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The iPhone 4 Signal Loss Paroxysm

By Chief Oddball on June 24th, 2010 at 11:41 pm

Filed under News, Rants ··· 1 Comment

For the last week or so, I’ve been following the news of Apple’s latest generation iPhone: the iPhone 4. Since AT&T made most of the owners of last year’s iPhone 3GS eligible for upgrade immediately, I decided to go ahead and get an iPhone 4, then sell my 3GS to make up the difference. It was a potentially net-zero-cost transaction for me, so I couldn’t really lose.

Yesterday, however, as the first of the iPhone 4 pre-order customers began to receive their phones by mail, something strange and unnerving happened. There were lots and lots of complaints. I occasionally follow the discussion forums at MacRumors.com, one of the premier Apple fan sites, and the vitriol was really flying around in there.

Now, don’t get me wrong: Serious aficionados of just about anything, from electronics to fine wines to sports cars, tend to be the most vocal nitpickers. Accordingly, there are always complainers during every Apple product launch. Last year, for example, when the iPhone 3GS arrived, many people were complaining because the color tone of the screen was too warm compared to earlier models. Others pontificated that the sleep/wake switch was loose and rattly. I didn’t experience these problems, either that or I’m just not hardcore enough for them to affect me. Since I bought it a year ago, I would describe my experience with my 3GS as “outstanding.”

The iPhone 4 launch was different. I started seeing many threads of complaints, some about trivial matters as you would expect (“My speaker sounds tinny!” or “Does anyone else’s phone rattle when you tap on the back, like, really hard?”), but others about potentially showstopping problems. One thread that seemed to be gaining traction was the “proximity sensor” thread. The iPhone has a sensor so it knows when you’re holding it up to your ear to make a call, and thus shuts off the touch screen so you don’t press buttons with your face. Apparently, a handful of people received iPhone 4 units with faulty sensors and were pressing all manner of buttons with their cheek, even hanging up in the middle of calls. Ouch.

The worst issue, however, and by far the fastest-growing one, was the signal loss issue. Specifically: What happens when you hold your iPhone 4 a certain way, and your palm, thumb or finger happens to cover up the small black seam between the Wi-Fi / Bluetooth / GPS antenna band and the UMTS / GSM antenna band? Apparently, as some users were finding out, it causes their iPhone to lose almost all reception, drop calls and completely stall data traffic.

Now, to be fair, there are people who are reporting that they cannot recreate this issue. I happen to know one of them. But there are also way, way too many people reporting that it is a problem for this to be an “imagined” defect, or a case of PEBCAK (or PEBCAP, in this case). I mean, there are problems that aren’t really problems, like the moron who posted “Every picture I take with the iPhone 4′s flash enabled is all washed out!” only to discover that he had forgotten to remove the protective plastic sheet from the back of the phone (and, thus, the camera lens). But then there’s something like the antenna issue, where you have dozens of people posting YouTube videos demonstrating it. (Want more videos? Oh yeah, there’s more.)

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Chief Oddball to Experiment with Other Airlines

By Chief Oddball on April 6th, 2010 at 2:34 pm

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As I went out for my after-lunch walk to the post office, the ABC Radio News update at the top of the hour informed me that Spirit Airlines, usually my airline of choice, was going to start charging a fee for carry-on bags.

CARRY-ON BAGS.

CNN’s headline on the story reads as such: “Spirit Air to experiment with carry-on bag fees.” That’s okay, because from now on, I’ll be experimenting with other airlines. Spirit has cut their last corner, and I am done. DONE!

My family and I started flying on Spirit in the late ’90s when I first moved to Florida. They had a lot of cheap and easy flights between Detroit and Orlando (and later, Fort Myers) that were more affordable than similar flights on the major airlines, like Northwest or Delta. They also had far better service — Northwest, in particular, had become infamous back then for being one of the worst airlines in the country. Ten years, however, is a long time, and Spirit has officially worn out their welcome with me.

