The iPhone 4′s housing is an exercise in great design, made up of two pieces of aluminosilicate glass, specially treated to make it much harder and more stiff than plastic to increase its durability. However, it is still susceptible to cracks and chips if punished enough, as some users have discovered already. Wrapped around this glass “sandwich” is a band of custom stainless steel alloy that serves as an anchor for the structure of the phone as well as its internals, and houses the buttons, ports, and the iPhone 4′s antenna as well.

The iPhone 4 comes with both a forward- and rearward-facing camera, allowing you to make FaceTime video calls to other iPhone 4 users or take 5-megapixel pictures and capture 720p video. Additionally, the iPhone 4 has received a bump up to 802.11n and gained efficient multitasking to allow you to get the most out of the phone without quickly draining the battery. To help with the multitasking, the iPhone 4 has a 1 GHz A4 processor first debuted in the iPad to help everything run quickly and smoothly, and it is immediately apparent upon comparison with the 3GS that it has fulfilled that role quite nicely.

Today Apple have issued a letter to iPhone 4 users where they finally address the infamous iPhone 4 reception issue and acknowledge the problem.  That’s a good step.

But … they are classifying the problem as entirely a software issue, with signal strength being displayed inaccurately.

Here’s Apple’s verdict on where the problems lie:

We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising.

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

And their plans for a software-based fix in a free update …

To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.

We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

A few things stand out about Apple’s response today.  First and foremost is that it still seems as if they may be underestimating or intentionally underplaying the nature and severity of the issue.  It seems to me that there is some compelling video and first-hand evidence – from at least a percentage of iPhone 4 users – that there is more than just a signal strength display problem.  That calls are actually dropping and failing.

The overall tone of their letter to users is not apologetic either.  It starts out by boasting about how this is their most successful product launch ever and talking about how all mobile phones have reception issues.  Near the end it reminds users that they are welcome to return their iPhone 4 within 30 days of purchase. The words of support in this letter don’t seem to carry anywhere near the conviction and strength that their marketing releases carry when telling us how wonderful the new iPhone is.

Here are some reactions to Apple’s letter that I’ve found interesting today:

Robert Scoble on Twitter …

John Gruber’s ‘Translation From Apple’s Unique Dialect of PR-Speak to English of the ‘Letter From Apple Regarding iPhone 4’

*** There’s some NSFW language in Gruber’s post – it is very funny and well worth a read though.

I think Kevin Tofel at jkOnTheRun has a very good take on it:

We’ll have to see what happens when the software update arrives — the iPhone 3G and 3GS will get the fix too — but my take: if you hold iPhone 4 in your left hand now have a problem with the signal today, you’ll still have it after the update. Unless you spend $29 on a stunning bumper, that is.

I realize that this issue is not affecting all users of the iPhone 4, and perhaps not even a huge percentage of users, and that even those who do see the issue may see it with less severity.  I can see the decreasing bars on my iPhone 4 for instance, but have not had a single dropped or failed call in over a week of iPhone 4 usage.  I also understand that many reviewers and users are finding that this is the best iPhone yet in terms of reception and performance as a phone.

Even so, even if just a small percentage of users are affected severely by this, I still feel like Apple’s approach needs a lot of work.  As I said a couple days ago, now would be a great time for a hell of a lot more humility and support on their part.  Thus far, they do not seem to be living up to their reputation for great customer service, not by a long stretch.

A huge thanks to commenter Muero for this information. He corrected the mistake I had made in my original sarcastic post about how the dictionary feature of iBooks simply didn’t work in Canada. Apparently, it has nothing to do with how many maple leaves are on your flag, but, rather, what language an eBook is set to. I had to go all the way back into Stanza on my Mac, set the of my eBook to English,  and re-import the file into iBooks via iTunes to get the option to download the iBooks dictionary. After a 20 second download I was good to go and was defining words left and right like nobody’s business (Business: biz-nis -noun; none of yours.)

This is opposed to the process in an app like Stanza, where you can look up a word regardless of the language metatags (tested by throwing the same  no-lanugage eBook into Stanza).

]]> http://webdesignnuke.com/set-your-ebook%e2%80%99s-language-to-activate-the-dictionary/feed/ 0 http://webdesignnuke.com/beat-the-distance-with-Mobiles/ http://webdesignnuke.com/beat-the-distance-with-Mobiles/#comments Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:29:36 +0000 http://webdesignnuke.com/?p=371 Technology has brought in a profound impact on the way human beings enjoy their leisure time. Imagine that you can work at home while listening to great music. Communication industry has met whatever individuals. It keeps innovating in every sectors of production to meet the changing needs for personal or business matters. With telecommunication, the world is seemingly endless since everybody can directly contact a friend or business partners from different parts of the world.

The innovation in mobiles also brings more cost-effectiveness in communication costs. It is particularly true since national and international calls are now supported with sophisticated devices that enable people to communicate with the least costs. Reduced fare brings about a reduction in operating costs in parts of business. These permit them to obtain more revenues. In addition, the use of mobile phones is also helpful in providing individuals with more amusement with significantly lower fees.

Now, mobile phones are not only used for long-distance communication; they are also used for listening to music, take a picture, or saving many important information. Some cellphones are supported with feature that permits the users to play music, MP3, MP4, and even play game during their leisure time. But, whatever the features you want to get, Bondandbond.co nz is the right place to come since it offers massive collections of latest mobile phones with the most sophisticated technology ever.

