Apple Inc on Wednesday said it is working to squash software bugs that have evidently been eating away at battery life in the iPhone 4S and other gadgets powered by its latest mobile operating system.
“A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices,” Apple said in a released statement.
“We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks,” the company said.
Apple’s new iOS 5 operating system was released last month for iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices.
Some iPhone users took to Twitter and other online venues to complain about batteries not lasting through a day.
Forums developed online as people tried to solve the problem by tinkering with settings such as location-sensing capabilities in handsets.
While Apple reportedly contacted some iPhone 4S owners to ask about battery concerns, the comment on Wednesday was the first time the company publicly addressed the issue.
The iPhone 4S has been a hit for Apple. The Cupertino, California-based company sold more than 4 million of the smartphones in the three days after it hit the market on Oct. 4.
Apple said on Tuesday that the latest version of its hot-selling smartphone would go on sale in more countries in Asia, Europe and Central America this month.
The company said the iPhone 4S would be available on Nov. 11 in Hong Kong, South Korea, New Zealand, Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Malta, Montenegro, Panama, Poland, Portugal and Romania.
Apple said the iPhone 4S would be available in more than 70 countries by the end of the year.
Separately, Google unveiled an e-mail application for Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch on Wednesday, but was forced to pull it just hours later because of a bug.
“Earlier today we launched a new Gmail app for iOS,” the Mountain View, California-based Internet search giant said in a blog post.
“Unfortunately, it contained a bug which broke notifications and caused users to see an error message when first opening the app,” it said.
“We’ve removed the app while we correct the problem, and we’re working to bring you a new version soon,” Google said.
“Everyone who’s already installed the app can continue to use it,” Google said.
In a Twitter message on its @gmail account, Google apologized for the flub, saying it was “sorry we messed up.”
The application was designed to improve the Gmail experience for users of Google’s popular e-mail program on Apple devices.
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