Category Archives: Hall of Shame

The real stinkers

Why the iPhone 4 sucks

Hall of Shame

An engineer’s explanation

Watch this Bloomberg video with the Consumer Reports (no ads, no conflicts) editor saying how the iPhone 4 is fatally flawed and you will understand why I was lucky to learn of the rumors right before setting out to pick mine up. I cancelled. I was right to do so.

(Note: Unsurprisingly, the video will not play using Safari on my Mac pro. Use Camino or Firefox if you want the video – Safari only gets you the words, and doubtless those will be censored by 1 Infinite Loop any day, too).

Here’s a simpler “a picture is worth a thousand words” explanation from an engineer. Me.

Why iPhone 4 sucks

Apple needs to “Do a Tylenol”. When that analgesic’s maker was landed with the problem of poisoned pills, they recalled every tablet in the world. The difference is that with the iPhone, few will likely die owing to non-existant reception (“Honey, I have chest pains, call the hospital”) but the error here is of the manufacturer’s making.

Apple in deep denial? Heck, Joe Stalin would be proud of their behavior.

So, Apple, how is your arrogance quotient today?

Be sensible. Wait for iPhone 5.

And it will be a long time before Apple’s hubris will admit error. Heck, they will fix it quietly and ship a better model. That’s about consonant with the falling standards of integrity at Apple.

Disclosure: No AAPL position. Are you nuts?

Just avoid holding it that way

Hall of Shame, Hardware

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

David Pogue, technology maven at the New York Times, is in what can only be called Desperate Back-Track Mode over the iPhone hold-it-wrong-and-it-dies design debacle. The poor schnuck failed to realize that his perfectly performing “free-for-as-long-as-you-want-it-David” iPhone4 tester was likely a carefully pre-screened model not some of the shelf POS you and I buy. Fair enough. Would you risk any old specimen assembled by one of a long line of suicidal Foxconn workers when your reviewer has an audience of millions?

Pogue backtracks, while still stepping in it.

So how should we hold it, Mr. Jobs?

Ummm …. you mean not this way as in the video at Apple.com? Better check it out quick before they change it.

Or this:

Or even this:

Hand on the antenna seam, every time.

Yeah. Sure. I know. It’s an isolated occurrence.


An isolated occurrence.

Maybe a spot of the Old Bard is called for:

I know BS when I smell it and this one reeks to high heaven.

Disclosure: No AAPL position. You think I’m stoopid?

Why I cancelled my iPhone 4 order

Hall of Shame, Hardware

A deeply flawed device.

I was hoping about now to be regaling readers with my experiences with the much improved 5 megapixel camera in the new iPhone, available today for those lucky enough to get a reservation:

Well, that is not going to happen.

Just about the time young Winston and I were getting ready to ride our bikes to the Apple Store, what comes across the wires but this story?

A moment later and I watch this shocking video.

So we do three things:

  • Cancel the trip
  • Cancel the order
  • Sell all my AAPL stock

Subsequent stories are confirming the issue is not isolated yet not universal. Mossberg of the WSJ made a vague reference to the signal strength bars fading occasionally, but made light of it – he’s not especially objective about AAPL so cannot be trusted.

It seems to me that there are three possible causes:

  • Sporadic manufacturing errors dictating a limited recall – an embarassment for Apple
  • Egregious design error requiring a total recall – a big ‘no confidence’ vote in the stock
  • Software glitch fixed with a new online upgrade – an irritation

None of these is good for a stock approaching nosebleed territory, no matter how attractive the fundamentals.

I have no idea which applies, but as my 3G iPhone is the only phone I use, and as I have no landline, it’s nonsensical to contemplate an upgrade at this juncture.

I’ll let others complete the discovery process and continue to enjoy my obsolete 3G iPhone in the meanwhile.

Talk of dodging a bullet! My advice to any prospective iPhone4 buyer is simple. Wait. Let someone else do the bleeding for you.

