Apple Deletes Thread About Consumer Reports Not Recommending An iPhone [Updated]

from the we-were-always-at-war-with-eurasia dept

Tue, Jul 13th 2010 1:19pm — Mike Masnick

Apple, of course, became a household name with its infamous 1984 commercial, about how Apple equipment would make sure that "1984" wasn't like 1984. However, now that it's 2010, apparently it's fine. As you may have heard, Consumer Reports yesterday posted that it could not recommend the iPhone 4 due to the widely discussed antenna problems. Apparently that was double-plus-ungood to the folks at Apple.

Ragaboo alerts us to the news that Apple has deleted a thread discussing this at the Apple support forums. And when they delete it, they mean it. People created a new thread, and it got deleted again. And again. And again and again. At least six such threads have been deleted, according to that TUAW article. Of course, all this is doing is drawing more attention to the issue and the fact that Apple is trying to deny it exists. Oh, and we were always at war with Eurasia.

Update: Apparently some of the threads have now come back... and people are suggesting that it may have been a glitch with Apple's forums, rather than anything malicious... We haven't yet seen a full explanation, but perhaps that's the case.

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Filed Under: iphone, support
Companies: apple, consumer reports

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Gwiz, 13 Jul 2010 @ 1:30pm

Consumer Reports are not recommending the Iphone 4???

But it ******* prints money!

And has lots of GB's and them WiFi's.

I want a white one.
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Scote, 13 Jul 2010 @ 1:36pm

Apple SOP
Why is the media acting so surprised at this? Apple has a solid history and policy of deleting support threads that cast Apple in a negative light. I'm glad this practice is being exposed nationally, but it really needs to be put in its more troubling historical context rather than cast as a new thing.
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VX, 13 Jul 2010 @ 1:40pm

It really doesn't matter
The mindless mass of trend followers (including many very smart people I know) have and will continue to by this phone because it is a shiny status symbol. They will defend Apple as they delete support threads and make excuses for their poor quality control. The consumers of Apple products are getting what they want, they are not concerned with how Apple treats customers.
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Jay (profile), 13 Jul 2010 @ 1:47pm

"Oh, and we were always at war with Eurasia."

We have captured Africa. And the war posters and war flags are wrong.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 1:51pm

Re:
"Yarr -- bloody Yanks, you'll bow to the Queen once again!"
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sehlat (profile), 13 Jul 2010 @ 1:54pm

1984 is perfectly OK
If you are Big Brother.
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Nina Paley (profile), 13 Jul 2010 @ 1:56pm

senility?
I mean no disrespect, but it seems possible that Steve Jobs might be getting senile.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 1:58pm

And again. And again again. hmm..... missing an "and" perhaps?
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Ragaboo (profile), 13 Jul 2010 @ 2:02pm

Awww ...
The original article links to a Bing cache of the thread, but apparently Bing has since purged the cache. I loved the fact that they deleted it and yet it still existed for anyone to read ... [Sad face]
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Bubba Gump (profile), 13 Jul 2010 @ 2:08pm

threads are back now
I just followed the link and got into a thread from yesterday, so it looks like Apple has started restoring them...
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Bubba Gump (profile), 13 Jul 2010 @ 2:09pm

ok, more specifically THIS thread is active
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2503228&tstart=0
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Gwiz, 13 Jul 2010 @ 2:26pm

I was just browsing through the comments on the Consumer Reports page about this - those Apple fans get pretty upset when someone dares to say anything negative about their beloved Apple products.
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:Lobo Santo (profile), 13 Jul 2010 @ 2:32pm

Re:
Yah, I'm surprised there hasn't been a Apple-fan riot, complete with mochachino and bagels...
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 3:00pm

Who cares?
Lots of other outlets, including this one, are covering the story. It is Apple's prerogative to choose what threads to allow in its forums. Good idea or not does not matter.

Let me guess, since information wants to be free we should force Apple to put up with whatever we want to put in their forums. Lame.
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interval (profile), 13 Jul 2010 @ 3:05pm

Re: Re:
"ROOM 101."

"~whimper~ ...is, is that where you keep the bumpers that will fix the reception problem?"

