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Broken is the new working. Vodafone has admitted that a recent Android update has cream-crackered the GPS in the Samsung Galaxy S2.
Vodafone updated its customers to Android 2.3.3 on the Galaxy S2 last week, but owners’ unbridled joy turned to sadness when they discovered that the GPS was failing to lock on to location-finding satellite signals.
Vodafone says, “We’re investigating the cause with Samsung and will provide an update on timings for a fix as soon as we have more information.”
The bug doesn’t affect phones on other networks. Android updates tend to reach different phones and different networks at different times because the makers of the phones, and the networks, tend to add their own apps and interface tweaks to the basic Android software. Those extras can interfere with the update, which seems to be the case here.
Remember the days when gadgets just did what they were supposed to? Actually, we’re probably being nostalgic, they probably never have — technology has always spawned as many expletive-laced, fist-shaking rants as it has rosy feelings of a task completed with previously unimagined simplicity.
But it seems that lately gadgets have been going wrong more. From Apple’s antennagate issues with the iPhone 4 to the volume bug in the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the complexity of many of today’s pocket rockets seems to see them going pear-shaped in all kinds of unforeseen ways.
On the bright side, the connected nature of these devices means snafus can be easily fixed. Where a hardware fault in ye oldey gadgets like washing machines means getting a man in or getting a new washing machine, phones can often be fixed by an update magically beamed straight to the device.
Er… except when the update is what breaks the phone. Ouch.
Have modern gadgets over-reached themselves? Are today’s high-tech gizmos just too complex, subject to so many variables that any change can see them go cross-eyed and fall over? Has your Galaxy S2 or any other gadget let you down at a crucial moment? Tell us about your gadget-tastrophes in the comments or on our Facebook page.
