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Apple is Stirring Up Trouble Again

Apple and Steve Jobs have stirred up more trouble regarding antennas just when we all thought the drama was over. It all started about a week ago at the Apple press conference to address the iPhone 4 problem. Ole Steve Jobs started out his presentation not with an, “I’m sorry for all the antenna issues,” but with a “We’re not perfect.” By we he meant all smartphone creators. He said the Blackberry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris, and the Samsung Omnia II all have the same problem and proceed to show footage of each one’s signal dropping.

That was a little underhanded, but he was trying to make a point. If you missed the conference or weren’t following along online, Apple created a page on their website dedicated entirely to antenna failure among all smartphones. The website has footage of the iPhone 4, BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris, Nokia N97 mini, Samsung Omnia II, and iPhone 3GS each dropping signal strength when a finger or a hand cover the antenna.

Blackberry maker RIM decided they won’t sit back and let Jobs get away with pointing fingers at them. RIM’s Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie released a statement here saying, “Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claim about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation.” They go on to say, “One thing is for certain, RIM’s customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity.”

Just after that statement, where RIM is very clear that their phones do not have any antenna problems, a video leaked of someone playing around with the new BlackBerry 9800. The video, which has already been removed, showed the unreleased phone to have some serious death grip issues. Sure it was a pre-release version of the phone, but should be the final design.

Since this huge blowup with the iPhone 4, new smartphones are going to be under a magnifying glass when it comes to antenna performance and “death grip” symptoms. Something that (if Apple’s right) has been going on since the beginning of smartphones will be noticed and talked about more than ever. So this is a heads up. We’re going to be hearing a lot about cell phone antenna performance… as if we haven’t already heard a lot.

Posted by Angela | 0 Comments

Jobs Says: “This is Not Antenna-Gate”

Steve Jobs just got done slapping the wrists of a room half-full of tech news reporters. In the first forty minutes or so, Steve talked about all the alleged problems with the iPhone 4 and gave out some data to prove his point that the problems with the iPhone 4 are not all that awful. The remainder of the conference was made up of a question and answer session.

Jobs was clear that the problems with the iPhone 4 had been blown way out of proportion. He backed up his argument with many different statistics. First he looked at the percentage of all iPhone 4 users who have called AppleCare to complain about antenna/reception issues. That number was less than a half percent. Sounds convincing, except that I wouldn’t call AppleCare with my reception issues with the iPhone 4, I would probably call AT&T. Also, AppleCare deals with complaints and issues with all Apple products. The iPhone 4 takes up a tiny sliver compared to all the other products Apple has on the market.

Jobs went on to say that AT&T’s return rate for iPhone 4s was 1.7%, which is much less than the iPhone 3GS. And he concluded his numbers part of the session with the statement, “The iPhone drops less than 1 additional call per 100,” as compared to the iPhone 3GS.

Steve Jobs, and Apple, decided to solve the reception problem by giving free cases to any iPhone 4 user who wants one. They must apply online to have them delivered and it must be done before September 30. Also, Apple and AT&T will be giving full refunds to anyone who returns their undamaged iPhone within 30 days of purchase.

After hearing Jobs’ opinion, it appears the media is what’s making this issue seem so severe. He kept saying over and over, “We’re not perfect.” Poor Steve loves his customers more than they know. We love you too, Steve!

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Will iPhone 4′s Problems Ever be Addressed?

So all the negative media has finally gotten to the heart of Apple Inc. and good ole Steve Jobs. Apple is planning a press conference for Friday at 10 A.M. (Pacific Time) at Apple’s headquarters in California. The conference is expected to address the problems with the iPhone 4 exterior antennae. Finally, some Apple is recognizing that there is a problem with the iPhone 4.

For a while now, Apple has been in denial about all the problems with the antenna on the iPhone 4 saying it was a software problem. Once Consumer Reports revealed that the exterior antenna did in fact affect the phone’s reception, doom and gloom surrounded the iPhone 4. Now, Apple has decided to address the problem and hopefully take steps to fix it.

The iPhone 4 sold 1.7 million units in its first three days of availability. So I have concluded that the public was too mesmerized by the excitement of the new iPhone to care about its major problems. Or maybe no one noticed its multiple problems until they had already bought it. I know a few people with the iPhone 3Gs that will be waiting for an updated iPhone 4 before they upgrade.

The exterior antenna is definitely the most talked about issue, but it is not the only problem with the iPhone 4. I listed a few of the other problems back in June and just recently a proximity sensor glitch has been discovered. Even though Apple will be addressing the main problem with the phone’s antenna at this conference, it is still highly unlikely for a recall to be the answer to the problem, especially in the eyes of Apple executives. However, there has been talk of Apple giving away free iPhone cases to all iPhone 4 buyers.

Too bad Woopi already destroyed hers.

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Microsoft to Give Us a Better iPad than Apple

Microsoft’s Chief Executive, Steve Ballmer, told attendees at Microsoft’s annual partner conference that Microsoft was serious about a Windows 7 tablet coming out soon. At the conference in Seattle, Washington, on Monday, Ballmer tried motivating attendees by telling them that the tablet is being constructed by about twenty manufacturers right now.

Reuters says Ballmer said:

“New Windows-powered tablet or slate devices — small, hand-held, wireless computers — are in the pipeline from Acer Inc, Dell Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Toshiba Corp, Sony Corp and a dozen other PC makers,”

Ballmer also claims that the Windows 7 tablet will be the most important product they come out with recently. The slate or tablet is probably their most important product because the iPad might seriously affect Microsoft’s PC desktop or laptop sales. In just about three months Apple has already sold 3 million iPads. However, Ballmer wants to take Microsoft in a different direction by playing up its board room compliance as well as fun multimedia features. CrunchGear reports that Bill Gates said the iPad was :not quite there yet.”

Microsoft didn’t say anything about the number one PC maker, Hewlett-Packard Co., or their plans to build a tablet-like device running a Palm operating system. Nor did they acknowledge any of their own recent problems with projects like the Kin cell phone.

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Consumer Reports Disproves Apple

Consumer Reports tested the iPhone 4 and concluded that they cannot recommend the phone until Apple has fixed its antenna problem.

Engineers ran a series of tests on the phone and other comparable smartphones. They found that the iPhone 4’s reception dropped dramatically when the bottom left corner was covered by a hand or finger. This is especially problematic for left handed people. The signal drops so much that it is very possible for a call to be lost.

These results disprove Apple’s claim that there is no reduction in signal, but that the signal is weak to begin with. Apple released a statement at the beginning of July claiming they found the source of the reception problems:

“Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.”

Not only did Consumer Reports test comparable smartphones, but also multiple iPhone 4s. However, they cannot conclude that all iPhone 4s have the signal problem based on their sample of three iPhone 4s… That sample size is just too small to make any definite, final conclusions.

Consumer Reports’ engineers recommend using a strip of non-conductive tape wrapped around the bottom-left corner of the phone for a quick fix. Apple also suggested using a case or just trying to avoid holding the phone with your hand over the sensitive spot.