Apple turned my iPhone into a brick last year.
It was a week after the release of iOS 8, the newest software for the iPhone at the time. Apple pushed a small update that was designed to fix a few minor bugs users reported.
But instead of improving my phone, the update caused it to lose its cellular connection. I couldn't make calls or do anything else that required access to a cellular network. For someone who's constantly glued to his phone all day, this was a living nightmare.
Luckily for most users, Apple was able to pull the update before too many other people attempted to download it.
But the damage was done. Several thousand iPhone users got the update and were stuck with useless iPhones until Apple was able to put together a fix a little over a day later.
I learned a valuable lesson that day, and it's one of my key bits of tech advice I always give people: When a new software update hits your device, wait before you download. Even massive companies with tons of money like Apple, Microsoft, and Google make mistakes, and those mistakes could end up being a pain for you.
Those bugs are rarely as extreme as the iOS 8 bug from last year, but, in general, it often takes tech companies a few updates to get all the issues ironed out when a major new version launches. (This advice generally doesn't apply to minor version updates though. Feel free to grab those right away.)
My rule doesn't just apply to personal gadgets either. As you'll learn in the latest episode of Marketplace Tech's Codebreaker podcast, software updates can affect everything from medical devices to the International Space Station.
Don't take this to mean software updates are bad. They're designed to fix bugs, security holes, and other nasty things in order to make your experience better and more secure. Overall, they're good things and keep your personal gadgets relevant.
Just exercise a little patience the next time a major update arrives for your device.