Note on older iPhones: You get the same effect, but less so, with older iPhones. My 3G shows 5 bars of signal lying on my desk, dropping to 2 or 3 once in the hand, after some 30 seconds. I can reliably replicate this behavior and it’s the same with iPhone OS 3.1.3 or iOS 4.0 – I tried both. After trying iOS 4.0 on my 3G iPhone I reverted to 3.1.3 – 4.0 adds little to a 3G iPhone (folders and a useless digital zoom for the camera) and unless you are really comfortable with use of Terminal and entering cryptic, high risk commands, think twice before upgrading to 4.0. My downgrade went well, but I know what I am doing – it’s anything but plug-and-play.

The loss in indicated signal strength seems absolutely related to hand contact with the rear and sides of the iPhone. When I place my 3G iPhone in its auxiliary clip-on battery pack, which doubles its battery life, thickness and weight, I lose no bars, so it very much sounds like an electrostatic design fault to me.

Be sure to check Comments for my analysis of the reason this poorly designed iPhone 4 is to be avoided until the hardware issue is fixed. Apple’s advisory today as to how to hold the iPhone is akin to the government telling you how to bend over before increasing your taxes. Unconscionable. Another Hall of Shame entry for the fruit company,

I figure the costs at $4.20/share – 3mm handsets recalled @ $300 + $600mm in legal fees + triple damages at $2.7bn = $4.2bn for 1bn shares. However, the reputational damage and lost sales make this sum insignificant by comparison. The Android crowd must be partying.

Disclosure: Sold all my AAPL position just before writing this.

Google’s culture revisited

Hall of Shame

Big Brother IS watching you

When I wrote about Google’s Culture of Theft just a few days ago, little did I realize how soon my suspicions would be confirmed.

From MacWorld.com

Dear reader, you do not collect this data by accident. It’s a switch in the system. You either decide to collect it or you do not. No accidents involved.

So when you next see your private data right next to your photographs in the public domain, you know where to go.

You like the ‘cloud’? Sure. So do I. Just go elsewhere than Google Docs. ‘Free’ ain’t everything you think it is.

Of trolls and losers

Hall of Shame

Kindly take a leak elsewhere.

In addition to containing some of the best writing on the planet on all aspects of Photography, this site is totally commercial free and enjoys high and growing readership.

That’s a win-win for both the readers and this author. You enjoy, or not, what I write and I get the satisfaction of sharing my views with anyone who cares to check in. And if you don’t enjoy it, well, why are you coming here? Go elsewhere.

Further, the software running this site provides an extraordinary level of protection against comment spam wherein some crook tries to question your manhood and sell you pharmaceutical products guaranteed to cure all that ails you. Yet to leave a comment you don’t even have to complete arithmetical questions or enter cryptic codes. It’s as simple as can be, all the protection mechanisms invisible to the user.

None of that, however, protects me from the occasional Comment written by a real live person who falls straight into the category of Troll or Loser. Distinguishing facts about this miserable class member include, but are not limited to:

  • Often still lives with his parents in the basement
  • Has no job and blames the government
  • Walks around with a vacant stare, arm outstretched, palm up, looking for a handout
  • Has never done a single constructive or original thing in his miserable life
  • Bathes infrequently and blames the world for shunning him
  • And, yeah, it’s always a guy. They’re the ones with too much time on their hands.

So when I get a comment as asinine as the one below – I mean here we really have a guy who just does not get it – I check the above list and, sure enough, it’s from a guy, his thinking stinks, (he may also, but I’m not about to find out), he’s probably on the dole and you can be assured he has never had an original or constructive thought in his life.

Typical troll Comment, received today.

So, trolls and losers, if you expect to get away with this sort of leg lifting on my site, you should know that your comments WILL be published, right here for all to see.

But I was not brought up to take abuse and keep mum about it. You piss on my site and I’ll be pleased to reply in kind. Unknown to the grammatically challenged Anders Holt, I actually managed to get a picture of him – at least I’m pretty sure it’s him – and I publish it here for the first time as a service to my readers. Should you see this wretch do the right thing – hold your nose and cross the street.

On Market Street, San Francisco. G1 @ 17mm, 1/2000, f/4.5, ISO 320. Smell not included.

Meanwhile, off he goes to the global spam list, never to be heard from again.