Apple Doesn’t Know How To Handle The MobileMe Crisis
August 31, 2008
Apple excels in product design and user interface, and their operating system is pretty sweet, too. What Apple has a much rockier history with is customer service—in individual instances it can be great, but historically when there’s a problem with one of their products, Apple clams up like a sullen teen and refuses to talk. Their new MobileMe service has had problems since it launched two weeks ago, and even now there are thousands of users who can’t sync, or whose email has been deleted (oops, should’ve set up Time Machine). David Pogue points out that Apple’s lack of an adequate response is completely unacceptable—or would be for any other company:
It’s incredible that Apple doesn’t recognize this situation. This is an airplane that’s stuck on the runway for hours with no food or working loo. And the pilot doesn’t come on the P.A. system to tell the customers what the problem is, what’s being done to mend it, how much longer they might be stuck, and how he empathizes with their plight. Instead, he comes on once each three hours to repeat the same thing: “We apologize for the inconvenience.”
It’s true, Apple did address these problems early on, even going so far as to offer a free 1-month extension to current subscribers. But Pogue points out that whatever problems were plagueing MobileMe haven’t been entirely eradicated, because a note appeared on the MobileMe support site that read, “1% of MobileMe members can’t access MobileMe Mail. We apologize for this service interruption and are working hard to resolve the problem.”
So how is Apple trying to help out this subset of customers? By hiding behind a broken customer service system, Pogue writes:
MobileMe tech support, my correspondents tell me, is nearly impossible to reach; the recording says that the support team is “unavailable due to the overwhelming interest in MobileMe.” (Somehow I doubt that “overwhelming interest” is the problem.) When you do reach them, they’re apologetic but can do nothing to help.
By contrast—and even I can’t believe I’m about to compare T-Mobile’s customer service to Apple’s, but here goes—yesterday I couldn’t get on the web using T-Mobile’s HotSpot service at a Starbucks in NYC. I called the customer support line at the bottom of the error message screen fully expecting to get nowhere—really it was just a masochistic impulse to test how incompetent they’d be. What I got instead was a live, helpful person after three rings, and when I was escalated up to a support tech, she answered in less than 60 seconds and gave me advice on how to fix the problem. I assume T-Mobile is dumping extra resources into HotSpot support right now, especially with Starbucks since they’re having to deal with AT&T taking over the system and causing who knows what kinds of customer service snafus, but you’d think Apple would try a similar approach with its first big push into a new service.
“Apple’s MobileMess” [New York Times]
(Screen cap of customer service wait time: Hayden)
HTC wars: Touch Pro, Touch Diamond and S740 go head to head
August 31, 2008
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Now that the cat’s out of the bag it was no trouble tracking down HTC’s S740 this morning, and just for kicks we rammed the phone up against the Touch Pro, which we subsequently rammed against the Touch Diamond and an iPhone for a generally violent display… Continue reading
Samsung Ultraslim TV Looks Like Giant iPhone 3G [Ifa 2008]
August 31, 2008
Scratch one more notch for Apple design influence, because next year’s top-of-the-range Samsung Ultraslim LCD TV All-In-One 1 looks like an oversized iPhone 3G, down to the finish in black or white. The 52-inch TV—which is 1-inch at its thickest point—includes all the circuitry and ports in its ultra-slim body, with no breakout boxes or hunchbacks. The result is the slickest TV we’ve seen in the whole of IFA 2008, beating the Sony ZX1. And the ideal looking so far this year.
Scratch one more notch for Apple design influence, because next year’s top-of-the-range Samsung Ultraslim LCD TV All-In-One 1 looks like an oversized iPhone 3G, down to the finish in black or white. The 52-inch TV—which is 1-inch at its thickest point—includes all the circuitry and ports in its ultra-slim body, with no breakout boxes or hunchbacks. The result is the slickest TV we’ve seen in the whole of IFA 2008, beating the While the slick Sony ZX1 is only 9.9mm, it also has a box in the middle and has to be set up on a stand because of that. The Samsung Ultraslim LCD Television All-In-One 1 doesn’t, extending the circuitry across its back and tapering the glossy back cover toward the edges, in a very smooth curve. This is a design choice similar to the iPhone 3G and the MacBook Air (and before the anti-Apple fanboys protest, here’s a tiny tale: four days ago I asked one of the chief designers at Philips about Apple’s industrial design. “Do you think they are a massive influence in consumer products?” I said. Smiling, he spent five minutes speaking about the undeniable influence of the work of Ive and Co. in most of the stuff currently out there).