"Winston, its a software issue. Its always been a software issue. There is no reception problem. NOW how many fingers am I holding up?"
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Mike Masnick (profile), 13 Jul 2010 @ 3:13pm

Re: Who cares?
Who cares?

Not you, obviously, but lots of other people appear to be rather interested in it.

Lots of other outlets, including this one, are covering the story. It is Apple's prerogative to choose what threads to allow in its forums. Good idea or not does not matter.

I see. So it's wrong for us to discuss whether or not it's a good idea?

Let me guess, since information wants to be free we should force Apple to put up with whatever we want to put in their forums. Lame.

Huh? First off, no, no one said that at all. Second, no one here said "information wants to be free." In fact, I've noted in the past "information doesn't want anything."

We were just noting that it seemed pretty silly of Apple to take down these threads. You disagree. Good for you.
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OOHOOH, 13 Jul 2010 @ 3:18pm

HDDVD all over again!
Can this be like the HDDVD code? Except it's just a link to the article? I deparately want that. Except the fact that it's only on Apple's forums, which they have the right to delete... (makes their holier than thou attitude look a lot less justified though)
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 3:25pm

Re: Re: Who cares?
"So it's wrong for us to discuss whether or not it's a good idea?"

Who said that? Discuss whatever you want, just don't expect to be able to discuss whatever you want in an Apple forum. If you want to discuss what Consumer Reports said then maybe you should do that in a Consumer Reports forum and not in an Apple forum.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 3:30pm

Re: Re: Who cares?
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20010827/0939201.shtml

Sure sounds like support of "information wants to be free" to me. And that one goes way back.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 3:35pm

Re: It really doesn't matter
It does matter--it may not drive iPhone fans to other platforms, but it will lead to many of them waiting for a fix before buying an iPhone 4.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 3:54pm

Re: Re: Re: Who cares?
Now you're just being contrary to be contrary. I can get behind that.
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nonanonymous, 13 Jul 2010 @ 3:56pm

Re: Re: Re: Who cares?
just don't expect to be able to discuss whatever you want in an Apple forum

Too late. Not only is he already discussing it, you are discussing it as well!

And while Apple can delete whatever it wants, deleting a discussion on the problem their customers are experiencing is simply bad PR. Feel free to discuss that ;)
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Tim C., 13 Jul 2010 @ 4:06pm

There are tons of phones that have issues about where you hold them including the new HTC Incredible (well documented). But you just never get the hater band-wagon that you get with Apple. The CR article is about as reliable as their Toyota article a few months back. Anandtech showed this phone actually one of the best receptions they have ever tested (as long as you don't cover the gap, of course) I have an Iphone 4 and the signal drops when i lick my finger and squeeze the gap, but not when it is just covered. I tried the bumper in the store and it is fine with it on. I also put a piece of clear tape over the gap, also no problems. I ended up going with a $11 black silicone case (like the one I had on my 3gs) and there is no issue at all. I know there will be a lot of people who will bitch about having to spend money to fix this design problem but they should buy an HTC Hero (just don't hold by the top :).

What is really amazing the is people making ink of this pretty typical cel phone issue. But i guess if the haters didn't take the chance to hate, they would have nothing to say.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 4:11pm

Re: Re: Re: Who cares?
?

Well, if that's what you got from it, your reading and comprehension skills definitely need some work.

The article quite clearly says "You can make information very difficult to access", and "Information that is released can't be taken back".
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VX, 13 Jul 2010 @ 4:14pm

Re: Re: It really doesn't matter
Every person I know who intended to buy this phone already did despite the problems. The iPhone 4 is sold out everywhere. There is no evidence that a significant number of potential iPhone customers care about this at all. For everyone one person on the internet who intended to buy an iPhone and is complaining about this there are 50 others who are complaining that indicate they never would have bought one in the first place.

