Apple has sold 275,000,000 iPods.
The Touch is now the most popular model.
There’s a new version of iTunes out today. And there’s a new version of the iPhone/iPod Touch operating system (4.1) next week.
Ya gotta love Apple. They have a P.R. event and the live music is provided by Chris Martin.
“Dear Apple Customer,
“Apple recently announced that iPhone 4 customers who purchased an iPhone 4 Bumper are eligible for a full refund.
“As of today, we have automatically processed your refund.”
Email received this evening from Apple.
Makes me happy. I am completely satisfied with the iPhone and I like the bumper and $30 saved is $30 earned.
And nothing required on my part.
Scott Adams of Dilbert takes a fascinating look at Apple’s reaction to the iPhone 4 problem. An excerpt:
I’m a student of how language influences people. Apple’s response to the iPhone 4 problem didn’t follow the public relations playbook because Jobs decided to rewrite the playbook. (I pause now to insert the necessary phrase Magnificent Bastard.) If you want to know what genius looks like, study Jobs’ words: “We’re not perfect. Phones are not perfect. We all know that. But we want to make our users happy.”
Jobs changed the entire argument with nineteen words. He was brief. He spoke indisputable truth. And later in his press conference, he offered clear fixes.
Really. I figured it out.
I took the bumper off and, as before, in my poor reception house the signal drops to no signal if I hold the phone comfortably in my hand.
But, if I hold the phone gripping its upper two-thirds instead of normal bottom two-thirds, the signal does not drop. That’s because my hand is not conducting the signal from one antenna to another.
There are three antennas on the iPhone. One begins on the top near the headphone jack and goes most of the way down the left side. Another begins at the same place on the top — there is a slim black separator between them — and goes most of the way down the right side. The third antenna curves from the lower left around the bottom to the lower right, again with a separator between it and the others on each side. See illustration below.
Normally you would hold the phone with your hand around the bottom two-thirds. Then if the phone slips, there is a margin to catch it. And it seems balanced that way. But that is where the separators are. And if you hold the phone in a way that conducts the signal across the separator, the signal drops.
It seems to me this could be resolved if Apple put the antenna that’s currently across the bottom, across the top instead. Then the separators on each side would be well above your fingers and palm in a normal grip.
Could it possibly be this simple? (I realize it might require re-arranging the insides.)
What should I charge Apple for my consultation?
Note the three separators: one near the bottom on each side, and one just to the right of the headphone jack on the top. It’s the bottom left separator that — when covered by your hand so that the signal is conducted — seems to diminish the reception.
I love the iPhone 4 and I’m getting $30 back for the case I bought (and like).
Win-win as far as I’m concerned.
UPDATE: Had my first Face Time phone call today. Very cool.
The word on the street from NHTSA is that it was Toyota that planted the driver error story.
. . .So apparently this means that if you hold your Toyota the wrong way it has trouble braking unless you put duct tape on it. Wait. Wait. No, that’s not right. Sorry, we got our defective product scandal pedals mixed up for a second there. Sorry! Blogger error!
I love my iPhone 4 and would buy it again without a moment’s hesitation, Consumer Reports objections notwithstanding.
Yes I did notice a deterioration in cellular signal strength when I held the iPhone. With the bumper case however, it’s no problem at all; indeed it seems the reception is better than with the iPhone 3G it replaced.
I do think Apple needs to address the issue more forthrightly.
By far, the iPad’s most wonderful feature, compared to laptops, is the fact that it turns on instantly. There’s no boot-up sequence. That one advantage makes the iPad an entirely different product from a laptop. Once powered on, the iPad doesn’t start begging me to update things nor force me to make decisions. It doesn’t remind me of all the ways it is protecting me. It doesn’t tell me to order printer ink or ask me to fill out a survey. A regular laptop is like your boss: always making you wait before giving you busy-work assignments. The iPad is more like a punctual lover. It’s always ready for fun.
[My laptop starts in less than five seconds, so I don't quite understand Adams's point despite enjoying his analogies. Does he turn his laptop off? Why? I never turn my computers off unless I'm traveling.]
After three days I have absolutely no issues with my iPhone 4. The reception is fine (I am using a bumper).
It is remarkably faster than my previous 3G. The camera is much improved. The resolution is superb.
I would buy it again without hesitation.
Indeed, I expect to in 2012 when iPhone 6 comes out.
I’ve only had it two hours and I love it, but the signal deterioration problems when you pick up the iPhone 4 are quite real. Resting on the arm of the chair: five bars. Held in my hand with my hand resting on the same spot: “Searching…”. The effect is not immediate; it takes up to a minute to go from five bars to no signal. It recovers in about 15-20 seconds.
So, it’s great if you don’t want to make any telephone calls.
I had signal problems around home with my iPhone 3G, but not this drastic. I haven’t tried the $30 bumper yet.
No regrets mind you — I’d buy it again for all the other reasons — but I’ve seen enough to come down on the side of those who say Apple messed up, at least for now.
UPDATE: The bumper, which I bought before the antenna issues came up because I tend to drop my phone, seems to resolve my reception problem rather well. I like it for protective purposes too.
There are a number of mobile apps from Uncle. Some look useful.
