iPhone - page 421

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.

After laying all the data groundwork, Jobs has just announced what they will be doing about the iPhone 4 reception issues… perceived or no.

First of all, they just released iOS 4.0.1 which changes the signal display algorithm yesterday.

Second, free casesfor everyone: the bumpers solve the death grip issue, so now everyone will get one free of charge for every iPhone 4 through September 30th. In September, they’ll re-examine the issue and see if they have a better idea.

Apple will be mailing out the cases themselves, but since they can’t make enough bumpers themselves, they’ll be mailing out a selection of cases, some third-party.

Interested? You can apply for a free case next week. Pick your own case and they’ll mail it off.

Finally, still unhappy with the iPhone 4? You can still bring it back for any reason within 30 days for a full refund, no 10% restocking fee charged.

The comparisons between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS aren’t all good though, Jobs has just admitted.

According to Jobs, the iPhone 4 definitely drops more calls than the 3GS. However, he insists this is still less than one dropped call per hundred.

What’s Jobs’ theory about this? He says it’s because 80% of 3GS customers accompanied their purchase with a case, while only 20% of iPhone 4 customers do.

Maybe you should have been quicker to get those bumpers out there then, Apple. Here come the freebies, I bet.

So what’s the extent of consumer dissatisfaction with the iPhone 4? According to Jobs, it’s minimal.

“We have some really interesting data from AppleCare, we looked at the statistics, we asked what’s the percentage of all iPhone 4 users that have called AppleCare about the antenna or reception, or anything near reception problems. Because you would have thought ‘Jeez, it must be a lot of users complaining about this'”

“So what percentage have called AppleCare?” asks Jobs. ” 0.55% Just one half of one percent.”

AT&T confirms Apple’s findings, saying that their return rate is just one-third of what it was for the 3GS.

One take-away Steve Jobs wants us all to know is that Apple’s serious about antenna.

How serious? They have a state of the art antenna testing facility, with 17 anechoic chambers. It’s a $100MM investment, and employes 18 PhD scientists and engineers working in reception.

In these reception chambers, which as Leander notes, look straight out of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, Apple noticed the death grip issue… but found it acceptable, since it is prevalent in the smartphone industry.

Steve Jobs has just argued that all phones have a problem with the death grip. But he still says Apple is culpable of making a mistake.

“We went to a lot of trouble to put this beautiful line in the stainless steel band,” Jobs said, pointing to the iPhone 4 antenna. “This was to say, ‘Here’s where you touch it everbody!'”

“The problem is we had incorrect bars, so when it did drop the drop looked far more catastrophic.”

“We screwed up on our algorithm,” Jobs admits.

“To fix this, we decided to put the correct algorithm into iOS 4.0.1. Your bars will still drop in a death grip, but all smartphones seems to do that.”

[image via Engadget]

According to Jobs, the perception of an iPhone 4 problem is real.

“We’ve been getting reports of people having issues with the antenna system when they touch this spot here, “Jobs said, pointing at the “Death Grip” spot.

“We only heard about this 22 days ago. It’s not like we’ve had our heads in the sand about it for months.”

“We’ve been working on it, and no we want to share what we’ve learned.”

“First of all, “Jobs said, “It’s not unique to the iPhone 4. You can go on YouTube and see videos of other phones doing the same thing.”

To prove the point, Jobs demos videos of the Blackberry, the Samsung Omnia 2 and HTC Droid Eris dropping bars. The Droid Eris video is particularly severe: it shows the Eris dropping from four bars down to zero over the course of a minute.

“This is life in the smartphone world,” says Jobs. “Phones aren’t perfect. We’re all doing the best we can.”

In case Apple’s humility in this isn’t apparent, the slide backing up Jobs’ words says “We’re not perfect.”

Steve Jobs has just taken the stage at Apple’s iPhone 4 Antenna press conference.

“We’re not perfect,” Jobs starts off by saying, “And phones aren’t perfect either, but we want to make all of our users happy. We love making them happy. We’re going to talk about how we’re going to do that today. But first, let’s talk about the data we’ve got. Is the iPhone 4 making consumers happy?”

Jobs says it is. He says it’s been judged the number one smartphone by numerous publications, and has sold over 3M in three weeks.

People are clearly happy with the iPhone 4 as a device. Jobs’ evidence is compelling. It’s the phone and reception problems that need some work. Next up: Jobs explains the problem.

Apple has just kicked off a press conference responding to the much publicized iPhone 4 reception problems and the so-called “Grip of Death,” but to start things out, a dose of humor… they are now playing the iPhone Antenna Song to the collected audience.

