Consumer Reports: Apple’s free Bumper case does not earn iPhone 4 our recommendation

Mac Daily News ^ | Friday, July 16, 2010 - 07:09 PM EDT<

[Swordmaker]

"Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Friday announced that his company will give iPhone 4 owners free cases to address reception problems caused by the phone's external antenna, which is a metal band around the edge of the phone," John D. Sutter reports for CNN. "Mike Gikas, senior editor for electronics and technology at Consumer Reports, said in an interview that such a patch is a good "first step." But it's still not enough for his group to recommend the phone to consumers. 'What we were hoping for was a concrete, this-is-it fix for the phone,' Gikas said."

MacDailyNews Take: Consumer Reports would do well get their staff on the same page before allowing them to spout off: Consumer Reports: Apple’s Bumper case fixes iPhone 4 signal-loss issue - July 15, 2010

Sutter continues, "Gikas said such a solution makes it difficult to review the phone, because everyone has a different case, and it's unclear if the solution is permanent; there's a chance the phone could still be recalled after September 30, or that a new version could be issued, he said."

"During the press event in Cupertino, California, Jobs tried to spread the blame about reception issues across the smartphone industry as a whole," Sutter continues. "Gikas said that was a bit unfair. 'The human hand -- the body -- attenuates signal on all phones,' he said. 'But we haven't seen it happen to the degree that it's happened with the iPhone 4.'"

MacDailyNews Take: Did Consumer reports test iPhone 4 with iOS 4.0.1 with its the revised signal display algorithm? No they did not. They should take an iPhone back into their crap booth of flawed testing that's likely worth 1/1000th of Apple's state-of-the-art testing facilities (we're being exceedingly generous with that estimate even though it's certainly not warranted) and test the iPhone 4 running iOS 4.0.1 with and without Apple bumpers before they make any more of their conflicting and illogical non-recommendation recommendations. Again, anyone under the age of 115 who uses a Consumer Reports recommendation for any electronic device needs to seek immediate mental health counseling. The rest of you, enjoy your Aiwa boom boxes.

Sutter continues, "'The most important thing to remember is a problem was discovered with the phone and we can confirm it in a lab, and it was a significant problem,' Gikas said. 'And I don't think Apple fully admitted to it. They acknowledged it and they threw an interim solution at it. But everything spells fogginess about this thing.'"

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Fogginess?! Okay, let's talk fogginess:

In chronological order:

• "iPhone 4 reception is actually better than on the 3GS according to many to some highly respectable and thorough testers, including AnandTech... There's no reason, at least yet, to forgo buying an iPhone 4 over its reception concerns." - Mike Gilkas, Consumer Reports' Electronics Blog - July 2, 2010

• Apple iPhone 4 is the best smartphone on the market according to Consumer Reports' ratings. - July 12, 2010

• "Apple needs to come up with a permanent—and free—fix for the antenna problem before we can recommend the iPhone 4." - Mike Gilkas, Consumer reports' Electronics Blog - July 12, 2010

MacDailyNews Take: You already did recommend it, you moron.

• "But for those who prefer to keep their iPhone, we encourage Apple to step forward soon with a remedy that fixes the confirmed antenna issue, and not one that requires additional consumer expense." - Mike Gilkas, Consumer Reports' Electronics Blog - July 13, 2010

MacDailyNews Take: Milk the thing for all it's worth, Mike, why don't you?

• "With the Bumper fitted, we repeated the test procedure, placing a finger on the Bumper at the point at which it covers the gap below. The result was a negligible drop in signal strength—so slight that it would not have any effect, in our judgment... The Bumper solves the signal-strength problem... We're still calling on Apple to provide an acceptable free solution to the iPhone 4's signal-loss problem." - Paul Reynolds, Consumer reports' Electronics Blog - July 14, 2010

MacDailyNews Take: Apple did so today, but CR still won't recommend their top-rated smartphone, Apple's iPhone 4.

• "We look forward to a long-term fix from Apple. As things currently stand, the iPhone 4 is still not one of our Recommended models." - Consumer Reports' Electronics Blog - July 16, 2010

To recap the fogginess: Consumer Reports recommends the iPhone 4, then they don't recommend the iPhone 4 even as they say it is the top-rated smartphone on the market. Next, Consumer Reports calls three separate times for Apple to "step forward soon with a remedy that fixes the confirmed antenna issue" that does not requires "additional consumer expense." Consumer reports then tests Apple's Bumper case and find that it alleviates the issue. Apple then offers free Bumper cases to all iPhone owners. Consumer Reports then decides that what they asked for is not good enough (for then hits to their website from users who do not require bottled oxygen in order to click a mouse button would cease) and fails to recommed Apple iPhone to their geriatric readership which actually believe that Consumer Reports' opinions on electronic products and God-knows-what-else are worth more than a bucket of warm spit.

