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Responses to Apple’s Lowlife Behavior

Sidd — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:33:47 +0000

On Friday Apple decided to piss off the rest of the mobile phone industry by making libelous claims that popular phones from those companies drop bars just like the iPhone 4. Each of those companies responded publicly and here is what they have to say. The thing Apple forgot to mention is that dropped bars != dropped calls. Here are all the responses collected.

The first one to respond was Nokia:

Antenna design is a complex subject and has been a core competence at Nokia for decades, across hundreds of phone models. Nokia was the pioneer in internal antennas; the Nokia 8810, launched in 1998, was the first commercial phone with this feature.

Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying human behavior, including how people hold their phones for calls, music playing, web browsing and so on. As you would expect from a company focused on connecting people, we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict.

In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held. That’s why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all real life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand. Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying how people hold their phones and allows for this in designs, for example by having antennas both at the top and bottom of the phone and by careful selection of materials and their use in the mechanical design.

RIMM’s response:

Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage. One thing is for certain, RIM’s customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple.

Motorola’s Response:

It is common knowledge in the industry that antennas on the outside of products have known issues, and despite the fact that they lead to smaller phones we have avoided them because consumers don’t like being told how to hold the phone. While the whole industry has to deal with phones being held in different ways, it is disingenuous to suggest that all phones perform equally. In our own testing we have found that Droid X performs much better than iPhone 4 when held by consumers.

HTC and Samsung:

“The reception problems are certainly not common among smartphones,” HTC Chief Financial Officer Hui-Meng Cheng said. “[Apple] apparently didn’t give operators enough time to test the phone.”

Samsung said it “hasn’t received significant customer feedback on any signal reduction issue for the Omnia II” smartphone that was featured in Apple’s video.

Click for demo from Apple’s Antenna Designer

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6 Month Baby Update on Everything Needed and Not

Sidd — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:51:59 +0000

Ahan is now 7 months old and it is time to follow up with an update of what we needed in the next three months after my first post about the first three months.

Sleep

We really didn’t need anything extra for sleep. And if you are afraid like we were of trying the cry it out to get your baby to sleep through the night, don’t be! Just do it.

Changing

Diapers	Pampers Swadlers	We’ve stuck with the Swaddlers.
Wipes	Lots	Members Mark wipes were as good as the Huggies wipes.

Furniture

Hmm, no additions to furniture either.

Basics

Clothes	Lots!	You still need lots of clothes and now you need some going out clothes too. You can never have enough bibs.
Pacifiers	Born Free	We’ve stopped using Pacifiers completely now but for a while we did continue using the Born Free ones.

Travel

Car Seat	Recaro Signo	Since we started off with a convertible, we didn’t need to get anything new. Ahan still likes his car seat.
Stroller	Mia Moda Energi	We still use this stroller everyday. We are looking for a lighter weight one for travel and maybe I’ll make a new post on that sometime. But I’ll use this space to rant that stroller prices are ridiculous.
Baby Carrier	Infantino, Sleepy Wrap	Ahan now enjoys both the carrier and his sleepy wrap.

We still haven’t done much travel with Ahan. Look out for for the 9 month update for more.

Feeding

Bottles

Dr. Brown

We still use the Dr. Brown. But I do have a warning for you. If you plan on using Dr. Browns, use the wide mouth ones. The standard ones are nearly impossible to clean perfectly. You need to use the stupid tiny brush that came with the bottles and you still can’t get everything out from the tiny parts of the bottle. It takes away twenty minutes of our life everyday just cleaning the damn bottle parts.

So if your baby doesn’t complain with Born Free or Playtex Drop-Ins , just go with those.

Bath

Nothing extra need for bath time here so far.

Playtime

Jumperoo	Precious Planet	This was our best investment we made. As soon as your baby can hold up his/her head completely, I recommend getting one of these. It is hours of fun for them. Ahan didn’t like TV (!!!) much and he couldn’t sit up or crawl until recently so entertaining him was very difficult. The jumperoo solved this problem. He really loves the thing. They have one at his daycare too and everyone there has figured out how much he likes jumping.
Toys	Vtech – Learn & Discover Driver	As soon as Ahan got comfortable with tummy time and sitting, he started enjoying this thing. He pushes all the buttons, turns the wheel and enjoys this completely.

Misc

Books	Lots	Still reading the same books. He still likes all of them. New favorites include Good Night Stories
TV	Almost None	Ahan didn’t really want to watch TV. We tried Baby Einstien and random cartoons on TV. The only one he would watch for more than 5 minutes was Handy Manny and that too not always.

If I think of anything else that I missed, I’ll update the list above.

