Scobleizer - Latest Comments in Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

tina — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 13:15:31 -0000

Cool post:) apple e aplle .

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

Bbbent — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:15:27 -0000

My update went fine. For awhile. I did the 1.1.1 update the day after it came out. The only problems I had after that were a few freezes (resolved with a soft reset) and sometimes the party on the other end couldn't hear me talking on a phone call.

The phone is -not- unlocked, and as far as I know not modified. I only had two things that were possibly wierd. One is a single iToner ringtone. The other is Beejive's Jivetalk.

As far as I know from my extensive research, iToner is not a hack in any way. At least not according to everything Ambrosia has written. Being in the 'biz I know how these things go sometimes.

And Jivetalk is a straight AJAX web app.

So all was well. I was enjoying the 1.1.1 'double-click to go to faves' feature. Don't much care about the wifi itunes store access.

About two weeks after the update I started Safari and opened the Beejive Jivetalk URL to IM someone. And at that point the screen froze.

Ick. Soft restore would reboot the phone and it was acting wierd. Would boot to the UI, but sasn't responsive to any touches or the home button. Wouldn't find the network. Sometimes the time would be right, sometimes not. But the key thing here is that it wouldn't respond to any touches. That's not good.

Now, at this point I have to add that there is a tiny, tiny crack in teh lower left glass. If you use your phone as an alarm clock keep it somehere you can't accidentally knock it down while you're sleeping. The crack is in the lower left corner of the glass, about 1/8" in from teh corner, in the part of the glass directly to the left of the home button. In other words, NOT in the area of the touchscreen UI.

So, I get on the phone with support. No dice on doing a restore. All restore attempts (on two machines, one mac, one PC) return 'error 1602'. Get a super-nice higher level support agent on the phone. We do a few more restore attempts. Nada. Finally we set up a a repair.

So I get a free loaner, which is appreciated, and off the phone goes for repair.

Well, back it comes. Unrepaired. Because of the glass crack (see my blog for the letter they sent). OK i understand that the repair center can't touch it. I get that.

The problem is statement number 2 on their letter:
"Due to unauthorized modifications... was inoperable". And then they voided my warranty.

And there lies the problem. Since then I have been able to force-restore and reinstall 1.1.1. But nothing I do has been able to restore any touchscreen functionality.

So maybe the digitizer actually -is- broken. But I still think (in my 13 years in software support) that it's a software problem.

So my 1.1.1 experience has been lame. I'll be writing more about it on my blog.

And to counterpoint that, my wife's iPhone (which I updated 2 days after mine) has been flawless so far. So maybe itoner did have something to do with it. I just can't tell. I have an appointment to talk to a genious tomorrow to get the straight scoop. If Apple won't help me (and won't let me buy a $250 repair?) then I'll have no choice but to waste a lot more time and money and fix the glass myself and then turn to the hacking community for a software solution. That's not really what I want to do.. :(

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

Adina — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:22:07 -0000

And now that I can unlock it, Ill buy one

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

fred — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 02:14:56 -0000

If Apple purposely engineered their software upgrade to break the hacked phones wouldnt that be malicious damage? I'm sure a laywer would delight in asking what changes were made in the upgrade and why/how it stopped the phones from working.

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

David — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 01:51:09 -0000

whole thing went smoothly. MacBook and iPhone fwiw.

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

Chris — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 21:16:09 -0000

Survey: Will you be upgrading your iPhone to 1.1.1?

http://www.appsafari.com/ne...

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

George — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 10:04:47 -0000

Lets hope when they launch in Europe the EU do what they did to Microsoft and slam them for anti competitive behaviour. The fines are mounting fast.

This should be a consumer led world.

The mobile market in the UK is competitive because as users we haven't fallen for the hype (remember how much money the providers lost getting the first 3G licences?).

Slam them for a shed load of money...hit them in the pocket and perhaps we'll see Apple change behaviour.

There is no difference between their attitude and that of Microsoft.

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

Dave — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 06:02:01 -0000

The whole lock-in thing is simply about maximizing income from people who "want shiny new thing (that I probably don't need) now!" - AT&T have to give Apple part of your contract payment.

You'd have a phone contract with AT&T and pay them every month until the end of the contract. OK, so if you go to another mobile provider, you'd be paying them for a contract every month too.

AT&T won't lose out.... unless, they're only going to make money from the data services, the very thing Apple is preventing you from using with other providers.

It seems a bit of a shame that Apple have gone out of their way to physically disable devices, but probably they needed to be aggressive to ensure the cash flow from AT&T.

Like with every corporation, it's all about money. Once you look at this from a purely financial point of view, it all makes perfect sense.

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

Vlad the Impaler — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:00:59 -0000

I, too, see a quandry in that when the user purchases the iPhone they are forced into a provider. If the user isn't willing to sign the contract, they may choose, then, not to purchase an iPhone. On the other side, I do not condone Apple's forcing the use of one service on the user. I'm not ready to firmly come down on one side, although in both cases, Apple is at fault for facilitating monopolitic business activity by AT&T.

