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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.
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.
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…
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.
Great chart showing how the signal is now calculated as compared to before.
Great chart showing how the signal is now calculated as compared to before.
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…
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
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.
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…
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.
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 –…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
There are a lot of ways to send an email, and given that it is a tool that many of us spend a large chunk of our day using, I thought I would share some of the annoying things I come across when reading email. 1. Reply All This is one of those buttons that…
There are a lot of ways to send an email, and given that it is a tool that many of us spend a large chunk of our day using, I thought I would share some of the annoying things I come across when reading email.
This is one of those buttons that we like to hit so that everyone is kept in the ‘loop’, but the problem is not everyone needs to be kept in the loop — nor do they want to be. It is fine to hit reply all, but be sure to edit the list of people that you are replying to, keeping only those needed in the conversation in the email chain. If you are even in doubt about when to use reply all, don’t use it. Better to forward an email to someone later then to waste 50 people’s time reading email that they don’t care about.
Let me tell you about the CC field, it is used to keep people in the loop that need to be kept in the loop. What it is not for is to be used as a way to show me that you are doing your job, or to ask me to do something. When I get an email that I have been CC’d in and somewhere in that message there is a task you want me to do — 90% of the time I miss that task. The reason is simple: I don’t read emails I am only CC’d in past the subject line. If you want me to respond or act on an email you send me, make sure I am in the ‘TO’ field.
It is really awesome that you figured out how to embed your company logo in your email signature, but I know who you are and what your company logo looks like. I still hate it. Don’t waste bandwidth sending me email attachments of your logo. Further, it really screws me over when I go to look for emails that you sent me a file in as every email you send me has a damned attachment. Don’t even get me started about downloading that crap over AT&T’s sucktastic data service when I read your emails on my iPhone.
Raise your hand if you just have one email signature that you use on all your emails — now drop your hand really fast on your head. We all have those fancy email signatures that include our contact info and maybe even a vCard ((insert OOooos and Ahhhhs here)), they definitely say our name and title. These are great for people who don’t know you, but when you are corresponding with other people in your office and regular contacts – your first name will suffice.
Think of it like a phone call: if it is someone, who when you call, you need to introduce your full name and company to then use the big fancy email signature. However, if just saying your first name on that same call will do the trick, use that same etiquette for email. I have my email set to default to the signature: “`-Ben`”. If I need the other longer signature I can switch to it, otherwise the short and sweet one works best.
Think of your subject line like a title of a book — would you buy a book called “RE: Report”. Nope. We need to tell people what the email is about in the subject line, so that they know if they need to open it now or not. For instance instead of saying “Report” as your subject how about put the actual subject in – “Please Review My TPS Report” – oh snap now I know whether to read that now or later. ((probably later))
Most people I suspect never look at the file size that they are sending to people, they just know that if it bounces back they can’t send it as is. I would ask that if your email is over 3mb please send me a file link so that I can download it faster. There are a ton of services out there that do this, many that are so fast and easy you will be amazed. Sending and downloading large files over email is not what the protocols were designed for, and they are agonizingly slow – help yourself out and use a service like Droplr.
If you send me an email in all caps I will assume you are yelling at me and take my damn sweet time responding. Likewise if you send me an email in all lowercase I will assume that you couldn’t care less about the email you sent — resulting in me taking my damn sweet time responding. Typos and grammar problems abound, but we all know how to properly capitalize an email, so don’t be lazy.
It is really great that you like details, but I don’t have time for them. Tell me what I need to know and what you need from me. Don’t waste my time asking about the weather or how business is going. Being concise in emails can often lead to people thinking that you don’t have the time for them – I am not talking about one line email responses (ala Steve Jobs), just say what you need to say in a clear and concise manner. This helps people better understand you and makes you look smart.
Drop the legal notice, it is just dumb amd makes you look paranoid. Drop the “be kind to the environment and don’t print this email” notices because it is just rude. You wouldn’t walk up to someone at Kinkos and ask them if they are sure they need those copies. If I need to print the email I will, otherwise assume it is filed away on my computer never to be revisited.
