1. Smartphones have weakspots.
a. They claim other smartphones show signal loss when gripped the wrong way. Probably true. But this does not put any real data on the iPhone 4’s data loss. Saying that other radio devices are subject to radio interference, does not address that your own antenna design might lead to even more radio interference.
b. If this is just a matter of gripping the phone the wrong way, a bumper should not fix the problem. This is clearly a defective antenna design.
c. you show impressive pictures of these phone testing facilities. You seem to imply you tested the crap out of the phone. This either states that you knew of the problem and still sold the iphone or your great testing procedures forgot to have a person hold the phone in their left hand.

2. AppleCare Data
a. They claim that only .55% of smartphone users called in to complain about their antenna. That’s still over 17,000 calls to applecare alone about antenna issues. How does this compare to other issues? What about complaints at the apple store? Complaints at at&t stores? Complaints online?

3. Return Rates
a. Return Rates don’t include additional data about restocking fees. They also don’t reflect the other phone options available on AT&T. People are also waiting to see what apple is going to do about the antenna problem.

4. Drop Calls
a. You claimed that the iphone 4s has the best reception yet. Then you also admit that it has a higher dropped call rate than the previous version. You also don’t include data on incomplete calls or dropped data connections.

5. Bumper fixes the antenna problem
a. You spent the previous 4 points defending that you don’t have a problem. Yet you’re offering a fix.

Meh.

In addition to working on Verizon's network here in the states, it also had a Quad Band GSM radio which lets it work overseas in places like Europe.

The phone also features a WiFi radio, which will let him use Skype to make cheap international calls, check email, and browse the web.

I've created a little tip sheet for him to use that will help use the smartphone while he is overseas.

Download pdf

The first indicator that this was not going to go well was the fact that there is no asian skin tone. There's caucasian, african, hispanic, and gay tan. Looking at my skin gay tan was the closest match.

I then proceeded to fill out the rest of what I looked like today at work.

What I'm left with is an avatar that could be me or possibly another asian male 20-35. And it isn't because we all look the same.

Didn’t we already try this in the year 2000? Didn’t the largest technology company in the history of technology companies at that time try pushing this? Didn’t we decide that they were terrible?

Enter the iSlate or iPod Bigger. Steve Jobs will probably try and sell this thing as something new something different, something but it’ll just be an iPod with a bigger screen. And like why 3D is bound to fail, this is going to die because it doesn’t really solve any new problems, and it will be awkard to use.

The iPhone has been an undoubtable success. This is because it is a portable device that let you take data and connectivity everywhere with you. You put it in your pocket and you can use it almost anywhere, work, train, lecture etc.

Do you know why Bluetooth headsets failed? It’s because it never became socially acceptable to wear or even carry around. Not only were the damn things annoyingly easy to lose and forget, they immediately made you look like a douche. While they afforded some convenience and functionality, there wasn’t enough it could do that you couldn’t do buy simply holding your phone to your ear.

The iBig is going to sport a screen that is between 10-11 inches. Unless half the population suddenly decides to go “European” and carry around a purse, you’re not going to take this thing around with you. So if you’re only using this thing at home, why not use that other device that has a keyboard, better screen, better processor, better everything?

Ok, so you bought your purse and you do end up carrying this thing around, don’t forget your charger, because with a screen at 10-11 inches, this thing is going to require a constant tether. Also don’t forget to pay Verizon an extra 30 bucks for the data plan that its going to require. Oh and you’ll want to be sitting down to use it. Why sitting down? Pick up a notepad and try “typing” on it with two hands. Next pick up the notepad you just dropped on the floor. Good thing your notepad didn’t have a 10” piece of glass on it.

But Steve will say you’ll be able to do much more with the new device, like watch TV shows anywhere. Grab your fully charged iBig out of your satchel and sit down because you’re going to spend the next 30 minutes of your life watching a tv show in your lap. If people wanted to carry around an extra device to watch TV on, Sony would still be making watchmen.

“But Sports Illustrated and Time magazine will have stunning new readers to read content.” I can only see this as working if the iSlate doesn’t have a web browser. Why would you virtually leaf through a periodical when you can go check news.google.com or espn.com or even reader.google.com? Also this really requires that the same content is not going to be available on your laptop that’s sitting 10 feet away.

