Apple is now contacting some iPhone owners individually in a bid to resolve iPhone 3.1 battery problems, reports say. The firmware -- which has been available since September 9th -- has allegedly been responsible for instances of rapid battery drain, even when phones have been placed on standby and had Wi-Fi and Bluetooth disabled. Apple is said to be investigating the issue by talking to posters on the company's support forums.

Inquiries involve 11 questions, directed at common causes of battery drain such as apps, push e-mail and the aforementioned Wi-Fi and Bluetooth options. The 10th question asks if power drops seem "legitimate," or instead flaws in the battery icon indicator. Posters are also being sent unsigned profiles to install, which log iPhone battery use in a way that can be sent back to Apple. The logs are saved when syncing with iTunes, and Apple suggests not going long without a sync, due to the size of the files involved. The profile can be disabled once enough data has been gathered.

The firmware continues to be linked to other problems, most notably a "coma" state. An iPhone may shutdown completely, and without warning; it should be possible to get affected devices working with a manual reboot. It is unknown if the glitch is connected to battery difficulties.