Out of the many frank things that came out of Apple’s rage-filled press conference today was the existence of these rooms where they test the signals of their cell phones. They look like the dream chambers of a science fiction author, not a real-world cell phone testing place. We wonder if this place is available for parties or weddings or that sort of thing. It would be one of the most awesome spaces ever for something like that. source
It’s been blown out of proportion. I know it’s fun to have a story, but it’s less fun when you’re on the other side.
Steve Jobs • Discussing the whole “Antennagate” issue, which he emphasized was common to other phones besides the iPhone 4. That said, dude’s offering free cases (not just “bumper” cases, because they can’t make them fast enough) – and refunds for people who bought bumper cases – through September 30th. (Which they’ll reexamine when the time comes.) And if that’s not enough for people, they can get refunds, including being let out of their contracts. Sounds like a pretty good solution, although Jobs definitely had his teeth out today. source
They have a press conference scheduled for Friday. However, while it will be about the iPhone 4, there’s no word on whether or not it’s actually about the antenna issue, which Consumer Reports went out of their way to turn into a full-fledged PR crisis the other day. On the scale of smart public relations moves, it certainly beats Steve Jobs telling a customer, “You’re holding it the wrong way.” Unless they plan to stonewall some more. source
Apple has a new beta of iOS 4 coming down the pipe to deal with the dropped calls angering iPhone 4 users, but the old users seem to have a legitimate beef. The guy who made this video, Adam Burtle, says that his phone only started feeling slow after he upgraded to the new iOS. “Apple’s firmware has become bloated, with respect to the processing power of the 3G iPhone,” he writes. We’re on iOS 3 still, and we’ve noticed a lot of lag lately. This guy isn’t alone.
If it wasn’t obvious before, Apple has a huge design problem with the iPhone 4. And now Consumer Reports has confirmed it through vigorous testing. Which means that yes, Apple does have a huge problem on its hands, and yes, Apple is covering it up. The suggestion at the end of this clip is enough to ruin Jony Ive’s entire week. source
We are lucky that Steve Jobs has such a bad temper and doesn’t care about China. If Apple were to spend the same effort on the Chinese consumer as we do, we would be in trouble.
Lenovo founder and chairman Liu Chuanzhi • Suggesting Apple isn’t interested in the Chinese market very much, making it easier for the ThinkPad maker to gain a foothold. (He does say, though, that he thinks Jobs is a genius.) Apple, while not offering a direct rebuttal to the comments, notes that they plan on opening a bunch of stores in China by the end of the year. Is that codeword for “playing catch-up”? We think it is. source
Need a reason to jailbreak your iPad? This seems like a pretty big one. That’s right, Comex, one of the main guys in the jailbreaking scene, has figured out how to make your iPad work with Flash, essentially taking the Android version of Flash and creating a compatibility layer for it. It doesn’t support video on that (that’s hard) or support keyboards (that’s easy), but we’re guessing that this could make Jobs’ whole “Thoughts on Flash” spiel sound a little stupid if it actually happens (and it works well). source
