27
Jul
2010
Data Roaming Charges Skyrocket for iPhone Users
It seems that Apple has placed in some functions on the iPhone that are leaving users with unexpectedly large bills due to data roaming charges.
A recent report indicates that iPhone users are the most susceptible to having large bills after leaving the country due to data roaming charges on the handset. According to the consumers, they have used the phone setting that would disable the data roaming function. Despite this, the Apple smart phone apparently was still able to use the function. As to what data was exactly gathered by the handset was, it is still unknown.
Smart phones are able to access the web automatically if the user permits it. Settings easily toggle web access for users and mostly, this is used for live status updates for social networking tools, incoming emails and application updates and other functions. However, due to the naturally high cost of data roaming charges, it is often advised that users turn off these features until they get back to the UK.
However, as stated above, local iPhone users who have spent time outside the country and have disabled the network function are still being charged high costs on their mobile phone bills.
The good thing for most people is that networks seem to be already aware of the problem and are willing to assist their subscribers. While bills will not automatically be recalculated for everyone, those who do step forward to discuss the issue would be happy to know that there are very few complications with having the excess amounts dropped or even refunded if the amount has already been paid (or in some cases, instead of a refund, a rebate).
It is interesting that there is no mobile network operator that seems interested in coming forward to discuss the issue openly with iPhone owning subscribers.
23
Jul
2010
Post Antennagate: Apple’s Low Stocks are Good
Apple, and Steve Jobs, may have the meanest reputations in the mobile phone industry, but there is no doubt in the sheer marketability of Apple’s devices. Considering how much Apple’s sales are continuing to increase, some are speculating that even if the iPhone 5 was made out of cardboard, it would still hit over 2 million unit sales in a week.
Joking aside, the sales performance of Apple has recently been released and it shows that the company is practically selling most of the handsets that they are making. In fact, Apple stated that the low stocks that retailers are complaining about are a good thing: it means that the devices are being sold faster than expected.
At this point, it is hard to believe any statement that comes directly from Apple –after all, they have stated that the antenna issue is not unique to the iPhone 4 and that other handsets have it too, with a straight face.
Tim Cool, the current chief operating officer for Apple has stated that the Cupertino based company is easily selling devices as they are being made. The demand for the device is up and they are ‘seeing fewer returns than the iPhone 3Gs’. Steve Jobs gave a similar statement last Friday; it seems that Apple’s new motto is to remind people that less iPhone 4 owners are taking up the return policy. This however, does not reflect the number of actual owners who are unhappy with their handsets.
At the same time, Apple has also stated that the shortages are not being done in order to create a buzz. And in this case, we believe Apple. There is no point trying to cause further publicity for devices and gadgets that are literally flying off the shelves. In fact, considering how bad things got after the antennagate conference ended, Apple should be selling every phone they can before people start wizening up.
22
Jul
2010
Microsoft: People Do Not Want Multitasking
It is interesting to have a quick insight into the opinions that developers may have sometimes. And this is not one of those times.
There is nothing interesting about Microsoft’s senior product manager telling the world that multitasking is not what the end users want. While it is true that running multiple programs would slow down any mobile phone and plenty of importance is placed on the overall performance of the handset –that is a decision for a user to make.
But for the option to be taken away, Microsoft is obviously asking for trouble.
Apple has already been through a couple of years’ worth of fans and users demanding that multitasking be added to the iPhone OS. It may have taken them until just recently to relent, but in the end, they did. And this is because people want multitasking. Besides, no credible tech critic would put down a phone for slowing down when it is running several apps at once.
Microsoft’s fears about the performance have no basis, people running multiple apps know what they are doing. Of course, it would be nice if MS’ app handling allows users to easily shut down or simply place an app in the background instead.
Multitasking is not the only feature missing from Windows Phone 7. Cut and paste is also not present –making things a whole lot worse. Not only are these two features important, but it feels like Microsoft is planning to follow every single mistake that Apple made with the iPhone –instead of allowing recent tech history to give them a lesson.
For some strange reason, Microsoft’s tech teams have decided that they need to go through the issues firsthand before learning anything at all. Anyway, the new Windows Phone 7 OS is expected to be launched this coming September, a full month ahead of the originally announced October launch.
20
Jul
2010
RIM Takes Offense at Apple’s Presentation
We all know that Apple has been grasping at straws for quite some time. After all, they have been knee deep in problems for the past 22 days looking for a solution to the Apple iPhone 4 antenna issues.
Well, that is what Apple wants the world to believe anyway, but it is really difficult to accept that after more than three weeks worth of careful analysis and study, the most they can say is that they will be giving away free cases for Apple iPhone 4 users. That is not good, in fact, that is just downright silly –it should not take more than a couple of days for a company of that size and scale to state that they will be giving out bumpers for free.
