Apple to give iPhone buyers free cases

[onehandle]

Source: AP

CUPERTINO, Calif. – Apple Inc. will give free protective cases to buyers of its latest iPhone to alleviate the so-called "death grip" problem in which holding the phone with a bare hand can muffle the wireless signal.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the giveaway Friday during a news conference at the company's headquarters, even as the company denied that the iPhone 4 has an antenna problem that needs fixing. The more than 3 million people who have already bought the iPhone 4 and new buyers through Sept. 30 will all be eligible.

People who already purchased the $29 "Bumper" cases will be refunded.

Jobs began the event by saying, "We're not perfect," but was quick to point out that no cell phone is perfect. He played a video showing competing smart phones, including a BlackBerry from Research in Motion Ltd., losing signal strength when held in certain ways.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100716/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_apple_iphone

---

(Below is what I am seeing from the live bloggers as they reported from the press conference. I will continue to update.)

Steve Jobs announces 'Bumper' cases for every iPhone 4 owner. Refunds for Bumpers already purchased.

He spoke a lot about how many other phone makers' phones signal drops in a 'death grip.' There is no solution at this point for any of the companies including Apple, but they will keep working on it. They are not changing the antenna that is a better antenna than earlier models.

Users are overwhelmingly reporting a positive experience with the iPhone 4. Returns have been a fraction of the industry average return rate.

Jobs says that the Bloomberg article that said that Apple was aware of the problem before launch was a 'crock.'

In a few weeks Apple will have more data to evaluate with.

Apple has been sending out teams of engineers (even before this) to peoples' homes all over the country that report bad reception, which 'blows them away.'

Jobs says that they can not make iPhone 4s fast enough to keep up with the demand.

_____________________

Full Disclosure from onehandle. My wife and I have iPhone 4s. They are leaps and bounds better than our old iPhones and we have not had any dropped calls. The network connection is fantastic and they are fast as Hell.

I have a 'Bumper' case and I like it. It feels good and secure and I like the way it looks.

[NightWatcher]

1. They would have been "genius" to do this on day 1

[xchrom]

2. I bought the 4 for a friend and it works beautifully for him. Nt

[tridim]

3. He also admitted what non-Apple users have been saying for 40 years..

"We're not perfect"

Which BTW completely nullifies the bulk of their past advertisements. What is the price premium for now?

Good luck going forward Apple, you're going to need it.

[onehandle]

5. Please cite an Apple advertisement that claims they are perfect.

I'll wait right here.

'Good luck going forward Apple, you're going to need it.'

LOL! If you have any Apple stock on hand, I will buy it for it's current value + 10%. Please PM me.

[tridim]

8. Do you think Macs don't get viruses?

If you do, you've fallen for their "we're perfect" marketing.

Mac users STILL claim this every day.

[onehandle]

15. So you failed.

Offer rescinded for the stock buyout, too.

[alfredo]

33. Benn using a Mac for 15 years, no viruses, trojan horses,

or worms. I have AV software and use it, but so far it hasn't detected anything. Either there's nothing or the AV software sucks. I also have my firewall screwed down tight, and until recently, I used a honeypot.

[boppers]

36. I've used MacsOS families for 26 years, Wintel families for 28, *nix families for 15.

For five of those years, I was working in a pre-press house where we had a constant stream of external media brought to us, exposing us to to anything that traveled using media as vectors.

At a latter point in time, my career was centered on doing nothing but writing triggers to detect dangerous traffic, in real time, over high-speed networks, scanning every single packet for dangerous payloads... so I have more than a few years of experience in the field (as compared to being a fanboy, I'm speaking as a professional).

In that entire time, I have seen exactly *one* MacOS virus/trojan/malware in the wild (it was an autorun type of virus, executed on disk mount). I wrote a perl script that detected and removed it, and gave that away to the community.

At a lesser number of years for *nix, I have seen zero infections. ZERO. (And the current version of MacOS, OS X has a large portion of *nix foundations).

With Wintel, I have seen literally *thousands* of infections.

So yes, you are correct, they're not perfect.

Just thousands of times better.

[jayfish]

12. Apparently You've Never Seen The "I'm a Mac & I'm A PC" Campaign.

They don't really need the ads though. They have a legion of cultists who chime in, invited or not, on every PC discussion in existence with "get a Mac".
I think it's pretty well implied.

FSH

[4lbs]

4. Whatever happened to having a telescoping antenna that the user can pull out to improve reception?

So, in the rare instances when an iPhone user actually uses the phone as a... phone, it will work and not drop calls.

[Tesha]

30. A) It was deemed "unfashionable". B) It placed the radio emissions...

...relatively near your head.

Tesha

[OhioChick]

6. Interesting polls from CNN...

Is Apple doing enough to fix the iPhone 4?

62% No

http://www.cnn.com/

Yesterday's CNN poll asked if people wanted a "recall" and the last I saw of that poll, it was 78% in favor of a recall.

Speaking with co-workers, they're not happy with this bumper decision.

[onehandle]

7. Again. That's an Internet poll involving few actual owners.

Real owners are thrilled with their iPhones and returns have been a fraction of the industry average.

[OhioChick]

10. Again....

Speaking with "real" co-workers, they're not happy with this bumper decision.

[onehandle]

11. So tell them to return their phones. Returns will still be far below industry average.

It's all right here. Show them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKIcaejkpD4

[jayfish]

13. Because Tech Consumers Are Lemmings.

It's all right here.

NSFW http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg
SFW http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_mWknXAJrc

[Posteritatis]

18. Are real owners like real Scotsmen? (nt)

[LanternWaste]

24. Taken from an internet poll or one you devised...?

"Real owners are thrilled with their iPhones and returns have been a fraction of the industry average."

Taken from an internet poll or one you devised...?

