Apple wilts under iPhone upgrade strain

iTunes helps you seethe more easily

Owners of Apple's iPhone, desperate to be the first to upgrade to version 3 of the OS, are hitting certification problems. Some are reporting that their beloved handsets refuse to work after an attempted upgrade.

The problems seem to be down to Apple's certification service, though the details are far from clear. It is refusing some upgrades and leaving a few users with unusable handsets - though hitting the upgrade button repeatedly for hours seems to clear the problem.

More laid-back iPhone owners might like to just give it a few hours for the rush to die down, or (if they really must have the update immediately) they could try mucking about with the Internet Explorer security settings (switching off "Check for server certificate revocation" apparently clears the problem for some).

This fashion for big-bang launches is always going to cause traffic issues, and we look back fondly on Netscape's practice of slipping out new versions on a Saturday morning to spread the load, but with Twitter, blogs and social networking that probably wouldn't help as much as it did. So the best advice is to have another cup of tea and relax for a few hours before upgrading to version 3 and enjoying the delights of a newly polished iPhone. ®