In any case, it seems that the public is not the only ones with a beef with Apple, mobile phone manufacturer RIM is also quite unhappy with what happened last Friday night regarding the iPhone 4’s antenna issues.
Apparently, the demonstration showed off other mobile phones that “seemed” to have antenna problems. Actually, it is a well established fact that if held in unique ways, some mobile phones will lose signal. But the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is not going to drop a call just because it was held wrong –a user would need to intentionally position their hands around the antenna to block the call.
RIM’s co-CEOs are not too happy about the whole thing either. They stated that the demonstration is an insult to the long legacy that the BlackBerry brand has established and that they have been “designing industry-leading wireless data products” and have been “avoiding designs” similar to the iPhone 4’s antenna.
Of course, the big clincher in RIM’s reply would be this, “One thing is for certain, RIM’s customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity”.
19
Jul
2010
Apple Calls for Conference After Stock Values Drop
According to a recent new article, Apple’s stock value has taken a dive after a magazine article wrote a scathing review about how Apple failed to fix the antenna issue that plagues the iPhone 4 and how they simply chose to ignore the hardware problem and simply release a small graphical update to the signal strength meter in order to distract the public from the real issue.
However, the antenna problem is all too real and far too prevalent to ignore. While it was easy to just shrug off the big yellow blobs that were on the new iPhone handsets (caused by the screen adhesive not drying properly) since the problem would actually fix itself after several days of using the handset, the antenna’s bad design still remains.
It is a commonly accepted fact that if a mobile phone is held in a certain way, it can be made to lose a couple or so bars of signal. This could mean having to hold the entire back of a device, holding it upside down, cupping the top and bottom with both palms and many other bizarre ways of holding a mobile phone. This however, is the very first instance that a handset would lose signal simply because the user is using the left hand –according to reports, holding up the device with the left hand to take a call is likely to place a finger on that part of the antenna that is exposed.
It was not surprising to know that Apple’s stock shares dropped after all of these were brought to public light. What was even worse was the fact that Apple refused to admit: that the only real solution to the problem is to initiate a recall of all handsets. Apple may have been proud of their extremely high sales, but a recall works against that: with over 1.7 million units out there, Apple will need to shell out almost a billion pounds to properly recall all the devices.
16
Jul
2010
Apple iPhone 4: Too Costly to Recall
Apple is willing to risk their public reputation by admitting the fault with the iPhone 4, but they are far from taking in a major financial blow just to have all existing devices repaired. Already, there are at least 1.7 million iPhone 4 handsets already out in the market. And that number does not include the devices that are still in shipping or are currently in stock across retailers and online stores all over the world.
However, a major design flaw in the device exists: the antenna was not designed properly. According to many owners of the iPhone 4, there is a strong possibility for calls to be dropped if the user accidentally touches a portion of the metallic band around the edge of the device during a call. Touching this specific spot will cause the handset to lose all reception.
While there are various solutions that other users are offering, Apple is staying neutral about the whole thing refusing to offer anything more than a software update that would alter the way the handset displays the signal strength meter. As for actually coming out with a fix for the hardware, there is still plenty left to be done.
A recall would cost Apple a total of 980 million Pounds. That is far more than any company would be willing to shell out for recalls –especially on a global scale. This also means that the parts to be repaired would need to be replaced by Apple for free as well.
In the meanwhile, it seems that Apple is losing ground over this matter. In the past couple of days, the stock value of Apple has gone down significantly, a significant development for Apple as the company has been continuously growing over the years. While Apple will not be taking any iPhones back, expect to see other solutions being offered in the days to come.
13
Jul
2010
Apple’s iPhone 4 is Hot, Literally
While the Apple iPhone 4 has been plagued with a wide range of problems and issues with the touch screen display, antenna and more, it seems that the number of things that could go wrong is almost endless. For now, however, we can relax a little bit. While this next news update is one that once again outlines something that is wrong with the iPhone, it does not apply to all units.
According to various sources, a newly purchased Apple iPhone 4 was purchased, hooked up to a computer, and suddenly went on fire. It seems that the USB port was the main source of the heat which quickly spread through the whole metal band surrounding the device. The whole phone did not burn, though the USB port was damaged (thus rendering the device unusable), and the USB cable was also ruined.
As scary as this may seem, it is perfectly safe (more or less) to connect your iPhone to a computer without much fear of the sudden burn. According to the technicians who looked at the handset, it was not a design flaw in the USB port that was used, but simply a defective part that was used for this iPhone 4 handset.
