Palm owners complain about defects, cheap construction, Oreos
Sure, the iPhone 3GS may be running hot enough to allegedly nearly melt the white models, but at least its keyboard doesn’t squeak! Ahhh, the joys of a touchscreen…
According to ABC News, owners of the “iPhone killing” Palm Pre (which sold 400,000 units last month, compared to the 1 million iPhone 3GS’ Apple sold its first weekend) are experiencing some hardware glitches, forcing some users to give up completely on the device after their 3rd returns.
“Yeah I will be exchanging mine as well,” writes one Palm owner on the site jkOnTheRun. “It is squeaky when i type on it, and I have found that if you squeeze the pre in a weird way OR slide the screen down a tad to hard my unit just turns off in a blink of an eye…..”
Across the web on Palm Pre enthusiast sites, more and more reports of build defects are surfacing, including an odd type of separation being described as “Oreo Twisting”. Here’s one of many complaints about the Pre’s build quality on the PreCentral forums:
“I’m on my THIRD pre (yellow box). Over the last two weeks, I’ve noticed an increasing amount of play with the screen. I’ve also noticed that on the left side of the device the two sections are separated enough that i can almost see the innards. When I push them together, you can hear squeaking. On top of that, the device came with a loose power button that doesn’t click nearly as firmly as that of other devices.”
… and another…
“On average its 4 slides to get it to turn off. I love getting an email, opening the slider, and seeing the screen go black. Then I have to wait 90 seconds for it to start up (longest OS start-up I have ever seen. Vista boots faster).”
… and another… Read more
Finally, a MacBook Pro for Ninjas!
I have good news for all of you upset by Apple’s recent price drop in in its portables. Colorware has stepped in to fill the high-priced void by offering a limited edition run of 10 “Stealth” MacBook pros, for only $6000 each.
So, what do you get for your $6000? Well, you get a $4,249.00 MacBook Pro with a pretty cool matte paint job. The Stealth sports a 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8 GB of RAM, and a 256GB solid-state drive (and of course a 15-inch matte screen to complement the matte finish).
Only 10 will be made and I plan to buy THREE, so I recommend you place your order soon so you have them in time for Labor Day presents. I know after I dropped the ball last year and forgot to give the wife and kids Labor Day presents I vowed to get my shopping done early this year.
Help Build the Ultimate iPhone Feature Request List - Part Deux
Filed under: Photos, Slow News Day, design, iPhone, whining
It was about 2 years ago that Apple first released the iPhone - widley heralded as the most technologically advanced phone anyone had ever seen, save for the fact that it was missing almost every “must have” feature that phones 5 years older had had forever. At the time we decided to create a wish list of things we all wanted our iPhones to be able to do, and over the years Apple has filled in most of the more glaring holes, like a better camera, MMS (sort of), Exchange support, Push notifications (OK, that wasn’t the goal but we got it), an app store, and so much more. Still, there is ALWAYS room to complain. So, with that in mind, we are starting round TWO of our iPhone feature request list.
We invite you to add your ideas in the comments below, and we’ll add the ones we think are the best to the master list. We’re not really looking for things like “add more storage” or “add a faster network”. We’re more looking for things that can be added via software/hardware to improve the way the current iPhone functions.
I will start the list with two things I miss from my jailbroken iPhone days:
SBSettings: Apple needs to rip off SBSettings in some form.
image via TheAppleBlog
If you are unfamiliar, SBSettings allowed you to swipe your finger across the iPhone’s status bar (where the time and battery life are) and a drop down would slide into place which allowed you quick access to a bunch of features such as adjusting the iPhone’s brightness, turning on and off WiFi/3G/EDGE/Bluetooth, enabling SSH, etc. It was customizable, and while we realize Apple wouldn’t allow some of those features in a similar version (SSH, most notably) it was way more convenient to adjust my iPhone’s brightness at night that to go into settings.
Let us add 5 icons to the dock
Yes, I know it throws off the beauty of the 4 icons you have going now, yet there are at least 6 icnos I would like to have in my dock at all times, and while 6 is pushing it, 5 icons actually fit nicely.
Enable Disk Mode as with a regular iPod (Dillon Brown)
This one has baffled me as well, as Apple apparently has no problem with 3rd party apps transferring files to and from the iPhone, yet for some reason we cannot use the iPhone as a makeshift USB Thumb drive out of the box. Apple should add the “enable disk mode” check box to the iPhone in iTunes, and let a connected iPhone appear on the desktop.
Share directions in Maps (Kelly Croy)
While Maps is technically a Google app, we have no say as to whether or not it appears on our iPhones, so Apple should take heed of it’s failings. We would like to be able to e-mail directions to people. Currently copy and paste does not work in Maps, so we can’t even do that.
Well, that explains the 8-hour battery life…
OK, maybe this doesn’t actually account for the rumored 8-hour battery life of the new MacBook Pros, but faithful Macenstein reader Michael reports that Apple may have decided to cut a few corners on the the new MacBook Pros. Apparently the 13 and 15-inch models are using 1.5 Gigabit SATA 1 connections to their drives, not the SATA 2 3.0 Gigabit that the unibodies of 6 months ago use.
While odds are this won’t really affect day to day performance for those buying MacBook Pros with standard hard drives, those who paid extra for the SSD drives appear to be mightily pissed and confused. Michael tells us he returned his SSD MBP when he discovered the “downgrade” in his new laptop, so whether or not there will be an actual performance hit, there is certainly a perceived one which could be almost as costly to Apple “pro” sales. Oddly, both the new 17-inch and the white MacBook retain their 3 Gigabt SATA connections.
[via MacRumors]
iPhone Engrish of the Day: HOKEN ICHIBA Kosodate Jinsei
Given that all the text in the actual game is apparently still in Japanese, I’m not sure why the developers bothered translating this game description into English. Actually, after reading it, I’m not so sure they did.
Does your selection control child’s life?
The iPhone version of “Kosodate Jinsei” that HOKEN ICHIBA for the insurance comparison offer appears!Various events occur every one years old, and the child is brought up by the judgment of you of the joining etc. of the quiz, the mini game, and insurance. Do the story and the ending change in the result of the event? What ending do you really receive…? It is possible to play even times how many because it also has the automatic save facility and the high score function anytime and anywhere.
Now you are “Kosodate Jinsei” from today!
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iPhone Feature Request
