Although Apple technology has changed dramatically over the years, the way Apple operates has not changed at all. Anyone familiar with their products knows that he will pay more for an Apple product than a competing item. In addition, there will fewer choices as to size, shape, and color compared to similar products made by others.
Perhaps this is because Steve Jobs doesn’t like change. Take his choice of clothes over the years:
See what I mean?
H/T: Super Pérolas
I have written often that Apple treats its customers like crap, but the apple-sheep keep coming back for more.
Whenever there is a problem, Apple makes sure to charge their customers.
Here’s how Tech Tring describes the latest problem with the iPhone 4:
The problem which was identified in the iPhone 4 was the dropping of signal strength to very low on touching the left rim of the iPhone 4, and could result in disconnecting of calls or the loss of connectivity. The rims use the new concept of the antenna technology, according to Steve Jobs.
Jobs simply responded – “Just avoid holding it in that way”, reported CNET. This iPhone 4 grip shown by Steve Jobs has been called the “Death Grip” and this grip reduces the contact of the hand of the user with that of the steel band encircling the iPhone 4 edge which contains the antenna. Thus the problem can be solved in this way.
Aside from holding it like a Vulcan from StarTrek, the other solution is to lay out the sum of $29.00 for a Bumper made out of rubber or plastic which may improve wireless performance by keeping your hand from directly touching the affected areas.
A decent company would have given vouchers for those Bumbers for free so that iPhone 4 users could use the phone without using the “Death Grip” and without shelling out money for a problem caused by Apple.
But Apple people are sheep and gratefully bend over to take the abuse.
See the video:
Foxconn is the trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., a Taiwan firm with operations in China that is arguably the largest manufacturer of electronics and computer components in the world. Almost every major company in America contracts with them: Apple, Microsoft, Motorola, Amazon, Cisco, Intel, Dell, HP, etc. and Foreign companies as well: Sony, Nintendo, Nokia, and many others.
How does Foxxconn snag so many manufacturing contracts?
Actually, the answer is quite simple: slavery.
They can produce Mac minis, iPods, iPads, iPhones, motherboards, PlayStations, Wiis, Xboxes, cell phones, kindles, and routers cheaper than anyone else. To do that they require their workers to put in 11- to 12-hour shifts, six or seven days a week amid fumes and dust and constant harassment. No one can talk while working and you better have strong kidneys because restroom breaks are severely limited.
The working conditions are so difficult that there has been a spate of worker suicides at the plant (Between Jan 2010 to May 2010, twelve Foxconn employees attempted suicide, ten succeeded), according to Bloomberg News.
Now one would think that a big company like Foxconn would take measures to prevent such things from happening again. Perhaps better working conditions, fewer hours, better pay? They did better than that: they installed nets near worker dormitories to catch them should they jump. Now that is smart business. Spend a few hundred on nets and keep the price of manufacturing steady and cheap.
Apple did investigate but found most of the charges baseless. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has said a number of times that Foxconn “is not a sweatshop.” Could that be because T.C. Gou, the brother of Foxconn founder Terry Gou, plans on opening 100 stores to sell Mac computers and iPod music players in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, by the end of next year?
I am not a person opposed to outsourcing; however when the outsourced workers are actually company slaves, I believe it is time for American companies to switch to other sources and vet those sources better.
It is time American consumers demanded that the products they buy be slave-free.
Why in the world would a company release reviews of its product on April Fool’s Day?
There are only a few things that can happen on April Fool’s:
How can a company that seems so smart sometimes be so stupid when it comes to thinking about its customers? Normally one only sees this much disregard and contempt for customers among telecom giants such as Verizon and AT&T; although I should exempt a few companies, especially ones I consult for that supply SIP Termination and Wholesale VOIP, from my condemnation.
The only time Steve Jobs stands up for consumers is when it impacts Apple’s bottom line, read for example:
Planck’s Constant Blog, iTunes and the greedy music industry
Steve Jobs, has accused major labels of being greedy, and indicated that they have attempted to force an increase in the price of some downloads.
“Music companies make more money when they sell a song on iTunes than when they sell a CD,” Mr Jobs said last year. “If they want to raise prices, it’s because they’re greedy. If the price goes up, people turn back to piracy – and everybody loses.”
Jobs should know greedy: when I purchased my first iPod I needed to pay extra for the adapter to charge it up. Not nice.
In my previous article The iPad is Just an iFad, I asked, “How is this product [the iPad] any better than what I already have?”
Here is what Apple should have introduced, the Light Touch™:
From the Light Touch website:
Light Touch™ is an interactive projector that instantly transforms any flat surface into a touch screen. It frees multimedia content from the confines of the small screen, allowing users to interact with that content just as they do on their hand held devices – using multi-touch technology.
If Apple had introduced this product, we would be hearing ooohs and aaahs from everyone, instead there’s hardly a murmur from the main stream media and tech journals; see MIT’s Technology Review and the Independent.
Apple has momentum from the successes of the iPod and iPhone so I wouldn’t be surprised that even if they came out with an electronic toilet paper dispenser, they’d still sell 4 million units in the first month, wiping out [ow – sorry] the competition.
Photo courtesy: Walyou
I don’t get it. How is this product any better than what I already have?
The Kindle 2 gives you a crisp, paper-quality look and feel when you read a page with a pixel density of 167 ppi, while the iPad has a pixel density of 132 ppi. [see more Kindle advantages at marclafountain.com] So the iPad is not the best ebook reader.
Sure one can run all existing iPhone apps on the iPad, but if I already have an iPhone what do I need an iPad for? Just to see an app running in a tiny block on my iPad? Want to make a phone call? Sadly, iPad doesn’t have an APP for that.
So what about its browser capabilities? Sadly there’s no Flash support in the iPad. So how is that better than my PC?
When the iPod came out, it was a better and more convenient way to buy, download, store, and listen to music.
If it was a better way to buy or read books than the Kindle (it’s not), or a better way way to browse the Internet than a laptop (it’s not), or an easier way to get music than the iPod (it’s not), or better at accessing thousands of apps than the iTouch (it’s not), or connect people with phonecalls than the iPhone (it’s not) then perhaps it would be worthy of the hype.
What is the iPad better at?
Hitler is just as unhappy with the iPad, see the video here.
One of the problems with Apple’s App Store is that it doesn’t have every application that users desire. Third party software writers have come to the rescue with “jailbreaks” – software that allows iPhone or iPod Touch users to download non-Apple-sanctioned apps.
If you are a dedicated iP-something user then this is not news to you. What is interesting is the method that one jailbreaker used to viral his software.
George Holtz released his latest jailbreaking application, “Blackra1n,” on 11 Oct 2009 by asking thousands of the readers of his blog On The iPhone to tweet the subject “#blackra1n” and if he saw it trending on Twitter, he would post the download link up on blackra1n.com.
Three things accomplished:
Great move George, and thanks for the jailbreak.
Ezcall24x7 
