Verizon Customers Can’t Play Along With The Beta Version Of iCloud
June 7, 2011
When it comes to the iPhone, Verizon has been the stepchild all along, and that family dynamic seems to have taken a turn for the worse.
Apple has begun to roll out the new iCloud service on iTunes. What a surprise it was to see all my downloaded songs and artists show up in my iTunes library. I hardly even remember purchasing some of the songs that I found waiting for me up in the “cloud.” I saw this first on my iPad and was excited to pull it up on my iPhone.
When I opened iTunes on my phone I was in for a big surprise. There was no “purchased” icon and no cloud to be found. It looked like the same old boring version of iTunes I've always seen. What a disappointment. In the confusion of trying to figure out why my iPhone was not working and everyone else was raving about this new feature, I quickly learned that Verizon does not have access to the new beta version of the famed and long awaited iCloud.
Is this a Verizon power stunt again to control customer's phone use habits? If it was not for their relatively good coverage area, this may have been enough to put me over the edge and switch carriers.
The Apple iCloud website states: “Some music features of iCloud are available in beta now in the U.S. only and requires iOS 4.3.1 on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (GSM model), iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation), iPad, or iPad 2, or a Mac or PC with iTunes 10.3.”
So there is the problem. The Verizon iPhone is running 4.2.8 software. Oddly, Verizon’s iPad version is running 4.3, so there is no clear explanation on why customers do not have the latest Apple software on their iPhone.
Hopefully an update will come soon so customers do not have to wait for the beautiful new features of iCloud. No matter what though, this is only a temporary setback. When iOS 5 launches this fall, the software will unify all the iPhones. This should help to bring Verizon customers back into the happy iPhone family.
