Juke off to a great start

With 1,250 sales in the UK, 10,000 in Europe and now 12,500 in Japan, you could say the Nissan Juke is off to a good start.

So what's significant about that? We'll you'd expect those figures in Japan, after all Nissan are a Japanese car maker. But what's interesting about the UK and European sales is that the car isn't officially launched yet.

Give that the Juke has another two months to go before you even see one on the road, that's pretty impressive. Once the TV campaign and marketing gets into full swing, i think the Juke launch will turn out to be Nissan's most important launch to date.

That is until the LEAF comes along.

Apple teams investigate iPhone antenna claims

At the iPhone antenna debacle press conference Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed that when he gets emails from customers with supposedly reception problems, he dispatches teams of engineers to their homes, who show up with all sorts of equipment to evaluate things for themselves.

I have visions of an ET style tent being installed around the house and people in space suits walking around. After running the test they hand out an ET finger to use as an antenna in case of emergencies.


Brings a whole new meaning to the "ET phone home" phrase.

Apple issues free bumpers

In its press conference today Apple announced that to keep its customers happy they would issue free bumpers with every iPhone 4 up to Sept 30th and also to anybody who has already purchased an iP4.

That includes me.

They also released some stats on how many customers have reported Antenna issues...wait for it...0.55%. They also revealed the return rate has only been 1.7% compared to the iPhone 3GS which was 6% at the same time.

There you go, blown out of all proportion. Still it shows how much Apple cares about it's customers giving away FREE bumpers. That must be costing them a fair bit when you consider they sold 3 million iP4's in 3 days.

However, the press call allowed us to see a glimpse of the secret labs in which their iPhones are tested. They showed the gathering press a massive shielded room, housing 17 anechoic chambers costing $100 million. They also revealed they have 18 PhD scientists and engineers on their staff.

Right i'm off to register for my FREE bumper.

iPhone 4 iOS 4.0.1 update

Apple released, what is arguably the most anticipated software update ever, for its new iPhone 4 and all due to mass hysteria over its antenna signal strength.

To update or not to update, that is the question.

Here's the update on my iPhone 4. There's no actual science involved here. What i'm  about to show you will not spin the earth of its axis.

Here's a screen shot of my iP4 before the update. Notice the 3 signal bars. It's worth mentioning that 3G signal fluctuates anyway but in the interests of this post i sat in the same chair before and after the update, which took no more than 10 mins to complete.

Here's the update notification telling me that the earth will not spin off its axis.

Finally here's the iP4 after the update. Notice i now have 2 signal bars which are slightly taller than before.

That's it! Science lesson over.

I should point out that i have never had issue's with my iP4 since i got it. It's better than my 3G at making calls period! On saying that i'm not doubting for one minute some people have had signal loss but i don't think its as bad as people are making out.

The whole thing has been blown out of proportion in my humble and honest non scientific opinion.

Apple will hold a press conference today to try to appease it's shareholders and the markets. For the rest of us it's business as usual.

Let's hope they nail it once and for all as their PR machine's wheels have completely fallen off. Actually when i think about it, Apple's PR machine has always been us, the fanboys. So it's our wheels that have fallen off and we need Apple to put them back on and send us on our way.

Maybe they'll wow us with a "one more thing", ATV anyone? John Gruber has a hunch it'll be something biggish. Let's just wait and see.

iPad: Six icons are better than four

I've always thought the homepage on my iPad looked a little odd when in landscape mode. No matter how i look at it, compared to my iPhone 4 homepage, it always seemed a bit unbalanced.

Then it dawned on me. It's the amount of icons in the dock.

By default the iPad comes with 4 but this is easy to remedy. 4, 5 or 6, the choice is yours.

This is my iPad in landscape mode with the default 4 apps in the dock but 5 columns in the main window...

Now by clicking and holding on any icon (just as you do to rearrange apps), you'll unlock each app's position...

Now just drag any additional apps into the doc and that's it, balance restored. I've gone for six but the choice is yours.

Juke no joke

In the car world i've always been disappointed when a manufacturer comes up with a good design and then we get a plethora of clones for the next 10 years.

That can't be said of Nissan. This is one car maker that seems to design what it wants regardless of what everybody else is doing. Ok, this means we get the Good the Bad and the Ugly, but their latest design looks something special.

Quote of the World Cup

"Defensively, England were poor. I was surprised at how easily the Germans dismantled their defence".

Argentina midfielder Lionel Messi after watching England get tonked 4-1 by Germany and before his team got ripped apart by the same team 4-0.

Ouch!!

Apple respond to iPhone antenna hysteria

In my short time with the iP4 i've found the opposite of what some of these people are experiencing. Compared to my 3G, the antenna is more sensitive to networks where signal is poor. It can connect to these networks where my 3G cannot.

A piece from the article:

"To start with, gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars. This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones. But some users have reported that iPhone 4 can drop 4 or 5 bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band. This is a far bigger drop than normal, and as a result some have accused the iPhone 4 of having a faulty antenna design."

I can only get mine to drop 1 bar where reception is strong and 2-3 bars where reception is pants.