Basically, anyone who was already interested in buying a locked down phone from a company as customer unfriendly as Apple isn't interested in little technical issues like actually being able to make a call in a low signal area while holding the phone in a natural way.
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Nexus1, 13 Jul 2010 @ 4:17pm

Nice, Mike! Consumer Reports? They claim the iphone 4 is the best smartphone on the market:

http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20100712/consumer-reports-by-the-way-the-iphone-4-is-a lso-the-best-smartphone-on-the-market/

Now that is selective "reporting", (from the same source no less!).

No bias here, just a tech reporter getting the word out to his loyal followers.

BTW, the apple forums are back up. About 40% of Apple's forums went down today for a couple of hours for some undisclosed reason. Don't forget to "report" on the Keynote Help Forum Conspiracy, Mike.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2504635&tstart=0

Dude, is there anything true in your "reporting"?
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 13 Jul 2010 @ 4:18pm

Re: Who cares?
Discuss whatever you want, just don't expect to be able to discuss whatever you want in an Apple forum.

But you would expect to be able to discuss Apple products, would you not?
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 4:21pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Who cares?
But we are not discussing it in an Apple forum, genius.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 4:22pm

Re: Who cares?
Yes is their prerogative and will be their consequences further down the line for the acts they commit now.

BTW is the prerogative of other places to do whatever they want.

Let me guess since Apple is doing it the rest of the world should be forced to fallow Apple and don't put that out there. Lame.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 4:27pm

Re: Re: Who cares?
Apple products sure. 3rd party commentary, no.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 4:32pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Who cares?
It also says:

"They set up a number of assumptions that people make that support the free information idea and then tear them down to show that information can be controlled. Of course, the argument really only works if you buy into the assumptions they put forth - which I don't."

And

"The problem isn't that information doesn't want to be free - or that it can be controlled, but rather that the distribution/searching mechanisms are controllable."

That last part starts with a double negative, it says pretty clearly that information wants to be free.
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nonanonymous, 13 Jul 2010 @ 4:35pm

Re: Re: Re: Who cares?
Seems like you did not read the article. But what's new, right?
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 4:38pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Who cares?
Clue me in, what did I miss?
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 4:44pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Who cares?
Mmmyeah, and discussion here and other places gets you to discusss it in Apple forums. You must have missed all the links how some of the threads went back up ;)
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nonanonymous, 13 Jul 2010 @ 4:46pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Who cares?
You still misread the article. And stop arguing with yourself.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 4:47pm

Re:
And your point is...what? Just like the speed of your carrier's 3G service is irrelevant if you don't have 3G coverage in your area, how good the iPhone 4 is overall doesn't mean squat if it's got such a serious hardware flaw that directly affects the device's ability to function as a wireless communication device. The Consumer Reports article does indeed state that the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone ever, but due to the one critical flaw, cannot recommend that consumers buy it, at least not until Apple fixes the problem.
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epool86, 13 Jul 2010 @ 4:51pm

lame apple
This is Apple, what else do u expect? They only want your money, anything else is not important. They didn't afraid of any bad reviews as they believed their fool Apple fan will still blindly support them
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 4:54pm

Re:
Don't know about you but if a phone doesn't work when it is held I sure am not buying it and thank God people actually complain about it.

I never saw a phone act like that and I used to assemble them and go to the magnetic shielded room to test those things.
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Mike Masnick (profile), 13 Jul 2010 @ 5:07pm

Re: Re: Re: Who cares?
Sure sounds like support of "information wants to be free" to me. And that one goes way back.

Did you even read that post?

Even so, if you need to go back a decade to sorta try to find a post where I said that (when I didn't even say that) perhaps you've got your argument wrong.
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Mike Masnick (profile), 13 Jul 2010 @ 5:08pm

Re: Re: Re: Who cares?
Apple products sure. 3rd party commentary, no.

Why not?
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Modplan (profile), 13 Jul 2010 @ 5:11pm

Re: Re: Re: Who cares?
You're entire argument is centred around "Apple can do whatever it wants, so stfu".
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Mike Masnick (profile), 13 Jul 2010 @ 5:16pm

Re:
Now that is selective "reporting", (from the same source no less!).

This post wasn't about whether or not the iPhone is a good phone or not. It was about the supposed deletion of the forum thread. I have no problem with the iPhone. It wasn't "selective reporting" at all. It was just reporting on the key point in this post.

