The Smartphone Hub

Greenpeace — the fly in the ointment for tech firms — is lauding Apple while chastising Dell this morning. The do-gooders sent out a note pointing out that, while Apple’s wildly popular iPhone’s are free of PVC plastic and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) (two nasty chemicals), Dell still hasn’t implemented its previous commitment to eliminate the two chemicals by the end of 2009.

In Greenpeace’s latest Guide to Greener Electronics Dell is about average, and places 10 on a scale of 18, five places below competitor Apple. But while Dell has made some impressive moves to reduce its carbon footprint and has been offering more eco-friendly products (see the bamboo laptop), Greenpeace gave it a big old penalty point for backtracking on its commitment to eliminate PVC plastic and BFRs by 2009. Dell does pledge to remove the chemicals by the end of 2011 but only for computing products.

It wasn’t long ago that Greenpeace was prodding Apple to disclose its carbon footprint, and become more aggressive on greening its gadgets. In a Business Week article last year, Apple’s fearless leader Steve Jobs noted that Greenpeace’s criticism of Apple was one of the motivations behind Apple unveiling its carbon footprint, its carbon accounting methods and Jobs pledging to make “a greener Apple.” Apple has since moved up in the ranks of Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Gadgets where it is now #5.

Dell and Apple have been longtime competitors in the marketplace, but also when it comes to getting recognition for their green projects. Last year, Dell took Apple to task over Apple’s claims that it had “the world’s greenest family of notebooks” — first in a smackdown post on its company blog and later with a complaint filed with the advertising industry’s self-regulator, the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, or NAD. NAD concluded that Apple can legitimately market its latest generation of MacBooks as being greener than some product lines from a given competitor (the new MacBooks earn high Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool, or EPEAT, ratings) but that “world’s greenest” has “potential for overstatement.”

Greenpeace’s ultimate goal is to get all of the tech companies to move more quickly to eliminate chemicals, recycle and reduce carbon footprints and pitting competitors against each other is a common strategy.

Image courtesy of Greenpeace.

Check out the rest: GigaOM

Apple’s iPhone 4 has the highest resolution for a smartphone and offers an easy method for wireless video calling, but it’s failing for some in a basic phone function — voice calling. The situation is causing outrage around the web and on Twitter: depending on who you ask, the innovative stainless-steel frame that doubles as an antenna is either the best or the worst feature. Apple claims the antenna offers the best reception ever, yet Consumer Reports testing confirms what many consumers are finding out firsthand: touching two specific parts of the frame simultaneously causes signal degradation.

Surprisingly, Apple isn’t handling this public relations challenge very well. Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, reportedly emailed a complaining customer saying, “Just avoid holding it that way.” And just prior to a holiday weekend — possibly in an attempt to bury attention — the company issued a press release pushing much of the blame on U.S. carrier partner AT&T (t). Apple claims that all iPhones have been incorrectly overstating signal strength and that a software fix will address the problem soon. Clearly, the software update will fix the visual problem, but it’s highly unlikely that the antenna problem will be affected.

At this point, the negative press shows no signs of abating over the iPhone 4 antenna issue and, for that reason, the fastest and simplest solution should be considered — Apple should simply offer a free bumper to every iPhone 4 customer. While Apple would lose out on the $29 sales of such items — and the high profit margin they likely involve — the company could negate the bad press and make things right with its customers. And the fact that Apple never made iPhone cases or bumpers before isn’t lost on me. I have to wonder when Apple actually realized the potential antenna issue.

Regardless of when the problem was determined, the peace offering of a bumper is far less damaging in the long term and is a better way to handle the situation than allegedly deleting mentions of the Consumer Reports findings in Apple support discussions or recalling the phone as some have suggested. For a company that’s built upon brand loyalty, Apple simply can’t afford to not offer free iPhone 4 bumpers.

