Apple today verified that there are bugs causing the battery problems many iPhone 4S users have recently reported.

In a phone call to Macworld on the , Apple's Natalie Harrison said the problems were with iOS 5 itself and affect more devices than just the iPhone 4S. "A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices," Harrison said. "We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life, and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks."

Complaints about the iPhone 4S's battery life have started to pile up over the last few days on Apple's support site where threads that have filled more than 200 pages. Users afflicted by the problem say their phones last just hours with only minimal use.

Today's statement was Apple's first comment on the complaints, which started shortly after the launch of the new iPhone 4S on October 14. The statement is also the first confirmation that the issues are a problem with the iOS 5 software rather than the hardware on the 4S. Apple also received similar battery life complaints after the company last year.

While Apple has yet to comment on what bugs exactly cause the battery drain issues, some iPhone 4S users have looked into the issue themselves and posted their own theories. The most popular theory involves unusually fast battery draining when using the phone's automatic time zone detection.