512 Pixels

Crazy.

Kottke:

Steve Jobs will come out on stage and will sit in front of a large olde tyme cash register. He will immediately begin taking questions from the assembled journalists and bloggers. As the first-question scrum begins, Jobs will start madly ringing up purchases on the very loud register while pointing to his ears, shaking his head, and shouting “gosh, I’m sorry I can’t hear you guys over the sound of the register”. This will continue for several minutes and then the press conference will be over.

I almost choked on my coffee reading this. Brilliant.

iOS developer and filmmaker Garrett Murray:

I’ve never been so completely disappointed in Apple. I genuinely believe Apple knew from the beginning their antenna design was flawed and would cause issues. I believe that’s why they used bullshit math to show an incorrectly positive number of bars, and I believe that’s why they designed the Bumper. They figured enough people would buy the Bumpers on launch day and with the falsely-reported 5-bar signals displayed to users, people wouldn’t notice the iPhone has a terrible time holding onto a signal when in your hand.

This press event tomorrow had better be fucking magical.

Ouch.

Dear Motorola,

Your new phone — the Droid X — is a pretty sweet device. It’s fast and light. The camera, screen and body are all what we have come to expect from Moto. Your hardware engineering continues to impress.

The software, however, isn’t as thrilling. The Droid X is running some new variant of Blur, your super-crappy social media integration skin you keep tossing on low-end Android phones. I don’t have a problem with skinning cheap phones — mainly because I don’t plan on buying any of them. Ever. But why skin Android? HTC Sense is wildly popular, but all that extra cruft adds time to updates and takes away processor cycles from useful smartphone tasks.

Matt Buchanan nailed it in his review of the Droid X:

The software—a discordant melange of the not-so-fresh Android 2.1 and various bits of the Blur “social networking” interface from Motorola’s lower-end Android phones—is the shudder-inducing poster child for the horrors that can occur when most hardware companies try to make software. It’s ugly, scattershot, and confusing. It feels almost malicious.

The creeping feeling that Android is the new Windows becomes an overwhelming sensation the first time you boot up Droid X. Seven sprawling desktop screens, littered with widgets, oodles of little programs—the vast majority of which you probably don’t want or need.

Moto, make your UI devs print those two paragraphs out and tape them to their computer monitors, the rearview mirrors in their cars and on the light switchs in their kitchens at home. The whole “robots eating flesh” theme you have running on the Droid X is just plan bad. It’s a step in the wrong direction. A different wrong direction than old-school Blur took, sadly. Make the whole damn thing optional.

But I’m not talking about Blur today. I’m talking about the fact you locked down of the Droid X’s bootloader to keep customers from loading custom ROMs.

To make a bad situation worse, designing the phone to brick itself if the ROM, bootloader or kernel have been tampered with is downright despicable.

You’ve taken a page from Apple’s book here, but taken it to the extreme. You have out-Apple’d Apple.

I don’t think you understand what you have to lose here. Exhibit A is your very own Lori Fraleigh:

We understand there is a community of developers interested in going beyond Android application development and experimenting with Android system development and re-flashing phones. For these developers, we highly recommend obtaining either a Google ADP1 developer phone or a Nexus One, both of which are intended for these purposes. At this time, Motorola Android-based handsets are intended for use by consumers and Android application developers, and we have currently chosen not to go into the business of providing fully unlocked developer phones.

I’m not a developer, Lori. I’m just a guy who likes to take a peak under the hood sometimes.

However, there’s more:

Securing the software on our handsets, thereby preventing a non-Motorola ROM image from being loaded, has been our common practice for many years. This practice is driven by a number of different business factors. When we do deviate from our normal practice, such as we did with the DROID, there is a specific business reason for doing so. We understand this can result in some confusion, and apologize for any frustration.

So let me get this straight — your plan was to hook all of nerds with the Droid, then go back to the RAZR-era rules? The number of Android owners that swap ROMs is fairly low. Just like our iPhone-jailbreaking cousins, we’re just nerds who like playing with our toys. What’s wrong with that?