No bias here, just a tech reporter getting the word out to his loyal followers.

Huh? I'm not a tech reporter, I always write my opinion and I actually think the iPhone is a pretty nice phone. What, exactly is your point?

BTW, the apple forums are back up. About 40% of Apple's forums went down today for a couple of hours for some undisclosed reason.

See, you could have just pointed that out, as that's rather pertinent information, that actually adds more detail to the story. How hard would it have been to say "hey, looks like there's more to the story, and those forums are back up!" and we would have said "hey, cool, let's update the story!" Instead you have to go snarky and assume there's some sort of conspiracy?

Bizarre.

I'm not a reporter. I post what's interesting and we have a discussion about it. If you have interesting and relevant information to add, add it and I'll add it to the post as I'm doing with this. But don't assume that I'm trying to "hide" stuff when I'm just writing about what appears to be going on and giving my opinion about it.

Dude, is there anything true in your "reporting"?

More than is "true" in your comment suspecting some evil anti-Apple conspiracy.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 7:12pm

Mike,

You are being a bit hypocritical and paranoid in your responses. You seemed to be making quite the case, again and again and again about threads being deleted by Apple, all in light of a non-issue. You even invoked Orwellian comparisons but when someone made fun of your conspiracy theory you attacked them.

There is nothing but pure speculation and false information in your blog and that has fueled fanboys on both side. I can't believe you are still sticking with that title which is the only reason I'm here. But when someone actually points our some facts, you go all snarky on them.
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abc gum, 13 Jul 2010 @ 7:41pm

Ahhhh - it was a glitch ...
yeah, that's what happpened.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 7:48pm

A bit dated, but seems to have much merit:

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/feature.asp?t=how_to&c=11426

Actually, and since the issue does not arise when the phone is positioned within a protective case, here is a real opportunity for an up-and-comer to make a name for itself by constructing a protective case that has been silk screened with a rag-tag image of duct tape.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 7:55pm

Re:
That person will likely get sued for some sort of infringement.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 7:57pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Who cares?
We are talking about a support forum. If the entry does not add value to supporting the product then it does not belong in the support forum. A good support forum adds value to a product. A support forum full of info that is not helpful to solving problems is not a very useful support forum.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jul 2010 @ 8:26pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Who cares?
Nope, the other part of my argument involves TAMs mom. Haven't gotten to that part yet.
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BruceLD, 13 Jul 2010 @ 9:19pm

Subject
Trust me. Apple does NOT care what anyone thinks. Apple Fanbois do NOT care what you think either because Apple tells them exactly how to think and what to do.

No doubt some zit-faced, affection-starved, pale and friendless Apple Fanboi support group moderator just got click happy until someone alerted his boss.

Besides. All negative publicity about the company is non-issue and everything is the end-users fault. All Apple Fanbois will evolve to their products, and never the other way around.

It's pathetic really.
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Mike Masnick (profile), 13 Jul 2010 @ 10:37pm

Re:
You are being a bit hypocritical and paranoid in your responses.

I don't believe either is true, but ok...

You seemed to be making quite the case, again and again and again about threads being deleted by Apple

They were, in fact, deleted. Nothing I stated was wrong. And multiple other sources reported on it, and we wrote about their reporting.

You even invoked Orwellian comparisons but when someone made fun of your conspiracy theory you attacked them.

How dare I have a little fun at the obvious connection to the Orwellian world that Apple used to make fun of...

There is nothing but pure speculation and false information in your blog and that has fueled fanboys on both side.

Widely reported. I repeated it and corrected it when other info came up.

But when someone actually points our some facts, you go all snarky on them.

Oh come on. I responded to the guy who was accusing me of some nefarious plan to hide information that simply wasn't true. So yes, I was snarky in response, and I stand by it. If you come here and make bogus comments about my intentions then be ready for me to respond in kind.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jul 2010 @ 1:52am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Who cares?
English comprehension fail? 'The problem is not' that 'information does not want' to be free... This is not a double negative, as you mistakenly perceive. You are saying that it should properly be 'The problem is that information does want to be free,' and that is the opposite of what is stated.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jul 2010 @ 2:11am

It's all fashion
Do Rayban make the best UV protecting sunglasses ?
Are Levis 501 jeans the most hardwearing ?

