I made the assumption that the chips were designed by very smart people with the aid of computers, the construction of each component was done by sophisticated machines, and the human workers along the process were largely limited to final assembly and testing. I was quite wrong.

By now you’ve surely heard of (and hopefully read) the New York Times article Apple’s iPad and the Human Costs for Workers in China. Another good source for information about the topic is Mike Daisey and the Apple Factory. Both of these tell of the horrendous factory conditions in China.

Although Foxconn is the most common manufacturer that we see complaints about, it’s not the only one with problems and Apple isn’t the only company that uses Foxconn (both Motorola and Samsung employ Foxconn for some of their work). Regardless, Foxconn has had the most major, publicized problems, including deadly accidents and worker suicides, and many of those have been tied to Apple’s iOS products in particular. As outraged as I was after learning more about these conditions, I figured Apple’s users would be even more upset, so I browsed some sites looking at forums and comments and was rather disheartened.

AppleInsider published an article called Former executives accuse Apple of ignoring supplier labor abuses that outlined a few of the points from the NYT article. Here are some example responses:

So cowards are willing to make accusations without providing evidence or their manes[sic].
What a joke.

Give us name and dates…. — Patranus

Apparently anonymity means the info is invalid (well, except in the latest iDevice rumors, of course).

….what’s even more pitiful is to blame Apple for a Chinese Corporations[sic] bylaws and worker right conditions–China is responsible for them. — mdriftmeyer

In other words, humanity doesn’t cross borders.

The truth is 99.9999% of those workers are thankful of Apple for their jobs. Their standard of living has increased tremendously since having worked in the rice paddies for a third of the pay. — Dickprinter

I doubt this, but even if it were true, it doesn’t validate the terrible conditions for these workers.

Why? Is Apple guilty of everything they are accused of until we prove them innocent?
Or is it the job the shadowy accusers to bring the proof? — Suddenly Newton

No, they’re not guilty of everything unless there is proof, which has already surfaced and is continuing to be revealed. There’s at least enough evidence to warrant an investigation, and not just of the production lines that develop Apple’s devices. I doubt if Apple is guilty of violating any laws, but laws and morals aren’t always aligned.

To be fair, AppleInsider tends to be extremely pro-Apple and highly focused on the value of Apple as a company (as opposed to Apple’s values). Comments there often focus on stocks and profits as the only measurements of success for a company. So I checked MacRumors article Former Apple Executives Address Working Conditions in Suppliers’ Factories

The sad truth is that we want cheaper products so they use countries with lower wages and worse working/living environments. If we’d all accept a 300% jump in the cost of electronics we could manufacturer everything locally. — AppleDroid

Finally, a reasonable post! The thing is, we don’t need to manufacture electronics locally. Apple has about $100,000,000,000.00 ($100 billion) in the bank, so they can clearly afford to pay manufacturers extra and build in clauses to their contracts with these manufacturers requiring that extra amount is used to improve workers’ conditions.

…news like this sheds light on corporate responsibility being more of a marketing term than a way of doing business. As a company currently sitting with $97.6 BILLION dollars in CASH ON HAND, they should dramatically improve the working conditions and lives of people who make their products, not have an attitude of “well everyone else does it.” While their position is popular on this forum, it’s not right. — theheadguy

Well said!

Looks like the Times is aiming for a Pulitzer. No coincidence that they released the story after Apple announced earnings.

While this is a huge problem, it is not an Apple problem; it’s a worldwide one. The media likes to attach Apple’s name to these stories because Apple stories = eyeballs. — rdowns

I’m sure it isn’t a coincidence. Apple pulling in $13 billion dollars in profit and workers dying, being subject to neurotoxins, etc. makes for a harse contrast. The extra eyeballs can help bring change, and Apple is in the best position of any tech company to make changes.

Americans may not be so inclined to complain about conditions elsewhere when they realize how much more they would have to pay for the crap they buy if everything was like conditions in America. — Undecided

In other words, Americans might care more about money than human lives. Sure, some will, but I think that’s a very tiny portion of people when the real situation is brought to light. We’re talking about the cost of making manufacturing conditions safe instead of working people >60 hours per week in hazardous environments.

All-in-all the Mac Rumors comments were far more informed and intelligent responses than the AppleInsider comments; further, most of the heartless comments were downvoted to some extent. 9to5mac had comments fairly similar to those of Mac Rumors.

Finally, responses from a couple of big Apple fans. The first comes from MG Siegler’s This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things post; the second is from John Gruber’s site (he doesn’t appear to make direct links available).