My iPhone 4 Bumper (a perimeter case) has arrived from Shenzhen, China, via Hong Kong, Anchorage and Memphis.
The iPhone itself is due to leave China by Friday.
There’s some concern going around the internets about how if you hold the iPhone 4 a certain way you compromise the antennas and degrade the phone signal. (Apple’s position is, all phones do that, don’t hold it that way.)
Are we so ignorant that we can’t remember six or seven years ago when cell phones had pull-out antennas and came with instructions not to touch the antenna while making a call as it would degrade the signal and cause the phone to use more power (giving you brain cancer and reducing battery life)?
Geez, grip the iPhone loosely and you won’t have a problem.
Electronic Arts has a number of its iPhone/iPod Touch app games on sale for 48 hours for 99¢.
I picked up Connect 4, Tiger Woods, Madden, Battleship and Need for Speed Shift.
And Yahtzee.
Oh, and Clue and Trivial Pursuit. What the hell, 99¢. A decent size candy bar is a buck-29 these days.
Besides, they’re for the grandkids to play. 
The new iOS 4 for iPhone and iPod Touch is available via iTunes.
This is not the new iPhone, which comes out Thursday. This is the new operating system for iPhone 3G and 3Gs and iPod Touch second and third generation.
The update has many new features depending on your device. It is free. It is also a rather large file and the process will take several minutes.
The iOS update requires iTunes 9.2, which was released last week. It too is free.
Google is great for many things and I use it often. Bing, the search tool from Microsoft, has gotten useful as well and may give better results than Google depending on your quest.
But if you really, really want details, try Wolfram. Here’s the background.
(Try typing “weather”, the name of the city where you were born and your birthdate. It was snowing and about 22º F. in Detroit when I was born. The sun came out about then.)
I ordered an iPhone 4 but I won’t get it until after July 4th. They’d already sold out the first week’s worth.
“Waiting for the iPhone to come to Verizon is sort of like waiting for the Cubs to win the World Series. In theory, it’s overdue to happen, and when it does, it will be huge. But until then, it’s best to treat it as a fantasy—an event so unlikely that we’d be wise to go about our normal lives until we see real evidence of it actually occurring.”
… old soft-hearted liberal, and susceptible to having my emotions manipulated, but how many iPhones do you think this ad will sell?
Apple’s browser has been updated with several new features and a speed boost.
Netflix on the iPhone this summer — free app. (Netflix membership, of course, needed.)
Farmville on iPhone by end of June. And Guitar Hero, available in the app store today.
iPhone 4. Glass front and back, steel sides. Mighty pretty. One-quarter thinner. Two cameras (one for photos with flash, one for video conferencing).
New iPhone display 4X the pixels; 326 per inch. Apparently 300 is as good as our retina; so the display is better than we can see. The images are amazingly sharp. 960X640 resolution.
They added a gyroscope. I’m not sure I know what that does, but I guess it makes the iPhone into a Wii-like device.
5 megapixels, 5X zoom, tap focus and LED flash. And HD video. 720p at 30 frames per second. Omigoodness. And with editing software (for $4.99).
This is a pocket device we’re talking about.
iPads are so April.
The new operating system will permit more than one application to run at a time. Yay! And folders for apps. Out June 21st.
iBooks coming to iPhone 4. Great, I like reading on my iPhone and like having choices where to get the books.
One downside, look for more ads in apps.
Video calls, iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 over wireless only for now. It’s called Face Time. The demo (an ad we’ll be seeing soon I imagine) shows two people communicating via sign language on the phone.
16GB or 32GB; white or black. June 24th. $199 or $299 with AT&T upgrade offer.
iOS (new software) free for iPhone and iPod touch (except won’t work on first generation touch like mine) June 21st. Not all features will work on older models.
AT&T is going to let everyone upgrade to the new iPhone at the subsidized price, no matter how much time remains on their existing agreement. Just sign a new two-year agreement.
That tells me AT&T is about to lose exclusivity.
If you can’t quit, Consumer Reports lists 7 things to stop doing on Facebook. Click link for a fuller discussion of each.
Using a weak password
Leaving your full birth date in your profile
Overlooking useful privacy controls
Posting your child’s name in a caption
Mentioning that you’ll be away from home
Letting search engines find you
Permitting youngsters to use Facebook unsupervised
I think this will be my last posting about Facebook. You’ve either gotten the idea — or not. I found it interesting that one of my friends on Facebook disappeared and when I emailed to ask her why, she said an employer required it — no family member could have an account.
Such information may, for example, be accessed by everyone on the Internet (including people not logged into Facebook), be indexed by third party search engines, and be imported, exported, distributed, and redistributed by us and others without privacy limitations. Such information may also be associated with you, including your name and profile picture, even outside of Facebook, such as on public search engines and when you visit other sites on the internet. The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to “everyone.” You can review and change the default settings in your privacy settings. If you delete “everyone” content that you posted on Facebook, we will remove it from your Facebook profile, but have no control over its use outside of Facebook.
So, bottom line, do you really want your name and photos of your kids out there for billions of people to see?
Keeping in mind that your information is only as private as EACH of your friends’ information.
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