On Friday July 16th, Apple held a press release conference concerning the iPhone 4.   To summarize what Apple had to say during the press conference they said: “No smartphone is perfect, we admit it, we screwed up.”

Steve Jobs then proceeds to show videos of other smartphones by holding them the same way as people were for the iPhone 4, showing that these phones also experience signal issues.

The irony here is no other phone has the external antenna directly exposed on the outside of the phone.  For the competing phones Apple was using for their example, the bars on the phones went down but the problem with his example is he didn’t have those phones in an active phone call as the bars dropped.

When gripping the lower left side of the iPhone 4, not only do the bars drop, the data connection stops immediately and the call will eventually drop as well.

To remedy the situation, Apple will be providing free cases to everybody whom has purchased an iPhone 4.  To those people whom already bought bumper cases from Apple’s store, they will be issued a refund for the cost of the case.

Apple also stated that you do have 30 days to try out the iPhone 4, if you aren’t completely satisfied, you may return it back to Apple or AT&T and get a full refund.

In the meantime, it would seem that Apple has its engineers working around the clock (literally, there are tents setup with Apple’s campus) to come up with a permanent fix for future batches of the iPhone 4.

When gripping the lower left side of the iPhone 4, not only do the bars drop, the data connection stops immediately and the call will eventually drop as well.

When holding the iPhone 4 with your left hand, placing your thumb over the black band on the lower left side will cause your signal to drop.

As most people have probably heard by now, the iPhone 4 has a serious issue when it comes to antenna reception.  Apple recently launched a redesigned 4th generation iPhone with some significant upgrades; however the antenna design has a major flaw.

If you look at the lower left side of the iPhone, you’ll see a black line.  That line is what separates the antennas.  When you hold your finger over that line, your finger acts as a conductor causing the signal to drop.

Apple put a PR stating the formula they were using to calculate the number of bars was inaccurate and they are going to issue a software fix to alleviate the problem.

The truth is, the issue isn’t with the software, the issue is the hardware.  It’s a design flaw and no matter what, software will not fix the reception problems with the iPhone 4.

Consumer Reports did their own testing and concluded that they do not recommend buying the iPhone 4 until the reception issues are resolved.

Apple’s response to the situation has been handled very poorly.  A “band-aid fix” to the issue would to simply apply a thick rubberband around the sides of the phone. Apple recommended users buy one of their bumper cases – essentially a thin rubberized plastic case that covers the sides of the phone.  The thing is Apple should be offering these bumper cases to users for free rather then expecting them to pay a premium price of $30 for a bad design flaw.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the upcoming weeks.  This issue will continue to bite Apple in the ass until they fess up their mistake, and offer (at no charge) replacement units with a better antenna design.

The real AT&T

AT&T yesterday announced changes coming to their 3G data plans… These changes will affect everybody on the AT&T network including iPad and iPhone users.  Below the new plans are to go into effect June 7th:

• Dataplus: 200MB per month for $15 ($15 extra charge if you exceed 200MB)
• Datapro: 2GB per month for $25 ($10 extra charge per gig overage)

AT&T was offering unlimited 3G plans for $30/month for iPad users, current customers will be grandfathered in, however any customer purchasing a 3G iPad after June 7th won’t have that luxury.

AT&T claims that 98% of their existing customers should not exceed more then 2GB per month.

I seriously doubt that is the case for those iPad users with Netflix subscriptions whom stream video over 3G.  It’s pretty crappy of AT&T to make these changes especially considering how that Steve Jobs advertised unlimited 3G as a benefit for owning the iPad.

Jobs has yet to comment directly on AT&T making these changes, but something tells me he’s not happy about it.

