{"id":10757,"date":"2010-07-17T18:12:16","date_gmt":"2010-07-17T10:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=10757"},"modified":"2024-09-29T13:20:24","modified_gmt":"2024-09-29T05:20:24","slug":"igrip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2010\/07\/17\/igrip\/","title":{"rendered":"iGrip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two colleagues of mine \u2013 both Apple fans \u2013 and I were talking about the MacBooks and iPhones yesterday afternoon. One was surprised, like my Kumamoto colleagues last year during the teaching trip, that I used my MacBook Pro primarily to run Windows 7 and not the Apple OS. As I explained to them: I like the MacBook Pro\u2019s hardware design and form factor, but I dislike their OS. Once the other notebook manufacturers catch up in terms of notebook build (HP’s Envy series sure looks close in addition to Sony’s overpriced Vaios), I’ll likely go back to using a dedicated Wintel notebook.<\/p>\n

The mobile phone and techforums are yet again abuzz with the latest installment of the newest Apple debacle over signal loss in the iPhone 4G if you hold that phone in a certain way. Shockingly, Bloomberg uncovered information<\/a> that suggests Apple was actually already aware of this a year ago when their senior antenna expert pointed out that the 4G phone\u2019s design was going to lead to signal loss.<\/p>\n

Apparently, Steve Jobs not only did not apologize for the 4G design flaw that\u2019s led to owners experiencing signal loss and even reception disconnections, he\u2019s even all but claimed \u201cbut hey, every other phone has the same problem as ours\u201d, and dragged in Samsung, HTC, Nokia and RIM, manufacturers of the Blackberry devices.<\/p>\n

\"iphone-signal-loss\"<\/p>\n

One\u2019s never certain what\u2019s going on in Jobs\u2019 head, given the enigma he is. But one thing\u2019s for sure: in the last 12 months, it\u2019s been one PR Fail after another for Apple. First, it was the employee suicides from Foxconn, the company that pundits call the slave labor camps<\/a> for Apple and a bunch of other computer hardware manufacturers. Then there was the shocking police raid on Gizmodo\u2019s editor\u2019s home after he did a world scoop on the insides of the then-yet to be released iPhone 4G. And now finally, this.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, Nokia and RIM isn\u2019t taking Jobs\u2019 latest tirade lying down. But Nokia\u2019s certainly a lot more polite. They said in their press statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cNokia 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t mention Apple and Jobs\u2019 attack on (their) mobile phones, but there\u2019s no mistaking that their response was directly specifically at the 4G\u2019s antenna design issues.<\/p>\n

The RIM co-CEOs however, practically snarled back at Jobs when they issued the press statement below: (formatted for easier reading):<\/p>\n

“Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claims 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. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage. <\/span><\/p>\n

One thing is for certain, RIM’s customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple.”<\/span><\/p>\n

OUCH LOL. The online forums are a hilarious read right now with many pointing out that this is the equivalent of RIM\u2019s response to Apple to go *(expletive)* themselves for dragging them into their own cesspool of a mess.<\/p>\n

In moments like these, I sure am glad again that I dumped the iPhone. It’s hard to support a company that displays this level of arrogance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two colleagues of mine \u2013 both Apple fans \u2013 and I were talking about the MacBooks and iPhones yesterday afternoon. One was surprised, like my Kumamoto colleagues last year during the teaching trip, that I used my MacBook Pro primarily<\/p>\n

Read More iGrip<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,16],"tags":[551],"class_list":["post-10757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-home","category-toys-technology","tag-smartphone","wpcat-6-id","wpcat-16-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35766,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10757\/revisions\/35766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}