When people put up for inconvenience in the name of fashion (ie women in 5" heels) it stops making sense to get into technical arguments about what is actually best.

I read a review of an iPod from a music fidelity point of view a couple of years back and the gist of it was that if what you wanted was something to play music in a quality way, the iPod at the time was actually quite mediocre.

I also read a Pre vs iPhone comparison where (amazingly) the author admitted the Pre was a better call making device but said that in his case that was not worth so much as he always carried a 2nd phone besides his iPhone for when he needed to actually make calls.

It's not about people being rational.

Apple have succeeded in breaking the rule that tech push fails but market pull succeeds by making it "tech + fashion" push. But to do it they have to put just as much work into the brand image as they do into the technology itself. And if that means controlling the message in any medium over which they will have control, that's probably good business.

Will it turn around and bite them in the ass ? I'm not sure it will. After all, you make an iPhone user happy by making him feel good about his iPhone, not just by making it technically better. Letting him see bad news about the product he has already bought does not contribute to his happiness one bit. Happy is good even if the guy is deluded about how good his gadget actually is.

People want reinforcement. They read news that matches their own views, and they are very hard to swy with contrary views.

Creepy as it may seem to us free thinking outsiders, Apple are probably handling their users just the right way.
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senshikaze, 14 Jul 2010 @ 6:22am

we were never at war with eastasia.
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senshikaze, 14 Jul 2010 @ 6:24am

Re: It's all fashion
I hope people aren't that stupid, but I know that they are. I hate people so very much.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jul 2010 @ 7:10am

Re:
Yeah, I love how forums only seem to have these kind of "glitches" when one of their products is under fire.
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Anonymous Bastard, 14 Jul 2010 @ 7:47am

iPhone 4 - bad luck for Apple
iPhone 4 was a PR failure from it's start, first they have denied that the lost phone was theirs then they've acted like jerks to get it back. At the keynote Steve had wifi reception issues and made a stink about everyone's hotspots who had no issues. Then we have this obvious flaw in antenna design, as in the previous instances Apple is trying to suppress the criticism and indirectly blaming AT&T for poor signal "our software had a flaw of displaying bars for AT&T's sh!22y signal"
But by deleting the support threads they hit their lowest mark on my scale of decency.
I suspect that it all comes down to keep the shareholders happy, no shareholder wants to hear a word "recall" especially when the stock it topping out. Just build a larger size iPad 2, that will do it.

Take it like MAN Steve!
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jul 2010 @ 9:06am

How come it's always a glitch when these things happen? Can't they just own up to the fact that they are deleting it? No no, it's a glitch, that only affect threads we don't like.
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nasch (profile), 14 Jul 2010 @ 12:54pm

Re: It really doesn't matter
Smart mindless people?
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2010 @ 7:20pm

Apparently some of the threads have now come back... and people are suggesting that it may have been a glitch with Apple's forums, rather than anything malicious... We haven't yet seen a full explanation, but perhaps that's the case.

Very doubtful. A glitch would not be at all likely to selectively affect only threads on a single, fairly narrow topic. Much more likely is that negative publicity about the thread deletions caused Apple to back off from the unwritten deletion policy, reinstate some of the threads, and then concoct a "glitch" story to explain what happened rather than admit the deletions were intentional.

Why they even attempted it, though, will remain an enduring mystery. It's not like Apple is any stranger to the Streisand Effect. Remember when they tried to disappear some blog posts about the technical specs of an upcoming product of theirs via lawyer-implemented bullying?
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Joseph Becket, 2 Aug 2011 @ 12:53pm

Interesting post, I like what you have to say. It's important to hunt around for the right product, but when the one you get does not live up to your standards it can be frustrating. Sometimes I need a place to get my anger out and tell other people about my issues; to vent. Then I found a site that not only lets me vent, but allows other people to see it and come up with funny paybacks. The responses are so funny! Check it out here.
[ link to this | view in thread ]