The man who made the iPhone 4 is out

[47of74]

Source: Fortune

In November 2008, Steve Jobs hired Mark Papermaster, IBM's (IBM) top microprocessor executive, to replace Tony Fadell as head of the iPod and iPhone division. IBM promptly filed a complaint in federal court to prevent Papermaster from leaving, arguing that he possessed highly confidential IBM trade secrets. The dispute -- which made headlines for weeks -- wasn't settled until the following January in a deal that required Papermaster to wait until the following April to join Apple.

Sixteen months later, Papermaster is out, replaced as head of the iPhone division by the man who originally recruited him, Bob Mansfield.

The news was reported by the New York Times and confirmed by Steve Dowling, head of Apple PR.

Papermaster, Dowling told the Times, "is leaving the company and Bob Mansfield, senior vice president of Macintosh hardware engineering, is assuming his responsibilities."

Read more: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/08/07/the-man-who-made-the-iphone-4-is-out/?hpt=T1

[Webster Green]

1. He attempted to install the antenna while drunk?

That's my guess.

[hlthe2b]

2. interesting against all the spin that the antenna problem is

no big deal and call drop-offs are really minimal.

(Lest the Iphone folks jump on me for that, I'm not taking a stand either way in terms of whether the antenna issue is really a big deal or not... In fact, I'd really like to own one, but continue to have AT&T qualms that has thus far left me in contemplation mode).

[47of74]

4. If they wouldn't have gone with this exclusivity

I'd have gotten an iPhone instead of a Storm. But Apple had to go and do exclusivity with AT&T. Having experienced AT&T's idea of a cellular network in the past I don't care what the phone is capable of, that's one network I'd rather not rely on again.

[cosmicone]

26. I just bought an HTC HD2, unlocked it and

flashed it with Android. (It originally came with Windows Mobile 6.5)

The HTC HD2 is far far superior to iPhone 4 in every respect.

[onehandle]

3. Fall man. The iPhone 4 works great and is a huge success. Apple can't keep them in stock. nt

[emulatorloo]

5. Probably fired for some other reason.

As you say iPhone works great and is selling well.

[hlthe2b]

6. I think AT&T's network is very strong in Atlanta...

perhaps the strong signal is why the antenna issue is not a problem there? (just wondering what explains the variation in concern that seems to be occurring)

[onehandle]

7. Apple is getting few complaints from real users. Overall, they are happier than with past models.

The majority of complaints are on the Internet from tech bloggers' comments sections. Who all say with glee that they would never own an Apple product, but they know 14 people who bought the iPhone 4, cannot place a call, and returned the phone.

That being said, yes AT&T's network does vary from city to city. The average return rate for smart phones is about ten percent. The iPhone 4's return rate has been barely over one percent. Apparently New York has greatly improved their network, but San Francisco is still sucky, because it takes an act of God to get a permit for more towers.

I've been with three major carriers. They all suck one way or another.

The media and Apple haters love to attack the best. If this had been a Nokia phone, there would be no headlines.

[47of74]

8. Try the midwest

AT&T's coverage sucks once you get away from metropolitan areas and major highways. One of the reasons I've refused to get an iPhone to date. I travel quite a bit for work so I want something where I can at least get a signal.

[Hissyspit]

12. Being in bed with AT&T and the dropped calls/antenna problem are separate issues.

[savalez]

10. self deleted

[Hissyspit]

11. My iPhone 4 is great. I'm loving it. Got my free bumper and love it even more.

If they had given the bumper out free with the phone initially, this all would have been much ado about nothing, and it (the antenna issue, I mean, not the IBM stuff) is actually close to much ado about nothing as it is.

The resolution is FANTASTIC.

[savalez]

13. Yeah, from what I hear, the iPhone is to DIE for!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4495114

[Hissyspit]

14. I am aware of the issues with American corporate consumerism.

And aware of the Foxxcomm stories. Apple is not unique. But enabling false attacks on a corporation will not help put pressure on them to deal with real issues on which they should truthfully be criticized. I give money to AT&T. I'm not happy about it. It sucks, but I also won't lie to people and tell them I'm not doing it.

[liquid diamond]

15. I must say I am disturbed by the behavior you describe at DU.

Of all fucking places to worship material things.

[Hissyspit]

19. I'm not worshiping it.

It's a tool that works. As opposed to one that doesn't.

Clearly there is an issue involved here with misinformation and piling on. There really isn't anything wrong with the phone that isn't wrong with any other mobile phones, but a meme took hold, one that assisted other corporations at the expense of one, all in the name of corporation trashing? Is that really affective or just buying into the propaganda games.

Apple does thinks on a daily basis that piss me off. So do other corporations. But I would like the critique of them to be based on the truth instead of misinformation. That is what my initial post was about, because that's what the OP was about.

Are you typing on a computer?

