Senator Charles Schumer’s Open Letter to Steve Jobs

Democratic New York Senator Charles Schumer issued an open letter to Steve Jobs regarding the iPhone 4 antenna issues, AppleInsider reports.

Basically, he’s just trying to ask Steve for an explanation of the problem. At this point, I guess he might as well just sit down tomorrow and enjoy some liveblog on the internet.

Check out the full letter below.

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Woz Learned About iPhone 4 Antenna Issues The Hard Way

Whether iOS 4.1 fixes the iPhone 4 antenna issues or not (it did the trick for me), it’s very interesting to read the opinions of well-known industry personalities about it.

But Steve Wozniak is more than a personality - heck, he’s the guy who co-founded Apple with Jobs. He must know something about Apple stuff, right? It turns out he experienced reception problems, too, and he learned about them the hard way. He touched the spot and everything froze.

Read an excerpt of his interview with Dutch journalist Henk Van Ess after the break.

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News Kiosk Brings Yet More Newstands to the iPad - 10 Codes Up For Grabs

So you think we’re done reviewing apps to read news on the iPad. No, and we’ve got even more coming. Actually, I think news apps on the tablet are the new “Twitter clients for iPhone”. They’re everywhere. They’re good. Developers can’t stop releasing them.

Today we’re taking a look at a new app for iPad called News Kiosk which - you guess - allows you to read your favorite blogs’ news in an all-new fashion.

As usual, we’ve also got some codes to give away.

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Actually, iOS 4.1 Fixes the Death Grip

Last night a bunch of blogs reported that the latest iOS 4.1 beta didn’t fix the “Death Grip” problems with the iPhone 4 antenna. We linked to those reports because I had the chance to test the new firmware in a low-signal area and, apparently, the Death Grip was still there.

Today I woke up early and decided to go out for some field testing with my iPhone 4 running iOS 4.1 Beta 1. I took a walk in strong-signal areas (very strong-signal - Viterbo is covered pretty well by 3G and HSPA) and, surprisingly enough, I wasn’t able to reproduce the grip issue.

What happened with iOS 4.1?

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Apple Engineer Reportedly Warned Steve Jobs about the Antenna Issue

Bloomberg writes this morning on Apple’s senior antenna expert, Ruben Cabellero, who personally warned Steve Jobs (a year ago) about the potential antennae issues with the iPhone 4.

Last year, Ruben Caballero, a senior engineer and antenna expert, informed Apple’s management the device’s design may cause reception problems, said the person, who is not authorized to speak on Apple’s behalf and asked not to be identified. A carrier partner also raised concerns about the antenna before the device’s June 24 release, according to another person familiar with the situation.

Nothing else is revealed about the Caballero other than he was made unavailable for comment. Apple’s press conference is tomorrow, so it looks like Bloomberg will just have to wait.

[via Bloomberg]


Decrescendo Helps You Fall Asleep with Music

Of all the bad habits I have, one I managed to kick is falling asleep with music. Yes, I used to go to bed with my earphones on and music playing until I was unable to listen to it. I read a lot of people do it - but I couldn’t stand waking up with cables all over my bed. I felt stupid for that habit.

Now we (I, actually) have a problem. There’s this new iPhone app, Decrescendo, which helps you falling asleep with your music, it’s “intelligent” and looks great on the Retina Display. Oh boy.

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Boy Genius Claims that FaceTime is Coming to iPod and iPad

We pretty much figured that FaceTime would eventually end up on the iPod relatively soon, but we didn’t think we’d hear millings about the iPad just yet (considering it doesn’t have a front facing camera). Sure the iPad would make the perfect FaceTime device – but this leads us to ponder whether Apple will release an updated model this Fall.

Questions aside, Boy Genius Report does ask a valid question: how the heck can you call an iPod touch or iPad without a phone number? The answer lies in your Apple ID. Using your email address (which I do not like the idea of at all), people will be able to make FaceTime calls to your device. Kind of like how Textie on the iPhone and iPod touch works. Push Notifications will alert you to calls, and Boy Genius Report admits that there’d have to be some minor changes in iOS 4.x to make it happen. Chalk another one up on the rumor mill kids - this one is pretty good.

[via Boy Genius Report]


Archetype a Huge Success: 160,000 Players in First Week

Another success story in the making, Archetype has managed to garner 160,000 players within a week of launch according to TUAW. Amidst a massive advertising campaign, Archetype has become somewhat of an behemoth in mobile gaming, delivering a “big budget” experience Apple’s mobile devices, directly competing with titles like Nova and ngmoco’s Eliminate.

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