Burning iPhone endangers Australian flight, hundreds of passengers

   Australian airline reports case of burning iPhone on flight. Regional Express, Australia's largest independent regional airline, issued a press release on an incident shortly after a flight landed late last week. Flight ZL319 had just landed when a passenger's mobile phone started emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, and started glowing red.

   A flight attendant extinguished the burning phone immediately and no passengers or crew were harmed. Regional Express reported the incident to the Australian Transport Safety Board (ATSB) and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA).

   The mobile phone in question is identified as an Apple iPhone, which shows a significant amount of damage to the rear of the phone. Reports online indicate that the iPhone shows evidence that the burning came from the battery, which would explain the red glow and the release of smoke.

Sprint confirms our woes, won't take chances for iPhone 4S cheap plastic

Not even a bumper makes it 100% safe

    Sprint is voting thumbs-down on having its Total Equipment Protection plans available to the iPhone 4S, probably following the bad experience with iPhone 4. According to SprintFeed, the only choice is to purchase the AppleCare+ Protection Plan or go through a third party to have any protection from accidental damage. Hopefully this setup isn’t permanent, but we’re not going to hold our breath. Just as a reminder, that $99 AppleCare+ can only be added at the time of purchase. But ask yourself, what’s worse? Paying $99 (the price of an iPhone 4) upfront, or paying an extra $649.99 for a new 16GB iPhone 4S after dropping your phone?
   Meanwhile you could go for a device with gorilla glass, it's incredibly hard to scratch, almost impossible to break, it doesn't shatter like cheap plastic, it doesn't bend like aluminum. Wouldn't it be awesome if the most beautiful and important part on your phone would also be the most resistant one?

Via: Sprintfeed

iPhone 4S: Antennagate, check! Brain damage, check!

iFixed nothing

    Apple claims that the iPhone 4S features a new antenna design, intended to prevent any risk of 'Antennagate' reoccurring. But did they really fix or innovate anything? Let's start with fixing things. In the mockup on the right you can see that by "not holding it right" you are shorting 3 of iPhone 4S's antennas and you will be jamming the forth one once the phone touches your ear.

   The 4S's new dual antennas can automatically switch when sending and receiving information, a trick Apple claims is "a first" for a mobile phone.

    We won't go into explaining the dangers of SAR and why most manufacturers place the antenna on the bottom of the phone, away from your brain. You should know though that at any given time the best working antenna on iPhone 4S will be the one on top since it's the only one not shorted, it's the one the device will choose for best signal. It's right there next to your gray matter where most of the SAR radiation will dissipate.

   Frølund Pedersen, professor at Aalborg University's Institute for Electronic Systems in Denmark and one of the big names involved in the events of Antennagate last time around, feels that Apple's latest iPhone might be treading on toes stems from patents he and his associates apparently sold to Samsung some years earlier.

At the iPhone 4S launch, CEO Tim C(r)ook and co were quoted as saying,

“Improving on the innovative stainless steel external, dual-antenna design of iPhone 4, iPhone 4S is the first phone to intelligently switch between two antennas to send and receive.”

Pedersen disagrees, primarily with the fact that Apple dubbed this an 'innovation',

"When Apple says that it is new, it’s not true. It has been in use for very long. For example in the DECT cordless phones. Both in these and in some other phones“

iPhone 5 and 4S spot defective displays, Apple regrets giving up on Samsung

    The iPhone 4 launch fiasco is about to repeat itself. A defect has presented in some iPhone 5 touch panels produced by Wintek which may affect the ability to meet initial shipment targets for the launch which is expected in October, according to iPhone supply chain makers.

In response, Wintek simply indicated that all of its products are being delivered on schedule.

   Wintek, is the company where n-hexane poisoning took place this time last year. N-hexane, a poisonous chemical was used to quicker manufacture iPhone4 screens. Wintek still accounts for 20-25% (while Taiwan TPK Holding accounts for the rest) as Apple has no problem in putting their worker's health behind profits.

   "The defect, "delayed bubble", is difficult to avoid during panel production, particularly when the defect is not detected during the process of laminating touch panels, and only later found during assembly, the sources said."

    More advanced smartphones use AMOLED or SuperAMOLED screens that are thinner, use less power and to not require the old "lamination" procedure as the display and the touch screen are one and the same panel.

Apple's iPad, iPhone design, "borrowed" from Samsung, LG

    Today we're starting a new trend, the one of pamphlets. It's unjust that Apple steals the credit of so many brilliant people - because it's people, not companies who made them - and claims it "invented" the modern smarphone or the tablet, be it Newton or iPad.