Spirit’s new fleet of aircraft is filled with cramped, uncomfortable and poorly-designed Airbus A319s, where the seats are anything but ergonomic and the legroom is appropriate only for a midget. Like most of the other airlines, they charge for everything — checked bags, a morsel of food, water, just about everything but the toilet (and I’m sure that’s coming) — and they’ve recently started “experimenting” with plastering advertisements all over the inside of their planes. Crass doesn’t even begin to cover it.

And now comes the fee for carry-on bags. If you’re a member of Spirit’s $45/year “$9 Fare Club,” you can carry a bag on for the low-low price of $20. If you’re just a regular shmoe, you can pay $30 when you reserve a carry-on bag online when you buy your ticket. And if you bring a non-prepaid carry-on to the airport, you’ll be paying $45 at the gate. I should note, in fairness, that these fees only apply to bags that go in the overhead compartment, and that anything you shove beneath the seat in front of you is still free. (For now!)

I don’t much care, though. I’m done. I’ve had it. I’ve paid Spirit my last “this fee” and “that fee.” I also understand that most (if not all) of the other airlines are charging similar fees, but this carry-on bag fee is the last straw. I’m fucking serious. Let me guess, I should check my laptop computer? I’m sure it’ll come out undamaged. Or maybe I should take it and stuff it under the seat in front of me, so that my feet have absolutely nowhere to go because Spirit’s fleet is a bunch of fucking A319s. I refuse to have a continually more uncomfortable and more unpleasant flying experience because I refuse to give in like a good consumer sheep and pay Spirit their ransom money every time I feel the apparently unconscionable need to take something with me on a trip.

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Wolfensteal

By Chief Oddball on September 24th, 2009 at 2:33 pm ··· 2 Comments

Such irony. After posting my impressions of the Wolfenstein Xbox 360 demo last night, and deciding that it wasn’t worth $60 to me — but that I’d pick it up on sale — today I discover that Wolfenstein is Amazon’s deal of the day. You can save a cool $20 and pick up the game for $39.98. Naturally, I’ve put my money where my mouth is and ordered a copy.

Edit: Apparently my brain really has melted, because I misunderstood Joystiq’s post and thought that the Wolfenstein discount was good until 4 PM. In actuality, it’s good for the rest of today. So, go to it.

(Thanks to Joystiq for the timely tip.)


Confirmed: Trans Am WS6 in Forza Motorsport 3

By Chief Oddball on September 21st, 2009 at 2:34 pm ··· Leave a Comment

Firebird Trackdays Event from Forza 3

Sweet Forza Motorsport 3, you have done this fan the ultimate service: Included a ’98-’02 Trans Am WS6 Ram Air in your list of cars. Moreover, there’s an entire event dedicated to the Trans Am line. As proof, I offer this screen capture from a Forza 3 demo video recorded last month at Germany’s GamesCom 2009. (Click it to enlarge.)

This is the first time I’ve ever seen a fourth gen WS6 in a video game, and thankfully it’s one of the best-looking racing games out there, complete with fully-modeled cockpits and a livery editor that will allow me to dress it up exactly the way I dressed up my real WS6.

Forza 3 comes out in the U.S. on the October 27th. My preorder is ready and waiting.

Edit: The 2002 Trans Am WS6 was the Forza 3 “car of the day” on October 14th. Check out this awesome gallery of a Sunset Orange Metallic T/A…looks amazing!


Bankruptcy Is Our Game

By Chief Oddball on May 7th, 2009 at 6:04 pm

Filed under Journal, News ··· 3 Comments

…“We’re here to kick ass and make money…and we’re all out of money.”Title of 3D Realms’ last quarterly financial statement (just kidding)

Barely more than a week after eulogizing Pontiac Motor Division, I’m back again to say “Sayonara!” to another staple of my formative years: game development studio 3D Realms, formerly known as Apogee Software LTD, makers of Duke Nukem 3D. Yesterday, in a sudden announcement that has taken the world by surprise — and has even rocketed to the top of BBC News’ list of most popular stories — it was revealed that 3DR was “shutting down” by the end of this week due to a lack of funds. All of their employees have already been let go.

