MacDailyNews Take: Consumer Reports would do well get their staff on the same page before allowing them to spout off: Consumer Reports: Apple’s Bumper case fixes iPhone 4 signal-loss issue – July 15, 2010
Sutter continues, “Gikas said such a solution makes it difficult to review the phone, because everyone has a different case, and it’s unclear if the solution is permanent; there’s a chance the phone could still be recalled after September 30, or that a new version could be issued, he said.”
“During the press event in Cupertino, California, Jobs tried to spread the blame about reception issues across the smartphone industry as a whole,” Sutter continues. “Gikas said that was a bit unfair. ‘The human hand — the body — attenuates signal on all phones,’ he said. ‘But we haven’t seen it happen to the degree that it’s happened with the iPhone 4.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Did Consumer reports test iPhone 4 with iOS 4.0.1 with its the revised signal display algorithm? No they did not. They should take an iPhone back into their crap booth of flawed testing that’s likely worth 1/1000th of Apple’s state-of-the-art testing facilities (we’re being exceedingly generous with that estimate even though it’s certainly not warranted) and test the iPhone 4 running iOS 4.0.1 with and without Apple bumpers before they make any more of their conflicting and illogical non-recommendation recommendations. Again, anyone under the age of 115 who uses a Consumer Reports recommendation for any electronic device needs to seek immediate mental health counseling. The rest of you, enjoy your Aiwa boom boxes.
Sutter continues, “‘The most important thing to remember is a problem was discovered with the phone and we can confirm it in a lab, and it was a significant problem,’ Gikas said. ‘And I don’t think Apple fully admitted to it. They acknowledged it and they threw an interim solution at it. But everything spells fogginess about this thing.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Fogginess?! Okay, let’s talk fogginess:
In chronological order:
• “iPhone 4 reception is actually better than on the 3GS according to many to some highly respectable and thorough testers, including AnandTech… There’s no reason, at least yet, to forgo buying an iPhone 4 over its reception concerns.” – Mike Gilkas, Consumer Reports’ Electronics Blog – July 2, 2010
• Apple iPhone 4 is the best smartphone on the market according to Consumer Reports’ ratings. – July 12, 2010
• “Apple needs to come up with a permanent—and free—fix for the antenna problem before we can recommend the iPhone 4.” – Mike Gilkas, Consumer reports’ Electronics Blog – July 12, 2010
MacDailyNews Take: You already did recommend it, you moron. Go look at your own smartphone ratings chart: Apple’s iPhone 4 is the one at the top.
• “But for those who prefer to keep their iPhone, we encourage Apple to step forward soon with a remedy that fixes the confirmed antenna issue, and not one that requires additional consumer expense.” – Mike Gilkas, Consumer Reports’ Electronics Blog – July 13, 2010
MacDailyNews Take: Milk the thing for all it’s worth, Mike, why don’t you?
• “With the Bumper fitted, we repeated the test procedure, placing a finger on the Bumper at the point at which it covers the gap below. The result was a negligible drop in signal strength—so slight that it would not have any effect, in our judgment… The Bumper solves the signal-strength problem… We’re still calling on Apple to provide an acceptable free solution to the iPhone 4’s signal-loss problem.” – Paul Reynolds, Consumer reports’ Electronics Blog – July 14, 2010
MacDailyNews Take: Apple did so today, but CR still won’t recommend their top-rated smartphone, Apple’s iPhone 4.
• “We look forward to a long-term fix from Apple. As things currently stand, the iPhone 4 is still not one of our Recommended models.” – Consumer Reports’ Electronics Blog – July 16, 2010
To recap the fogginess: Consumer Reports recommends the iPhone 4, then they don’t recommend the iPhone 4 even as they say it is the top-rated smartphone on the market, according to their own ratings “system.” Next, Consumer Reports calls three separate times for Apple to “step forward soon with a remedy that fixes the confirmed antenna issue” that does not requires “additional consumer expense.” In the meantime, Consumer Reports then tests Apple’s Bumper case and finds that it alleviates the reception issue. Apple then offers free Bumper cases to all iPhone owners. Consumer Reports then decides that what they asked for is all of a sudden not good enough (for, if they did, then hits to their website from users who do not require bottled oxygen in order to click a mouse button would cease) and fails to recommed Apple iPhone to their geriatric readership who actually believe that Consumer Reports’ opinions on electronic products and God-knows-what-else are worth more than a bucket of warm spit.
