Placebo effect?
Ye Olde Sugar Pill & Snake Oil.
Today's rumeur du jour concerning Apple's ongoing antennagate fiasco: Cupertino has secretly fixed the Jobsian handset's Death Grip defect, and is now quietly collecting the bad phones and replacing them with good ones. This is the type of tinfoil-hatted twaddle that could only be inspired by the actions of a company as …
We found the antenna problem after production had already started. Obviously production starts well before launch day otherwise how do you get a few million phones out the door in a few weeks! Well anyway, I'm not privy to the exact number but QA found the problem with a ground short /body contact in the external antennas after probably several hundred thousand phones are off the line. What are we gonna do, scrap all those phones? Not a chance. For the percentage of people who this problem would ever affect (most consumers use a protective case anyway), we're not going to dump several hundred thousand phones. So don't worry, just go get your phone replaced and you'll get one of the new ones from after we tweaked the production.
The 'new' phones have better reception as they're network termination feeders for the Perfect Citizen leaf of the Total Information Awareness branch of the Sigma trunk meta-program run under Majestic 12 aegis out of the Area 51 division relocated to the Dugway Proving Grounds 'Eternal Vault' underground mega-complex.
Also, Steve Jobs is one of the Reptoid Overlord Cabal, but I think that was already common knowledge.
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How wrong you are, you couldn't be more wrong.
Form vs. function. The problem is that you think that usability and user experience are form, when in reality they're function, so Apple does the most perfect job of balancing form and function. They are beautiful devices that provide a great user experience, and they aren't commodity crap (like so much out there) - they hold their resale value and continue working for years.
Function isn't playing second fiddle to anything, your perception of the world and form vs. function is simply wrong.
No, *you're* wrong. This article is about the dodgy reception of the iPhone (and the dodgy proximity sensor too, incidentally.) Mage was saying that the aesthetics of the case design took precedent over the function of the antenna. Mage didn't say anything about the usability or user experience.
The design choice to have bare metal antenna and too dark a bezel for the proximity sensor in an effort to make the phone look good, seriously affected permformance of a pretty critical function of the phone. Therefore, Mage was entirely correct in their opinion.
the people who buy iPhones don't read tech websites, magazines or even the tech sections in the popular press.
So despite all the noise here and the rest of the tech focused media about the reception issues... They are not hearing ya!
The question they ask is "But, does it work with my iTunes?" if the answer is no then there is no sale. End of.
The kids asking these questions grew up with the iPod. They have hugh collections of media on iTunes. They are not tech savvy, its too much of a pain to move their stuff onto something else. Why do you think Palm was so desperate to get the Pre on iTunes?
Android may do well in emerging economies where margins are thin for hardware and app developers. But in the wealthy west -where all the money is to be made- Apple is entrenched and I wouldn't be surprised if Android has hit its ceiling.
With the new Windows Phone 7 Series on the horizon which Im betting is more likely to take market share from the new Android rather than intrenched iPhone. Things are a little less rosy on the Android front than they may appear.
As a side note the iPod market share in the west is still around 70% the iPad is selling around 1 million units per month. And despite reception issues the iPhone 4 is still selling by the boat load.
and thats where the problem for Android lies. You are one of the small minority of people that know about this stuff.
Generation Hollyoaks and most people that are not involved in IT -the vast majority- don't have a clue and are not interested. They seek the path of least resistance. And thats what Apple gives them.
Most iTunes users will not install utilities on their PC so they can transfer music to another platform. They will just go out and buy another iPhone, reception issues (which they probably haven't heard about) or no.
Android quite happily plays with the music collected through iTunes without any problems at all. As others have pointed out, you can get Android apps which intergrate with iTunes, but if you happy to plug your phone into your computer, and move songs and albums from computer to phone, then it works fine. I only recently found out iTunes removed DRM from all of their (new) songs early last year, so have been happily moving stuff from iTunes, almost at will, without any problems. Even picks up the albums coverart!
