NEWS: SMS Bug In Your iPhone Could Prove Disastrous

Sorry to follow up on my own post, but we were discussing this issue on the Windows Mobile Training site, and MVP Dave Parker dredged up this:

So, despite my knock on MS' speed of distributing fixes, it seems they "patched" this one 18 months ago.

Pull up your pants gang. This bullshit is getting DEEP!!!!

"Interviewed"?!? Oh, so now - you are a regular David Pogue?

BAW- HAW- HAW- HAW- HAW- HAW- HAW- HAW- HAW-HAWWW!!!

I was under the impression that the initial activation/unbricking also updated the firmware -- Anyone know for sure?

I'm not sure, but methinks you're thinking of OTA (over the air) programming. This is where the phone and system settings are setup by the provider. Also, the PRL (preferred roaming list) is probably loaded. There's very little traffic involved and is rather quick.

However, the 3.0.1 update is something like 100(?) Mbytes big. That would take some time no matter how it's delivered. I really doubt that AT&T would do that over the air. However, it might be done in the store.

I've sent email to my friend with the 6 iPhone to get the version numbers and awaiting a reply.

No iPhones are activated over the air, rather, you need a computer connected via cable to activate ("unbrick") an iPhone after purchase.

With the original iPhone this was done from the customer's home via iTunes, with the 3G and up it's done at the point of sale and can take several minutes, more then enough time to push the 300MB+ update to the device (and remember, this only applies to devices shipped from Apple before a new OS is released until old stock runs out)

it can also be done at home for the 3gs, as they are sold online. the account is set up with the carrier and the final 'unbrick' is done via itunes by the user.

the update is a little more than 200 meg and is *not* pushed at the time of activation, but it will pester you until you do update it (or tell it to stop).

I got the reply, which was not very useful. He just updated all 6 of his phones. Every one "required" an update to 3.0.1. Unfortunately, he passed the exercise on to his son in law, who didn't bother recording the previous firmware versions. Sorry, but I can't tell from here what was happening. I verified that only one of the phones had ever synced with iTunes after the initial purchase and that they were all activated at the local dealer.

One friend who recently complained about slow updates sent her iPhone in for repair as it was doing really weird things during sync. A week later, she had a repaired phone (no clue what was done) and sync now operates at normal speeds.

I don't know the email address of the other person that was recently complaining about slow sync, but will try to get it from a mutual friend.

mine are 229.3 meg for both 3.0 and 3.0.1.

A bit of Googling later, it looks like we're both right. You're looking at one of the first couple generations of iPhones, the 3GS ipsw is larger.