Apple posts

Apple’s big press conference is on now, and apparently Apple’s plan is to rag on other phone manufacturers and prove beyond a doubt that the hysterics surrounding the iPhone 4 antenna issue are being overblown. According to Apple, only 0.55% of all iPhone 4 buyers called to talk to tech support about an antenna issue. The return rate for the iPhone 4 is lower than for the 3GS, which had zero known hardware issues. According to AT&T, the iPhone 4 drops only 1 more call per 100 calls than the 3GS. Apple also took the opportunity to explain how every phone suffers from this issue, and demonstrated with…

If you’re an avid Firefox user, it probably pains you at least a little to be forced to use Safari on your iPhone. Well, now you can enjoy Firefox while you’re out and about too. Sort of. Firefox Home was approved for the App Store and is available now. As reported back in May, this isn’t actually Firefox for iPhone, merely a launcher app that syncs your Firefox desktop history, bookmarks and open tabs. Mozilla maintains that “due to constraints with the OS environment and distribution, we cannot provide users Firefox for the iPhone”. At least this provides some basic functionality for those who prefer…

This signal thing has gotten blown way out of proportion, yeah? Totally ridiculous. And I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t done my part – people like me have made this problem far more a PR issue than a hardware one. But are you really gonna blame us? You want your free bumper, right? Then sit tight, and just let us poke Big Steve some more about this. Just a bit more. I swear, we’re almost done, then he’s all yours. Five more minutes. Actually, it seems everyone’s prodding may have worked. Apple has called a press conference tomorrow that will hopefully shed some real light on the issue, and what Steve &…

You may be reading this on an iPad. Take a moment, and step back, and look at that thing. Just for a moment. Really look at it. All chunky, and huge. iPad? More like… like, i…Big…dumb. iDumb. Yeah. Smart, attractive people who are in the know are waiting it out for the smaller, sleeker, sexier model, aren’t we, guys? Guys? According to Digitimes, Apple could be gearing up to expand its iPad line to include not only the standard 9.7-inch behemoth, but 5.6- and 7-inch models as well. And it could be doing so by Christmas 2G’s+10. The Digitmes source reported that Apple had “recently placed new…

Oh, hey there, wanna hear some more about The Signal Issue? Probably not, right? Old hat. Apparently, Apple doesn’t wanna hear any more about it, either – a bunch of threads about Consumer Reports’ recent findings have been deleted from Apple’s official support forum. What did Consumer Reports recently find? That they could not recommend the iPhone 4 until and unless the signal issue is fixed. Bummer. Utilizing a radio frequency isolation chamber, CR purchased three iPhones from three separate retailers and put them through the paces, emulating AT&T’s signals and stacking up the results…

Ever since the iPhone 4 launched in an orgiastic explosion of fanboy love and press insanity, we’ve been hearing things about ‘the antenna problem’ – an issue in which holding the phone in a particular way may or may not cause the phone’s signal to drop, and may or not be the reason for a kitten being mistreated on the other side of the world. Less reported, however, is an issue with the phone’s proximity sensor, which detects when you hold that beautiful glass display up to your sweaty, greasy ear so that it can shut it off, thereby preventing your ear from doing things your finger would never dream of….

These days, Big Steve (that’s Jobs, for anyone who hasn’t figured out my schtick yet) is considered by and large as magical as he likes to claim the iPad. What a handsome chin. What a dapper turtleneck. The guy’s gotta have a CHA score of, like, 18 at least. The turtleneck’s probably giving him a bonus, too. Hunkalicious. Over the last couple months, one easy out for blogfolk tapped for stories has been to report on random emails, from both consumers and fans alike, that Jobs has decided to cryptically answer. Much to his chagrin, though, said laziness on the part of the blogfolk has created an unrelenting…

The Great Signal Caper continues. Is it alright to call it a caper now? More things should be called capers. Anyway, Apple has responded to customers’ never-ending pleas for an end to the iPhone 4′s signal issue by offering an accessory previously unbethunkable: the iHand. Taking a more utilitarian approach to product design, the iHand is all about function. Simply slot your iPhone 4 into the iHand’s hand, hold the iHand’s hand in your hand, dial a number, and enjoy worry-free calls of the clearest crystal clarity! Truly, Cupertino’s been boiling midnight oil BP-style on this. The iHand is available…

You’re one of the five people in the civilized world who own a Zune, right? Well, good news – you may soon be able to sync it with iTunes. Seriously. This is a thing. In an attempt to save the world and all its inhabitants, three Mortal Kombatants have been chosen the European Union has drafted up a document it’s calling the Digital Agenda, the function of which is to serve the cause of interoperability, openness, and innovation in the tech world. I, for one, am precisely the opposite of not all for that. Behold, an excerpt: Since not all pervasive technologies are based on standards the benefits of interoperability…

Having acknowledged the now-infamous iPhone 4 ‘death grip’, Apple has rushed an update out the door that… well, it doesn’t really solve the problem at all. What the update does do is fix an apparent second problem that was displaying signal bars incorrectly. Apparently, your iPhone 4 has been lying to you, optimistically displaying four or five bars sometimes when it should be displaying one or two. Apple tells us it had something to do with the algorithm governing the definition of each level of strength. Great. So, in a nutshell, this means that my hypothetical iPhone 4 can now more accurately…