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Apple iPhone and related items (cont.)

I'm finding this quite hilarious. People that don't actually own an iPhone are complaining about a issue that isn't really much of a real world problem. Ok I managed to get it to degrade to just about no signal and start having connectivity issues this evening by doing what I know will slap the signal.

What I don't find though, is that you'd notice is in real world usage. Its a flaw but a fairly trivial one and certainly not one that will make me jump to another platform. This is the best mobile OS out there in my opinion, having used all of them to one extent or another.

My only complaint is that running apps are harder to kill than is really necessary. Palm still wins on that front, but one feature does not make a phone.

Yup the power of media to induce mass hysteria is well documented. Apples rivals must be loving this...
 
You're missing the point.

The real issue is not the relatively minor defect. It's the way that a mega-rich corp like Apple - who normally boast the super slickest PR machine on the planet - has handled it so spectacularly badly and ended up digging such a huge hole for themselves.

If they'd just admitted there was a minor problem at the beginning and given away free bumpers, the issue would probably have been all-but forgotten by now.

Instead, the company's off hand attitude to its customers and its weird denials have turned the issue into an immense PR catastrophe - so much so that billions were wiped off the company's value leading them to call an emergency press briefing today.

That's pretty much unprecedented for Apple, and that's the story.

But only because people that don't own an iPhone 4 or any Apple product for that matter have been bleating on about it, really hard for ages. I am wondering if there isn't some dirty tricks by competing manufacturers going on here because as a iPhone 4 owner its not even an issue for me. Surely its current owners having problems that should be complaining to Apple and not the world and his dog?

From where I am standing, owning one of these 'faulty' devices that seems to be working most all the time, I can't see how Apple could do if different?

They sold a couple of million of these but it appears that the entire world is complaining about problems they can't be having has they don't own one.
 
That's what I was hoping.

I've heard stories that these experts, if they can't get it drop calls, go the extra mile and smash the phone with a hammer.

There's also, I think, some kind of "cult like" customer ceremony, where the staff all raise their hands in the air, and - as the customer leaves - run around going "OMG! OMG! This Phone Has Ruined Your Life!". The customer is encouraged to join in.

Then the staff go home and write tech blogs.

I've not got one yet, but pleasingly, I can sense my life being ruined. I'm so excited!!!!

I think you need to start a tech blog on this issue, and link it to lots of other tech blogs, and make sure you blog about the other blogs blogging about the latest developments, and of course once you have got a phone, blog about your efforts to drop calls and any mods you have discovered that improve the call-dropping performance.
 
I'm thinking about getting an iPhone 4, but having read some reports here, I'm now worried I won't be able to drop calls.

Can anyone recommend tutorial on how to do it? I know Kanda tried and failed. I always thought he was a savvy user, but he had to get someone else to do it for him.

This is all seems to be going against the "it just does" idea. I expect to get the widely perceived user experience - but am really concerned it's all been hyped up, typical of those PR people.

I have this horrible worry that, unlike everyone else, I won't get the typical user experience.

Can anyone put my mind at rest?

[Also interested in the giant spring. But you don't catch me out with your wonderful rumours!]

If you decide not to fork out for the new phone, there are apparently some neat jailbreaks out there for the 3G and 3GS which recreate the lost signal experience.

And when the iPhone 5 is eventually launched there will be a healthy market in 'lost signal emulators' for retro-phoning fans.
 
But only because people that don't own an iPhone 4 or any Apple product for that matter have been bleating on about it, really hard for ages. I am wondering if there isn't some dirty tricks by competing manufacturers going on here because as a iPhone 4 owner its not even an issue for me. Surely its current owners having problems that should be complaining to Apple and not the world and his dog?.
Some of us have been and a free bumper didn't resolve it for me, but was a significant improvement. I'm still left with a temperamental phone.

Today's press conference will be interesting. :D
 
In other news, why can't I move my folders around like I can normal apps? Grr. I've spent all this time creating lovely folders, and now they're stuck on a fucking page all by themselves. Only way to move them all to the front page it would seem is to take everything back out and make sure when I start the folder again it's where I want it to be.

/rage

What you do is, move one of the items (eg ipod) from the bottom bar onto the main area. Place the item you want to move onto the spare palce on the bottom bar. Go the the first page and move the item from the bottom bar onto the page. Replace the original item you moved back on the bottom bar. There must be an easier way but this worked for me.
 
Far easier to do it in itunes while the phone's plugged into the computer, surely?
 
Far easier to do it in itunes while the phone's plugged into the computer, surely?

Ah didn't know you could do it that way. I only upgraded to IOS4 yesterday and spent a considerable amount of time baffled and came up with that solution. Will try it when I get home.

I have found with ISO4 on my 3G, it takes a lot longer to wake up when locked and sometimes to close apps down. Anyone else found this? No a major problem though.
 
But only because people that don't own an iPhone 4 or any Apple product for that matter have been bleating on about it, really hard for ages. I am wondering if there isn't some dirty tricks by competing manufacturers going on here because as a iPhone 4 owner its not even an issue for me.
Err, many of the people 'bleating on about it' are in fact iPhone 4 users (check out Apple's own support forms if they haven't deleted the threads) and much of the coverage has been on Apple-related/fan websites.

There's no widespread 'dirty tricks' going on here and most of the bad press is entirely down to Apple's response.

Edit to add - here's an interesting new article in MacWorld:
"Apple better give iPhone 4 owners free cases, say crisis experts"

Facing mounting public relations troubles over the iPhone 4, Apple must act swiftly to quell customer complaints about poor reception by giving away free cases, crisis communication experts say.

