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iPhone 4 Reception Recall Ruckus Roundup
Readers today have been sending tons of stories about the iPhone 4, so here are a few of the highlights: Following the Consumers Reports announcement that the iPhone has antenna problems, Andy Patrizio asks if Apple can withstand the pressure to recall, while CNet estimates that a recall would cost them $1.5B. But that's just the latest on the iPhone 4 — the long running carrier exclusivity lawsuit rumors have been upgraded to Class Action status.
CNet estimates that a A recall would cost them $1.5B
It's not only that cost. In 3 days Apple's stock has gone down a huge 5%, costing Apple and their shareholders millions of dollars and creating huge image problems.
It also look like Apple's PR team completely messed up, from the "learn a new way to hold a phone" to removing of any critical comments from their support forums. Considering PR and marketing is one of Apple's strongest areas and which pushes everything they do forward, they did some incredibly stupid decisions.
Now that they are basically ignoring the problem, any more time they take doing nothing will cost them even more.
By the time they class action is done, all the customer is likely to see will be a $50 credit on their next iPhone.
the preceding post was not spell checked... suck it.
That puts the share price at a mere 177% of its value 1 year ago. Their investors must be pissed!
Look, I love Apple products. I own / have owned a MacBook Pro, 2 iMacs, an iPod 2G, an iPhone 3GS, an iPad, an Airport Express, and an iPod shuffle. I get it.
But, seriously Apple, you did a recall with the MacBook battery issue. You replaced batteries and even though it cost you some money your karma was helped by it. Do the same with the iPhone 4... offer owners a case which you test to make sure fixes the problem. It will probably cost you $20 per for these including shipping and processing assuming you can get the cases for $4 or so. But you will instantly shut up the majority of people who are complaining VERY loudly about the problem AND you will have "done the right thing".
NO company is capable of 100% preventing mistakes, but it's how you act as a company that determines how you're perceived. You can be cool and hip all you want but if customers are afraid to purchase your products because you've stuck to your guns and forced lawsuits to happen you lose in the long run.
Having a bumper would be a wart. Apple clearly has style in the forefront of their minds when they design a mobile device; it is part of their brand image. Anything interrupting the sleekness of the product would tarnish perception of the company. It would be a constant physical reminder of a flaw.
I think it is most likely in Apple's best interest to get new phones out to people with a redesigned antenna solution.
Freedom isn't free, and by buying and jailbreaking an iPhone you financially support Apple's douchebaggery and encourage the development of more crippled, locked down systems, perhaps with more effective jails.
Why do that when you can have an Android phone which you're encouraged to hack on, with real multi-tasking and an open source OS?
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Currency issues aren't why the US invaded Iraq. Nor was it for oil, though that helped to motivate people for the invasion. The real reason is the most banal imaginable and it is the reason that most wars are started: they thought it would be easy. This is why they didn't think or plan the invasion. They knew Iraq had no friends, and they thought they could easily place a major American presence in the area that would stabilize the Middle East. And they thought that Iraq and al Qaeda were linked (yes, I know it is stupid, but they couldn't grasp the concept that al Qaeda has more in common with the Mob than a country). That's it. There were no master plans. There were just yes-men, knee-jerk reactions, and an unwillingness to question bad decisions (or even acknowledge them).
Think of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc., as a corporate board and it will be easier to grasp.
No, you're not better informed. The SDR, even if the UN starts using it, will be phased in over a long period to maintain stability. In addition, it WOULD include a USD component, just as it does now (currently, the SDR uses USD, EUR, GBP, and CNY -- 44%, 34%, 11%, 11% respectively).
The question is how the basket for the SDR will be changed to include more less developed nations.
At any rate, the USD will continue to be a major component of the world's reserve currency (which, even in the worst-case scenario for Americans, would still have the USD as the largest component, since it will be based on GDP [specifically, adjustments to the value based on inflation vs. change in GDP]. So the only thing that would collapse the value of the dollar is a collapse of the US economy... which, in your logic, is predicated on a collapse of the currency. That's circular logic.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
I've seen videos from Wired and Engadget of picking up the phone and letting it rest comfortable in your hand where the signal goes from 4 bars to No Signal.
Even the most ardent Pro-Apple sites have confirmed in their testing that this is a serious problem.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
I was about to wonder about your problems till I saw that last part...you're running iTunes on Windows?
I've run all of this on a mac (older one granted, a G5 Tower I got cheap)...and no problems at all. I'd dare say if you run Apple stuff on Apple products...9 times out of 10, it does just work. Mixing MS windows in the equation is likely asking for trouble.
Oh, so it only crashes, erases songs, etc for 90% of their customers. THAT'S PRETTY GOOD!!! [/sarcasm, if you couldn't tell]
The shitty quality of iTunes and Quicktime on Windows is simply inexcusable. *Especially* since they have other applications, like Safari, that run quite well on Windows. Hell, even is Windows was the one with the 5% marketshare, it would *still* be inexcusable.
iTunes, by virtue of its scummy buggy-ass drivers and services, is the *only* application I've seen on Windows 7 that can still lock-up completely unrelated applications. (In my case, World of Warcraft locked-up for a solid 4 minutes while iTunes was updating my phone's firmware. Figure THAT one out!)
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