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Microsoft Explains Windows Phone 7 'Phantom Data'
Fuzzy Eric writes "Microsoft has confirmed that some handsets running its Windows Phone 7 software are sending and receiving 'phantom data.' The problem surfaced in early January with some owners of phones running Windows Phone 7, claiming that their phone was sending 'between 30 and 50MB of data' every day; an amount that would eat into a 1GB allowance in 20 days. Microsoft said its investigation found that most problems were caused by a unnamed 'third party' service. It said that the problem seemed to only affect 'a small (low single-digit) percentage of Windows Phone customers.'"
No wonder that this third-party service remains unnamed. After all NSA stands for 'no such agency'.
1. No Answer
or
2. We found the problem. It wasn't our fault, and it doesn't matter because it's not happening to anyone. (lie)
.sigs are for post^Hers.
That can't be true. There are more than two reports.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
So is there going to be compensation for users scorched by this bug/feature? Class action suit anyone?
If it was the FBI or CIA or NSA I would still mind, but it wouldn't be THAT huge a deal, mainly because:
A. They will track me anyway if they have any reason to.
B. They aint got shit on me.
C. The chances of them actually bugging me are about .001%
I'm more worried about it being someone who is going to try to sell me shit. Because the likelihood of them actually bugging me is almost 100%.
Damn... I would ask you to take a picture and send it to me for proof, but I don't want you to go over your limit.
Well, in my country, 1Gb is almost the biggest dataplan any phone company offers, and it costs me 45$ per month . I could have an "unlimited" data plan for 150$ per month, but this price is simply outrageous. And no, I don't live in the tird world, in central Europe actually. Switzerland, where not everyone is a rich banker that promote tax evasion...
So, Microsoft saying "it wasn't us, it was them" counts as an explanation?
I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
Can it still be considered 3rd party if the company that generated the "phantom data" was contracted by either the carrier or Microsoft to develop the app to intentionally run up the quota, hopefully going unnoticed and generating overage charges? My ex-bank, 5th3rd has a class-action lawsuit against them for doing something similar.
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Apparently* it's an external problem and there will be "no need for a system software update.".
Makes you wonder about who can do what with your Windows Phone 7...
*As I noted in my submission. Which was earlier. WTF editors!?
My UID is prime. Hah!
They need a utility built-in to the phone that logs which processes/programs are sending how much data over which connection. None of this "unnamed third-party program" bullshit.
I would be happy to show you, but my account cuts me off automatically when I hit my download li---
Goodbye Slashdot. You've changed.
I will put money on it not being anything like that interesting.
It'll probably turn out to be either a crucial app vendor or a launch partner that they don't want to annoy - e.g. if it turned out that one of the HTC apps or the Facebook app was doing it. Until they know for sure, and work out how to fix it they probably want to be a little coy about what's causing it.
Anyway, it's not affecting that many users as far as I can tell. I've got an HTC Mozart for work that's not doing it, after checking my data usage.
Actually, in my experience cell phones are much cheaper in the 3rd world. For 30 bucks in most of Africa you can get a cell phone and more minutes than you could ever use. I'm not sure about smart-phones over there, but the basic cell phone service is astoundingly cheap.
We in the "1st" world are being cheated by carriers.
1GB is considered a lot by most phone companies on a cellular plan. Most of UK networks are downgrading their "unlimited" to mean "500MB/month" right now - see the recent furore about t-mobile.
It costs me $30/mo for unlimited data.
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According to ars, Yahoo mail might be the one to blame.
"All very peculiar. The main culprit fingered by the Windows Phone 7 community over this issue (though not named in the statement) is Yahoo! Mail."
I'm glad y'all RTFA and saw where it said
"We are in contact with the third party to assist them in making the necessary fixes," a spokesperson said. The firm also said that it was looking into "potential workarounds" until the issue was solved.
fwiw, there's evidence that one potential culprit was a yahoo mail client
I'm not saying the phantom data isn't bad, I think every kind of phantom is bad, but who on earth gets a smart-phone and signs up for the 1GB a month plan? Do they even have those?
Ok, based on responses to this I guess I'll make a different point: Apparently I'm the only one who uses tethering while traveling.
Right - the risk of getting bugged by FBI is usually lower than the risk of getting your identity stolen and abused.
At least that applies to most of us.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
An "unnamed third party service" is an explanation? As much as "a dog ate my homework".
