Tip by Anonymous | Added 2010-07-26, 01:34 PM | 16 Replies

Anonymous writes:

So its been a while since I wrote my last editorial to Suregottold. Since then, a lot of things have happened with the iPhone and iPad. Both have resulted in typical disappointment.

Firstly, we'll start off with the iPhone. Before the antennagate discussion, let's dig down into some of the other issues.

Apple starts off by lobotomizing multitasking into a bastard child where you can access a few functions (unless you're Apple, in which case you can do whatever you want). This pokes a huge hole in the "charging $99 and screening apps prevents crap" argument. Even burying it in a submenu for power users to use with a hug bold disclaimer isn't good; if Apple thinks you're too dumb to use a feature right, you can't have it. Then iOS 4 is a power hungry update that bricks many 3Gs and greatly reduces battery life. Gorilla glass turns out to be easily breakable and scratchable. The retina display ships with many units having yellow spots, pointing to a sever lack of quality control.

Finally, we get to antennagate, a very serious issue which Steve Jobs downplays. Apple denies the problem for a long time before holding a press conference.

So Apple invites the media to a press conference that's allegedly to address the issues, and it starts off with a cheeky Youtube video telling the press that they're full of shit and making a mountain out of a non-existent molehill. At this point I knew that Steve wasn't going to recall the phone, although I had strongly suspected he would have avoided it anyways to try to p reserve the illusion that Apple can do no wrong (it just works, not to mention the bottom line).

So the press conference goes on and Apple goes on about how much they love and love their users, and how "smartphones have issues". This is when my bullshit meter hit full throttle. Then the trolling started with the "death grip" being shown on different phones.

Sure enough, Apple hires someone with gigantic hands to hold the phones in unintuitive fashions and show a signal reduction. In doing so Apple tried to make it out to be a minor problem that you can avoid if you don't hold the phone in a way that affects the antenna. In doing so, they tried to distract from a major point: Other phones are designed so that you don't block the antenna when you hold the phone in a fashion that can be remotely described as comfortable or natural.

Then Jobs continued to get more arrogant as the conference goes on. If Jobs thought he could avoid lawsuits no cases would have been given out, and he continued to be hostile and evasive throughout the rest of his conference. His comment about the Eminem band aid may have been the single dumbest thing I've ever heard. Of course, by saying how they'll reassess the issue in September and making snide remarks, Jobs distracted people from the real point that they're going to fix it in future productions of the current phone, which all of their factories will undoubtedly be doing by September (via nonconductive coating). By quietly rolling out the fix, Apple can avoid giving out cases on the new phones and dismiss the antenna problems as a nonissue (the coating prevents the attenuation), and they don't get crap from all the people who already bought iPhones.

Surprisingly, some of the media didn't fall for the RDF and called out Jobs for his arrogance. That made me happy. Then I saw Apple's quarterly profits and that they made record amounts of money. I can only hope that Apple's show of arrogance and lack of care for their users reflects in the next quarter (because the previous quarter was done before the press conference, when everyone thought Apple would actually fix the problem.

Now, onto the iPad.

iSuppli thinks Apple will ship about 13M iPads by years end. It's been called the "Tickle me Elmo of 2010". It's essentially printing money for Apple. Tech blogs and magazines can't stop raving about it.

Firstly, I'd like to state that Apple is in a great situation. The things are flying off of shelves. They get a cut of monthly data subscriptions. They've locked everyone into the App Store. They have a serious first movers advantage in the eyes of many, even though the tablet market is nothing new.

And denying that there is a market for internet appliances like the iPad is stupid. The market clearly exists. However, I wholeheartedly agree that, compared to a real computer, the iPad is a toy. And for $500, it's simply too much for me right now.

Yes, we all get envy of the iPad, watching this fly by and that app. I know a professional photographer who uses one to show photos to his clients and actually do some lightweight manipulation. I saw him take a normal photo of a city street under a train overpass and apply all sorts of effects via multitouch: blurring the background, dimming it and reducing the contrast to bring the only the road in focus. Such work would have taken quite a bit of time in Photoshop, and it was done in under a minute on the iPad.

