Study: BlackBerry has twice the failure rate of iPhone

November 14, 2008 · Filed Under Apple, Gadgets, Iphone, Phones, blackberry, cellphones · Comment 

Apple’s iPhone has half the failure rate of RIM’s BlackBerry in the first year of use, a study carried out by a mobile-phone warranty firm has found. 

The SquareTrade study

Figures from the analyst firm Canalysys, released last week, showed Apple has now overtaken RIM in the global smartphone sales stakes.

SquareTrade had to project their figures for the iPhone’s failure rate over a two-year period, as the handset has not been available for that long — nonetheless, that rate came in at between nine to 11 percent. The equivalent failure rate for BlackBerry handsets was 14.3 percent, with the Treo coming in at 21 percent.

Breaking the figures down, the most prominent malfunctions for iPhone users appear to be touchscreen-related, accounting for a third of all reported issues with that handset. However, 12 percent of iPhone users reported accidental damage to their handsets within the first year of use — the average for other handsets is nine percent.

“It’s likely that any iPhone owner can guess the reason iPhone accidents are so common,” the authors wrote. “After two minutes of handling an iPhone, it’s impossible to escape noticing that the handsets are incredibly slippery. The form doesn’t help, either. The dimensions make for a difficult grip, especially for those with small hands. These two factors conspire to make the iPhone more accident prone than just about any other handset model we’ve seen.”

The report’s authors also noted that fewer than half-a-percent of iPhone owners reported battery problems after a year of use, compared with around one percent for BlackBerry and Treo users.

SquareTrade’s study did not take into account software issues handled directly by the retailer or fixed by firmware updates.

ZDNet UK has requested comment on SquareTrade’s report from both RIM and Apple, but had not received it at the time of writing.

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Hyundai Genesis Apple Vehicle

October 24, 2008 · Filed Under Apple, Reviews · Comment 

Hyundai, a long time struggling car company, is finally starting to emerge from the subprime demographic. This year they introduced the Hyundai Genesis, a high end sedan equitable in comfort and luxury to a Lexus at a fraction of the price. Now they’ve teamed up with RIDES magazine and have done a blissful job of leveraging some of Apple’s uber cool factor by decking out the Genesis with all things Mac.

Stuffed into the sedan are 3 Computers (2 minis and a Macbook Air), an iPod Touch, iPhone and two wireless keyboards that slide out of the rear of the front seats, which are complimented by dueling 8.4-inch VGA headrest screens. The dead body carrier of the vehicle (mob talk for ‘trunk’) also contains a 20-inch Apple Cinema Display for all that tail gating you’re sure to pull off in a sedan.

[Techeblog]

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Apple MacBook Pro review

October 24, 2008 · Filed Under Apple · Comment 

More powerful than ever, but should Apple have gone smaller?

 

Just in the same way celebrity deaths always seem to come in threes, it’s much the same with Apple notebooks. You wait around for ages only for them all to arrive at once. Earlier in the week we looked at the bargain basement MacBook and now it’s the turn of its big brother, the MacBook Pro.

There are two versions on offer, the 17-inch beast for those who like to bathe in the full glory of their screen content, and this, the smaller 15-inch model.

The new body design isn’t a great move away from what we’ve come to expect. However, it now has a body cut from a single piece of aluminium. Apple has been hugely criticised for its lack of attention to recycling but this new casing, as well as the glass used in the 15-inch screen, goes some way to addressing the problem.

The super glossy LED screen is eye-squintingly bright at its highest setting, and delivers fantastic quality. The screen has an impressive 1440 x 900-pixel resolution, which is surely high enough for even the most professional of needs. The glass enclosure is hugely reflective, but no more than most standard Super-TFT screens.

The big change on the performance front has to be the use of NVIDIA graphics. The choice of the GeForce 9400M is great for those looking to edit video as well as play games, as it’s 40 per cent faster than the previous generation of chips used in the MacBook Pro. On the entry-level model it comes with 256MB of dedicated memory, so you’ll really see things fly, whereas those with the cash to flash can opt for the more expensive model and get 512MB.

We’re not complaining about performance, this model manages to chug along at a fair old rate. The Intel 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor is backed by 2GB of RAM and there is even a 250GB hard drive fitted.

A range of ports are lined along the left-hand side of the case and includes two USB ports and a Firewire 800 port. The latter is an especially useful touch, as it proves faster than current USB speeds when transferring files to and from external drives.

An interesting touch is the addition of DisplayPort technology, something you won’t see from other vendors for a while yet. It means you can do away with DVi, HDMI and other digital connections. If you need to connect with any of these, you’ll need to fork out £20 on an adapter.

The keyboard is pushed to the back of the unit, which leaves a huge hunk of space between you and the keys, so you’ll be hunkered over the laptop to reach the keyboard. The keys are individually punched through the aluminium casing, which makes for a nice amount of space and also makes them firmer in their mounts. The keyboard is also fully backlit, and automatically adjusts brightness as ambient light gets brighter or darker. Die-hard Apple users may miss the old keyboard seen on previous MacBook Pro’s, but we like the new choice.

The touchpad also gets an overhaul and manages to hide the mouse button away as it’s incorporated into the same piece of aluminium. At first it’s a little tricky to get to grips with, but once you get the hang of it, it works well.

Pinched from the MacBook Air are the finger gesture controls, including pinching two-fingers to zoom in and out of documents, four-fingers to gain instant access to all open windows, and rotating your fingers across the pad to spin images onscreen.The right-hand side of the chassis features the slot-loading optical drive and also a Kensington lock slot.

Flaws? There are a few, the lack of Blu-ray in Apple notebooks is well documented and the placement of the mean two USB ports so close together quickly gets annoying.

Does this all add up to an object of desire or is it just another run of the mill notebook? There is no denying it’s a great piece of kit to look at and even touch. Performance is good but for the price tag it should be. The screen is gorgeous and while the keyboard and touchpad feel great there is some lag when typing. It does get quite warm to the touch quickly and we’ve not convinced that it needs to be as heavy as it is.

We were convinced that Apple would launch an Eee PC wannabe, but what we got isn’t bad. We guess Apple just doesnt want tp play with the smaller boys…

 

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