iPhone 4S? Grumble

Amazingly, Apple belted a foul ball today and called it a home run.  The “new” iPhone 4S may be a nice phone, and it has some nice features, but it is basically just the same device that has already been selling for a long time.  Yes, the camera is better, and that’s nice, but at the end of the day this is not the device that triggered the breathless anticipation of the next cool thing.

After decades of Apple watching, it was sad to see Apple blow the opportunity to show something really new.  If they didn’t have a truly new product ready, then they should not have shown anything – or, given the hype they helped foster, should have started out the event by saying that the 4S was an interim device, while the truly new product was being readied for release.

Instead, it seems that Apple has tipped over the hubris barrier at a scale that is grand, even for them.  They seem to assume that, by simply being Apple, the adoring crowds will clamor for ANYTHING new with their name on it, just to be first on the block to have one.  The 4S is as disappointing as the iPad 2 – which was basically an attempt to bring the iPad to the level it should have been when it was first launched.

In fact, with two lackluster products being hyped by Apple in a row, it makes one wonder if Apple has lost it’s edge.  Whatever happened to the Jobsian mandate of making things that were “insanely great.”  I was fully prepared to pick up a new iPhone tomorrow.  That’s not going to happen.

I bet the folks at Google are having a huge party today.  But we shouldn’t celebrate Apple’s misstep – it should sadden us.  Apple has long been viewed as an industry leader in technology and design.  It is losing this edge and sooner or later someone needs to tell the king that it is walking around in its bloomers.

Please wake me when Apple releases a truly new product.

Mobile thoughts

This entry is being written during a break in the STEM education conference in Indianapolis put on each year by the League for Innovation.  The audience is mostly community college folks committed to improving education for all.

Not surprisingly, mobile technologies are a hot topic with the majority of college students using smart phones these days.  The consensus is that we are at the cusp of a revolution – a position with which I am in full agreement.

The question is what to do about it.  Unlike traditional educational technologies (clickers, smartboards, etc.) the mobile revolution is customer driven, not school driven.  This means that it is unstoppable, especially in colleges.  If students are not allowed (and encouraged) to use the tools they carry every day, they are likely to vote with their feet and transfer to a more understanding institution.

The unfortunate thing I’m starting to see is the desire to co-opt the revolution by using these new tools to do old things differently, rather than using them to do completely new things.  For example, moving textbooks to mobiles might have some benefits, but this assumes that this 16th century technology is still the best we have to offer.  In my mind, the rich interactivity that can be manifested by these new technologies opens new doors for learning, but only with the active support of educators.  Several colleges have already asked if we can work with their teachers to help them build bridges to this new world.  (We can, of course, and would love to talk with anyone facing a similar challenge.)

As for myself, I am carrying my Levono tablet instead of my laptop, and using it for everything (including writing this blog.)  I will always want a full-function computer for elaborate tasks (writing books, creating multimedia presentations, etc.) but for taking notes, posting blogs, grading students, or watching the Two Dogs Dining video on YouTube, this tool fits the bill quite nicely.  Not only is it much lighter than my laptop, but the battery lasts all day – and my days are long.

Step one (in my view) is for teachers to start using these tools themselves.  They will soon discover why they are so compelling to our students.

You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to be a rocket scientist

The title of this blog (while true) was triggered by a recent event that happened to me at the local Apple Store – the place that prides itself with having a genius bar.  Far from being a place where outside geniuses congregate to trade complex proofs of abstract theorems, it is basically a glorified help desk where the self-proclaimed “geniuses” are on one side of the bar (the employee side, of course) while the other side is populated by the poor unwashed teeming masses seeking salvation for their technical transgressions.  No matter if the customer has a PhD in engineering, and invented some of the technologies used in the original Macintosh and other things (oh, did I reveal that the customer in this story is me?), we are all treated alike by the geniuses – that is, with condescention and pity.

I showed up with a simple problem.  My iPhone 3GS battery was in serious need of replacement.  How did I know?  Well, it would completely discharge in standby mode in about 8 hours.  So, I went, phone in hand, to ask a simple question: “How much does it cost to replace the battery of my iPhone?”  Now this is a question that has (I would think) a simple answer, expressed as a number.  But instead I was asked if I had installed the latest iOS upgrade.  This was tantamount to me asking if the fresh fish was any good, and, in response, being asked if I’d ever been to Vermont when the trees were in peak color.

Of course, my question may have exceeded the domain of genius of the person assigned to help me.  Had Apple made it easy for their customers to replace batteries themselves, this issue would not have emerged in the first place.  I would have gone to the battery department and put a new battery in my basket to check out.  But, in its infinite wisdom, Apple decided that batteries should be hidden from view, without making sure that they actually last longer than the reasonable lifetime of the iPhone.

So, I left the store and went online to buy a new battery for my phone.  Now I have to say that anyone who does what I’m about to describe needs to be very careful, comfortable working with very small parts, and extremely patient.  The new battery arrived along with a special tool and a set of instructions I supplemented with some youtube videos.  I set up a clean spot on my table, set up my magnifying desk lamp, and went to work.

Once you remove the two tiny screws from the bottom of the iPhone, you use a suction cup to gently, but steadily, pull the glass display out of the phone housing.  This, alone, is not for the faint of heart.  Once the display is removed (along with three cables, one of which is hidden) the fun begins.  As a mere non-genius, I assumed the battery would be near the front of the phone since it is the one thing you are likely to need to replace.  But, no, it is at the very bottom of the case, requiring that you remove the circuit board from the phone.  This is held in place with 7 screws (one hidden) that are about the size of poppyseeds, and the removal of five more cables, one of which is plugged into the underside of the circuit board (more on this later).  On removal of this board, the battery lies revealed in all its glory where it was quickly dispatched to wherever it is that good batteries spend eternity, and the new battery put in place.

The instructions at this point were to “reassemble the phone.”  In other words reconnect the cables, screw the board back in place, and push the display back into the housing (without breaking it.)  This was like telling a new surgeon to “put the organs back where they belong and sew the body up.”  Now what the battery supplier forgot to mention is that the camera connector (the one on the underside of the circuit board) is almost impossible to put in place when you can’t see what you are doing.  So, I un-assembled everything again, and this time removed the camera also, so I could plug its cable in before putting the board back inside the housing.

Net result?  My iPhone now works beautifully, the battery lasts for days, and I will probably never do this again.  I’ve always loved working with my hands and know my way around soldering irons, drills, and other tools of all sizes.  But this task was at the limit of my vision and required the steady hands of a brain surgeon.  In short, if Apple had simply answered my original question, I would have gladly spent the money to get my phone working again, with Apple adding to its bottom line.

I have no idea why Apple makes it so hard for people to get simple stuff done, but remember, there is always another way.

Just don’t drop the screws on the floor.