iPhone - page 420

Giving iPhone 4 customers free cases will cost Apple about $175 million, Apple executives said during a conference call with Wall St. analysts.

What It Is: The Bubble Slider case is a distinctive hard shell from Hard Candy Cases that’s saved my iPhone 4 on several occasions now.

Why It’s Cool: When I show people my iPhone 4, they often spend as much time admiring the Bubble Slider case as the device itself.

Apple has released an update to its iBooks application for the iOS and the latest version brings with it a few nice new features.

As well as the ability to now choose between 6 different fonts for your books, you can also double-tap images to see them in greater detail; and experience books that include audio and video.

In addition to new features, we also get welcome bug fixes, or, “stability and performance improvements.” I’ve lost count of the number of errors I get when opening a book in iBooks, so I’m hoping these issues are now fixed. So far, so good.

The full list of features from the app’s description is as follows:

• Double-tap an image within a book to view it in greater detail.
• Experience books that include audio and video.
• Enjoy substantial performance improvements when reading PDFs.
• Look-up definitions to English words inside books without a specified language.
• Addresses an issue that may have caused some book downloads to not complete.
• Includes many stability and performance improvements.

You can download the update through iTunes or the App Store on your device, or grab iBooks from the App Store for free if you don’t already have it.

Image via AppAdvice

The new issue of Wired, featuring a futuristic Will Ferrell on the cover, includes an absolutely devastating take on the long, troubled partnership of Apple and AT&T by Fred Vogelstein. Things really couldn’t be worse. Just picture Steve Jobs at his most furious, then make him work on a near-daily basis with a company that can’t pull off basic stuff (even if some of it might be Apple’s fault). Then imagine that they ask him to wear a suit to meetings.

Apple and AT&T have bickered about how the iPhone was to be displayed in AT&T’s stores: Apple insisted the phone be presented on its own display stand, away from other models. They have even fought about wardrobe: When an AT&T representative suggested to one of Jobs’ deputies that the Apple CEO wear a suit to meet with AT&T’s board of directors, he was told, “We’re Apple. We don’t wear suits. We don’t even own suits.”

Ouch! Other revelations include the fact that Apple has long thought about leaping to Verizon (duh), and that Scott Forstall even led a team down to Qualcomm to discuss creating a CDMA iPhone as early as 2007 because AT&T demanded that Apple make YouTube WiFi-only, use low-resolution video, or limit clips to one minute. Basically, Apple has spent every day of the last three years wishing that it had a company as ambitious as itself running its network, while also being keenly aware of what a bad business proposition that would be.

In all honesty, the story is one of the best I’ve read for really considering the business complexities of the emerging connected lifestyle. The carriers all want people to use the most popular devices, but the devicemakers want more bandwidth at a lower price than any carrier is ready for. The death of the unlimited data plan might well clear the hurdles that have made AT&T act so awful when it comes to allowing new iPhone features beyond the initial set, but it’s early days yet.

This much is clear: the dreadful 3G infrastructure in the U.S. is in no way equipped to handle the rise of the App Phone, and it will be a painful several years before 4G makes up for it. But it’s always this way: computers that were powerful enough for the web were out a long time before broadband was available in the home, and now cable modem speeds are plenty fast for most users, and chokepoints have evaporated. Let’s just hope we’re only a few years away from a similar breakthrough in mobile.

Via Fast Company

We all gave up the ability to jailbreak and tether our iPhones when we updated them to iOS 4 or purchased an iPhone 4. Hackers have been teasing us that an iOS 4 jailbreak is imminent, but now you don’t have to wait for them or the jailbreak to have tethering again. You can have tethering on your iPhone now — using an open source project hosted on GitHub called iProxy.

Tired of paying for ringtones for your iPhone? In this tutorial I will walk you through on how to create a ringtone from within iTunes using any song. This tutorial works on any song you may have purchased or ripped into iTunes. Read the full tutorial after the break.

