The Great Apple Presser
If Consumer Reports continues on with this they may very well be in for a fun interaction with one of Apples other, less popular departments, the legal one. They are now really verging on the line of libel and slander by constantly changing their story just to keep driving site traffic.
I knew it hit critical mass when in my small town my mom asked me how bad my signal was on my iPhone 4 and when I asked her how she found out, she told me the the 6 o’clock news. I was curious and watched last night and sure as as shit, the a quote from Consumer Reports and a picture from yesterday’s presser was their lead story that they teased the entire hour.
The problem for them is not the link bait or the bad journalism. Their problem is going to be that they said it was the worst phone for and dropped more calls under this situation without actually comparing it with anything. They claim to do scientific testing but they just failed at doing anything close to is.
One thing Apple may have a hard time doing to prove the case of providing proof of loss. The phone is still back ordered 3+ weeks and country releases have been pushed back to try to let the markets that already have the iPhone 4 have time to sell as many as possible. Yes, they could use the cost of the now free bumpers and cases as a loss but Consumer Reports could flip that and say it proves what they said about the phone is indeed true and accurate.
One thing we can get out of this is a lesson in modern journalism. The mainstream, trusted media can not be trusted any more. This has been shown time and time and again. This is, in my horrible memory, the first time I remember seeing tech blogs and blogger journalists doing excellent reporting and news gathering then actually going out to investigate it themselves to see what is really happening. I really do have to credit
Engadget and
Anandtech for doing such great jobs with these stories. They could have run with the link bait, provide no real discussion, and just pile on Apple but they didn’t. /golf clap
On Steve Jobs on iOS 4 Multitasking
“People shouldn’t have to understand multitasking. Just use is [sic] as designed, and you’ll be happy. No need to ever quit apps.”
I think this bit goes to show that multitasking has been done wrong all along on mobile platforms. With my brief six month stint in Android hell I was constantly worried about what apps are running. Why is that thing still open? Who the hell just fired up the GPS? Jesus shit! I just had 90% battery, you’re telling me the cute comic app has been searching for updates for the past 45 minutes and now my phone is dead?
When out and away from any source of power I was nearly obsessively checking my app manager to make sure nothing was running, always worried a rogue program would steal all my battery. The problem is, I don’t think even Google knows what their policy is on multitasking so I really can’t blame the app devs. You read one quote from a Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, telling you not to worry about multitasking, the dev should. While Google founder, Larry Page says that there is something seriously wrong.
What Steve Jobs is getting at here is that, like most other things (ie: the camera, typing, brightness, notes,…), let the hardware and software you paid up-words of $200 for do the work. Stop worrying about it. No, all those apps aren’t running. No, you don’t need to manage that tray. The tray is there to make it easier to move between apps, eliminating how many times you have to search through your home screen and folders for apps. Do you know why this tray idea is brilliant? Through out the day you probably turn your phone on and off hundreds of times, maybe using 2-4 apps each time. Waiting for my change, oh I’ll check twitter and my mail. The dog is doing its thing, wonder what news is happening and if my buddy is on aim? Now you can do these tasks over and over amazing quickly without ever seeing your home screen. Apple has eliminated a transition, a shutdown-startup cycle for you. Even with apps that haven’t been tweaked for the new instant open switching is much faster, including on the 3GS.
People are so ready to nail Apple for not doing true multitasking and there has been a lot of talk about that. What people should worry about is if this form really useful and practical? Now that I have my hands on it, has it enhanced my phone and do I feel I can do things as quickly or quicker than my Android toting friends? My wager is yes, and I’d bet money that you’ll be forgetting you’re even doing it inside a week where your Android friend will be reminded daily that they’re multitasking.
In Response to “The Safari Reader Arms Race” by Jim Lynch
Yes, Reader is the start of an arms race but NOT between publishers and browser makers. Its an arms race between content creators and content consumers. While the validity of your claim that some people want sites broken up into many pages is shaky at best, you’re missing the point that having this type of ad revenue isn’t sustainable.