"This is undeniably doing damage to Apple's brand," said Gene Grabowski, senior vice president of Washington, D.C.-based Levick Strategic Communications, referring to the company's refusal to respond to customer complaints. "Apple's being perceived as arrogant by trying to minimize a problem that users say is a big problem."..

"Apple's correctly assumed that existing iPhone owners and Apple devotees are mostly unfazed by this," said Grabowski, "but it's the potential buyers it should be worrying about. With these complaints, people who aren't yet iPhone owners won't want to buy one until they resolve this."

And the clock is ticking, Grabowski said Tuesday in an interview with Computerworld. "It's still fixable," he said. "Apple has such a strong brand reputation and so many resources. There's still time. I don't think we're at the point of no return yet, but we're getting very close to it."
This quote is amazing:
"I think this has been made into a mountain from a molehill," said Jim Lukaszewski of The Lukaszewski Group, a crisis management consultancy. "Apple is a brand we trust, and consumers are hungry to buy its products whether they work or not. People will buy Apple's products until the cows come home."
What?!! :D These 'crisis management' Charlies are a hoot.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipod-itunes/news/index.cfm?olo=rss&NewsID=3232186
 
Well he is right in so much as the demand for iphones 4's has been rather high despite the problems.

I wait with interest to see what happens today. This sort of crisis was always going to happen to Apple one day,given their status these days, and their attitude towards information & communication. If they have a suitable solution that can be delivered within a reasonable timeframe then they will probably survive relatively unscathed, but the potential is there for more self-inflicted damage.

One reason why its hard to assess the real damage done is that, in addition to those who actually own the device and are suffering, a lot of the noise is coming from peple who have learnt to hate apple over a long period of time and this is their opportunity to give apple a good kicking.
 
Ah didn't know you could do it that way. I only upgraded to IOS4 yesterday and spent a considerable amount of time baffled and came up with that solution. Will try it when I get home.

I have found with ISO4 on my 3G, it takes a lot longer to wake up when locked and sometimes to close apps down. Anyone else found this? No a major problem though.

I'm sticking to my jailbroken 3.1.2 on the 3G, mainly as I want to properly unlock it when I get the 4. My missus needs an upgrade on her ericsson t610 :)

I've a memory indicator on the top bar, the 3G really struggles with memory, I can't run Spotify and run a browser for instance, well I can but eventually Safari will cause Spotify to quit. I look forward to the 4 coming out here in Holland - hopefully with that alleged coating on the antenna.
 
Does Spotify properly multitask on the new iPhone? I had it on my iPhone 3GS but it was a total waste of time.
 
I'm sticking to my jailbroken 3.1.2 on the 3G, mainly as I want to properly unlock it when I get the 4. My missus needs an upgrade on her ericsson t610 :)

I've a memory indicator on the top bar, the 3G really struggles with memory, I can't run Spotify and run a browser for instance, well I can but eventually Safari will cause Spotify to quit. I look forward to the 4 coming out here in Holland - hopefully with that alleged coating on the antenna.

OK. mine is not that bad but it is noticable. I am willing to trade off for the folders though.

A word of advice if you are giving you phone to your missus and it is on 02 - O2 take two weeks to unlock it :mad: (which I did not know at the time) so I have spent £150 on a phone I cannot make phone calls on for the next two weeks (though I can do everything else by WIFI if it is availiable)

Edited to say, just noticed you are on a Dutch network
 
Oh and I spent five hours trying to jailbreak my 3G yesterday using Sn0w soemthing or other, only to be faced each time with an itunes message (1604 - Error unknown) WTF? How can the error be unknown? :mad:

Gave up int he end
 
OK. mine is not that bad but it is noticable. I am willing to trade off for the folders though.

A word of advice if you are giving you phone to your missus and it is on 02 - O2 take two weeks to unlock it :mad: (which I did not know at the time) so I have spent £150 on a phone I cannot make phone calls on for the next two weeks (though I can do everything else by WIFI if it is availiable)

Edited to say, just noticed you are on a Dutch network

I'm going to do it myself - I want it to stay OS 3.1 as it works so well, I'm not even sure T-mobile will unlock it, if they do they'd probably upgrade it to 4...
Though I'm not sure how I'm going to sync it to her computer.
 
If you're on a 3GS maybe you should hold back from updating as it looks like things are going a bit wonky:

Apple fixes one iPhone bug as another appears

Apple has issued a fix for one problem with the iPhone as reports start to emerge of another bug.

But some users are reporting that an earlier update means their 3GS phones now drop far more calls than before...

At the same time some owners of the iPhone 3GS are reporting that an earlier update to the handset's operating system made their phone far more likely to drop calls.

The dropped calls occur when the phone suddenly reboots during a conversation.

The Apple support forum dealing with the problem now has more than 36 pages of comments attached to it. Apple has yet to give specific advice about this problem but many users report that restoring the phone's firmware fixes the trouble.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10659123
:facepalm:
 
Been thinking about this iPhone 4 reception press conference today, really can't see what they're going to do. Announcing a recall seems too far fetched but giving the bumper away free seems to small a gesture...
 
Been thinking about this iPhone 4 reception press conference today, really can't see what they're going to do. Announcing a recall seems too far fetched but giving the bumper away free seems to small a gesture...
I suspect bigger hole will be dug.

What would be nice is if they said yes we fucked up, sorry to have pissed you about, here's a bumper and £100 voucher and if you're still having problems come in a swap it for a replacement once the lacquer has dried.
 
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