Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Friday that a software update for Galaxy Note 7 smartphones will be released mid-December in the United States preventing them from charging and functioning as mobile phones, rendering them useless.
Good, they are dangerous to the general public.
However, Verizon Communications Inc said it would not take part in the update because of the added risk this could pose to Galaxy Note7 users that do not have another device to switch to.
Are you kidding me? These things have caught on fire mid-flight!
Verizon just totally misses the point. The best encouragement to replace it if you’ve held out this long is to make it no longer work at all. I really hope it’s not one of the verizon models that catches fire and hurts someone badly since this is the route they’ve chosen
Phone companies disabling phones in the wild is dangerous to human life in and of itself, because unlike computers, phones are used for 911 calling. Today in the US, 70% of the 911 calls that will be made will be made from a mobile phone. Most of those users won’t have another phone to use if their mobile is turned off unexpectedly by the phone company.
If my wife was using a Galaxy 7 on Verizon and she tried to call 911 because a suspected rapist was following her, and the call did not go through because Verizon was helping out their corporate buddy Samsung to be able to accomplish a fucking phone recall without tripping over their own balls — I cannot tell you how much suing I would be doing of Verizon and Samsung. I would have to have kids so that those kids and their kids could continue to sue Verizon and Samsung.
Plus, having carriers turn off phones sets a terrible precedent. If I run some bullshit Android clone phone maker, what you are saying here is that I don’t have to worry about actually paying to recall all of the defective phones, I just have to make a half-assed effort and then ask the carriers to just kill all the ones I didn’t bother to get back.
Or a government could use this as a precedent to shut down a new iPhone with 1024-bit security that they think is too much.
What Verizon should do is offer all of their Galaxy 7 customers a free trade-up to an iPhone, and then bill the cost of that to Samsung. Done and done. Nobody should suffer at all because of Galaxy 7 quality issues other than Samsung. Duh. Nobody should pay for anything, get their phone disconnected, be inconvenienced in any way except for Samsung. If they have to go door-to-door asking for people to give up their phones, then that is what they have to do.
Right now there are so many lawyers preparing to sue AT&T and Sprint and T-Mobile when they disable these phones. Lawyers are probably selling contact lists of Galaxy 7 users to each other.
Verizon also texts customers (I get monthly notices when billing happens). They could (conceivably) develop something that goes “if the user has a Galaxy 7, send them a daily text saying the thing is going to explode and to please go to a Verizone™ immediately for a replacement”. Killswitching a phone is a really bad idea for the reasons outlined above.
They wanted their branding on the update.
“Note 7 Disabler, brought to you by VERIZON™”
The carriers in Canada have effectively done that to an entire cohort of CDMA phone users by shutting down that network. They similarly shut down the Mike network a year or so ago. Users were warned, and once the network shutdown, those who did not upgrade, had useless phones. Far less gnashing of teeth than here.
Verizon is really in a bind. Don’t disable the phone and there is a chance of fire and explosion. Disable the phone and strand someone or prevent them from reaching out for critical care. What’s more likely? Probably the latter. Either way they get sued. So choose the path of least damage.
Exactly. Experienced pundits shouldn’t inflame the situation by slamming Verizon. They do have experienced and informed people considering pros and cons. But Jim will never consider both sides of the coin when it comes to any company not named Apple. He will always think of the best of Apple (except when it comes to music) and the worst of everyone else. This is not where one comes for unbiased opinions.
Or you could and should have traded in a Note 7 because they fricking CATCH FIRE.
Sorry, but the “I’m worried about my wife’s safety” thing fall short when you are perfectly willing to have her carry around a small incendiary device disguised as a phone.
OH and if your wife hops on a plane to see her Mom at Christmas… and the phone catches fire and causes an accident, killing someone else? You don’t care about that, do you?
What Verizon should do is offer all of their Galaxy 7 customers a free trade-up to an iPhone, and then bill the cost of that to Samsung.
/headdesk….
https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/samsung-galaxy-note7-recall-faqs/
Where’s the responsibility of the phone owner who could have traded in a Note 7 by now and not be faced with those options?