Digital Zone 218: AntennaGate? Really?

Posted by Patrick Wiscombe on July 19, 2010 under Digital Zone Podcasts | Read the First Comment

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In this edition of the Digital Zone, we talked about:

• Antennagate
• iPhone 4 cases for all
• Apple considered dumping AT&T in 2007
• FaceTime rumored to be coming to iPod touch
• iPad coming to 9 new countries
• Gizmodo gets their stuff back
• Amazon announces Kindle book sales
• Microsoft Kinect coming in November

Apple will give iPhone 4 owners a free case to address problems some users have reported with the new phone’s antenna. During last weeks press conference to address the antenna issue, Steve Jobs said the company had sold 3 million phones since June 24. In addition to the free cases, the company released iOS 4.0.1, to accurately display signal strength bars on the iPhone’s status bar and said earlier this month they’ve been using the wrong formula to calculate signal strength for all its phones. The free case offer is available to anyone who buys an iPhone through September 30, 2010 as well as to existing iPhone 4 owners. Users who already purchased a bumper will be given a refund. Users who bought third-party cases aren’t eligible for the refund. Because Apple’s hasn’t made enough of its bumpers to meet demand, Jobs said Apple will offer a choice of cases to customers and that iPhone 4 owners will be able to go to Apple’s Website to get the free case. If customers aren’t happy with the iPhone 4—“before or after you get a free case,” they can bring back the undamaged phone within 30 days for a full refund and that Apple won’t charge a restocking fee and that users would be able to get out of their contracts with AT&T. According to Jobs, only 0.55 percent of all iPhone customers have called the company’s AppleCare service with an antenna issue. Jobs also said that AT&T’s return rate for the iPhone 4 was 1.7 percent, compared to 6 percent for the iPhone 3GS during the same period a year ago. Jobs also said that AT&T’s figures indicate the iPhone 4 drops more calls per 100 calls than the iPhone 3GS does, but he noted that the 3GS drops fewer than 1 call per 100.

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PODCAST SPONSOR: The Digital Zone is sponsored by Cliphanger.

The perfect accessory for all cell phones, PDAs, iPods, and MP3 players.

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According to Wired magazine, the first time Steve Jobs considered dumping AT&T for Verizon was back in 2007, just after the original iPhone came out. According to the article, Jobs ordered a team of Apple executives and engineers to see what would be involved to get rid of AT&T. The Apple executives reported that switching to Verizon wouldn’t be easy. The Qualcomm-made chips required to connect to Verizon’s CDMA cellular network would require an impractical top-to-bottom redesign of the iPhone hardware. The article also say that the iPhone’s early radio software was “full of bugs” and that the Infineon radio chips it used weren’t well suited to the U.S.’s spotty cell tower coverage. So what exactly is keeping this pair together…money! Billions of dollars in revenue and an “unprecedented amount of control” for Apple in terms of how the iPhone looks, feels and gets marketed in AT&T brick-and-mortar stores, according to Wired. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Apple was prepping CDMA-enabled iPhones, with production to kick into full gear by September. There have also been rumors floating around of a hybrid chip from Qualcomm that would support both GSM and CDMA networks.

Facetime is rumored to be coming to the iPod touch. It’s being reported that Apple is planning to link FaceTime IDs to e-mail addresses attached to an Apple accounts which would make it easier to find other people in the system. The new Touch should be announced in September.

Apple plans to start selling the iPad in nine new international markets this coming Friday, making the device available in a total of 19 countries. Wall Street estimates that Apple sold 3.3 million iPads during its most recent quarter, which ended June 30.

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PODCAST SPONSOR: The Digital Zone is sponsored by Bluehost.

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Gizmodo said it has reached an agreement with California authorities over access to some computer and other material related to an investigation of how the webstie obtained a prototype of the iPhone 4 before it was released. The San Mateo County judge overseeing the Gizmodo case ordered the search warrant to be withdrawn and the materials taken from Jason Chen to be returned to him. Gawker Media Chief Operating Officer said Gizmodo has agreed voluntarily to give the district attorney materials that a court appointee “deems relevant to the case” and that the investigation into Gizmodo is ongoing and that Chen and Gizmodo have agreed to cooperate with the investigation.

Amazon announced that over the past three months, it has sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos said that it only took 33 months for Kindle sales (not counting free titles) to pass hardcover book sales. Amazon has about 510,000 of their 630,000 Kindle titles selling for less than $10.

Microsoft will sell its new Kinect motion-sensing gaming system for $150 and also offer a package with the Xbox 360 console when sales of the hands-free device start November 4. The sensor hardware will include a game, called “Kinect Adventures.” Kinect’s camera-based system lets players control games with body and hand gestures. Kinect-specific games will cost about $50. Sony will launch “Move,” its motion-controlled feature for the PlayStation 3 gaming system, on September 15. Microsoft also said it would also sell for about $300 a Kinect unit bundled with a version of the Xbox 360 that has 4 gigabytes of internal memory. The current standard Xbox model comes with 250 gigabytes and is priced at $300.

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PODCAST SPONSOR: The Digital Zone is sponsored by LegalZoom.com.
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