You don’t need to address me in the beginning of the email (e.g. ‘`Ben,`’ ) I know you are sending it to me because I received it – just get on with the email. The only exception to this is when you are sending it to multiple people in the “To:” field and you want to call certain peoples attention to different areas of the email (e.g. Ben: Can you please take care of the TPS report cover sheet issue. Janet: Please take a shower before coming to work.).
If I send you some information that you requested, there is no need to respond to me by saying just ‘Thanks’ it clutters up my inbox and is useless. I assume that, unless you keep asking me for information, you received it when I sent you, any problems and you will contact me. I sometimes write “no response necessary” at the bottom of my emails, but that just confuses most people. Just stop with unneeded emails and we will be good.
Unless you are my boss then you need to ask me for things, telling me to do something will get you no where. Don’t send me an email saying “I need you to get me this information ASAP” – ask me to get you that information and let me know if there is a time constraint. In doing this you will find people are far more helpful – even if you are their boss.
This is not strictly and email irritation, but I hate it when people call me to discuss an email chain, or in lieu of responding via email. If I sent you an email I did so for good reason – please respond in the format that I initiated the communication.
Guess what no one cares where you sent your email from, and what device you are using. No one. It was cool for the first few weeks of iPhones, then Blackberry users started adding it and it naturally became lame. (( BlackBerry had this first but it said something like: “Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless” before the iPhone.)) Further I don’t get the thought process in having such a line attached to begin with – should I thank you for responding while you are not at the office? I am confused.
Roy Greenslade: From tomorrow, the Sun Chronicle, a Massachusetts paper, will charge would-be commenters a nominal one-off fee of 99 cents. But it has to be paid by credit card, which means providing a real name and address. And the name on the credit card will be the name that will appear on comments. So…
Roy Greenslade:
From tomorrow, the Sun Chronicle, a Massachusetts paper, will charge would-be commenters a nominal one-off fee of 99 cents. But it has to be paid by credit card, which means providing a real name and address.
And the name on the credit card will be the name that will appear on comments. So it’s goodbye to anonymity.
Seems like a great way to get relevant thoughtful comments. Should be great.
Khoi Vinh: After a lot of internal debate, I came to the conclusion that the time is right for me to make a change in my job. So about two and a half weeks ago, I formally resigned my position as design director of NYTimes.com. My last day will be this coming Friday, 16 July.…
Khoi Vinh:
After a lot of internal debate, I came to the conclusion that the time is right for me to make a change in my job. So about two and a half weeks ago, I formally resigned my position as design director of NYTimes.com. My last day will be this coming Friday, 16 July.
This is a massive talent loss for the New York Times.
Eliot Van Buskirk: A TUAW reader first pointed out that a number of threads mentioning the search term “consumer reports” had disappeared from discussions.apple.com, replaced by a note asking the user to log in to the site, after which the relevant discussions still are not viewable. However, Microsoft’s Bing search engine cached those pages before…
Eliot Van Buskirk:
A TUAW reader first pointed out that a number of threads mentioning the search term “consumer reports” had disappeared from discussions.apple.com, replaced by a note asking the user to log in to the site, after which the relevant discussions still are not viewable. However, Microsoft’s Bing search engine cached those pages before Apple removed them, so they’re still visible for the curious.
The big issue here is not that Apple is covering up the fact that there is a problem with the antenna, rather that they are hiding the fact that Consumer Reports will not recommend the phone. Who cares? Consumer Reports is irrelevant to any good testing and has not been a stalwart recommendation service for anyone under 40 for the past decade.
Why then is Apple removing posts citing Consumer Reports? Simple they don’t want bad press on their website just as your company would not allow bad press on its website. The issue isn’t the antenna, the issue is marketing. Apple will let you complain all day about any problem you want, just don’t link to articles talking crap about their products.
Apple is in the majority in this thinking, and they are maintaining their private forum. If you want to bitch and link to Consumer Reports go get a GeoCities ((remember those)) page – just don’t do it in Apple’s playground is all that Apple is trying to say.
If I had to pick one thing to complain about on the iPad it would be the syncing mechanism. I rarely sync my iPad because I don’t have time to wait for it to finish – I need to use it, or I am at the office (my iTunes library stays on an external drive…
If I had to pick one thing to complain about on the iPad it would be the syncing mechanism. I rarely sync my iPad because I don’t have time to wait for it to finish – I need to use it, or I am at the office (my iTunes library stays on an external drive at home). The same goes for my iPhone – what a pain to take the time and sync it.