Related content on GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

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Apple has been repeatedly criticized for over-policing its App Store by arbitrarily enforcing a litany of rejection policies only slightly less decipherable than a David Lynch film. But as I discuss in my weekly column over at GigaOM Pro, in not weeding out the garbage and offering a library of only top-notch apps, Apple may be blowing a tremendous chance to differentiate itself and remain on top.

In the latest App Store snafu, a rogue developer managed to infiltrate Apple’s walled garden and push his suspicious-looking titles into 42 of the top 50 seller slots of the App Store’s e-books category. Thuat Nguyen and his offerings were publicly frog-marched out of the App Store after he reportedly hacked into users’ iTunes accounts to make fraudulent transactions for relatively pricey apps, boosting those titles onto the hit lists.

The incident is just one more piece of evidence that Apple isn’t effectively minding the App Store, which teems with knock-offs, third-rate me-too offerings and just plain junk. The success of a novelty fart simulator in late 2008, for instance, so inspired developers that Apple approved 14 me-too offerings in one day alone. Which doesn’t do much to stoke the confidence of consumers when they’re trying to browse a store that stocks a ridiculous 200,000 items on its shelves.

The odd thing is that the marketing message of protecting the consumer and delivering elite products are underpinnings of Steve Jobs’ empire. Jobs notoriously boasted that the iPad offers “freedom from programs that steal your private data. Freedom from programs that trash you battery. Freedom from porn.” And Apple has long made a point of contrasting the vast number of malware threats Microsoft Windows faces with the few attempts to threaten Mac OS. But as the Nguyen incident demonstrates, the Phone’s locked-down ecosystem isn’t keeping customers free from either garbage or fraudulent titles that may threaten their safety.

The folks in Cupertino have a well-earned reputation for producing top-notch offerings, but too many iPhone apps are anything but top-notch. Meanwhile, Android already has some real competitive advantages over Apple’s mobile operating system, especially in the U.S., where it isn’t tied to a single carrier. If Apple doesn’t differentiate itself with a vastly superior App Store, it may find itself on the wrong end of a two-horse race.

Read the full post here.

Image courtesy Flickr use RightIndex.

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Fring has updated its Voice over IP client, bringing support for the front-facing camera on Apple’s iPhone 4. Unlike the handset’s native FaceTime client, which is restricted to video calls over Wi-Fi and only to other iPhone 4 devices, the new Fring client supports video calls over 3G and calls to non-Apple devices such as those running Android and Symbian S60. With widespread platform support and 1.7 million iPhone 4 sold in the first three days of availability, Fring’s software is fast opening up the floodgates for mainstream video over cellular wireless.

But is AT&T’s network ready for 3G video calling on iPhone 4? Sure, Apple’s newest handset is sold outside of the U.S., but the U.S. (and thus the audience potentially affected by AT&T’s network) is significant. When Apple debuted FaceTime video calling on the iPhone 4, Steve Jobs said that Apple would be working with carriers to support the service over 3G in the future. There could be technical reasons for such a statement such as the need to figure out how to transfer calls between Wi-Fi and 3G without having to hang up, for example, but there’s also a question of network capability as well.

Russ Shaw, VP of Skype Mobile, which provides a similar VoIP service currently without mobile video support, recently told Om that it didn’t want to release any product that would disappoint users. With the user experience highly reliant upon the 3G network, Shaw’s caution is warranted, especially went it comes to video, which requires more bandwidth than voice alone. And given how a 3G network offers varying speeds due to signal, location, the number of people wirelessly connected to a tower and backhaul in use at the time, video calling over Wi-Fi will typically offer a more positive experience.

Unfortunately, carriers had better get ready for an uptick in video-calling and video transfer in general. A recent Pew report indicates a near-doubling of consumers recording mobile video in the past year. Capturing and uploading such video is just a start — once the user-base of clients like Fring, Skype and FaceTime reach critical mass, handset owners could be flooding mobile pipes with video calls. Indeed, our own GigaOM Pro research report on video calling (subscription required) estimates that the mobile video chat market will have more nearly 143 million customers by 2015. Let’s hope the carriers fulfill their planned 4G upgrades and embrace high-quality video calling on the faster, new networks.

