Did you have a quiet Christmas? What about New Year? While New Years Eve is the busiest time for text messages, maybe you didn’t get any. And if you're a Nokia user, there may be a reason for that. You might have been struck by the Curse of Silence bug that has been floating around for a while, and has been recently made …

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Friday 2nd January 2009 15:32 GMT Eddy Ito

Just tell me where

Where can I download this app? I've been trying to figure out how to turn off texting since I got my first phone bill and the helpful folks at T-mobeHell can't seem to stop them either. Sure I can log into the website and select all the right buttons but it always tells me it has encountered a problem and can't complete the request so I should try again later. Well now, why would it, given that they charge me for every text coming to or going from my phone?

Oh, customer support is more like corporate support, "I feel your pain, now we could resolve this if you weren't so stupid and used the web page like you are supposed to."

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Friday 2nd January 2009 15:58 GMT Anonymous Coward

Sounds like . . .

Sounds like a feature rather than a bug. If this was a real problem, wouldn't the networks have already been screaming over lost tariffs on text messages?

Also, you failed to report, does the person who sends a text message to a mute phone receive a bounced message notice, or do they think the recipient is just a little rude to not reply?

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Friday 2nd January 2009 16:03 GMT leslie

ha ha

and i thought i just got no xmas or happy new msg;s as i was a billy no mates, now i realise its because i have an s60 phone from nokia, oh hang on its badged samsung but you know what i mean.

now i should txt all those people who i thought never texted me and say sorry for not receiving their txt's.............

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Friday 2nd January 2009 20:22 GMT Christian Berger

Not just a Nokia problem

That problem could not only be restricted to Nokia, but Nokia is notorious for writing bad software.

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Saturday 3rd January 2009 00:12 GMT Anonymous Coward

No Revenue lost

The phone companies still make money from texts sent to "silent" phones - the problem is on the handset itself, not in the network, so the message is still delivered to the phone. Of course, they won't make money on the replies that aren't going to be sent, but given how many people are using text "bundles" that doesn't matter as much.

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Saturday 3rd January 2009 18:20 GMT Walker

How very typical of Nokia...

Their wall of silence when problems arise is so very typical.

The Nokia N85 was only released three months ago, and within a month, the d-panel was falling off review models because it's held on by glue and is constantly hammered by fingers due to the built-in buttons. Many of these handsets are owned by well-known Nokia *advocates* (mods at Nokia-centric forums), so it's difficult to put this down to dirty tricks by the competition, but Nokia chose to say nothing.

A month later, reports started springing up all over the place of the same panel falling off purchased models... and at £400 a pop, you'd think Nokia would at least acknowledge the problem and declare a change in manufacturing methods to make the handset more robust. The d-panel on my own N85 was falling off on the day of purchase (direct from Nokia UK so not a knock-off), and when I challenged them on the phone, they refused to acknowledge it. Despite me pointing to photos all over the web of the d-panel falling off, they said it was a one-off problem.

Still now, more and more reports come in of N85s falling apart, but Nokia remain silent.

Something tells me they'll address the SMS/MMS issue because it can be resolved with a firmware update. As for the incredible disintegrating N85... I'm sure they'll continue to quietly rip off unsuspecting punters to the tune of £400 quid simply because they can.

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Saturday 3rd January 2009 18:20 GMT Tim Schomer

Hmmm

I know a few people at work who could do with receiving this bug. Anyone know if a similar one is available for Sony/Ericsson?

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Sunday 4th January 2009 00:04 GMT Goat Jam

@Walker

I long ago chose to NEVER, EVER buy another Nokia phone. I advise you and all the other suckers out there to follow suit.

I have never understood why Nokia phones are so damned popular. They are ugly, horrible things.

I'd prefer to keep my 4yo Razor V3 than take anything that Nokia is currently offering.

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Monday 5th January 2009 10:44 GMT Walker

Unfortunately...

...a 4 yo Razor isn't going to connect to the net via Wifi, or let you use internet radio, or Skype, or Mobbler (Last.fm), or BBC iPlayer, or install a torrent client and playback DivX files (on the nearest TV if you like), or transmit music to the nearest radio, or take 30fps, 640x480 (DVD quality) video, etc., etc. Comparing a RAZR to a Nokia N-Series smartphone is like comparing a Sinclair ZX81 to a quad-core laptop.

The N85 suffers appalling build quality but is visually very appealing. Other N-Series smartphones are more robust. The RAZR was a joke with a bad reputation when it first hit the market. It's major selling point was "zOMG it's so thin!" But if that's all you need, you go girl!

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Monday 5th January 2009 11:41 GMT Anonymous Coward

@Goat Jam

I had a Motorola Star-TAC. Nice phone. Terrible to use (menu system a disaster).

Then I got a Nokia 6310i. Best phone I have ever ever had and I'd still be using it if I could get a new (Nokia) battery for it as I don't use MMS or any 3G feature.

I'm currently using a K800i from Sony. Nice camera, however, the phone needs resetting at least once a week and the battery lasts about half as long as the Nokia (even with 3G off).

Nokia - a paper company that started making good phones. Sounds like they now have quality issues but they did hammer Motorola by thinking about usability.

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Monday 5th January 2009 13:32 GMT Andy Watt

No surprises there then.

I was fundamentally put off series 60 after working on a phone which used it. Too many keypresses to get simple things done (I just want to SEND AN SMS, dammit!), too buggy, too slow (hey, watch the dialogs draw! fun fun fun!)...

So I'm not at all surprised that Nokia don't fix flaws, including the java S40 one. Funny they're touting themselves as the comeback kids (i.e. they're terrified of the iPhone) but they won't fix well-known flaws.

I'll stick with an old sonyericsson for now, all the smartphones seem to have become dumber... I guess an iPhone running Android might be up my street, if it improves the battery life...

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Monday 5th January 2009 19:07 GMT Anonymous Coward

Fixes

Should be noted that phones aren't like PCs. If you want a fix, you're expected to buy a new phone with the latest software/features.

Though Nokia phones do at least have a degree of software updates available for a short while, but they dry up over time as new models are released (and they discontinue the old ones), and as new versions of S60 are like entirely different operating systems (e.g. S60 2nd ed, 3rd ed, 3rd ed feature pack 1, feature pack 2, 5th edition etc), the lesser versions generally become unsupported and fixes are not universally applicable unlike with a PC operating system where most people run the same version (i.e. XP).

However a darn sight better than some mobile companies that don't offer any form of updates at all (or if they do they charge you for the privilege).

Anyway, is this in the wild? Is it practical for the attackers anyway (complexity and costs involved in firing off such messages etc)? As it's not a virus, trojan or spam, is there any point? It's not like they're earning money out of it so they're not likely to send out millions of texts to kipper S60 phones (well unless the attacker is a Mr. S. Jobs !).

I can only see it being appealing to a few kids who want to annoy their mates, and only if they have the know how to do it.

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