First things first… iPad… Really?  When I first heard Steve Jobs use that word, I thought he was referring to some form of tampon.  Seriously.  I’m not joking…  Ten minutes later I see links to the MADTV spoof where they actually poked fun at Apple with a product called an iPad which was exactly that: An advanced tampon.  Check out the MADTV iPad spoof below:

The Apple iPad

Rumors were circulating around the net that Apple was going to call it the iSlate, and to be honest, I like that name alot more then the iPad.  MacRumors.com claimed that back in 2007, Apple had purchased the domain name iSlate.com. According to ArsTechnica, Apple has a scheduled “internal hall” meeting to discuss the iPad.  My hopes would be that somebody would notice the MADTV spoof and perhaps change the name.  I mean c’mon, let’s face it, the iPad is a terrible name.  I’m convinced whoever inside Apple came up with the name probably named it after that spoof. But enough about the name. So what is the iPad?  It’s basically a giant iPod Touch with a 9.7 inch screen.  Literally.  Every aspect of the iPad is identical to the iPhone or iPod Touch.  The O/S is a modified version of the iPhone/iPod Touch software, just scaled to fit on its 1027×768 screen. The iPad will come with iTunes built into the device.  In addition it will full support of all the 132,000 iPhone/iPod touch applications already available in the catalog.  It can run these apps in the  native iPhone 320×480 resolution, or run them in a “fullscreen mode” where it doubles up the pixel size of the application, which means the application runs at 640×960.

The iPad showing off the iBook application that displays your purchased books on a bookshelf

Aside from the iPhone/iPod Touch application support, it’s going to have support for “iBooks” which will definitely give Amazon a run for its money with their Kindle; (perhaps Amazon should lower the price on the kindle considering its lack of features).  Any books you purchase through iBooks will appear on a bookshelf as displayed on the right.   Other then that the iPad will include all the same applications you’d find on an iPhone or iPod Touch:

• Safari
• Mail
• Notes
• Contacts
• Google Maps
• YouTube
• Calendar
• etc…

The iPad does NOT support Flash

In addition, the iPad has the same limitations as the do the iPhone/iPod Touch, no multi-tasking, no support for Flash, which to me is a huge disappointment.  During the announcement, you can see Steve Jobs on stage sitting on a couch casually browsing the web.  Immediately you can see an icon where some flash animation should have appeared.  You could also see him switch in and out of applications; again – no multi-tasking… Very disappointing.  I just love how Steve Jobs during the announcement was like “who needs netbooks?”  Really Steve?  …Really?

The iPad (just like the iPhone/iPod Touch) does not have a removable battery.  So over the years when the battery can’t hold a charge anymore, you’ll end up with an expensive paperweight.  Steve Jobs claimed while he was on a 10 hour flight from San Francisco to Tokyo, he was able to watch video the entire time which (admittedly) is impressive.

You are entering an Apple Restriction Zone

The only way to sync the device is using the same proprietary plug like what the iPhone/iPod Touch have.  What… No support for wireless syncing? (Even Microsoft’s Zune HD has this.)  There are no alternative connectors or USB ports on this unit (which really shocked me).  No SD card slot, no nothing.  Any sort of input or plug will need to use Apple’s proprietary plug if you need to load data onto the unit.

Apple will be releasing six different models of the iPad. The differences between these models will vary with the amount of storage space: 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB.   All models will have wifi 802.11(a/b/g/n) but the other three models will have wifi as well as 3G.  The downside is the 3G connection will only be provided via AT&T (Apple, you should have learned from the iPhone you fucking idiots).  The starting 16GB model with wifi only will cost $499, which is impressive considering how Apple normally overcharges for their other products.  Here’s breakdown on the iPad pricing:

Wifi only:

• $499 for 16GB
• $599 for 32GB
• $699 for 64GB

Wifi + 3G Connectivity

• $629 for 16GB
• $729 for 32GB
• $829 for 64GB

The available plans for 3G (provided with AT&T):

• $14.99 for 250MB of bandwidth (this plan is a rip off)
• $29.99 for “unlimited data (probably a 5GB cap, but still a decent price.)

All in all… I’m not impressed.  Again, the iPad doesn’t offer anything significantly unique from what Apple originally announced with the iPhone and iPod Touch.  And because of that I don’t see any compelling reason why I should use it over the iPhone or iPod Touch.  It’s not something I could easily carry around with me on the go due to its size.  Even if I did, I’d have to get a protective cover to prevent the screen from getting scratched or cracked.  With a netbook or laptop, this isn’t a problem as the screens aren’t exposed.

