Unofficial/Unannounced iPhone Update

[mjs975s]

Ok I'm writing this for the second time... stupid PC (grrrr).

Last night when speaking with iPhone technical support at Apple, I was finally transferred to an iPhone engineer due to the extreme technical nature of the issue (a whole separate topic) and learned that unofficially, there exists an update to the iPhone in the form of the restore image available to everyone through iTunes. The engineer would not specifically tell me which widespread issues were address but "highly recommended" doing a restore of the iPhone software within iTunes.

A bit skeptical as I thought this was just the original iPhone image made during the first sync/activation, I followed his advice and chose the restore option. Much to my surprise, iTunes began downloading a 91meg file from the iPhone software server. The version still claimed to be v1.0 which the engineer said would be the case but assured me there were several fixes within this software image file that were not present on the iPhones at the time of sale/shipping.

WARNING: Choosing the restore option may permanently delete any data contained on your iPhone that has not been previously backed up.

After performing a restore, iTunes presented me with the option of starting with a clean phone or restoring files from a previous backup iTunes had made during a sync event. I decided to start fresh - personal preference.

The first thing I noticed is you have to wait for AT&T to reactivate your phone - don't freak out unless you have previously tampered with your activation. It takes a few minutes for the iPhone to contact AT&T with information from your SIM to confirm you are in fact a current/active customer (bad news for some people who have "hacked" their iPhone).

The only other thing I've noticed so far involves email but I haven't examined things very closely. When adding my a MS Exchange ALL folders were retrieved from the server including common folders, calendars, ect - this wasn't the case the with the original software image on the iPhone. Also, when adding my .mac account, smart folders defined on my MacBook Pro that were then saved on my .mac account were retrieved from the .mac servers. As an example, I have a smart mailbox to filter out all weekly mailings from BestBuy. Again, this wasn't retrieved the first time I setup email with the original iPhone software image.

So far, that's it but I'll keep playing with my phone to see if any of the "widespread" issues are fixed in the restore image file.

I hope you guys find this information useful!

-Michael

 

[elistan]

Very interesting. Perhaps this is behind the 1.1 version rumors?

Can you do us a favor and go to Settings -> General -> About and report your version number? Mine's the way it was from the Apple Store - Version 1.0 (1A543a), Model MA501 and Modem Firmware 03.12.06_G

 

[paymaster]

I also did a restore although I did it to see if it would do anything for my battery life. Before the restore I was getting about a day out of the battery with a fair amount of usage. Since then, about 2 days. I did not keep track of the exact usage each day to see how they compare, but it seems to have made a difference. For those having trouble with the battery life, it can't hurt to try! My version and firmware shows the same as above, but my model# is MA712(8gb).

 

[mjs975s]

Very interesting. Perhaps this is behind the 1.1 version rumors?

Can you do us a favor and go to Settings -> General -> About and report your version number? Mine's the way it was from the Apple Store - Version 1.0 (1A543a), Model MA501 and Modem Firmware 03.12.06_G

Version: v1.0 (1A543a)
Model: MA712
Modem Firmware: 03.12.06_G

Please note I didn't check these before the restore. Mine is the 8 gig version.

 

[SilentPanda]

Version: v1.0 (1A543a)
Model: MA712
Modem Firmware: 03.12.06_G

Please note I didn't check these before the restore. Mine is the 8 gig version.

Mine is the exact same on my 8 gig. I haven't done a restore on it.

 

[siurpeeman]

Much to my surprise, iTunes began downloading a 91meg file from the iPhone software server.

why would this be a surprise, considering your computer never had the iphone restore software in the first place? the iphone doesn't include any software, and it isn't embedded within itunes 7.3. it's only natural that a restore would call the servers to download the restore image.

 

[mjs975s]

why would this be a surprise, considering your computer never had the iphone restore software in the first place? the iphone doesn't include any software, and it isn't embedded within itunes 7.3. it's only natural that a restore would call the servers to download the restore image.

Because I thought it made a restore image from the original iPhone during the activation process.

 

[Craiger]

Placebo

Kinda sounds like to me that he was just feeding you a line to make you happy.. Kinda like a sugar pill.

 

[joeconvert]

Kinda sounds like to me that he was just feeding you a line to make you happy.. Kinda like a sugar pill.

Indeed. I was getting my hopes up, but no software/hardware company is going to let a different software image out with the same build number.

 

[mjs975s]

Kinda sounds like to me that he was just feeding you a line to make you happy.. Kinda like a sugar pill.

Doubtful considering I wasn't calling to complain about anything that is considered a "bug". I was inquiring if the iPhone supports 802.1X authentication over WEP, WPA, or WPA2 and the answer is no. This currently will not affect the overwhelming majority of iPhone users; however, if you attend a university or work in a large corporate environment that is VERY concerned when it comes to network security it will be. Many small businesses and smallwe institutions still rely on a single pass code/key for accessing the wi-fi network but more and more are moving toward individual authentication which dynamically assigns a key generated by the authentication server based on your username, password, and domain as a campus wide key provides essentially no security.

