“Whether HTC, Motorola, Nokia or Samsung, the spin control reads the same, using near-identical talking points playbooks. They know all about antennas, and Apple doesn’t, and is thus responsible for the alleged faulty design of the iPhone 4,” Steinberg writes.
“However, I’ve yet to see any response that actually attempts to disprove Apple’s online demonstration showing how smartphones from RIM, HTC and Samsung react to various forms of death grips. In each case, Apple shows you exactly where the dead spot, or antenna, is located, and the physical position that will reliably cause signal attenuation,” Steinberg writes. “More to the point, there are loads of YouTube videos out there showing how to induce this very common phenomenon on a fair number of popular smartphones.”
Steinberg writes, “Worse, the manuals for a number of these products, such as those from Nokia and HTC, specifically warn customers against death grips. If you touch them in the wrong place, signal quality will degrade. How can they possibly claim with a straight face that the problem is primarily Apple’s when their own documentation and numerous demonstrations show precisely the reverse?”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “jax44” for the heads up.]
Steinberg’s next paragraph, “The answer is, of course, that in this politically charged society, you really don’t have to produce evidence of anything. You just make the claim, such as the tragically pathetic and morbid one about so-called “Death Panels” during the debate on the health care bill in the U.S. Without getting into the endless emotional arguments about that topic, there were certainly legitimate criticisms to be offered without having to make things up.”
If a panel of government officials is tasked with determining who gets treatment and who doesn’t and someone dies prematurely as a result, then that is the very definition of a “Death Panel.”
That is what Sarah Palin meant by “Death Panels,” and when it begins to happen, I doubt the traditional media outlets will even report it, much less give Palin any credit for warning us.
This is nice. Days are coming that antenna will be greater. The whole industry is running for it now…
Soylent Green. At this rate, soon it won’t be just a movie anymore.
Bon Appétit!
I AM SHOCKED! (That anyone noticed their problem.)
God I hate when stuff gets political on MDN.
Attn. all iPhone users..
Class action lawsuit against all makers (except apple) for emotional distress and public humiliation!
If a panel of insurance company executives is tasked with determining who gets treatment and who doesn’t and someone dies prematurely as a result, then that is the very definition of a “Death Panel.”
So it’s not “when it begins to happen”, it’s now.
This might be a problem for all cell phones.
But not all cell phone companies have been build up by the media and put up on a pedestal like Apple has been.
The media likes to tear down that which they helped elevate.
They do it all time. Pump up then tear down. Good for ratings.
If you can’t win an argument on its merits, then the best remaining course is to discredit your opponent.
Lately, this rule is being played out everywhere you look…
@Jen,
That would be correct if the government instituted a single payer insurance system (Medicare for all), but the insurance corporations are still very much in charge of the health care system in America.
In fact the health care reform bill signed into law by Obama was largely conceived by Republicans as a “free market” alternative to single payer health care.
So the Death Panels might be in place for those who use America’s single payer systems (Medicare, Tricare, etc.) but for the rest of us we’ll only be susceptible to insurance company Death Panels as Zeke spelled out. We have a uniquely American system of health care that’s a partnership between business and government. I don’t foresee Sarah Palin’s vision of a much broader application of these Death Panels coming anytime soon.
“If a panel …”
So why replace a poor system with another poor system, especially the govt?
R2, thanks for a reasoned response to a potentially inflammatory observation. I salute you.
I am all for death panels.
Lets start with board members who steal corporate secrets for their own company.
@Jen
Your’s was a joke post wasn’t it? I mean, I really like to call out idiots and all, but nobody can be as stupid as you sound in your post and actually mean it!!!
Nobody who seriously considers themselves to be rational Americans actually believes tripe like you’re spewing. And what in the hell does it have to do with the topic at hand?
No shortage of idiots!
MDN, stuff like Jen’s post is what needs to be moderated. There is nothing political about this article, and yet here we have a blatant political comment that has nothing to do with the article. I’m all for free speech, but I’m also for keeping the conversation on topic.
And before anyone singles me out as a “libtard” trying to silence the conservative voice, I’ll tell you that I am, in fact, a conservative, as most of my comments on the politically charged articles will prove.
@hoffbegone
“So why replace a poor system with another poor system, especially the govt?”
One possible answer – because insurance company executives can’t be held accountable by voters, but elected officials can.
