Apple's Solution For The iPhone 'Death Grip': Free Cases

[lino]

A defiant Steve Jobs argued that the brouhaha over the iPhone 4's so-called death grip has been "blown so out of proportion, it's incredible." Still, in an effort to make every iPhone customer happy, Apple (as expected) will hand out free cases — either Apple's $29 Bumpers or a "choice" of third-party cases — for any iPhone 4 users who wants one.

Jobs didn't admit that there was anything wrong with the new iPhone's external antenna design — indeed, he called the new iPhone "perhaps the best product" Apple's ever made — but he conceded that perhaps the lack of cases for the redesigned iPhone might have something to do with complaints about iffy reception.

Users who already have an Apple Bumper case can apply for a refund, Jobs said, adding that anyone who wants to return a new iPhone 4 for a full refund can do so within 30 days, without a restocking fee. Apple will continue handing out free cases until Sept. 30, at which point it will "re-evaluate" the situation.

Jobs kicked off the news conference by defending the iPhone 4 as "perhaps the best product we've ever made at Apple," noting that more than 3 million new iPhones had been sold in just three weeks and that it has the “highest customer satisfaction rating” of any previous iPhone model. “Users seem to love it.”

“Antennagate" (as Jobs called it) is not unique to the iPhone 4, Apple's CEO continued. He then proceeded to show videos of how phones such as the BlackBerry Bold 9700, the HTC Droid Eris and the Samsung Omnia II all began dropping bars when gripped. “Phones aren’t perfect. It’s a challenge for the whole industry.”

Jobs then touted Apple’s “state of the art,” $100 million testing facility, complete with 17 “anechoic” chambers staffed by 18 PhD-holding scientists and engineers, before claiming that just 0.55 percent of iPhone 4 users had called Apple to complain about reception problems, while only 1.7 percent of AT&T customers had returned their new phones (compared with 6 percent for the iPhone 3GS). “This is not a large number. This doesn’t jibe with what you read.”

Still, Jobs did concede that the iPhone 4 drops more calls than last year's 3GS — but only a little less than one additional call per hundred, he claimed.

"Even less than one" additional dropped call "is too much for us," Jobs went on, adding that he has his own "pet theory": that because of the iPhone 4's all-new design, only 20 percent of customers left the store with new cases, compared with (he claims) 80 percent for previous iPhone models.

During a question-and-answer period after the briefing, Jobs denied that he'd been warned in advance of possible iPhone 4 reception problems, and said a recent Bloomberg story containing the claim was a "crock."

Jobs said Apple was "stunned and embarrassed" by Consumer Reports' decision to withhold a recommendation for the iPhone 4 after duplicating the reception problem in a lab. He said Apple decided to wait till now before going into more detail about the iPhone's reception issues because "we didn't know enough" before.

Reception problems have been dogging the iPhone 4 pretty much since the day of its release, with many users complaining that the iPhone's signal bars drop out if they hold the phone near the lower left corner. It didn't take long before wireless experts blamed the iPhone's redesigned antenna, which is built into the stainless steel band that rings the phone.

Apple claims the new design gives the iPhone 4 the best overall reception of any previous iPhone. But experts believe that when a tiny gap on the lower left side of the phone that separates the two segments of the iPhone antenna is "bridged" by a hand, reception problems are sure to follow.

Adding fuel to the fire was Steve Jobs himself, who told a handful of iPhone 4 users over e-mail that they could avoid reception problems if they'd "just avoid holding that way."

Apple initially tried to explain away the complaints by blaming the iPhone's "totally wrong" signal display algorithm, which it claimed was showing too many bars of reception in low-signal areas. A patch to fix the issue came out Thursday.

But if anything, the controversy over the iPhone 4 "death grip" only intensified after Apple's initial announcement, culminating earlier this week when Consumer Reports (which initially posted a positive review of the iPhone) said it had proved in a lab that the "death grip" was real and would therefore not be recommending the (otherwise highly rated) handset.

On Thursday, both Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal claimed that Steve Jobs may have known as early as last year that the iPhone 4's new design could lead to reception problems, but decided to plunge ahead with the new look anyway. Apple flatly denied the reports.

