Looks like Apple and Consumer Reports won’t be golfing buddies anytime soon. En lue of of the iPhone 4 press conference, CR has updated their blog, stating that even after the iPhone press conference and accompanying events, they still do not recommend the iPhone 4….
Consumer Reports believes Apple’s offer of free cases is a good first step. However, Apple has indicated that this is not a long-term solution, it has guaranteed the offer only through September 30th, and has not extended it unequivocally to customers who bought cases from third-party vendors. We look forward to a long-term fix from Apple. As things currently stand, the iPhone 4 is still not one of our Recommended models.
This is all seemingly contradictory to their position that it’s one of the best smartphones on the market, barring the antenna issue. Of course, if you consider the entire package, the iPhone 4 is one of the best. CR amongst others weren’t really convinced with Apple’s “it’s not just us, it’s everyone approach” to the issue.
But I can agree with CR on the issue of free bumpers/case — they should be free to any new iPhone 4 purchaser for the life of the phone’s retail life. Hell, they should ramp up production on them (seeing as how they stated they could never meet such a demand currently) and after the September 30th deadline, start packaging them in the box with the iPhone. That would go a long way, ensuring customers don’t have to hunt around for the free case.
Thoughts?
Steve Jobs may be quite the little chatty kathy with end users sending him emails, but his acquaintance, AT&T CEO Mr. Randall Stephenson is not. Engadget reader Giorgio Galante contacted Stephenson on two separate occasions. The first email asked Stephenson to shorten his contract length so he could upgrade sooner and to inquire on tethering options. His second letter wasn’t nearly as cordial, voicing his extreme disgust for AT&T’s new data plans and stating that he was taking his money to Sprint.
AT&T then called back and apologized profusely, credited his account for three months worth of service, and promised to take his kids to Chucky Cheese for their birthday. Just kidding — AT&T threatened Giorgio with a Cease & Desist letter if he dare email Stephenson again.
Hey, if your biggest, baddest competition is claiming seemingly impossible feats of reality (such as servicing more countries than there actually are), your company had better come up with something bigger and better. Right? Just like Verizon can’t count, AT&T itself seems to have flunked kindergarten math and geography as they too have a case of the 220+ coverage-itis.
If there were anything that would make Uncle Sam angry, blatant ignorance and greed when lives are at stake is probably up near the top. Now keep the upcoming text light hearted as this hasn’t been confirmed in any way by Microsoft (as if they’d admit blocking the military…).
The military is growing increasingly digital these days. With that growing reliance on digital services and applications naturally comes the increased need for more and more personal computers. You typical military spec computer is easily $1,000+. Much like the rest of the country is pinching pennies in tight times, so is the Army, as they’re looking for ways to increase “digital presence” without busting the bank. Welcome to the wonderful world of the Xbox 360.
Argue if you want, but the Xbox 360 with it’s cheap hardware, massive online gameplay and options for scenarios, and rather robust library of war games means it’s a pretty good fit as a training tool for the fine men and women training our country. Common sense also makes a might appearance. It’s simple actually. Why should the Army spend upwards of $1,000 on training computers for each and ever soldier if an Xbox 360 can be had for significantly less and be used for multiple soldiers? It’s basic math.
That wonderful plan was killed however by the most unlikely of people — Microsoft. According to Roger Smith, CTO for PEO STRI (the Army command responsible for purchasing training equipment), Microsoft refused to sell him or the Army any consoles. No direct reason was given. Roger however speculates the denials happened because of one of three reasons:
* Microsoft was afraid that the military would buy up lots of Xbox 360s, but would buy only one game for each of them, so MS wouldn’t make much money off of the games.
* that a big military purchase would create a shortage of Xbox 360s.
* that if the Xbox became an Army training device, it would taint its reputation. Microsoft was concerned that “do we want the Xbox 360 to be seen as having the flavor of a weapon? Do we want Mom and Dad knowing that their kid is buying the same game console as the military trains the SEALs and Rangers on?” Smith told me during an interview for Training & Simulation Journal.
The above are Almost valid reasons until you think about the fact it’s the US Army asking for a tool that could help soldiers *not* die on the battlefield. Microsoft PR of course claimed to have absolutely no knowledge of the incident. All in all, if the account by Roger Smith is in fact 100% correct (and there isn’t any real reason to doubt him), I can guarantee that Microsoft’s PR is going to be dealing with a PR shit storm.