PR expert Matt Seeger said Apple did issue a recall last Friday by providing iPhone 4 customers with free Bumper cases.

“From my perspective, this was a classic case of a recall,” said Seeger, who is chair of the Department of Communication at Wayne State University in Detroit. “They said, ‘Bring the product in, we’ll retrofit it.’ It’s not what most people think of as a recall, which is a safety issue. But this was a recall.”

Apple has removed the Chatroulette-like app, iChatr, from the App Store because of flashers.

Apple pulled the app this weekend after eight days because users were inappropriately exposing themselves to strangers while using the app.

Don’t miss this: it’s a scream.

That hilarious animated Taiwanese news segment on Steve Jobs and the iPhone 4 we posted earlier now has English subtitles, thanks to reader Michael Chang.

It shows Jobs defeating Bill Gates in a lightsaber battle and donning a Darth Vader mask; cops breaking down the door of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s apartment; and Jobs cutting of the fingers of customers who complain about iPhone reception issues. “Just get rid of those fingers,” Jobs tells the customer. “Then there’s no problems.”

To solve the iPhone 4 Antennuation problem (or, at the very least, the PR disaster of that problem), Apple’s giving out millions of dollars in free cases to anyone who bought an iPhone 4… but maybe they should have saved their money and just shipped out some of these adorable, Band-Aid style Antennaids instead: $4.99 will patch the signal boo-boos of up to six iPhone 4s, although without a kiss from Papa Steve first to make the hurt better, who can really say how effective they will prove to be?

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So apparently, that iPhone DSLR mount we posted on Friday wouldn’t actually work in real life, but that’s not to say that hooking a SLR lens up to your iPhone 4 is total madness: the guys over at vid-atlantic did just that, hooking their iPhone 4 up with a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 lens, and the resulting video is striking: for all of the mock-ups and rigs going around right now of SLRs Frankensteined together with iPhone 4s, I didn’t actually know the quality of the resulting footage would look so impressive. Impractically impressive, sure, but impressive none the less!

You might have heard: Apple’s giving a free case away to every iPhone 4 owner who even softly complains about their new smartphone’s reception. Needless to say, then, that their heretofore $30 bumper case is now going to be in short supply as Apple tries to handle freebie demand… so it’s ultimately no surprise that their rainbow assortment of bumper cases are now unavailable for purchase from Apple’s online store. Hope no one had their heart set on buying one!

[via 9to5Mac]

Apple’s public relations problems with the iPhone 4 antenna reached critical mass last week when Consumer Reports said they could not recommend their readers purchase an iPhone 4 because of their issue. In many ways, then, yesterday’s press conference was a specific response to the well-respected consumer advocacy site.

So did Jobs change Consumer Reports’ mind on the issue? Nope.

Consumer Reports believes Apple’s offer of free cases is a good first step. However, Apple has indicated that this is not a long-term solution, it has guaranteed the offer only through September 30th, and has not extended it unequivocally to customers who bought cases from third-party vendors. We look forward to a long-term fix from Apple. As things currently stand, the iPhone 4 is still not one of our Recommended models.

Want the lowdown on Apple’s defense of the iPhone 4 antenna? Apple’s just posted the breakdown on their official site, comparing iPhone 4 death grips against those of other major smartphones.

It’ll be interesting to see third-party tests on these reported smartphone death grips. For the iPhone 3GS, at least, Apple’s claims of attenuation seem more profound than reported actuality in most of the cases I’ve seen.

Since Apple specifically called other smartphones out in his response today to the iPhone 4 Reception Issues, it was only a matter of time (and not much at that) before other smartphone companies took their own potshots back.

First up? Nokia.

Antenna design is a complex subject and has been a core competence at Nokia for decades, across hundreds of phone models. Nokia was the pioneer in internal antennas; the Nokia 8810, launched in 1998, was the first commercial phone with this feature.

Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying human behavior, including how people hold their phones for calls, music playing, web browsing and so on. As you would expect from a company focused on connecting people, we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict.