They might demo video calling. This is going to fail the same way video calling has failed since the 80’s. In order for video calling to work, you’re going to need to have your celestial bodies aligned just right so that you can make your once a year call that lets you emulate what you saw Steve do on stage.
- You and your calling friend are going to have to purchase the device
- You and your friend are going to have to be both online in an area with significant bandwidth
- You and your friend are both going to have to be wearing clothes
- You and your friend will both want the other person to know where they are
- You and your friend both live in a world where cell phones don’t exist

This last bullet point is probably the most critical bullet point for the entire device itself. People already own smartphones. While sometimes you wished the screen could stretch so you and your buddy could watch a youtube clip at the same time or you could share photos, you don’t actually care enough to want to carry around a larger device. Otherwise you’d be carrying around your laptop with you everywhere.

Regardless, Apple will probably put on a pretty good show. Many of the features which I made fun of in this article will probably make for a pretty good show on stage. But unfortunately this device is probably doomed for failure.

This is the first post in a series

3D

The latest thing to hit cinema and TV seems to be 3D. This is a technology where it seems that the industry has created an artificial need for. While, 3D nowadays is a lot better than the red and blue glasses, it’s still far from being seamless or even comfortable. Regardless the industry keeps pushing content and we’re forced to watch it.

My problems with 3D TV and movies come from my little experience as a developer in the 3D visualization CAVE at Brown. The CAVE is basically a room where the walls, floor, ceiling etc are essentially projected computer monitors. Individuals then wear shutter glasses which allow them to see 3D while seeing their own bodies, other people and other real life accessories. There was 1 critical piece to this experience. Head tracking. Unless the computer knows where you are, the perspective is all messed up and the resulting view is a bit disorienting. The second piece was a configuration variable our programs had to set: IOD. Intra-Ocular Distance. This measurement let the computer know what the distance between your pupils was. This again helped the computer to draw the correct perspective for you.

Given these two things, you can’t engineer a pleasant 3D experience unless you either position yourself in the 1 optimal seating area or severely limit and screen the kind of content that won’t be as harmful or bothersome to the audience.

Next the hardware. Unfortunately for the time being, 3D technology requires hardware upgrades to the wall as well as your face.

In order to properly show 3D images, the viewing device needs to show a separate image for each eye. This is accomplished mostly through 2 filtering techniques. Shutter glasses or polarized images.

Shutter glasses work by blocking each eye 50% of the time and are synchronized by an infra-red light signal that is synchronized with your image source. Polarized glasses work by blocking out light that is oriented on different planes. Both of these require you to wear glasses on your face while you watch TV. Do you really want to wear special glasses every time to sit down to watch tv? Both technologies also also slightly tint your view.

Next, in order to support 3D, your TV will need to be able to display 2 times the information as it does now. 2 frames, slightly different for each eye. Therefore, source material will need to be broadcast at 120hz instead of 60hz. If you think, “Great, the tv that I bought is 120hz,” sorry but you’re probably out of luck. Because all the signals nowadays are 60hz, TV manufacturers largely only accept 60hz inputs even though they display at 120hz. Therefore, you won’t be able to buy an adapter, you’ll need to buy a new TV.

So after you get your hardware, and you’re ok with wearing your glasses, you’re gonna have to get content. DVD and Blu-ray are cool because you can watch older movies that have been remastered. This is possible because the film used to capture most movies is much higher resolution than our digital and analog signals. For 3D however, there is no remastering. All the old sources are in 2D. So you’re going to have to buy a new TV, buy new disc players, set top boxes, upgrade your cable plan, and buy everyone in your family and their friends 3D glasses so you can watch a little bit of live 3D TV because the only thing that’s available in 3D is being produced right now.

But 3D is popular because it can make a pretty cool 5 minute impression in a CES booth. And sometimes even it can do decently for an hour and a half in a theater. But so far I have seen 3D as a distraction more than something that improved the content, and I feel a little weird after wearing the 3D glasses for more than an hour.

While 3D may dominate the displays of the future, I’m gonna recommend that we pass on this generation until someone figures out how to make 3D truly work seamlessly.

I ordered the Umnitza Angel Eyes Orion v2 kit for my zhp.

1. the kit comes with little to no documentation, but there are plenty of documented installs for angel eyes all over the interwebs. Many of them come with pictures too. I followed the one from:
http://www.fastm.com/m3/angeleyes_orionv2.html

Note that I would recommend disconnecting the battery. This guide doesn't seem to mention that.

