Thought Nokia's statement was strongly worded? That was nothing compared to the little tirade put together by RIM co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie -- a pair of dudes known for having some of the bigger mouths (and bigger egos) in the wireless industry -- in direct response to Apple's Friday press conference on antenna issues. Of course, unlike Nokia, Apple made it personal for RIM because it used the Bold 9700 as a demonstration device in its attempt to prove that signal loss was a problem for phones and manufacturers from all walks of life, but Mike and Jim are having none of it. Phrases like "self-made debacle" and "deliberate attempts to distort the public's understanding" should give you an idea of the statement's overall flavor, but basically, they're saying that RIM puts a lot of time, money, and energy into avoiding dropped call issues and that you don't need a case to use any of their phones. Snap!

Here's the full statement:

"Apple's attempt to draw RIM into Apple's self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple's claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public's understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple's difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage. One thing is for certain, RIM's customers don't need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple."

RIM co-CEOs pull no punches responding to Apple's antenna statements originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Jul 2010 00:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• The Banned White iPhone 4 Promo [Humor]
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Apple’s executive team will no doubt be fuming this morning, as Bloomberg reported that a senior Apple engineer and antenna expert voiced concerns about potential reception issues with the iPhone 4 due to its antenna design in the early phases of the hardware design process, citing a source familiar to the matter.

Adding fuel to the fire is Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (aka The Woz), in an interesting interview with Dutch journalist Henk Van Ess.

“It’s like the AT&T dead zone has been extended with this new phone,” the man says.

Here’s the relevant bit from the interview:

Henk van Ess: How did you find out about the antenna problems?

Steve Wozniak: The first time I tried I was able to duplicate the problem. My wife was driving me to the airport and as soon as I got a short distance from my home, and no longer on wifi, I tried it by accessing a web page (using Safari on my iPhone 4) and observing the progress bar.

As the bar started to proceed I lightly (‘lightly’) touched a couple of fingers to the trouble area and the progress bar froze. When I lifted my fingers the progress bar continued it’s (sic) rapid progress. Putting my finger[s] back down halted the progress bar again. Lifting my fingers another time allowed the web page to finish loading.

I tried it again with one more web page I was in a moving car in the hills near my home. Currently I maintain cell phone calls fine there with my iPhones and with other cell phones, although this exact area used to drop AT&T calls reliably, a few years ago.

I was in a moving car in the hills near my home. Currently I maintain cell phone calls fine there with my iPhones and with other cell phones, although this exact area used to drop AT&T calls reliably, a few years ago.

I tried to repeat this experiment somewhere else a second time, I think in a San Jose restaurant, and I only had partial success. That time I could only slow the progress bar a little and only if I squeezed my iPhone 4 tightly. I concluded that the effect only occurs in some places. It’s like the AT&T dead zone has been extended with this new phone.
If you can afford it, carry a second Verizon phone for backup. Another option is to carry a Verizon mifi and rely on Skype on your iPhone.

To be fair, the issues don’t seem to bother The Woz as other than that, “the iPhone works well enough and its beauty is worth the care in holding it”.

That’s similar to MG Siegler’s arguments in favor of the iPhone 4, while Michael Arrington is more straightforward in his advice (“buy an Android instead”).

I’m a proud iPhone 3GS owner seriously considering an Android device for his next smartphone, for a variety of reasons – or maybe I’ll just follow Wozniak’s advice and buy a bunch of phones for backup in one go. What’s the situation you’re in?

(Image courtesy of Flickr user OnInnovation)

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Dealing with warranties is one thing -- it's almost always a crap-shoot, and you're continually pressing your luck when trying to get something covered without any out-of-pocket expense. But how's about the tech support that's so whimsically promised with so many laptops these days? Our pals over at Laptop put in an inordinate amount of work in order to find out, pinging a full dozen manufacturers via phone and chat in order to measure hold time, level of support offered and overall satisfaction. Just about every major laptop maker was included (Acer, Apple, Dell, Lenovo, HP, Toshiba and Fujitsu, just to name a few), and an in-depth report of their findings was posted for each one. In general, though, they found that most companies wouldn't hang around long enough to answer those nagging questions that typically end up in forums ("How do I remove bloatware?"), oftentimes pointing the caller to a paid alternative that would actually take the time to address their issues. If you're considering a new machine, and you aren't exactly one of those nerdy go-getters who can troubleshoot everything yourself, you should certainly give the source links below a look. Just try not to get too depressed, cool?

Laptop's 2010 tech support showdown reveals ugly truth: you're (almost) on your own originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• Why Facebook Still Doesn’t Have An iPad App
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The days of Google Maps as the default mapping app on the iPhone may be coming to an end. Apple is beefing up its Geo team, reportedly acquiring Canadian 3D mapping startup Poly9 Group. The company was funded in 2005 and was completely bootstrapped, with no venture money. Its employees have now gone quiet. Its corporate Website is down and nobody answers the phones.

Poly9 made a browser-based 3D globe like Google Earth, which powered apps such as the NORAD Santa Tracker and this Skype Nomad blog. You can still see it on this product page for Poly9 Globe. It is a lightweight, browser-based, spinning globe that only takes up 303kb of memory—perfect for an iPhone.

So far Apple and Poly9 have not confirmed the acquisition, but French-Canadian reporter Pierre Couture of cyberpresse.ca (via Google Translate) reports that all but two of the employees are now relocated in Silicon Valley and that they are zipped up due to non-disclosure agreements.

This wouldn’t be the first mapping app to be acquired by Apple. Last September, it bought Placebase, another mapping startup, which adds layers of data on top of maps. It is hard to speculate what Apple’s Geo team is brewing. Most likely these were more acqhires where the talent was being bought more so than the underlying products. What do you think Apple Earth will look like?

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