Apple iPhone and related items (cont.)

[elbows]

Some people really did get that deluded.

What, deluded enough to think the phone was really the 2nd coming of Christ? No, rather plenty of people got overexcited about the phone hence the term Jesus Phone which takes the piss out of this phenomenon.

 

[editor]

What, deluded enough to think the phone was really the 2nd coming of Christ? No, rather plenty of people got overexcited about the phone hence the term Jesus Phone which takes the piss out of this phenomenon.

Give it a rest, FFS.

 

[stupid dogbot]

I didn't realise that the phrase 'death grip' to describe holding the phone in such a manner as to kill the signal was "infantile shite," to be honest. It seems quite an apt description to my eyes.

It's no less hyperbolic than "Jesus Phone", tbh.

9 months and counting and not a connection drop in sight.

 

[Sunray]

It's no less hyperbolic than "Jesus Phone", tbh.

9 months and counting and not a connection drop in sight.

Exactly, the main problem was buggy software cutting out when it thought it had lost the signal when it hadn't. This was fixed. Its still a technical issue if you lick your fingers squeeze in the points recommended to cause the issue but their position means it that does not happen very often. People with really sweaty palms are the ones it might effect more.

 

[elbows]

Give it a rest, FFS.

With pleasure.

 

[editor]

9 months and counting and not a connection drop in sight.

If you're in an area with low coverage the effect is very real. That's why the biggest non-profit, independent consumer testing site in the US still can't recommend the iPhone 4 to consumers. There's also ample real world reports of people suffering dropped calls because of this design flaw.

 

[editor]

Charlie Brooker doesn't like iTunes very much:

They make you feel good, Apple products. The little touches: the rounded corners, the strokeable screens, the satisfying clunk as you fold the Macbook shut – it's serene. Untroubled. Like being on Valium.

Until, that is, you try to do something Apple doesn't want you to do. At which point you realise your shiny chum isn't on your side. It doesn't even understand sides. Only Apple: always Apple.

Here's a familiar, mundane scenario: you've got an iPhone with loads of music on it. And you've got a laptop with a new album on it. You want to put the new album on your phone. But you can't hook them up and simply drag-and-drop the files like you could with, ooh, almost any other device. Instead, Apple insists you go through iTunes.

Microsoft gets a lot of stick for producing clunky software. But even during the dark days of the animated paperclip, or the infuriating ".docx" Word extension, they never shat out anything as abominable as iTunes – a hideous binary turd that transforms the sparkling world of music and entertainment into a stark, unintuitive spreadsheet.

Plug your old Apple iPhone into your new Apple Macbook for the first time, and because the two machines haven't been formally introduced, iTunes will babble about "syncing" one with the other. It claims it simply MUST delete everything from the old phone before putting any new stuff on it. Why? It won't tell you. It'll just cheerfully ask if you want to proceed, like an upbeat robot butler that can't understand why you're crying.

No one uses terms like "sync" in real life. Not even C3PO. If I sync my DVD collection with yours, will I end up with one, two, or no copies of Santa Claus the Movie? It's like trying to work out the consequences of time travel, but less fun, and with absolutely no chance of being adapted into a successful screenplay.

Apple's "sync" bullshit is a deception, which pretends to be making your life easier, when it's actually all about wresting control from you. If you could freely transfer any file you wanted onto your gadget, Apple might conceivably lose out on a few molecules of gold. So rather than risk that, they'll choose – every single time – to restrict your options, without so much as blinking.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/28/charlie-brooker-pfroblem-with-macs

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Yep, he's spot on there.

I'm starting to lean towards wanting an iPad for work as there's an awful lot of rather clever pro audio apps coming out at the moment, but it's the thought of having to use iTunes that's putting me off.

 

[stupid dogbot]

If you're in an area with low coverage the effect is very real. That's why the biggest non-profit, independent consumer testing site in the US still can't recommend the iPhone 4 to consumers. There's also ample real world reports of people suffering dropped calls because of this design flaw.

Same old "rarr, rarr, rarr".

I'll take your internet link over my own experience when the moon's made of cheese, tbh.

 

[paolo]

No problems for me either. And does anyone here give a flying f about Verizon handsets?

 

[editor]

Same old "rarr, rarr, rarr".

I'll take your internet link over my own experience when the moon's made of cheese, tbh.

Your phone may work fabulously well but it's a bit weird to suggest that no one else on the planet is suffering this well documented and scientifically proven phenomenon.

 

[Kanda]

Yep, he's spot on there.

I'm starting to lean towards wanting an iPad for work as there's an awful lot of rather clever pro audio apps coming out at the moment, but it's the thought of having to use iTunes that's putting me off.

You don't have to really use iTunes. Unless you want to back it up. I rarely plug mine in, apart from for backups. I get all my apps and stuff over wifi.

 

[fen_boy]

I've not had signal problems with mine either.