2. The lights are BRIGHT.

3. I thought the AE's would be flush against the headlight housings. They're a little bit of a gap. If you set them right, it looks ok. Maybe there's a technical reason

4. The remote trigger is pretty slick. I wired mine to the passenger footwell light under neath the glovebox.

5. The guides and the cables seem to indicate that you should tap power from an ACC line going into the control box. This concerns me a bit, but fortunately BMW didn't care when I went in to get my DME reflashed under warranty.

6. The cable lengths are perfect. Just get some plastic zip ties.

7. The whole install should take you about 45 minutes.

8. I'll post pictures

1. This device REALLY needs some folders. This is starting to get really annoying.
2. Subscriptions to magazines and newspapers should really be a lot cheaper than their print counterparts. I need more incentive than just "saving the environment." I'd be willing to see a few ads in exchange.
3. Why the heck doesn't the mp3 player have a UI? It's like a giant ipod shuffle, except there isnt a random playlist, so its like a giant ipod "sequence"
4. I understand the convenience of having 1 cable for syncing and charging, but I'm quite paranoid about battery life. Especially when it comes to non-user replaceable batteries. I hate unplugging and plugging the charge cord in and out to sync files when I'm not actually going to put the battery through a full charge cycle. Could they add a way to let you sync w/o charging the battery?
5. Please release an API. There are so many cool apps that people could make for this thing.
- Unlike a phone/laptop, the battery lasts for DAYS if not WEEKS
- it has a DATA/GPS connection.
- Has a ginormous screen compared to a phone
- Has a qwerty keyboard

Some app ideas:
1. Word processor
2. Email client
3. Pandora
4. google maps / latitude

There seems to be a dearth of extended reviews and in depth information on this device so I'll start documenting my thoughts.

In my 6 hours of ownership thus far:

- Transferring files to the kindle via email is very cool, but totally not worth the pay per MB cost. Also if you upload a pdf that is 1.2 mb, it will get rounded up and that will get charged as 2MB.

- Why is web browsing still in experimental mode? Also I wish people would start formatting their sites for the kindle. If gmail worked well on the kindle, that would be killer. you can check gmail now, but i wouldn't recommend it unless you had to.

- Screen is absolutely amazing. Nothing like it today, but I can't help but feel that in a couple years, we're going to think that the refresh rate and dpi is going to make it look quite primitive. And I hope that i'll be able to get at least a couple years before I feel that way.

- If you're getting the kindle, get the case. It snaps in and really makes the reader feel protected and substantial.

- Speaker volume is quite impressive.

- FOLDERS. how do you not have folder support in a device that has 4GB of built in memory.

- So I know the old kindle's could get location based services in google maps. How the heck do you do that with the DX? With the new keyboard, you can't do ALT-number combinations

- GAMES. Sure you added minesweeper, but wouldn't a crossword/sudoku been a killer app for this device?

- The screen itself is amazing for reading.
- Native PDF support is quite good. It would be nice to have more zooming ability, but it renders stuff that was supposed to be on letter size paper quite well.
- Getting content from amazon's store is refreshingly fast and simple. There really is nothing like not having to wait a few days for your book to ship and be delivered to your door.
- Whispernet is really cool. Wikipedia at my fingertips all across the country?

I was thinking this week would be the week to try KFC's new grilled chicken, and thanks to Queen Oprah, I was able to enjoy KFC for free with my a few of my coworkers.

However, while it was nice to have eaten lunch for free, I wish that it hadn't been because unfortunately for the chicken, this played a large role.

I approached the lunch event with high expectations. The Colonel's original and extra tasty crispy recipes have had me dealing with mild addiction for the better part of my life.

However, you get thrown off slightly when a company takes an abrupt departure from the model that made it successful.

Remember Coke II? or the Arch Deluxe?

The woman behind the counter spotted the coupon in my greedy little hand long before it was my turn to order, and apparently she had decided that she was not going to accept it. I had to appeal to the higher authorities and get the manager on duty to validate my coupon and process my order. It was under these circumstances that I acquired my meal, so I am wondering if this is why I felt my chicken was under-sized.

KFC is marketing this chicken as a healthy alternative to their now un-healthy fried chicken, and I'm wondering if they pulled one of those tricks where they reduce portion size to make the calorie and fat counts drop. Next time you're in the grocery store, note how many companies run by elves living in a tree do this same kind of thing with their nutrition facts.

The grilled chicken is kept in the same heat lamp staging area as the other chicken varieties so you won't have to wait for the "grilled" variant to take any longer.