The Good: Extraordinary, beautiful design. It’s as beautiful and simple on the front as it is on the back. In fact, so nice on the back that, even while it’s perfect to be hung on the wall, I would like for it to be standing in the middle of a room. The picture quality doesn’t go far behind. Crisp image quality and very smooth motion, with an even distribution of light.
The Bad: You will have to wait until next year to get one.
Bottom line: The race toward the slimmest Televisions continues, and I think Samsung has the winner so far. [More IFA 2008 Coverage]
HTC wars: Touch Pro, Touch Diamond and S740 go head to head
August 31, 2008
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Now that the cat’s out of the bag it was no trouble tracking down HTC’s S740 this morning, and just for kicks we rammed the phone up against the Touch Pro, which we subsequently rammed against the Touch Diamond and an iPhone for a generally violent display of smartphone force. It is worth noting that while the S740’s keys are similar to the Touch Pro’s, they’re not quite as deep or clicky, which leads to a rather sub-par typing experience by HTC’s standards. That glossy mirror finish on the phone screens isn’t doing them any favors either — even when wiped smudge free it seems to impede viewing — and we have to state the Touch Pro’s matte finish makes the Diamond and iPhone 3G look cheap in comparison. Oh, and when asked about the Dream, the HTC rep quickly replied “we don’t know anything.” It was worth a shot, right?
Palm Treo Pro reviewed on Engadget Mobile
August 31, 2008
Filed under: Cellphones
The Treo Pro is the first of what’s clearly a new design direction for Palm — a shiny, black mutation of the popular Centro, but with Windows Mobile on-board and a one-of-a-kind marketing scheme allowing you to buy the device unlocked right at launch. Want to get the low-down, dirty news on whether or not it’s for you? Then truck on over to Engadget Mobile where we’ve got the full on review.
8+ Hour iPhone Sync Timelapse Video (AKA Be Thankful For Your “Short” Two Hour Sync) [IPhone]
August 31, 2008
When I complained on Twitter about a 2 hour iPhone sync, Giz reader Brandon Lusk told me I was lucky. He had a much longer sync, sometimes over 6 hours. I called bullshit. And so, he provided me with two videos, time-lapsed; this one is over 8 hours. That’s a full night of sleep. That’s a full day of high school. That’s longer than it takes to fly cross country, or drive from SF to Los Angeles. After seeing this video, I stopped complaining and tried to figure out what caused Brandon’s problem with him.
To troubleshoot the problem, he restored his phone from scratch, but even after reinstalling 7.7.1 iTunes and 2.0.2 firmware in his never-jailbreaked iPhone 3G, the sync is unbearably long. We even tried syncing on an Air and an iMac and used another cable. The only outstanding set of data Brandon had is that he loads 74 apps to his phone. And he states that by adding apps one at a time, his sync/backup time slowly goes up—so it’s not a single buggy app ruining the process.
Now, I’m sure Brandon’s case is an exceptionally complicated problem. He still has an iTunes error message pop up when he syncs, for example. And even when we both load up 50 apps on our phones, his sync is much longer at 4 hours. This is clearly not a normal example, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real, and it doesn’t mean it isn’t related to the large problem many have been suffering from since firmware 2.00 hit. Maybe Brandon can be our poster boy for the eternal sync/backup problem. Or, until Apple fixes it, we have the ability to watch this video every time we complain about the iPhone’s sync times and we can feel like it could have been worse. Like 8 hours’ worth of worse. But damn if that video doesn’t make you happy when it’s finally done with the transfer.
The song in the video is Foreplay/Long Time, by Boston, FWIW. [Brandon’s blog, Foreplay/Long Time Amazon, iTunes]
His setup:
Both machines running 10.5.4 and iTunes 7.7.1 (but again, this started on 7.7)
Air is a day 1 1.6GHZ, 80GB and the iMac is a 2.8GHZ 4GB RAM 320GB HDDWhen I started, I had
997.1 MB of music (163 songs, all .m4a files, except 27 .m4p)
5 playlists
93.6 MB of pics
27 ringtones
No movies or Television shows
47 MB video (all video podcasts)
Contacts, calendar synced to MobileMe
3 other IMAP email accounts
74 apps (a lot, I know, but certainly not as many as you could possibly have)The sync added
No music
No playlists
No photos
No ringtones
No movies or Television shows
3.5 GB of video (99 podcasts, and this part only took about 10 minutes, as you can see in the video)
6 app updates (2 of which were not installed because of an error)
No new appsThe backup folder produced this time weighs in at 9,771 items and 848.1 GB
My observations:
It doesn’t matter if the app updates error or not, my last sync was 6:49 with 4 app updates, all of which were successful.
Since 2.0, backup and sync has been very long, but not to this extent. Usually 1.5 - 2 hours.