 

[stupid dogbot]

Your phone may work fabulously well but it's a bit weird to suggest that no one else on the planet is suffering this well documented and scientifically proven phenomenon.

Why bother to listen to the loads people you know telling you about their experiences (at least 3 right there!), when you can get reports from strangers who may have agendas off the internet, eh?

Fucking consipraloons, believe any old thing.

 

[Kanda]

I've not had signal problems with mine either.

Nor have I. But we've all said this before, we've all had this argument, why the fuck is it coming up AGAIN? Over a Verizon handset?

and as said:

What a load of bunk. Because a problem that *nobody is reporting* might exist?

 

[Crispy]

iTunes badly needs a rewrite/redesign. It's doing far too many tasks, and is version billion of rather old software. It is one of the few remaining apps for OSX that still uses the Carbon API (the one that made it easier to port OS9 apps over) instead of Cocoa (the nice new one) and still has all that cruft from when it was an OS9 app, which translates to the windows version which is just OSX itunes in a carbon wrapper. They need to seperate out the iDevice management and music library parts and make them separate apps IMO.

 

[stupid dogbot]

why the fuck is it coming up AGAIN? Over a Verizon handset?

Oh, I wonder...?

 

[Crispy]

You don't have to really use iTunes. Unless you want to back it up. I rarely plug mine in, apart from for backups. I get all my apps and stuff over wifi.

This is true. I have plugged my ipad into my computer less than 20 times.

 

[editor]

Why bother to listen to the loads people you know telling you about their experiences (at least 3 right there!), when you can get reports from strangers who may have agendas off the internet, eh?

Fucking consipraloons, believe any old thing.

Yes! They're all liars. The tests were faked. The user complaints are all false. The videos falsified. America's biggest independent consumer website is in on it too as is every other website that reported on the problem.

Because if unless something personally happens to you it can not exist.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

This is true. I have plugged my ipad into my computer less than 20 times.

Hmmm, maybe I need to look again then, but by the very nature of what I'd need to do with one I'd be moving audio files on and off it all the time.

Why couldn't I just drag and drop stuff? It seems like such a pointless pile of shite doing it via another program, especially one as bloated as iTunes. I hate software that does too many things. One application per task is the way things should be done in my world

 

[spacemonkey]

And underappreciated benefit of paying for spotify premium on the iPhone is that you never have to use iTunes. Well worth £10/month.

 

[stupid dogbot]

Yes! They're all liars. The tests were faked. The user complaints are all false. The videos falsified. America's biggest independent consumer website is in on it too as is every other website that reported on the problem.

Because if unless something personally happens to you it can not exist.

Nice choice of words to put into my mouth. Well done, that's exactly what I was saying, brains!

And again, nice job of coming across as independent and unbiased. I bet it really comes across in your other writing, too...

 

[editor]

And again, nice job of coming across as independent and unbiased. I bet it really comes across in your other writing, too...

I can see you're losing the argument here - after all, the only link I've posted up is to the US's biggest independent, non profit consumer site - but I'm quite surprised to see you stooping so low as to infer that I'm incapable of writing balanced articles professionally. And that's quite shameful stuff, really, so I'll leave you to it.

 

[fractionMan]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/28/charlie-brooker-pfroblem-with-macs

lol

 

[Kanda]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/28/charlie-brooker-pfroblem-with-macs

lol

You missed Editor posting this on the previous page?

 

[fractionMan]

I couldn't bear to read the smug iShit that's undoubtedly all over this thread

 

[elbows]

I have no problems with itunes myself, but I've run into plenty of people at work who fall foul of the syncing rules and get very confused about what is happening. Sadly I would think that the success of itunes store and app store make Apple unlikely to switch to a more progressive strategy of enabling device to show up as a standard storage device & let people drag&drop whatever they like.

Inability to sync itunes wirelessly sucks. Method for uploading/downloading files within itunes that other iOS apps can use is well clunky. Expect Apple to eventually improve some of this stuff but quite possibly via some cloud-based itunes stuff which will come with its own drawbacks.

 

[sim667]

Er..... I never had any problems with my iPhone when i got a new mac

But Ill tell you what, lets all sit around and slate a company because we've failed to ensure we have basic computer knowledge or done the research into the limitations of the hardware or the software that we're planning to use. I see this every day at work, on both mac and PC and it really grinds my gears.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Same old "rarr, rarr, rarr".

I'll take your internet link over my own experience when the moon's made of cheese, tbh.

Indeed or the many people I've known with iPhone 4 who've had not one problem.

No problems for me either. And does anyone here give a flying f about Verizon handsets?

Well quite, we seem to spend a lot of time talking about US consumer experience on here...

 

[Bungle73]

I've plugged my iPhone into new computers and iTunes has never insisted that everything on the phone is deleted (on a PC, but I see no reason why a Mac would be different). As long as you're using the same account it should work fine.

As for the word "sync", what else would you call it?

I don't think iTunes is as bad as some people make out. I've used it for a while now and hardly ever had a problem