The major reason that this sort of ad revenue exists is because most content creators think its not their job to get the advertisers to WANT to advertise on your site. Your advertisers have no idea what your site is and does. You’re a number to them that google or your ad agency spits back to them.
Sites like Daring Fireball have in stream ads from companies that either John knows, has used, or can and does sincerely recommend. Very few, if any, readers complain about his ads. I, for one, look foreword to them. I’ve found many interesting products from reading them that I’ve bought.
However, I have never clicked a google adword, banner, or other flash ad and paid for anything. Most times, I don’t even see them as I’ve grown accustomed to just skipping right over any of that blue/grey text.
Now I’m sure John spends quite a bit of time finding sponsors for his site and checking to see if the product is something he wants to get behind. But he’s not the only one that does this. Leo Laporte has been doing this for years with his entire network. And guess what, I’ve bought products he’s recommended through ads as well. While both may have some dry spots when getting quality advertisers was hard, they both made it through and now seem to have a rather steady flow of revenue because their advertisers have seen the benefit of having a spokesperson/endorsement over just a google adword buy.
I know these sites are expensive to keep running and its even harder if you’re trying to live off the revenues from it. I just don’t believe that’s an excuse to promote horrible design behavior and assault your readers with ads. Mostly, because there is quite a bit of proof out there that it doesn’t have to be this way.
Why after trying for months I’m leaving Android behind to go back to iPhone
I tried. I really did. Back in November I started to grow tired of the constant increase in charges and taxes. While I know these taxes aren’t limited to AT&T they did seem to be applying them unfairly compared to other companions, not applying the charges to the account and instead to each line and service. While it is legal by the local governments, it’s very annoying non the less.
So I shopped around, mostly interested in the phones and data plans and knowing that I wanted Android. I settled on Sprint and the HTC Hero. It got decent reviews and was scheduled for an update in the near future.
This promise was the first chink in the Android armor. The fact that Google has no control over when and if manufacturers and carriers update their phones. HTC was supposedly working on an update to the Hero. Months passed and phones with newer versions of Android came out and the Hero suffered from bugs and slow antiquated software.
Then finally, after nearly six months of waiting, the Hero was updated. While I was thrilled to read the announcement that the update was ready, other than links from tech blogs there was no news from Sprint or HTC. It was almost as if they didn’t want Hero owners to know their was an update, and maybe with good reason. When I finally got to the site the download took 5 hours for just over 230 MB of data. Then the update and sync software failed to install properly twice and the update to the phone failed three times. After nearly a day of frustration my Hero was finally running android 2.1, even though Google had just announced that 2.2 was going to be out this summer.
I started playing with the update and was happy with it, at first. I was a bit upset that I had to start from the beginning setting up the phone. With that aside I started to notice odd little stutters. The keyboard was even less reactive. The apps took longer to open and launch. Battery life was better but it seamed to come with a slower and less responsive phone.
The other part of my decision came from the fact that I had just gotten an iPad and was longing for my phone to work as well. Everything happen so quickly and effortlessly. While I knew what the next iteration of the iPhone was going to have I didn’t long for it until I got what Android had to offer. While I consider myself a geek, I just don’t like trading so many options and sub par hardware and software for usability.
I like my phone to just work and Android never felt like it did. Maybe more powerful phones feel better but I just never feel like I can rely on it. While I’m sure not all Android phones feel as bad, I’m not feeling as adventurous about the OS and am tired of trying to make it feel more like an iPhone.
And with that, that’s what I’m doing. I’m getting the iPhone 4. I know I’ll have to go back to AT&T but I’m one of the people that will benefit from their recent price changes. I hardly use cell provided Internet since I’m mostly in wifi range. Oddly, I’ll be saving almost $40 a month going back and have an amazing phone that I’m almost drooling over. The feeling of holding a solid phone in my hands again will be amazing.
Google’s Potential Little Problem
So I was just thinking, what if the networks block Google from using their browser on Google TV from viewing Hulu like they did to Boxee? Will Google break the law and hack it as Boxee did or tell people to do their own work around or just completely ignore it as a problem as they are now? This could get interesting.
