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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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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.

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Google, Make Me Happy Again!

The new iPhone has made Android owners feel inferior and not so special anymore. However, Google Labs has just launched a new tool to invent your own applications. What’s more fun than creating your own applications? My Easy-Bake-Oven was my favorite toy when I was little and it seems we never grow out of having fun creating new things.

The App Inventor software is still just in Google labs, but is ready and available for use. It allows a user to create an application for Android powered devices. Released on July 12, the App Inventor makes cell phone owners more involved in the applications. As cell phones become more and more advanced, they become more and more like computers. So, it is important to increase user involvement and user knowledge.

Google is proud of this new tool’s easy to use features for all ages. It has been in development for a year already and tested on students, professionals, non-programmers, even sixth graders. Google believes the tool is a good first experience of computer programming for these children. Exposure to simple and fun computer programming is beneficial to kids in the long run.

Also, Google hopes that by opening up its applications’ invention to more and more creators, it will even up with Apple’s app store and maybe even surpass it. Android phones are definitely a forerunner in the smartphone market, but they are also well behind the iPhone. And while Apple’s app store has strict rules and regulations on the apps they provide, Google does not. They are hoping this access and freedom will attract more users and app inventors.

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Name One of the Greatest Tech Developments in Rece...

Yesterday I asked around the office what each Keystone employee thought was the best technology gadget to change its market in recent years. I got a few off the wall answers and a few I-don’t-know’s. One of our experts on the web development side, Jeremy Scott, suggested the iPhone. I almost rolled my eyes at this response because it seemed like such an obvious and overused answer. But then he expanded on his answer and said, “Everything before the iPhone was basically a phone with email capabilities and some crappy web browsing. Everything after the iPhone is about apps and mobile computing and app stores and so on. It completely changed the marketplace.”

He was right. Until the development of the iPhone and the app store in 2008, smartphones really weren’t that smart and app developers didn’t have any good way to get their product into the hands of consumers. Smartphones in general changed the cell phone market forever, but the iPhone had a particular impact because of its combination of music, phone, and Internet access. Smartphones before the iPhone had extra memory space, a decent camera, video capabilities, Bluetooth, limited WiFi access, and probably Windows Mobile 6 as the OS.  Let’s flashback to some examples… the Motorola Q, the HTC Advantage, (one of the better ones) the Blackberry Curve, etc. Unlike these other smartphones, the iPhone was released with a touch screen, its own operating system, and its own application store.

Apple created a closed market of applications available to all iPhone users when it created the app store. The closed market provided advantages for both Apple and the app developers. Apple got all the credit and the creativity recognition. The app developers got to avoid the cheap carriers they had to settle with before and were able to reach a huge audience directly. Even in 2008 Wired Magazine recognized the potential in the app store when it said:

“Apple’s App Store changed [everything]. It made creating and distributing mobile applications for cell phone users easy — jumpstarting the mobile-app development market and creating clones such as the Android Market. It even forced Research in Motion to offer a BlackBerry Application Storefront. For thousands of programmers, the cell phone is the new PC.”

The iPhone changed phones like the iPod changed music. The iPod and iTunes made the music industry sweat because it allowed listeners to buy individual songs as opposed to an entire album. Music artists started relying more on ticket sales at concerts than record sales for income. So how will the app store affect smartphones? Well we have seen a major growth in applications since the app store gained popularity (there is even an app for skee-ball now!). Others continue to mimic the app store (like Android) but none will ever be as large as Apple’s original.

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Everything That’s Wrong with the iPhone4

On the radio this morning, I listened to a long winded story from one of the 107.5 personalities about long lines to the Apple store in Green Hills Mall yesterday. Out the door and through a main hallway of the mall was a line about six people wide and hundreds deep. Yesterday, June 24^th, was the first day for the iPhone 4 to be available in stores. If the long lines weren’t enough to make me feel bad for these people, the newly discovered iPhone 4 defects will definitely do it.

Like every other Apple product, a seemingly small mistake has turned into a huge annoyance. The arrangement of externalized antennae, which was supposed to be a huge advantage of the iPhone 4, has caused some major aggravation in the Apple following. Holding the iPhone in the natural way, and covering the bottom left corner, drains the network connection and will drop calls almost instantly.

It seems like Apple needs better product testing. Testing in the sheltered Apple office would maybe account for a user’s head, but not for the hand. For right-handed users, the problem may not be as obvious as media is making it out to be, but for left-handed user it is apparent. What’s even better than this inconvenience is Steve Jobs answer to so many people’s complaints… Users should either avoid holding the phone that way or buy a case for their iPhone 4. What? Hold is differently? That’s not a solution. Apple’s own iPhone 4 ads display the phone being held the wrong way! There are even a few pictures of Steve Jobs himself holding the iPhone 4 the wrong way at his WWDC demonstration! Maybe that was the reason behind the mysterious network problems at the conference.

Other mistakes being reported are starting to pile up and make Apple look incompetent. The volume buttons are backwards on many iPhone 4′s, the rear-facing camera refuses to work, and the screen displays yellow spots in corners. Apple has not recommended any solutions to these problems yet.