Recent updates?

[Brokk]

My wife says a new update was downloaded by her phone recently and both of our phones have started acting funny in recent weeks. Hers runs into a variety of issues, such as an incoming text messed up her google maps navigation so it no longer would show the map. Hers also freezes up for a bit, then starts working again several minutes later.

For mine, the battery usage has drastically changed. It's on "maximum battery saver", and I don't use many applications in general, so I would only need to charge my phone once/week, or once every 4-5 days. Now it's not lasting much more than 24-36 hours before I need to throw it on the charger. So the battery is only lasting 1/3 the time. Also we have a network extender through verizon. Typically it should show 3-4 bars if I'm in the same room as it, one or two bars if I'm a room or two away. Now it shows zero bars all the time, and only shows good signal strength once it dials a number. These two items could be related, as past phones would burn through battery charges quickly if it couldn't find a network to attach to. I suppose the question is, why does it suddenly not consider the network extender to be a valid network until you dial?

So the burning question for us is... What changed? These weird problems started cropping up for both of us about 2-3 weeks ago. Is there some new patch or update being rolled out through Verizon?

Brokk... (located in MA)