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Comment by rriepe | Hacker News Reader

Is this a joke that I'm not getting? Scotch tape? Really? "This problem isn't real, but here's how you fix it."

He also completely dismisses public perception. Did everyone forget Toyota's mess so quickly? If there's a perceived problem with your product, then there's a problem with your product.

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Really? Are you seriously comparing maybe 2 bars of lost reception that many people have been unable to replicate, IF you hold the phone a certain way, to a product that could kill you. And not in a "cigarettes can kill you" sort of way, but in a firey ball of death sort of a way?

I would certainly prefer that the phone did not lose any reception no matter how it was held. It is worth complaining about so that maybe apple will fix it. It is, however, in no way comparable to Toyota's mess. Not even close.

I think that you're misunderstanding his point. He doesn't mean to compare the scales of the problem; he's pointing out that if many people think that there's a problem with your product, you need to take that seriously rather than be dismissive about it. That's regardless of what the problem is, or how serious it is. No-one's trying to compare the magnitudes of the alegged Toyota problem with the alleged Apple problem, I think.

I actually think Toyota's mistake was taking the complaints too seriously and responding with such concern. Apple's approach, of dismissing the 'problem' and blaming it on the user, seems much more likely to help the whole thing blow over.

When you express too much concern about a possible problem, I personally have found that it legitimizes the problem to those observing the situation.

Although, this comment would be much more interesting if I had any data to back it up.

I think you're right about Toyota, but I don't think the opposite extreme is justified either.

Apple's flippant handling of the situation just shows that they have a crappy attitude. Sony's the same way; when they got complaints about a shoddily made button on the PSP, they completely dismissed them, with some line about it being a work of art or something.

It leaves a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. Sure, Apple can afford it (much more than Sony anyway) but it still doesn't make it the right move. They're too prideful to admit it's a flaw, but I can guarantee that this will be fixed in the next iteration of the iPhone. And they'll come out with this same crap line, "We did fix it, even though it was never a problem."

I think this whole Toyota metaphor is too strained to be useful. Toyota's problem was tied up with the fact that car crashes kill and injure people. That not only makes it a lot easier to raise a mass panic, but also raises the stakes a lot: Juries understand and fear car crashes, lawsuits over car crashes pay a lot of money in awards or settlements, and there is an entire division of the legal industry with years of experience in litigating over these specific issues.

Whereas it's hard to see a lawsuit over poor cellular reception going anywhere. I presume that somewhere in my cellular agreement is a clause stating that AT&T isn't liable for dropped calls. I mean, if that clause didn't exist surely the citizens of San Francisco would own AT&T by now?

Yeah, that is a really good point. Do you think if Toyota shrugged it off more that would of been more or less useful if it became a legal matter?

Except that there is no problem. I have an iPhone 4 as does my wife and I can cover the WHOLE metal band with my hands and not drop any bars. It's mass hysteria and whining. Get over it.

"Bars" is not a unit of useful comparison. What happens to your cell signal dBm when you do that?

(For one, if you have excellent coverage, handling the antenna only makes it slightly less excellent. If you have already shoddy coverage, it's a bigger problem.)

I can only imagine the reaction if a major Apple competitor had the same problem. Apple gets a pass on everything.

If a competitor's phone was as good as the iPhone 4 in all other areas, I suspect they'd get a little bit of a pass too.

...and that's how the monopoly begins. Seriously, that type of thinking echos the same problem that Microsoft had. It's not our software, you just don't know how to use it.

On one hand, it doesn't appear that they are getting a pass at all. This seems like they've gotten far more bad press for it than is necessary.

On the other hand, other device makers should really step up their game. I don't like the idea of a new computing monopoly, but who is out there seriously competing with Apple right now? (If what the other device makers is doing currently is competing, Apple doesn't have anything to worry about for a while).

That’s really what you think? Really?

What do you expect would happen if some Android phone had similar issues? I don’t think a lot more than this shitstorm. A few articles on Gizmodo and Engadget maybe, nothing like the widespread coverage we are seeing here.

In fact, there were a few (smaller) problems with the EVO 4G:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/14/htc-evo-4g-and-droid-incr... http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/13/htc-evo-suffering-from-gl...

None of the coverage was anywhere close to the iPhone's coverage.

Let me help your imagination:

Nobody would give a shit if this was any other company.

You'd get maybe 1/10th of the stories and 1/100th of the up-votes and comments around the web. Maybe.

> I can only imagine the reaction if a major Apple competitor had the same problem. Apple gets a pass on everything.

It's interesting because the same problem has been reported on both the Nexus One and the Evo 4G, yet nobody gives a damn.

Oh look, your statement is completely the wrong way around.

Same stuff with Google's remote application killing, had Apple done it it'd be all over the web and would be the first link on HN. Google did it, the HN link has already fallen off the front page.

Same stuff with Google's remote application killing, had Apple done it it'd be all over the web and would be the first link on HN. Google did it, the HN link has already fallen off the front page.

Ironically, when I Googled it, the top story was titled "Google pulls an Apple". Apparently, Apple doesn't get a free pass even when Google pulls applications for their app store ;)

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Google-Pulls-an-Apple-Yank...

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