More MacBook Users Affected By Wi-Fi Problems

Is Apple getting sloppier, or is the increased number of problems we've been seeing a result of increased sales they've been seeing? Whatever the cause, MacBook users are starting to complain about Wi-Fi problems, which seem to be related to the latest software updates issued by the company.

Owners of the 13-inch portables are noticing increased erratic behavior for their Wi-Fi connection. The issue seems to be present both under Leopard and under Tiger, the latest update of which seems to be the culprit.
Affected units see a very unreliable wireless connection that seems to be closely related to the power management of the machine. When plugged-in, the MacBook's wireless is fine and reception is strong. As soon as the user switches to battery power, however, the connections become intermittent and will often drop entirely when idle.

Affected users that also use Boot Camp report that the problem is not seen under other operating systems. Similarly, other users are reporting that they managed to avoid the issue by using the Terminal to send out data periodically to keep the connection alive. Last but not least, some users are reporting seeing the problem go away after reverting to Mac OS X 10.4.9. All of these fixes, as well as the most common one of simply plugging the machine in to avoid staying on battery power, indicate that the problem is a software one related to the way the system handles power management.

The issue does not seem to be a new one, with reports going back as far as the 10.4.10 update this summer, but it appears that the most recent Tiger update has made things worse for many.
So far Apple has not publicly acknowledged it, much to the chagrin of affected users who are well aware that another software update could easily rid them of these woes.