There's solid proof for those willing to hear it on how Apple infringed other's designs; others like Samsung and LG that didn't think for a second that a touch screen phone with one button, a thin white bezel or simply put, the wheel, are things that someone would actually patent.

So head over to the new design section of our blog, "Other designs", and check it out for yourself!

 Don't forget to Share 'em and spread 'em!

Apple Time Capsule, KIRF

         KIRF, or keepin' it real fake, perfectly describes Apple's own new Time Capsule backup device.

     A teardown of last week's refreshed Time Capsule has revealed a regular, cheap-ass, non-enterprise drive lurking within. Curious, as Cupertino's website lists a "Serial ATA server-grade hard disk" as standard equipment on the device's official spec sheet. It's generally assumed that for a drive model to be qualified as "enterprise," it must sustain a mean time between failure-  MTBF for short - in excess of one million hours. So what's the MTBF for the Western Digital's WD20EARS (Caviar Green) in Apple's Time Capsule? Conveniently, the hard drive maker wouldn't say. 

    Of course, we guess the definition here is up for interpretation, but given past experiences with the wireless backup gizmo, we'd certainly hope this improved revision fares better; the last generation of Time Capsules had a  random working time of ~1 year before "just dying".

   Below is the hrdware you can expect in the next generation of Time Capsules. This is acutally a fake ebay HDD, but it comes close to what you get when you pay premium for "premium" Apple hardware:

Why the iPhone 4S is coming out

    Well the white iPhone is finally out and it seems it's nothing like the original iPhone. You still get the antennagate signal strength drop, but the meter has been rigged to show full bars and with an added rubber condom you might even get enough signal to call 911 after an avalanche, or you know, when your private jet crashes on a remote island.

But leaving signal aside because "people don't buy iPhones to make calls" (fanboy quote over) the iPhone 4 white does have a few aces up it's sleeve:

• It's thicker so it doesn't crack as easy as the cheap plastic on the original iPhone 4
• A more recessed camera lens, to get rid of those nasty flash leaks
• A better end improved proximity sensor, see release hardware flaws

"New" MacBook air with fixed display isues at cost of SSD performance

     It appears today that no two Apple products are the same. You know the sayng, if at first you don't succeed, try and try again. Apple is moving away from Toshiba's X-Gale SSDs to faster Samsung models for MacBook Air.

    Over the last month, Air models have been shipping with two different SSD, the "SM128C" and Toshiba's "TS128C." The SM implies Samsung is the manufacturer, says MSNBC.
    The Samsung drive, when benchmarked, shows off 260MB/s read and 210MB/s write speeds compared to the Toshiba which has 210MB/s read and 185MB/s write.
     The speed difference is minor and it's best to wait for the new new MacBook Air that will come mid 2011 to fix the hardware flaws introduced with the new MacBook Air series.

Via: 9to5 Mac, macotakara.jp, MSNBC

2011 MacBook Pros can't stop freezing and crashing

     Just when we were about to think MACos is on the right track - since it's the last OS to finally get TRIM support to properly use SSD drives - it looks like the shabby build quality(1)(2) and software issues, just won't give it a break!

     Starting with the launch of Apple's new flagship MacBook Pros in late February, there have been hundred of reports of "hard freezes", the device locking up when users are running multiple programs - yes, don't be afraid to lol, multitasking seems to be quite an intense issue for Apple. Despite Apple's attempt to cure the problem with an update to OS X 10.6.7, users are reporting the issue still occurring.

    The issue is stemming from the 15 and 17-inch models, each of which feature Sandy Bridge Core i7 quad-core CPUs and AMD Radeo HD graphics processors.

    A thread entitled "MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze" on the Apple discussion forum is nearing 70 pages, with most users complaining about the crashes whenever using multiple apps, especially video intensive ones like iMovie or gaming.

iFixit tears appart new MacBook Pro, isn't impressed

   The new MacBook Pro left the teardown team completely unimpressed.They found that the subwoofer enclosure was being held in place by a stripped screw and that there was an unlocked ZIF socket connecting the IR sensor, which the team described as "not fitting for an $1,800 machine." Additionally, iFixit discovered "gobs" and "absurd amounts" of thermal paste on the CPU and GPU upon removing the heat sink. "The excess paste may cause overheating issues down the road, but only time will tell," said iFixit.

