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.
Been only here for a few weeks but your posts really do go from one extreme to the other. You do tend to ruin a lot of threads as well. I'd recommend sitting down and having a nice cup of tea
Personally, I have to believe that this is something rather rare and minor. It's simply too big and too obvious to have escaped notice. You KNOW that Tim was wearing one of these for days/weeks/months. If Apple had realized that they had a problem they would have deactivated it in OS4 for release and announced that it was 'soon to come'.
Either that, or its a bad production run of hardware. But Apple's response that they will issue a software fix pretty much lays that to rest.
So it sounds like the issues is that some WiFi connections don't allow cellular connectivity, is this correct? I'm assuming it's on the WiFi/firewall end and not on the cellular provider's end.
I've been using cellular over WiFi with my T-Mobile account for years and haven't run into the issue yet, so either it's something unique to the Apple Watch, or it's pretty rare.
So it sounds like the issues is that some WiFi connections don't allow cellular connectivity, is this correct? I'm assuming it's on the WiFi/firewall end and not on the cellular provider's end.
I've been using cellular over WiFi with my T-Mobile account for years and haven't run into the issue yet, so either it's something unique to the Apple Watch, or it's pretty rare.
The watch seeing a WIFI network it already connected to and midstream deciding to try to connect to it isn't as simple as people think it is.
The packets going through the alternate net could actually connect to even different cached data (CDN), routed differently, different latency, in the most extreme case even connecting to whole another AWS region! (or any other server banks that have some regional boundaries).
Also, some people want to connect to WIFI instead of LTE cause they're actually going to save money, save battery, etc.
Does the watch prompt you (annoying people who just wants to "to work"), Does it switch without prompting (possibly connecting to somewhere with a poor network connection or an overcharged slow network) or some combination in between.
The ideal is probably connecting automatically to only a small subset of WIFI nets (say home and work), prompting with another list of network (local coffee shop, gym) and some networks just get a silent notification of their availability (so you can switch manually to them) (public WIFI in downtown Montreal for example).
Wait a minute. This ‘issue’ has been around for as long as i remember and now people complain about it? This is an old bug from wifi, or rather a feature for saving battery by trying to connect existing wifi including public one like McDonald, etc.
Essentially, the Series 3 GPS + Cellular watch tries to save battery life at all times by using your iPhone’s connection, or failing that, a Wi-Fi network. What’s happening here is that the watch is attempting to jump on a so-called “captive” network — a public network with an interstitial login prompt or terms and conditions agreement. (You’ve probably seen these at a Starbucks, McDonalds, or Panera.
On iPhone you have to open Safari to see the login request. Since AW does not have Safari, you know what happened. ;-)
It really isn’t a major issue. The way I see it, it is an an easy fix to only allow cellular connection or blocking public wifi on the Watch. Both will not save your battery life while you are out and about. In the meantime, bring your phone along will solve this problem.
This is not an acceptable solution.
No it's not a solution just a suggestion. Apple has already said it's fixing it.
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.
Siri works. Way easier than scrolling through hundreds or thousands of songs on a ~1.5” screen.
This is similar to how iPhones work, so why is it a surprise on the watch? Everytime I walk into a Hilton, my phone connects to their wifi, essentially shutting down the data connection until I click through their prompts on my iPhone or turn off my wifi (Which apparently is not actually turning off anymore). The only difference is that my phone never turns off the cellular connection, so I will still get calls and texts.
If the fix is to turn on the LTE more often or for longer, I wonder if they will have to restate battery life expectancy? This was also a problem when they added the feature that switched your data from wifi to cellular if the wifi connection was weak.
This is similar to how iPhones work, so why is it a surprise on the watch? Everytime I walk into a Hilton, my phone connects to their wifi, essentially shutting down the data connection until I click through their prompts on my iPhone or turn off my wifi (Which apparently is not actually turning off anymore). The only difference is that my phone never turns off the cellular connection, so I will still get calls and texts.
If the fix is to turn on the LTE more often or for longer, I wonder if they will have to restate battery life expectancy? This was also a problem when they added the feature that switched your data from wifi to cellular if the wifi connection was weak.
Like I said, the problem is partially solvable creating connection groups, which somehow Apple is resisting for the phone. That way, you'd really connect automatically only with a select few networks and would have to voluntarily connect to others when LTE is on.