Was it necessary (or prudent) for Apple to take that activity? Probably not. Owning a minority share in the computing arena, it was not wise, although they have the lion's share of the MP3 player environment above competitors with lower prices and more features (SanDisk, for example)

I do not own an iPhone, so I can, perhaps, comment with some extra objectivity... and I can say with extreme confidence that... I really don't know.

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

Jenn — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 18:09:30 -0000

"Wreck: you do realize I’ve debated Andrew Keen on stage at two conferences. His book is a polemic. Not worth reading by smart people in my view. There are so many better ways to spend your time."

Yes, of course. Everyone knows "smart" people got to be the way they are by accepting, rather than challenging, the viewpoints of others. Just look at Galileo. Completely by-the-book, that guy.

Between your utter dickishness in this particular comment and seeing how you permit your son's ill manners, I have to say you've dropped a couple notches on the respect-o-meter, whether or not I agree with a lot of your points.

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

slavior — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 04:01:32 -0000

"My point is, if you pay for it - its yours - apple have no right whatsoever to turn round and dictate who you use it with."

It is yours, you can do some amazing thing with it, especially if you jailbreak it. But if you decide to install Apple's firmware update THAT SPELLS OUT what will happen if you do (i.e. disable jailbreak functionality), isn't that your conscious choice as well?

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

$3436249 — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 02:14:46 -0000

What is snide and vindictive about Apple's behaviour is not that it is seeking to restrict the iPhone to AT&T's service, rather it does not seem to have provided a means of reverting hacked iPhones. Surely the logical and humane method is to disable hacked iPhones until the AT&T sim is reinserted at which point the phone can be re-initialised/restored.

The fact that unhacked iPhones are falling over shows Apple to be incompetent as well as spiteful. Do you really want to do business with these people?

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

David Porch — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 19:53:30 -0000

"Has anyone done research on something called Occam’s Razor before?"

Occam's Razor? ROFL Occam and anyone that intones his syllogism suffer from the same failed certitude that the Architect of the Matrix suffered from.

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

Damo — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 17:17:46 -0000

Something makes me wonder. If you falk out that much money on a phone, surely its yours and you are entitled to use it as you see fit. I bet you any money that Apple won't get done for marketting breaches and competition breaches just like microsoft did. I know theyre slightly different scenarios here but the principle is the same. My point is, if you pay for it - its yours - apple have no right whatsoever to turn round and dictate who you use it with. If it was in the UK, competition laws etc would be all over it.

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

John — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 16:36:03 -0000

From my point of view Jobs planned, announced in public, and executed computer sabotage - on a massive scale.

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

Chris Anderson — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 14:54:53 -0000

Some people are having trouble understanding that iPhone is not a phone. It is a computer that happens to make calls and fit in your pocket. Once you understand that, it become very clear why Apple's no-hack policy is deeply disturbing.

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

Terence D — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 11:07:31 -0000

Lost one ( .AIFF homemade ) ringtone made with "makeiPhoneringtone" otherwise it went fine, no problems.

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

John Kong — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 07:35:32 -0000

Just updated my iPhone and it all looks to have gone well, no issues with data loss and I see the new iTunes app icon. Hope everyone who is having an issue get it all sorted.

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

Brad — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 01:34:25 -0000

Gotta chime in like some other posters - My Q and my Vista are working beautifully...

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

lynn — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 00:27:28 -0000

Update after waiting for 20 minutes got tech support. She had me clear my sync history. Same problem. As soon as I told her the problem was still there I got a busy tone and was disconnected. When I called back, I was told that there were no technicians available and to call back during business hours. . .

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

lynn — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 00:06:24 -0000

Well tried to update to 1.1.1 First Phone had to be restored. After restoration phone came up on 1.1.1. I lost all my mail and had to add my wifi security again. Now it only synchs contacts and calendar. All my tunes and pod casts and videos are gone. iTunes will not restore via sync anything other than contacts and calendar. Did another restore and same problem. Now on long long LONG hold with apple for technical support. Steve Jobs I thought you did not sell crap?

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

Ann — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 22:12:03 -0000

Unmodified iPhone is iBroken after update, factory restore, reset. This is my third phone, on first most of touchscreen never worked, second kept reseting when turned on, both of which were replaced before I could obtain service.

iGiveup

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

Eric — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:57:19 -0000

Yeah, I am telling friends and family now to stay away from iPhone and instead to go with Nokia's N95.

I also didn't have apps installed and did unlock but still had to restore the software before it would work.

Apple has become so sloppy and I am losing trust real fast.

I already told myself that my next computer is a Lenovo running Ubuntu.

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

Ian — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 19:21:10 -0000

They know how to fix the problem guys - check this out http://newsbiscuit.com/arti...

Re: Apple has a PR nightmare brewing…

ricky — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:44:39 -0000

Casca, you are 36-years-old and not only are you still chomping on the tit, but you have the unmitigated balls to accuse them of preventing you from becoming an adult. As you kidding me? 36. I think Mommy and Daddy should have taken you out to the woodshed a long bloody time ago.