All throughout the ’90s, Apogee/3D Realms gave me plenty to do. From publishing the iconic Wolfenstein 3-D to developing witty shooters like Duke and Shadow Warrior, the company’s games always topped my “must-have” list. I famously spent the entire holiday seasons of 1994 and 1995 waiting, respectively, for the release of Rise of the Triad and Duke3D. While ROTT was a bit of let-down for me, the critically-acclaimed Duke3D fully redeemed 3D Realms, and kept me occupied for a record-breaking two solid years of fun. It became a source of pop culture in-jokes, woven into practically everything I created in 1996 and 1997. I played countless head-to-head modem games (“Dukematches”) with my high school friends in the off hours. The game was an epic success around the world.

My friend Reaper and I were even creating our own respective takes on our high school in Duke’s level editor — his featured the infamous auditorium rocket launchers that you had no chance in hell of escaping, while mine sported a hidden “war room” off the cafeteria where school officials could keep watch for troublesome parents who had come to question the administration’s insane policies. Ah, those were the days.

Following the incredible success of Duke3D, 3D Realms — whose tagline was “Reality is Our Game” — first revealed news of an upcoming sequel, Duke Nukem Forever, in late 1997. Somewhere, I still have the issue of PC Gamer whose cover sported the exclusive announcement, which I picked up from the local Egghead Software on my way home from school one day. (Count the anachronisms in that sentence, why don’t you!) Duke Forever, or DNF, was billed as a revolutionary shooter that would essentially be the best game ever made. Fresh on the heels of Duke3D, everyone was taking about it — and hotly anticipating it.

Unfortunately, a ridiculous 12 years later, we now know that DNF stands for nothing more than “Did Not Finish.” The only thing finished here is the now-defunct 3D Realms.

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Farewell, Red Arrowhead

By Chief Oddball on April 29th, 2009 at 9:01 pm

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Farewell Pontiac

…In the misty morning, on the edge of time
We’ve lost the rising sun, a final sign
As the misty morning rolls away to die
Reaching for the stars, we blind the sky

…Oh they say that it’s over
And it just had to be
Ooh they say that it’s over
We’re lost children of the sea

…Black Sabbath, “Children of the Sea” (1980)

On Monday, April 27th, 2009, General Motors announced the discontinuation of Pontiac Motor Division. CEO Fritz Henderson made the move to scrap Pontiac and eliminate 21,000 jobs as part of a desperate last-ditch attempt to keep GM from bankruptcy. Reportedly, it was a decision made under tremendous pressure from the U.S. government — which itself stands to become the majority stakeholder in General Motors if Henderson’s final turnaround plan is carried out.

For me, a lifelong fan of Pontiac and someone whose very existence is spiritually tied to that storied brand, it was a sad, disappointing day. Sad because, for all of our pie-in-the-sky hopes that Pontiac might again live up to its history of interesting and exciting cars — perhaps with a new Firebird or Trans Am — we now know with certainty that those dreams will never come true. Disappointing because GM let Pontiac wither away and die when the clock ran out, at a time when they have neither the money nor manpower to give it the dignity of a celebrated sendoff. There will be no pomp and circumstance when Pontiac fades away in 2010, because GM can’t afford any.

Long ago, on a website far, far away, I lamented the death of my favorite Pontiac, the Firebird, when that model met its end in 2002. Back then, I could never have imagined that the entire Pontiac brand would disappear before my eyes less than a decade later. (Ironically, Chevy fans have since regained their Camaro, the Firebird’s one-time platform-sharing sister.) But now here we are, and the jig really is up.

Pontiac was a brand with an identity, one that said you went your own way, marched to a different drummer, refused to settle for the mundane. In the 1960s and ’70s, that identity lived in almost every product Pontiac sold — and they sold a lot of them. Its products were at the heart of pop culture sensations like Smokey and the Bandit and Knight Rider. Unfortunately, since the 1980s, Pontiac’s identity has mostly lacked the corporate support and product portfolio needed to make its storied image work. The once-proud brand’s slide into obscurity was, as a result, inevitable.

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Knight Song

By Chief Oddball on March 27th, 2009 at 11:24 pm

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For anyone who, like me, is a fan of the soundtrack from the Knight Rider television series, Don Peake and Hitchcock Media Records have just released two new volumes of music from the show. The new discs — volumes 2 and 3, respectively — just landed and are shipping right now.