    Oh you Foxconn rascals you, if this would be all it wouldn't even be so bad. Unfortunately if you look at the picture to the right you can see how small the heat spreaders are compared to the heatpads. We appreciate the nice symmetry, but this is in no case thermal efficient. For $1,800 you should probably get a PC that admits it's a PC and doesn't sacrifice cooling efficiency and build quality for aesthetics and probably has a dedicated and much more powerful graphics card as well.

Via: iFixit

Another fine sample of cheap build quality: iPad 2

    Now that many of you have collected and used your second generation iPad tablets for a few hours, we're starting to see the inevitable reports of defects. Thus far, two issues have bubbled to the surface. The first issue -- yellow spots beneath the LCD glass -- is reminiscent of the same fresh-from-the-factory iPhone 4 issue that resolved itself just as soon as the bonding agent used for the LCD glass had time to evaporate. The second issue, which is being conflated with the first, is characterized by light bleeding through from the outer edges of the LCD panel. The bleeding is most noticeable when watching a dark scene in a movie or using an app with a black background as demonstrated in the picture below.

    This does not come as a surprise after the iPhone launch fiasco and Apple is already taking steps to distract the public by releasing overrated performance benchmarks. Keep in mind the iPad has the lowest resolution compared to most of the tablets released so far, hence a lesser strain on the GPU. Also keep in mind the CPU/GPU frequency will be lowered in the future firmware updates, similar to the iPhone 4, to preserve the battery.

     Since most of the tablets use the same hardware and even have more ram then a the 512 of the iPad 2, you should base your purchase on build quality since other devices get performance boosts with updates rather than the routine underclocking Apple products get. USB support should also be of concern since it seems to be completley broken even on Apple's expensive adapters while on most competitor's tablets full USB support can be enabled by editing a text like and a 1$ cable.

Video After the break:

The Apple A4 CPU - a cheap replica

What is it and what devices use it?

    The Apple A4 is a package on package system-on-a-chip (SoC) designed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung. It combines an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU architecture with a PowerVR GPU. The chip commercially debuted with the release of Apple's iPad tablet; followed shortly by the iPhone 4 smartphone, the 4th generation iPod Touch and the 2nd generation Apple TV.

Why is it a "replica"?

    The A4 is based on Samsung's S5PC110A01 SoC "Hummingbird" used in the Galaxy S, however it's missing features such as the FM module and others that are subtle and so far undisclosed, compared to the original. Check below to see the performance degradation.

News Flash: iPhone 4 camera worse than the one in 3G or 3GS!

     This may or may not be old news, still The iPhone Fever has to serve it's role as an index of how much FAIL you, my dear iPhone user, are willing to pay for. 

       Some iPhone 4 owners have reported color oddities with photos they’ve taken with the camera on the back of the newly released phone. The iPhone’s 5-megapixel camera will take mediocre images in low light with, or without, the LED flash.

      Images shot in warm, indoor lighting without the flash, have an obvious yellow and sometimes green cast to them. Sure,  get a real camera for photography you'll say, but unfortunately the exact same photo taken with an iPhone 3GS or 3G will not (so just like signal GSM is somewhat a downgrade from 3GS) . You can see for yourself in the image below—the photo shot by the iPhone 4 (original file here) appears in the upper right corner, while the 3G and 3GS images (original 3GS file here) are on the left. I also included a photo shot by a Canon 5D digital camera for the sake of comparison, check below.

New MacBook Air falls victim to cheap build quality

    It looks like every new Apple gadget is doomed to failure because of the cheap "Made in China" (Foxconn to be specific) labor, and owners of the new MacBook Air models are no exception. Even if the day of its release started with a software bug, locking up while in iMovie, this wasn't the end of the woes.

    Thanks to a YouTube video, we've seen for ourselves evidence of a display flickering in a most unappealing manner, and we're hearing tales of other display issues, kernel errors that occur when the machines are trying to come out of sleep mode, and more.

   There's not been an official response from Apple yet, we're not sure how widespread the problems are, and we haven't experienced these issues first hand, but we'll let you know as soon as we hear something. Promise. In the meantime, it looks like some of you might have a date with the Genius Bar.

Video after the break.

Antennagate coverup over, Glassgate Coming right up

     When the iPhone 4 free bumper program finished a week ago, Antennagate "ended". But Ryan Block reports that the iPhone engineering team has discovered another major design flaw that could lead another iPhone 4 scandal.

     While we've had our own concerns over the iPhone 4's glass back, what the iPhone engineering team discovered post-Antennagate, according to Block, is that non-bumper cases that slide onto the iPhone 4 can cause scratching when particles get between the case and the glass. Those scratches can lead to serious cracking in no time.

