Google’s flagship device, the Galaxy Nexus, has been widely acclaimed and we had great things to say in our review of the world’s first Ice Cream Sandwich phone. The device is fast, responsive, and Android 4.0 is the most polished version of Android yet. Numerous users are reporting a bug that randomly reboots their devices, however, and the exact cause of the issue is unclear at this time. The majority of these reports come from owners of the GSM version, although Verizon’s CDMA model isn’t immune immune to the problem. The issue is widespread, with users suffering reboots while streaming music, playing games or even while the device is idle. Additionally, affected customers are reporting that the reboots seem to occur more frequently as time progresses. Google has indicated that the company aware of the problem and is investigating it.

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Microsoft is reportedly testing a fix to a Windows Phone SMS security hole that was first discovered by Khaled Salameh earlier this month. “[Microsoft's] Security Team contacted me today, they’ve confirmed the WP7 SMS Bug and found the root cause, a fix is currently under testing,” Salameh tweeted on Wednesday. Here’s how the bug worked: one user could send a text message with a specific string of characters to a Windows Phone device that would automatically reboot the phone and then lock the Windows Phone user out of the Messaging Hub. It is unclear when Microsoft will issue the patch to the public.

[Via MobileBurn]

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Certain customers who recently purchased the Logitech Revue Google TV set top box with the hope of transforming their normal TV into a web-ready smart TV have been left with nothing but disappointment. Logitech has confirmed that a small percentage of recently manufactured Revue devices were shipped with “corrupted firmware,” preventing select customers from activating their new devices. The box would drop its connection when attempting to access the company’s license agreement, leading many to originally believe it was a mere server error. Logitech has stated that there is no fix besides physically swapping an affected Revue box with a working one, however. The symptoms are fairly obvious, but users can determine whether or not they own and problematic unit conclusively by checking the unit’s MAC address. If the MAC address begins with 1C6F657, it’s likely to be affected by EULA-gate. Logitech hasn’t had a good run with Google’s first entrance into the TV market, and CEO Guerrino De Luca said recently that the failed product was a mistake that cost the company dearly. De Luca also confirmed that the company currently has no plans to follow up with a second Google TV device.

[Via The Verge]

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Verizon Wireless on Monday confirmed that it is working on a software fix that will address what it refers to as a “signal strength issue” present in its just-released Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone. “The signal strength issue is currently being investigated,” a Verizon Wireless support representative posted on a company Twitter account. “We don’t have an ETA, but a software update is being developed.” We’ve noticed that the signal strength displayed by our Galaxy Nexus review unit is sometimes weaker than other Verizon smartphones in the same room, but we haven’t experienced any above-average call drops, slowed data throughput or anything else that might result from poor reception. Verizon launched the highly anticipated Galaxy Nexus last week, and we called the international version of the handset the best Android phone to date when we reviewed it last month.

[Via Engadget]

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Microsoft employee Ben Rudolph recently tweeted that any Android phone owner who has a device infected with malware can tweet his or her story with the hashtag #windowsphone upgrade for a chance to win a free Windows Phone. That sounds like an attractive promotion, especially given Microsoft’s fresh batch of powerful and solid Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) devices. Google has reportedly pulled more than 100 malware applications from the Android Market but Microsoft isn’t exactly an anti-malware poster boy itself. In fact, earlier on Tuesday WinRumors posted a story about a security flaw that allows a user to send a text message that automatically reboots any Windows Phone device and then renders the messaging client completely useless. Microsoft hasn’t yet responded to the report and WinRumors, rightly, didn’t explain exactly how the flaw works. A video of the Windows Phone flaw follows after the break.

Read [Ben Rudolph] Read [WinRumors]

It has been a month and a half since Apple released its record-setting iPhone 4S and users are still plagued by a series of bugs that has made the device unusable for some. BGR was one of the first sites to report on a troubling glitch that causes audio to cut out during voice calls when using a headset, and many users continue to experience very poor battery life despite the recent iOS 5.0.1 update Apple released to address the issue. Another bug that has not been widely reported in recent weeks involves static sounds that are heard during voice calls, and the issue may be more serious than initially believed. Read on for more.

Thousands of iPhone 4S owners have taken to Apple’s support forum and other forums around the web to complain of a troublesome bug that rears its head during voice calls. According to users, the iPhone emits an annoying “static digital crackling” sound during voice calls.