Several of the Apple support staff had no idea what I was talking about and kept insisting a needed a pass code/key from network admin until I started explaining things in highly technical jargon and they knew they were over their head so I was eventually escalated to a senior engineer who realized how serious of an ommission this was in terms of security and said it would be addressed ASAP and hopefully in the next update. At that point I asked what he meant by next update as it sort of struck me as bizzare considering there hasn't been a first to be a next. He said that there were some minor last minute changes in the restore image that didn't make it onto the phones and if I had seen any issues thus far, he'd highly recommend doing a restore.

So you can call it what you want but the fact is people have been seeing a decrease in instability and an increase in previously unworking feature sets such as full folder syncing from email servers including MS Exchange.

 

[brooker]

Thanks!

Very interesting, thanks for the info!

 

[borg1of2]

Indeed. I was getting my hopes up, but no software/hardware company is going to let a different software image out with the same build number.

Well being in the software business there is an aspect to what is described here that is certainly possible. Any software product that has to be integrated/installed on a company's hardware solution involves the software application, but also an install process during manufacturing. Typically those are assembly type of tools that allow for the application to be either pre-configured on the CF or installed during production.

That said, since Apple has a user install tool, i.e. iTunes, the mechanism used by iTunes to restore/reload the same application version number may be slight different that may result in some "corrections/improvements" to the device. So, I think, key word, what was conveyed was that doing a restore/reset may clear up some known glitches they've seen from manufacturing.

Without enough specific data, there does seem to be threads out there that things do seem to get better after users do a restore, not in all cases, but there are reports on this board and elsewhere you can kind of see this happening.

Always fun to speculate.

 

[AustinSTI]

Software is almost never changed/released without an update to a version number whether that be the build number, actual version number etc. This is probably a sugar pill as indicated before...

 

[hbg]

Glad it worked for you, but it looks like a placebo, at least for my problem, low sound volume. I tried and they must not have a fix in it for volume on the handset or speakerphone.

 

[timbloom]

It's always possible that the OS build didn't get changed, but rather the apps included may have. Just an idea, but I would assume if it was a real update, apple would make it known.

 

[unity]

It's always possible that the OS build didn't get changed, but rather the apps included may have. Just an idea, but I would assume if it was a real update, apple would make it known.

I've been putting some thought into that. For the fun of it, I did a restore. Noticed nothing different in performance, etc....

But if an update were to come out just a week after release - and be announced - do you think that would Apple look bad? "Apple already release update for iPhone"... "Just shortly after release, Apple needs to fix iPhone problems". etc.....

 

[runplaysleeprun]

It's always possible that the OS build didn't get changed, but rather the apps included may have.

Good point, I think that is a real possibility.

PS: my iPod app crashed on me whilst making this post.

 

[boeingair]

Does anyone know if text messages are lost during a restore?

 

[mjs975s]

Software is almost never changed/released without an update to a version number whether that be the build number, actual version number etc. This is probably a sugar pill as indicated before...

Ummm how long have you worked in the software industry? The companies I've worked for in the past updated all the time without changing the version number if they released a new product/update prematurely and foobarred something royally that was just a stupid mistake. I've seen customers told time and again maybe your installation/download was corrupt and you should try it again after the programmers secretly snuck a quickly fixed update on the website for download that did not have the version number updated in any way because the company preferred not to admit they screwed up and missed a problem or accidentally created a new problem by fixing an old one. I'm not saying the companies I worked for were honest - part of the reason I no longer work for them, but it is common practice to cover up mistakes by making a version available with the same version and build number to assert "there is no problem on our side, maybe something happened on your side".

BTW, tested out the issue with iPod crashing while using Safari, I'm not experiencing that anymore.

 

[Romanesq]

so what about volume?

Ummm how long have you worked in the software industry? The companies I've worked for in the past updated all the time without changing the version number if they released a new product/update prematurely and foobarred something royally that was just a stupid mistake. I've seen customers told time and again maybe your installation/download was corrupt and you should try it again after the programmers secretly snuck a quickly fixed update on the website for download that did not have the version number updated in any way because the company preferred not to admit they screwed up and missed a problem or accidentally created a new problem by fixing an old one. I'm not saying the companies I worked for were honest - part of the reason I no longer work for them, but it is common practice to cover up mistakes by making a version available with the same version and build number to assert "there is no problem on our side, maybe something happened on your side".

BTW, tested out the issue with iPod crashing while using Safari, I'm not experiencing that anymore.

To be fair, we can't say for sure what is what with any "updated" 1.0 but do you have any comments on the volume on the headset (receiver) when placed to the ear?

That's where I'd say the majority of user concerns are overall.

 

[mjs975s]

To be fair, we can't say for sure what is what with any "updated" 1.0 but do you have any comments on the volume on the headset (receiver) when placed to the ear?

That's where I'd say the majority of user concerns are overall.

If you think thats the majority of user concerns you should go over to HOFO - what a lot of whiney a$$ freaks - these are the guys that live in their mom's basement and have no personal life Anyway... to your question, no I have not tested that feature extensively. I almost always use the included headphones and love them although I'm starting to get the feeling others think I'm talking to myself while listening to my iPod.. ha! When not using those, I use the speaker phone and am equally pleased with that; however, just yesterday I didn't have the headphones with me and I was around a bunch of other people so I didn't want to use speaker phone and when I held the device to my ear, I was surprised at the lack of volume.