SuperSite Blog

Just so we're clear here:

Are we bashing Apple for the battery life?

or

Are we bashing Krakow?

Because just beyond the quoted part of the article in question he squarely lays the blame on Apple:

>>I'm surprised that Apple chose to default their Exchange mail software to "push" email.

--

If you change the 3G's settings to "pull" email ("fetch" in iPhonese), having your phone ask the server for new mail every 15, 30 or 60 minutes, you will extend your phone's battery life approximately five to eight hours before you get a low battery warning (less than 20% left).

If you compare these numbers to other Microsoft-based phones, like the new 3G Palm 800w for instance, you find that the iPhone falls way short.  <<

Apple's implementation of a licensed protocol sucks. Let's blame Microsoft?

And people think there's no such thing as the iCabal?

Seriously, does Apple have any competent devs anymore? We've seen: Leopard's original release upgrade killing systems that had certain apps. SnowLeopard designed as a "do over" for Leopard. Failure of the iPhone sign up servers. MobileMe failing to support IE7 after Apple said it did. MobileMe failing to stay online after Apple shut down .Mac. Failure to get a iPhone partner program out that can scale. And now a device with a fixed battery that can't keep up with its competitors when it actually has to do the same tasks that everyone else takes for granted.

Really, Apple is becoming the gang that couldn't shoot straight. But, hey, they have a good ad agency.

C'mon Paul, this is the same guy who said the iPhone's only hope for survival was to "bite the bullet", ditch OS X, and license Windows Mobile for the box.

It's attention wh0ring is all...

Gary Krakow is an idiot.  I really wouldn't attribut this to Apple "getting a pass," as much as to the fact that Krakow literally seems to have no idea what he's talking about most of the time.

In June he said that Apple had to license Windows Mobile for the iPhone or they'd be crushed.

www.thestreet.com/.../iphone-needs-to-up-its-game.html

I have no idea why that guy has a job.

@Ocean

In both my experience and from the people I know it seems like the WM implementation seems to be that push takes about the same battery drain as 30-60 minute "fetch" depending on size and number of emails and how often they come in.

If the iPhone 3G is draining the battery in push faster than "fetch" at 15 minutes then Apple blew the implementation. That's just flat out awful performance.

Wow, that's just incredibly, amazingly shoddy reporting.  Why is someone paying a reporter who can't get his basic facts straight?  Unbelievable.  

Well Paul, I think you've jumped the shark with the whole iCabal thing, and it spoils what is otherwise good technical commentary.

That said, I remember well the days of "beleaguered Apple computer", circa 1997, so I know these press lemmings travel in herds and that the basing takes on a life of it's own.

This guy is just an idiot. As others have pointed out, he's in the running for the "Enderle award" for worst technical "reporting".

chuckb84:

Where in the heck in Paul's post did you see one reference to iCabal?!   What are you smoking?

@ibarskiy

Maybe chuckb84 thinks I'm Paul? :-)

Great article from a guy who knows his stuff!

Did I mention that Vista gave me herpes!

My doctor recommended I get a MacBook but the insurance company won't go for it, obviously they run Windows.

Bastards!

>>Did I mention that Vista gave me herpes!<<

Careful, don't give Apple any more switcher ad ideas.

Heh. "Enderle Award". Yep, this guy deserves it. What a tool.

The 3G iPhone's sub-6-hour battery life gets a word score of Fair from the PC World Test Center, but it STILL BEATS OUT OTHER 3G HANDSETS.

Yardena Arar, PC World

www.pcworld.com/.../3g_iphones_mediocre_battery_life_still_beats_rivals.html

It's OK. I think if anyone is guilty of crappy coding on competing platforms, it's Apple. iTunes sucks donkey bollocks on windows...and that comprises the vast majority of their user base way to love your customers apple...make fun of the 70+% of them that acttually use your crummy products on windows.

Here is my idea for an ad:

Videoclip...man laughing hysterically

Videoclip...woman laughing hysterically

Videoclip.......man, bewildered..."me, haha, no way"

Videoclip.....man, "i'd sooner deploy type-writers and an abacus"

fade to black

text appears

"Would you deploy OSX in your business?"

text appears

Microsoft. For stuff that matters.

If Exchange is such a pig, then why are people who aren't using Exchange complaining of battery problems, too?

On the iCabal thing, I am referring to the frequent occurrence of the phrase in many of the recent blog articles. There is no direct use of the phrase here, just "Only Apple gets this kind of pass. It's astonishing."