What's hard on battery is not being on LTE, but being on bad LTE, that's why the phone or watch wants to switch as soon as it can to connecting to wifi.
Like you said, the issue here is that to save power the watch then disconnects from LTE while the phone stays on (though with VOLTE, your call will come through VOLTE so maybe your still connected at a lower power level to the tower anyway).
Those edge case, transition from bad LTE to another network is were the bug lies. If your running say in the clear with a great signal you'd likely not get stuck by this bug.
I am thinking that this is due to Apple aggressively trying to minimize cellular connections and piggybacking on WiFi instead. ... But, every once in a while it switches to a WiFi that won't let it do what it needs to do.
"Be careful who you pick as friends..." my mama always told me.
In any case, if my guess is true, then that's a minor, fixable problem that the media will exploit.
Give Apple a break. They're trailblazing an innovative Watch technology and there will be glitches once it's in the hands of tens of thousands of consumers. Even big fish like Verizon and AT&T had hiccups trying to have the AW3 join one's iPhone plan. The upcoming software update will remedy this and it'll be in our rearview mirror soon enough.
Give Apple a break. They're trailblazing an innovative Watch technology and there will be glitches once it's in the hands of tens of thousands of consumers. Even big fish like Verizon and AT&T had hiccups trying to have the AW3 join one's iPhone plan. The upcoming software update will remedy this and it'll be in our rearview mirror soon enough.
Sorry, my buddies samsung watch doesn't have this issue.
There is a solution, Apple just needs to release it already. Tim has said it's a minor issue and will be fixed. Well, here we are 5 days later and still no fix.
I am concerned as well. They have already updated iOS 11 but not the watch. Remember the iPhone antenna issue; “owners just weren’t holding it correctly.” I am not so naive as to believe Tim, in the middle of a launch with streaming Apple Music being introduced in weeks, would say, ‘minor issue; looking into fix’. If it is an issue not everyone is having, I would diss-arm the critics and bad reviews with the same statement if I couldn’t or didn’t plan on fixing it.
Comments
It's simply too big and too obvious to have escaped notice. You KNOW that Tim was wearing one of these for days/weeks/months. If Apple had realized that they had a problem they would have deactivated it in OS4 for release and announced that it was 'soon to come'.
Either that, or its a bad production run of hardware. But Apple's response that they will issue a software fix pretty much lays that to rest.
I've been using cellular over WiFi with my T-Mobile account for years and haven't run into the issue yet, so either it's something unique to the Apple Watch, or it's pretty rare.
The packets going through the alternate net could actually connect to even different cached data (CDN), routed differently, different latency, in the most extreme case even connecting to whole another AWS region! (or any other server banks that have some regional boundaries).
Also, some people want to connect to WIFI instead of LTE cause they're actually going to save money, save battery, etc.
Does the watch prompt you (annoying people who just wants to "to work"), Does it switch without prompting (possibly connecting to somewhere with a poor network connection or an overcharged slow network) or some combination in between.
The ideal is probably connecting automatically to only a small subset of WIFI nets (say home and work), prompting with another list of network (local coffee shop, gym) and some networks just get a silent notification of their availability (so you can switch manually to them) (public WIFI in downtown Montreal for example).
If the fix is to turn on the LTE more often or for longer, I wonder if they will have to restate battery life expectancy? This was also a problem when they added the feature that switched your data from wifi to cellular if the wifi connection was weak.
What's hard on battery is not being on LTE, but being on bad LTE, that's why the phone or watch wants to switch as soon as it can to connecting to wifi.
Like you said, the issue here is that to save power the watch then disconnects from LTE while the phone stays on (though with VOLTE, your call will come through VOLTE so maybe your still connected at a lower power level to the tower anyway).
Those edge case, transition from bad LTE to another network is were the bug lies. If your running say in the clear with a great signal you'd likely not get stuck by this bug.
... But, every once in a while it switches to a WiFi that won't let it do what it needs to do.
"Be careful who you pick as friends..." my mama always told me.
In any case, if my guess is true, then that's a minor, fixable problem that the media will exploit.
The upcoming software update will remedy this and it'll be in our rearview mirror soon enough.
There is a solution, Apple just needs to release it already. Tim has said it's a minor issue and will be fixed. Well, here we are 5 days later and still no fix.