fellcast

Apple on the iPhone 4 alleged reception problem

2010-07-02T12:43:20Z

I'm posting this here for my own convenience. Issued by Apple PR a short time ago:

Letter from Apple Regarding iPhone 4

CUPERTINO, Calif., July 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

Dear iPhone 4 Users,

The iPhone 4 has been the most successful product launch in Apple's history. It has been judged by reviewers around the world to be the best smartphone ever, and users have told us that they love it. So we were surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them. Here is what we have learned.

To start with, gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars. This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones. But some users have reported that iPhone 4 can drop 4 or 5 bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band. This is a far bigger drop than normal, and as a result some have accused the iPhone 4 of having a faulty antenna design.

At the same time, we continue to read articles and receive hundreds of emails from users saying that iPhone 4 reception is better than the iPhone 3GS. They are delighted. This matches our own experience and testing. What can explain all of this?

We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising.

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don't know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

To fix this, we are adopting AT&T's recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone's bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.

We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula.

Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

We have gone back to our labs and retested everything, and the results are the same— the iPhone 4's wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. For the vast majority of users who have not been troubled by this issue, this software update will only make your bars more accurate. For those who have had concerns, we apologize for any anxiety we may have caused.

As a reminder, if you are not fully satisfied, you can return your undamaged iPhone to any Apple Retail Store or the online Apple Store within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.

We hope you love the iPhone 4 as much as we do.

Thank you for your patience and support.

Apple

Notes on 1Password on the iPad

2010-04-06T05:44:40Z

I'm a great fan of 1Password from Agile Web Solutions. I've been using it for a several years on the Mac to store passwords, software serial numbers, and credit card details, in a very secure form. There's a sale on for the Mac version, and important info for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users.

If you're an iPad user and already have 1Password Pro, you need not purchase the iPad version. Just update your iPhone app, and all of the features of the new iPad version are included in the new version of 1Password Pro. Users of the standard version of 1Password by the iPad version for $6.99. Another option is to simply buy the Pro version, which covers iPhones and iPads completely for $14.99, and keep it all in one app for your iPhone and iPad. Of course, the iPhone 1Password standard edition runs fine on the iPad, like nearly all other iPhone apps, so if you don't need extra features in the iPad interface, you don't have to upgrade at all.

If you're not a user of 1Password on the Mac, this is a good time to consider trying it. Agile Web Solutions is having a sale in honor of the iPad's release, 20% off for a limited time.

With the news bits out of the way, what is 1Password?

Here's a summary from Agile's web site:

Go & Fill: 1 Click, That's It: Selecting one of your saved logins from 1Password's Go & Fill menu takes you to the site, securely fills your username and password, and logs you in, all with a single click or a few keystrokes.
Online Shopping Made Even Easier: Once you've created your identities, select one in your web browser to quickly fill out a contact form. Store multiple credit cards to simplify and speed up your online shopping, filling checkout forms with ease.
Always By Your Side: Now you can take your information with you so that it's always on hand. Mobile versions of 1Password are available for iPhone OS and Palm OS and more data portability options are coming.

The software has earned several awards and consistantly good reviews. I give it a high recommendation.

iPad Preview

2010-04-01T23:06:11Z

The buzz around this Saturday's release of the iPad is growing exponentially, as the first previews and reviews begin to appear. I've sampled some of the best material, and gathered it together here for easy consumption.

ABC News has the distinction of being the first to have a video hands-on preview, shown Wednesday evening on World News with Diane Sawyer.

Alas, if you're viewing this on an iPhone (or iPad, you lucky dog!) it's in Flash.

At my full-time job at ABC 7 Chicago, there was a live report on our 11 am news as well.

A couple of cool things from the WN piece: We saw a Scrabble game. I imagine you'll now be able to play Scrabble online with a nice sized screen, on the same device you'll use to read the paper or your favorite magazine. They also showed a music app from the developer of the popular Ocarina that leads me to believe the iPad will be a viable musical instrument. The lack of multi-tasking on the iPad hurts here, as you won't be able to record instruments from different apps together; you'll have to record them to a music recording application like GarageBand on your computer.

