Apple's diversion seems to be working...

Ever since Apple's press conference a little over a week ago I've seen a lot fewer fervent iPhone4-hate posts.  Now I don't particularly care for Apple's tactics on the issue (i.e., pointing out everyone else's death-grip antenna problems) but I have to admit that it was pretty darn effective.  I still think Apple has a problem (potentially worse than the other smart phones out there) but they've certainly been able to reduce the ferocity of the attacks.  For that they get top marks.

It was also obvious just how personally they took the attacks.  They put their hearts and souls into the project and believe they have an exceptional device. When reviewed from a lot of different angles they're right.  It seems like a great device (I'm in Canada so I haven't seen one yet).  So when the media blew up the severity of the antenna issue they got a upset.  That was obvious in their defensive position and the tone of their message.  But you know what? I completely understand.  I like to think I'm pretty passionate about my work too and have undoubtedly gotten overly defensive on occasion.  I know what it's like to feel unfairly shot down...  So again, I think they did a good job getting that across in the message.

But the job's not done... The free bumpers and refunds address the immediate problem but now I expect Apple to take this brief reprieve and use the time to come up with a better solution.  Maybe we'll see a small adjustment that will make the iPhone 4 more acceptable, maybe we'll see more carriers adopt the iPhone (and remove the negativity that comes with AT&T), but I expect we'll see a more thorough solution in the next iPhone iteration.  What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, right?

How Much of Apple's current problem is AT&T?

People have been bitching about dropped calls and reception issues with the iPhone forever.  Everyone who has an iPhone in the U.S. bitches about AT&T.  So now when the iPhone 4's quality is called into question, I'm guessing a lot of the AT&T hate is being inappropriately applied to Apple.  I'm not saying there isn't a problem with iPhone 4.  I actually have no idea, but I'd be willing to bet that the dog pile that's forming is at least partly due to AT&T.  How exactly would a consumer be able to tell the difference?  All they know is that they can't make a call.  Is it the carrier, the phone, or a bit of both?  The current bitch-o-rific bandwagon is to blame Apple so that's what everyone is doing.

Part of Apple's solution to this iPhone 4 debacle should be the end of the AT&T exclusivity in the U.S.  Of course it may become a little more difficult to convince another carrier to offer the iPhone if everyone thinks the product has a defect...  What a mess.

iPhone 4 Disaster

Regardless of what's really happening with the iPhone 4's antennae, Apple may have a Windows Vista on its hands... a PR nightmare.  I think they can (and will) recover but in the meantime Google is probably preparing its "I'm an Android" ads just in case.

At the Intersection of Technology and Liberal Arts

I love this slide from Apple's Steve Jobs. I wish more people felt as passionately about striking that balance.

YoYos

When I was a kid, one of my favourite toys was a red wooden YoYo, a gift from my father. I never really did much with it, but was happy to make it go up and down. Something about the spin and the anti gravitational effect of climbing up the string was mesmerizing.

It wasn’t until a few years later when I was in grade five (I think) that YoYo’s made a big splash at my elementary school with the Coca Cola and Sprite “return tops”. The school yard was full of them and it was only then that I learned a few tricks: “Sleeper”, “Around the world”, “Loop the Loop”, “Three Leaf Clover”, “The Breakaway”, and the ever popular “Walk the Dog” and “Rock the Baby”. But like every craze, it faded away...

But I never forgot my favorite toy... As an adult, I could always find YoYos branded with company names at conferences or trade shows. This one with Sun’s Java logo (definitely a collector’s item) I picked up in San Francisco at the JavaOne conference in 2004.

Fortunately for me, my wife knows I like these things so she gave me this Yomega Firestorm Wing YoYo as a Christmas gift around the same time. “Everyone should get a toy in their stocking” was her very sound reasoning. Now this little beauty was a bit different from every other YoYo I’d ever owned... for two reasons. One was it’s shape. It has what’s called a Butterfly Design. I didn’t know it at the time, but the flared shape is meant for doing string tricks; the shape helps you land the YoYo on a string. The more traditional design on the other hand, is best for looping tricks, the kinds of things I was doing as a kid. The other thing that was new to me was that it has a transaxle, basically a plastic sleeve around the metal axle that allows it to spin freely. That small improvement made things like the sleeper a breeze. Again this design enables string tricks. But not knowing that at the time... I just kept did the same old stuff as always, got bored and eventually put it down in my growing collection.

It was a few years later when my curiosity about YoYos was piqued again. A guy at work bought a Duncan Bumblebee YoYo and informed me about its ballbearing transaxle. Instead of a simple plastic sleeve, this thing had a ballbearing that allowed for even longer sleeps. Shortly afterwards I found the Yomega Raider for sale at The Discovery Hut in Chinook Centre here in Calgary and quickly bought it. After that day and thanks to the wonders of the web I was able to discover a lot more about the resurgence of this toy and found myself wanting to combine the shape of the Firestorm with the ballbearing axle of the Raider.

In 2007 I bought the Duncan Freehand YoYo at Games People Play at the North Hill Shopping Centre in Calgary. It has the butterfly shape and the ballbearing axle and it came with a mini instructional DVD. That’s where I learned about string tricks and freehand tricks... not that I could actually perform them. Even the starting trick “Man on the Flying Trapeze” (aka, “Flying Trapeze” or just “Trapeze”) was too much for me. I just couldn’t land it consistently. But I kept trying.

That leads me to where I am today. Last Christmas I got a YoYoJam New Breed. Its Butterfly shape is a bit more dramatic than the Freehand, has a wide gap, a large ball bearing transaxle and is made from a combination of plastic and metal (which may again enhance sleep times because of the extra weight at the edge). It’s this YoYo (and replacement strings from yoyoGstring) that finally got me interested in playing again. I also can’t go without highly recommending a series of short instructional videos on YouTube by André Boulay. They’ve helped me learn the “bind return” skill and tricks like “Trapeze”, “Double or Nothing”, “BrainTwister”, “Split the Atom”, “Zipper”, “The Matrix”, “Drop in the Bucket”, and “Plastic Whip”.

YoYos have come a long way and so have the tricks. I find it pretty fun and have only started trying to learn the advanced stuff. For inspiration check out this latest video from a Calgary company called Saturn Precsion Yo-Yos (SPYY) or this one from an Edmonton based company called Caribou Lodge Yoyoworks (CLYW)