So if the question is"But, does it work with my iTunes?" then the answer is yes, it will happily play music brought through iTunes...
Let's see how Apples going to spin this on Friday hmm...
"We discovered after the phone was made that Foxconn foulded up and didn't make them correct. All minions involved have been thrown of the Jobsian tower and all phones now shipping are working ones. Those who have the mk1 phone will still need to buy a over priced piece of rubber to hold it in, or pay £70 p&p to return it for a swap. Again, nothing to do with the almighty Apple, not our fault, you can't prove nottin".
But to apply Occam's Razor would mean that the scenario the author was talking about would be the one chosen.
Therefore out of the options mentioned it would then be true that the one this sentence applies to would be the one chosen.
A stupid way of saying it is a correct sentence. It is not talking about the semantics of Occam's Razor.
Question not the actions of Jobs; for it is he who bringeth light from the dark. It is Apple who can do no wrong; and if fallibility be shown, let word of infallibility instead go forth across the lands. Those unbelievers who do not 'get it' shall be smited; and the smiting shall be merciless; and shall be conducted at Internet cafés, and at comic-book conventions, and by those fanbois who understand not other technologies that provide equally good experience but at a cost of fewer shekels.
Yay, for it is written that Jobs of Cupertino is the One True Steve, The Real Steve, All You Other Steve Jobs are just immitatin'. Death (or at least, a less evangelical following) to the heathens of Google; and of Microsoft; and of those from the far off lands of Nokia. Apple will take care of it. You are free, to do as they tell you.
Believe in Steve, for it is He.
[Hmm, didn't the Bible say something about a poisonous apple? Ah no, that was Sleeping Beauty]
Apple are now saying it's discovered why there's what it describes as a "dramatic drop in bars" when users hold the phone in a certain way.
It turns out that throughout its history, the software used by the iPhone has been exaggerating the strength of the signal. "We were stunned to find the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength has been wrong," says the letter.
It goes on to explain that iPhone 4 users who've seen their signal drop away from five bars to nothing may actually have been in an area where they were lucky to get any signal at all. Now Apple is promising a software update for all users which it says will give them a much more accurate read-out of reception.
I recently had my MBP fixed due to the nVidia graphics chip bug, it's a known problem so Apple replaces the main-boards for free.
Mine was serviced by a third party service agent listed on Apple's site, and it took them almost three weeks to fix the problem due to Apple repeatedly sending out already fried main-boards!
Talking to the service agent this is a pretty common problem - it's cheaper for Apple to just keep sending out unknown quality boards than it is for them to kick their suppliers into touch and have them sort out their quality issues :s
The Reg, along with Gizmodo, Intomobile, etc., are disbelievers. You question the Gospel of California Job, you challenge, nay even mock the words of Job.
Only the anointed, the unquestioning, rabble of publicity supplicants are permitted to attend at the Church of Apple to receive The Word.
Which is why we all read The Register so we can learn The Truth. Keep up the good work
I've not had issue one with my iPhone, but then I was in the second wave of shipments, so they may well have done some corrective fixes, or indeed it could have been a bad Lot that shipped on the launch day. Either way, been having a great time with this Shiny, Black Obelisk.
Beer because well... Beer!
"we've got some really great news for you this morning.....the iphone is selling out everywhere....there was a problem with the first batch...we've thrown some people off the roof for this.....the problem is now sorted......here's a free blu-ray disc to watch on your mac.........oh"
All the calls I get from folks with an Android phone are really crappy. Therefore Android is crappy.
But the owners feel like techie bad-asses because they have on.
Apple's iPhone is pretty and therefore will sell regardless of what the technical issues are.
Honestly, do you folks really think that buying decisions are made on technical merit??????
Decades have passed to make windows somewhat less crappy but folks still bought it because that is what they were used to. They will pass away the hours relating stories of how they were able to make the latest mess from Redmond do something useful and still lambast Apple for being "proprietary".