Check out the rest: GigaOM

Last week, BGR posted a Steve Jobs email exchange in which the CEO told an irate iPhone user to “calm down.” Apple said the messages were fake, but BGR is standing by his story, offering the email headers as proof. More »










Steve Jobs – Apple – IPhone – Pioneers – History

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Apple heralds the arrival of the iPhone 4 as the most successful product launch ever, but since the device first went on sale, reviews across the world have remarked on issues of signal quality. From notions of holding your phone incorrectly to simply displaying an inaccurate representation of signal strength, the issue has become prominently associated with the popular phone and could affect its sales. Today, Apple finally released a response addressing the concerns.

The architecture of the new iPhone 4 places the antenna structure within the stainless steel band that wraps the new phone. And the problem many users have noted is that applying normal pressure along specific points of the phone causes the signal quality indicator to drop. Seems like just a hardware issue, right? Well before you go old-school and wrap your phone in aluminum foil in a desperate attempt to boost the signal strength, there’s more to the story.

The issue of signal strength has been picked apart across the Internet; some people can reproduce the problem, while others cannot. A few days after these issues first came to light, Steve Jobs said in response to an email:

Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.

It’s an interesting response, but it seems to speak to Apple’s industrial design decisions, since such sensitive hardware is in a region of the phone that’s naturally likely to be handled. Regardless, since Jobs’ comments, there have been daily rumors concerning Apple’s solution to the issue, whether it’s a software update to “fix” the problem or providing customers with an iPhone 4 bumper case that avoids placing pressure on the antenna. Most recently, fabricated emails have come to light suggesting that Jobs told a customer “calm down” and that it’s “not worth it.” While that turned out to be a fake email according to Apple, the company finally released a statement regarding the issue altogether.

According to the statement, the algorithm for calculating the signal strength has just been inaccurate, showing more bars than it should in some cases. In an example provided by Apple, what is displayed on your iPhone could be two bars higher than the actual signal strength. The statement also suggests your real signal strength never changes, so when you see the lower signal strength as a result of placing pressure along one of the antennas, you’re really seeing a more accurate representation of the signal.

Okay, so it’s a software issue. Or is it?

Apple says this problem of inaccurate signal strength has been present in every iPhone since launch. (Thanks, Apple!)

So if it’s an issue of inaccurate signal strength, how does that affect performance? Look at the video that Cameron Hunt posted to Vimeo that shows how Safari simply stops loading when he touches one of these antenna points along the device. If you apply Apple’s logic to his scenario, when you watch the bars begin to drop, his actual signal strength shouldn’t be dropping. Yet it does, because Safari cannot finish downloading the page. Clearly, there’s still some degree of a hardware issue involved.

Apple says a free software update for iPhone 4, iPhone 3G and 3GS users will be available in the next few weeks to address the problem, and will cause your iPhone to display a more accurate signal strength. Additionally, the update will make the first three signal bars “a bit taller” and “easier to see.” Just remember, they’re only taller to make them more visible, not because the signal strength is any better.

For the technically minded out there, it’s been mentioned that the field test mode in iPhone 4 has disappeared. That’s too bad, as it would have been a great way to see what’s really happening to the signal strength. Does anybody know how to access it on the new iPhone 4?

Do you really believe Apple’s response that the issue is software-related and the reality is that the network reception is actually much lower than what your iPhone displays? Is there really anything wrong? Or is nothing wrong? Or is there something wrong but the problem is just normal of cell phones and it’s just time for us Apple users to drink the Kool-Aid again? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Check out the rest: GigaOM

Oh no! Apple rejected this cute girl’s iPhone app twice because it has “minimal user functionality.” How dare they claim that an app that lets me browse those horrid iAds is useless! More »










Apple – IPhone – Smartphones – Handhelds – Steve Jobs

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According to Apple PR, the email exchange everyone was talking about earlier was fake. A spokesperson claims that none of the statements, such as “You’re getting all worked up over a few days of rumors,” were made by Steve Jobs: More »