It is not the actually syncing of content that takes the longest either, it is the ‘backing up iPad/iPhone’ part that is horrendously long. Let’s say I download a new album on my Mac and I want to sync that over to my iPad and iPhone – I have to plug them each in and wait for the back up and then the sync. If I download a song in the morning when I first wake up and try to sync this music to both my iPhone and iPad at the same time I will barely have enough time to pack up and leave. This is 2010 – we should not have to wait that long.
At the very least Apple could allow us to disable the backing up portion of the sync, but they don’t. You can click the ‘x’ when you see the backup part start to skip it, but then errors pop-up and sometimes it will cancel the entire sync (annoying).
Of course for my setup I only have to sync the media portions (photos, music, videos) as everything else is either wireless (contacts and calendars) or I download straight to the iPad/iPhone (apps and their updates). I can understand not wanting to allow Wi-Fi syncing of movies (given how large they are) but why can’t we wirelessly sync music and photos. Each file is small enough that if the sync was interrupted it could easily be resumed.
Sure this may not speed up the syncing speed, but at least I could sit on my couch and use the iPad wirelessly – as it was intended. Even now I can’t use either device while syncing – which is just absurd. How can we not surf the web while data is being loaded onto the device – they are certainly powerful enough to do this.
Ideally we would be able to set our mobile devices to sync wirelessly with our computers / media servers while they are charging. In this scenario say I am going to sleep and I throw my iPad and iPhone on the charger – at this point the device would wait 30 minutes and then start syncing all data before finally performing a backup.
Then in the morning if I wanted to load more songs the device would recognize that I have a current backup (made within the last 24 hours lets say) and would quickly sync all new media over Wi-Fi. Thus the syncing done while I am awake is only what I want to sync (setup in settings) and most all the other data is recent within the last 24 hours.
I don’t want to be too demanding, but given that I labeled this portion of my rant ‘ideal’ it would only be natural for me to want Apple to implement a “Back to my Mac” feature that allowed syncing over the WAN (Wide Area Network).
One company already has such awesome technology: Dropbox. Everything is in sync and I never notice it syncing. So the technology is out there and can move large chunks of data quickly – why the hell don’t we have it on mobile devices yet?
Louis Gray: Second behind the word choice has to be “Momentum”. I can see that Android has momentum in terms of improved quality, in terms of the number of devices sold and users, and yes, applications, which are growing in quantity, soon to be followed by quality. I really do believe that if Android does…
Louis Gray:
Second behind the word choice has to be “Momentum”. I can see that Android has momentum in terms of improved quality, in terms of the number of devices sold and users, and yes, applications, which are growing in quantity, soon to be followed by quality. I really do believe that if Android does not already have a market share lead over Apple yet in this discussion, they soon will. It is inevitable. The growth in the number of handsets, carriers and users will drive more developers to the platform, and the holdouts who are not there will eventually make the move.
To me the above statement just seems silly, that is like saying that you are using Windows and not Mac OS because the customer base for Windows is bigger. That is never a good criteria to make a decision on unless you are the provider or are talking about social networking.
I switched to Android because I am extending my move away from the desktop and more to the cloud. iTunes does not deserve to be the core of my device any more, as it is simply a utility to rent films and get new apps for the iPad.
The above however is an sentiment that I completely agree with.
They all focus on FaceTime and they are all pretty damn good. Though I must admit that I have only used FaceTime twice since getting the iPhone 4. I suspect that usage will rise as I know more and more people with FaceTime capable devices.
They all focus on FaceTime and they are all pretty damn good. Though I must admit that I have only used FaceTime twice since getting the iPhone 4. I suspect that usage will rise as I know more and more people with FaceTime capable devices.
Don’t get to excited, it still involves modification to the device to get it running ‘full’ Android OS. That said it is cheap enough that I suspect it to be a cult underground classic much like the Nokia Tablets of 5 years ago were (n770 w00t).
Don’t get to excited, it still involves modification to the device to get it running ‘full’ Android OS. That said it is cheap enough that I suspect it to be a cult underground classic much like the Nokia Tablets of 5 years ago were (n770 w00t).