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An Unprecedented Look At Apple's "Black Labs"
An anonymous reader writes "Apple recently granted ABC Nightline unprecedented access to its secretive 'black labs' where it puts upcoming products through exhaustive testing."
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Maybe their testing isn't, exactly, "exhaustive".
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Just too easy... does exhaustive testing include: HOLDING THE PHONE?
Apparently not.
Apparently, their exhaustive testing doesn't actually include using the product.
Where Apple tests for flaws in other phones to justify the flaws in their own phones.
Similes are like metaphors
where it puts upcoming products through exhaustive testing
Does that involve letting Apple fanboys and Apple haters handle the devices, just to be sure they can make sufficiently outrageous claims about the product?
Living With a Nerd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq6sjH1W7hA
ABC is owned by Disney. Steve Jobs owns 138 million Disney shares or about $4.7bn worth of stock. Anyone else think it odd that Disney is running a puff piece for one of its major shareholders?
Never email donotemail@WeAreSpammers.com
where's the video that I am allowed to watch ?
Video of the "unprecedented look" is hosted on Hulu, which allows only US viewers.
Racists! ;-)
I wonder how much it costs to get your damage-limiting press release videos on to national television?
Apple are the brand that never make any mistakes. EXCEPT WHEN THEY DO. But that's because everybody makes mistakes, not just Apple.
It's important to know: all phones are susceptible to the "death grip"... it's just a tiny minor detail, not really worth mentioning, that the iPhone 4 "death grip" is "holding it normally in your left hand".
Does my bum look big in this?
Ugh, Video is from Hulu and is region restricted.
Except Steve will have you shot in the head if you don't do what he says, instead of just turning you into a blueberry.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Cute dogs always makes people happy.
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
OMG, when will the Apple spin machine take a fricking rest? Secretive "black labs?" Sure they aren't killer canines?
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
Living in the past and breaking the international web with your territory blocking BS. Screw Hulu
What's so secret and special about testing labs that don't work and fail to test for common usage patterns like left handed people?
Don't google the phrase "I'll be in my lab" with image search.
...waterboard/torture room where they jog the memory of people who lose or misplace their prototypes?
Apple are currently having manufacturing challenges with the white labs, but they'll be available to the public later this year.
No left turn unstoned.
They can't let fanboys handle the devices, because then they have to run them through the autoclave and that messes up the electronics.
You are welcome on my lawn.
And yet they still miss obvious bugs in design. Now, I'm an Apple hater, I admit it, I will never buy an Apple or encourage someone to do so. I don't imagine anyone would change their opinion about Apple after seeing their testing chamber that may or may not have been set up on the fly for the purposes of marketing.
iburnaga.blogspot.com
I think it's QC, not R&D. An Apple store recently opened near me so I got to play with some iPhone4's for a while in the store, and I might go back because I found some interesting things. Two iPhone4's right next to each other, one dropped to 0 bars in the store within 30 seconds of merely touching the antenna gap, the other one dropped 2 bars after a couple minutes of death gripping it. There was NO discernable exterior difference in the phones. I even scratched at the metal to try to see any noticeable polyvinyl coating on one v the other. At that point, the third "Genius" in a matter of 90 seconds asked if I needed any help, so I began to feel awkward poking at the phone (it was very busy in the store).
I would not be surprised if one manufacturing plant in China has a poor Quality Control or Quality Assurance division that just is not doing their job. I've seen pictures of iPhones with reversed volume controls on the side, and this lends to that explanation, and to Apple's personal assurances that they've thoroughly tested these phones. A coating of some sort should be sufficient to abrogate any conductivity, and it does not make sense that Apple did not think of that. I might return and take a look at the batch numbers on the back of the iPhones I played with in the store. I'm still not buying one, because I have no idea if I'm going to get one that works or one that does not, and I'm not playing games with the return people. By the time they get it sorted out, if ever, the Next Big Thing will probably be out. I still own the original iPhone, because nothing has seemed worth the upgrade yet.
...with 3 steely fingers do the usability tests
Shouldn't there also be white labs, as they make their products in both black and white? Sorry, I just couldn't resist.
This is not a defense of Apple, but a statement about how large corporations work. I seriously doubt that the videos were completely faked. As with anything, the results can be spun or manipulated, but there has to be a least a shred of truth, or the lawyer attack dogs would be out by now.
Apple basically called out every single smartphone developer and said "you all suck too!" and posted videos to "prove" it. Those companies all responded so far with nothing but the same tired PR statements. If Apple was actually slandering these other phones and faked the results entirely, I'm sure these companies would love to have some extra cash plus a chance to smear one of their biggest competitors.
Now, Apple's video proof is mostly annecdotal since it's one phone and one hand. Yours is too, however. I know people who say they can't make the Apple Antenna issue happen on the iPhone 4, and I see videos on Youtube posted both before and after the iPhone 4 that point out signal loss issues with other smartphones. All of this evidence is, again, annecdotal.
From a scientific standpoint, you have to admit Apple's doing a good job of basically trying to throw a bunch of "proof" out there and making people pick thru it. It stirs in just enough doubt to make everyone stop and think. The hard core haters and fanboys won't change their mind, but this is like election politics, it's not about swaying everyone, just trying to tilt the balance in their favor.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
i get the impression that apple want people to feel the coolness of brushed metal directly. Observe the metal back of the first iphone (before they found it to affect signal quality, and changed to plastic) and the ipad. Its almost as if its a company fetish.
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
I like how Apple only shows/tells us what it wants us to know/think.
Call of Duty: Black Labs
They did not show Sector C Test Labs & Control Facilities.
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
A top-secret photo of the Black Labs is here
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Its not like we have a free market of numerous equal competitors trying to push commodities in the media world.
Of course there's a free market: all of these companies were free to consolidate.
It would actually take a non-free market to fix things: you'd have to create rules about ownership limits to stop conglomerates from forming and to force the break up of current ones.
...perpetrated by THE MAN, to keep a brotha down. How come there's no "white" labs of even "redman" labs? Imma fast on to the fact that the WHITE MAN uses these labs to perpetrate, incarcerate and incinerate the soul of the strong colored man for his nefarious machinations. NEVER FORGET! NEVER FORGET!
You will NEVER own me, white man.