As I said, I have some sympathy for the press bashing being given Microsoft when it is not deserved. (However, it is SO often deserved.) Apple was in the same place circa 1997 when the company nearly died. Press idiots parrot the same song once it takes hold because it is so much easier than telling the truth.

And the guy is a fool. His stuff is random blather.

On the substance of the matter, I think there is a huge rush to judgement on the iPhone 3G, both on the good and bad points. I think giving it a week or two to shake out might make more sense...

"We've seen: Leopard's original release upgrade killing systems that had certain apps. SnowLeopard designed as a "do over" for Leopard."

????  Oh you mean installs over the top of a customized Tiger install that had a "A" app (Usanity) that would cause problems on PPC Macs.  Hmm and Vista was compatible with all software and hardware.....hahahahahahaha!  Good stuff brother.

"SnowLeopard designed as a "do over" for Leopard" Maybe Apple should just call it SP1, Vista R2, or Windows 7?  SnowLeopard drops PPC support and allows tuning after the PPC code is gone.

"Failure of the iPhone sign up servers" Crushed under the load of success.  See "1 million iPHones sold in 3 days" or "10 million app downloads in 3 days".  Kind of reminds of me last December when Xbox Live came to a grinding halt on December 25 for THREE WEEKS, under that massive load of 400,000 Xbox's 360 given as gifts.

"MobileMe failing to stay online after Apple shut down .Mac."  see "Crushed under the load of success".  Problems the Zune team wish they had.

"Failure to get a iPhone partner program out that can scale."  One million iPhones sold in 3 days.  Problems any vendor selling WM phones WISH THEY HAD.

"And now a device with a fixed battery that can't keep up with its competitors when it actually has to do the same tasks that everyone else takes for granted."  I guess you have Zero experience with Exchange and WM devices....

technet.microsoft.com/.../cc161030(TechNet.10).aspx

"Administrators should keep a few things in mind. First, Direct Push Technology is enabled by default in SP2. (The settings for Exchange ActiveSync and Direct Push Technology are shown in Figure 1.) You do need to adjust the connection timeout of your firewall to ensure that Direct Push functionality works efficiently. With the goal of optimizing battery life, we recommend between 15 and 30 minutes."

www.microsoft.com/.../9cc98cd4-2c01-4a20-a34f-1edd40c4369e.mspx

searchexchange.techtarget.com/.../0,295582,sid43_gci1249395,00.html

"A larger issue is that checking for new messages on a periodic basis can dramatically shorten a mobile device's battery life"

www.le.ac.uk/.../mobile5.html

"Mobile devices which use direct push services will have a significantly shorter battery life than ordinary mobile phones and PDAs. You may need to recharge your device daily. Setting your device's synchronisation times to manual synchronisation will reduce the demand on your battery"

frommypocket.pocketprimer.com/.../battery-drainage-activesync-and-the-dummy-server-fix.aspx

www.n95users.com/.../11426-mail-exchange-suddenly-drains-battery-badly.html

www.mobiletopsoft.com/.../how-to-prevent-wm-5-0-and-activesync-from-draining-your-battery.html

forums12.itrc.hp.com/.../questionanswer.do

pdaphonehome.com/.../106758-active-sync-draining-battery.html

Want more?

Whiplash, try ZoviraXP

:)

Doc

...Apple does get an unprecedented level of tolerance from the fanboys.  Steve Jobs can do no wrong and is idolized by all.  

Whereas, MS can usually do no right.  In the press that is.  

So the statement you are referring to is quite accurate.

And, to be honest, the fact that Apple fanboys worship anything the company puts out regardless of its merit, is quite uhmm... cabalistic (is that even a word?)

Krakow is a moron.  That's clear.

Meanwhile... PC World found that the iPhone 3G had the best battery life of any AT&T phone and was only beat by a few EVDO phones overall.

www.pcworld.com/.../3g_iphones_mediocre_battery_life_still_beats_rivals.html

So, what exactly is the deal here?  There appears to be no real "fault" to blame because the iPhone gets best-in-class battery life.  Oh, and the exchange support works beautifully.  Love it.

@Snakedoctor1

I'd say the contortions you went through to say "When Apple fails it's really a demonstration of how good they are" speaks more to the iCabal mentality Paul was making fun of than anything I could add.

Thank you for making my point so well.