The post focuses on Apple because Apple is now arguably the most successful company on the planet. If they were, say, the 8th largest computer manufacturer, they probably wouldn’t have even been mentioned….

Does that excuse Apple’s behavior in some situations? Not at all. But there also isn’t enough background here to know if Apple is even the worst enabler of these poor working conditions.

…The fact of the matter is that we live in a world that demands amazing technology delivered to us at low costs and at great speed. That world leads to Foxconn. — MG Siegler

I felt like Siegler’s post tries to satisfy both parties, the pro-Apple side and the let’s-do-something-about-it side. His comments boil down to “Well, it sounds bad, but we can’t fully trust NYT and plus there are probably some other companies that are worse. Also, we want cheap electronics.” I disagree that this has to lead to Foxconn, and I also think it’s likely that Apple is among the worst offenders because they have more clout than a smaller company and a few of the quotes indicate as much. Regardless of who is the worst, Apple is making more than enough money to do something without raising the cost of their electronics, so it’s not a matter of “Is Apple the worst” but rather “What can we do about it?”

Tim Cook responded in a company-wide email. — John Gruber

Either Gruber simply doesn’t care about the NYT story or he fully supports Tim Cook’s (Apple’s) position. He tends to be a man of few words when it comes to commenting on many stories, but he will write more than a sentence when it’s important to him (such as like how he thinks the Android buttons are “broken”).

Cook basically said, “We do a lot and anyone who says otherwise is lying.” He points to the Apple supplier responsibility site, which (even if 100% accurate) still shows only 38% of the companies Apple audited meet the working hours requirements established in Apple’s Code of Conduct. In 2011 it was 32%. In 2010 it was 46%. In 2009 it was 41%. Not great numbers.

The simple fact of the matter is that Apple has been pointed out as they’ve got more than enough money to do something about it and many of the major articles related to deaths and injuries at these manufacturing companies have been tied to Apple. Is that fair? Probably not. Does it matter if it’s fair? No. The point is, awareness of the issue needs to be raised in order to make something happen. After all, when enough people compained about the iPhone 4 dropping calls, Apple gave in and offered free bumper cases. If enough people complain about the dangerous conditions at manufacturers, Apple will be willing to do more about the conditions. Hopefully Apple won’t have to lead the way for technology companies to expect more from their suppliers, but it’s better than ignoring the issue.

First and foremost, the iPhone is way too small. The 3.5 inch screen is nice when I’m holding it 8 inches from my eye, but out and about it feels like my hands belong to Andre the Giant. I try to touch the screen and my thumb covers at least 10% of the surface area. How can you have accurate touches like that? I guess I should file down my thumbs and fingers. It’s so tiny that it killed all two-handed operations for me (especially since you can barely fit two thumbs side by side). I’ll admit that for some pockets, having a tiny screen is nice, but 4.3 inches might be better. This is just too small.

While the screen is too small, I’m happy that Apple has stuck to their decision to have one button that does different things depending on what version of the OS you have and how many times you press it and even how slow your presses are. It’s like opening a Christmas present every time I press the home button. Will I go to the home screen? The search screen? The recent apps? The Siri frontend for Wolfram Alpha? The music app?

To be fair, the small screen on the iPhone did introduce me to some new people. I heard that you can do a five-finger swipe to bring up the multitasking bar, but I couldn’t fit five fingers on the screen, so I had to go to Starbucks to find some fellow Apple users with smaller fingers to try. Then I found out that gesture just works on iPad. When will Apple develop a consistent user experience?

I like the missing software back button that is always in one place like on the Galaxy Nexus. On the iPhone, you can have it sometimes be in the top left with the word “Back” or “Home” or something else, or at the top right with the word “Done” or at the bottom as a “Cancel” button. This forces the user to be much more aware of the UI and whether something is a modal dialog, an action sheet, or whatever else. (Of course, the iPhone still has a power/wake button on the top.)

I also like the lack of indicator light on the iPhone. It’s helpful because I can make sure everyone knows I use Apple products since I have to always hold up my phone to turn it on to check for messages and people can see my important Apple logo and know that I’m creative. Why Samsung included a multi-color indicator light that tells me exactly what I missed without turning on the device, I will never understand.

The rest of the iPhone hardware leaves something to be desired. The Galaxy Nexus feels like a completely and thoughtfully designed product. By comparison, the iPhone is made of glass, something we intuitively think of as fragile. It’s also heavy/dense, giving it the consistant feeling of 80s technology that goes well with the click of the home button (or double click or long click or…). It’s not awful, but you’d think Apple could do better at this point. Some people will like not having the option to remove the back to get at the battery because that makes the iPhone almost as thin and as light as the Galaxy Nexus and gives you an excuse to buy a new phone every year.