Of course, this is not the first time that an electronic gadget went on fire. Other devices that use lithium ion batteries have the potential to catch on fire (though the possibilities for such are quite low), and Apple has quite the track record with their products. There was already that famous case of a boy who had an iPod in his pants that suddenly burst into flames (causing second degree burns). It was also reported that Apple had a man sign a confidentiality agreement when they settled an issue regarding another similar issue regarding an exploding iPhone.
9
Jul
2010
Apple Takes a New Approach to Data Mining
Apple is not exactly an industry friendly phone maker, but they certainly take the effort to try and take care of their end users (barring the whole antenna issue of course). This is evidently seen in the iAds system that has been implemented.
While Apple obviously stands to gain a lot from the new system, it seems that the folks at Cupertino have studied hard in order to create a system that end users would not fully object to. The iAds system has been designed to record user data regarding app downloads and app usage patterns from iPhone users, but at the same time, it prevents marketers and direct advertisers from being able to get the data directly.
This is because the iAds system takes care of all the data management and of course, ad targeting. Any user seeing an ad can rest assured that the data used to select that banner or popup was done by a system that was operating outside the control of the advertiser.
On the other hand Apple is not exactly tracking data that they do not originally have –with the small exception regarding user’s app usage patterns. The iTunes store keeps a transaction and download history for all users. This is the data that is used for targeted ads –in this sense it is easy to see how the iAds system is able to target users without having to reveal any data to Apple’s ad clients.
Apple’s decision to reveal this data is actually very important. The company has managed to avoid the same pitfalls that Google and Facebook had serious problems with. At the very least, this is where Steve Jobs gets to show off something that he is able to do better than his competitors.
The iAds system is already implemented in the latest version of the Apple iOS.
7
Jul
2010
How Mobile Sat Nav on Mobile is Changing the GPS Industry
With Nokia Ovi Maps, Google Maps and the Apple iPhone GPS App Skobbler offering free voice guided sat navigation services to users, is there really room on the industry for today’s dedicated GPS devices?
Onboard navigational tools from Tom Tom and Garmin are taking second priority to smart phones that offer users free sat nav services. And with the offers being delivered the various mobile phone makers, dedicated GPS companies are having trouble keeping up with all the location based services and features that the average smart phone can offer.
But this does not completely rule out the need for GPS tools.
While the average person can completely rely on accessing Google’s Maps and street view on their XPERIA X10 Mini to get around town, a professional firefighter cannot afford to avail of such free services. The same is to be said for government and volunteers that rely on digital navigation. Law enforcement, medical teams and even delivery personnel still rely on devices made by TomTom –despite the fact that smart phones offer a similar feature.
The big difference is in the maps. While there is nothing that will tell you that Google’s maps are in any way less accurate than TomTom’s data, Google is not going to be held accountable for their content either. And that is the assurance that TomTom and Garmin gives to their users.
For a regular user, it is acceptable to do away with having a dedicated car GPS device –if you do not have one yet and simply to rely on your smart phone. The only real concern here is to be careful with the monthly data allowance and to always have a car charger around as having the service running will be a drain on the battery.
Also, it would be a wise decision to invest in a reliable car dock for the handset in order to have the device located at an easy to view location for accessing data and for referencing the map.
6
Jul
2010
Apple’s iPhone 4 Antenna Issue: Simple Graphic Error
Apple has recently published an open letter to all iPhone 4 owners who are experiencing issues with the newly released Apple smart phone.
Many owners of the iPhone 4 have been complaining about an issue with the handset’s poor signal. According to reports, the problem stems from the antenna itself. Apparently, when users hold the phone up to their ear to make a call, the hand would naturally clasp over the antenna area and would block off the signal. This not only decreased the signal strength of the handset, but it ultimately dropped ongoing calls as well.
The antenna issue has been so predominant that it has been a much talked about topic in the past week. And the problem is much more escalated by the fact that there are over 1.7 million iPhone 4 units out in the market, and all are prone to the same problem. In response, Apple has been investigating the problem indefinitely and from what they have announced, the issue is not with the antenna.
According to Apple, the problem was never with the antenna in the first place, but with the iPhone’s signal meter graphic. The open letter stated that the signal meter was not able to show the appropriate or correct signal for many instances. Often, the bars would show a much higher signal strength when the reality was that the signal was actually weak. The iPhone 4’s tendency to show 4 to 5 bars of signal strength when there should only be 2 or 3 is being blamed for the misunderstanding.
Many Apple iPhone 4 owners disagree. Many believe that Apple wants to convince the public that there is no problem, when earlier reports acknowledged the fact that holding the device with the left hand causes a higher probability for a dropped call. This strongly hints of a hardware issue than a graphic anomaly.
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