@mikegalos......you made a point???  No you just went totally negative/Anti-everything Apple, and 90% what you said is just flat out false.  You learned well from Paul, go negative, go Apple negative, go hard Apple negative, and you might attract some fellow Windows fangirls, to agree with you.  Hope it works for you.  I mean Paul will gladly set you up with a Apple news story (or 2) a day.

Paul's point about the author is dead on, he is a loon.  

The reality is that since Exchange 2003 SP2/WM 5.0 when "Push" for MS finally caught up to Blackberry/BES this has been a problem for every phone that uses ActiveSync.  The iPhone is no different.

The only blame here, IF THERE IS ANY,  would be the IT shop that is running the Exchange server that is allowing the iPhone/Owner of, in question to connect to said Exchange environment.  

I have, as an Exchange Administrator, had to write knowledge articles for tier 1 support folks in the organization I worked for, on this very issue so they could help end users.  The problem is so wide spread that the links I supplied, none of which you probably read and the first few from MS, address this by suggesting a manual sync and spread out polling time intervals.....hence KILLING push in its true nature.

www.tgdaily.com/.../118

Wow, this is just getting sad now.

Windows fanboys are the whiniest cry-babies around. Truly astonishing.

Hey snakedoctor,

Remember that Jesus saves? Don't take it so personally man. If I was next to you, I'd offer you a joint. Just relax, if Mike Galos doesn't like Apple, it's cool, your iCabal doesn't need him.

Sorry the Jesus/join connection would not work for me.  But hey he gave us free will, and we all make our own choices, and judging another brother that walks in the light, is not my way.

My iCabal?   Haha if you only knew how much of a Windows guy I really am.  I mean I have been making my living off of their products since MS-DOS 3.3, I moved off of Netware 3.11 to NT Advanced Server 3.1, and never looked back.  The team I am on at work is called WSE or Windows Systems Engineering.  I have mostly Windows boxes/notebooks in my house of 6 computers.  However Macs have been slowly replacing them and eventually Windows will only run in a VM and probably only on my Mac.  I can comfortably speak from experience, for both camps.

The phrase iCabal just sounds weird or out of place, tough to put a meaning to it, like I got to look it up someplace to know what it means.  I could see if it was remotely funny but its confusing at best, which in turn makes it loose whatever sarcastic value it may have had.  I mean when, someone says M$, Windblows, Microshaft or whatever I get the childish humor, I understand the meaning and see the humor no matter how childish it is.

Peace Out!

personally I blame global warming and/or terrorists for the battery life non-issue.

"Well Paul, I think you've jumped the shark with the whole iCabal thing, and it spoils what is otherwise good technical commentary."

Paul's reasoning is that there's so much over-the-top praise on Apple in the media that he's somehow bringing things into balance this way. He's, of course, dead wrong in many ways. There's two kinds of Apple reporting and discussion, positive or negative, probably about as much each, but both always in the extreme. Paul just adds to one of these pools, thus making things worse. He also generally doesn't avoid coloring or dismissing information when it comes to bringing Apple the company into bad light. (And whenever he's wrong about something, he never admits it, although he's quick to celebrate it when one of the millions of predictions he's made has come true.)

Of course he does praise and use some Apple stuff, but then, only an idiot (one-eyed die-hard spec nerds, for instance) would not see that Apple do make some amazing stuff too. Then again some of his blogging seems outright schitzophrenic because of this.

Whatever, Paul is a fanatic of sorts, which makes his blog more interesting in a comedy-kind of a way. Unfortunately his journalistic output lacks credibility because of his blogging, because you cannot be a fanatic blogger and a credible journalist at the same time.

And this certainly is not only my view. You only ever see him quoted when he's been bashing Apple (for a reason or not) or when he's revealed some insider information on Microsoft, but even these often come with disclaimers regarding his less-than-neutral position on matters.

When it comes to reporting on all things Apple, we need a voice of reason. True journalism. Just one person could do wonders here.

Mum, you're really aggressive dude. Take it easy. We're all friends here. I'm sure Paul has nothing but good things to say about you. Why the hate? We don't need anymore hate in the world.

I'm really concerned about your need to be aggressive. It doesn't seem like worshipping Jobs has helped you relax; may I suggest Buddhism instead? In your case, I think it would do wonders, my friend. I say it out of genuine concern.

"I'm really concerned about your need to be aggressive. It doesn't seem like worshipping Jobs has helped you relax; may I suggest Buddhism instead? In your case, I think it would do wonders, my friend. I say it out of genuine concern."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's a lobotomy of sorts.

