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The Telecom Digest for July 25, 2010
Volume 29 : Issue 200 : "text" Format

Messages in this Issue:

Steve Jobs Is Houdini(Monty Solomon)
Re: Overlay acceptance(John Mayson)
Ringing up sales(Monty Solomon)
Re: Statement by Apple on White iPhone 4(tlvp)
Re: Overlay acceptance(Lisa or Jeff)
Apple iPhone 4 Case Program(Monty Solomon)
Paul Rosen, 88, helped develop the high-speed modem(danny burstein)
Re: Apple: iPut a rubber band on it(colins)


====== 28 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:23:02 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Steve Jobs Is Houdini Message-ID: <p06240820c86f56036ce9@[10.5.11.42]> Leadership Steve Jobs Is Houdini Richard S. Levick, 07.22.10, 12:06 PM ET On Friday, July 16, Apple's chief executive, Steve Jobs, found himself in a kind of situation many public figures have faced before him. A crisis had built and wouldn't go away. As the world waited in hyped expectancy, the spotlight fell on the central player to step onto the dais and deal with it. In this case, Jobs' handling of the iPhone 4 situation generated an unusually wide variety of immediate reactions, from lavish praise to widespread criticism. Then on Tuesday, July 20, Apple reported earnings that put both the positives and negatives of his performance in a new perspective. The company had exceeded expectations, reporting $3.51 earnings per share on revenue of $15.7 billion. Analysts had projected $3.12 a share on sales of $14.75 billion. The numbers represent a significant annual surge, up from $9.7 billion in revenues and $1.8 billion in earnings this quarter last year. With shareholders presumably happy, it's fair to say that any lasting impact of the July 16 press conference involves longer-term consumer perception. In that context, Apple certainly waited too long to bring out Jobs as spokesman, nearly three weeks after the media, the Internet and the consumer marketplace began to buzz about the antenna problem that appeared to be threatening the iPhone 4's launch. Who more than Jobs should know that in the digital age you must control the narrative from the very start? When he finally did seize the moment, he did so with a strategic mixture of conciliatory giveaway and spirited defense. Blithely dubbing the crisis "antennagate," he said Apple would provide free cases for all iPhone 4 users to mitigate the effect of the "death grip" that caused dropped or weakened signals. That was a relatively cost-effective way to satisfy a public that wanted a tangible sacrifice from an offending party, but it was a shrewd best-of-both worlds approach as well. If nothing else, the giveaway affirms that any problems with the phone are eminently fixable. (A product recall would have been the worst-case scenario.) At the same time, Jobs went on the offense, averring that the situation was "blown so out of proportion, it's incredible." During the question period that followed, he declined to apologize to investors. (The current earnings report shows there was no need.) Importantly, he also spent a full five minutes pointing out how commonplace wireless signal problems are among other companies. ... http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/22/steve-jobs-apple-houdini-leadership-managing-crisis.html
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:21:37 -0500 From: John Mayson <john@mayson.us> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Overlay acceptance Message-ID: <AANLkTik6uSGdqdUjYsn1R4CsvZ+UmdzYOwUXy9XvZe8u@mail.gmail.com> On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 10:51 AM, David Lesher <wb8foz@panix.com> wrote: > MD did one of the first overlays, and there was a hue & cry not > to be believed; you have thought the state's children were being > bundled up & sent to the Soylent Green plant. I agree. I remember hearing time and again how difficult 10-digit numbers would be on "our children" as if we were collectively rearing the nation's millions of children and these children were incapable of remembering anything longer than seven digits. -- John Mayson <john@mayson.us> Austin, Texas, USA
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:44:37 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Ringing up sales Message-ID: <p0624082bc87003ea7631@[10.5.11.42]> Ringing up sales Phones are retailers' latest route to back-to-school shoppers' wallets By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | July 23, 2010 Merchants looking to boost sales during the critical back-to-school season are courting students where they spend most of their time - on their phones. Kmart is planning next week to blast out daily text messages with promotions for the back-to-school season. J.C. Penney Co. is displaying interactive ads on iPhone apps that allow users to view new outfit combinations for the fall and find the closest store. And American Eagle Outfitters this week is giving away free smartphones to consumers just for trying on a pair of jeans - no purchase necessary. "Mobile is the way to reach consumers, especially college students and younger, right at their fingertips,'' said Ben Dolgoff, cofounder of Peekaboo Mobile, a new app developed in Boston that uses GPS technology in phones to find deals from nearby stores and restaurants. Dolgoff is working with dozens of merchants, including Subway, Beacon Hill Athletic Club, and Boston Common Coffee, to launch mobile coupons aimed at area college students for the back-to-school season. Many retailers are realizing they can no longer afford to neglect the mobile space, especially for back-to-school, the second-biggest shopping period after the holidays. Consumers last year spent about $1.2 billion on goods and services purchased via mobile phones and the market is expected to reach $2.1 billion by the end of this year, according to Mark Beccue, a senior analyst with ABI Research in New York. Retail analysts say the mobile push is especially critical this year as businesses attempt to combat sluggish consumer spending. The National Retail Federation reported that overall back-to-school spending will increase to $55.12 billion, but average spending for college students is expected to dip slightly. While some mobile deals send consumers straight to merchants' websites, American Eagle is trying to lure shoppers into stores with its denim giveaway. Every customer who tries on a pair of jeans between July 21 and Aug. 3 receives a free smartphone after signing up for a two-year service plan, starting at about $40 per month without data. Shoppers can choose from more than 40 phones, including the $500 Droid by Motorola, and customers also receive a $25 gift card redeemable online or in American Eagle stores. ... http://www.boston.com/community/moms/articles/2010/07/23/ringing_up_sales/