The chicken on my plate looked a little underwhelming. I couldn't tell if it was the diminuitive drumstick and thigh or if it was the "grill" marks. I use quote's around grilled because it looks more like the chicken has been through a panini press than over an actual grill. Another odd thing was that the chicken didn't seem as warm as the fried variety. I'm not sure if all the fat and fried goodness somehow insulates and locks in the delicious heat.

I started with the drumstick mostly because i wasnt sure yet how I would tackle the thigh. You can taste the 6 secret spices and salt that coat the outside of the chicken, but the extent of the flavor stops there. The inside is more or less the same as regular KFC. This was a bit puzzling because it seemed like what would happen if a boston market chicken and a kfc chicken had a baby, an ugly baby.

The chicken overall wasn't bad, I think I just would prefer to either get my original fried chicken, spicy popeyes fried chicken, or a nice flavorful rotiserrie chicken from boston market.

Overall my experience was positive. In the shadow of bank audits and the recession a free lunch carries extra weight.

However of the four patrons who were with me, 3 of them said that they would prefer the fried variety over the grilled variety in the future when Harpo Productions isn't footing the bill. If I want chicken that isn't fried, I'll probably be going to either Boston Market or one of the several peruvian / south / latin american chicken joints that spot the chicken landscape.

Pros:
- Half the Fat and Calories
- Same Price or cheaper
- More choice at a fast food joint is always better

Cons:
- Chicken with an Identity Crisis
- Smaller pieces? unconfirmed.
- Not as Hot? unconfirmed.
- Not fried.

Let's go back a little bit.

Then I had a sobering moment and analyzed what we're really getting:
A phone with:
An sdk and 3rd party application support
3g internet
GPS assisted google maps
Exchange support
all priced around 200 dollars

Having just bought a new windows mobile phone, when I thought about the last two features I realized we'd all been had. You've been able to buy a phone like this for a really long time now. Really, this should have been called the iPhone Apology instead of the iPhone 3G.

These are all features that have been implemented by the competition forever and are really features that should have been there in the first place. And still there are a boat load of other problems still remaining:

1. No user replaceable battery
2. No user upgradeable memory
3. No bluetooth audio
4. No MMS
5. No video
6. No copy and paste
7. No multi-tasking
8. No laptop tethering
9. Verizon has better coverage than at&t

Still I have no doubt that the phone will sell extremely well, but hopefully if you're reading this you'll stop to consider other options out there before drinking the kool-aid

Here are few reasons why I'll be keeping my HTC Touch:
1. Much better form factor. Try putting the htc touch right next to an iphone and see what you think.
2. It has the iphones missing features:
multi-tasking, copy and paste, video, mms, full blueooth stack, sdhc upgradeable to 16gb, stylus, user replaceable batteries which allow me to carry a spare, I did a speed test today. I got 1.5Mbps down and 250kbps up.
3. has all the iphones new features:
gps with google maps and windows live search, full exchange server support, tons of 3rd party development, "3.5G" speed internet with REV. A EVDO
4. Plus there are some additional cool features that the htc touch gives me:
- bluetooth keyboard support - I have the stowaway. You will never know that windows mobile 6 has alt-tab support until you get a bluetooth keyboard.
- winzip file support
unbelievably useful when your company's outlook is set up to automatically zip attachments
- Better versions of the iphone software suite
s2p
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=377627
s2u2
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=381588
s2v
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=358187
pcm keyboard
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=349647
- A better browser
Opera mobile mini loaded that demo page that took steve jobs 22 seconds in about 9.

While trying to post about this, I found another annoying "feature" with digg, You can't post a link to another digg page. I guess they don't ever expect the digg pages themselves to be news.

What do you think of when you see this guy now? Windows Vista? PC's? Microsoft?

Is it just me or has this guy been more successful at representing PC's and Windows more than an intentional marketing scheme like the Dell guy?

Sure, I find a lot of the commercials a little annoying, and I don't know if Justin Long leaves as big an impact on consumers, but Hodgman seems to fit the part perfectly.

It would be one thing if Vista was doing well, but seeing Vista sort of flounder makes it all seem so fitting.

For those of you who don't listen to NPR here's a link to the radio broadcast.

While most of the time, when things to right, people will happily say "Oh thanks! you're a genius!" When things go wrong, it quickly becomes "You screwed up my computer with an update? Thanks a lot Genius!!"