What were we talking about again? Oh yeah, I’m shocked, shocked I tell you, that cellphone makers have been caught lying about Apple.
@Zeke
You can sue insurance companies.
Try suing the government and see how far you get.
@Deus Ex Technica
I hate ad hominem attacks. I try to amend that to say “prove your opponent wrong,” for if your opponent is wrong, it makes you correct. Only slightly different, but at least something is being proven.
PS – Love your username.
They can’t because they know there phones are no better!
@EvangelizeWithRespect
Government health care will not be run by elected officials, but by typical bureaucratic personnel like every other government agency.
Think DMV.
I’d like to refudiate that comment from Jen.
@MDN
Stop giving all this BS antennagate crap airtime and move on to some (potentially) real news. Your just contributing to the continuing spin! Sheesh
@Jen
A coworker in her early 60’s was denied colon screening from her private health insurance company a few years back and could not afford to pay on her own. She died months later of colon cancer.
Health Insurance companies have a track record of denying treatment. Palin and her ilk just love to deflect the real issue and play to the ignorance of the voting public and scare people. And yes both politcal sides do that, but you mentioned her specifically.
Anyway…Mr Steinberg is correct in his assesement of the iPhone situation.
@leodavinci,
What government health care would that be, Leo? As I said, the health insurance corporations aren’t going anywhere. In fact they’re looking healthier than ever, the markets have only rewarded the signing of the health care law by investing in those companies. The Obama administration has placed a heavier regulated hand over them, but they’re also about to get a surge in money from new customers care of the mandate (another part of the plan originally constructed in the 90’s by conservatives as an alternative to single payer health care).
You and your ilk paint this impending scene of government health care as if the insurance corps are lining up to declare bankruptcy. They took a big hand in shaping the legislation and now their lobbyists are working to shape the final regulations. Again, it is a partnership between government and business, one that a large portion of Obama’s base isn’t even happy with (they’d prefer your prediction of a complete government takeover come to fruition).
MrMcLargeHuge,
I quoted exactly from the article. Maybe you should read it before spouting off nonsense.
Do you understand the difference between an insurance company rejecting to pay for your claim and the healthcare provider rejecting treatment because THAT’S WHAT THE DEBATE IS ABOUT. You cannot get treatment AT ALL in Britain if NHS rejects you. And if you try to pay for it yourself, look out!
Lets get to the important defect in the iPhone, that fact that the proximity sensor is screwing up, causing all types of problems with calls. My family has 2 of the new iP4’s and the proximity sensor on one of them renders the phone almost unusable, or at least if you are using it you better pay attention that you dont accidentally hang up or call someone on a 3 way call. It sucks.
Death paddles!
The American health system is just sad.
@ papasmack
Then take that one back! Apple will gladly replace it at no charge – unless you wait until the warranty runs out. Stop bitching about it and DO something!!
Possibly Relevant Post: I said this before, I understand and accept that other smartphones have attenuation issues like Apple. That does not excuse Apple. In fact, I think data supports the idea that Apple’s situation is marginally worse. Why did Apple put the antenna on the bottom left corner? If they can answer that (as in that is where we had the least attenuation is our predicted consumer behavior) they should. But, why not have two antennas? Antennae?
Off post: death panels. Insurance companies already have them. While I morbidly appreciate and embrace that I can shop around for my “preferred” death panel in the health insurance market (read, not really because of state-government insurance regs), it is also an economic fact of life that cost-benefit analysis goes into all policy decisions. So, I don’t care much about government death panels (yes, they will exist too, because the US government will regulate what insurance companies must do at a minimum, and tax policies if they give too much more a la “cadillac”), unless they restrict my ability to purchase a “better” death panel. Oh wait, I guess a tax is a restriction, but then, that will just get rolled into the cost for keeping my parents and myself and my kids alive. Morbid stuff.
@MacTC
Clever. It made me laugh.
I agree with others that relevance of Jen’s comment to the article is a huge stretch.
Hitler, EOT.
To Jen’s credit, she is quoting Gene’s article and following up with her appropriate comment. There are already “death panels” as mentioned by previous posters but they are called by more acceptable names: “prior authorization Dept”, “cost-benefit analysts Dept”, “drug/medical research qualification manager”, and on. What is immediately coming down the road is a huge influx of Baby Boomers entering the high-treatment phase of their life. What we currently have will not and can not continue!