One of my favorite columnists, Andy Inhatko of the Chicago Sun-Times, has deep thoughts about why this tablet will succeed where others have hardly made a blip.

"The iPad user experience is instantly compelling and elegant. It’s not every computer and every function. It’s a computer that’s designed for speed, mobility, and tactile interaction above all other considerations."

The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg has published his mostly glowing review of the iPad. He found reading text very comfortable. He looked at his paper's own iPad app, and in comparison with the Web or iPhone versions of the Wall Street Journal, "the iPad version blends much more of the look and feel of the print paper into the electronic environment. " Many more observations, Mossberg's review is a good read. There's a video clip, but it's just Mossberg talking on camera. No iPad demo other than a clip from Apple's own video news release.

David Pogue of the New York Times cleverly wrote two reviews of the iPad; the second one is the real gold.

"the iPad is not a laptop. It’s not nearly as good for creating stuff.
On the other hand, it’s infinitely more convenient for consuming it —
books, music, video, photos, Web, e-mail and so on. For most people,
manipulating these ...digital materials directly by touching them is a
completely new experience — and a deeply satisfying one."

Shivers

USAToday's Ed Baig has a very thorough and positive review. Annoyingly embedded in the page, USAToday's Jefferson Graham has a video preview. Or you can watch it here.

PCMag.com calls it a winner, and goes on in very geeky detail. Its a good read if you're into that sort of thing, and I am.

Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin has an interesting article that focuses partly on how the right app can make an old scientific document like the the rather dry but vitally important Periodic Table of Elements come alive. Some more screen shots from this iPad app can be seen here.

If you're the same kind of Apple geek that I am, you now have sufficient information to fill your daydreams until Saturday, or until your 3G version arrives in a few weeks. Me, I plan to go have actual dreams about it in my sleep.

While visions of iPads danced in his head

2010-04-01T18:28:35Z

After pausing the DVR and stirring my Hamburger Helper™, I returned to the living room and began a reverie of iPad thoughts. Soon, I'd spent 15 minutes staring blankly at a screen saver, and thinking iPad thoughts. I expect I shall dream of iPads tonight.

iPad Video Chats: Apple's Big Secret

2010-04-01T07:15:00Z

Apple plans to have a suprise on store when the iPad goes on sale this Saturday. There's a reason so few developers have advance iPads, and why even the few Apple employees that have them carry them in locked cases.

They have front-facing cameras and will enable live video chats where ever you can get a wi-fi signal.

And when the 3G version ships in a few weeks, we'll find that video chats are possible on AT&T's network as well.

The handful of critics that received iPads in advance will discover the video chat service at 9 am EDT Saturday, the same time Apple issues its press release in classic Steve Jobs "one more thing" style. The cameras are already in those critic's iPads, but the software includes code that disables them until magic time.

If you hadn't noticed, by the way, today is the first day of a new month, a particular day of note among those who like to fool people. This story is false. There is no camera. I hope I fooled you.

Or did I? What if it comes true?

SXSW Music: Suzanne Vega

2010-03-19T05:40:00Z

The music portion of the SXSW festival began Wednesday, March 17, and just after midnight, at St. David's Historic Sanctuary, Suzanne Vega performed. She has been a favorite of mine since she first hit the scene about 25 years ago. She's putting out a new series of CDs under the banner "Close Up," acoustic solo versions of some of her best work. The first volume is Love Songs, which Ms. Vega kindly autographed for me. I had the chance to tell her that her album 99.9Fº is one of my all-time favorites. SXSW seems to have inconsistent policies about videotaping, sometimes they stop you, sometimes they don't. They didn't during Ms Vega's performance, so I'm happy to be able to present you with a song from that 99.9Fº album, Blood Makes Noise.