Update: In an earlier version of this post, I wrote that Jobs was "unapologetic" during his iPhone remarks Friday. In fact, he did say during the Q&A that he was "deeply sorry" if any customers were affected by reception problems.


Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ytech_gadg/ytech_gadg_tc3144

[ADDirishboy]

LOL.

IB4AppleFanbois

[wingFeather]

Apple is such FAIL

[Jesda]

Cool. A cell phone thread.

[MinisterofDOOM]

A defiant Steve Jobs argued that the brouhaha over the iPhone 4's so-called death grip has been "blown so out of proportion, it's incredible."

I agree. It's a joke. The media is full of retards who don't know what they're talking about complaining about this problem that they don't understand. STFU. I heard one guy on the radio claiming Consumer Report's suggested fix was to duct tape an extra antenna onto the phone. WTF?! Are we playing the telephone game here? Where the hell is this crap coming from?

Still, the press conference was irritating.

[S14Kouki10]

iphone ftl.
evo 4g FTW!

[wingFeather]

evo 4g FTW!

AMEN! I am considering getting one... even if it means leaving my amazing $15/month plan Decisions, decisions...

[infinitgkid]

I guess I'm the only one that isn't having any problems with my phone?

I'm special. Yay...!

[Beancooker]

iphone ftl.
evo 4g FTW!

I have one. It rocks. Has a ton of apps, most of which are not necessary for me. I have about 10 installed. No complaints. Battery life was suppose to suck ballz, but if you run the advanced task killer at aggressive and set to auto kill every 30 minutes, it lasts for 24-36 hours depending on usage.

[BusyBadger]

but if you run the advanced task killer at aggressive and set to auto kill every 30 minutes, it lasts for 24-36 hours depending on usage.

ATK is one app that should come pre-installed on all Android based phones. It's great for maximizing battery life. Screebl is another nice addition to the stable.

Back on topic - this is the worst PR screwup I've seen Apple make. If they would have given the cases away at the start they would have looked great (despite the crap antenna design). As it is Jobs had to give them away on two counts: 1) The class action talk kept getting louder and louder and 2) Even the most hardcore Apple geeks weren't going to pony up $29 for a case on a phone that didn't work properly from the start - Giving them away was the only way Job Co was going to un-a** these things.

And no one should buy Apple's continued denial of the antenna issue. At least not after this. Coincidence? Yeah, right.

[MinisterofDOOM]

but if you run the advanced task killer at aggressive and set to auto kill every 30 minutes, it lasts for 24-36 hours depending on usage.

ATK is one app that should come pre-installed on all Android based phones. It's great for maximizing battery life. Screebl is another nice addition to the stable.

Eh...

Task killers are a workaround, not a solution. I could go on and on and on and on on the topic, but I'll summarize instead:
Basically, Android has very intelligent and effective memory management built right in. No one should EVER need or want a task manager or even really think about memory usage...in theory. But that only holds true when programmers code properly. And lots of Android applications are poorly coded.

If you carry the problems over to Windows for the sake of comparison...when Firefox 2 was having memory leak problems, everyone didn't blame Windows. It was a Firefox 2 problem.

If you're careful/smart about what you install on your phone and how you exit programs (using the Home button doesn't always CLOSE processes, but using Back generally does) there is NO need for any kind of task manager.

A much better option is to run OSMonitor, and keep an eye on the tasks and processes that are misbehaving, then get rid of them. Usually there will be an alternative by another dev available for you to try instead. OSmonitor even allows for a Windows taskman-style CPU usage graph on the statusbar.

When I first bought my G1, I installed a task manager and was really picky about what it closed, what it ignored, all the settings. Then I did some reading on Android's inbuilt memory management and learned that all I was really doing was duplicating what Android already did. I uninstalled my task manager software and kept an eye on resource use battery life. Once I got rid of a couple of needy programs and widgets (some of which I liked, but not enough to see my battery life HALVED) my battery life went right back to where it was with aggressive task manager setup.

http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-u ... h-android/
http://www.androidcentral.com/how-prope ... went-there

Another thing for HTC phone users to look into is home replacements. Use something like ADW or Zeam and you can probably save some battery life over Sense.

