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Comment by dman | Hacker News Reader

Apple taking the position that theyre only as good as everyone else?

Apple's position is that they're educating people about RF & cell phones. You can't fix physics with a software update.

From where I'm sitting, it seems like several large swathes of the American public do not understand what scientific laws are about. Many people seem to operate on the notion that if you feel strongly enough and shout enough, you can make whatever you want to be true, so long as enough others back you up.

We get a large number of complaints that the compass in our iPhone app doesn't work when the user is in a car or on a bus.

Lots of people have a compass on their car's dash... what's different about those that they work? (Yeah, I'm a software guy for sure...)

Probably just that it's on the dash, as opposed to in their lap. I assume a dedicated compass is also higher quality than the one in the iPhone, but I don't have a good idea of how that would work.

Many people are rightfully pissed at BP for cutting corners and creating a huge clusterfuck in the Gulf.

Many of these same people are totally off base being pissed at BP for not fixing the broken well faster. But, hey, the screaming makes them feel better. Also, smug and superior.

I do think some of the preparation BP did after the disaster should be prepared ahead of time to be standing by for a future disaster.

That depends on whether you think Apple is just getting more attention about this problem because they are Apple, or because the iPhone 4 problem is much worse than other handsets.

I dont own an iphone so I cant comment on the quality of the iphone 4, but all the other mac adds seem to be about how macs are better than pcs and about simplicity and about "think differrent". This ad is about "see were no worse than everyone else", while the underlying physics point is valid - why waste ad dollars on communicating your equality with other vendors ?

> why waste ad dollars on communicating your equality with other vendors ?

Because Consumer Reports singled out Apple's iPhone 4 as the only phone with such issue, and presented it as a dealbreaker.

In that situation levelling with others is step up for Apple.

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