Volume 2 contains what looks like the complete soundtrack for two first-season episodes: “Hearts of Stone”, the first episode scored by Don after taking over for Stu Phillips, and “The Topaz Connection,” whose score has a sort of Vegas-style flair. There is also a brand new remix of the Knight Rider theme song put together by Don, and four unnamed bonus tracks.

Volume 3 is a re-issue of scores originally sold as a bootleg under the Hi-Tech Records label in 2000, which contains the mostly unabridged score from four episodes of Knight Rider’s third season: “Knight of the Chameleon,” “Lost Knight” (partial score only), “K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R.” and “Knight in Retreat.” For fans who already have the Hi-Tech album, you’ll be pleased to know that Volume 3 has been remastered to provide a more beefed up and less flat sound, and also add some reverb and a wider stereo envelope. Hopefully some of the bizarre artifacts, panning issues and dropouts have been cleaned up too. Overall this should greatly enhance the tinny sound of the original disc.

In addition, if you missed the formerly sold-out Volume 1, it’s back in stock now with new cover art to match the new releases. Volume 1 features a great variety of sample cues from six episodes spanning all of Knight Rider’s four seasons, and the sound quality here is excellent.

Apparently it took four years for Universal to license the new material for release. Record label founder Ron Hitchcock reports that, with licensing hurdles over, licensing for future volumes will hopefully come much quicker.

Releases of Don Peake’s Knight Rider soundtracks have had a colorful history — everything from bizarre promo discs from the ’80s (specifically, the complete score to “Diamonds Aren’t a Girl’s Best Friend”) to bootlegs issued without license. Now, though, it looks like Ron Hitchcock is doing a great job with the material, and given his label’s history and catalog, you can be sure that these efforts are 100% above board. It’s great to see Don’s work find such a great home at last.

Now, my only problem is that I’m in Thailand until May, and I can’t get my hands on the new albums until I get back (they’ve been submitted to iTunes, but the approval process can drag on for a good while). Just one more reason to count the days.

By the way: This post is like a sort of bookend, as one of the first posts I ever wrote on this site was about Don Peake’s announcement, back in 2003, that he wanted to release a new Knight Rider soundtrack album. That went on to become Hitchcock Records’ Volume 1. That old post is a fun read if you want a taste of just how rabid a fan I am. It also contains my “wish list” of cues I wanted to hear on the album, none of which made it, but all of which I’d still like to hear given Hitchcock’s treatment someday. Hint, hint. ;)

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Kool-Aid, Apple Flavor

By Chief Oddball on March 19th, 2009 at 9:57 pm

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It was one year ago that I bought my first piece of Apple technology (Apple as in “Computer,” although they have since excised that word from their name): the iPhone. Three months later, the iPhone 3G landed, making us all feel like gits (although in retrospect, the AT&T mandatory data plan on the original iPhone is a much better value!).

Now, I’m gearing up to take another sip of that famous Apple Kool-Aid, because I’m almost certain that we’re just a matter of three months away from iPhone Revision 3.

There’s been no official announcement, of course. Apple, being savvy marketers if nothing else, wouldn’t dare say “There will be a new iPhone this summer,” because it would mean the immediate crash of existing iPhone sales while everyone waits for the new unit. But all signs point to a summer (possibly June) 2009 release of “iPhone 3.0.” For instance:

  • June is now recognized internally as the anniversary of Apple’s iPhone “product cycle,” as admitted by Apple marketing executive Phil Schiller. The last iPhone hardware revision was issued in June of 2008.
  • In June 2009, the first adopters of the original iPhone come off their two-year AT&T contracts.
  • This week, AT&T introduced the option to purchase “unsubsidized” iPhone 3Gs, which is seen by some as a hint that they are attempting to hasten sales of the unit’s remaining stocks.
  • Also this week, iPhone OS 3.0 beta was released to developers, similar to the way iPhone OS 2.0 was previewed in March of 2008, just before the iPhone 3G release (the iPhone 3G was not announced at the iPhone OS 2.0 preview event, either).

