The Brooks Review

Author: Ben Brooks

  • The Case of a Free Case – Is it Enough?

    It seems the answer to the above question brings a mixed bag from people. The way I see it there are two camps: those that think Apple needs to do more, and those that think Apple has reached a resolution. What is more telling though is exactly who is saying what.

    The Apple Should Do More Crowd

    This crowd is made up of people that are experiencing dropped calls due to the ‘weak spot’ on the iPhone. They are not satisfied with Apple’s free case solution and yet are not willing to return the phone. These people also are getting terrible coverage with AT&T and just didn’t know it before due to the screwy algorithm that Apple was using.

    This crowd wants a real solution where no matter how they hold or use the phone they experience no problems. This is not unreasonable on the surface, but it is far from possible at this point.

    Apple Has Resolved It

    This group may or may not be able to make the weak spot drop bars, and are rarely experiencing dropped calls outside of the normal ‘I-am-on-a-major-highway-in-Seattle-and-the-call-dropped-while-I-was-on-Bluetooth’ calls. Further they couldn’t be happier with their iPhone 4 and a free case is just icing on the cake.

    The Real Problem

    It has become apparent to me that the real problem is not the iPhone 4 it is actually AT&T (and every other cellphone provider). You see every other major smartphone on the market suffers the same fate of the iPhone 4 if held in certain ways (you can argue if you want that the iPhone 4 is more prone due to the manner that you hold it, but it is irrelevant). If the only way to solve this problem (at least that I have heard about from antenna engineers) is to go back to external antennas that you have to pull out on the phone, or the nubs at the top – then I think we can all agree it is a solution that none of us want.

    So the only solution then would be to improve the cell network coverage of all the major carriers. This means that if I touch the ‘weak spot’ on the iPhone 4 I only lose one bar instead of two, which means there is no dropped call (assuming the better network gives us all full bars).

    We should all be pissed at the cell carriers: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile. It is they who have failed us, not the smartphone manufacturers. It may take AT&T 3-years to get a new cell tower in downtown San Francisco as Steve Jobs stated, but how long does it take to roll out free Femtocells to customers with poor reception? Shouldn’t AT&T just be giving these away – why would you charge for one, they are far less costly to install than a regular cell tower and guess what: they can be installed in days.

    Even better AT&T keeps charging you for the bandwidth used on these devices even though you are the one paying for the internet connection. Femtocells is not the end solution to the entire problem – better network coverage is – but they are certainly a great stopgap. They are a stopgap that AT&T just may need to use to stop an exodus to other carriers if/when the iPhone goes to them.

  • Bad Connection: Inside the iPhone Network Meltdown

    Fred Vogelstein has written an incredibly interesting article on the Apple and AT&T relationship, if you don’t have time to read the whole thing (you should make time) take a look at these choices quotes:

    They’d always end up saying, ‘We’re going to have to escalate this to senior AT&T executives,’ and we always said, ‘Fine, we’ll escalate it to Steve and see who wins.’ I think history has demonstrated how that turned out.”

    and

    Even more irksome to AT&T, though, has been Apple’s relative silence in the face of thousands of frustrated customers. “AT&T went in thinking the deal was a true partnership: ‘We’re in this together, and we defend each other throughout.’ That wasn’t the way Apple did things at all,” says someone who worked on the project for AT&T. “We’d say, ‘Let’s resolve these issues together,’ and they’d say, ‘No, you resolve them. They’re not our problem. They’re your problem.’”

    and

    Even if AT&T had wanted to respond with iPhone ads, Apple would have refused. “Put yourself in Apple’s shoes,” says an Apple executive involved in those conversations. “The reason the Verizon ads were so effective wasn’t because of the iPhone. It was because of AT&T’s network. We would have been letting them use the iPhone to put lipstick on a pig.”

    and lastly

    Jobs and his team would continue to discuss switching to Verizon, but these were always short conversations. “Every time the issue of switching came up, it always seemed to cause as many problems as it solved,” according to a source who attended some of these meetings.

  • Paid Comments, Do They Make Sense?

    I posted a link about a newspaper site that will begin charging readers to leave comments. The fee is nominal ($0.99 one time) and the idea is noble. The basic theory operating behind this idea is that requiring people to use their real (full) names (and verify that by making them pay with a credit card) the quality of all the comments go up. Instead of comments looking like YouTube’s they look like those that people used to mail to editors.

