS releases will on the same. The relative rate of progression of hardware performance on iOS devices far exceeds that of Mac OS devices, and, as well, the relative rate of progress of iOS far exceeds that of Mac OS.

Back in the earlier days of personal computing, the situation we see with how well older iOS hardware works with newer OS releases, was pretty much exactly how it worked with personal computers and new OS releases. So, there really isn't anything shocking here, unless you are just trying to sensationalize the issue.

This week's election results + this story = 2 more steps on the road to the american idiocracy. Are we there yet?

good luck with that, you'll probably be in a wheelchair by then or just hospital. if you are half as annoying in real life as you are in this forum then someone is really going to enjoy kicking the shit out of you before too long.

My Verizon contract expired in November of '09 and I came back to AT&T only because of the iphone. I read the early reviews of OS4 and it sounded like I would not get folders and a couple other features. I installed the update and was amazed by the lag in starting apps and using the keyboard, especially in texting. Then Jobs commented on how slow the 3G was in testing... How about supporting a device at least while it's under warranty? According to AT&T, I am eligible for an upgrade in June of 2011. The only way that I will spend my money with Apple and AT&T is if they address this problem directly or Sprint may be my way of protesting. I have been an Apple computer user since 1993 and I love their products but this felt rather malicious on their part.

The only thing you've motivated me to do is update my ignore list. Buh-bye popa-troll.

Oh, we've been there for the past 30 years.

Funny... No, I mean, if you buy an iPhone mid-cycle, and you're up for an upgrade every 2 years, why should your phone by obsolete before the phone is up for upgrade? 3 years of support solves this issue.

Out of curiosity, has MS ever been sued for selling a new version of Windows that was deemed “acceptable” by the HCL and spec sheet, but subsequently made it run slower than the previous version of Windows? For instance, everyone that upgraded from WinXP to Vista?

Again, they had to write and test the update before they could release it. And, again, it's quite odd that they are being sued after they corrected the issue.

Did they purposely cripple something to cause someone to purchase new hardware? That's what I believe the issue at hand. Just because you release an inferior product does not make you liable. But, if you do so purposely to cause your user base to have to purchase a new version of your product, that's another. The case claims that Apple is forcing iPhone upgrades by making older ones unnecessarily a slug.

If by obsolete you mean its production, then why do you expect ever CE you own to be produced for at least 3 years from the time you buy it? Are companies suppose to hinder their production cycles and sales because you finally bought their product?

If by obsolete you mean its usage, then why do think that it cant be used just because a newer model has arrived. New CE arrives all the time. Do people get pissed when a slightly bigger TV comes to market the month after they bought theres or are they happy with the device they currently have? If its the former, Im glad I dont know such people.

The fact is, Apple supports their devices longer than anyone else in the handset market so if people are going to bitch about the inevitable issues with updating older HW with features that require more resources then I say Apple should tell everyone to sod off and pul the updates to the last two devices, only.

"unsavory"?

You're not actually suppose to EAT the apple, it's made of resin of course it tastes terrible.

So youre claiming that Apple purposely wrote iOS 4.0 for the iPhone 3G to cripple a portion (but not all) of the devices. You can think Apple, a multi-bilion dollar company and always in the public and pundits eyes over the little issue, would purposely do this INSTEAD OF simply saying that they arent going to update the iPhone 3G at all because iOS 4.0 requires HW that they iPhone 3G doesnt have, thus preventing any lawsuit from happening because they arent required to nor have promised any such updates cycles to the buyer, and also preventing them from taking the time to write this software to cripple a percentage of the iPhone 3Gs.

You do realize that Apples headquarters are in Cupertino, and not in some island volcano with skull carved into the side, right? Take the tinfoil hat off, call your doctor and have him adjust your meds.

No, I mean support: replacement parts (I believe 5 years is law), software support, etc. Apple still pushes the iPhone 3G the day before the launch of the 3GS. They still get your money. That money should include support as long as you're not eligible for upgrade, which is 2 years under just about every carrier. That means, from the time the phone was originally released, until your 2 year contract is up, that's a total of about 3 years. OS upgrades, etc. should be good for that length of time.


You are bending and twisting this as much as possible to defend Steve and Apple, aren't you? You're not one of those Apple users that have blinders on, are you? This should include Android, as well. This shouldn't be something that's unique to Apple. I have a feeling that lawsuit will be coming, as well. People who buy smartphones with an old version of Android, with no upgrade potential at all to a newer version, and find it difficult or nearly impossible to actually put any apps on it at all, should sue and stop this madness.

Again, I stand by the fact that Apple and all smartphone manufacturers should support their phones for 3 years minimum.


Another fanboy... Sad... Like I said, it should be across all manufacturers. You pay a lot of money for a smartphone, now have a huge penalty for ending your contract early, and wireless carrier rates aren't cheap, either. You should expect 3 years from the date of the original release of the product, to when it stops being supported. After that, you're on your own.