Speaking of iPhone OS 3.0, I followed along with the developer preview as it unfolded this past Tuesday. Suffice it to say, this is a pretty big update for the device — and it finally adds a host of features and capabilities that should have been there since day one.

OS 3.0 will be a free update for all existing first-gen and 3G iPhones, and a $10 paid upgrade for iPod Touch owners. Here’s what it includes:

  • Copy and paste support
  • MMS (picture messages) — iPhone 3G only
  • Stereo Bluetooth via A2DP — iPhone 3G & iPod Touch Rev.2 only
  • Push notification
  • 1,000 new APIs for app development
  • Support for hardware accessory connections
  • Turn-by-turn GPS directions
  • Peer-to-peer connectivity between iPhones
  • Device-wide search feature (called “Spotlight”)
  • Notes can now be synced to your computer
  • Landscape keyboard now works in all apps
  • Support for in-app purchases and subscriptions

We’re still missing video recording and Adobe Flash support, but this is a great start toward filling in the embarrassing gaps in the iPhone’s “basic functionality” portfolio. Even more interesting, though, are all of the new developer APIs and the belated arrival of push notification, which open up a lot of new ways the device can be expanded through third-party software. Since I bought my iPhone, free OS updates and a handful of applications have turned it into a vastly more versatile device. I’m looking forward to more of that!

I’m not the only one who’s excited about the possibility of a new iPhone hardware revision. My wife Apple is excited too, because as soon as the new phone lands, she gets my old one. I was doing a little research today into the total cost of our AT&T bill, assuming we had one first-gen iPhone and one to-be-announced iPhone 3.0. The pricing is a bit overwrought and a bit of a mess, and I still think the fact that AT&T stopped including 200 free SMS messages with the mandatory iPhone data plan was an extremely cheap-ass maneuver. But when I consider the value I get from my phone — and that Apple would get from having one of her own — it becomes clearly worth it to me. Especially since we weren’t paying that much less when Apple had a phone on Verizon that didn’t do a damn thing besides make calls.

The fact that I like the iPhone so much is a bit weird; after all, I’ve historically believed that Macs were too limiting and hand-holding for my taste as a computer enthusiast. And yet I’m not gravitating to Symbian or Android mobile devices; instead I went right for the iPhone. I guess I’m getting to a point in my life when having maximum tinker ability in a device just doesn’t matter anymore, because I’m busy enough that I just need stuff to work the way it’s supposed to and be done with it. Never thought I’d see it. But I did just turn 29, so I can use that as a catch-all excuse. ;)

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GM’s Plan for Pontiac

By Chief Oddball on December 3rd, 2008 at 11:48 am

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Today, the Big Three domestic auto company CEOs went back to Washington to present their comprehensive restructuring plans, in the hopes of winning the all-important federal bridge loans to keep their operations running. For GM and Chrysler, the news was particularly dire: Either they receive $4 billion and $7 billion, respectively, in federal aid in the next 30 days or they will cease operations. If given a reprieve, GM’s plan asks for a total of $18 billion in federal aid, which it expects to pay back by 2012 based on its restructuring plan’s cost-saving efforts.

I delved through the official PDF copy of GM’s proposal, which the Detroit Free Press has available for download, in the hopes of finding some news about my brand of choice: Pontiac. I’ve been a Pontiac fan since…well, “the dawn of time” might be an accurate assessment, although there was a time when I was actually more enamored with the Ford Mustang. I’d say that it was 1992 or thereabouts when I really started soaking up all the information I could find about the Firebird, and started to become intimately familiar with Pontiac’s lineup and future plans. Of course, since I was old enough to drive, every car I’ve ever owned has been a Pontiac — and a black one, at that.