We’re the minority, Motorola. A noisy one, granted, but still a minority.

The original Droid is a great phone. Even though I write a blog focused on Apple, have almost half a dozen Apple certifications hanging on my wall and have a dogcow tattoo, I carry a Droid. Why? The hardware is great, but the ability to tinker with it is even better. Right now, I’m running a rooted version of 2.2, and my phone is fast, stable and gets better battery life than under stock 2.1. The nerd factor — coupled with Verizion’s great service — was enough for me to trade in my iPhone after carrying one for three years.

In short, Moto, before this, you were the hacker community’s hero. Your street cred with the nerds had never been higher. Why did you go screw that up so badly with this new phone? I understand that you can do whatever you want with your devices, but just know that there are a lot of Android lovers out there that aren’t to happy with you.

Be our hero again, Motorola. Free the Droid X.

Love, Stephen

Bloomberg is reporting that at least one Apple engineer warned the company that the iPhone 4’s bezel-as-antenna design was flawed:

Last year, Ruben Caballero, a senior engineer and antenna expert, informed Apple’s management the device’s design may cause reception problems, said the person, who is not authorized to speak on Apple’s behalf and asked not to be identified. A carrier partner also raised concerns about the antenna before the device’s June 24 release, according to another person familiar with the situation.

If this is indeed accurate, Apple has some serious explaining to do on Friday. Either way, I’m not sure I’d want to be the guy who brushed off Ruben Caballero right now.

Apple has invited journalists to a press conference this Friday, presumably to address the growing chatter about the iPhone 4 antenna issue.

Obviously, what Apple says Friday is very important. If the company comes out and announces a full-blown recall, I will be shocked.

I think the best outcome is a three-pronged fix:

1. A slightly-revamped iPhone 4 with a clear coating on the steel band.

2. A free Bumper — or unit replacement — for any phones that display the issue. Since every phone doesn’t exhibit the problem, this wouldn’t be a full-blown recall.

3. The software update promised a few weeks ago will still be pushed out, but with a statement from Apple that it cannot fix the issue on its own.

Anything less than this, and Apple is going to look like they are trying to cover something up. Apple has to be completely honest and open with the public. Anything less with only further damage the brand.

Whatever happens, it’s a big moment in Apple history. The fact that Apple’s problems have been in the limelight so much this week in and of itself is a little unusual, but the company calling a press conference is just plan unheard of. I can’t remember a time when modern Apple called one, actually.

Without a doubt, the stock will drop tomorrow just from the news of the event alone. Hopefully Friday won’t make that worse.

To say that the clamor surrounding the iPhone 4’s reception issues is growing is an understatement.

Yesterday, Consumer Reports came out with this statement, explaining why the group couldn’t recommend Apple’s new handset:

The signal problem is the reason that we did not cite the iPhone 4 as a “recommended” model, even though its score in our other tests placed it atop the latest Ratings of smart phones that were released today.

Today, they followed up with this:

We think it’s the company’s responsibility to provide the fix—at no extra cost to consumers.

Engadget has put together stories about the “iPhone Death Grip” from lots of tech writers around the Internet. This quote by Ross Miller sums up the situation pretty well, I think:

It’s not affecting me day-to-day, but I can most assuredly recreate the problem. ‘Inconsistent, troubling’ might be the more apt description in my case.

In short, not every phone has the problem, while some just exhibit the issue in a low-connection environment. Others do it all the time, regardless of their proximity to an AT&T tower. Madness.

Apple’s forthcoming software fix is related to how the iPhone displays signal strength. In short, Apple claims that iPhones (and presumably 3G-equipped iPads) have a tendency to show more bars than what would be considered an accurate description of their signal strength.

This means that customers who see a dramatic drop in signal strength due to holding their iPhone “the wrong way*” is seeing a more dramatic drop in signal than what they’re actually experiencing.