Does this mean Apple thinks the iPhone 4 antenna issues are a joke, or just trying to lighten the proceedings? My money’s on the latter. Good start, Apple!

Over at Infoworld, Galen Gruman has written a blistering critique of Microsoft’s forthcoming attempt to fight back against Apple’s iPhone in the mobile market, Windows Phone 7.

Gruman attended a detailed demo by Microsoft representatives, and left feeling “appalled, flummoxed, and stupefied.”

Windows Phone 7 is a disaster in the making, Gruman says. Worse than that: it’s a pig. A lump of coal. It’s awkward. Unsophisticated. It’s outdated and hamstrung. It’s a clay pigeon. Those aren’t my summarized versions of what Gruman wrote, they are the actual words used.

In early 2009, Apple loudly announced support for the hardware interface concept — a fusion between third party hardware and apps created specifically to communicate with that hardware. Unfortunately, no one came to the party, and our initial enthusiasm faded.

But it may be time to get excited again, especially if outfits like Wilmington, North Carolina-based New Potato has anything to say about it. They’ve even trademarked a name for their new gadgets — they’re calling them “appcessories.”

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZUSMkyCxvI

If you’re looking for a quirky puzzler to whittle away your time over the weekend, I can’t recommend Helsing’s Fire enough: a hysterically written and unique puzzle game with an astonishing amount of playtime for just $0.99.

Plot-wise, the game follows Dr. Helsing and Rafton in their attempts to save London from a plague of vampires, ghouls, werewolves and other monsters. The gameplay is based upon dynamic lighting puzzles: you are given a limited number of torches and color-coded tonics to kill a set number of monsters per level. By shining your torch upon a monster and then using a tonic on it of the same color, you hit any monster illuminated by your torch with a killer shockwave. But it’s not quite so simple: hit a monster with the wrong tonic and they gain a shield, some monsters are protected by multiple shields, and your tonics also have an unfortunate splatter effect on helpless Victorian babes whom you must protect.

In truth, I could recommend the game for the congratulatory fist bump performed by Dr. Helsing and Rafton upon the successful completion of a level alone… but the gameplay is truly captivating as well. With over 90 levels and three separate endless modes, Helsing’s Fire is an absolute steal of a value. Give it a whirl.

The AirStash is a $100 USB card reader with a built-in Wi-Fi hotspot. It is used to stream media to other devices, which means broadcasting movies, music, and video to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and other gadgets with limited amounts of memory.

If only it worked.

We’ve seen SLR lenses inexplicably Frankensteined onto iPhones before, but the “iPhone DSLR prototype” might just end up being final word on grafting an SLR lens onto an iPhone.

The iPhone DSLR is a 1.1lb mount made of anodized billet aluminum with dual handle grips and a tripod mount capable of filtering the light from a Canon SLR lens into the iPhone’s tiny sensor.

Personally, I’m not quite sure I get the point: no matter how good the lens, an iPhone’s picture is ultimately going to be hobbled by its tiny, noisy sensor. I suppose, as usual, this is a “because it’s there” proposition. But where would geek ingenuity be if not for the gleeful solving of imaginary and utterly surreal problems? God bless the Internet.

As spotted by Apple Insider, Apple’s latest patent application to be unearthed describes a dock wit a “rotationally symmetric” port that allows you to sync and charge your iPhone or iPad in any orientation that you may choose.

The most interesting part about this application is that it isn’t a plug-in device: in other words, an iPhone or iPad could sync and charge just by resting against the surface of the dock.

Much as I would kill to see the end of the USB iPod Dock Connector Cable for inductive syncing and charging technology, It’s strange to see Apple trying to patent this: the Palm Pre‘s Touchstone Charger has done this same thing for two years, and HP presumably now owns the patent on it. If I had to guess, the difference here is that Apple’s patent covers both syncing and charging, while the Palm Touchstone can only do the latter.

How will Apple’s device sync information wirelessly, though? My guess is not through induction, but rather through WiFi… a capability of future iDevices confirmed just last month by Steve Jobs himself.

Yesterday’s iOS 4.0.1 changed the way the iPhone’s signal is displayed: previously, iOS corralled the upper 40% of the signal into the fifth service bar in the fifth signal bar, meaning you had to have less than 60% signal to drop below four bars. This exacerbated the perceived effect of the iPhone 4 “Death Grip” by causing more bars to drop when held “the wrong way” when there were four bars or less of signal, but also made the reception degradation invisible to people living in areas of excellent service because the fifth bar had so much wiggle room for signal degradation.

