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Apple Blocks Lawrence Lessig's Comment On iOS 7 Wi-Fi Glitch
destinyland writes "A glitch in iOS7 has cost "a significant number" of Apple users their Wi-Fi access, according to ZDNet. But they also report that Apple is now censoring posts in their "Apple Support Communities" forums where users suggest possible responses to their loss of WiFi capabilities (including exercising their product warranty en masse). "We understand the desire to share experiences in your topic, 'Re: wifi greyed out after update to ios7,'" read one warning sent to Lawrence Lessig, "but because these posts are not allowed on our forums, we have removed it." Lessig — who co-founded Creative Commons (and was a board member of the Free Software Foundation) has been documenting the ongoing "comments slaughter" on his Twitter feed, drawing attention to what he says is the Borg-like behavior of Apple as a corporation. Lessig "is now part of an angry mob in Apple's forums who upgraded to iOS 7 and lost Wi-Fi connectivity," ZDNet notes, adding that as of this morning their reporter has been unable to obtain an official response from Apple."
Walled garden is walled.
What did you expect?
(EVE Online oblig: Damage Control II works in PvP!!11one)
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Apple is really strict about not letting people give out certain kinds of technical advice or speculation on their support forums, on the not-unreasonable basis that things posted there have Apple's tacit approval. When I hung out on Nokia's support boards it was similar.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Fortunately I can't read it, becuase my iPhone lost wi-fi access.
I don't care about Apple one way or the other. But stories like this keep me informed that I should continue hitting "Not Now" when my iPad bugs me to upgrade to iOS7, and that matters to me. So no, not bored.
Everything is better with chainsaws.
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I, for one, applaud Apple's efforts to keep the Apple support forums all singing praises for Apple and its products. When I visit those forums, I do not want to see critique of Apple and its products. I want my visit to be positive and cheerful.
I am so happy that Apple is providing such a wholesome environment for me to visit and discuss Apple's products.
Like most people, he uses it via touch screen.
Maybe their wi-fi doesn't work.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
I've read about glitches when one does an update, so I wonder if the Wi-Fi problem would go away if someone backed up their device (would have to be dumped to a computer with iTunes), did an erase all, then followed it up by a DFU restore. This method pretty much ensures that all data stored on the device is erased. Then the device can be restored, apps/music reinstalled, and things back to normal.
This also stems from a general IT lesson I learned. If possible, when it comes to OS upgrading time with major number versions [1], one is best off rebuilding a server from scratch than updating it, due to cruft left behind from the previous OS, and other inconsistencies which might cause issues later on. Sometimes this isn't possible, other times, it is easily done.
[1]: The cautious exception are RPM based Linux distros which are really just stacks of filesets snapshotted and regression tested at a certain point in time. Those, I can just increment the version number, run yum upgrade, and be done with it, since it is more of a large update than a major version upgrade. Even with these, it doesn't hurt to install from scratch since it seems that RPM databases tend to get corrupted over time.
Applies to the guy who owns the press.
Apples behavior is pretty much expected, I doubt few if any companies would ever let people use their resources to organize action against them. It seems Lessig is going a little over the top in his reaction to this. It can hardly come as a shock to him.
Have to agree. We're deploying iPhones to replace Blackberries and the number of hoops I had to jump through just to create Appled ID accounts for corporate use was mindnumbing. Not to mention the constant pestering with every update.
Yes, Enable Location Services. No, don't use iCloud. No, I don't want to answer security questions. I told you this when I set up the phone the first time, and every time I've updated. Why do you keep asking me?
Not to mention the joke with ID accounts themselves. You set one up then, when you go to load your first app, you're told you have to review/update your information so you can sign into iTunes! WTF?! I don't want to sign into iTunes. I want to install a free, non-Apple app.
There is no way I can recommend an iPhone to anyone. Sure, they look cool and work (mostly), but the nagging and Big Brother nonsense just doesn't make them worth the effort.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Especially if you write that everyone should return their phones.
Use another forum to get your word out Lessig. You know how this game is played.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
There is no way I can recommend an iPhone to anyone. Sure, they look cool and work (mostly), but the nagging and Big Brother nonsense just doesn't make them worth the effort.
Exactly why I won't ever buy another one or recommend them. You hand over lots of $$, they hand you a device and say, "Have fun with 'our' device and remember, you can only do what we allow you do with it. If we don't approve of it then you can't do it."
In other words, you never own the device. Apple isn't big brother, Apple is mommy and daddy that have your, er I mean their device locked down.
Last time I checked it is still possible to downgrade to iOS 6... They have not blacklisted those upgrades yet so if you download the ipsw file you should be able to downgrade it until a fix is available...
Portions of the Slashdot community have been anti-Apple since the "hacker proof" sealed box Macintosh came out in 1984.
Check with Apple if you're holding your iPhone correctly.
Apple has no reason to censor anything,
If Apple has no reason to censor, then why are the comments disappearing from the forum? If people are legitimately experiencing wi-fi connection issues, shouldn't others be aware of it and Apple take the appropriate action?
Or is Apple following the path of Nikon which refused to acknowledge the oil-on-the-censor issue on some non-insignificant portion of their D600 camera, then less than a year later released the D610 which miraculously doesn't have the issue but which is the exact same camera? Is that possibly why Apple just pushed out the 7.3 update?
However, if people are having issue with wi-fi, how are they supposed to get the update since updating requires a wi-fi connection?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I like Apple. What I can't stand is their users. Every system have design flaws, Apples have plenty of them but for some reason the RDF is too strong.
Seriously, just look at their USB power adapter. Who the fuck designs a switched regulator and places the switch diode on another PCB than the transformer? Also, folding back the low voltage part over the buffer capacitor doesn't seem like the brightest thing to do.