I was hoping that it would be the ultimate device to use for video playback, but considering how it’s restricted to certain video codecs, this becomes a substantial limitation as to what you can or can’t watch.  Also having no support for flash eliminates about 90% of all available video content on the web.  Also the resolution is lower then I expected… 1024×768 – which makes the screen more square then widescreen.  This means if  you were to watch high definition 720p content, you’d see approximately 1 inch of black on both the top and bottom of the iPad screen because it has to scale down the widescreen video to make it fit.  If you were to watch widescreen 16:9 content on the  iPhone/iPod Touch, the black borders would not be as thick as those screens are more rectangular with their 480×320 resolution.

I’m surprised it doesn’t have a built in webcam.  Hell the Phone has a camera, and can even capture video… Why wouldn’t this at least have a webcam?  The iPad could have been a great device to use with Skype, or any other Instant Messenger that supports video.  Certainly would have made it more useful.  I guess Apple needed to cut costs to make the price appealing.  Who knows, maybe next year they’ll include one in a newer model.

Oh and Apple, you really, really, REALLY need to change the name… I think the “iSlate” would’ve been more appropriate…  The name is iPad fucking terrible.

There has been a lot of controversy lately with Apple, Google and AT&T.  Here’s what went down a few weeks ago:

Google had submitted an application to the iTunes store for their ‘Google Voice’ service, which essentially allows you to better manage the way people communicate with you.  Basically what it does for you is it acts as a centralized service that forwards calls depending on who the person is that’s calling you.  Say for instance you have a land line, cell phone, and a work phone; you can assign groups within Google Voice to screen these people, and forward the calls to one or all of your lines.

Example #1: Say your co-worker calls your Google phone number, you can tell Google to forward that call ONLY to your work phone.

Example #2: If your friend calls you, you can have Google Voice ring both your home phone, and your cell phone at the same time.

The idea is really neat.  On top of being a call forwarding service, it allows you to send out SMS messages at no cost, as well as listen to your voicemail online.  The other cool feature of Google Voice is it can automatically transcribe out voicemails left for you and email/text you the message.  The speech to text conversion isn’t perfect, but it works well enough for you to tell what the message is.

If you’d like more information about Google Voice check out their ‘About’ page.

In any event, Apple claimed the Google Voice application was denied because it duplicates what the iPhone can already do.  The application rejection has caused major backlash against Apple because of the application process.  Not only was the official Google Voice application revoked, but every other 3rd party application using Google voice was pulled as well.

AT&T made a statement claiming they had nothing to do with the rejection of the Google Voice application.  I personally find this hard to believe because AT&T in the past has forced Apple and developers of certain applications not to allow access through the AT&T network.  Skype is a perfect example.  Skype only works via wifi.  SlingPlayer is another application that AT&T demanded not to work over their network; like Skype, SlingPlayer is restricted to use via wifi only.

This isn’t the first time legitimate applications have been rejected.  Nobody but Apple understands the application approval process.  Earlier this year, Google had another application, Google Latitude rejected as well.  This application essentially allowed you to share your current location with your friends using the phones GPS.  This also enabled your friends to do the same, even if they had a different phone.  Nobody quite understands Apple’s reasoning for denying this application, but the approval process has reached a point where it’s becoming blatantly anti-competitive.

Now here’s why Apple is hypocritical:

Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs pleaded with the major music labels and the RIAA to abolish DRM that’s included with their music.  He argued that ultimately that the music industry needed to be more “open” (DRM free).  And now just a year and a half later, Apple is doing the opposite themselves.  They’re controlling every aspect of iTunes. They restrict direct syncing with other devices other then Apple products, forcing other companies to have to develop plug-ins that allow their devices to sync with Apple’s software.

Why have a restriction like this?  Why not open iTunes up so that any device can sync through it?  I would expect if anything, that it would increase revenues for Apple.  As the process of purchasing music is so simple, I would think  people would be inclined to purchase music through the iTunes store.  Apple currently has the largest selection of music to offer for sale.  I can’t imagine it would impact the sales of iPods that much.