    The Concept

    The paper will charge customers $0.99 to register – registration allows them to leave comments on the stories. Registration and the fees are one time only and must be paid using a credit card in the registrants name. Once registered users will not be able to change the name that is displayed when they leave a comment – it is the billing name that will be shown.

    Due to this verified identity schema the paper believes that people will be more apt to leave comments of an intelligent and insightful (read: helpful) nature. Instead of just berating the journalist or the politician being talked about with slang and put-downs – actual evidence will be presented. This is all based on the idea that people are vain and when they can be called on something they said (in real life now) they will want to portray a sensible and smart self.

    Thus in the end you have a cleaner commenting system, requiring less moderation and further engaging the readers of the story. In essence you have brought back the relevance of comments.

    My Guess at the Reality

    I think that very few people would argue that the above seems like the end goal of comments – make them relevant and engaging. However reality is much different from the concept. Conceptually we assume that people are smart and care about what people think of them. Further assume that no one will pay $0.99 to tell the writer that they suck.

    In reality all people are not smart, and a lot of people simply do not care what others think of them. So what is stopping them from paying less than a dollar for the privilege of flaming on? Further we assume that people want to sound intelligent that thus will try to be intelligent. Have we forgotten that most people do indeed believe they are smart and (worse yet) right?

    Have you ever tried to argue with someone that is completely miss informed about a situation and yet they believe whole heartedly that they are correct and you are nuts? It is painful and frustrating to do – these are the people leaving most of the problem comments. They will not go away with paid commenting solutions. This of course is not to imply that what they add to a conversation is hurtful, just that what they add to a conversation is not necessarily productive or the desired outcome.

    Which brings us to perhaps the most contentious point of paid commenting systems – how do you moderate a paid comment? If someone is paying you to be able to comment on your article, can you then still remove the comment if you don’t find it tasteful? Certainly there are terms of service agreements, but that means you then need legal to step in and explain why a comment was removed. Given the sheer amount of poor comments this could prove to be quite a challenge, both fiscally and manpower wise.

    The Real Problem

    Comments are more noise than they are valuable. Let me offer and analogy: we all love Freeways even though they are incredibly noisy, they provide great value in moving us long distances in a short(er) periods of time. Comments though are like a Freeway that doesn’t take you anywhere you want to go – pointless and noisy.

    The solution being proposed then is to change all the Freeways into Toll-ways where people now must pay to use them. The problem is that you will now have less noise, but you still won’t be going anywhere you want to go. You have only solved 50% of the problem. Comments won’t be great until you can foster an environment where people leave useful/constructive/informative/interesting comments.

    The only way to get great comments is to take away the soapbox. That is the reason more and more blogs are moving away from comments that appear directly on the article to a commenting system where readers email the writer. I am all ears when people email me comments, or hit me up on Twitter it is really no different that having to send a letter to the editor. I take away the soapbox to remove the noise and make sure that we are going somewhere – this is the only model that currently works.

  • Apple Peddling Revised iPhone 4s Through Genius Bar Replacements?

    I would ignore this on most blogs, but Stephen M. Hackett used to be an Apple Genius (still is, just not employed as one) and given that he has pretty good sources on this matter.

  • Times’ Paid Model: The Unofficial Numbers Come In

    Robert Andrews:

    The registration wall, despite being free for a month, resulted in site visits declining by 58 percent. By the time actual payments had been required for a week, visits were down by 67 percent, compared with the old days.

    This won’t worry many at the paper, since the whole strategy is about courting fewer, more loyal users. And it’s a darn sight better than the 90 percent drop-off that many, including The Times’ editor, have braced for.

    I saw numbers popping up about this over the weekend however they were on the Financial Times which I could not see due to a paywall. This is a huge drop, time will tell if the model is lucrative or not.

  • Consumers Reports’s ‘Recommended’ Smartphones, July 2010

    John Gruber:

    Curiously, Consumer Reports’s list of “Recommended” smartphones includes all of the smartphones suffering from “holding it wrong” attenuation I’ve linked to tonight (Palm Pre, HTC Incredible, Nexus One, BlackBerry 9650) as well as three of the phones Apple posted videos about (iPhone 3GS, Droid Eris, BlackBerry 9700). I’d link directly to Consumer Reports’s web page for this list, but can’t, because it’s behind a paywall that their coverage of the iPhone 4 antenna is not. I’m sure they’ve been performing the exact same attenuation testing with all of these phones that they have with the iPhone 4, and that they have published precise technical standards regarding how much attenuation is acceptable to still qualify for a “Recommended” rating.