The battery life itself is very good. I felt like the iPhone was lasting at least as long as the Galaxy Nexus on a fully charged battery, perhaps even a bit longer in some cases. Of course, I don’t have to worry about having the option of using it on 4G and possibly lowering the battery life.

The camera on the iPhone 4S is definitely worse than the Galaxy Nexus in both terms of front-facing camera (the 4S has a measly VGA camera and the Galaxy Nexus has a front-facing camera capable of 720p… a resolution the iPhone can’t even display) and in speed. If you want to get a picture of where something exciting was happening two seconds ago, the iPhone 4S will not let you down. Just press the shutter button when the scene is composed and you’ll get the scene that happens two seconds later. It’s like time travel.

And let’s talk about iOS 5. There is no question that the software is much improved over previous iterations in terms of copying Android’s notification system (though improved with X close buttons that are polished so much that they shrank to a size where you need a 2-year-old’s pinky to press them) and supporting Twitter. You know an OS has improved when Twitter is a selling point.

Unfortunately, the system still lacks much of the features that Android users enjoy. The majority of iOS users will probably think such criticism is bullshit, but that has always been the case. I imagine it’s probably pretty hard for a person who bought the car that made the most sense to him or her to explain to the person who bought a Prius because it was popular how perception affects the driving experience. The person with a personally-fitting car can attempt to explain why he or she likes a stick or more room, but the Prius owner will just believe that having the car pick gears for you is the best and would never spend enough time with any other car to appreciate the differences.

Still, if the iOS team ever wants to convert (or at least convice) most Android users, they still have quite a bit of work to do here. Then again, they probably don’t (or shouldn’t) care too much about converting Android users over to iOS. All the non-smartphone users out there remain the much bigger prize to go after (for both Apple and Google).

Other things that will sound like nits but drove me crazy with iOS 5 included having widgets only in the notification center. If I am adding a widget, I clearly want to see it where I want it. Why should I have to have it sit somewhere invisible that requires an extra swipe? What’s the different between being on my homescreen and having to open a full weather app (iOS4) and being on the home screen and having to swipe down the notifications to see the weather widget (iOS5)?

Another: why do I have to go into the Google Voice app to make a phone call using my Google Voice number? Google baked in support for alternate dialers into their OS; why didn’t Apple? If they’re worried about competition, why did they finally approve the app after a year-and-a-half and an FCC inquiry? Why is Siri letting people look at my private calendar while my phone is locked? And why on Earth is the web browser not the desktop version of Safari yet!?

The new WiFi-syncing is nice — I love not having to find the proprietary cable. But my god Apple needs help with iTunes. I have to reboot my computer into an OS they support and leave it on while my phone is plugged into a power outlet. As if iTunes weren’t already the worst software on the planet, I also have to waste a bunch of electricity keeping my computer on all the time in one of the two OSes Apple supports just to sync my data?

Apple’s universal support of voice dictation is a joke compared to Ice Cream Sandwich.

Some other authors have noted that iOS is ahead of Android when it comes to custom settings for apps, but I have to disagree. Why do I have to leave an app to go find the settings app to change the settings for the app I was just in? That’s completely illogical. Of course, some apps support changing their settings within the app and others don’t, so now we get back to the inconsistancy problem present in the iOS experience.

When it comes to web browsers, arguably the most important feature of any of these devices, there is no question that Android still has a big edge here. I’ve seen arguments on both sides for why iOS does not support third-party plugins–but doing a simple test proves that much of the web is still inaccessible from iOS. Worse, many pages render as large missing tiles featuring a checkerbox to keep the illusion of scrolling smoothly, even beyond the point at which the actual page ends. You try pinching to zoom and everything just stays fuzzy until your fingers stop moving. How am I supposed to know if the text is large and clear enough if it just zooms in and out on fixed pixels?

You’ll also see a bit of impossibility in iOS when you do simple things like trying to attach a file to an existing email draft or trying to attach a second file or trying to store any arbitrary data on your device. For the most part, iOS 5 does a good job of hiding its limitations, but there are plenty of times that you’ll still hit your head on a wall here and there.