[liquid diamond]

21. I'm not talking about whether or not the damn phone works.

People here talk about how they can barely pay their bills, how they have lost their job, etc. But when this phone hit the market people here talked about how they rushed to the stores to buy one. They behaved like brats ripping open their presents on Christmas. I find that behavior contradictory.

[Hissyspit]

23. I can pay my bills. I haven't lost my job.

I am much more interested in how (justified) corporate and consumerism disdain allowed people to grasp on to, at best, an extremely overblown concern on an innovative design flaw, as truth of the be-all-end-all of the evil of one corporation over all others, instead of taking a realistic fact-based look at what was really going on. I use my phone in my job. I recycle my old phones into interactive teaching artworks (which is part of my job). I don't worship the thing. When I said I love it, I meant relative to some other phone I would have to have. I meant to counter the hyperbole intended to support the idea that this thing DOESN'T work when it actually works great and if someone doesn't want people to be absorbed by the technology, you aren't going to win anyone over by telling them the thing doesn't do what it actually DOES do.

[Roci]

16. You may not do the dying

But I'm not at all certain about People who work in sub-human conditions at mines in Africa to get the rare metals that go into all these tricky gadgets Americans "can't live without."

I think this puts it better than I can:

http://www.markfiore.com/

Watch the segment entitled "Gadgets"

Roci


PS. I don't own an "ianything", except for the two "eyes" I had when I was born, and issues like this is one reason among many that I will not own one.

R

[Hissyspit]

20. I teach digital arts. It's my job.

I'm glad you don't own anything, but you are clearing typing on a computer that someone owns.

[Roci]

24. I was waiting

for someone like you to give me an opening. What I said "Dear Teacher" (if in fact you really are one.) was that I didn't own anything with a certain brand on it. If you could read for context and content you would have caught that.

In point of fact, I do own a very well used computer, it is several generations departed from the bright shiny toys that most people jump on so fast. I buy only good used equipment, and have helped hundreds of people (including some schools) make their dollars go farther via the careful use of "not so new" parts and free (or nearly free) software. I have been a part of the solution to a problem no one in the "tech-toy" marketing frenzy is willing to talk about except to gloss it over. The problem we face is high-tech trash. Not just poorly made electronics, but all electronic parts, from the plastics in the keys to the chemicals that make up the layers in your motherboard. These do not decompose naturally. Reclamation efforts are largely a joke, because everyone forgets the (three months) "old" stuff as soon as someone with a fast pitch shows them a "new" toy. I see hundreds of computers every week, some so "New" that they still have shipping plastic bags around them. All "Thrown away" because something "better" and "faster" has come along. Plenty has lead to waste, while those in need go without.

And then, there's slave (and prison) labor..
While the neato, peachy keen, high tech gurus we all know and love may not be directly "responsible" for it, the fact remains that others have used this odious practice to continue to feed the "Tech Monster" that we have been sold, solely because most people feel "inadequate" some how when they can't "keep up with the Jones family".
All of this, every single red cent of it lacks one thing.. Deliberation. Americans and the rest of the world have gone so barking mad with consumer blindness that no one anywhere has just stood still for a minute, fought back the effects of the "programing" to consume and spend, and said

"Why?"

We fancy ourselves "adults" after a certain age, do we not?
Is not being an adult, rather than a child, measured in part by our ability to weigh and consider the consequences of what we do, and why we do it?
My "problem" with all this is that I see the consciences. I see waste, and need, and greed and avarice. These machines we create are wonders. That too has been made "disposable." Part of both the "adult" and the child in me sees this too, and wonders what must eventually become of any population, now or in the future we create from moment to moment, that can be so careless and so callous with anything so magical and so filled with wonder and potential.

[Hissyspit]

25. "If in fact you really are one"

Ask almost anybody else here.

I know all that stuff. I teach Digital Arts. My assignments are, in part, based on it. I ask those questions of my students all the time. I know about Foxxcomm. I know about tantalum. I know about brand and logos and corporate propaganda. I think about it most of the time. It's my job. "Someone like you."

[liquid diamond]

22. That is the pathetic obsession I'm talking about. n/t

[onehandle]

18. I got the Bumper on day one.

They refunded my card a couple of weeks ago.

I have to have a case. I thought the Bumper was going to be temporary until other cases were released, but I have grown fond of it. I like the grippy rubber and being about to see/feel the back of the iPhone.

[Davis_X_Machina]

9. Been on DU too long.

My first response was, "That's nice -- every time it happens it's a step forward. A linebacker or power-forward coming out would be more newsworthy, though."

[skids]

17. That was my SECOND read on the subject line...

My first was "what they already have a cheap techy-adoration TV
documentary called 'the man who made the iPhone 4'? This cultural
tech-fetishism gets worse every week."

Got it on the third try :-)