In the last week, we have had a constant barrage of iPhone issues break through the lines... so much so that we feel it is our duty to inform the two of you who haven't updated what you could experience by updating to version 3.1 of the iPhone OS. This is no small problem, as you can read from the discussions on Apple's website here, here, here, and here.

The first two links are where we're getting the majority of our tips -- random shutdowns and very poor battery life. The second two, bricked phones and general slowness are still worth a mention -- even prompting our own Erica Sadun to do a live walk-through for debrickifying iPhones. We received a lot of praise for her help in that session and we'd encourage you to go back and read through the chat if you're experiencing trouble with a bricked iPhone.

I've spent quite some time reading the hundreds of posts about the "mysterious random shutdowns" and have determined that it really is what it is. As of this writing, there have been 409 posts and 28 pages in that discussion -- I've seen very little repeats and no real solutions. Some people have said that they've gone to Apple and received replacement phones because of this issue but for those of us who have out-of-warranty phones, Apple has merely said "It's $199 for a replacement." I have to agree with our tipsters -- this needs to be addressed. These people simply did not break their phones, it's a well-documented issue which we, as consumers, shouldn't have to pay to fix.

Battery life is a completely different debacle. I cannot seem to find a trend in the discussions at all. Some people claim to have removed certain apps, some claim that MobileMe sync is the culprit -- all of them agree that there is an issue with 3.1 and that battery life shouldn't dramatically decrease overnight. I'd really love to get into one of these phones and replace the battery to see what happens because the hardware guy in me says that it's not impossible. However, deductive reasoning says that there's something in the software. Whether there's a memory leak in 3.1 itself, or some apps that we're running aren't as "compatible" as they should be... we need to see another update soon to help alleviate the issues with version 3.1 of the iPhone OS.

Please feel free to use our comment system to express your concern, anger, resentment... whatever. Try to be helpful if you've come across a solution and be nice if you're not having these problems. Until Apple issues a fix or acknowledges the problem at all, just hope that you're still in-warranty.

I know the suspense has been killing you. Here are the informal, unofficial, thoroughly unscientific results of the equally informal, unofficial, thoroughly unscientific poll in which I asked you whether the SMC Firmware update resolved your MacBook's "Random Shutdown Syndrome" (RSS) -- assuming your MacBook had RSS to begin with.

Of those who actually have a MacBook (64% of you who took the poll), only 10% of you have reported that the Firmware Update resolved your problem, with 6% of playing coy and waiting it out before confirming your results. 2% of that 64% group insisted the update was of no help and a whopping 40% were thrilled to report their MacBook has yet to never exhibited signs of Random Shutdown Syndrome at all. Funny, that, since owners without problems are typically silent whereas those with problems are so loud they appear to be a heartier crows than they really are.

So what does this mean? Nothing. There is absolutely no scientific value to the above numbers at all. It's a random sampling taking from an already skewed respondent pool. Except that we really really love polls and at least 3420 of you love them to.

The poll is still open - for those of you who can't get enough of clicking those little radio buttons. Go ahead and knock yourself out.