[Urabus GodofTraction]

My Droid X is getting two days of moderate to heavy use out of a charge. Granted, I haven't tried tethering, and my use rarely includes bluetooth or GPS, but it's leagues better than my old G1.

It's also fast as f*** and beautiful to look at. Motorola builds a better phone than HTC.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Galaxy S > DroidX and Evo. Plus it doesn't have idiot bootloader lockdowns.

[Urabus GodofTraction]

Galaxy S > DroidX and Evo. Plus it doesn't have idiot bootloader lockdowns.

Yeah, I walked into the Verizon store and asked about their supply of Galaxy Seseses... oddly enough, they didn't have a single one! So I went to call another Verizon store on my T-Mobile G1, but I'll be damned, T-Mobile doesn't work here in Omaha!

The eFuse thing, while troublesome, will probably prove to be about as much trouble as it was with the Droid... pretty much non-existent. Already it's come out that it won't actually brick your phone, which is window enough for the likes of people like Cyanogen (who is on record saying that it'll just be a matter of time before it's cracked).

But yeah, the Glaxy S looks cool. But I waited for the Next Big Thing after the Droid, I waited for the Next Big Thing after the EVO 4G, and I waited for the Next Big Thing after the Incredible. Then I moved to Omaha, where my G1 is next to unusable, and decided that I could keep waiting for the Next Big Thing after the Droid X, then the Next Big Thing after the Galaxy, and so on and so forth, or I could buy the best phone on the market right now.

My big issue with both phones is the "NinjaBlur" for the X and the TouchWiz for the Galaxy. Why, respective companies, do you even bother? If it wasn't for that, both phones could receive Froyo over the air already, like the Nexus One! And Motorola's skin, while not as terrible as the weird enGadget review makes it seem, is different enough one of my first downloads was LauncherPro, which brings the skin more inline with the Nexus One I played around with.

[Beancooker]

Eh...

Task killers are a workaround, not a solution. I could go on and on and on and on on the topic, but I'll summarize instead:
Basically, Android has very intelligent and effective memory management built right in. No one should EVER need or want a task manager or even really think about memory usage...in theory. But that only holds true when programmers code properly. And lots of Android applications are poorly coded.

If you carry the problems over to Windows for the sake of comparison...when Firefox 2 was having memory leak problems, everyone didn't blame Windows. It was a Firefox 2 problem.

If you're careful/smart about what you install on your phone and how you exit programs (using the Home button doesn't always CLOSE processes, but using Back generally does) there is NO need for any kind of task manager.

A much better option is to run OSMonitor, and keep an eye on the tasks and processes that are misbehaving, then get rid of them. Usually there will be an alternative by another dev available for you to try instead. OSmonitor even allows for a Windows taskman-style CPU usage graph on the statusbar.

When I first bought my G1, I installed a task manager and was really picky about what it closed, what it ignored, all the settings. Then I did some reading on Android's inbuilt memory management and learned that all I was really doing was duplicating what Android already did. I uninstalled my task manager software and kept an eye on resource use battery life. Once I got rid of a couple of needy programs and widgets (some of which I liked, but not enough to see my battery life HALVED) my battery life went right back to where it was with aggressive task manager setup.

http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-u ... h-android/
http://www.androidcentral.com/how-prope ... went-there

Another thing for HTC phone users to look into is home replacements. Use something like ADW or Zeam and you can probably save some battery life over Sense.

It is a company phone, so it was the EVO or the Samsung Moment, Easy choice.

I'd root the phone, but it is a work phone.

[krash]

It's also fast as f*** and beautiful to look at. Motorola builds a better phone than HTC.

Its the size of Canada. Which was the dealbreaker for me. My Incredible is the perfect size. If the X was a bit smaller, I'd take the Incredible in today to trade. The Droid X does have some crazy stuff on it though.

