The Verizon Wireless HTC Eris 'Silent Call Bug' 274
Hall writes "In the last few months some users of Verizon Wireless HTC Eris phone models have encountered what's being called the 'silent call bug' with their phones. What has happened since the update to Android 2.1 is that some phones get dead silence (can't hear the person they call nor can the other end hear you). The only solution is to reboot the phone, though the problem will re-appear after some time. VZW tech support for a while was simply swapping out Eris phones in hopes that the replacement didn't have the same issue. Too many were, though, and now some users have been told they're not swapping anymore. A couple of days ago, a user witnessed a car accident and was unable to call 911. Well, at least not until after rebooting the phone."
Hail Eris (Score:4, Insightful)
Calling a phone Eris is sort of asking for it..
Re:Phones which can not make phone calls (Score:4, Insightful)
Even crappy phones still have an OS. I've had call issues with many different phones, not just smart phones. And many times the issues were solved with... you guessed it, rebooting the phone. Sometimes I even had to remove the battery.
Re:We've come a long way (Score:4, Insightful)
Better to have something that works 99.999% of the time pretty much everywhere, than 99.999999% of the time in only one scenario.
Re:We've come a long way (Score:4, Insightful)
Remember back when you had to find a land line to call for help?
Now we're up in arms because a wireless device is not 100% reliable and it became very clear in an emergency situation.
Does the public really expect their cell phones to flawlessly or have I been using smartphones so long that I just accept wireless devices suck still?
We expect phones to work for their intended purpose.
Being able to make a call and then not hear anything isn't acceptable. Occasionally you can't call due to reception problems, everybody understands that. But being able to complete a call and not hear is clearly a warranty issue.
Can you hear me now? Nope? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Can you hear me now? Nope? (Score:2, Insightful)
Every product has defects, every product has failures. Its a fact. Creating great expectations from any product or brand is setting oneself up for disappointment.
Re:payback (Score:1, Insightful)
If you check the title, it says droid eris, not all android phones. So gloating is a little pointless. That said, my friend's eris has had this issue and verizon has sent a third replacement which so far isn't as plagued as the others. They aren't moving users to the incredible yet, because those are even in short demand, apparently because of delays in the screen production.
Re:We've come a long way (Score:4, Insightful)
I think part of the problem is too many people view phones as toys first and phones second. People get extremely bitchy if they can't have games and cameras and all that other shit on their phones. The market for "Just a phone" phones has nearly completely disappeared, nobody wants to buy them even if they cost less.
Way too many people I encounter buy phones based on their shiny features, and never consider call quality. Ex-roommate of mine was completely unintelligible on his phone. The thing had a totally crap microphone and looking online, that was a common problem with the phone. He just texted all the time. My though it "Why the fuck would you get it?"
Personally I've become a real fan of my Curve 8330 because of this. It is a smart phone, but the phone features seem to work no matter what and are not interfered with by anything else. Had good call quality and a decent antenna too (as well as being nice and cheap). Not the shiniest toy around, I don't have an ultra high rez touch screen, but I can pick up the phone and make a damn call when I want to.
I'm certainly not opposed to smart phones, obviously I have one, but I think consumers need to spend a little more time looking at the phone side of things and less time worrying about the shiny. If consumers start caring more about the phone, so will the manufacturers.
Re:Phones which can not make phone calls (Score:3, Insightful)
if there is a bug like this on a "dumb" phone (and, there are) the chances of getting it fixed are zero.
Which probably means that the QA is a lot better too, in order to ensure that it doesn't ship with crippling bugs.
Re:We've come a long way (Score:3, Insightful)
I would expect my cell phone to work flawless for it's main function, making phone calls, provided there's no hardware defect, it has power, a working tower is in reach, and the network is not overloaded. I accept that non-core functionality may fail. I won't accept if the one defining functionality, which is making phone calls, doesn't work due to design or implementation defects. That's a proven technology, it's no rocket science, and it should be tested like hell.
Re:payback (Score:5, Insightful)
When all the 39 different Android phone models are having the same issue, then may be you'd have a point, but the thing is the Droid Eris is only one phone, and a low end one at that (low resolution, low 5 MP camera, no 4G, slow CPU from an older architecture, no physical keyboard, very cheap price).
Gloating about the problems of the Droid Eris would be like an Apple-hater gloating about the fact that the iPod Shuffle is a piece of crap. That very well may be true, but it's not very relevant to the users that only buy the higher end flagship devices for themselves (and would only give the cheaper iPod Shuffles to their six year old kids anyway).
Re:We've come a long way (Score:2, Insightful)