News from category ‘Hardware’

This is an interesting interview with Joshua Topolsky, Engadget editor in chief, where he comments the iPhone 4 antenna issue and the recent Steve Job's press conference.

Taiwan's NMA News has posted a video animation of the iPhone 4 and antenna story:

Research in Motion's Chief Executive Officers Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have released an official statement on the Apple's latest press conference, where the company showed the antenna issue on BlackBerry 9700 to prove that such a problem a normal thing for every smartphone. Both of the directors were stunned that Apple mentioned RIM in order to justify their mistake:

"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."

Yesterday Steve Jobs told many interesting facts about antenna issues and iPhone 4. Those who doesn't want to watch the video from the event here, you can study the next list:

• Over 3M iPhones 4 were sold since its release three weeks ago;
• The antenna issue can be reproduced on any other phone. The details can be found here;
• Apple has special testing rooms, which cost it $ 100 million. You can learn more about it on Apple's new webpage here;
• Only 0.55% of all iPhone 4 users complain on antenna issue;
• AT&T return rate with the iPhone 3GS was 6.0%, with the iPhone 4 - 1,7%;
• The proximity sensor problem will be fixed in the next update;
• White iPhone will be shipped at the end of July;
• On July 30th iPhone sales will be launched in 17 more countries.

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So yesterday Apple had a press conference in its campus in Cupertino to talk about iPhone 4 antenna issue. It was revealed that every new iPhone user will have an opportunity to order free case for his smartphone through Sept. 30. Because Apple cannot produce enough number of cases at the moment, it will source cases from other vendors and then give customers a choice so they would be able to pick the one they like.

Jobs said that the cases will be available for order on the Apple's site in the end of the next week.

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Yesterday popular UK band "Squeeze" played their song "Pulling Mussels From The Shell" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The video is pretty interesting because one of the band members was using an iPad all along and even made a solo during a second minute.

The app he was using is MooCowMusic's Pianist Pro.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NctJy9SxSds

In the latest episode of The View (ABC's TV show) Whoopi Goldberg told about her experience of using iPhone 4, which eventually ended by its "murdering". As she speaks about Apple products, it looks like her problems weren't about antenna issues - she just bought a faulty device (at least, as she said, she didn't have any problems with her previous iPhone).

“The people couldn’t get a hold of me…my phone would ring and ring and ring to them, but wouldn’t do anything to me... My phone was bad; it wasn’t just that the antenna was bad, it was bad!”

Well, that's not a lucky situation for Apple at all.

Wow! Did you know that Wired magazine already knew about iPad back in 1999? Here is a scan of April 1999 issue, take a look:

“The next iMac attack promises new lollipop laptops, a more serious series of professional machines, and a wireless handheld dubbed the iPad”.

Well, it was known that Steve Jobs thought about iPad before the first iPhone was actually released, but who could think about 1999?

According to Wall Street Journal, Apple will not recall those 2 million iPhones 4 that have been already shipped worldwide.

The source, which is familiar with the matter, told that Jobs knew about possible antenna issues nearly a year ago, but he was so amazed by new design that "Apple went ahead with its development". That person also confirmed that the problem was not discovered until now because the units that were tested by the company and its carrier partners were covered in different cases to obscure the design and some functions.

"Those test phones are specifically designed so the phone can't be touched, which made it hard to catch the iPhone 4's antenna problem".

Moreover, carrier partners had limited time to test the new phone, not to mention that Apple equipped them with "fewer devices to test than other handset makers."

Today Apple is going to hold a special press conference about iPhone 4, so there are all chances the true story about antenna issue will finally be revealed.

Here is a video of a guy who tried to reproduce the antenna issue on the iPhone 4 with a latest iOS 4.1 beta. As you see, the smartphone loses two bars when he holds it with a "death grip", so it looks like the problem with antenna wasn’t actually fixed.

This video is made to look like an official Apple promo video, however it is certainly not. The topic is iPhone 4 antenna. Funny, take a look:

PlanetBeing successfully unlocked the iPhone 4 yesterday. Today he posted a video clip:

Recently almost everybody talks about iPhone 4 and it's reception problems due to the "wrong holding".

“Some say that if you hold him in the wrong way, he doesn’t work properly,” said Jeremy Clarkson on top motoring show, Top Gear, this weekend.

Today Taiwanese newspaper DigiTimes released another article which reveals that the producing of next-gen iPad will be started in the last quarter of 2010. New tablet will have 7-inch and 5.6-inch OLED displays supplied by Compal Electronics. Both of these small (compared to the current 9.7-inch model) devices will "target the e-book reader market, separating them from the 9.7-inch model, which mainly targets multimedia entertainment".

Choosing the OLED panels is explained by the assumption that its costs will be dropped soon, as LG display and Samsung Electronics are currently devoting resources into its development.

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According to The Wall Street Journal, last week Chinese Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center approved Wi-Fi enabled iPhone to be put on sale soon in China. The problem is that on the accompanying picture it is clearly seen that the approved device is the iPhone 3G or 3GS, but certainly not the iPhone 4.

Apple’s smartphone went on sale last year, but it was Wi-Fi disabled because technology's standard was temporarily banned by the Chinese government. In May 2009 the ban was relaxed.

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