Today finally saw the long expected Press Conference from Apple in response to the iPhone 4 signal loss complaints. I was not surprised in the least to see that Apple presented a very strong case which addressed how there really isn’t any problem to begin with.
The iPhone 4 has all the same signal loss issues of any modern smartphone, or any model of iPhone for that matter. I was able to reproduce this same signal loss issue on both an iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, much to the surprise of my boss.
All told I think the very detailed explanation of the non-problem and it’s causes was a smart move on Apple’s part, as well, offering customers a free bumper case is an extremely cost effective way of making sure that anyone who would complain no longer has a reason to.
I personally don’t think there really is a problem with the iPhone 4 antenna, especially when complaints and returns are at an all time low for the iPhone product line. I believe that this was just a case of media outlets, and jealous competitors taking a cheap shot at Apple over a problem they all actually share.
If it wasn’t for the fact that I’d gotten an iPhone last summer I’d be running out to get an iPhone 4 on July 30th.
Tags: Apple,
iPhone 4,
media overreaction,
stab them in the back,
The Truth
To say that Tweetie for Mac is my new favourite desktop Twitter application would be completely incorrect. What I should really tell you is that I could not find an application to hold that title before Tweetie came along. Everything I tried before suffered from either serious problems in aestheics, overuse of screen real estate or poor user interface. Tweetie seems to have solved nearly all those problems and appear to be constantly improving their product.
Tweetie began as an iPhone Twitter application from the great people over at atebits. Tweetie for iPhone has been my default mobile Twitter application and it appears they have brought everything they learned on the iPhone into their new desktop program.
Tweetie has a very elegant design with large buttons for your Timeline, @ Replies or Mentions, Direct Messages and Search. The layout at the top of screen feels very familiar if you use the iTunes store, and shows where you’ve travelled if you start wandering through other peoples posts and replies. Conversations between yourself and other twitterers are very easy to follow and can be brought out into separate screens. These separate screens can also seemingly be used for many other aspects of the program as well. You can also view nearly full information on any twitter user who’s name is in your timeline, including profile photo, description, their posts, friends and followers. There are options for static or auto rolling scroll bar when new posts are made, as well as a menu bar icon that lights up when those posts arrive. For those power users Tweetie on both desktop and iPhone supports multiple accounts.
Tweetie for Mac comes in two flavours currently. One being the free version with very limited advertising presented in your regular timeline, the second being a paid version without advertisements for the price of $19.95, currently discounted to $14.95 as of the time of writing this post.
This application comes very highly recommended, and I can only imagine the beautiful things to come from the people at atebits with the support of dedicated twitterers who value the products they use.

Tags: Apple,
Atebits,
Twitter