Apple Blocks Lawrence Lessig's Comment On iOS 7 Wi-Fi Glitch 326
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."
Hmm (Score:3, Insightful)
Walled garden is walled.
What did you expect?
(EVE Online oblig: Damage Control II works in PvP!!11one)
Re:Pretty common support forums policies (Score:5, Insightful)
...on the other hand, the Warranty information page would seem to be exactly the sort of thing Apple should not be deleting.
IOS7 iz da SUK (Score:1, Insightful)
Freedom of the press (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
I remember the days... (Score:1, Insightful)
When every story on slashdot was "Microsoft sucks" and every comment was "If only Apple could get enough momentum to crush Microsoft."
Oh how the times have changed... different companies, same bitches. You people are never happy. LOL.
I, for one, welcome my new Apple Overlords.
Re:Pretty common support forums policies (Score:3, Insightful)
User error? Use the warranty!
Software bug? Use the warranty!
Scratched display? Use the warranty!
Just don't like it any more? Use the warranty!
If you have any problem whatsoever, use the warranty! Now you have two problems.
Honestly, I just can't get worked up about this justified censorship. Until Apple releases some kind of official solution (which might very well be "send it in for repair"), giving out wrong solutions just increases the amount of trouble involved. Having managed a help desk before, I've seen how often we had to waste time undoing users' community-given fixes for problems, like adding RAM to remove a virus (thanks, Geek Squad!). By resorting to the warranty's options, Apple's operational cost rises, and the user still doesn't have wi-fi on their phone.
Re: How about iWork? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Pretty common support forums policies (Score:5, Insightful)
By resorting to the warranty's options, Apple's operational cost rises, and the user still doesn't have wi-fi on their phone.
If I'd spent the best part of $1,000 on a phone and the wi-fi stopped wroking, the last thing I'd care about is the manufacturer's operational costs.
Perhaps if enough people send their phones back, they might not release an operating system that breaks peoples' phones next time.
Re: Another day, another anti-Apple story (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Pretty common support forums policies (Score:2, Insightful)
punish the vendor so that the vendor hurts.
pain is a GREAT motivator.
its a valid way to 'fix' a problem. if that's what it takes to get apple to improve their quality, so be it.
Re:Pretty common support forums policies (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not at all surprised that Apple or Nokia behave this way. But, my goodness, Lessig was on the FSF board and now he's using an Apple phone?
His comments would not be deleted from a Replicant mailing list or a xda-developers - they'd be dealt with by engineers (at least acknowledged/triaged). If that's the kind of experience he wants, he's using the wrong phone.
Re:Pretty common support forums policies (Score:5, Insightful)
User error? Use the warranty!
Software bug? Use the warranty!
Scratched display? Use the warranty!
Just don't like it any more? Use the warranty!
If you have any problem whatsoever, use the warranty! Now you have two problems.
Honestly, I just can't get worked up about this justified censorship. Until Apple releases some kind of official solution (which might very well be "send it in for repair"), giving out wrong solutions just increases the amount of trouble involved. Having managed a help desk before, I've seen how often we had to waste time undoing users' community-given fixes for problems, like adding RAM to remove a virus (thanks, Geek Squad!). By resorting to the warranty's options, Apple's operational cost rises, and the user still doesn't have wi-fi on their phone.
I have been a satisfied Apple user for over a decade now, but I came in here to say that Apple's discussion forum censorship is for reals one of the worst things about the company. But then I read a few posts like yours. Your post is a prime example of why I keep coming back to Slashdot despite the dupes and terrible editing and clickbait content. Instead of having my biases reinforced, I often have my mind expanded and my thoughts provoked by reading interesting alternative viewpoints here.
Thanks, man. *brofist*
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple has a bad history of this. (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple has no reason to censor anything, there's lots of complaints on the forums already
And yet they do it. Frequently. Here's [engadget.com] a few [macresource.com] more [wikia.com] examples. [examiner.com]
Re:Pretty common support forums policies (Score:5, Insightful)
Subsidies are still costs. Someone has to pay it. If you don't know who is paying it, chances are it's you.
Re:Pretty common support forums policies (Score:2, Insightful)
This. What did Lessig actually say in his post? If it was part of a thread saying that the software update had physically damaged the hardware, I can see why Apple would delete a thread full of erroneous advice or outright misinformation.
It looks like he reposted another user's comment that encouraged users to take their phones back to their place of purchase and demand a new iPhone in exchange. It also looks like most people with this wifi glitch are suffering from incomplete installations of iOS7 that can be remedied simply by backing up the iPhone, restoring the iPhone software from a clean image (i.e. "factory reset"), and then restoring the backup data to the phone. My guess is that Apple would rather people do the latter, which actually solves a software issue, than the former, which is wasteful not only in terms of iPhone hardware but time, since it's faster to restore phone than return it to a store and deal with clerks.
The purpose of a "mass-warranty-claim" isn't to "solve the problem," it's to discourage Apple from shipping shite code in the future, and maybe do a little QA in the future...
Re: Another day, another anti-Apple story (Score:4, Insightful)
so add an official "don't do this" comment (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Pretty common support forums policies (Score:2, Insightful)
From the user's perspective the warranty claim is necessary until Apple communicates to the afflicted that it isn't, because they've solved the problem, the fix is available now, and it won't cost you two hours of your life to patch up Apple's incompetence.
How To Irritate People - The Car Salesman [youtube.com]