Turns out everyone’s favorite Sith Lord is an iPhone 4 user, and even the Force can’t help Lord Vader avoid the Death Grip. Russell Arch has posted an entertaining animated clip over on YouTube about the experience. Also, the Empire keeps an old iMac around to run Classic Apps!
Thanks to RetroMacCast for the tip.
To make applying for a free Bumper or case for the iPhone 4 process easier, Apple launched the Case Program app, offered gratis on iTunes in nine languages.
Once you download and install it, you’ll need to sign in with your Apple ID and select a Bumper case or iPhone prophylactic of choice.
While the Case Program states that it can take from three to five weeks for the cases to arrive, a few people have said Apple has promised that they might arrive sooner (three to five days).
Let us know in the comments what Apple told you about great bumper expectation times when you applied for the case.
Via The Apple Blog
Continued manufacturing problems with the white iPhone 4 prompted Apple this morning to announce another delay in the model’s availability. In a statement, the Cupertino, Calif. company said the white model won’t be available until “later this year.”
“White models of Apple’s new iPhone 4 have proven more challenging to manufacture than expected,” Apple added. The company emphasized the delay will not affect the availability of the black iPhone 4, however.
It’s an envious spot to be in: Apple’s iPhone and iPads are in such demand that the Cupertino, Calif. company spent much of Tuesday’s earnings call emphasizing it is dancing as fast as it can. “We’re working around the clock to try to get supply/demand in balance, in the scheme of things, it’s a good problem to have,” Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook told reporters.
The record third-quarter profit report and news that every category except iPods were up, did more to quiet the ‘antennagate’ controversy than all the free iPhone 4 cases in Cupertino. ”Let me be very clear on this: We are selling every unit we are making,” Cook crowed. Indeed. Although analysts were nervous about the potential effect of talk about dropped calls having on earnings, today, Oppenheimer’s Yair Reiner summed up the current feelings: “Antennagate Schmantennagate.”
Giving iPhone 4 customers free cases will cost Apple about $175 million, Apple executives said during a conference call with Wall St. analysts.
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.”
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.
Apple has posted video of this morning’s press conference about the iPhone 4’s antenna. You can watch it here. However, it does not include the juicy Q&A session, where Jobs rips the tech press for creating Antennagate.