The Antenna issue is getting a bit out of hand, and while we didn’t explicitly cover Consumer Reports’ redacted statement in which they cannot recommend the iPhone 4 to consumers, Apple may be forced to recall their handset because of it. Cult of Mac recently spoke to quite a few PR Experts who are not only astounded at the “crisis,” but are placing bets that Apple will be forced to recall the iPhone 4 as the antenna issue is hardware related (and cannot be fixed by software).
AT&T to Move ‘Heaven & Earth’
VentureBeat MobileBeat 2010: AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan is blasted with questions from VB Editor in Chief Matt Marshall concerning AT&T and their network. The response ties in with what Jobs said D8, “… when they start to fix them, get worse before they get better…and if you believe that, things should be getting a lot better real soon.”
VentureBeat reports,
It’s a little bit of everything, Donovan replied. With a flood of new chipsets, phones, and applications, the traditional device testing and rollout methods have “broken down.” In addition, AT&T recently faced a shortage of the components needed to improve its network.
“I’ll tell you the things it’s not been,” Donovan said. “It’s not been capital, it’s not been conviction and commitment.” AT&T “will move heaven and Earth” to meet its customers’ growing data needs, he said.
I’d be impressed if AT&T could actually move the heavens to improve reception.
[VentureBeat via 9 to 5 Mac]
Symbian Losing Battle Against iOS, Android
Do you guys remember Symbian? Does anybody remember Symbian? We usually associate Symbian as the famed OS of Nokia phones, but I’m beginning to associate it with “non-existent.”
The Mayor of New York is Infatuated with his iPad
Wells Fargo. The White House. And now even the Mayor of New York is touting an iPad on behalf of a paperless workflow. In fact, Mayer Bloomberg had some very positive things to say about his new work device.
“It’s amazing. I told Steve Jobs the other day, if he can improve on this, it’ll really be amazing. I just, every time I play with it, I discover something new.”
[via 9 to 5 Mac]
iPad Study Gives Insight on Public Reception & Use
Mashable shared an online study yesterday from Resolve Market Research, which details public perceptions about the iPad, and gives us some insight on how a purchase of the iPad will subsequently affect other sales.
How to Play SNES on your iPad
I don’t think a Wiimote is required (check out the SNES iPhone Controller we found not too long ago), but Lifehacker lists four easy steps to play SNES games on your iPad. If Super Metroid doesn’t sound awesome on your iPad, I don’t know what does.
Refresh for Mac Gives you Instant Search on Any Website
App Store Password Caching Causing Unintentional Purchases?
So you have a kid right? Then I’m sure you’ve done this a lot or have had this happen at least once: You download an innocent game to keep them busy, handed them your iPhone, and let them have at it. The kids get carried away, and you wake up the next morning to a bank alert claiming you’ve incurred $300 in App-app purchases. This leads to a few nasty emails sent to Apple and the developer, claiming fraudulent charges and demanding your money back.
But just so you know, developers aren’t trying to screw you over. Apple has an odd API concerning purchases and password caching. While you probably realize that Apple gives you the opportunity to purchase multiple items in the store so you don’t have to keep entering your password, you might not have realized that this caching translates to in-app purchases as well.
BRDA on Jobs: Blu-ray Will be Around for a While
So what do you do when Steve Jobs says your entire industry is going to be replaced by digital formats? Refute it of course! Jobs claims that Internet based downloads will surpass Blu-ray, stating that, “Bluray is looking more and more like one of the high end audio formats that appeared as the successor to the CD - like it will be beaten by Internet downloadable formats.”
The Blu-Ray Disc Association responds, “According to market analysis Blu-ray Disc has a rate of adoption is very similar to that of DVD at the same seniority (18 million U.S. homes with Blu-ray in Q4 ‘10, the same numbers as the penetration of DVD to Q1 of the fifth year on the market of that size, Adams Media Research), we agree that the Internet will increase its importance to both stream that content to be scarce, but we do believe that the physical media like Blu-ray Disc will continue to dominate for many years, due to ease of use, high durability, and certainly the ability to deliver high definition experience and quality available anywhere.”
Anywhere you have a Blu-ray player that is. Personally I prefer just to instantly download movies, so I’m going to side with Jobs since I’m not a fan of discs at all. But what do you guys think? Will Blu-ray continue to remain in the market for years to come because of its market penetration? Or will downloadable content cause Blu-ray to sizzle out and end up like the CDs of today?
[via 9 to 5 Mac]