At this point, we’re left with just one question: How many more illogical, contradictory, flawed articles can the transparent hit-whores at Consumer Reports concoct regarding this FUD-covered non-issue?
HA!!∞
I guess this is officially a urination contest now.
Gikas got a substantial deposit put into his Swiss bank account- that’s bloody obvious.
Connsumer Reports = Idiots.
Since this whole thing happened I have lost such respect for CR.
There are more flip-flops in that story than there are at spring break in Datona Beach…
At first, I had to admit this was an issue when CR dismissed the iPhone 4 because of the antenna thing. No matter what you think of CR, something like this will get attention elsewhere in the mainstream media. Publicity like this is something that Apple doesn’t need in the face of Google’s growth.
But after hearing Steve’s press conference today, he did make a lot of great points. Personally I think you will see a change to the hardware to fix this, but now I believe CR is looking more like a horse’s ass for continuing to exploit this for all that it’s worth.
And for the record, I never had this problem with my new iPhone 4, with or without the case. WTF is the big deal?
Consumer reports has now lost 40% of their customers… don’t expect their mag to be on the app store for too long
Well we know how to destroy a reputation.
Troll the shit out of them.
Seems like they want to make their name off of Apple. Well screw you Consumer Reports. I’ll recommend the phone to all my friends.
They just want to poop on Steve’s party.
F**k them.
The stupidity displayed throughout this whole ginned-up BS non-issue has been astounding.
Consumer Reports is still active?
Who still reads them for opinions, and information? LMAO, they need to go back to their caves.
Can somebody take a photo of CR’s crappy lab and post it here?
This pisses me off. Now I wish Apple had simply told Consumer Reports to go jump in the lake.
Hey, Lets all cancel Consumer Reports subscriptions, they obviously are not as good as they think they are…..
This is not the first time…..
I agree, free bumpers should not earn your recommendation.
But what should earn your recommendation is 0.55% (about 1 in 200) of iPhone 4 tech support (AppleCare) cases being related to antenna/reception. That means 199 out of 200 REAL iPhone 4 customers are having no reception issues out in the REAL world.
Or a return rate of 1.7% on iPhone 4 at ATT, and that’s returns for ANY reason; a customer may have returned one just to wait for a white iPhone. What other mobile phone on your list has a return rate of under 2%, or even 5%?
The free bumper is a gift from Apple, not a solution to a problem (one that only exists in the imagination of the media).
Their credibility is now officially in the crapper.
Gilkas is a horses ass for talking to the press on the heels of Apple’s press conference.
The question I have is, can CR honestly recommend ANY smartphone on the market, knowing all phones experience similar issues of attenuation? Or do Nokia, Moto, and Droid get a pass?
@Steve Ribich
As a matter of fact, I just canceled my subscription to CR. It was just about to renew too…whew!
I just can’t respect a company that jumps on a media blog-o-sphere frenzy.
Dear Apple,
Please buy CR and move them to China.
Archurban, MDN only deletes posts that contribute nothing to the conversation, or are perceived as just plain mean, overtly profane, off-topic, or for a number of other reasons.
You have a choice, sluff it off or take a hike. It’s their site and they can do whatever they damn well please. You got no rights here, understand?
I got my Griffin asap, then a bumper as it became available. So I really couldn’t understand what all the frickin hoopla was about. Proximity issues. I’d mute the phone all the time. I thought it was my beard growing out… But it definitely was not a dealbreaker since I normally use a wired headset listening to music all day.
Today… Finally…. I took off the bumper and tested. Wow!! Please keep in mind I have the latest upgrade. It does drop 2 full bars after about 18-22 seconds. Wow!
Am I returning?? Probabaly not. But I’ll tell ya what. If a new hardware model comes out I’ll be exchanging. It’s definitely an issue folks. Needs to be corrected. Not sure how. Not my problem… That’s why I deal with virtualzation and ipt, and they deal with antenna issues. They’ll figure it out. This is from the biggest Apple fan. It does exist!
Well – that settles it. I suppose I will gave to return my phone because I have never had a problem with it, but if CR doesn’t recommend it …… Wait a minute … Perhaps CR can’t be recommended because it is very obvious they have no idea what they are talking about…..but then again, I stopped subscribing to them years ago when I realized the same thing.
CR is basking in Apple’s worldly media attention. CR is wrongly hurting Apple with this fogginess nonsense so as to not lose all this invaluable press.