Although I'm glad they chose to tr0ll the new using "the worlds greatest web browser/OS - Safary/Kittiy OSX"  LMAO.... instead of joing up Koresh new age lets kill ourselves so that El Jobsp can be resurrected  in the after life kinda cult.

I'm sure some of these guys will have an Apple sticker on their coffins.

Again... what iPhone battery woes?  It looks like it gets really good battery life for a 3G phone.  The best in the AT&T lineup in fact.

"I'm sure some of these guys will have an Apple sticker on their coffins."

That was hilarious...

Meanwhile,

In keeping with their great customer service and support, Apple has extended everyone's MobileMe account by 30 days as part of an apology for the problems they've had with their launch.

This is why they get the highest marks by a mile for support.

www.infrageeks.com/.../becca

better link:

www.macworld.com/.../mobileme.html

No word on refunds to the poor saps that got charged 99 Euros/USD for signing for the 30-day free trial offer?

When Apple does it, it is superior customer service and support, but when Microsoft did it for Xbox360 customers, it is yet another case of their alleged inadequacy. The incessant lovefest with Apple, and "Apple could do no wrong" attitude is generally sickening.

RaaJ,

Um... selling a product you know to be flawed and having it's hardware fail on a massive scale... then not claiming there's a problem... then extending the warrantee but still not fixing the problem... is not even remotely close to having your new web service experience downtime for a few days during it's launch... then getting a MONTH of additional service in return.

You Apple-bashers really have no sense of scale or equity.  The iPhone and MobileMe launch were pretty horribly managed.  No question.  But neither is remotely close to the hardware failure problems of the 360.  And I own and enjoy my 360 and pay for a gold live account.

Paul has railed against MS for this, of course, because he's a great critic of Microsoft.  Why does the same criticism coming from a 360 user that's also a Mac fan somehow become intolerable.

"I'm sure some of these guys will have an Apple sticker on their coffins."

Or an IE-chewing Fox as their avatar. We all "love" technology in different ways, don't we?

@ johnpapola

"Selling a product you know to be flawed ..."

Now, where have I seen this? Oh yes, in EVERY. SINGLE. PRODUCT. EVER. SHIPPED. That includes products put out by Apple, Microsoft and every other company.

Microsoft may have underestimated the problem with their hardware, but once it was determined that the fault was theirs, they extended the warranty by a YEAR.

I would like to see evidence where you can show that Microsoft knew their  hardware was going to have as much failure rate, and intentionally pushed it out. Your hunch does not count. Similarly show me the evidence that indicates a year-over-year failure rate of the 360 hardware, before and after Microsoft extended the warranty. Show me the evidence that Microsoft did "NOTHING" to fix the fault. Post the evidence or back off.

No product is ever perfect. But when things fail or go wrong, I don't see enough criticism of the same causticity and acerbic frenzy towards Apple.

Just saying !!

Raaj, I know that you are referring to the $100 fee for the free service, which will be rectified, and it was wrong. I think the Xbox is great, but extending the warranty another year, still leaves you with a dead Xbox 2 years after you bought it, at least in over 30% of all sales. People were complaing and suing Apple because the iphone battery was not replaceable by design [but you CAN replace it yourself for $12, which I have posted here before] as well as battery life LIES in the media. Still, this post does show MS getting targeted inappropriately. And MS spent over a billion dollars fixing dead Xboxes. Personally, my two experiences with MS customer support would give then a 10 out of 10 stars, which I have also posted the experience in the past.

I just think it's funny that Paul is so mad about "group think" and the press regarding bashing Vista and praising Apple... but the reality is that "group think" played a major role in driving Windows into dominance.  How many retailers were pushing "IBM-compatible" back in the late eighties/early nineties.  Then later... what about the "group think" in the media regarding Apple's pending demise.  The great "beleaguered" tag which now seems to be more associated with Dell than Apple.  I think Paul has a very short-term, narrow view of the ebbs and flows of public opinion.

"Why the hate?"

The post I made was cold analysis from start to finish. No hint of hate, love, humor or passion of any kind there.

Right now I'm busy hitting refresh to see Paul's take on Apple's apology letter and the 30-day extension to MobileMe customers.

Doc, it is not even-handed people like you that I am talking about, or Paul refers to as "iCabal." I am referring to people  who refuse to criticize Apple when they so obviously screwed the pooch.

