Posted on 07/16/2010 5:18:32 PM PDT by 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: Apples 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 permanentand freefix 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 strengthso 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?
The only defense you have is to nit pick. Nit pick away, I ‘m not impressed. Nor are millions HIGHLY satisfied iPhone users.
That's a pretty lame spin. I expected more from you. What's the matter, too tired? Go read it again, then take my words apart and make something up. I am motivated to take you to town for it tonight, so don't go all givin' up on it so soon. Or maybe you gave up on it after LAST NIGHTS thrashing on the other thread... LOL
Nah, once a troll, always a troll, you will be back.
HA HA HA HA.... OK, now THAT was funny. LOL
Feel free, Rachel, you’re the one that’s not answering. That’s cool. You want to make stuff up, feel free.
I’d love to know where I made those sexist remarks that you claim I did. Or was that more of your fanciful imagination making words up?
Or perhaps I am the diabolical Satan as you claim, and can magically change past FR posts?
Nah, can’t be that - only the iPhone 4 is magical...;)
Right now it's early in the product cycle. iPhone4's are in short supply and somebody that's got one they don't want can easily find a buyer. Later in the product cycle the market will be saturated and the return rates will be higher because people get them as gifts or prizes and already have one, or are waiting for the next release. If the 6% return rate was over the entire lifecycle of the 3GS, then it's possible you were impressed with a cheap marketing gimmick based on a little statistical apples-and-oranges comparison.
The Audacity of Hope.
You mean like saying the new iPhone 4 only drops 1 call in 100 more than the 3GS, without telling you the drop rate of the 3GS? ;)
Why does it bother you for someone to ask what they base their statistics on?
Defend your position.
Apple’s overwhelming customer satisfaction score says you are horribly wrong.
So, prove it wrong. You have nothing and never will.
No No Bunny!
Selling 3 million iPhones in 22 days and having less then a fraction of 1% returned 600% below their previous phone is a FATAL FLAW.
Heehheheheeee
I don't think the total dropped call statistics really tell you much. If you've got plenty of towers around you, you might never drop a call. If you're in a marginal coverage area, it might be 1 in 10.
I have a sense of curiousity and enough sense not to know that marketing is largely an exercise in half truths and semantic manipulation. Only a fool takes everything at face value without asking questions.
MacDailyNews seems to be a bunch of smug name callers. This signal problem must be worse than I thought.
Straight Up Legit Question:
If you hold a phone a certain way and the signal changes or goes lower, is that, in and of itself a problem or is it just a normal function of the phone where the signal is always changing under different conditions?
I won’t demand a yes or no, or play any of your style silly games. Answer it any way you’d like. I just want to know if “a change” equals or means “a problem” or if “a change, for the worse, a lower score, interference, whatever you call it, real and measurable, is just a well, NORMAL.
What’s to defend? Steve Jobs stated that the iPhone 4 drops more calls than the 3GS. If there’s a problem with that statement, take it up with Apple and Steve Jobs.
If you maintain connection, no it's not a problem. A phone should operate with an always changing environment. Having signal strength increase or decrease is a way of life, and the phone should continue to do so.
But the key word is "operate". Dropping a call isn't really operating. The primary function of a phone is to BE a phone - make and keep a call. That's where - even per Steve Jobs' own statement - the iPhone 4 lags their previous offerings. It's a step backwards in terms of the primary function of a phone.
Yeah. Steve Jobs said it himself. Less than one in a hundred, but more. So, if you made like 100 calls... in one day, then you would drop less than one!!
Oh wait... can you just sorta drop a call? Or do you have to actually DROP it to count. Fractions can be tricky sometimes.
So, OK, let’s say you made 200 calls in a day... then, a fraction of 1 per hundred would be... wait. How MANY of a fraction? Did he say? Cause if you made 200 calls a day and dropped one of those calls, then the fraction would have to be higher than 1/2 of a percent if it’s less than 1 in 100 more than a 3G.
OK OK... so if it’s at least as high as the half a percent, then for every 200 calls you made, you could drop one. I guess. I mean you might not. It’s just an average based on 3 million phones sold in the last 22 days. Maybe it’s much LESS than that 1/2%. What if it’s only 1/4?
Well, then you would have to make 400 calls a day to drop one of them, or have a good chance at dropping one of them.
Yeah, I am getting the hang of this now.
But, what if it’s half of that... I mean he didn’t say... is it 1/2 or maybe even an 1/8th of less than 1... Well, an 8th sure makes for a long day of calls just to see if one might drop. 800 calls in one day... I dunno... I need to check my minutes before I’d try that kinda test.
But seriously... who HAS that kinda time anyway? I mean what is the average number of calls you make and how many drop on any phone? SOME. I am sure. I’ve had calls drop before. On ATT and all the others too.
So, are we really gonna go down this silly math path? If you make 10,000 calls on a Droid you will drop 100 of them, but on the iPhone 4 you will drop 103. This makes the iPhone MUCH WORSE than Droid.
Really? IS THAT IT? That’s the “Fatal Flaw” the “Smoking Gun”? I don’t think is smokes more than a candy cigarette!!
What was the drop rate of the 3GS? That will put things in perspective. Remember, Steve said it was about 1 in 100 MORE than the 3GS.
If the 3GS drops 1 per 1000, and the iPhone 4 drops 11 per 1000, then his statement is correct. And the drop rate is 11 times higher.
See, he gave us the difference, but not the starting point. It’s like saying your annual salary increased by $4,000. By itself, it’s meaningless in terms of good or bad. If you make $40,000 per year, hey that’s a nice 10% increase! If you make $400,000 per year, you’re not even keeping up with inflation...
Now I am a naturally cynical guy when it comes to big companies, seeing them as necessary creators of wealth, but that wealth creation is really what they are all about. Thus I look at statements about problems with that viewpoint. And when impressive sounding statistics are put out, but when you look at them you find most of the context missing, it’s usually done for a reason, and that is usually to shade the bad about the real situation.
So if a normal 3GS phone drops 10 of 100 calls, and the new iPhone 4 drops 11 per 100 calls, I’d agree it’s basically a meaningless increase.
However, if the 3GS drops 1 out of 300 calls, and the new iPhone 4 drops 1.3 calls per 100, then that’s a pretty significant increase (about 400%).
Context - in this case, the baseline - is key.
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