The main problem I have with apps on iOS is that, well, they aren’t on iOS. I try to find my favorite keyboard replacement (SwiftKey) and it’s nowhere to be found. I try to get the ever-useful Wifi Analyzer, also not available. I’ve heard that the entire experience has a lot more polish on iOS, especially with the Twitter integration, so I gave it a try. I found one of my favorite links online and decided to open it on the Galaxy Nexus and the iPhone to verify it looked right. For the Galaxy Nexus, I simply clicked the Chrome to Phone button and it instantly popped up on my device. It looked good, so I long-pressed on the URL within the browser, picked share, selected my favorite Twitter app (hint: not the official one), and sent it with a tweet and a comment. I tried that on iOS, which involved trying to type the long URL in by hand in the stock keyboard. That was a pain, so I decided to long-press it in the Android browser again, share, and send it via Google Voice to the iPhone. I opened it in the iPhone, it looked pretty much the same as on the Galaxy Nexus (though tiny), so I copied the URL, pressed the clicky home button (just once), scrolled to the right through ten screens of apps, opened a Twitter app, pasted it into the new tweet box along with a comment, and tweeted.

It’s these tangibles where Android holds the huge advantage. And just like in sports, you can clearly teach the fundamentals. At some point, Apple may simple have to acknowledge that Android works better than iOS because Android’s entire open concept is woven into the product. Apps can properly communicate to each other without having to know of the other apps. The user can do what he or she wants. Even the launcher app can be replaced. Apple’s strengths are elsewhere; they should embrace that.

Apple has done some very nice work here. Both the iPhone 4S and iOS5 are a new pinnacle of the iOS platform. But in the end, it still comes down to something very simple: which device do I want to use day-to-day? Which phone do I reach for when I’m not doing a review? It’s still an Android phone. Without question.

Keep at it, Apple.

(For those who don’t know, this is a parody on the post MG Siegler did called “An iPhone Lover’s Take On The Galaxy Nexus.” I strongly recommend that you buy the phone that makes the most sense to you, whether it’s an Android phone, an iPhone, a Windows phone, or whatever. Any useful review will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of a given device and never tell you that it’s the one-size-fit-all solution.)

There are three types of patents (this applies to the United States; my knowledge of patent laws in other countries is minimal): utility, design, and plants. Utility patents cover what you’d typically think of as an invention, everything from Velcro to turbines. Design patents cover “a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture,” essentially, the appearance of a manufactured product. Finally, plant patents actually cover plants… invent a new and distinct plant that can reproduce on its own and you can patent it.

Unfortunately, applying patents to software is a difficult practice and has significant repercussions. This is the very reason that there is no standardized way to play video on the web. Proponents largely fall into two camps: ones that support the well-known, highly efficient H.264 codec and ones those who support an open, freely-available codec such as VP8. The H.264 codec is heavily patented and can prove to cost millions for a non-profit company like Mozilla; however, the patents are known and so the expense is clear. Codecs such as VP8 and Theora are freely available, so they are excellent options for companies that have limited funds and/or choose to promote open software; the alternate argument is that these codecs are less efficient because they had to be specifically written to not do things similarly to H.264 but they still might infringe on a patent. When you consider that H.264 is covered by 70 pages worth of patents (70 pages listing the patent numbers and corresponding owners, not counting the actual patents themselves), it’s not hard to imagine that other codecs could infringe somewhere without knowing it. The very process of patenting that’s supposed to help innovation is scaring people away from using (and even creating) inventions.

Apple has filed multiple suits against Samsung for their phones and tablets. Now, an injunction is in place that prevents Samsung from offering the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia and in Europe (well, they can’t sell their tablets in Germany and have to seek a new import strategy for the rest of Europe) while the lawsuits continue. I don’t see how anyone could use a Galaxy Tab and then an iPad and consider the user experience to be the same, so how valid can the patents be? And as far as design patents go, that graphic I have included shows a digital picture frame that Samsung made in 2006, then the iPad (from 2010), and then the new Galaxy Tab 10.1 (2011). The user experiences are different, Samsung came up with the design first (and didn’t sue Apple), so let both the products go to market and create a benefit for all consumers.

I was going to write a lot more on this subject, but I think the message is clear: software patents don’t work. They stifle innovation and harm the consumer. The only people who truly like software patents seem to be major corporations that can use them to kill competition and lawyers. The system needs to be fixed.

Not only is Apple getting a lot of ideas from developers on other platforms, they are finding a lot of inspiration from developers on their own iOS platform.  The app Camera+ was pulled from the App Store because you could use the volume keys as the shutter button.  Clearly, having a second use for the volume keys would be too confusing for users.  Fortunately, Apple feels that after a year, users have become capable of understanding this feature, so it’s included in iOS 5.

In May of 2010, Greg Hughes submitted his app, Wi-Fi Sync, to the App Store.  A month later, Apple rejected it.  Guess what is available in iOS 5…. Wi-Fi Sync!  Same name, similar logo, same purpose.  The one difference I can see is that Apple’s version requires the device to be plugged in to a power source to sync.