Bacon

2010-03-16T08:16:40Z

Sunday was a very, very good day to eat. It started with a free bacon brunch courtesy Adobe. I got to hear an Adobe guy whine about how their relationship with Apple used to be soooo good, and now, not so much, because of Steve Jobs' opposition to Flash on the iPhone and iPad.

SXSW Interactive Opening Party Hosted by frog design

2010-03-16T08:14:02Z

Saturday night was the SXSW Interactive Opening Party Hosted by frog design, at the Center for Mexican-American Cultural Arts. This was a pretty cool scene, with RFID tags and lots of interactive stuff going on. My introvert self asserted itself, which means I did not. It was outside, and night, so I couldn't really take pictures, except this one of the porta-potties. They had projections on them showing what position people were in inside, and showing a timer. You were supposed to use your RFID tag (which had no connection to your personal info or name), and they tracked the gallons of pee. They also tracked you at the bar, and you could scan your RFID with someone elses to make a connection, which was projected on a big wall. All very odd, very interesting, very frog design.

the3six5 party

2010-03-16T08:06:00Z

I went to an early party at Austin's Ginger Man. It was for the3six5, a writing project started by Chicago's Len Kendall and Daniel Honigman. Good beer, good people.

SXSW and 3D-TV

2010-03-16T08:03:56Z

I stopped briefly at the SXSW interactive trade show. Its a bunch of software and hardware companies with little booths trying to sell you their products or services. I bought an extremely cute flash drive, but the real bonus for me was getting a demo of 3D-TV from Panasonic. They showed a number of clips, and the effect was terrific. Especially nice: video from 2008's Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Beijing. Awesome. Gotta start saving some sheckle.

danah boyd Keynote

2010-03-16T07:54:44Z

Microsoft's danah boyd, who like k.d. lang disdains capital letters in her name, gave Saturday's keynote about privacy and publicity. There was a lot to think about in her remarks. Rather than try to boil it down, I highly recommend that you read them yourself.

SXSW and Mind Control

2010-03-16T07:46:25Z

I next attended a provocative session called "Mind Control: Psychology for the Web." Ben Scofield, a web developer who studied the brain in college, gave a lot of good advice. He argued against using web analytics to figure out what works on a web site. Instead of describing where the users click, figure out WHY they click. "If we understand why people do what they do, we can make them do what we want them to do." Make your site likable. People like pretty sites. Get people to identify with what their peers are doing. He strongly recommended following these guidelines from Stanford University. It looks like good advice. Other tips: giving things away for free, as Google does with Gmail and many other products, builds brand loyalty. On the other hand, something scarce (like Gmail was in the early days, when you needed an invite) makes people want it.

SXSW: Now in byte-sized chunks.

2010-03-16T07:40:15Z

I'm abandoning my old format of a long post about the day.

Instead, short posts of what's going on. This one doesn't have much: Saturday began with me sleeping in a bit too late, and cabbing it over to the Radisson, and being denied entrance to a packed panel on the iPad. You can read up on what I missed by using checking out these tweets from people inside.

SXSW 2010 Day 1

2010-03-13T13:30:00Z

After another long absence, its time to resume my blog, covering the SXSW Interactive/Film/Music convention in Austin, Texas.

Its interactive that first got me interested in the festival, and that's the first thing on the agenda.

Since the first sessions didn't begin until 2 pm, I felt it necessary to have some Texas Barbeque before I got started. I sated my appetite at Iron Works, conveniently located next door to the convention center. Just ahead of me in line was Leo LaPorte, host of my favorite podcast, This Week in Tech. I asked him if he had ordered his iPad, which just went on sale that day, and he said he had ordered two. Alas, I only ordered one.

One button. Sounds like an Apple idea. Appropriately, my first session was The History of the Button. It was an interesting talk about the abstract notion of the button, how it came to be, and how its changing; most notably in that many of the buttons we use on the internet don't appear as buttons at all. Instead, they are text, or a graphic, or anything else that you can click on to cause something to happen.