MyWi (reviewed here) has been updated to work on iOS 4, and has received a number of major improvements in the process. This new version is only available on the Rock App jailbreak store, though.

New features include live battery usage indicators, option for a status bar icon instead of the giant blue bar, and speed and battery usage enhancements. You can also choose to tether by USB, bringing the total number of tethering options in MyWi to three (alongside Bluetooth and Wi-Fi tethering).

This update doesn’t come for free, though. A new license has been bumped up to $20 from the previous $10 asking price, but previous 3.xx owners can upgrade their licenses for half of that cost. This makes MyWi one of the priciest apps I know of, but it can also save you quite a lot of money by avoiding the cost of a rip-off tethering plan.

How do you close out an iPhone app that is running in the background in the new iOS 4?  We’ve had more than one reader ask this question since the launch of the new iPhone operating system, and the iPhone 4, last week.  Some have asked about this due to battery drain concerns, and others just because they want to be able to shut down a backgrounded app.

So this seems as good a time as any to share a quick tip on how you can force apps to close in the new iOS 4.

There are two ways to fore an app to close down under iOS 4.  The first is by doing a ‘force quit’ on the app, just as we have done under the previous version of the iPhone OS.  To do this, you press and hold the power button while you are in the app you want to close down.  Wait for the ‘Slide to power off’ bar appears across the top of the iPhone – then don’t hit Cancel, but instead just hold down the Home button continuously until the app closes and you drop back to the home screen.

The much easier method now available in iOS 4 is to use the Multitasking bar to close any app you want.  Here’s how:

– Double tap the Home button to bring up the Multitasking bar

– Press and hold anywhere on the multitasking bar until the icons on it start to wiggle.

– While they are wiggling, each icon has a Minus sign symbol above it.

– Press the Minus symbol above any app to close it down.

That’s it.  This will work for any app you want to close, including the Apple built-in apps like Mail and Safari etc.

Hope this quick tip is helpful to some of you who are getting to know iOS 4.

Image Source: roflrazzi.com

It appears that iOS 4, more so than previous iPhone software, presents a less accurate signal meter, showing less signal at times than an iPhone 3GS while still being able to achieve the same or better call quality. …

Readers report that Apple’s tech support forums originally confirmed that a iOS 4.0.1 software fix addressing the issue would ship early next week (as early as Monday), before the comments were subsequently taken down along with all the other related discussion about the matter.

That’s a couple of excerpts from a recent report at Apple Insider.  If the antenna problems turn out to be primarily a software issue, then this could be very good news.  But … the video demo of the issue that I saw yesterday would seem to indicate far more than just a software / status bar display issue.  At least an update would be a better response from Apple than their initial Ministry of Silly Walks reaction, telling users that they’re holding it wrong.

On top of the infamous antenna issues, there appears to be another quite serious iPhone 4 problem that is affecting a good number of users.  Namely problems with the iPhone 4 proximity sensor are causing mid-call hangups, unintended dialing and more similar troublesome behavior when using the new iPhone.

I learned of these issues via an email from a regular reader here, Brian Bothwell.  Since I’ve not yet experienced the issue, I’m going to share Brian’s rundown of the problem here – as it is affecting him and he has researched it heavily …

As much as I don’t want even more problems related to iPhone 4 to get exposure, this one effects me personally and is a serious problem as it causes hangups during important phone calls. It would be helpful to get more exposure to this problem so Apple starts taking notice and provides a fix.

In short, there are problems with the proximity sensor. Unsure yet if the problem is with iOS 4.0 or iPhone 4. I started noticing it when I got my new iPhone 4, but I had not put iOS 4.0 on my 3GS. Some others are reporting that they are having problems on their 3GS because of it. What happens is even if the phone is against your ear and not moving, the screen randomly activates and de-activates. Many times this causes “face dialing” where your face will push buttons on the screen. This can either hang up your call, start a FaceTime conversation, put the person on hold, put the person on speakerphone, or if you have received a SMS or other popup notification, it can start launching other apps.

It has been extremely frustrating for me. I’ve hung up on many people accidentally because of it. If you guys do post this to help give it exposure, please provide this information in some form:

If any of you are having issues with the proximity sensor (face dialing/hangups) on iPhone4 or iOS4, please go here and add a post: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2475509

Also, it would be helpful to put in a support call in order to improve Apples level 2 exposure, to the problem. Go here:

http://www.apple.com/support/expert/

Enter a description of this problem and your phone number. In your description, explain that the screen turns on and off even when the phone is against your face. Explain that you’ve done a full restore and tried reset all settings. Give them a link to the above discussion thread.

Let us know in the comments if you have experienced this issue on your iPhone 4.

The App Store is currently featuring a number of ‘awesome’ iOS 4 enabled apps – so it’s easy to find some notable apps that are ready to make the most of the new OS’s features.

The list includes Apple’s own brand new iMovie app for the iPhone as well as many popular and well-known apps.

You can find the list by going to the Featured tab in the App Store and tapping on the big iOS 4 button at the top right of the screen. 

Let us know what some of your favorite iOS 4 capable apps are so far.