In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held. That’s why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all real life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand. Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying how people hold their phones and allows for this in designs, for example by having antennas both at the top and bottom of the phone and by careful selection of materials and their use in the mechanical design.

If only Nokia didn’t prioritize everything over design? Am I right? Hey-o!

If you pull back and look at the grand scheme of things when it comes to the globe as a whole, a Verizon iPhone 4 doesn’t make so much sense: Verizon uses the CDMA protocol, and that’s not an international standard, so why would Apple bother?

Yet bother, they might very well being. During today’s questions and answers session, Jobs mentioned having Verizon cell sites on the Cupertino campus.

As 9 to 5 Mac notes, cell sites cost a buttload, so Apple’s got them for a reason.

Is Apple covering their bases? Or is the Verizon iPhone imminent? My guess is Apple is as sick of AT&T’s garish ineptitude and poor customer service as anyone, and they’d be willing to plunk down some significant change to have a chance of giving them the boot domestically.

In the wake of the iPhone 4 Antenna Press Conference, some smaller news: the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is now reporting that the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office has withdrawn the search warrant used to seize items from Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s home earlier in the year, after Gizmodo published full details of a leaked iPhone 4 prototype that Apple alleges was stolen.

Although the EFF has continuously stressed that the search warrant used to enter Chen’s home and confiscate his computers was illegal because it violated a prohibition against warrants for “unpublished information obtained or prepared in gathering, receiving or processing of information for communication to the public,” the warrant was repealed not by court order, but because of Gizmodo’s own cooperation.

According to Gawker’s COO and legal advisor Gaby Darbyshire, Gizmodo agreed to voluntarily give the district attorney access to materials that a court appointee deems relevant.

In other words, Gizmodo is still under investigation for any wrong doing, but San Mateo County will no longer hold onto Jason Chen’s personal property by force: rather, he’ll be co-operating with them and delivering anything they request going forward.

If one thing was crystal clear from Steve Jobs’ remarks during today’s iPhone 4 Antenna Press Conference, it was that he blamed the tech press for “overblowing” the iPhone 4’s reception issues, and was downright contemptuous of tech journalists as a whole.

“I guess it’s just human nature that when you see someone get successful you want to tear it down…” Steve Jobs said at one point. “Sometimes I feel that in the search for eyeballs, [journalists] don’t care about what they leave in their wake.”

Fielding a question from Engadget about a recent New York Times report, Jobs further attacked tech writers. “Go talk to the Times, because you guys talk to yourselves a lot. They’re just making this stuff up.”

Even Steve’s parting shot was aimed at the credibility of the tech journalists. “Thanks for coming. I wish we could have done this [had the press conference] in the first 48 hours, but then you wouldn’t have had anything to write about.”

I’m certainly not here to defend the press against Jobs’ accusations of sensationalism. He may be right: the iPhone 4 Antenna Issue is the Amy Winehouse of tech right now. On the sensationalism of the press, I’d argue that the job of the journalist is not to report the status quo, but to report the exceptional. Over the past three weeks, the iPhone 4’s antenna issues have been an exceptional problem, and so we’ve covered it extensively.

But you know what else is exceptional? Apple and its products. And what Jobs has conveniently forgotten is that ever since he returned to Apple back in 1997, the tech press has collectively been the tireless advocate of both, and written about Apple’s excellence as the rule — not the exception — with every year that has passed.

This is Apple’s $100 million state-of-the-art antenna test lab. It has 17 different antenna characterization chambers (or anechoic chambers) for measuring antenna performance.

Our anechoic chambers are connected to sophisticated equipment that simulates cellular base stations, Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth devices — even GPS satellites. These chambers measure performance in free space, in the presence of materials simulating human tissue (“phantom” heads and hands, for example), and in use by human subjects. Over a one- to two-year development cycle, Apple engineers spend thousands of hours performing antenna and wireless testing in the lab.