To be fair, Microsoft’s side of the story followed soon after:
has multiple avenues to pursue building simulations. They can team up with a professional Xbox 360 publisher and development studio that have the expertise to assist them with development of a complex simulation. In fact, the Army has successfully done this in the past by working with publishers such as Ubisoft (’America’s Army’) and THQ (’Full Spectrum Warrior’). Or, if the Army prefers to build a simulation without engaging game development professionals, Microsoft has also enabled independent developers to create games for the Xbox 360 using the XNA Game Studio development tools, and deploy and play them on retail Xbox 360 consoles using an XNA Premium Creator’s Club membership.
As you can see, Microsoft skirted around the million dollar question: Did they block the military from buying up a large quantity of Xbox 360s?
Unfortunately for Microsoft, the certain truckload of cash they’d have made on a mass Army purchase of Xbox’s is now “of little interest” to Smith and the Army in general anymore. Though Smith does mention that if Microsoft were to ever broach the subject again, he’d be more than willing to reopen talks.
Disappointed in Microsoft’s stance? Do you think it was all because of the money?
Gizmodo > DangerRoom
Not content with paying off government and coating them with lies, it appears AT&T has moved on to us bloggers and the tech community as their next target. Only problem is, we have a brain and are capable of seeing past their PR nonsense. Everyone knows AT&T’s network blows epic amounts of private parts. From the north to the south to the east and to the west, the experience is the same. Their network is riddled with holes, over-taxed towers, and even the possibility of an improperly configured network. Naturally, because of all of the negative criticism, AT&T has been working in overdrive on damage control. After their not uncommon though sleazy attempt at “rallying the troops” to protest any Net Neutrality bills, AT&T is moving to us, the bloggers and individual citizens to spread their PR BS full of lies and false promises. What exactly am I going on about? Continue on. In response to an article IntoMobile’s Stefan’s Constantinescu wrote about AT&T having in improperly configured network, a few feathers were ruffled. The resulting message from AT&T:
Hey Stefan,
Saw your post and wanted to get you a response – we don’t think there’s any merit to the observation you passed along. Would you mind adding this to the post? Feel free to attribute to me or the company …
Also, noted your comment about cell sites – we’ve talked publicly quite a lot about the improvements we’re making to the network (7.2 rollout, increased backhaul to our sites, etc.) – but we also said we plan to add more than 2,000 sites this year.
Thanks,
Seth Bloom
FH for AT&T Corporate Communications
“The AT&T wireless network is designed and engineered to deliver the highest possible levels of capacity and performance. Our standing as the nation’s fastest 3G network is validated by multiple third-party testing organizations on the basis of millions of drive tests annually.”
“We believe that recent online speculation regarding AT&T wireless network configuration settings is without foundation. Allegations in these posts regarding packet loss network settings are incorrect.”
Are AT&T employees, in this case their PR employees that incompetent? All they need to do is spend 10 seconds on Google or any AT&T forum to see people are fed up with their failure of a network. The tech community is a place that they will find very little sympathy if any. Yet they have the nerve to talk up their sub-par network and suggest we bloggers edit our criticisms and talk up their failures? Words escape me. Stephan’s response was classic — putting them right in their place and basically telling them to STFU:
I’m not going to copy and paste your marketing message to my blog post. Good luck getting other blogs to follow your request.
In a way, AT&T sort of succeeded because I reposted their message into my post. But as you can see, it’s far from praising as I’m using it to further degrade their network and credibility. I may be mean. I may be too excited about this. But I’m far from the only person who hates AT&T and their pathetic attempts to hide their shortcomings — of which their are many. Are you just as disgusted or are you becoming desensitized? I keep telling myself that with enough of these little “incidents” becoming widely known, maybe AT&T will wise up and learn when it is and isn’t ok to blindly defend yourself.
AT&T take note: Your network sucks. Your policies suck. Your PR’s cookie cutter comments and attempts to get intelligent people buy in to your propaganda suck.
IntoMobile
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- October 18, 2009 12:27 pm
Some may frown upon more “professional” announcements via Twitter which is largely an informal, consumer service. Still, public professional criticism hasn’t stopped droves of companies from embracing the service as an extension of their PR departments. The latest Tweet of importance comes from Verizon and confirms what we already knew — that the Palm Pre is coming to Verizon in early 2010. New? No. Good to hear? You bet.
Ubergizmo > Unwired