In fact, many of the features available on other platforms have been available to jailbroken iOS devices.  Lock screen widgets, rich text email, notifications, and many others have been available for quite some time before Apple introduced them.  It seems like Cydia is a good place for Apple to look for “new” ideas.

Software is not the only place where we see this borrowing of ideas. Apple has copied commercials as well (some nearly scene-by-scene). Apple’s hardware also borrows from Dieter Rams (though the iPhone 4 is very Vizio-esque).

Is any of this illegal?  I don’t know, but Apple is infamous for suing everyone for, well, anything.  They’ve sued Motorola over multi-touch (though, to be fair, Motorola sued Apple first over a variety of patents).  They have countersued Nokia for “stealing” Apple technology.  They sued HTC for multiple patents including slide-to-unlock.  Let’s not forget Apple suing Samsung for similar icons/phone design and Amazon for the Amazon appstore (not to be confused with Apple’s App Store).

The great thing about having multiple viable mobile operating systems is that the competition creates faster innovation and a better value to users.  It is unfortunate that one of the biggest names in mobile has gone from innovation to catch up so quickly.  Hopefully they will start pushing the limits of mobile technology again, so that more than just current iOS users can get excited over the new features.

I see tablets as potentially fulfilling at least four primary purposes with many other specialized uses:

Communication is made easier by the tactile feel of browsing the web with the touch of a finger and responding to emails with an intuitive UI. Video calls are a reality for families and businesses alike and the technology will only continue to improve and become more affordable.

Art has so much potential when artists can interact with amazing technology, but it’s just not there yet. Although many artists have made excellent works using iPads and other tablets, there is just no comparison between a Cintiq and an iPad. I am excited to see what can be created when tablets reach even the sensitivity of a present-day Intuos, and I wouldn’t hesitate to spend more than what tablets cost right now for that kind of experience.

Productivity is also limited on tablets at this point. Sure, you can work on simple spreadsheets and even type on a word processor, but I don’t think many people would trade in a netbook or notebook and use a tablet to write the next great novel. Although there are always Bluetooth keyboards, they’re rarely convenient and definitely don’t help battery life.

Entertainment is impossible to ignore with a device that largely appears to be just a screen. Games and movies can be immersive but portable, personal but shareable. With HDMI ports and wireless video transfer, the entertainment of a tablet can be displayed on a larger screen to enjoy with friends (or to bask in the glory of your latest TV purchase alone).

Specialized Uses are easily found with new devices. Tablets can be excellent for presentations to small groups or for doctors to chart patient information (and imagine that tying in with an app like Google Body to allow doctors to give patients a clearer explanation of a particular health concern). They can be used as tools for communicating with those who have impairments. And they can certainly be used for thousands of purposes I haven’t even considered.

But tablets aren’t there yet. Of the fundamental four features (C.A.P.E.), tablets like the iPad and Xoom are off to a good start with communication and entertainment but have a long way to go with art and productivity. Because of this, I’ve decided to hold off for now. I think it will be a while before I’m satisfied with a tablet for artistic use, but productivity should come along quickly.

At this point, I have my eye on the Asus Eee Pad Transformer–an Android tablet that can function largely as a Xoom but which has an optional keyboard/trackpad dock that it can mount into to act as a simple netbook and double the battery life from 8 hours to 16 hours. Asus makes some excellent products, so I hope the Transformer does not disappoint. Although most tablets aren’t sold tied to a cellular contract, their use of mobile operating systems makes it clear that they will evolve at an exceedingly fast pace as smartphones have in the past few years. Hopefully buying a tablet in a few weeks would get me through a couple of years before the next one; with any luck, the art side of tablets will have improved by then.

Offering the option for content providers to include payment through Apple’s system is great; forcing them to use it and attempting to control their pricing is terrible.

Consider a scenario where Company XYZ offers digital subscriptions to its content. XYZ has determined that it costs them $9 per issue¹, so they sell it at $10 for about 11% profit. Their iOS app now has to offer a subscription through Apple’s service merely because the subscription service exists. If they sell it at $10 in the app, they will only make $7, which causes them to lose money with every issue sold. Logically, they have to increase their pricing to maintain a profit, so they would increase the cost to $14.29 to still bring in $10 per issue after Apple’s cut, keeping their income flat per issue but decreasing the percentage made per unit.

That’s fine, but Apple’s terms require them to charge the same (or less) in the app as outside, so now XYZ has to increase the cost of their product by 43% for all subscribers. That’s great for Apple, but it’s not so great for any of the users. Is having an easy way to subscribe to a service and preventing content providers from making it easy to use the existing system in app worth 43% to end users?

