Vodafone UK and 3 Austria had warned their iPhone 4S subscribers to refrain from updating to the latest version of the Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 6.1, due to what Vodafone called occasional difficulties “connecting to the network to make or receive calls or texts or to connect to the Internet.”

The update is about 86.8 MB and is available over the air for iPhone 4S users. The release notes say that “this update fixes an issue that could impact cellular performance and reliability for iPhone 4S.”

My other devices, however, including an iPhone 5 and an iPad 2, show no update available.

The Next Web wonders if other devices will also get the update, and so do I.

I’m just one data point, of course, but my iPhone 5 has been extremely unreliable for the last week or two — since the iOS 6.1 update — sometimes failing to connect to my carrier’s networks, sending texts extremely slowly, and failing to connect to the internet, or connecting extremely slowly.

And the infamous cellular data bug seems to be still biting people.

Apple had released iOS 6.1 with an updated version of Siri, which now allows purchasing of movie tickets, and support for 59 new carriers. Apple’s Phil Schiller had said at the time that iOS 6 had reached nearly 300 million devices in just five months.

Perhaps taking it a bit slower might have been the better part of valor.

Question: Have you been experiencing any issues with cellular connectivity on iOS 6.1? Please let me know in the comments.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Apparently, we love Wi-Fi.

Total cumulative global Wi-Fi-enabled device shipments reached five billion in 2012, according to ABI Research. And the pace of innovation isn’t slowing, with new Wi-Fi protocols rolling out in 2013 and close to 20 billion WiFi-enabled devices predicted to be in the market by 2017.

Naturally, we’re familiar with Wi-Fi in our laptops and smartphones. But the next level of Wi-Fi penetration, the firm says, is likely to be in home automation and smart, connected cars, as manufacturers continue to connect formerly isolated devices, equipment, and other things.

What’s up next? More speed, according to ABI’s Peter Cooney:

“Wi-Fi continues to develop as a technology in many ways,” Cooney said, adding that “the 802.11n protocol is now well established and has pushed the envelope increasing data rates, expanding Wi-Fi into the less crowded 5GHz space.”

The newest Wi-Fi protocols will vastly improve wireless data transfer speeds, with 802.11ac bringing gigabit-Ethernet style speeds and 802.11ad blazing up to a theoretical maximum speed of seven gigabits per second. 802.11b, by contrast, can only manage 11 megabits per second.

Of course, it’s not just Wi-Fi that is connecting our stereos, lights, cars, and smartphones. It’s also the full spectrum of communication technologies such as Bluetooth, UWB, NFC, and Zigbee. In fact, despite the fact that Wi-Fi is pervasive and powerful, it may be one of the least popular wireless communication protocols, as ABI is also predicting that in 2013 all of these technologies (combined with Wi-Fi) will result in more than five billion shipments of wireless connectivity chips in 2013 alone.

Which means that our devices will be smart and connected, even if we’re frying each other with all those radio waves.

photo credit: Palagret via photopin cc

The round was dominated by Andreessen-Horowitz, with Floodgate also participating to an auxiliary extent, according to SnapLogic CEO Gaurav Dhillon. VentureBeat reported a while earlier that SnapLogic had raised $10 million in a funding round that included Andreessen-Horowitz — one of the largest and most well-known investment firms in the valley. There wasn’t any indication of who led the round, though.

It was likely Dhillon’s hand that brought Andreessen-Horowitz into the discussion. Dhillon is the former CEO of data integration giant Informatica, which is now a public company with a market cap of $4.1 billion. Dhillon said he and Horowitz have some history when it comes to investment rounds. The funding will be used to expand internationally and help expand the team’s marketing branch.

SnapLogic runs an app store that provides connectivity software for various cloud applications, like Salesforce’s customer relationship management (CRM) software and Google Apps. It helps transfer data effectively between those cloud applications and makes sure definitions are the same across multiple applications. The developer community has around 50 developers that publish applications to SnapLogic’s app store. The revenue sharing model is the same as other app stores — 70 percent goes to developers, and 30 percent goes to SnapLogic.

Today, there are around 60 “snaps” — basically 60 applications that connect cloud applications. That means SnapLogic can manage about 1,800 (60^2) total connections. The company has some pretty high-profile companies as clients, such as cloud music radio provider Pandora.

The company previously raised $4.8 million in funding from a number of high-profile investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and Floodgate. Epinions co-founder Naval Ravikant also participated in the round. The San Mateo, Calif.-based company has around 30 employees.