Apple admits to LTE connection issues with Apple Watch Series 3 review units, says fix com...

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in Apple Watch
Apple has acknowledged early problems with cellular connectivity on the Apple Watch Series 3, indicating it will try to patch them in a "future software release."




Without a nearby iPhone, the Series 3 may attempt to connect to unknown Wi-Fi networks instead of LTE, according to The Verge, which experienced the problem even after being sent a second review unit by Apple. Similar complaints were made by the Wall Street Journal, which reported problems with three units, used by two people in different U.S. states on two separate carriers.

"We have discovered that when Apple Watch Series 3 joins unauthenticated Wi-Fi networks without connectivity, it may at times prevent the watch from using cellular," an Apple spokesperson told The Verge. "We are investigating a fix for a future software release."

The first shipments of the Series 3 should already be on their way to stores and online customers in time for the product's Sept. 22 launch -- meaning that many more people may encounter the bug before Apple can issue a watchOS update. The problem may not be universal however, as several other reviews have made no specific complaints.

LTE has been the main selling point of the Series 3, despite Wi-Fi-only models being available. The technology allows the Watch to operate more independently of an iPhone, for instance making calls, sending texts, and using Siri and Apple Maps.

The situation could also create fallout for the four major U.S. cellular carriers, each of which are charging $10 per month for Watch-specific data plans.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 53
    Watchga(L)TE!
    anton zuykovbadmonk
  • Reply 2 of 53
    sog35 said:
    This is horrible.

    Who the heck does testing at Apple now?  

    Bozo the clown?

    You figure with $200 billion in cash they would test these products to perfection.

    This could be a real disaster year if people decide the iPhone X is too expensive and the iPhone 8 is actually the iPhone 6sss.

    My God, Tim Cook.  You had such a great last 12 months, but you are slipping.
    Agreed. I remember Apple got so bad back in the system 7 days, where the startup progress bar would literally run past the gutter. iOS seems to be heading in that direction with subtle quality issues that will build up over time. BTW t-mobile offered me 3 month free for my Apple Watch. 
    mike54tallest skilwilliamlondonapres587
  • Reply 3 of 53
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    sog35 said:
    This is horrible.

    Who the heck does testing at Apple now?  

    Bozo the clown?

    You figure with $200 billion in cash they would test these products to perfection.

    This could be a real disaster year if people decide the iPhone X is too expensive and the iPhone 8 is actually the iPhone 6sss.

    My God, Tim Cook.  You had such a great last 12 months, but you are slipping.
    Glad to hear from an expert in software development and testing. I worked for AT&T for 34 years in a central office. Digital telephone switches were being installed in 1986. Thirty years later those switches are still being issued software patches to correct bugs. Turning something loose in the wild is completely different from testing within limited groups that cannot simulate the real world environment. The current issue is nasty to be sure but it will be fixed sooner rather than later. 
    csdbmike54deehugzdws-2StrangeDaysnomadmacwilliamlondonradster360zomp
  • Reply 4 of 53
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member

    themacman said:
    sog35 said:
    This is horrible.

    Who the heck does testing at Apple now?  

    Bozo the clown?

    You figure with $200 billion in cash they would test these products to perfection.

    This could be a real disaster year if people decide the iPhone X is too expensive and the iPhone 8 is actually the iPhone 6sss.

    My God, Tim Cook.  You had such a great last 12 months, but you are slipping.
    Agreed. I remember Apple got so bad back in the system 7 days, where the startup progress bar would literally run past the gutter. iOS seems to be heading in that direction with subtle quality issues that will build up over time. BTW t-mobile offered me 3 month free for my Apple Watch. 
    Asinine bologna. Apple’s software is better than ever and I’ve been using it for almost forty years now.
    GeorgeBMacdws-2StrangeDaysnomadmacwilliamlondonkamilton
  • Reply 5 of 53
    nhtnht Posts: 4,522member
    sog35 said:
    This is horrible.

    Who the heck does testing at Apple now?  

    Bozo the clown?

    You figure with $200 billion in cash they would test these products to perfection.

    This could be a real disaster year if people decide the iPhone X is too expensive and the iPhone 8 is actually the iPhone 6sss.

    My God, Tim Cook.  You had such a great last 12 months, but you are slipping.
    a) they've probably now added this to their battery of tests
    b) its a two minute fix for a dev
    c) they have $200B in cash because they have an efficient production process that has a robust rather than ridiculous levels of testing.

    My buddy that was the PM for a major Army system told me about the differences between US testing and German engineering and testing on the 120mm gun that's on the M1 and the Leopard (the excellent Rheinmetall 120mm) .  It's been 20 years since that chat but the general gist is that we engineer for a few 9s worth of quality, build them, test them and throw away the barrels that don't meet spec.  The germans build for far more 9s to have fewer rejects and test to a higher spec.  Ours cost less, we build more and they shoot the same after you use them a bit. 

    d) are you off your meds again?
    StrangeDayswilliamlondonanton zuykov
  • Reply 6 of 53
    sog35 said:
    This is horrible.

    Who the heck does testing at Apple now?  

    Bozo the clown?

    You figure with $200 billion in cash they would test these products to perfection.

    This could be a real disaster year if people decide the iPhone X is too expensive and the iPhone 8 is actually the iPhone 6sss.

    My God, Tim Cook.  You had such a great last 12 months, but you are slipping.
    As much as anyone would want to say "this could be a real disaster", the truth is.....it simply will not be. Ever since the iPhone 6 and 6 plus came out back in 2015, they basically couldn't NOT sell a phone if they tried basically.
    Believe me.....I was there.....The people that would complain the most, and point out all the flaws and shortcomings and disappoints, and "Apple's slipping" jibber-jabber.....
    Guess who you see on launch day or launch weekend unboxing their new phone at their setup table....
    Yep...