    Consumer Reports is bullshit and if you are looking at them for recommendations then you are never going to have the best current phone, only the best phone from last year. I saw Gruber’s links flying in yesterday about all the other smartphones that have attenuation when held and that even some say not to hold the phones in a certain way – this is a great wrap up of this whole iPhone 4 antenna B.S.. I was asked five times this weekend about the antenna on my iPhone – I told each person I never had a problem. These people didn’t even know what the problem was, just that there is a recall – people are so mis-informed on the matter that it hurts my brain trying to comprehend the blind sheep following each other mentality.

  • The Real Damage – How much does that really cost?

    If you are caring credit card debt, this is a must look at before you make another purchase.

    (via The Consumerist)

  • iPhone 4 Press Conference – The Post-Game Wrapup

    Andy Ihnatko:

    Steve Jobs didn’t fall to his knees, rend his garment, clasp his hands together, and beg for forgiveness from users and stockholders.

    This has upset many people.

    These people are idiots.


    (via Daring Fireball)

  • ‘Junkware’ comes standard on Verizon, T-Mobile smart phones

    Mark Milian:

    The software from the struggling movie retail chain includes a store locator and a section to download mobile movies from Blockbuster’s catalog. This app cannot be uninstalled from the phone’s software library using any traditional means. Users can delete it from the home screen, but it lives on — permanently part of the software embedded on the device.

    Sounds an awful lot like buying a Windows PC from – oh from anybody really except that you can install that crap on Windows. Open must be really swell.

  • Text messages – 6,500% markup

    This is old news, but it was on my nerves the other day so I though I would post it to remind us all.

    Julianne Pepitone:

    But on a pay-per-text plan, the 160-character messages typically cost 20 cents outgoing and 10 cents incoming. That’s a markup of as much as 6,500%.

  • Apple – Smartphone Antenna Performance

    Interesting that they made a page with videos of competitors products. Be sure to hit the link at the bottom for a look at their testing labs – impressive.

  • Steve Jobs Gives Consumer Reports the Bird

    Today Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage at a press conference to talk about the iPhone 4 antenna issues. In case you missed the 15 minute presentation here is what Jobs said (paraphrased by yours truly):

    “This new iPhone has killer reception even after we corrected the bars being displayed – in fact this new phone is so good that there are less returns and more sales than we ever expected. There is a problem but every smart phone we tried has this problem. To make this right everyone gets free cases and we will refund money to those who bought a case already (bumper cases). Also be sure to check out this futuristic chamber that we test the iPhone in so that you can see just how serious we are at Apple.”

    Consumer Reports forced Jobs to give out cases for free – in fact the media as a whole forced this, so you can thank them for your free case. The egg however has shifted from being on Apple’s face to being on the media’s, specifically Consumer Reports’ face. Apple didn’t provide a ton of data showing that the iPhone is fine even given the problems with the antenna (they did show some) – what Jobs really showed was that the antenna problem is a non-issue as evidenced by the sales, returns, and lack of dropped call increase (the increase Jobs showed really is not statistically significant).

    Basically if you got Consumer Reports and Jobs in a room here is how the discussion would play out:

    CR: This new iPhone is better than anything else.

    Jobs: I agree, our best phone yet.

    CR: Yeah it tops our charts, but what is this about Gizmodo saying the antenna is flawed?

    Jobs: It’s not flawed, they are showing something that happens to all phones. There is no problem.

    CR: Just because it happens to all phones doesn’t mean that there is no problem.

    Jobs: Still the iPhone is less problematic than other phones. Just put a bumper case on it and all will be fine.

    CR: Well we tested the problem by watching over 30 YouTube videos, so given all that data there is just no way we can recommend this phone to our 10 readers. We will write an article about this and send it to you and every email address we can.

    Jobs: Isn’t your job to tell consumers to buy the best products?

    CR: That is what we do everyday.

    Jobs: But you said this is the best phone and here is a crap load of data to support the fact that this problem is being blown out of proportion. (insert press conference data)

    CR: Can’t change now – we are get way to much attention about our article.

    Jobs: OK here is my AMEX I will buy you and every iPhone 4 owner a case.

    CR: …

    Jobs: One more thing… (uses left hand to give them the bird) Boom.

    Yeah that conversation sounds about right to me.