What’s more, the developer agreement says that in-app purchases cannot be used outside the app. So, to be in compliance, XYZ must not link to their own store and must prevent users who get a subscription via the in-app process from using that content on another (non-iOS) device, via the web, etc. Apple is forcing content providers to charge more while providing less to iOS users. Considering that the Sony e-reader app was rejected, it’s likely that these same rules apply (or will apply) to books and other non-subscription-based digital content. Companies like Netflix (subscription service) and Amazon (non-subscription service) have benefited from the iOS platform. They pay their yearly developer fee and have access to a large number of users with expendable income, but they don’t directly generate other income for Apple. But Apple is, in fact, significantly benefiting from these companies. Take a look:

iPad display at an Apple store; credit: Obama Pacman

Clearly, Apple is taking advantage of having Netflix on its devices in a big way, not to mention these other books and content publishers. Is it fair for Apple to get so many content providers to develop specifically for the iPad so that Apple can have an excellent launch, selling 15 million iPads the first year, and then suddenly pull the old bait-and-switch? “Hey everyone, we appreciate you developing these apps specifically for our platform and paying us to do so, which gave us a great launch and a strong foothold in the tablet market, but we’d like you to also start paying us money for content that we don’t produce or distribute; otherwise we will kick you off our platform.”

I wouldn’t be surprised to see companies band together and agree to ditch iOS. Netflix wouldn’t see a huge drop in members for no longer being available on iPad (especially if they artfully place the blame on Apple in an open letter to the public), but offering Netflix only on competing products that don’t have mandatory 30% fees will hurt Apple in the future (the tablet market will only continue to grow and users who see Netflix, Kindle, Hulu, Rhapsody, Google Voice, Skype, etc. available on all except Apple’s platform will not be as likely to buy iPads).

The other likely option is for companies to skirt around the issue by filling their own banner ad space with links to their signup page or by offering products in a way that doesn’t directly work on an iPad (“Pay $XX to get access to our content on any device you own!”). Or perhaps we’ll just see Apple change their policy like they did in the past (“No, you can’t use any tools other than the ones we provide to create apps for our platform–oh wait, we’re being investigated for anti-competitive behavior… of course you can use other tools! We were just kidding about that.”).

Even if everyone caves and pays Apple the 30%, they’re going to see that they have better profit on other devices and eventually shift to focusing more on promoting products on other devices, whether that comes in the form of better apps or more advertisement. Apple is essentially hoping everyone will integrate with Apple’s system, pay Apple 30%, and never consider any alternative. I don’t think that’s going to work out so well for them.

Note(s)
1: Obviously pricing is more complicated than a flat figure. It’s more likely a combination of fixed cost (employees, equipment, etc.) plus costs that depend on the number of users (storage, bandwidth, account management, etc.). But, to be fair, I also didn’t include the cost of the app on iOS or the cost of integrating with Apple’s system (other than Apple’s percentage).

In case you don’t immediately see what I did, I highlighted the relevant areas. On one day, there is a post talking about discounts on MacBook Airs, another post talking about how the MacBook Airs have been “flying off the shelves,” and another that shows discounts mean your product isn’t selling (presumably this only applies when your product is not made by Apple). This also requires you to ignore the fact that the discount was a Black Friday deal and not a permanent price change (go ahead, check the product page).

Though I use my Nexus One for all my mobile needs, I still occasionally have to test things with the iPhone, and I’ve found that switching back is quite frustrating. Everyone touts the usability and user interface of iOS while commenting on how far Android has to go, but I’m definitely willing to take a stand and say iOS has plenty of issues of its own, big and small.

Keyboard
I was extremely used to the iPhone keyboard, so I initially found myself a bit slower, making occasional mistakes on the Nexus One. Now, when I try to use the iPhone keyboard, I am constantly hitting the wrong keys. I think that both keyboards are good, but you certain get used to a specific one. That said, there are some simple features that make the Android keyboard(s) better than iPhone’s. For instance, I keep the sound off on the keyboards I use, so I love the haptic feedback (slight vibration) I get with an Android device and typing on an iPhone feels, well, flat in comparison. I don’t have a sense of pressing any keys. The iPhone keyboard doesn’t even change the appearance of the letters to show if I am typing a capital letter or not. With Android, I’ve tried a few different keyboards, the default, Swype, and my personal favorite, SwiftKey, and I am much faster typing on an Android device.