After hearing the recent rumors that GM was considering the total elimination of Pontiac, along with is Saab and Saturn brands, I was of mixed emotions. As much as I always loved Pontiac, their current lineup is a sad, shallow caricature of its former “rebel” image. No one takes them seriously, and given their haphazard flailing about and vapid product portfolio, it’s hard to take them seriously. With the Firebird and GTO gone, the Solstice being upstaged by the spiffier Saturn Sky, and the G8 being billed as a somewhat less-than-exciting replacement for about four different discontinued models, GM’s former “Excitement” brand hasn’t been offering us much to get excited about. And the “Green Appeasing” subcompact they’re trying to introduce, a rebadged Chevy Aveo called the G3, is nothing but a total embarrassment to the brand and its few remaining fans. Still, despite what Pontiac has become, I was bitter about the prospect of the nameplate ceasing to exist.

Which is why GM’s vision for Pontiac, as presented in their restructuring plan, is probably about the best thing that could happen to it. From the document:

Significant efforts have been expended to combine the Buick, Pontiac and GMC (BPG) brands into a single dealer distribution network, with approximately 80% of these brands‘ combined sales sold through BPG-branded stores. This channel will be fully competitive in terms of total entries offered, with Pontiac serving as a specialty/niche brand with reduced product offerings solely intended to complement Buick and GMC models and reinforce the channel as a whole.
GM Restructuring Plan for Long-Term Viability, 12/2/2008

In a way, this makes perfect sense. Rather than each of the entities in the “BPG” tier trying to function as a full-line marque, the combined entities should represent a single full-line marque, with each nameplate contributing something different to the goal. And in this case, Pontiac would contribute some “specialty/niche products” — perhaps just the halo cars, if you will.

Besides, as far as I can tell, Pontiac already is a niche brand — it just doesn’t know it. Pontiac’s attempt to be a fully-rounded GM marque, offering vanilla cars like the G6, G5 and Vibe, watered down (if not completely snuffed out) the brand’s “Excitement” image. And let’s be honest; anyone looking for a bread-and-butter car isn’t going to buy a Pontiac. Pontiac only exists for one reason: To provide inspiring, soulful product to mainstream, middle-class buyers who actually want some fun in their mode of transportation. Pontiac should not be about utility, or fuel economy, or ergonomics. It should be about performance, design and — dare I invoke the term — excitement. And it should not try to compete with Porsche, BMW or any of the Euro marques in refinement, comfort or panache — let those brands have that stuff. Pontiac cars should be all about stuffing it in your face, like it was in the ’60s and ’70s. Like the nostril-festooned Trans Am of the ’90s. No holds barred!

And because this should be the brand’s focus, it naturally should be a reduced portfolio with maybe two or three cars. The “sporty, fun” alter-egos that grin at you mischievously from the corners of the Buick/GMC/Pontiac combined showroom. If you want your cushy pseudo-luxury ride, you have your Buick sedans and crossovers. If you want your fun car, you have your Pontiacs. And then, for some reason, you have your GMCs. Frankly I think it’s GMC that needs to cease to exist; what with Chevrolet offering everything GMC does in essentially the same package, I don’t see the point.

But you can see from GM’s discussion of the three combined “second tier” brands — Buick, GMC and Pontiac — that it’s Pontiac that would get the axe first if it came to it. They’re just there to “round out” the product offerings of the second tier, and if it doesn’t work out, Pontiac will go the way of Oldsmobile. So yeah, the brand might still cease to exist in the very near future, but at least it sounds like GM has finally faced the music and relegated it to the niche status that it has so deserved, for better and for worse, for a long time now. (And hey, with GM about ready to throw in the towel and dissolve Saturn, maybe the Sky can go away and the Solstice will finally be able to stand on its own merits.)

So if Pontiac were reduced to two or three niche products, what should they be? I think Peter DeLorenzo of AutoExtremist has the right idea:

A Firebird Trans-Am, a GTO and a big Bonneville sedan would do nicely. Notgonnahappen.com, but it’s an interesting thought…
AutoExtremist.com

Perchance to dream.

Edit: As if reading my mind, Mark Phelan of the Detroit Free Press posted practically the same thoughts today. Well done.

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…And He’s Clear

By Chief Oddball on September 2nd, 2008 at 6:39 pm ··· 3 Comments

Time to spin “East Bound and Down” one more time for the road: Jerry Reed, also known as Snowman from Smokey and the Bandit, has died.


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