"What days you are referring to? Microsoft still produces second quality software to the competition, but is a monopoly."
Do they really though? The security arguments over Windows have been pretty much dead since Windows 7, and stability arguments dead going back to Windows 2000.
Their office suite is still better than anything else, and their database server is at the higher end of the offerings available. Their dev tools are excellent.
There is some shit they produce but Microsoft software is much better than it used to be, especially Windows itself. Windows Server is even a feasible option for hosting public internet facing servers now.
Microsoft is far, far from perfect and their attempts in the tablet and phone world have been laughable, but much of their software is still at least as good, if not better than the competition.
So when you say their software is second rate compared to the competition what competition are you referring to? are you implying all their software is second rate? If so then who provides, say, a better office suite? I know Bing isn't really as great as Google and so forth either but I don't think Microsoft is universally worse. The vast majority of the flack they used to get was about their OS being unstable and insecure, and it was, but now it's not so something has certainly changed, even if they still have a lot to do.
If Apple has no reason to censor, then why are the comments disappearing from the forum? If people are legitimately experiencing wi-fi connection issues, shouldn't others be aware of it and Apple take the appropriate action?
Exactly. As you just said, Apple has no reason to censor posts in their forums, and thus they aren't. Clearly, in the hysteria that quite reasonably surrounds any Apple product release, these people must have simply forgotten that they never made such blasphemous and hurtful posts against Apple, and are clearly just mistaken about ever having posted anything at all.
They're not purging negative comments, they're purging comments that are telling people to take their phones into Apple to have them exchanged under warranty because the update physically broke the wifi chip.
There are plenty of critical comments of Apple and their products on those boards.
However, that doesn't make for very effective click bait.
butbutbut...the housing is smoooooth and silllly whiiite...smoooth and shinyy...
I think this "angry mob" is just a angry man.
Yes, because as anyone who's familiar with Lessig's work knows, he's *so* hot-headed, overly emotional, and generally unreasonable. Watch the 'angry man' rave!
/sarcasm
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
I don't think anyone said "the iOS7 update damaged your wifi hardware". Here's one post that got removed:
Before I have another post removed I urge all those affected with wifi issues to exercise your rights as I have done as published on apples vet own website.
http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/
There are far too many of us affected for this to be a coincidence or consumer caused problem, I had a 16gb white 4s purchased in July 2013 and wifi was completely greyed out no matter what fixes I was advised to try.
I have been successful in my claim and am now in receipt of a brand new iPhone 5, this was provided to me by the phone shop I signed my O2 contract with last year.
Good luck and persevere
Lessig went back to ask a question and found that the post had been deleted, so he re-posted it and that one got deleted also. It's not about spreading false information, Apple just doesn't want people to use the warranty route (for possibly a good reason, since they did end up replacing the above device and thereby possibly admitting that it's their problem).
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
I manage 44 devices in building that use iOS7, this week I've had 108 wifi connection issues on those 44 devices and it's only Tuesday.
The 121 devices running Mac OS, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Linux that I manage have had 0 wifi connection issues.
I don't think it has a thing to do with being "anti-Apple" but in reality folks just waking up and realizing the quality of Apple products has seriously gone down hill since the passing of Jobs.
Say what you will about Jobs, and from what I've read I'd say he was probably a sociopath, but the man did care about the quality of his products. If given the choice of shaving pennies and making something low quality or going for the better tech and raising the price Jobs always seemed to go for the latter which is probably why they built up a rep for quality products. Compare this to Cook who came from the supply side of Apple and seems to be more concerned with stock price and maximizing profits than he does with quality and frankly it shows, with iPhone 5s suffering BSODs and having maps that are a joke and now this?
I'm sorry but the longer we go past the death of Jobs the more it looks like Apple is taking a page from Sony's book and trading on past reputation by putting out less quality products priced as if it were quality. So while you see it as bashing I see it as customers waking up and realizing the much vaunted Apple quality just ain't what it used to be.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Apple has no reason to censor anything, there's lots of complaints on the forums already
And yet they do it. Frequently. Here's a few more examples.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
If English isn't your first language, don't make fun of someone using common phrases correctly.
You must be new here, /. has been anti apple since Android came out years ago
The question then is why was Lessig — who co-founded Creative Commons (and was a board member of the Free Software Foundation) using an iPhone in the first place?
You sort of expect just a little more dogfooding that that from a pontificater like Lessig.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Disclosure: I used to work for Apple in their Customer Relations Department.
You are correct that the perceived quality of Apple products is just the same Chinese manufactured products in a flashy shell with really good advertising. I know they've been doing this since the return of Steve Jobs to apple and the candy colored iMacs. I can't speak about before that time. How they managed to create the perception of superior quality products while using the same cut-rate manufacturers used by Dell while at the same time instituting Apple's infamous "No Return" policy is baffling to me. You couldn't even return same day D.O.A. (Dead on Arrival) equipment to the store you bought it from. You had to take it in for repair. Add this with the debacle of the Power Mac G4 Cube which had over a 33% D.O.A. rate that Apple was denying and their success can't be explained by anything short of Jobs making a deal with the devil. It's that illogical. Needless to say that it was not a fun time to work for Apple Customer Relations.
Their policies have improved some, mostly due to the work of the Attorneys General of several states and the European Union but, they still use the same manufacturing facility that all the other electronic companies use (Foxconn). So all they still do is put it in a pretty package and charge more for it. Yet, people still fall for it in droves. *sigh* I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
Apple has been dying since 1982.
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the author.
Arguably the most ethical response is to leave the original comment there, but preface it with a note from tech support suggesting that the recommendation is not correct and giving reasons why.