Email
So here you are, typing an email on an iPhone when you suddenly realize you forgot to include this great picture that you took earlier. There’s no way to attach that image to the email now, whoops! In Android, you would simply press menu, attach, pick the program you want to use to select the file, and then pick the file. Another thing that really surprised me is the inability to configure sounds for email (or many other things for that matter… and why are app-specific settings not in the app they are for?). On my Nexus One, I have a different sound for my work account than for my personal accounts, so I know which account the email is for just from the sound. When the default new email sound plays on an iPhone at work, the half dozen iPhone owners nearby all check their iPhones.

Now opening your app… wait for it…. wait for it….
When I open an app on my N1, it is instantly open; few apps take more than a second to animate in. When I open an app on an iPhone, I get a fancy splash screen and then I get to wait. Well, that’s when the app developer actually bothered to make a splash screen. A lot of the built-in apps don’t have splash screens (Photos, Calendar, Clock, etc.), so you get a partial load and then a slight delay, and then the useful stuff appears. To be fair, as iPhone hardware has slowly improved, this is a bit less of a problem for each new iteration. Still, waiting is frustrating, and it’s even worse on pre-iOS 4 apps that don’t save state.

App Store
I really can’t believe this app is so bad. It’s extremely slow, categories aren’t even in alphabetical order, and it appears to do a screen dump if the phone sleeps for a few minutes. That last one is especially annoying on the dev iPhone that doesn’t have cell access because WiFi turns off after a bit, which means I get the “Cannot Connect to App Store” error message when the phone turns back on instead of simply seeing the page I was just looking at.

Quick access to info
Okay, so maybe some readers came across the previous two issues and thought, “Pssh, this doesn’t affect my speedy iPhone 4.” Perhaps not, but let me ask this: “How long does it take you to check the current date or weather?” Despite the much faster hardware, the OS really slows down the user experience for me. Obviously you can’t use widgets in iOS, but you don’t have to use widgets for these tasks in Android. You can just use the notification bar. The WeatherBug app can keep the current temperature in the notification bar, which you can also slide down for a forecast and to see the current date (standard part of Android). Want to see what that email is about that you just got? Simply slide down the notification bar to view a preview. These are simple tasks that I do a lot, so I don’t like the extra effort that they take on an iPhone.

New version, now go find a computer
The iPhone’s inability to be an independent computing devices was one of the biggest technological turn offs for me when I was considering it. Really, why can’t I get OS updates over the air (even if it’s limited to just WiFi because of the tired “AT&T’s network is overloaded” excuse)? The iTunes umbilical cord is even more annoying for those of us who use Linux as our primary OS.

There’s an app for that…. somewhere
Say a friend sends you a link to a Twitter account that he finds funny. You tap that link and open the browser, it redirects to the mobile version and then you see the content (assuming Twitter is somehow not down). Of course an app would be a better experience, so you have to very carefully copy the username from the URL and then press the home button, scroll to the right a bunch of screens, open your Twitter app, go to the search feature, paste the username, and search. On Android, an app can register to handle URLs, so tapping that link immediately gives you the open to open it in the browser or the Twitter app(s). Similarly, sharing a URL is as simple as long-pressing it, picking share, and then picking the app.

The other stuff
Why don’t the volume buttons control the volume of sound effects while I am playing a game? Why do I have to turn on the phone to check if I missed any emails/phone calls/text messages? Why are the home screens just a dump of the application list? Why do I have to scroll to the top of a web page to enter a new address? I guess the trick is to open the tab selector and close the current tab then pick New Page, but that still seems a bit excessive. There is a lot of value in having some basic buttons for your phone, especially for things that are useful in 99% of apps (back? menu?), and, unlike some iPhone advocates, I find the lack of buttons annoying. Fortunately, Apple is fairly good about enforcing their way of doing things, so apps usually behave in a pretty consistent way, implementing menus and back button in the app in a similar manner at the expense of screen real estate.

In the end, now that I am fully accustomed to my Nexus One, I have to say that I find it much more usable than iPhones. Not only is it more feature-rich, but it is truly a much better user experience for me.

Mom: “Son, the teacher said you had an accident in class today. ”

Son: “The other kids tickled me in my special spot.  I couldn’t help it, and I just let go!  But it is okay, Mom.  Last week, Jim Blackberry got squeezed really hard, and the same thing happened to him! Jim might be (in) a lower grade, but he’s really popular.”

Mom: “I have always told all the other moms how amazing you are.  You are so bright and vibrant and unique.  You are one of the best kids ever, but I suppose if you want to just point fingers and show yourself to be only as good as that Blackberry kid who peaked in kindergarten, well…. I guess I can just put you in the same class as him.”