And for all the wonderful things we can say about the iPad, there are many things that are alarming.

Apple is building up their rules regarding application coding and what tools you can use. They're trying to make smaller developers code for the iPhone platform only. iAds wastes bandwidth and time, and ultimately I anticipate Apple will choke out third party advertisers altogether, forcing them to work with Steve. By creating a platform investment for the dev, Apple is trying to get you to say "iOS has apps X, Y, and Z, I'll get that". Then you spend a ton of money on apps, books, and magazines, and you can't take them out of the walled garden. Better buy an iPad or the hundreds of dollars you spent might as well have been burned!

The device itself is prone to a variety of issues. As a magazine reader, it's probably best-in-class, but for regular reading, it's poor. I laughed yesterday as I read my nook on the beach and, after struggling with glare for ten minutes, the iPad owner found the lovely error message telling him he couldn't use the device until it cooled down. Not to mention how much easier e-ink is on the eyes.

It's not expandable. It has planned obsolescence (no removable battery). It has Wi-Fi issues. AT&T has now capped the data plans. It's fairly heavy. It's very fragile (the glass is thicker than the iPhone, but not enough relative to the increased size of the screen, so it is weaker).

Meanwhile, Conde Nast and others are looking to take content that is free for browsers and monetize it by charging iOS users for it (since you can't change the user agent or install external apps without jailbreaking, it is easily enforced).

The fact that jailbreaking is possible doesn't address the fundamental problem that the company who sells you the device is actively trying to prevent you from using it how you want. Many users are afraid to and Apple could take a more active stance against jailbreaking (suspending the iTunes accounts of jailbroken phones, denying warranty support after running checks in the background on a time delay like VAC so it's hard for hackers to determine if a jailbreak is complete and the process is either slowed or users get bitten, etc.)

No device is perfect, let's not deny that. However, the iPad is a feature limited device with a crippled OS. Let's wait for the devices to be more feature filled and affordable for their limited functionality (since trading off bells and whistles for ease of use becomes acceptable once it's priced like an appliance and not a much higher specced notebook), and let's pick an open OS where developers are not limited by the whims of Apple. In doing so, we won't shackle ourselves to Apple.

If you want an example of people doing so, look no further than the companies that coded apps for IE6 & ActiveX. Do you have any idea of the number of companies that mandate that IE6 is the only installed browser? Even Fortune 500 (and 100) companies? Many still use it on new images today. They can't move on because the pain of moving is so great. They pay every day because they locked themselves down onto a limited incompatible system.

At least the iPad does most of its functionality well, barring some serious Wi-Fi issues. The iPhone 4 is a sad, sad joke, and an example of Apple prioritizing aesthetics over functionality and reliability once again. Although nothing matches the level of sin that the hockey puck mouse was.

YFSGT accepts well-written on-topic editorials for publication via our feedback link.

Tip by Anonymous | Added 2010-07-19, 03:18 AM | 22 Replies

If you haven't watched this, it's probably worth your time.

In other news, there's also this one.

Tip by Anonymous, zoidberg | Added 2010-07-17, 06:13 PM | 17 Replies

Apple's attempt to draw RIM into Apple's self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple's claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public's understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple's difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage. One thing is for certain, RIM's customers don't need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple.

- Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie

Finally. At least someone is standing up to Apple's misleading propaganda machine.

Tip by Anonymous, Ilsambärd | Added 2010-07-16, 07:09 PM | 9 Replies

Yeah, we didn't do a liveblog. No, we didn't forget. Did we really need to do one? Who didn't see where this was going to end up?

Ok, so long story short: Apple trolled the shit out of a bunch of smartphones, insisted there was no problem with the iPhone 4, yet still ended up giving away a bunch of rubber bands to fix the nonexistent issue.

But not permanently. The offer ends September 30th, which is likely when the last batch of the defective first version of the iPhone 4 will be sold.

Said Jobs, "I'm not sure what you're after here, would you rather that we were Korean companies rather than American companies?"

Can we have a poll on that, Steve? And can we choose which Korea?