Disk Inserted

Whoa, Apple just admitted that there’s an issue with the iPhone 4’s reception, but it might not be what you think:

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.

We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

What’s troubling is that this is the second time Apple has blamed signal strengh / reception issues on software and it doesn’t fully explain calls dropping and data degradation when the iPhone 4 is held in a very particular (but common) way. It’s also worth noting that Apple, in no way admits to an antenna design flaw. Read the full press release after the break.

Continue reading Apple: iPhone 4 reception problem is a software issue, fix coming in ‘a few weeks’

Apple: iPhone 4 reception problem is a software issue, fix coming in ‘a few weeks’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Jul 2010 08:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Like gadgets? Ever stand in line for one or over-consume just to slake your obsession? Yeah, us too. Then prepare for a humorous yet brutal look at yourselves, and the impact of your lifestyle, in the newest Futurama episode that aired tonight on Comedy Central television. We suggest curling up into a protective fetal position before clicking through for the video scraps.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Futurama critiques modern gadget and social media obsession using 1950s technology (video)

Futurama critiques modern gadget and social media obsession using 1950s technology (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Jul 2010 01:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve been anywhere near the internet in the past few hours, you’ve undoubtedly heard about a Steve Jobs email conversation in which he told an angry iPhone customer to “calm down” and that the iPhone 4 was “just a phone.” That email chain, which was published on Boy Genius Report earlier, was also reportedly shopped to AppleInsider a few days ago — for a price. Well, now Fortune is reporting that they’ve been told by a “a top Apple spokesman” that the emails are fake, and the exchange never happened. Of course, emails are notoriously easy to fake, and Apple has not been in the habit of commenting on its CEO’s online wanderings, so our ears pricked up when we saw this article. We’ve reached out to Apple and they have independently confirmed to us that the conversation is indeed a hoax. So as usual, take all of these Jobs-uncensored dialogues with a healthy grain of salt.

Apple PR says recent Steve Jobs emails are fake originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve himself noted at WWDC that iAds would go live for “all iOS 4 devices” on Canada Day, and sure enough, they look to be popping up today. One eagle-eyed tipster has already found one within the ‘Mirror: for iPod and iPhone’ app, shown above. It’s certainly quite a bit more visually soothing than some other ads we’ve seen, but we aren’t here to judge — instead, we’d love to hear your take on it. Have you seen any iAds creep into your apps today? Whatcha think of ‘em? Let us know in comments below.

Update: Looks like a Nissan Leaf iAd has debuted as well; the vid’s after the break of that one.

Update 2: Oh, and this is just for North America for now. Everyone else will have to wait. Crushing, we know.

[Thanks, Spencer]

Continue reading Apple turns on iAds for iOS 4 devices in North America, right on schedule

Apple turns on iAds for iOS 4 devices in North America, right on schedule originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you ask us, Apple should be giving away free bumpers, lollipops, and anything else it can think of to keep its otherwise loyal followers from revolting. But the Great Bitten One isn’t doing any one of those things, and most of us are stuck either having to pony up $30 for the official salvation from self-inflicted signal harm or looking out to the grey markets. Entering this morose situation with a bit of ingenuity is Oliver Nelson, who alerts us to the fact that rubber wristbands of the sort your favorite cyclist wears are apparently an almost perfect fit when stretched around the 4’s antennae. He advises that a 1.125-inch long by 0.125-inch wide incision (into the unstretched band) is necessary to keep the 30-pin port and speakers open, but otherwise it seems like a pretty effortless and dirt cheap way to avoid all this drama.

iPhone 4 gets a $1 alternative to pricey Bumpers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Setting aside the naming confusion, this Nokia prototype procured by Negri Electronics just keeps attracting our attention. Though we saw plenty of it in an earlier video, this latest rendezvous between Finnish hardware and camera lens includes a few familiar suspects to offer us the best size comparison we’ve had so far. Squaring up against a 3.5-inch iPhone 4, the QWERTY slider from Nokia seems barely any larger from the front though quite a bit thicker from the side — an expansion justified by its inclusion of a physical keyboard. It does a lot better when compared to the EVO 4G and the departing iPhone 3GS, looking only marginally chunkier than those keyboard-less devices. Don’t take our word for it though — skip past the break and see for yourself.

P.S. — The UI on this device looks to us a lot more like Symbian^3 than the S60 the narrator believes it’s running, leading us to think that this is most likely a keyboard-equipped variant of the N8.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Nokia (N9 / N8-01?) prototype sized up against iPhone 4 and EVO 4G on video

Nokia (N9 / N8-01?) prototype sized up against iPhone 4 and EVO 4G on video originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 06:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A rambling Computerworld report from Cisco’s Live! event is bringing us news of even more goodies, beyond the business and home tablets already revealed. In an interview with Marthin De Beer, Senior VP of Cisco’s Emerging Technologies Group, De Beer strongly hints at a WiFi enabled Flip Video camera by the end of 2010. While he didn’t say it in so many words, he did say, “We didn’t buy Flip to have it be only a video recorder,” adding, “I look forward to Christmas,” when asked about a possible timeline. That seems clear enough.

The conversation then gets muddied when De Beer begins discussing video as a “pervasive play” for Cisco, something that will “ultimately span across everything we do.” And in a bid to interoperate with all devices, including Apple’s new handset and certainly future iOS devices, De Beer said, “We would absolutely love to integrate with FaceTime.” When, is the question left unanswered. Until then Cisco plans to introduce a mobile Movi iPhone app to the App Store that ties back into Cisco’s Tandberg SIP-based video conferencing solution. Now, maybe it’s a stretch, but with Cisco slowly creeping into the consumer space, it’s hard not to take away a sense that it will be introducing software and devices interoperable with its Silicon Valley neighbor’s FaceTime solution in the not too distant future. Hit the source to read the interview in full.

Cisco suggests WiFi Flip Video camera by Christmas, wants to integrate products with Apple’s FaceTime originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 05:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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