No, I'm not claiming anything. I'm simply making an example of the difference between coming out with an inferior product and purposely outdating something to force upgrades, which I believe the lawsuit is about.

You seriously have some reading comprehension deficiencies, don't you? I didn't make any accusations toward Apple at all.

This claim is BS.

Based on that logic one can argue that MS crippled Vista because they wanted people to pay for the next Windows OS (Windows 7)

Did Apple cripple every iPhone 3G? 50%? 10%? how many do they need cripple to support this theory? and how many were actually crippled?

When you work with software, specially something as complex as an OS, shit happens. The majority of iPhone owners eventually upgrade to the newer version.

Look... I'm not claiming Apple is guilty of anything. The lawsuit, I believe, is that Apple purposely crippled the 3G, after claiming it was supported with the new OS release, to force users to purchase a new iPhone by making the 3G virtually useless. That's the lawsuit. I'm simply arguing that they may have merit, and you need to let the evidence be brought forth and presented before passing judgment. Too many of you people are fanatical and Apple simply can't do any wrong. You're no better than the Microsoft zealots that defend them.

The statements in the suit are hyperbolic. The phone isn't bricked. it works, crappy but it works. And that is due to the lower hardware, something Apple was very open about when they announced 4.0.

The 'bug' in this case is that Apple made two bad assumptions. The first was that 3g owners would upgrade their hardware. I mean why wouldn't you. The 4 is so much better than the 3g. The second assumption is that folks wouldn't upgrade their software because they would be smart enough to want to avoid any potential issues.

What Apple should have done is blocked the 3g from upgrading to iOS 4 at all. But they trusted their users to be smart and not need Big Daddy telling them to look both ways before running out in the street. Oops.

As for this suit. The lawyers are going to have to prove that these issues affected a majority of the phones. Good luck with that. Cause even combing all the forums they can find, they might find a couple of thousand out of a few million phones sold. The folks that didn't upgrade, or didn't have issues, rather come and post about it. So they can't say either way if there were issues or not for those folks.

Also, they have to prove that Apple knew this would happen to everyone and did it to force folks to buy a new phone. But honestly does anyone actually believe they will find that smoking gun. Doubt it.

Except that your second assumption isn't valid since Apple said iOS 4 was compatible with the 3G. They went further and explained that some functionality wouldn't be available (mutitasking, background pictures) because the hardware was constrained. This would mean, to any reasonable person, that Apple expected 3G users to update to iOS 4.

Everyone always says Apple's experience is superior because they control it top to bottom. Since the control the hardware and the software, they are the only source to rely on for compatibility. You can insult people all you like for having upgraded, but all they did was trust Apple.

Oh yeah?! Prove it! Prove that Apple is required to offer rich updates to their devices for 5 years. I think you have misunderstood what “support” means just as you’ve misunderstood what “obsolete” means.


Again, Apple has no requirement to give you rich OS updates. There is no correlation between the length of a carriers’ contract and the vendor’s need to issue rich updates to handsets.


I used the first the two usage of obsolete. The others put you in an even less flattering light.

To restate again, the iPhone 3G worked before the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 arrived, and it still works after that. If you hate companies releasing new products thereby hurting your feelings because you no longer have the newest toy then you shouldn’t ever buy anything ever again or you will always end up disappointed.


Your self-imposed entitlemnet is not a requirement under the law.


You should expect what is actually promised instead of making up laws that you think sound good and then getting upset when they don’t go as planned, but this doesn’t get into your previous claims of Apple purposely wasting time, effort and money to cripple the iPhone 3G so people would be forced to buy the iPhone 4 that they couldn’t keep on the shelves. You still haven’t answered how you think Apple would get away with this diabolical plan. Also, how exactly was Apple going to prevent these no unhappy iPhone customers with “bricked” phones from not buying a competitors phone?

Apple offering these updates each year at the same time and supporting 3 years of devices isn’t some altruistic service. Apple knows they are the only ones that can offer this service because of their single model YoY design. No other vendor can match that, but if you want to think it’s a huge conspiracy theory go right ahead. I won’t shoot death ray to your brain… but you should wear your tinfoil hat, just in case.

Exactly. If Apple really wanted to force iPhone 3G users to upgrade, they could have said, "OK, iOS 4 is only available on the iPhone 4."

I find it amusing that people tend to read conspiracies into what could simply be a case of incompetency. Apple clearly dropped the ball for owners of the iPhone 3G. What's more likely, that it's part of a evil upgrade strategy, or because they didn't do enough testing and optimization on the older hardware? There are plenty of people who think the same of their governments, so I guess it's cultural aftermath of the Watergate incident. That, and high profile cover-ups by large corporations over misdeeds