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Friday 16 July 2010

Video: Apple's Press Conference [ 16-07-2010 18:57 ]

Author: Irina Turina Source: Apple via Engadget Translation by: Paul Smith

Well we were looking to put it all in one post, but Apple seem to have other ideas! They've just released a video of today's press conference although it does omit the Q&A session that unfolded after the main presentation. Check our last post for a transcript of the Q&A session if you're interested in seeing what went down. As for the video you can check it out here and Apple have been busy bees because they've been posting up other videos too, videos that show off the antenna problems experienced by other handsets. The aim is obviously to be able to demonstrate to people that what they're saying isn't just marketing talk or PR spin, but a verifiable phenomenon common to all smartphones. The videos are presented on a special page that Apple have created to explain more about the antenna issue. Those videos are presented below courtesy of Engadget.

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Apple To Give Free Bumpers [ 16-07-2010 17:53 ]

Author: Irina Turina Source: BGR Translation by: Paul Smith

The big news of the day is of course the hoopla surrounding Apple's iPhone iPhone 4 and the press conference Steve Jobs gave earlier today. Rather than spreading it out across several articles we're wrapping everything up in this single article. Let's start by looking at what Apple said on the antenna issue itself. Basically it all boiled down to Apple re-iterating what they've been saying for weeks now, namely that yes there is a problem with reception on the iPhone 4, but it's a problem that every smartphone suffers. This time Apple wasn't just talking the talk though, they had a video showing off a Blackberry 9700 being gripped tightly and its bars dropping. Fair enough, but notice the crucial use of the phrase 'gripping tightly' there. More on that later. Steve Jobs was striking a somewhat humbler tone than usual saying that Apple weren't perfect, but that they try their best and want to do their best for their customers. Again fair enough. So what are they going to do?

Well the bottom line is that Apple will give anyone who has bought an iPhone 4 a free case. They say they can't make enough bumpers for everyone so customers will receive a choice of cases. Will this be enough to assuage those unhappy over the situation? Well only time will tell, but seeing as anecdotal evidence along with AT&T's own data show a very small rate of return on the iPhone 4 one imagines that it may very well be enough. That low rate of return was interesting because AT&T informed Apple that the iPhone 4's rate of return was just 1.7%. AT&T also informed Apple that the iPhone 4 drops less than 1 call in a hundred than the 3GS. Very impressive.

On the issue of this being a fundamental design flaw Apple were not for admitting that this was something that was a recall inducing flaw. On being asked whether the recent Bloomberg story suggesting that Apple knew about this flaw early on was true or not Apple were pretty definite on saying that it was not true and that Bloomberg can't provide any evidence to support the claims. All in all it adds up to pretty much what most people were expoecting from today's news conference. At the end of the event there was a Q&A session, which perhaps proved more interesting than the actual presentation itself. We've presented the Q&A session as it transpired below (courtesty of BGR):

1:39 PM: Ars Technica — Q: Steve how’s your health? A: Doing fine…interrupted my vacation in Hawaii for this.

1:40 PM: GDGT –Q: Any changes for future antenna designs in iPhone? A: We’re still working on this — we’re happy with the design. … we’re getting a lot of reports from customers that it’s way better than the 3GS. I don’t know what our next antenna design will be — maybe our wizards in the antenna lab will come up with something better. But looking at the data, we don’t think we have a problem.

1:42 PM: Ars Technica — Q: Your demo shows a vise grip on the phone to make the bars drop, but online we’ve seen that youc an touch with a single finger? A: Your body is a pretty effective signal absorber, on any phone when you make contact with that phone, its performance is less than its free space performance.

1:43 PM: Ars Technica — Q: Were you told about the concerns about the design early? A: The Bloomberg article “is a total crock.” We’ve charged Bloomberg to come up with evidence that this is true but they can’t.

1:46 PM: GDGT – Q: Your investors seem to want you to make an apology of some sort — would you be willing to do that? A: [Long pause] To our customers who are affected by the issue, we are deeply sorry, and we are going to give you a free case or a full refund. We want investors who invest in Apple for the long haul, because they believe in us. To those investors who bought the stock and are down by $5, I have no apology. If we hit a bump in the road, it’s like having kids.

1:50 PM: GDGT – Q: Do Apple customers have to choose between form and function? A: No. The Retina Display in the iPhone 4 is being widely hailed as the best display ever created. … We try to have our cake and eat it too, we try to have great design and great performance. If you look at our products, that’s what we deliver.

1:51 PM: Engadget – Q: Will there be refunds for AT&T contracts? A: I believe so, yes.

1:52 PM: GDGT – Q: Is there anything you could have said in the launch keynote to lower expectations? A: I’ve thought about that a LOT. We didn’t fully understand if there were problems at that point. We might have set the expectation that smartphones have weak spots… but the fact is, most smartphones seem to have the same characteristic as the iPhone 4. If you grip them in a certain way they lose signal strength dramatically, especially in a low signal strength area. And one of the things we’ve learned is that as a leader in the smartphone world now, we need to educate. So what we need was data. And now we’ve got some and we’re sharing it now.

1:54 PM: Ars Technica — Jobs says no refund for third-party cases.

1:55 PM: GDGT – Q: After September 30th, is it because after then you expect people to buy a free case? A: It’s so we can reevaluate this in September, I have no idea what solutions may come up.

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Apple Was Ready to Buy Palm [ 16-07-2010 17:47 ]

Author: Irina Turina Source: TechRadar Translation by: Paul Smith

Some very interesting rumblings have been emerging around the recent acquisition of Palm by HP. As you may or may not remember there were a number of companies who were, nominally at least, interested in buying Palm as well as HP. One of those companies, according to a source Gizmodo are saying was close to the negotiations, was none other than ... Apple! Yes that Apple! Strange? Well no not really because Apple were apparently interested in the acquisition for the patent portfolio that the acquisition would have brought, but also because it would have allowed Apple to use webOS to compete in the hardware QWERTY smartphone market where is currently has zero representation. Unsurprisngly one of the other companies involved in the bidding was Google, but that is being attributed more to a face off with Apple than a serious attempt at purchasing Palm. RIM was also apparently looking to get its hands on Palm and indeed looks to have made a pretty serious offer for Palm, but failing to up the stakes they eventually lost out to HP. It's all pie in the sky now of course, but an interesting insight into what might have been, and perhaps what might still be when looking at overall strategy.

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Windows 95 Running on Android ... But Why? [ 16-07-2010 17:31 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin Source: IntoMobile Translation by: Paul Smith

There are a lot of ports and hacks out there that have seen all manner of operating systems being installed on all manner of devices. Well this is definitely one of the more interesting we've seen, even if it is perhaps a bit ... well bizarre to be honest. One of the boffins over on XDA Developers (where else?) came up with the idea of getting Windows 95 to run on Android through an emulator. The boffin in question, Mamaich, has actually now abandoned the project, but not before he got two versions of the ancient OS running. One is a stable release that is usable, but the downside is that it's pretty slow so maybe you wouldn't want to use it, assuming you have a reason to still be using Windows 95, especially through an Android device. The other version does run faster so that's good, but it's like the anti-particle of the first version in that whilst it's fast it isn't particularly stable. At any rate the project won't be going very far unless some other dev decides to pick up the reigns.

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