Apple admitted that "a few bugs" in its iOS 5 mobile operating system are affecting the battery life of some of its Apple iPhone and iPad devices.
The battery life issue came to light in recent weeks with thousands of users complaining on Apple's support forums about poor battery life. Some users complained that their phone battery was losing power at the rate of 15% every hour even when the device was not being used.
The battery issue was not limited to the Apple iPhone 4S smartphone but in addition affected some iPads that had installed the iOS 5 update.
Apple iPhone Battery Life Issue Finally Acknowledged by Apple
Apple finally broke silence on the issue when late last night, November 3, it issued a statement: "A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks," an Apple spokesperson added.
When iOS 5 was released Apple's servers were overwhelmed by demand. Millions of Apple device users were quick adopters of the iOS 5 operating system. However, as unhappy as some of these users are with the short life battery issue, Tim Coulling, an analyst with Apple, said the latest issue should not affect sales.
"It is not as bad as the antenna issue that affected the iPhone 4. This is about software and Apple can push out updates very quickly," Coulling said.
Apple technology is now so complex that early adopters generally expect a few issues as new products are released. Still, it is a bit frustrating to early excited users who are eager to use their devices to run into issues that drastically affect performance. It would probably be smarter to wait a little while before purchasing a new release of a high tech product.
However, smartphone fans and other high tech fans ,especially Apple fans, seem to be willing to camp out overnight and wait in line for many hours to be among the first to purchase a new device. A few bugs here and there don't seem to slow down this desire to be "first" to own a new product.
What about you? If you are an Apple iPhone or iPad fan who is using iOS 5 on your device have you had a short battery life issue? Did you wait in line for hours to buy a device that delivered less than expected performance?
Source: "Apple acts on iPhone battery bug, blames iOS 5" BBC Technology, Nov. 3, 2011
Gerald Greene - Technology may save the world but it is a hard task master. It takes increasing amounts of work to keep up with the latest and greatest.
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