“[My] wife and I upgraded to new 4s phones. When we talk to each other we both hear the static,” iPhone 4S user Robert Cantrell wrote in a thread on Apple’s support forum with nearly 600 replies. ”I tried calling her with my company blackberry and she sounded good as I did to her. We are on Verizon by the way. She called me back later on my sons Motorola phone and she sounded ok but she said I had static in my voice again.” Hundreds of posts from other users detail similar experiences across various carriers in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere.

“It doesn’t prevent me from having a conversation, but it does get annoying on a long phone call,” one user said on Apple’s support forum. Others are not so forgiving, however, and a number of users say they have returned their iPhones after several exchanges failed to resolve the issue.

While initial speculation suggested software might be to blame, recent posts in at least one thread on Apple’s forum suggest the matter could be more serious. Some users have speculated that the sound is actually caused by a hardware issue related to the embedded 3G radio in the iPhone 4S.

“It’s definitely a hardware problem,” a user wrote on Apple’s support board after performing a series of tests. ”If I use the Siri with 3G network, the noise is absolutely happened. But [if] airplane mode is ON and Wifi is also ON, there is no noise. That means a 3G module inside the iPhone 4S makes a noise. I don’t know the technical issue exactly, but the first reason is by using a 3G module.”

“With every app that requires 3G connection (have not testet [sic] WI-FI yet) the static sound appears when you hold listen on the backside (around the apple logo),” another user wrote. “This seams [sic] like the sound appears when it is connected and loads data.”

Apple has not publicly addressed the matter and BGR has been unable to reproduce the bug during tests performed with two iPhone 4S units.

Google’s Gmail application for iOS is again available in the iTunes App Store. The application originally launched on November 2nd but was pulled hours later after Google discovered that notifications weren’t working properly. Google says it has fixed the bug and that notifications now work as originally intended. Image HTML emails will also display properly now. In addition, Google said it is already working on future updates that will add support for customizations, improved notifications, mobile specific signatures and multiple accounts. Gmail for iOS requires iOS 4 or a later version of Apple’s mobile operating system, and you’ll need to uninstall the original buggy version before downloading the new app. 

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Apple on Thursday released an update to iOS 5 that addressed issues many users were having with poor battery performance. The Cupertino, California-based company had been testing the solution for some time, even uncharacteristically reaching out to affected end-users and having them install the potential fix to test its effectiveness. Despite Apple’s determination that iOS 5.0.1 resolved issues related to battery life, however, not all users are finding that to be the case. Read on for more.

“After upgrading to 5.0.1 my iPhone is draining the battery even faster,” one user posted to Apple’s support forum. A number of other iPhone owners have taken to Apple’s forum to complain that instead of improving their battery life, iOS 5.0.1 has actually exacerbated the issue. Numerous threads can be found on Apple’s website and on other forums around the web, and some users claim to lose as much as 50% of a charge in two hours or less. Apple has not publicly addressed users’ complaints.

Apple released iOS 5 on October 12th and reports of significantly decreased battery life surfaced almost immediately. BGR has independently tested a number of handsets and while battery life does seem less impressive than it was with iOS 4, we have not found performance to be nearly as bad as many reports indicate.

RIM acknowledged that many its users have reported delayed message deliveries on Wednesday, although it remains unclear what the culprit might be. “We’re getting reports that some users are experiencing delays,” RIM said on its official Twitter account. “We’re investigating and will update you ASAP.” A BlackBerry outage affected millions worldwide for several days during October. The downtime resulted in a class-action lawsuit and could cost RIM an estimated $100 million. 

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Following widespread complaints of excessive battery drain thought to be related to a time zone bug, iPhone 4S owners are now beginning to draw attention to a new iPhone bug. According to multiple threads on Apple’s support forum, hundreds of iPhone 4S users are experiencing an audio echo during voice calls when using a wired headset. Users across multiple wireless carriers with various iPhone 4S models report that audio quality on voice calls often depletes after a period of time, and the voice of the caller on the other end of the line begins to echo. BGR was able to independently confirm the echo bug on one of our iPhone 4S handsets. Read on for more.

“When using the Apple hands free headset with the phone during a call, I get an echo problem,” one iPhone 4S owner wrote in a thread on Apple’s support forum. “It does not occur immediately. It can vary from 30 seconds into a call and as far up to 9 mins in before it begins the annoying echo. If I unplug the headset it goes away but will return when I plug the headset back in.”