[bdamomma]

9. a free case, does that help much, all the money people

have to put out for that phone, and you get a free case. :wtf:

[onenote]

40. if someone doesn't like it, they can return the phone and get their money back

I guess you didn't read that far.

[ChromeFoundry]

14. It's like Dell having a problem with their laptops over-heating....

and them giving out 2 pencils to place under the laptop to provide better air flow.

I don't know of any iPhone4 customers that are happy in the circles that I travel.

[onehandle]

16. Then they are in the minority. Tell them to return them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKIcaejkpD4

[jayfish]

17. Steve Is That You?

The height of arrogance. "if you don't like it, FO". Great business model.

[ChromeFoundry]

21. At least Dell corrected the problem with their batteries....

Can't say that about Apple, now can you?

This is a fuckin' Band-Aid for a manufacturing defect. I see it along the same lines as Toyota's debacle with their accelerators. The product has a defect direct from production. It is Apple's duty to correct the problem so that the product operates at 100% the originally advertised functionality, period. If they lose profits because of their lack of product QA, it is their fault- not the consumers.

[onehandle]

22. Please contact Blackberry, HTC, and Samsung with your concerns.

Because they have the same 'defect' according to many users' you tube videos and this site that Apple just launched:

http://www.apple.com/antenna/

[ChromeFoundry]

25. Why? My Samsung works.

That's why Samsung didn't need to dedicate a page to the bashing of other manufacturer's products, in order to justify their own defect. Not too many blogs out there complaining about Samsung phones!!!

Thanks for the link, I now have even less respect for Apple!

[TheWraith]

26. Um, no, they don't.

No other cell phone manufacturer puts the antenna metal on the outside of the casing, where it stops working if you sweat on it.

I covered these things for six years as a tech journalist. There is no question this is a unique design failure.

[OhioChick]

20. Or GM knowing that if you hit a bump with one of their cars...

It'll crack the windshield, so they hand out FREE "tape" to "fix" the problem.

[Tesha]

31. Now you do; I love my iPhone 4!

I'm very happy with my iPhone 4, and Mr. Tesha, (who own an iPhone 3G)
and I have compared signal strength in many different situations. My
phone is always reporting as many or more bars as his phone and has
fewer instances of "No service".

(We live in the fringes of the AT&T service area and he's got a lot of
experience with a wide variety of Nokia smartphones (alleged to have
the best GSM radios in the business) also losing service in all of the
same places.)

There's nothing wrong with the radio on my iPhone, but I'll gladly
take the free bumper case for its anti-bump value.

Tesha

[JBoy]

19. The "retro" style case being offered will be popular:

[PBS Poll-435]

23. ,,,

(You know...for the kids)

[superduperfarleft]

27. Is it me or is Apple taking damgage control tips from Toyota these days?

[ixion]

28. heh... so they have something to put them in when their iPhail craps out

:evilgrin:

[Hissyspit]

39. My iPhone 4 works great. I have experienced NO dropped calls and it is clearly more

powerful and has a longer battery life than my 3GS. And the resolution is fantastic.

I swear to god I have no idea what people are going on about. :shrug:

Maybe the Evo is a better phone. I'll check one out when I get a chance; maybe when I go on a trip out of state, I'll run into call problems, but in the meantime, I'm just fine with my clearly much-improved iPhone, so I'm not sure why it should be called an "iPhail."

[NYC_SKP]

41. Same here. A bigger lot of ONOES I have never heard.

I had a first generation, then a 3G (skipped the 3GS), and they just get better and better.

I bought a bumper the same day as the phone.

I wear my big boy pants and if the word is you need a case, I get a frakkin case.

Problem solved.

Great phone, great reception, battery life finally really good.

And flash and zoom on the camera, YAY!

:hi:

[alfredo]

29. Old school thoughts on antennas.

The antenna in phones are tuned to a specific frequency. Your body acts like a big antenna, changing the effective length of the phone's antenna. Grab the antenna on a tv that receives over the air signals, or grab the external antenna on a portable radio and you will see a change in the signal. That is what is going on with the iPhone. The case will isolate the phone from your hand. Apple knew that from day one, but also had to deal with the way the phone displays the bars.

Part of the delay was integrating AT&T software for the bars display, then testing it. Then when they were sure about the signal dropping fix, they had to secure enough cases to cover demand. It's not the best fix, but it is a workable fix that gives the user a bit of swag for their trouble. I hope they offer a range of colors.

[Q3JR4]

32. You think this had anything to do with it?

http://www.kcrlegal.com/iPhone-reception-problems.aspx">Link.

Q3JR4.

[SunnySong]

34. How does this effect the Plants vs Zombies app????

Actually the real complaint is a very small minority of people who have bad ATTcoverage and should have bought a different phone... for most folks the Iphone 4 works fine...

[mikelgb]

35. The hard case or the soft case? pics:

Hard Case:


Soft Case:

[alfredo]

37. Hüttenkäse

[smiley_glad_hands]

38. I can hold my moto droid any way i want, no case, and no dropped calls.

I really like the landscape view when i'm watching videos in flash. :)

[NYC_SKP]

42. Good news, rebate for the case I had the good sense to buy on the same day as the phone.

All this drama over the best personal assistant, portable computer, videocamera/flash zoom camera, GPS navigation system, email server, Internet browsing, mobile phone...

I was wearing big boy pants the day I picked up the phone and grabbed a bumper at the same time, for protection and reception.

Manufactured drama and over-reaction by a few people with an agenda or who just don't get it.

[onehandle]

43. The song says it all...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKIcaejkpD4

[NYC_SKP]

44. Perfect. Hilarious. "If you don't want a an iPhone, don't buy it"....

"And if you bought one and you don't like it, bring it back."

:rofl: