Aye--their first story about it was very anti-Apple, this one seems the complete opposite, but it's very clear that if Apple are going to say using it in the cold voids the warranty then it's not fit for purpose in cold countries.
I know El Reg allows reporters bias, but that's a bit OTT (and I'll admit to being a happy Nokia customer currently, but still)
The real WTF is the general consensus that any legal document can say "OK, this might not all be legal, but if it turns out that any of this isn't legal, then just ignore those parts, OK? The rest of the document is totally fine."
Which is how Apple can, with no adverse consequences, say "never use this thing when it's freezing" - because if a court says "sorry, but in our country it freezes all the fucking time" they can just say "OK, our bad; but seriously, don't jail-break it" and the court will say "fair enough".
Funny thing about that... I've been using a Nokia C7 on AT&T for the last week, and you know what... it holds a call just fine, doesn't seem to miss calls and shows better signal than the iPhone I'm also using.
I am suggesting that using an inferior radio modem and minimising your network testing will tend to have a negative effective on your device performance regardless of how naff the network operator is.
That's not to say AT&T is perfect, just that Apple did a shoddy job on the radio side of the iPhone. This should not be a surprise.
Hopefully they'll start using "real" modems from a decent supplier soon.
Speaking as 1) a Finn, and 2) currently employed by telcom which is the official source of iPhone foo...
Here is a less biased writing of the case. At my workplace, we're still waiting for a word from the high regarding WTF we're supposed to tell the customers. At least on Friday I did not have a reply to that, but fortunately no one had asked...
In any case, customer protections are much, much stronger in my neck of woods (than, say, USA), and Apple should not be able to weasel its way out of this the way it tries to do it. Considering how we do have very clearly specced span of six months of winter in our country's specs, so to speak. Finland == cold should not be a surprise to anyone.
Here however, is a demo of "iPhone in the freezer" by F-Secure's Mikko Hyppönen...
Yes, it is absolutely hysterical, and to me it speaks of bad design or an attempt to CYA because of some bad decision.
I know that when I was still working in embedded tech design, we regularly decided to pick milspec components precisely because they allowed bigger temperature variations (-40 C to +80 C was a pretty standard spread for ambient operating temperatures). The extra cost caused by it (to us) was pretty much negligible when compared to reduction in returns caused by environmental factors.
As I understand it, it's not so much that it doesn't work at all below zero, it's that a) protracted sufficiently cold temperatures tend to cause it problems, and more importantly b) it's not guaranteed to work in those temperatures – that if you use it in those temperatures and it breaks, Apple can point you at the T&C and say "Not our problem."
I'm gratified to see a government standing up for its citizens, but let's not pretend that Apple is at all unique in the field of shitty ToS's. I don't have my android's on hand, but I'm willing to bet it's riddled with clauses just as dishonest as Apple's. (And that's not even considering the ones that Verizon piles on top of it; at least an iPhone isn't going to get stuck with an old version of its OS the way that many droid phones do).
There is a world of problems with the legal conditions surrounding ToS's in general.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-30 01:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-30 02:11 am (UTC)I know El Reg allows reporters bias, but that's a bit OTT (and I'll admit to being a happy Nokia customer currently, but still)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-30 02:12 am (UTC)Void where prohibited
Date: 2011-01-30 03:04 am (UTC)Which is how Apple can, with no adverse consequences, say "never use this thing when it's freezing" - because if a court says "sorry, but in our country it freezes all the fucking time" they can just say "OK, our bad; but seriously, don't jail-break it" and the court will say "fair enough".
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-30 03:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-30 06:30 am (UTC)I am suggesting that using an inferior radio modem and minimising your network testing will tend to have a negative effective on your device performance regardless of how naff the network operator is.
That's not to say AT&T is perfect, just that Apple did a shoddy job on the radio side of the iPhone. This should not be a surprise.
Hopefully they'll start using "real" modems from a decent supplier soon.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-30 08:53 am (UTC)Here is a less biased writing of the case. At my workplace, we're still waiting for a word from the high regarding WTF we're supposed to tell the customers. At least on Friday I did not have a reply to that, but fortunately no one had asked...
In any case, customer protections are much, much stronger in my neck of woods (than, say, USA), and Apple should not be able to weasel its way out of this the way it tries to do it. Considering how we do have very clearly specced span of six months of winter in our country's specs, so to speak. Finland == cold should not be a surprise to anyone.
Here however, is a demo of "iPhone in the freezer" by F-Secure's Mikko Hyppönen...
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-30 09:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-30 10:31 am (UTC)I know that when I was still working in embedded tech design, we regularly decided to pick milspec components precisely because they allowed bigger temperature variations (-40 C to +80 C was a pretty standard spread for ambient operating temperatures). The extra cost caused by it (to us) was pretty much negligible when compared to reduction in returns caused by environmental factors.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-30 11:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-30 01:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-31 02:45 pm (UTC)There is a world of problems with the legal conditions surrounding ToS's in general.