BUT, back to real topic, her point really was about how often times media coverage exaggerates claims to get hits or air time. Then, when the actual facts come out rarely do the media report those or, even more rarely, post a correction article.
Apple has already proven the same problem exists in competing smart phones. Apple has already proven that only a minuscule (less than trivial) percentage of iPhone 4 tech support calls are about the antenna or reception. Apple has already proven that over three times fewer owners are returning iPhone 4 for ANY reason, compare to iPhone 3GS. And once the mass media got pasted their collective “antenna fetish,” they described iPhone 4 as the best smart phone on the market by a long shot.
End of story.
@RicMac – I couldn’t have said it better man.
@Contrarian and others:
I normally don’t comment on the politicized topics, but this one needs a response.
The current system, while it certainly has insurance company review panels who can decide to pay or not to pay for certain procedures, do not decide who can get treated. Currently, if my insurance company will not pay for a certain treatment, I can pay for it myself, get help with payment from friends/family/lenders/etc., or find some generous doctor who’s willing to work with me.
The review panels in the new health care system, however, effectively decide who can be treated, because they will be in effective control of all treatment rendered to everyone, much as the NHS is in Britain. This is truly a “death panel;” if their decision means that I cannot be treated under any circumstances, then they have effectively rendered the free market extinct in this circumstance.
A panel that says “we won’t pay” is far different from a panel that says “you may not receive treatment.” The first is financial.
The second is despotic, and despicable.
Don’t worry Jen your only in trouble if they start requiring IQ tests before treatment!
tehehe i couldn’t resist.
Liars like the Kenyan who thinks he be president.
For those paying attention, Antennagate has been a valuable lesson in how the world works – spin, lies, manipulation, mass hysteria, media irresponsibility, financial deception… it’s all there, and Apple’s part was so minor, it was almost nothing, except for providing an “opportunity”.
@ Jen,
I’d trust a government “Death Panel” (a number of professional health care providers tasked by the people to decide which treatments are to be funded, and which just don’t make sense because the cost/benefit is too far out of whack for society to pay for), way more than I trust an insurance company’s “Death Panel” (probably an accountant somewhere, advising his CEO to reject and defund treatments to prop up the quarterly results).
@ emmayche,
You have to be kidding. If your insurance provider says “no” you’re SOL. No treatment. That’s the sad, awful truth for 99.9% of the population. And no, you’re not in the other 0.01%, even if you’d like to think you are.
Real people can’t afford to be treated without some kind of insurance (public or private). It’s just too expensive. Today’s health care system is not set up for individuals to pay, like it was in our parent’s/grandparent’s day. The economics of health care have been skewed by 50 years of insurance the way housing prices have been skewed by 100 years of mortgages.
“How can they possibly claim with a straight face that the problem is primarily Apple’s when their own documentation and numerous demonstrations show precisely the reverse?”
This line of marketing lash-back is directly in line with today’s modern propaganda mongering. It’s perpetrated by the now, all too familiar, Marketing Morons who have no respect for (or knowledge of) facts. Everything is spin, rhetoric and diatribe. And yes folks. These dimwits have MBAs. I’d be interested in the names of the Biz Skoolz they attended.
:-Q******
Let’s call Motorola’s Droid X the “Death Panel” phone. It cannot be fixed with a bumper; it cannot be corrected with a software fix. It has to be thrown into the molten iron cauldron, just like what the Terminator III movie has shown.
Hate spewed by stupid humans. Hate spewed by stupid humans. Hate spewed by stupid humans. Hate spewed by stupid humans. Hate spewed by stupid humans. Hate spewed by stupid humans. Hate spewed by stupid humans. Hate spewed by stupid humans. Hate spewed by stupid humans. Hate spewed by stupid humans. Hate spewed by stupid humans. Hate spewed by stupid humans.
Look, here’s the solution. And I am not really kidding.
1) Have a healthcare system that ALLOWS you to PAY YOUR SELF if your insurance won’t cover it. This is very important and crucial. If you are not even allowed to pay yourself, that’s critically despotic.
2) Try to fix the costs of healthcare by allowing smaller competitive alternatives to thrive (I don’t mean “alternative medicine” but I mean alternatives like OS X and Linux are alternatives to the Windows monopoly, or iOS is an alternative to Symbian). This goes for all technology, such as energy tech (who killed that electric phone?!)
3) Invest in AAPL and use that to pay for emergency medical costs down the road!