Apple – Steve Jobs – Macintosh – Pioneers – History

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Apple’s much-hyped iAd is slated to debut tomorrow on iPhones and iPod touches, and there’s no shortage of advertisers willing to dig deep into their pockets to be a part of the platform. As I discuss in my new report over at GigaOM Pro on in-app advertising (sub. req’d), iAd will surely give the market a boost thanks to the emergence of the iPad, whose size and display quality make it an ideal device for using apps and viewing ads. But here’s why iAd won’t capture the 48 percent of the market that Steve Jobs is gunning for:

• It’s expensive. Apple is charging advertisers $1 million just to be a part of iAd, which is five to 10 times more than what competing ad networks charge, according to the Wall Street Journal. Some are paying Apple as much as $10 million to be the exclusive advertiser in their respective industries. What’s more, Apple’s prices of $10 per thousand impressions for banners and $2 per-click on actionable ads are the highest in mobile. That’s a lot of money to spend to align yourself with Apple when other alternatives are available.
• You don’t have to use iAd to advertise on the iPhone and iPad. While Apple’s initial developer agreement for iOS prevented rival ad networks from being able to track the performance of ads delivered through the operating system — essentially forcing advertisers to use iAd to advertise on iPhones — the company revised its terms earlier this month after getting pushback from the mobile ad industry. The new rules restrict the use of analytics data to independent companies “whose primary business is serving mobile ads,” which is a not-so-subtle swipe at Google and AdMob. Those terms drew a quick rebuke from AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui, who said they punish both developers and consumers, and they have justifiably drawn the attention of federal regulators. But the terms also give advertisers and publishers freedom to partner with any of the countless independent players in the mobile advertising space, including well-known companies like Millennial Media and Greystripe, instead of using iAd.
• Big publishers want to sell their own inventory. In its role as an ad network, Apple will place ads on all sorts of inventory on the mobile web and in applications. But as Medialets CEO Eric Litman told me earlier this week, established publishers are already capable of dealing with advertisers directly. “Publishers that have meaningful sales capabilities want to own those relationships with brands,” Litman said. “They don’t want to be sold blind.” And while publishers usually like to package their inventory across platforms — including iPhone and Android apps and web sites for PC and mobile users — iAd forces them to invest time and money to deliver ads through only one platform.
• Apple’s insistence on being involved is already slowing deployment times. As AdAge noted earlier this week, Apple is handling the technical production of iAds and telling agencies it may take two months to build an ad after creative is complete. We’re sure to see some knockout iAds with top-notch production values thanks to Apple’s input — especially once iAd extends to the iPad in November — but there are much quicker ways to bring your ads to the iPhone.
• Android has arrived. Apple still dominates the mobile-app world and, with it, in-app advertising. But Google’s mobile operating system continues to close the gap on iOS, garnering 26 percent of all AdMob ad impressions in May. That gap will continue to close as manufacturers churn out a wide variety of supporting handsets and as Android-based tablets come to market.

The emergence of iAd will have some long-term repercussions — especially if ad businesses from Google, Microsoft, Nokia and others remain blocked from accessing analytics. It’s likely Apple will raise the bar for mobile advertising as a whole too. Indeed, iAd is luring some high-profile companies like Campbell Soup, DirecTV and Sears to invest heavily in mobile advertising for the first time, and Citi and Nissan are paying top dollar for exclusive deals on the platform. Apple’s efforts will surely help drive a U.S. mobile ad industry that will explode from $416 million last year to $1.56 billion by 2013, according to eMarketer. But there are far too many established, innovative players for Cupertino to capture nearly half the space by the end of the year.

Image courtesy Flickr user Daveness 98.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub. req’d):

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In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple with veteran engineer Ron Wayne. Ten days later, Wayne signed away his 10% of the company in exchange for $800. Here’s what he’s up to thirty-four years later, $22 billion poorer. More »










Apple – Steve Jobs – Steve Wozniak – History – Pioneers

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