It started getting this bad about a month ago, right before iTunes 7.7.1 came out, an app crashed mid install via Wi-Fi app store, crashing the phone to the Apple logo but not booting all the way.
When it crashed like that, I put it in DFU mode and restored from backup, immediately had the same problem.
Back to DFU mode and restored with fresh firmware—instead of crashing daily, it did it every few days, requiring DFU mode and fresh download of firmware.
Did a complete wipe from within the phone, installed fresh firmware again, and started from scratch. New iTunes installation (removing support files first, empty trash, reboot, then reinstall) new firmware download.
Since then, no more Apple logo of death, and very few app crashes in general, but still excruciating backup/sync times.
If I skip the backup (I’m inclined to do that these days, since they’re usually corrupted, even with a fresh copy on the desktop) it still takes at least 2-3 hours to sync.
It’s been such a long time
I think I should be goin’, yeah
And time doesn’t wait for me, it keeps on rollin’
Sail on, on a distant highway
I’ve got to keep on chasin’ a dream
I’ve gotta be on my way
Wish there was something I could say.Well I’m takin’ my time, I’m just movin’ along
You’ll forget about me after I’ve been gone
And I take what I find, I don’t want no more
It’s just outside of your front door.It’s been such a long time. It’s been such a long time.
Well I get so lonely when I’m without you
But in my mind, deep in my mind,
I can’t forget about you
Good times, and faces that remind me
I’m tryin’ to forget your name and leave it all behind me
You’re comin’ back to find me.
HTC wars: Touch Pro, Touch Diamond and S740 go head to head
August 31, 2008
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Now that the cat’s out of the bag it was no trouble tracking down HTC’s S740 this morning, and just for kicks we rammed the phone up against the Touch Pro, which we subsequently rammed against the Touch Diamond and an iPhone for a generally violent display of smartphone force. It is worth noting that while the S740’s keys are similar to the Touch Pro’s, they’re not quite as deep or clicky, which leads to a rather sub-par typing experience by HTC’s standards. That glossy mirror finish on the phone screens isn’t doing them any favors either — even when wiped smudge free it seems to impede viewing — and we have to say the Touch Pro’s matte finish makes the Diamond and iPhone 3G look cheap in comparison. Oh, and when asked about the Dream, the HTC rep swiftly replied “we don’t know anything.” It was worth a shot, right?
Good news for some of AT&T’s business customers …
August 30, 2008
Good news for some of AT&T’s business customers who don’t live near a AT&T or Apple Store: if you’re part of with AT&T’s Premier Enterprise program, you can now buy your iPhone online. [Computer World]
HTC wars: Touch Pro, Touch Diamond and S740 go head to head
August 30, 2008
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Now that the cat’s out of the bag it was no trouble tracking down HTC’s S740 this morning, and just for kicks we rammed the phone up against the Touch Pro, which we subsequently rammed against the Touch Diamond and an iPhone for a generally violent display of smartphone force. It is worth noting that while the S740’s keys are similar to the Touch Pro’s, they’re not quite as deep or clicky, which leads to a rather sub-par typing experience by HTC’s standards. That glossy mirror finish on the phone screens isn’t doing them any favors either — even when wiped smudge free it seems to impede viewing — and we have to state the Touch Pro’s matte finish makes the Diamond and iPhone 3G look cheap in comparison. Oh, and when asked about the Dream, the HTC rep quickly replied “we don’t know anything.” It was worth a shot, right?
Video: Hands-on iriver’s SPINN, the first true iPod killer
August 30, 2008
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
We’ve seen iriver’s SPINN (above between the HTC Touch Dual and iPhone 3G) floating around Korea in photos and video for a few weeks now. But damn if this little 3.3-inch DAP doesn’t make a distinct impression in person. Of course, you’ve heard the term “iPod killer” tossed around for years with obvious effect. But this, this tiny SPINN with brilliant OLED display and up to 16GB of storage looks to be device-for-device better to the bigger iPod touch. The SPINN navigation is very well implemented and grants for natural and precise one-handed operation with heavy tactile control — touchscreen too if that’s your preference. Of course, making an iPod killer is about more than just the device — it’s the ecosystem of Personal computer software, third celebration accessories, and daunting global distribution and retail model which faces any upstart vendor. On sale now in Korea, iriver hopes to address the latter piece of the puzzle as they prepare for a global (US, UK, and Europe) launch in September or October — assuming they can sort out the necessary distribution / retail channels this week at IFA. Remember, it’s already got FCC’s nod of approval.
Continue reading Video: Hands-on iriver’s SPINN, the first true iPod killer
