The Verizon Wireless HTC Eris 'Silent Call Bug'

Hall writes "In the last few months some users of Verizon Wireless HTC Eris phone models have encountered what's being called the 'silent call bug' with their phones. What has happened since the update to Android 2.1 is that some phones get dead silence (can't hear the person they call nor can the other end hear you). The only solution is to reboot the phone, though the problem will re-appear after some time. VZW tech support for a while was simply swapping out Eris phones in hopes that the replacement didn't have the same issue. Too many were, though, and now some users have been told they're not swapping anymore. A couple of days ago, a user witnessed a car accident and was unable to call 911. Well, at least not until after rebooting the phone."

Comments

We've come a long way

[BitZtream]

Remember back when you had to find a land line to call for help?

Now we're up in arms because a wireless device is not 100% reliable and it became very clear in an emergency situation.

Does the public really expect their cell phones to flawlessly or have I been using smartphones so long that I just accept wireless devices suck still?

Re:We've come a long way

[Sir_Sri]

Flawless, no. But it's a reasonable expectation that your phone should have a failure rate comparable to other phones on the market. It's also reasonable that if a problem exists that puts the failure rate of your device well outside industry norms (think xbox360) the device will be repaired or fixed both for free and in a reasonable timeframe.

In canada for example we have laws that require cell phones, even ones not attached to a plan, and with no carrier, can connect to 911. It's a nightmare for 911 if they call and cannot give a location, but if I buy a cellphone in canada I can expect that it will connect to 911. I don't know if we have rules about downtime, dropped calls or silent calls, but I'm sure there are large tomes of requirements that all the companies have to comply to for all sorts of stuff. I can expect that those will be followed, or the CRTC/FCC will send in the lawyers.

Cars get recalled for defects/repairs, so do drinking glasses from MacDonalds and children's toys, my cell phone falls somewhere between those points on a spectrum of cost and utility, and yes, your life can depend on it, just because we 'got by' with landline phones doesn't mean they didn't cost lives, there just wasn't anything you could do about it.

I took my battle.net authenticator off my iPhone and got a physical one precisely because as you say, smartphones fail a lot, I've had to reinstall the OS 3 or 4 times so far (iPhone 3g) and it spent 14 hours updating to iOS4. Not exactly my idea of a reliable device. But my GF has a nokia dumbphone, which has never had an OS update, and never needed a reboot, so maybe since my phone cost 10x as much as hers, (+ data plan) I can expect better reliability, and won't be looking to apple to replace my smartphone. People don't buy a Lexus rather than a regular old toyota for the fun of it, premium markets (which I count smart phones as part of) do still have problems, but you're paying for more functionality, not less, and a phone that can't make calls is by definition less functional.

Re:We've come a long way

[bonch]

Well, yeah. If you pay for a cell phone, you have a reasonable expectation that it's going to work. Your argument is like saying we shouldn't care about leaks in the roofs of our houses because our ancestors used to live outside.

Re:We've come a long way

[MartinSchou]

but you're paying for more functionality, not less, and a phone that can't make calls is by definition less functional.

I hate to tell you this, mate, but a phone that can't make phone calls is, by definition, not a phone.

payback

[fermion]

I recall many were saying that the problem with iPhone was that it was too hard to use as a phone. Well, at least, if you went through all the hoops, the iPhone actually works. The biggest issue is dropped calls, in which case you just call the person back.

A reboot indicates something like a memory leak. Hardware problems would not be reliably fixed. This is certainly some brain dead software error, a case of development focusing on the bells and whistle, and not core functionality. Everyone is so wrapped up in the tethering and Apps, that they forgot they were building a phone.

Re:payback

[Loomismeister]

Tethering is an almost effortless addition to a phone that already uses the internet. Apps are for the most part developed by 3rd party members that never even contributed to the core functionality of the phone to begin with.

To blame this problem on the development of apps and tethering is silly, and I think the only reason you mentioned tethering was because that's one thing the iPhone lacks.

Re:A movie comes to mind.

[Anachragnome]

"In this day and age, chances are if you can call 911, even if you don't say anything, that they can use the devices GPS to find you."

Did the 911 call center actually get GPS coordinates though? I'd be interested in knowing how this looked from the their end. Did it look like a hang-up with no GPS data sent? Isn't the GPS data sent over the same data channel?

Re:A movie comes to mind.

[Anonymous Coward]

Kinda off topic but similar to your phone trick - when I was a kid soccer practice would often run late. I would call my mom on the pay phone at school when it was time to pick me up. But since the collect-calling service just replayed a recorded name to the receiver of the call, I would say, "Pickemeupatschool" as my name. My mom would get on the other end, "Will you accept a collect call from, 'Pickmeupatschool'? To accept the charges, press 1 now." Of course, she'd just hang up and come get me, no charges needed.

Nexus One

[nrgy]

I had this very same problem with my Nexus One. Even worse rebooting did not always solve the issue.

I bought my Nexus at launch and while I was happy with it at first, the past few months it just started acting crazy. Icons on the desktop would open a different application, the issue from the article, the keyboard opening when a phone call was coming in "you couldnt slide to answer because it was ontop".

After all that and more, once the lock button on my Nexus started to give out I just went back to my iPhone.

Re:Voice is so 90s

[larry bagina]

My city police set up a number for SMS messaging emergencies. They cancelled it after three weeks: too many dick-pics, goatses, and not a single legitimate emergency.

Re:Voice is so 90s

[Vegeta99]

Why didn't they do what they do when you prank-voice-call 911? You know, send a cop to chastise you?