Photograph by Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images
The new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus at an Apple store in Pasadena, California on Sept. 19, the first day of sale
Apple isn’t having such a great week after all. It’s sold more than 10 million new handsets (and landed on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek). Yet its missteps seem to be commanding more attention: reports of the super-sized iPhone 6 Plus bending in people’s pockets, and an absolutely unmissable documentary about the ranks of Mandarin-speaking resellers at the front of Manhattan’s Apple Store lines on the first day of sales.
And now this: Apple has released, and then promptly withdrawn, an update to the iPhone’s operating system, IOS 8.0.1. The software was offered to users on Wednesday and was designed to address several bugs with the initial release. But the updates actually made things worse, interfering with the iPhone’s ability to make voice calls and the function of the TouchID fingerprint scanner.
Apple quickly acknowledged the problem and took the rare step of withdrawing the update. Anyone who manually installed it will have to go through the cumbersome process of “backgrading” to the previous version. Apple also released a terse media statement:
“We have received reports of an issue with the iOS 8.0.1 update. We are actively investigating these reports and will provide information as quickly as we can. In the meantime we have pulled back the iOS 8.0.1 update.”
It’s a testament to the perfect image crafted so meticulously by Apple that we tend to remember rare mistakes like AntennaGate and the clumsy introduction of Apple Maps. Stumbles like these lead Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook to conjoin the division that develops the iPhone and iPad operating system with the group overseeing the Macintosh OS, putting both under the leadership of Senior Vice President Craig Federighi.
Apple should have an advantage in making new software releases bug-free, since it can thoroughly test updates internally on its own hardware. This week, however, it was clearly moving too fast. Naturally, users took to Twitter to complain and to mine the comedy potential.
