NEWS

Angry iPhone 3G user to Apple: See you in court
An Alabama woman has filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple over the iPhone 3G's reception woes—and judging from the number of complaints I've been hearing about the new iPhone, she may end up with plenty of company.

According to AppleInsider, Jessica Smith of Birmingham, Alabama filed the lawsuit on Tuesday, and she accuses Apple of false advertising for claiming that the "defective" iPhone 3G is "twice as fast at half the price."

In the suit, Smith complains that her iPhone 3G suffered from an iffy data connection "immediately after purchase"—and indeed, if you check out the comments on my recent post about the iPhone's iffy reception, Smith isn't the only one.

Apple has finally admitted—tersely—that a software patch released Monday (iPhone software 2.0.2, to be exact) was intended to "improv[e] communication with 3G networks." But from what I'm hearing, many iPhone users are still suffering from poor 3G reception and dropped calls after installing the patch.

For my part, my iPhone 3G was working fine until I installed the update; now, my handset keeps flipping to EDGE mode in areas where I'd previously been getting a 3G signal, Web pages are taking longer to load, and e-mail trickles in at a snail's pace. (Oh, and another thing—remember those hairline cracks appearing in some iPhone 3G cases? I've got one now, too.)

OK, so is Smith just being greedy by filing a class-action lawsuit? Maybe, maybe not, but I can understand her frustration.

Speaking purely as a user who spent $299 on a new iPhone, I'm pretty annoyed that its key new feature—3G—is on the fritz, and I'm even more annoyed that Apple seems so reluctant to communicate its with loyal customers.

Well, given that iPhone users may soon be banding together for a lawsuit, it looks like Apple (or its legal team, at least) will finally have to sit up and listen