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:15:04 -0400 From: tlvp <tPlOvUpBErLeLsEs@hotmail.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Statement by Apple on White iPhone 4 Message-ID: <op.vgbhfey6itl47o@acer250.gateway.2wire.net> On Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:54:11 -0400, Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> wrote: > July 23, 2010 > > Statement by Apple on White iPhone 4 > > White models of Apple's new iPhone 4 have continued to be more > challenging to manufacture than we originally expected, and as a > result they will not be available until later this year. The > availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not > affected. > > http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/07/23iphonestatement.html Heh ... calls to mind old Henry Ford and his Model T principle: "They can have it any color they want, so long as it's black." :-) . Cheers, -- tlvp -- Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:37:07 -0700 (PDT) From: Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Overlay acceptance Message-ID: <8cda84b0-1ef2-4006-85d8-f4be8542dca8@u26g2000yqu.googlegroups.com> On Jul 23, 11:51 am, David Lesher <wb8...@panix.com> wrote: > But now, does anyone even raise their voice? My pet theory is > coincident with splits/overlays was the saturation of users with > cell phones. Most cell phone calls are dialed with 10D; and the > users seem to cope. That coping seems to translate back to > wireline, even if the 2500 pad lacks a SPEND key to push. True. But I also suspect another reason is that a great many telephone sets today have speed dialing built in, so for many calls the user only needs to hit one button. Further, many people have answering machines and call waiting, so they don't have to repeat dialing if a call attempt is unsuccessful. (Remember how in the old days one would have to repeatedly dial a number for an important call if the party was either busy or not home?) If users still had rotary dials, especailly the older kind with the metal dial ring, they wouldn't be pleased. Frequent dialing of ten digits on rotary phones gets tiring real fast. In some places in the country, it wasn't that long ago that local calls needed only five digits.
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2010 13:56:31 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Apple iPhone 4 Case Program Message-ID: <p06240839c870d98785e3@[10.5.11.42]> If you purchase an iPhone 4 before September 30, 2010, you are eligible to receive an iPhone 4 Bumper or a select third-party case from Apple at no charge. http://www.apple.com/iphone/case-program/
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:39:50 -0400 From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Paul Rosen, 88, helped develop the high-speed modem Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.1007241639340.13255@panix5.panix.com> Paul Rosen dies; helped develop high-speed modem By T. Rees Shapiro Saturday, July 24, 2010; B05 Paul Rosen, an electrical engineer who in the mid-1950s helped develop the high-speed modem, spurring revolutionary progress in the nascent industry of telecommunications, died of congestive heart failure July 20 at his cottage in West Bath, Maine. He was 88. The technology behind the modem -- a device that converts data into [analog (1)] signals that can be passed through channels such as [legacy (2)] phone lines -- has existed in primitive forms since the late 1940s. But in those days, phone lines carried data signals inconsistently, and information was transmitted slowly. While working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory in 1958, Mr. Rosen and a colleague, Jack Harrington, patented a device that rapidly transmitted large amounts of data over phone lines. Their invention, "Method of Land Line Pulse Transmission," helped expand computer networks nationwide by significantly accelerating the flow of data over phone lines. ------ (1) and (2) added by poster... the rest, as they say, is history: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/23/AR2010072305195.html http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2010/07/23/PH2010072305336.jpg Paul Rosen, center, stands in front of a sequential decoder, an early piece of telecommunications equipment. His work was a crucial addition to a landmark Army defense project during the Cold War.
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:53:15 +0000 From: colins@people.net.au To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Apple: iPut a rubber band on it Message-ID: <52078.1279932795@people.net.au> Users of Apple's new iPhone 4 have reported that the phone loses reception when you hold it a certain way. Attempts to quantify the extent of the defect have only fueled the controversy. So how do you test a cellphone antenna? Do you really need an anechoic chamber, like one of the 17 Apple reportedly owns? What's wrong with testing the phone in a radio-frequency isolation chamber, as Consumer Reports did? Host Steven Cherry interviews Spencer Webb, antenna designer and president of AntennaSys, about his own tests for the iPhone 4 and the challenges of getting quantitative results. http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/telecom/wireless/how-bad-is-the-iphone-4s-antenna-problem Regards, Colin
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End of The Telecom Digest (8 messages)

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