How many more illogical, contradictory, flawed articles can the transparent hit whores at Consumer Reports concoct regarding this non-issue?

[stripes1776]

I recently used a Mac and while it appears to have caught up to windows in regards to not crashing it is still too much of a simplified system for my taste. But the real issue I have with them now is that bang for the buck and not enough 3rd party software are on them yet.

Mac OS X is Unix. You get all the power, stability, and programmability of a Unix system. That isn't simple. It's complex. Of course most people don't have the education to use that power and complexity. But it's there under the hood for the power user. As for 3rd party software, Unix is the richest environment I know of.

[for-q-clinton]

With UNIX you have to compile the apps to work on your system and that’s what keeps me from jumping on Linux. It’s just too much a PITA. Windows is just too dominate to give up.

It used to be Macs had a niche market with video and photos but now windows even does it at worst on par and at best better than Mac software.

[stripes1776]

With UNIX you have to compile the apps to work on your system and that’s what keeps me from jumping on Linux. It’s just too much a PITA.

That is not true with the Mac. Everything you install on a Mac these days is a binary. You just download the file, the download mounts as a disk image, drag the program into your Application folder or any other folder that you choose, and that's it. It's installed. It couldn't be simpler.

As a programmer, the Mac comes with every major scripting language a programmer could want already installed: Python, Perl, Ruby, PHP. Also comes with Java. I also needed a C compiler for writing C, C++ and Objective C programs. All it took was one free download from Apple's website of Xcode. It installed and that was it. Xcode is a great IDE.

With UNIX you have to compile the apps to work on your system and that’s what keeps me from jumping on Linux. It’s just too much a PITA.

Widows has nothing to compare with iPhoto or Aperture. All of the professional photographers are on Macs. That's also true of the graphics artists I know. And most of the competent programmers and Web developers I know have all moved to the Mac.

[for-q-clinton]

To be clear the only programs that just install on OS X are programs already compiled for the Max, right?

And that right there limits you. But it is getting better..they even have some steam games on it.

[stripes1776]

To be clear the only programs that just install on OS X are programs already compiled for the Max, right?
And that right there limits you. But it is getting better..they even have some steam games on it.

There limits on a Windows machine too. Does Windows have iPhoto or Aperture? No. As an amateur photographer, iPhoto is the best application I have used.

There are thousands of applications for the Mac. If you would like to see several hundred of them, go to www.apple.com/downloads/macosx and click on some of the categories listed on the left side of the page. Each category has many pages of applications.

[for-q-clinton]

i prefer adobe but really dont know iphoto

[stripes1776]

i prefer adobe but really dont know iphoto

I assume you are referring to Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop was developed and first released on the Mac back in the early 1990s. It was later ported to Windows. It's an excellent program. It's really a program for professional photographers and graphic designers.

The reason you don't know iPhoto is because it is only available on the Mac. (It comes free with the Mac.) I am really enjoying the program. It's designed for the everyday photographer like myself. It lets me import my pictures into the iPhoto library. From the library you can organize the photos into various categories or albums. It is also possible to edit the photos in a few ways, for example by brightness or color saturation. You can then share the pictures in various ways, like creating slide shows and emailing them to friends, publishing them to the web, or getting a bound book printed with the photos as a keepsake. A book make a great present, like for a birthday or anniversary. You can also create a custom calendar with your photos on it, and then print it out yourself, or have it printed and sent to you. iPhoto is a lot of fun to use.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

Try Windows Live Photo Gallery; does everything that iPhoto does.

[for-q-clinton]

iPhoto sounds really limited like PSS said...it sounds like windows live gallery which is free.

Personally I like Adobe Elements for photo and video as it allows me to tag them and filter in better ways. But now I’ve been using adobe bridge to organize/retrieve my media and it is fantastic. Adobe was first on Mac and that’s why a lot of photo editing was done on Macs but since that time they have moved to windows with Windows often getting the better version. I *think* right now they are on parity though.

Based on your description iPhoto sounds like a step back to me.

[stripes1776]

Try Windows Live Photo Gallery; does everything that iPhoto does.

I am having much too much fun at the moment with iPhoto to try a different program. But thanks anyway.

[stripes1776]

Personally I like Adobe Elements for photo and video

For the serious amateur or professional photographer and videographer, it's one of the best programs available.