Look, I own a Windows phone (not 7 it's 6.1 then flashed it to 6.5) . I hate Windows for many reasons. I think it's slow (granted, the hardware is not top of the line), it's cumbersome, and there are next to no apps for it.
But the claim that a windows phone has to be rebooted every other day or that one gets BSODs on a windows phone -- that's pure crap. The phone is not rock solid, but it easily runs for months on end with no problem. The few times i've actually had to reboot my windows phone was either because i was flashing an updated ROM or because I was trying to see if the signal issues were caused by the OS (they weren't).
So given that winmo 6.5 is decently stable, why would you FUD about phone 7?
For me the biggest issues with windows mobile 6.5 are: slow startup, slow GUI, poor app market. Each of these is a huge minus for winmo compared to the competition. But I would not complain about the phone's stability.
I may just be too uncool, but I honestly don't do or say anything that would be worth the time of law enforcement.
I'm not saying its ok to just track everything everyone says, that would be a horrible practice, I'm just saying I'm close to the bottom of the list.
Who does Microsoft care more about? Users or Developers and Partners? Their actions speak louder than words. They are reluctant to tell people the truth so that they can protect themselves or conserve their resources in favor of protecting developers and partners. In the world of Microsoft (and indeed Apple and most other commercial software vendors) the users are to be taken for granted and abuse of users, their information, their computers and their resources are all the norm.
I realize this is more preaching to the choir for most people here and/or this is "stating the obvious" but I think it's sometimes useful to remind people and users of where the priorities and motivations of the vendors they use and rely on are. By knowing their priorities and motivations, you can keep yourself appropriately aware and even guarded. For example, we have a LOT og Google fans here. In the eyes of some, Google does no evil and can do no wrong. They are an advertiser and a marketer and maintain all of the priorities and motivations of advertisers and marketers. It is important to keep Google in perspective. Google is just one example. Microsoft's main strategy is to keep their markets saturated with Microsoft products and services. This is accomplished through strategic partnerships and arrangements with OEMs and resellers among others. This means they place their priorities in favor of those channels; partners, OEMs, developers and all. If Microsoft's primary channel was retail and online sales, their priority would then be focused on the people who buy their products and services directly. But this is, for the most part, not the case.
For this reason ("Who does Microsoft care about?") I generally avoid Microsoft. It is not because they are buggy or insecure or "evil." It is the fact that as a user or customer, they are not interested in my needs or interests. That's a simple fact.
I'd reply, but he won't be able to read it until next month.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
I'm not saying the phantom data isn't bad, I think every kind of phantom is bad
The Ghost who Walks would be extremely unhappy to hear you say this.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
Well for 30 bucks in Africa you can feed for one month.
Damn... I would ask you to take a picture and send it to me for proof, but I don't want you to go over your limit.
Too late. Today's the 20th.
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
Not every customer needs an unlimited/giant plan.
That's very true, but the way the tiers work is really designed to screw the customer anyway. If they didn't want to do that, they'd bill you based on which tier your usage patterns fit into, rather than you adjusting your usage patterns to fit a specific tier.
I'm happily on AT&T's unlimited plan, and it works well for me: I've got some months where I pull 1 gig, and one where I've pulled as high as 6. Granted, it's mostly from video.
The real problem with the cost of a smartphone is that the baseline price for it is the same as for a dumb phone or a feature phone. With smartphones and their "required" data plans being the only offerings available with the features that the customers want these days---I can't tell you the number of people I know who couldn't care less that their Blackberry is uber-secure or receives emails for them; they bought the phone because it's great for texting (*cha-ching* goes the Verizon cash register)---people often find that getting what they want out of their next phone yields a mandatory upgrade in their monthly bill as well.
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
It's a 3G problem. From the descriptions it appeared to be certain phones on certain carriers. My best guess is that some service was mis-configured to continuously send data instead of bursting it or not to send it all. The size of the data seems to suggest that logging was inadvertently turned on and sending.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
If At&T is the primary service then Windows Live is a third party to that service. Since Microsoft did not name themselves as the culprit, they are in fact an Unnamed service. And of course why would Microsoft want to piss off their own their own management, or worse, to let potential buyers know what the real problem is?
I'm going to preface this by saying that I don't really know a single person who has this phone, but phantom 3rd party data seems like is would be software installed by the carrier. MS just doesn't want to throw whoever the carrier is under the bus. When I got my Droid phone, there was a bunch of bloatware installed by Verizon. That's just my guess... it could be the NSA or the FBI or NASA for all I know.