Aren't There More Important Things For Congress To Focus On Than The iPhone's Crappy Antenna?
from the grandstanding dept
We haven't really written about the whole Apple iPhone antenna thing because, really, who cares? As the NY Times pointed out, it's just a phone. It's a nice phone, by all accounts, and the antenna problems seem like they could be pretty annoying, but there wasn't much for us to comment on that wasn't already covered by a thousand other blogs. However, you know things have reached silly season when even our Congressional reps are getting involved. Senator Chuck Schumer, who can grandstand with the best of them, has decided that this antenna issue is an issue for Congress to be concerned about, and has penned a letter to Steve Jobs ("Dear Mr. Jobs,") to come forward and explain the issue. Of course, Schumer sent the letter after Apple had already scheduled its press conference for later this morning where it's expected that something (no one's quite sure what) will be resolved about the antenna. But, really, what role does Congress have in this at all? The story is getting plenty of attention from all over the place already. It's not like Congress can help shine a light on it. All this appears to be is Schumer stepping into a headline because it's a hot topic. Sometimes it makes you wonder if Congressional Reps & Senators now have their press people monitoring the Twitter trending topics for issues grandstand-worthy....![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
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Filed Under: antenna, chuck schumer, grandstanding, iphone, steve jobs
Companies: apple
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Not that they want to deal with
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Re: Not that they want to deal with
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Actually, Mike, it is KIND OF his job
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Re: Actually, Mike, it is KIND OF his job
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I don't think Senators and Congressmen have any part to play in this, but I do think that the FCC or FTC (not sure) should play a small roll in this. Apple was "shocked" to find out that they reported 4 bars instead of 2 in many places. To me that sounds like false advertising or at least misleading customers. Since signal strength and coverage play such an important role in marketing and advertising I think there should be a standardized scale for signal strength indications. I don't know if that should be the FCC or FTC to make the rules, but they should say 5 bars = XdB and 4 bars = x... If you leave it up to Apple they'll lie about it to make themselves and AT&T look better.
A smaller point is that Apple sold a semi-defective product to millions of users. They should fix it or at least accept returns for upset users.
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Re: Re: Not that they want to deal with
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Aren't we still inside the 30 day return policy?
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Why the hell not?
Why not? This is something malware creators already do when planning to release search engine malware, and they're only slightly more despicable than Congress critters.
Btw, awesome use of four periods. I assume you're trying to emulate the Helmet, always a worth endeavor....
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Re: Re: Actually, Mike, it is KIND OF his job
....Jesus Christ, no, it isn't!
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I'm sure if congress doesn't get involved the next version won't work at all, plus give little children cancer from 5 feet away.
Too bad there aren't any other phones out there to choose from except an iPhone.
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Re: Actually, Mike, it is KIND OF his job
Competition Policy... yea there's tons and they are arguably better on CERTAINLY better networks.
Consumer Rights... buyers remorse return the god damn thing in that buyer remorse period. Unless those have been completely removed for cell phones and if so put that back!
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Grandtstanding...
At least once a week, fill in the blanks: "Aren't There More Important Things For Congress To Focus On Than [CURRENT HOT TOPIC HERE]"
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Bankrupt, but how ??? /endsarcasm
WE HAVE A GIGANTIC OIL SPILL THAT IS SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THEN THE IPHONE4!!!
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TechDirt doesn't take money out of my paycheck every week.
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Re: new shoes,clothing, handbag,sunglasses,hats etc for sale
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*sigh* I hate politicians.
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Re: Re: Actually, Mike, it is KIND OF his job
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technology blog covering a pretty large story in a technology field...
vs.
congress looking at a pretty large issue of a cell phone design problem....
you kinda remind me of a summers eve......
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Re: Re: Actually, Mike, it is KIND OF his job
its a design flaw, its not the job of government to meddle in the affairs of electronics design flaws where there is no risk to public safety. the pinto? good design flaw for the government to get involved in and investigate.
the iphone? bad design flaw for them to investigate.
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Re: Anonymous Coward
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When they are at it why not push to remove locking phones to providers. We have the right to take our number with us to a different provider but not our phone.
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Re: Actually, Mike, it is KIND OF his job
There are a lot of independent branches of this committee, but his does seem to be the most active.
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Everyone has a point even though you missed it.
The reason why the IPhone issue is so covered by tons of blogs is that it's about finding a soft brown spot on little perfect Apple. Anyone that has an ounce of tech in their blood knows that Apple is far from perfect and can see the publicity games that Steve Jobs plays to the public. Apple removes any negative comments about their products from their message boards. Most companies are good enough to leave comments made and even try to answer back or fix the issue. Apple denies any problems with their products at every turn. They sweep issues under the rug and hope they go away. Look at the Air Port and Time Capsule products. Hundreds of Thousands of those products fried and people lost tons of data in the process. The time Capsule was so bad that a website was created for those who lost their product can log the time of death. This time the problem is with their flagship product and it will be impossible to sweep under the rug so everyone wants to see if Apple can get a little humble this time. Personally I think Steve Jobs is so shady that they will release a new version of the Iphone and call it IPhone 4G except the G will stand for Grip but they won't tell anyone that. They will just let them think they are getting 4G service and then blame AT&T when they aren't.
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The guy sent a letter. That's all.
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But I guess I could see your point if you actually detailed that out for others to see.
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