Then it was on to Successful Networking for Introverts, Rebels and Misfits. My friends don't believe it, but I am an introvert. There were some decent tips on how to more easily chat up strangers in social situations. I offered a tip: act like you are a reporter interviewing someone.

Then I attended PayTV vs Internet: The Battle for Your TV. Speaking for PayTV was Mark Cuban, maverick Mavericks owner and HDNet mogul. On the Internet side was Avner Ronen, founder of Boxee. About 5 minutes into their debate, a false alarm caused the evacuation of the entire convention center. But it was over quickly, and the debate resumed. Here's a nice little writeup of the exchange. I videoed the whole thing, but the audio is too crappy for me to post.

Then it was on to my first party, the Tocquigny Martini & Beer Marketing Mixer. I had a lovely chat there with Jenny Goddard, a young local filmmaker.

One of the events I skipped last year is called "Pastries and Pasties." I had a cupcake called "Sloppy Seconds" made from peanut butter & chocolate. Yum. And I watched burlesque-style stripping going on. It was amusing. The crowd even more so. And I was surprised that the performers included all shapes and sizes. I'm proud of the heavy performers and their self confidence!

I then spent a couple of hours at the official SXSW Film Opening Party at Buffalo Billiards. Here, the crowd was a lot bigger, and noiser. I had trouble acting sociable, but as I was about to leave, the aforementioned Ms. Goddard grabbed me from behind, and introduced me to some friends of hers. Still, I couldn't hear conversation, so I headed out and back to the hotel. A good start, but things will be getting better. I still haven't seen any films, and the music doesn't even get started until next week.

The Beatles Rock Band videos

2009-08-26T14:00:00Z

For easy reference, here are some of the videos released about The Beatles: Rock Band. It comes out two weeks from today!

Opening Cinematic

Here's the opening cinematic; a traditional cell animation summarizing the Beatles career in a very entertaining form, this sets the mood for the game.

Gameplay Trailer 1

This was our first look at how gameplay works. Includes bits of "I Saw Her Standing There" in the Cavern Club, "I Want To Hold Your Hand" at the Ed Sullivan Show, "I Feel Fine" at Shea Stadium, "Day Tripper" and "Taxman" at Budokan, dreamscapes of "I Am the Walrus," "Back in the U.S.S.R," "Octopus's Garden" and "Here Comes the Sun," and "Get Back" from the Apple rooftop concert.

Gameplay Trailer 2

Again we start in the Cavern Club, with "Twist and Shout." Check out the Beatles logo on Ringo's drums, this early logo was designed by Paul McCartney and discarded as soon as Ringo bought new Ludwig drums, although the French used it on some album covers and picture sleeves. Also note John's Rickenbacker, in its original un-painted form. Lennon later decided to paint it black. From the Sullivan set, we get "Can't Buy Me Love," "Eight Days a Week" at Shea, "Paperback Writer" at Budokan. Then a dreamscape of "Yellow Submarine," in which the Beatles are wearing the costumes that their cartoon counterparts wore in the animated film of the same name. "Sgt. Pepper," "Within You Without You" and "Revolution" round off this clip.

Gameplay Trailer 3

Here we start off with the Ed Sullivan Show and "A Hard Day's Night." "Drive My Car" from Budokan follows, then dreamscapes of "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds," "Dear Prudence," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Helter Skelter" and "Come Together," concluding with "Don't Let Me Down" from the roof of Apple.

Birthday

Here we get a look at how "Birthday" is presented: we begin in Abbey Road and transition to a dreamscape. That's how most post-1966 music is represented, except for things near the very end of their career that would be appropriate for the Apple rooftop concert.

Ticket To Ride

Here's a similar video for "Ticket To Ride." It's done at Shea Stadium, and the amount of detail is startling. The Beatles logo on the drum head is accurate for the concert; a bolder version than was used in most earlier concerts. And I love one particular shot of two girls screaming, with a man reacting to the noise.