It is also funny to see all the knee jerk reactions from the usual suspects taking objection to Paul's use of the word iCabal. You would think somehow Paul personally insulted their mother when he mocks the iCabal. Why do these people think Paul is referring to THEM as iCabal simply because they fancy Steve Jobs' bits and bobs?

Paul -- would you mind adding better attribution to the content.  It isn't evident that is content aggregated from my post.  Thanks, I'd appreciate it.

Raaj, if I got as many nasty emails as I think Paul gets [and sometimes claims] I would be calling them worse things. I am impress with his reserve.

On a personal note, I really don't like cursing on the web as kids may see it, although I got into a battle at two other sites once, one of which is AVSforum [for electronic info] all because I posted an email from a company that a fanboy did not like, as they changed a policy one month later, making my post wrong. After apologizing and explaining  that the two moth old email was outdated, but verbatum [copied and pasted actually], he got even worse. I am a very big guy and have never experienced such insults and nastiness, so I did not handle so gently.

Peace

A couple of points here.

First off, this guy Gary Krakow is an absolute moron. Thats like blaming Ford and GM for Chrysler's failure to sell automobiles. Also, while we know that Microsoft consulted Apple about adding Active Sync to the iPhone. The actual Active Sync download for a PC is 7.52 MB. The actual implementation of Active Sync in the iPhone is most likely smaller than that.

Second, reguarding the iPhone launch. Yes, we knew Apple was going to sell a million phones, millions of apps sold, and plenty of interest in mobile me. With that said, this weekend did put a black eye on the reputation of Apple. There was even an article on Macworld by Philip Michaels warning both Apple fans, Apple Inc, and the PC/Mobile phone community about either extremes. The article is titled, "Apple Sends the Wrong Signal to iPhone Customers." Yes, Apple got a lot of positives. But Apple did, "Fumble the Football."

The lack of server preparation for a major surge in volume was clearly Apple's fault. This was a world wide demand in 60 countries for a product. Making sure you had new servers to handle such demand should have been a part of the preparation. If they didn't, then thats just bad service. One thing that Microsoft and its testing partners does well, its that they have hundreds of servers to handle increased capacity. Notice during the Vista SP1 RTW rollout and the XP SP3 RTW launch, Microsoft downloads website didn't crash to excess capacity? Thats something that Microsoft does very well. Infact I was able to snag the download of Vista SP 1 in slightly over an hour. Considering the file size, that was pretty quick. Last year this same fiasco happened to Apple. New servers and server capacity would be something Apple should work on improving.

Nobody is disputing the success to the phone, the app store, or mobile me. But today Apple has extended the trial subscriptions as an apology for bad service. Even they today acknowledge with the win, there was some embarassingly bad moments. Its like the Cowboys winning the football game, but having bad defensive and offensive moments. Generally, its called a mixed bag or a bitter sweet victory.

Peace.

Subzero:

That's probably the most realistic, accurate take I've heard of this issue. Congratulations on a very accurate analysis of the situation.

See, Mum? See what happens when you stop the hate and worship Allah? When you love thy neighbor? Do you see, my friend?

I did have a problem with the XP SP3 DL. I had several unsuccessful tries with auto update. Then finally when installed on the 2.7 GHz Celeron eMachine with 1GB RAM, it was so slow that I had to reinstall XP, so I did not install on my other PC or 3 yr old Dell laptop. I was finally able to DL the instal disc, but have been too timid. Now, somebody better answer this next question! [please]. I have Vista auto update turned on, but the System control panel only shows 'Vista Ultimate'. Xp shows any SP install in System control panel, but does Vista? If not, does Vista SP1 require anything else besides having auto update turned on?

Thanks,

Doc

@DRWAM

Vista shows it's version info via "Control Panel / System & Maintenance / System.

Or, my prefered way using the run command, type down "Winver" without the quotes.

I hope that helps ya out Doc

Peace Bro

Thanks Joshu4, I will check it when I get home. The popup screen at startup only showed 'Vista Ultimate', but I cannot remember if I checked a control panel, so i probably didn't. Does Vista automacially install SP1 via auto update?

thanks,

Doc

@DrWam

Vista SP1 used Microsoft's usual policy for auto-update on operating systems. Initially it was not offered on Windows Update, later it became optional and finally it became an auto update (after a tool shipped to block auto-updating it for corporations who want to do their own roll out but still use Windows Update)

I heard the location services was causing the battery drain on 2.0 it's on by deafult.

Cool, thanks Mike and Josh