You might know ColorWare from the TapTapTap promotion of Digg (when they gave 14 lucky winners a black iPad that was truly really awesome). But Gizmodo makes a good point – coating your iPhone 4 with a custom color may solve reception issues.
Can ColorWare Improve iPhone 4 Reception with Rainbow Coating?
David Letterman’s Bad iPhone Top Ten [Video]
Looks like the issue has gone mainstream in the US. Gotta love the “eye foam” though.
An iPhone 4 Recall Will Cost Apple $1.5 Billion
If Apple were to recall the iPhone 4 (it’s likely they won’t), how much would it cost America’s most expensive company? Estimated at 1.5 Billion dollars, a recall which would be an incredibly expensive venture that Cupertino isn’t interested in perusing. Though if Apple doesn’t act on the iPhone 4 issues, the company is prospected to lose $900 Million anyway, possibly losing up to $200 Million each week the issue isn’t resolved. A cost effective solution could be to distribute free bumpers to customers; Apple sells the bumpers at $30 a pop, but it would only cost Apple $1 per iPhone to distribute free bumpers to customers as a patch according to Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi.
[via AppleInsider (Recall and Loss Estimates) and TUAW]
Apple Purchases Online Mapping Company, Poly9
The Android comes with free Google Maps Navigation. iPhone owners will often downplay this feature of Android handsets, but for me it’s the definitive feature that has kept me from using an iPhone handset for my daily needs. Google Maps Navigation is super convenient to have, and I’m looking forward to when Apple releases a similar, competitive product of its own (if they ever will that is). As Apple’s and Google’s relationship dissolves in the smart-phone market, they may be looking to absolve themselves of Google’s services at some point down the road. Mainly their Maps feature.
Apple Confirms Their Attack on China
The next big market for Apple is Asia, specifically the Chinese market. We’ve already seen their brand new Shanghai store (it looks grand), and Apple has confirmed that a total of 25 outlets are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011. This is in line with earlier reports, and it’s just another drop in the bucket for the $40 Billion dollar company.
[via Macnn]
The iPod is Still Strong, Grips 76 Percent of Market
As I entered junior high, iPods were the big thing everybody had to have. I remember carrying around the fifth generation black iPod Video, the most awesome thing out at the time. When a repair accident left the LCD damaged, I shelved the aging unit and purchased the iPod touch once that landed in stores later in senior high. This was long before an App Store existed on the device, and after three years of owning the iPod touch, I’m looking forward to the next refresh later this year.
Is the iPhone 4 Having Bluetooth Issues?
Launch products can have software bugs (or hardware defects) that will need to be ironed out, and TUAW may have discovered an issue we were initially unaware of. The TUAW investigative team did a few unscientific tests and a little bit of a Apple research (perusing through support forums), and maybe verified the following.
While testing out the Jawbone Icon wireless Bluetooth headset recently, the parties I called complained of diminished sound quality on their end. They talked about overly compressed muffled sound, with decreased dynamic range. Over at the Jawbone end-user forums several threads have been discussing exactly that.
It turns out that problem is not isolated to the unit I tested, let alone the manufacturer. At Apple’s discussion forums, other Bluetooth headsets are apparently producing the same distortion effects when used with many iPhone 4 units.
TUAW questions whether this issue is related to the iPhone 4 antenna issues (it might be), but I’m not ready to confirm that just yet. For those of you with bluetooth headsets, how has your experience been with the iPhone 4?
[via TUAW]
DeskAgent Winners Announced
Thanks everyone who entered the DeskAgent 1.1 giveaway.We also want to thank the MacRecon developers for the promo codes they offered to MacStories readers.
Here are the winners:
Ignignokt
KaL MichaeL
Phillip Johns
Matthew Bostock
Bruna
Eli
You’ll receive the promo codes in your inbox in a few hours. Congratulations!
FaceTime: Now Working on Planes, Too
Ok, so we know FaceTime is a great technology. Video calling is nothing new, but Apple’s implementation is perfect: one-tap calling, simple UI, easy to use.
How stable and compatible can Apple’s FaceTime be, anyway? We’ve read reports of firewalls blocking its connection. Still, the good folks over at TUAW have managed to talk with a reader who was on a plane, thousands of feet above Earth, using Gogo in-flight Wifi service. The same service which blocks Skype and other VOIP softwares, it worked just fine with FaceTime.
The quality of the call is good, and Bills even changes camera to show that he’s actually on a plane, FaceTime with us poor Earth dwellers. Check out the video after the break.