  • WIRED Predicted the iPad…11 Years Ago (Picture)

    That is crazy.

  • iOS 4.0.1 tweaks bar display, doesn’t fix signal drop

    Great chart showing how the signal is now calculated as compared to before.

  • Thoughts on the iPhone 4 Apple Press Conference

    Not to beat a dead horse, but as many of you are aware tomorrow Apple will be holding a press conference about the iPhone 4 at their Cupertino campus. Nobody knows what will be said, but I think it is pretty given that CEO Steve Jobs will be there himself.

    What I do want to say is that short of a recall or handing out something for free (i.e. gift cards or bumper cases) I doubt that anything that happens will be all that earth shattering. People who are upset by the iPhone antenna are not going to be satisfied by anything that is said, and it is not going that change anything that is going on today. That is unless there is a recall or something along those lines.

    In a roundabout way I do expect Jobs to dismiss the Bloomberg report that he was warned of such issues. The problem is that executives are warned about things all the time and 99% of the time these things never happen or are stopped before they do. This is the 1% case scenario and it will be really interesting for every PR person to watch how Apple handles this case.

    What I am saying is that short of a product recall anything that happens tomorrow will only be done to redirect / shape / focus the discussion around the iPhone 4. The problem for people wanting a recall is that the phone is still selling (and fast) and returns are presumably really low. Given that why would Apple want to change course? They are only concerned with making sure that it keeps selling without having to recall the product.

    We should however all be watching to see if Jobs brings an iPhone on to stage with him and if he does, which had he holds it in.

    [Updated: 7/15/10 at 1:18 PM]

    This is a really interesting bit posted by John Gruber:

    I was thinking the same thing yesterday, but I now have a hunch it’s going to be more — maybe a lot more — than just a defense of the iPhone 4 antenna. Sounds crazy, I know, but I think something big, or at least biggish, is going down tomorrow. This is not one of those “hunches” I get where I actually know something and play coy; I could be wrong and the thing could wind up just being 20 minutes of Steve Jobs telling us “not to hold it that way, or buy a case”. I’m betting on my hunch, though, and flying out late tonight.

    The fact that Gruber sees fit to fly across the country on short notice is telling. Yes it is his job to do so, but he certainly could have covered it from Philly – obviously given what he said in the above quote he thinks this is more than what I am thinking the press conference is.

  • iPhone 4 Meets The GripOfDeathInator

    Spencer Webb:

    But, hey, Consumer Reports guys: you don’t do radiated tests in a shield room. That’s like measuring the light output of a desk lamp in a house of mirrors. It’s amateur hour. Either you didn’t really explain your experimental technique fully in your video and text on your website, or perhaps you did and it really stinks. In either case, we end up agreeing with each other, so let’s not dwell on that too much.

  • Consumer Reports Needs To Get It Together

    Michael Arrington:

    But suddenly Consumer Reports is crazy for the link bait. This iPhone 4 antenna problem has them going absolutely batshit crazy, and nearly every day they’re firing off a new set of recommendations, or demands, that conflict with the old recommendations and demands.

    Consumer Reports is an old crumbling piece of journalism – the iPhone 4 does have problems, but you can’t rate it as the best smartphone ever and yet still not recommend it. They need to say it isn’t that great and don’t buy it, or it is that great and buy it with the antenna problems. Right now they are sitting in the middle and the middle helps no consumer that they report to.

  • How I Think The iPhone 4 Antenna Press Conference Is Going To Play Out

    MG Siegler:

    To combat that, Apple may feel the time is right to pull out their not-so-secret weapon: Steve Jobs. On a stage. Talking.

  • The Men Who Stare at Screens

    Gretchen Reynolds:

    Men who spent more than 23 hours a week watching TV and sitting in their cars (as passengers or as drivers) had a 64 percent greater chance of dying from heart disease than those who sat for 11 hours a week or less.

  • How I outsourced my apartment hunt

    Chris Savage:

    Shahan ended up finding around 200 apartments that fit most of the criteria. He searched for two weeks totalling 30 hours of work. I spent about 10 minutes a day sorting and reviewing listings and ended up contacting about 7 listings. I found an apartment with the right price, location, and amenities after only 4 different visits. I spent $90, saved about 30 hours of my time, and navigated the ugly craigslist sea unscathed. All in all, I was really happy with my first personal outsourcing test.

    I just have my Wife do it…but this sounds like a much cheaper way.