The one hint that Apple still has some decency was Steve admitting the iPhone 4 drops more calls than the previous iPhone.  He played it down by saying that it was less than one extra call per hundred.  I thought for sure this nugget would be all over the tech sites, but they mostly focused on how irate Steve appeared.

Let’s do some simple number crunching.  We’ll be generous and say the iPhone 4 drops only one more call per two hundred.  If the 3GS dropped just one call per hundred, this would be a 50% increase!  I guess you can be “optimistic” and hope the 3GS dropped five calls per hundred, so the increase would only be ten percent.

I don’t know about you, but I want them to have to measure dropped calls per thousand or ten thousand.  That they can be measured in whole numbers per one hundred tells me cellphone technology has not come as far as I thought.

There’s been a lot of talk about how signal strength and its representation by bars on cellphones, especially due to the iPhone 4 having a significant problem with attenuation when held the “wrong” way. I’ve also seen a lot of people posting responses to articles asking things like, “Why can’t they just represent the strength as a percentage?” and “Why isn’t there a standard to representing signal strength?”

The iPhone 4 has a unique design that eliminates some attenuation that the antennas would face in a normal phone because the antennas are not surrounded by a casing. That means the iPhone 4 can not only receive signals at a higher level, but it can also transmit at a lower level. The problem is that the antennas are on the edge of the phone, allowing a user to directly touch them. Since our hands are capacitive, bridging the antennas can cause a problem. If the antennas were recessed, the phone would probably be fine.

Apple’s first answer was simply to hold the phone differently. After complaints about the issue gained momentum, Apple announced that they were “shocked” to discover their formula for calculating how many bars to display was incorrect. Those of you with memories will recall that Apple changed the way it calculated the bars in release 2.1 of iOS (called iPhone OS then), artificially inflating the number of bars users were seeing. Now they’re releasing a minor update to iOS that will give users a more accurate and honest portrayal of the signal strength; unfortunately for them, most people will just see it as “This update made me lose one of my bars!” An appropriate solution to the hardware problem is to cover the antennas with insulating material (or, at the very least, the problem corner). This can cost pennies per phone.

People seem generally confused about what the issue is and why it affects some people and not others. Anandtech did a good review of the issue, finding that holding the phone in a certain way could result in a signal drop of nearly 25dBm. Decibels are logarithmic, so a single bel represents a 10:1 ratio. If you take an artificial number such as 100 to represent your signal, a 10dB drop would be dropping it to 10. A 20dB drop brings it to 1, so a 25dB drop brings it to less than one percent of what it was. That’s significant attenuation that will definitely cause problems in any area with a mediocre signal.

The other interesting side of this issue is how everyone is focused on signal strength, which is not a good measurement of reception quality. It’s kind of like the emphasis of X app store has Y apps. If you need some drinking water, a single jug of water is much better than getting an ocean of oil (perhaps courtesy of BP). When I worked on satellite communications equipment in the Air Force, outgoing signals were measured in watts (quantity because the quality is assumed to be perfect, and you don’t want to overload a receiver) and incoming signals were measured in BER which means bit error rate, how many good bits per each bad bit, measured in scientific notation (so a shorthand of “-7″ would mean 10000000 good bits for each bad one). It’s a much more useful measurement than milliwatts or even dBm.

All this means: 1) the average consumer does not have an understanding of radio propagation, 2) there are a lot of ways to measure a signal, and 3) there isn’t a universal standard. Not only is there no standard for what a given number of bars should mean, it’s extremely hard to define. You can say a given amount of power, but that doesn’t take into account the sensitivity of the receiver. The iPhone 4 is capable of holding calls that most phones would drop in a hands-off scenario. The other issue is that your real signal is constantly changing as your phone checks with multiple towers and the signal is affected by nearly everything, so you can’t simply show the current signal quality/quantity. You have to average it out for a short period of time to avoid the constant jumping.

Really, we need a more useful standard. The current bars are the equivalent of a fuel gauge: The reading is relative to your vehicle but not to another vehicle. You might have a full tank (five bars) and someone else might have half of a tank (3 bars), but that doesn’t mean you actually have more fuel (signal). Nor does it mean that you can go further than the other person because you don’t know the fuel efficiency (receiver sensitivity). Even with a useful measurement like fuel efficiency, you still run into different conditions that affect it like highway or city driving (cell tower transmission quality, interference, etc.).

It’d be nice to at least show dBm and have the color change to red as it gets closer to the receiver’s minimum usable level. For now, unless a universal standard is created for all cell phones, you would do better to measure your signal based on calls dropped, call quality, and data rate than by comparing bars.