Apple has also published several new pages on its website explaining smartphone antennas, including pages showing off the company’s antenna design and test lab. There’s a video of the lab here.

And here’s some more pictures:

Steve Jobs’ press conference this morning tried to address two problems: reception and perception.

He failed on both counts.

Asked if he has learned anything from Antennagate, Steve Jobs’ response basically boils down to one thing: haters gonna hate.

” I guess it’s just human nature, when you see someone get successful you just want to tear it down,” said Jobs.

“Look at everything they’ve created. Would you prefer we’re Korean companies? Do you not like the fact that we’re an American company leading the world right here?”

Am I reading that right? Did Jobs just say that people shouldn’t criticize Apple as much as other companies because they are Americans? Yeesh.

Luckily he followed it with a better argument:

“I look at this and think wow. Apple has been around 30 years. Haven’t we earned the credibility and trust that we’re going to take care of our users?”

“Of course we’re human, of course we’ll make mistakes,” admits Jobs. “But sometimes I feel that in search of eyeballs for these web sites, people don’t care about what they leave in their wake.”

Like dipped Apple stock value, perhaps?

“We weren’t just innocents in this. But the reaction has been so overblown.”

Jobs ended his answer with a plea. “Help us out here.”

[image, quotes via GDGT]

Answering a question about whether or not Apple will refund users who already bought an iPhone 4 case, Jobs candidly explained what should be obvious: Apple’s secrecy about new products is all about not tipping people off that they should wait for a new product before they buy.

“We’re not going to refund the 3rd party cases — it’s a very small number because we didn’t sell as many cases because we didn’t share the phone design with case manufacturers in advance of launch. But now we kind of wish there were more cases out there!” Jobs laughs.

“It’s really simple why: when people find out about your new product, they stop buying your old products. Sometimes websites buy stolen prototypes and put ‘em on the web, and we don’t care for that. But if we give the designs to case makers, they have a history of putting them up on the web as well.”

“The case vendors haven’t had a history of helping us through that. It’s a conundrum,” admits Jobs. ” We’ll consider things on a case by case basis.” Groan.

In a Q&A after the iPhone 4 Antenna Press Conference, Steve Jobs says that Apple is happy with the antenna design of the iPhone 4 and they won’t be redesigning it.

“We’re happy with the antenna design of iPhone 4… it’s better than 3gs in every way,” says Jobs. “Looking at the data, we don’t think we have a problem.”

Instead, he blames Apple accidentally painting a bullseye on the iPhone 4’s antenna design. “If we were to fault the iPhone 4, it’s that we waved a red flag in front of the bull by putting a “grip me here” mark on the iPhone 4,” by which he means the black lines marking the separation between antennas.

Steve Jobs is closing up the iPhone 4 Antenna Press Conference by re-asserting Apple’s love and commitment to its users.

“We love our users,” Jobs said. “We try very hard to surprise and delight them, and work our asses off doing it. But we have a blast doing it. What motivates us is for ours users to love our products and connect them with great apps and content.”

“When we fall short, we try harder,” Jobs says. “And when we succeed our users reward us by staying loyal. That’s what drives us. And when we have problems like this and people are criticizing us, we take it personally. Maybe we shouldn’t, but we do.”

“At the end of the day, we think we’ve gotten to the heart of the problem, and the heart is that smartphones have weak spots,” claims Jobs.

“But the data supports the fact that the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone in the world. There is no ‘Antennagate.’ There is simply a challenge for the entire smartphone industry to improve its antenna performance to where there’s no weak spots.”

Now that Apple’s iPhone 4 Antenna Fix is out of the bag — free cases, software update — Jobs is closing up the conference by covering some miscellaneous issues.

First, Jobs knows there’s a proximity sensor issue with the iPhone 4, and there will be software fix coming sometime soon.

Apple hasn’t forgotten the white iPhone 4 either. It’ll be shipping at the end of July.

Also coming at the end of July (specifically, July 30th?) The iPhone 4 will be rolled out to 17 more countries.