This is no longer the case. Anandtech has just done a comprehensive examination of the way iOS 4.0.1 displays its signal bars, and as predicted, they found that Apple is now translating signal strength into bars more accurately and with a higher dynamic range. In other words, you’ll require more signal to show higher bars than it once did. Or, as Anandtech puts it, “regardless of how tall the bars are, there are still going to be fewer of them virtually everywhere.”

The Firefox Home application from Mozilla that allows you to synchronize your Firefox desktop session with your iPhone & iPod Touch has finally been approved and is now available for download in the App Store.

It’s free and uses your Firefox Sync account to transfer your history, bookmarks and open tabs between your computer and your device, giving you easy access to all of your Firefox favorites wherever you are.

For more information and instructions on setup, visit Mozilla’s support page here. Download the Firefox Home application for your device from the App Store here.

Apple will not recall the iPhone 4 at it’s 10AM press conference tomorrow, the Wall Street Journal reports:

Apple doesn’t plan to recall the phone, a person familiar with the matter said.

The story has media-management written all over it. The leak is from Apple’s PR department; the company is setting expectations for tomorrow’s event.

WSJ: Apple Knew of iPhone Antenna Risks

Apple just released iOS 4.0.1 — the day before its big iPhone 4 press conference. The update fixes the signal dislay algorithm, which Apple has said is behind iPhone 4 reception issues.

So it seems likely that the 4.0.1 update — and this alone — will be the subject of tomorrow’s press conference. Steve Jobs will use the event to explain (slowly and carefully) how this bug update fixes the problem.

No recall, no free bumpers, no admission of a hardware issue.

Who do you guys think? Will the 4.0.1 update be the subject of tomorrow’s press conference?

[polldaddy poll=3477023]

Audible.com, the provider of digital audiobooks and more, now have an application available for your iPhone & iPod Touch. It’s a free download and claims to deliver the “the most comprehensive audiobook experience ever.”

If you’re not already an Audible member, you can create a new account for free within the app, and as a bonus you will receive a free excerpt from The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World. At present, only Audible.com accounts will work, however the description states support for Audible.co.uk, .de and .fr accounts is coming soon.

Noteable features include the ability to transfer your books wirelessly between your computer and your device over Wi-Fi; multitasking for background audio playback and background downloading for compatible devices with iOS 4; and the opportunity to connect to Facebook and Twitter to let your friends know what you’re listening to.

Another nifty feature is the ability to check out your listening stats and collect “badges” for your listening habits.

For more information and to download the Audible app, check out the App Store here.

Apple has just issued the 4.0.1 iOS update, which includes a new formula for displaying reception bars.

The update includes a new signal strength algorithm, which is Apple’s answer to the iPhone 4 death grip issue. It doesn’t appear to improve reception strength, just the way it is displayed. According to Apple, the iOS used an old, outdated algorithm that incorrectly calculated signal strength, a problem that was exacerbated when user’s cover the external antenna.

The update fixes this problem, and is available for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 3G. It can be downloaded through iTunes when the device is connected via USB. (Hit the “Check for Updates” button).

The update can also be downloaded here:

• iPhone 4
• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 3G

Thanks Don!

A wireless expert with ties to Apple’s senior antenna engineer says the company is in a pickle. It cannot fix the iPhone 4 antenna issue without completely redesigning the hardware.

Earl McCune, a leading RF expert — and former colleague of Apple’s Sr. Director of iPhone/iPod engineering, Ruben Caballero (who is in the news today) — says the iPhone’s antenna will have to be moved.

“The only way to solve the problem is to not have your hand within a wavelength of the phone — about a foot and a half away,” said McCune, a RF/wireless consultant, author and entrepreneur. “It’s the law of physics.”

McCune is the former boss of Apple’s top antenna engineer, Ruben Caballero. Last year, Caballero tried to warn Steve Jobs that the iPhone 4’s external antenna may drop calls.

Citing “reliable sources,” Greek iPhone site iPhone Hellas is reporting that iOS 4.0.1 might be released today.

The rumor doesn’t quite sound right: iPhone Hellas’ report suggests that yesterday’s iOS 4.1 beta seeded to developers might actually be iOS 4.0.1, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. “The final version of 4.1 will be released much later, probably in September, after several beta versions,” iPhone Hellas’ asserts.

That said, iPhone Hellas doesn’t have a completely ignominious background when it comes to iOS update predictions: back in 2008, they successfully predicted the released of iOS 2.2 over ten days ahead of time.

If the rumor is true, the best news of all might not be the much-talked about “software fix” for the iPhone 4 reception issues, but the fact that the jailbreaking community has been waiting on iOS 4.0.1 to release many of their new exploits, including an updated version of Spirit. Can’t wait!

[via Apple Insider]