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No apology from Apple but here’s a free case!

Posted on July 16, 2010
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Dubbed Antennagate, the iphone4 has received a mixed reception (sorry I know that was bad!) since its launch a few weeks ago with the reputation for the apple brand receiving a kick in the teeth. It certainly hasn’t been plain sailing for Jobs and his kronies at Apple HQ. Indeed, such has been the hype in the media and on the street that Apple were forced into a press conference today to answer the problems users have faced so far.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicked off a press conference Friday at his company’s headquarters with an unusual admission of fallibility.

“We’re not perfect. We know that. You know that. And [our] phones aren’t perfect either,” Jobs told the assembled crowd of about 90 journalists and bloggers, addressing widely-reported problems with the iPhone 4’s antenna.

“We’ve been working our butts off to understand what the real problems are,” Jobs added, referring to the problem as “Antennagate.”

For those who had either tuned in, eager to hear an apology from Steve Jobs, they would have been severely disappointed because an apology wasn’t and isn’t forthcoming! To counter the signal problem Jobs has offered owners a free protective case which will alleviate the problem caused by fingers making an electrical connection when the phone is in use.

Customers who already bought a case will be able to get a refund of the purchase price, Jobs said. The offer will be available on Apple.com starting next week through September 30th.

He also stated that just 0.55% of iPhone 4 customers have called the company’s customer support line to complain about antenna problems, and that just 1.7 percent of iPhone 4s were returned by their customers. By comparison, he said, the iPhone 3GS return rates were 6 percent.

When the iPhone 4 hit stores June …

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OS 4.0.1 hitting iPhones right this second (3.2.1 for iPads, too)

Posted on July 15, 2010
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iOS 4.0.1 “improves the formula to determine how many bars of signal strength to display.” According to a letter Apple published earlier this month, the company has been using a “totally wrong” formula for calculating signal strength. “For example,” Apple wrote in its letter, “we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars.” This update also brings some minor changes to the signal bars themselves, making a few of the lower bars slightly taller in an effort to provide a more accurate representation of the iPhone’s signal strength at lower levels.

The update, which comes just days after the new OS has been made available, aims to fix the widely reported problem of reception issues created by the new iPhone 4 design.

It’s now available via iTunes, and brings the promise of improved monitoring of reception for the OS.

Hot on the heels of the iOS 4.0.1 bug fix update, Apple has released a 3.2.1 update for the iPad.

The update fixes several issues, including Wi-Fi connectivity problems. It also adds Microsoft’s Bing to Safari’s search box. Thanks to Cult of Mac for the following:-

- Improved Wi-Fi connectivity
- Fixed an issue that could prevent copy and paste of single-page PDF attachments in Mail
- Addressed an issue that could cause video playback to freeze
- Improved reliability of video-out when using iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter
- Added Bing as an option for Safari’s search field

The update is available through iTunes (plug in your iPad via USB).

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iphone 3g/3gs cases (Otter Impact) and iphone4 cases

Posted on July 14, 2010
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iPhone cases 3g/3gs and the iphone4

The world and yours have gone iphone crazy in the last month. Do we buy a new iphone 4 or do we upgrade to an iphone 3gs and save the money. Well if you fancy saving money like me and already have a 3g iphone then why not treat yourself to a new case from Otter? Amazing design and very robust. It will give your iphone that new look without spending hundreds to get the iphone 4 (I’m waiting for the next model to come out!)

I bought the Otter Impact case and it’s the best case I’ve seen in its price range. (£7). Very very strong but incredibly stylish. Very easy to put the phone in the case or indeed to take it out should you need to. A very good fit, all the important connections are visable yet protected. The front side (screen) is raised at the top and bottom and if the phone should fall you would be very unlucky if the phone is damaged due to the design.

All four corners are re-enforced and there is no doubting Otter have thought long and hard about this case. It does add a little bulk to the feel of the iphone but to be honest when you carry the phone in your hand it feels very secure and you have confidence that should the phone slip it will be protected. I wish I’d bought it months ago now! Highly recommended.

OtterBox Impact Case

  • Durable Silicone with impact-absorbing features
  • Inner corners dissipate impact away from the device with added bump and shock protection
  • Ergonomic design for comfortable carrying
  • Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 10.8 x 1.9 cm ; 59 g
  • Boxed-product Weight: 454 g

So what if you have bought a new iphone4 …

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Groupola or Scamola? … you decide !!

Posted on July 5, 2010
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Following the furore surrounding Groupola’s marketing strategy last week (2nd July) when they supposedly made 200 sim free iphone 4′s available for £99, I received an email from the company today regarding the web meltdown caused. This email has obviously gone out to the thousands of people willing to spend hours trying to get an iphone last week, myself included, and is probably the closest we are going to get to an apology and explanation of the events of last week.

Did anyone manage to get a phone in the sim free deal? We’d love to hear from you!!!!

Email from Groupola:-

Thank you very much for having tried hard to access our iPhone 4 flash deal on our website last Friday and we are sorry if you were not successful.

The limited quantity deal sold out amidst unprecedented traffic levels as literally millions of visitors from around the world tried to access the site at once. All handsets are now sold out and those who were lucky enough to secure the deal will be contacted in due course.

Despite having taken every step possible to ensure that the site would be able to run smoothly for this deal, the unexpected amount of people that attempted to access the website brought it to a standstill.

Please keep watching as we are looking to run similar fantastic and genuine deals in the near future and share this message with your friends and family.

Delivered by Groupola.com

This blog hasn’t exactly gone into meltdown but it has seen an increase in traffic caused partly by as many on the net have called it  “a scam”. I for one wouldn’t go as far as call it an outright scam, rather very clever marketing by the guys over at Grouploa headed by Mark Pearson. …

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Groupola’s iphone 4 for £99 a publicity failure?

Posted on July 2, 2010
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Like thousands of other twitter users, I waited with great anticipation this morning for the “secret” email to come through from @groupola announcing when the unbeatable  SIM-free iPhone 4s for the knockdown price of £99 – as opposed to its normal retail price of £499 would be available.

Armed with aforementioned URL I, like so many disgruntled and angry potential customers waited and waited and waited to get through. The result was the same whatever one tried – FAILURE with a capital “F” !! no hablo ingles, no bloody chance more like – was it ever going to happen? Probably not!

The rule of thumb should always be – if it sounds too good to be true then it usually isn’t! You have to call into question what Groupola were thinking about with this. If they had bought 300 phones at £499 to sell on to the lucky few that managed to get through they would have suffered a huge financial kick up the backside:

300 *£499 = -£149,700 + £29,700 (300 *£99) = LOSS of £120,000

(UPDATE) – now led to believe only 200 phones were available to buy therefore figures now lead to a Loss of £80,000.

I think I’ve worked out the math correctly!

So with such a huge hit, are we to really believe that there were 300 available at all? The Groupola website crashed under the inevitable strain of traffic and twitter was rife with suggestions that the whole exercise was nothing more than a con. I’m not suggesting this is the case for one minute but questions will be asked and for sure Groupola will have taken a huge hit on the negative publicity that is sure to circulate twitter and blogs around the web over the next 48 hours.

Groupola’s public …

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