While no one will know for sure until Apple’s update is out, it should clarify just how many bars are being dropped when the iPhone’s antenna is cupped, possibly making the “Death Grip” effect seems less potent. People should freak out less about dropping one bar than dropping three or four.

Apple has had other products with issues (G4 Cube enclosure cracks, blown caps in the iMac G5, MacBooks with bum hard drives, etc), but the iPhone 4 is their baby, the crown jewel in the current product lineup. This is a rare moment in Apple history.

Even so, I don’t see Apple launching a full-blown recall. I don’t think the issue is widespread enough, nor do I think Apple would ever be able to swallow the “oh, crap, we messed up” pill.

(That said, I think that the company will go about testing and developing future products in a very different way.)

An easy fix — one that many have suggested — is that Apple send out their “Bumper” cases to iPhone 4 customers. The cases aren’t bulky, and resolve any problems related with touching the iPhone 4’s steel band. It would allow Apple to keep producing iPhone 4s as they are now, saving the company time and money in retooling.

I think some Apple executives — and the public — would see free cases as Apple admitting the iPhone 4 is flawed.

And I’m not sure Steve Jobs can do that.

———- \* Steve Jobs’ emails responding to customer inquires about this issue begs one question: Is Jobs doing Apple more harm than good with his email account?

Sam Oliver at AppleInsider:

Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes reported on Tuesday that its sources within overseas component makers indicated that Apple plans to launch a second-generation iPad as soon as the fourth quarter of 2010. The new hardware would reportedly use 5.6-inch and 7-inch OLED displays, with Compal Electronics in the running to supply Apple.

The new models would be in addition to Apple’s successful 9.7-inch iPad, which would receive “some minor changes,” the report said. The smaller 5.6-inch and 7-inch iPad models would “mainly target the e-book reader market, separating them from the 9.7-inch model, which mainly targets multimedia entertainment,” the report said.

I think DigiTimes is wrong (yet again) on this one. Both the iPad and the 3.5-inch iPhone 4 use IPS LCD panels. These panels are superior to OLED in many ways, and it just doesn’t make sense for Apple to have a mid-range device with a different display strapped to it.

In fact, I think the whole bit about future 5.6-inch and a 7-inch iPad models is wrong. The iPod touch is still extremely popular. It’s pocketable and a great solution for people who don’t carry an iPhone. On the other hand, the iPad is seen by most as a complimentary product to the iPhone. Something in-between wouldn’t be seen as useful as an iPad or as mobile as an iPod touch.

Having something in-between just doesn’t make sense.

Damn it, that one with the grandfather just about made me cry.

Update: The “Big News” one is also crazy touching.

Apple has a wonderful page tucked away on their website titled “ Designing Cases for iPod, iPhone, and iPad.” The page gives dimensions and drawings of all the company’s mobile devices dating back to the iPod mini for use by case designers. Pretty neat.

Louis Gray, on switching to Android:

I also will never tell you that Android is perfect - in software or in hardware.

[…]

The momentum is clear and the option of multiple choices is clear. If I like Android and hate my new carrier, Sprint, I can switch to Verizon and get the Incredible. If I have an aneurysm and love AT&T, I can get the Aria. If I want a small screen, I can do that. If I want a physical keyboard, I can find a device that does that. But for iPhone, I simply would have to take whatever Apple offers and believe that their choices are right for me. I’ve chosen Apple many times and will again in the future, but I don’t think I should buy into a system that restricts my choices when another one is out there that enables my choices.

I switched to Android because I am extending my move away from the desktop and more to the cloud. iTunes does not deserve to be the core of my device any more, as it is simply a utility to rent films and get new apps for the iPad. I do believe the Web to be my future hub, and Google is preparing for that world, while Apple is not. Their devices do great work to get to the Web easily, but once there, I have almost always been pointed to other providers, so now, with Android, for the most part, I can just go to the source.

I totally agree.

I’m sure the eventual Arrested Development movie won’t be this intense, but man, this trailer is sweet.