So I'm sorry, I'm just not sure if your entire post was specifically directed towards me or just the first line. And on that note, I'm not sure why you'd single me out here anyways. You must be new here because I have professed my love for the Bionic countless times and defended it to the death until it just gave up on me. Not once, ONCE I SAY, have I used the words "Bionic" and "suck" in the same sentence. So when you say, "you'll never be convinced," I'm not exactly sure what it is your convincing me of. I mean, guess it's possible Verizon is deliberately tampering with their network, anything is possible, but I highly doubt it. Too much at risk if people found out, which they would eventually. Personally I don't know enough about the correlation between specific hardware, internal coding and its relationship to the networks coding, but I do think that's what it comes down to. Which is, like jnt (I think) said, why OTAs generally help (or worsen) radio issues.
My post wasn't directed at you, it was just directed at people that want to consistently blame the phone when you will never have enough information to definitively say that the phone has a hardware or software defect. I keep hearing people say that with each update things get better, but for others it gets worse.
I think you make too many assumptions with too little facts, about myself and smartphones.
I beg to differ. I don't make any assumptions based on trivial evidence like "I installed an update 40 minutes ago and I haven't lost data yet". How many of those people have backtracked on their comment 2 days later that it wasn't better? Nevermind the fact that some people install the update and start having problems. I don't make assumptions based on anecdotal evidence, I make observations based on all available SCIENTIFIC evidence. Unfortunately, none of us will ever have access to that kind of information. The only thing we can go by is what everyone else is observing, but that is hardly scientific evidence. Especially considering other people with other phones have had the same exact issues. Due to my job, I've had to learn (painfully) not to make assumptions without irrefutable evidence to support the theory. There hasn't ever been any evidence in the forum of the exact cause, only anecdotal evidence by a few people. Some have apps that tell them signal strength, but that's still not really strong scientific evidence. The cell phone isn't kept in calibration regularly and verified to not have issues.
I feel like it would be more effort to sabotage certain phones, without interfering with other phones, opposed to trying to equal out the network. Or just as much effort to try and get the network working for that device. You're right about one thing though, nobody really knows.
I'd normally agree with you, but again, I won't dismiss the possibility of companies being so corrupt as to do whatever it takes to make an extra buck from their customers. The thread discussing the Google vs Verizon update fiasco is mighty damning if it really is going on. But again, we don't have official statements from Google or VZW that these things are truely happening. I don't think anyone is deliberately trying to deceive anyone, but they likely are only seeing a small piece of the story. I prefer to reserve judgement for who is at fault for when official facts come out.
Sabotage doesn't even have to be deliberate. The best kind of sabotage is the kind where nobody suspects it. I will admit that I'm not a conspiracy theorist, and I don't believe Verizon has deliberately tried to make our phones not work as well as others. But perhaps they haven't tried to make them work as well either.
As an example, my router used to have a USB shareport feature. Basically you can use a USB hard drive as a shared storage space on the LAN. I bought it in 2010. What happened on January 1, 2012. A firmware update was released that only did one thing. They disabled the Shareport function. Then a week later the company had a press release that they were releasing a new family of routers that had an amazing new feature! It was called.. Shareport. I have since built my own router using pfsense. What did they tell the people that owned my router and updated the firmware blindly, then realized they couldn't access their drive anymore? "Our latest generation of routers are the fastest and most feature packed yet. Look for them in stores soon.". What kind of BS is that?
So no, I don't trust companies. Rarely are they concerned with their customer. All they want is profits. If they could sell you an empty paper bag for $100 they'd do it in a heartbeat.