[tiger-SE-R]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg[/youtube]

NSFW

I know that has pry been posted before but it's funny

[Alfador]

The notion of defending Apple on this or calling it blown out of proportion is laughably absurd. Bottom line is the company had a serious defect in its flaship product, and outright denied it. Not only did they deny it but they blamed it on user error. Even in issuing a fix, and then another fix, they continued to deny it. Somewhere in the course of denying it, and before offering the fix, they specifically instructed their retail partners and employees to deny it, and gave them written instructions on how to give customers the runaround.

If the iPhone existed on another carrier besides AT&T, I may have actually gotten a 3G or 3Gs, but no matter what, I don't think I would ever have bought an iPhone 4 with the known level of s*** Jobs and Co. managed to spew on this one, and I don't know if I'll ever even consider the company again. I've had too many bad experiences with customer service at companies trying to screw me.

My wonder is what happened to the people who already returned their phones and paid the 10% restocking fee prior to Apple's announcement.

Of course the Fanboys will keep on marching, and the sheep will keep on buying, because of the Apple name. You could tell people that the phone sprayed them in the face with battery acid every time they tried to connect to the internet, and they'd still buy it because it was an iPhone.

As for android phones... I wish they'd all just use the stock interface. Blur, Sense, and the like aren't bad, but they don't really add anything you can't get with basic widgets, and they slow down the update chain big time.

[PoorManQ45]

I find it funny that they are surprised that much fewer people bought cases for the iPhone 4 then the 3GS. Of course they didn't buy a case. The entire phone is covered in glass to be displayed!

[poems2beats]

iphone ftl.
evo 4g FTW!

x69
Im on my Evo like 24/7(I'm actually posting on Nico with my phone). So I usually have to charge my phone in between school and work... Otherwise I'm very happy with this phone. So glad I ditched my 3Gs...

[PoorManQ45]

Are you using Swype?

I'm using it on my MyTouch. It takes a little bit of getting used to and it has to learn how you Swipe, but it's really fast after a couple days.

[AZhitman]

I haz HTC Incredible.

Reafing this thread, I feel like a techtard... Actually, using my phone, I feel like a techtard. Awww, screw it - I AM a techtard.

I need to look into some of what Chris was talking about above - My battery life is about 14 hours... unfortunately, my "workday" runs 18-20 hours (most days).

[numbnuts240]

I haz HTC Incredible.

Reafing this thread, I feel like a techtard... Actually, using my phone, I feel like a techtard. Awww, screw it - I AM a techtard.

technologically inept UNITE!!!!!!!

[krash]

I haz HTC Incredible.

Reafing this thread, I feel like a techtard... Actually, using my phone, I feel like a techtard. Awww, screw it - I AM a techtard.

I need to look into some of what Chris was talking about above - My battery life is about 14 hours... unfortunately, my "workday" runs 18-20 hours (most days).

yea, battery life is a killer. Theres a widget thats pre-installed in the phone called powerbar or something. its a quick way to turn off bluetooth, wifi, mobile network, etc power. That and getting rid of the live wallpaper has done some good.

[wingFeather]

Eh...

Task killers are a workaround, not a solution.

... but still better than APPLE's stuff.

[PoorManQ45]

YeOne huge thing, do not use live wallpaper! It has been found to take something like ~20% of your total battery life. It's cool, but power hungry

[PoorManQ45]

I would recommend creating an account over at XDA and downloading SetCPU for free.

The biggest thing is to underclock the CPU when the phone is sleeping/standby. I've noticed my average battery life increased like 2~4 hours on my Mytouch with regular use, and about 2 days if it's sitting idle.

[AZhitman]

That and getting rid of the live wallpaper has done some good.

What is it and how do I remove it?

[poems2beats]

YeOne huge thing, do not use live wallpaper! It has been found to take something like ~20% of your total battery life. It's cool, but power hungry

My Mario Live wallpaper is ALMOST worth the 20% or so battery life... I get tons of compliments on it.

[Urabus GodofTraction]

I would recommend creating an account over at XDA and downloading SetCPU for free.

The biggest thing is to underclock the CPU when the phone is sleeping/standby. I've noticed my average battery life increased like 2~4 hours on my Mytouch with regular use, and about 2 days if it's sitting idle.

Unless I'm missing something, SetCPU is for rooted phones only. Are you telling an admitted technophobe to root his cellphone?