      So if somebody puts a slider case on their phone, there's a possibility the next time they pull the phone out of the case, the back is totally busted, solely because of this design flaw. The potential issue's dire enough that Apple had blocked all third-party cases from the Apple Store until this week, even ones certified "made for iPhone." And Block hears that the engineering team has built a lab and test program just to examine this problem.

Apple: we still have no idea about manufacturing batteries and chargers

    One of our very close AT&T sources just sent us in these images. Yes, it’s a fried iPhone 4. Apparently a customer brought the phone into the store to try and get help with it, although it’s pretty evident that the phone is unrepairable. It’s the first time our guy has seen this happen (us too), but the brand new iPhone 4 caught on fire while being hooked up to a computer using the Apple USB cable that accompanied the device. The customer wanted to exchange the iPhone — obviously — for a new, non-charred unit however the AT&T store in question was out of stock. An Apple Store did confirm to our AT&T connection that this did appear to be a defective USB port and not some sort of user error. Our source went onto say that the phone bezel was extremely hot (obviously), and it slightly burned the customers hand. The USB port in the phone was slightly melted and the cord was badly melted (as is apparent in the pictures). Hopefully this is the only time we see our beloved iPhones meet a fiery death. We’ve got one more picture for you after the break.

Apple lies again, probably bribed Consumer Reports

      In an unprecedented turn of events Consumer Reports came back on on their initial decision of not recommending an iPhone, recommending it but with the use of a bumper. How much Apple paid for that is probably a thing we'll never find out.

        It has already been reported that not even the bumper case can alleviate the reception issue! Check the video below and notice how iPhone 4 loses all it's bars even with the "magical" bumper case on. Even if the bumper would provide a fix, the fact that it's not built in is completely wrong!

Apple: now deleting iPhone 4 bug/issue threads, your thoughts to follow

     If you were looking for a message thread on Apple's support forums pointing to Consumer Reports' article 'not recommending' the iPhone 4, it's not there any more. Apple's support forum moderators deleted the thread. Bing cached it.

    If it happened once, maybe you'd say it was a glitch. But what if it happened twice? Three times? Four times, five, six?

    I'm not prone to hysterics or a subscriber to conspiracy theories, but it's fairly hard to imagine any good way to interpret this. Every post that I saw listed in a Google search of Apple's discussion boards lead to the same result: "Error: you do not have permission to view the requested forum or category."

Apple promisses to fix antenna issue, prepare your anti-rad suits!

      "Readers report that Apple's tech support forums originally confirmed that a iOS 4.0.1 software fix addressing the issue would ship early next week (as early as Monday), before the comments were subsequently taken down along with all the other related discussion about the matter.

      The fix is expected to address a issue in iOS 4 related to radio frequency calibration of the baseband. Readers who saw the original forum discussions say that the issue is believed to occur when switching frequencies; because the lag is allegedly not calibrated correctly, it results in the device reporting "no service" rather than switching to the frequency with the best signal to noise ratio.

      iOS 4 introduced some enhancements to how the baseband selects which frequencies to use, so it makes sense that the error may have crept into those changes. Additionally, this explains why iOS 4 has also caused similar problems for iPhone 3GS users."

Bright spots, dead pixels, sim failures, inverted volume buttons and more...

      Just enriching our database with news of what might be the worst launch of a device in history. Not only in Apple's history but in the history of any electronic gadget ever made. If you're curious about the "and more" part I advise you to check some of the previous posts, as well as the feature check of iPhone 4 - obviously the 100 promised features where yet another shameless lie. So let's go!

Bright spots and dead pixels

        I warned you guys about this one in my article "The iPhone 4 screen - a multimedia flop?" a month before the release of this "magical" device. 

       Notice in these two pictures, firstly the background so you don't think it's a reflection and then the bright constellation - it consists out of the light leaking from the back panel through the dead pixels.

      Apple has pushed TFT technology too far, hence the bright spots as the screen isn't lit uniformly and the dead pixels generated by both capacitative technology and miniaturization required to double the resolution. If they hadn't been so cheap, Super AMOL
ED would have been the perfect answer. One single layer, instead of a sandwich that traps various chemical substances (yellow spots) and burns 50-60% more power.

Inverted volume buttons

    I'm quite sure somebody at Foxconn is having a healthy laugh right now. It looks like the volume buttons on some units have been "accidentally" swapped.