Multiple readers have contacted BGR via email complaining of the issue as well, which we then tested and confirmed. During our independent testing, we typically found that an echo developed between one and four minutes after starting a call, though some users report that voice calls remain echo-free for up to 12 minutes. We also found that the bug occurs while using Apple-branded wired headsets and third-party headsets alike.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Multiple iPhone owners across a number of forum threads have determined that a simple interim fix for the bug is to enable the handset’s speakerphone during a call once the audio begins to echo, and then to disable it. This effectively restarts the cycle, and call quality will return to normal for a period of time before the echo returns.

We have seen a number of reports suggesting that the Apple iPhone 4S has a software bug that has resulted in poor battery life. iDownloadBlog says that adjusting the time zone settings on the iPhone might help alleviate the issue. Reportedly, a bug within iOS 5 forces the phone’s location tracking feature to remain active far more than it should, which in turn drains the phone’s battery too quickly. Users can manually turn off the automatic time zone setting by navigating to Settings > General > Date & Time and toggling “Set Automatically” to “Off.” Other users, however, have suggested that the time zone function has nothing to do with the poor battery life, which has left some people fighting to squeeze more than just a few hours of battery life from their iPhone. Apple has yet to release an official patch to address those with poor battery performance, but we suggest adjusting your time zone settings to see if that helps in the meantime. In our independent tests, we’ve found that disabling the setting does improve battery life to some degree, though none of our units were as bad as many users are reporting even with the setting enabled.

[Via PCMag]

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The iPad 2 Smart Cover accessory can be used to gain access to a locked iPad, 9to5 Mac reported on Friday. Here’s how it works: take a locked iPad 2 and hold the power button until the “Slide to Power Off” message appears, and then close the Smart Cover. When you lift the Smart Cover again and tap “Cancel,” the iPad 2 will allow you to access the last application that was open. This could be a big threat for anyone who was accessing contacts, viewing a website or checking email before he or she locked the iPad. The good news is any would-be thief does not have full access to the tablet, only the last application used. The bug has been spotted in iOS 5, although 9to5 Mac said it has also received reports from users noticing the flaw in IOS 4.3. Currently, the best fix for concerned users is to turn off Smart Cover unlocking entirely. A video of a Smart Cover unlocking an iPad 2 follows after the break. 

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After having initially said the issues were resolved following one day of service interruptions, millions of BlackBerry users across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and even some areas in South America still find themselves without access to the Wen or messaging services for the third consecutive day. Research In Motion confirmed earlier that a bug on a Blackberry server was responsible for knocking millions offline on Monday, and the Waterloo, Ontario-based smartphone maker elaborated on Tuesday that the continued interruption was caused by a core switch failure. RIM now says the outage has caused a large backlog of data that must be cleared before service can return to normal. No firm timeline has been issued.

UPDATE: Our inbox is starting to get hit with reports of service interruptions in the U.S. and Canada as well. Is your BlackBerry not working this morning? Leave us a comment below and let us know.

BlackBerry users across Europe, the Middle East and Africa again find themselves without service on Tuesday as a bug that knocked millions of users offline on Monday has seemingly resurfaced. Research In Motion announced early Tuesday morning that BlackBerry service across the EMEA region had been restored, but the Associated Press later reported that Internet and messaging services for users across the region are again offline. The report was later confirmed by several carriers including T-Mobile UK, Vodafone UK and Etisalat in the United Arab Emirates. The cause of the outage is unclear, however a report on Monday attributed the massive service interruption to a bug on a RIM server in England.

UPDATE: RIM has stated that Tuesday’s outage was due to a core switch failure.

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Apple’s iOS App Store, which is now home to over 500,000 applications, is currently down according to several tips we have received via email. Preliminary reports of the outage first came in shortly after 2:00 p.m. Eastern. The store is accessible and app pages can be opened, but apps cannot be installed on iPhones, iPads or on iPod touch units. Users report that app updates are not being downloaded either, though available updates to appear on the Updates tab. BGR has confirmed the issues on several iOS devices. Oddly, some users are reporting that installations are working sporadically, while others are not able to install any apps at all. Let us know if the App Store is working for you in the comments below.

UPDATE: Functionality appears to have been restored some time before 2:55 p.m.