    That being said.....yes, I wish QA could somehow assure more quality...but people can't help but feel addicted to "upgrading".
  • Reply 7 of 53
    You are assuming that this is not a planned “mistake”. I’m not prone to conspiracy theory, but does seem to represent a good opportunity for the share repurchase program to buy up shares right before iPhone X knocks it out of the park. The glitch seems like any easy fix, so only doom and gloom investors stand to lose from jumping ship.
  • Reply 8 of 53
    How unApple of Apple!
  • Reply 9 of 53
    Sog on a rant, AAPL must be down.
    StrangeDaysmacxpresswilliamlondonRonnnieOsingularity
  • Reply 10 of 53
    You are assuming that this is not a planned “mistake”. I’m not prone to conspiracy theory, but does seem to represent a good opportunity for the share repurchase program to buy up shares right before iPhone X knocks it out of the park. The glitch seems like any easy fix, so only doom and gloom investors stand to lose from jumping ship.
    This is pure nonsense.
    tallest skilGeorgeBMacStrangeDays
  • Reply 11 of 53
    I will likely cancel my order for the black SS and stick with the Series 0, but not because of this issue (which is a hiccup that will surely and easily be fixed). It is because I am pissed that I cannot access my phone's songs and playlists.

    I do not do streaming, and don't plan to start any time soon. That, combined with the ridiculous 2GB local storage for music (if some early reports are to be believed, but Apple is vague on this) is a deal-killer for me. Not worth the upgrade. I was hoping for 10-20GB of local music storage, but in the absence of access to iPhone's music, 2GB is pretty pathetic.

    I'll wait and see how it all pans out, and order in a couple of months if/when things have improved, notably Apple has restored the ability to access music directly from the phone.
  • Reply 12 of 53
    sog35 said:
    This is horrible.

    Who the heck does testing at Apple now?  

    Bozo the clown?

    You figure with $200 billion in cash they would test these products to perfection.

    This could be a real disaster year if people decide the iPhone X is too expensive and the iPhone 8 is actually the iPhone 6sss.

    My God, Tim Cook.  You had such a great last 12 months, but you are slipping.
    No, your OLED phone sucked every resource  >:)
  • Reply 13 of 53
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member
    sog35 said:
    This is horrible.

    Who the heck does testing at Apple now?  

    Bozo the clown?

    You figure with $200 billion in cash they would test these products to perfection.

    This could be a real disaster year if people decide the iPhone X is too expensive and the iPhone 8 is actually the iPhone 6sss.

    My God, Tim Cook.  You had such a great last 12 months, but you are slipping.
    I said several times on this forum.  Apple quality seems degrading. 
    williamlondon
  • Reply 14 of 53
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member
    Verge earned credibility in reviewing.  WSJ got downgraded in reviewing. 
  • Reply 15 of 53
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member
    AAPL dropped big today because of this issue.  Apple will very likely missed estimate this quarter now. The delayed launch of X was supposed covered by the popularity of AW cellular. 
  • Reply 16 of 53
    tzeshan said:
    AAPL dropped big today because of this issue.
    Correlation is not causation.
    StrangeDays
  • Reply 17 of 53
    chabig said:
    tzeshan said:
    AAPL dropped big today because of this issue.
    Correlation is not causation.
    I don't normally agree with @tzeshan, but on this one, he's probably right.
    edited September 2017
  • Reply 18 of 53
    I will likely cancel my order for the black SS and stick with the Series 0, but not because of this issue (which is a hiccup that will surely and easily be fixed). It is because I am pissed that I cannot access my phone's songs and playlists.

    I do not do streaming, and don't plan to start any time soon. That, combined with the ridiculous 2GB local storage for music (if some early reports are to be believed, but Apple is vague on this) is a deal-killer for me. Not worth the upgrade. I was hoping for 10-20GB of local music storage, but in the absence of access to iPhone's music, 2GB is pretty pathetic.

    I'll wait and see how it all pans out, and order in a couple of months if/when things have improved, notably Apple has restored the ability to access music directly from the phone.
    Why would you not be able to  "access my phone's songs and playlists"?
    ... Did you buy the media nonsense that Apple is replacing everything with Apple Music -- and you have to buy a subscription to play music now?

    (Same goes for the 2Gb limit on storage.   Where did you hear that?)

    Update: Oh!  You were speaking of the Series 3 GPS.   I was thinking of the LTE version where storage was increased.   But still:   2GB for songs is a lot of songs.  But, I just checked and my Gen 0 "4.6 Gb available" (but it doesn't say available for what).
    edited September 2017
  • Reply 19 of 53
    You are assuming that this is not a planned “mistake”. I’m not prone to conspiracy theory, but does seem to represent a good opportunity for the share repurchase program to buy up shares right before iPhone X knocks it out of the park. The glitch seems like any easy fix, so only doom and gloom investors stand to lose from jumping ship.
    This is pure nonsense.
    Which part would that be, that Apple stands to make money from short term stock drops or that the fix is simple? 
  • Reply 20 of 53
    sog35 said:

    My God, Tim Cook.  You had such a great last 12 months, but you are slipping.
    No, I think it’s you that is slipping back into a manic state of black-and-white thinking. You either build Cook up or you tear him down. This is a symptom in several psychological disorders. 
    edited September 2017 SoliwilliamlondonMplsP
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