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3 Month Baby Update on Everything Needed and not

Sidd — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:59:58 +0000

One of the biggest dilemmas us parents face is what is really required for our baby and what exactly is a waste of money. So here is our experience on everything we used and didn’t use in Ahan’s first three months. Ahan is now 4 months old. So this post has been one month in the making. I hope this helps some new parents!

Sleep

Product	What We Got	Needed?
Crib	Storkcraft Chelsea	Inexpensive, Looks Great with our modern theme. However Storkcraft was very slow to respond to a recall.
Mattress	Foam	You have the choice of Foam and Spring. We picked the Foam. If you select spring, make sure to get one with lots of springs.
Bedding etc.	A sheet set (sheet + mobil + comforter), extra sheets

Changing

Diapers	Pampers Swadlers	Ahan was born a tiny baby and Pampers fit him much better than Huggies. So we stuck to them.
Wipes	Lots	We got a large box of Huggies wipes from Sams. We are going to try out Members Mark wipes next.
Changing Pad	Countoured Changing Pad	We use this about as often as we change him on the floor or bed with a disposable pad under it. However this is really useful for massaging the baby.
Disposable Changing Pads	Adult Incontinence Pads	Disposable Baby changing pads are completely useless. We got some as part of a baby starter kit and I wouldn’t waste my money on them at all. Adult incontinence pads (we got them in bulk from Sams), the kind they used in the hospital are really good.
Wipe Warmer	Babies R Us brand	We used this a few times but it’s really a waste unless your baby will spend its first three months in winter. Wipes dry often and you need to put water in. Plus Ahan really didn’t mind cold wipes at all. As long as he was changed when his diaper was full he was as happy with cold wipes as warm wipes.

Furniture

Storage

South Shore Color Motion

Looks great. Very Sturdy. Was a little hard to put together because a part was missing that made it easy to hammer in the channels. After a call to South Shore, we were told to hammer the channels and they were really much tougher than we imagined.

Bouncer

Baby Bjorn 123, Basic Bouncer

The Baby Bjorn came highly recommended from online reviews and for the first two nights Ahan wouldn’t sleep in anything else! After that he wouldn’t even sit in it until his third month was over. Now he loves the thing. He hangs on to the bears and tries to sit up (at 4 months)

While Ahan wouldn’t sit in the Baby Bjorn, we tried this very fancy swing to see if he liked that. The swinging was too fast even at its slowest for a tiny baby so we gave it back and got just a basic seat for him to sleep in.

Basics

Clothes	Lots!	Most clothes came as gifts to us but you really need lots of onesies. You don’t need too many fancy clothes because it is very difficult to go anywhere with a baby anyway.
Pacifiers	Born Free	We tried playtex and Born free. Ahan likes the Born Free. YMMV though. Ahan is not really that much of a pacifier fan. He’ll take one sometimes when he’s really crying but he just treats it as a game where he spits out the pacifier and demands it back. Once in a while we used a pacifier to get him to sleep and a few to times to make him stop crying but holding him and walking around was always the faster option.

Travel

Car Seat	Recaro Signo	This is the only thing that you really have to have before your baby is born. We picked a convertible directly. More on that in my post on car seat selection.
Stroller	Mia Moda Energi	Since we skipped the infant seat, we needed a stroller that could take a newborn. We wanted a lightweight, small stroller but most of them take kids 3+ or 6+ months. So we ended up with this one. It is a really nice looking stroller. It is a bit heavy and has some trouble turning right on smooth surfaces (e.g. mall floor) but otherwise is very comfortable to sit in.
Baby Carrier	Infantino, Sleepy Wrap	Ahan liked the infantino for a while but now in summer it is too hot and at three months he was a little too big to face inwards and couldn’t hold his head well enough to face outwards (he loves being held facing outwards). The sleepy wrap thing is a miracle. Ahan just faints in it.
Diaper Bag	Eddie Bauer Mini	We have only this diaper bag and the only thing that makes it special as compared to a large purse for Parchayi is that it has bottle holders on both sides. We originally planned on buying this one and the Columbia backpack diaper bag so that I can carry it too but I’d say diaper bags are highly overrated. You can fit all the baby stuff (a change of clothes, diapers, wipes, milk, changing pad) in anything – purse, laptop case etc. and there is no need to buy a special diaper bag.

Feeding

Bottles	Dr. Brown	These came highly recommended. We tried Playtex and Nuk but Dr. Brown seemed better. Playtex dropins don’t work with a bottle warmer (based on online discussions, not real testing) but if you can use them it will save you load of time in washing bottles.
Bottle Warmer	First Years Night and Day	This thing really works fast. Keeps bottles cool and heats them up fast and to the correct temperature.

Bath

Bathtub	First Years Bath Tub	This tub works well for us and Ahan really enjoys his bathtime.
Misc	Body Wash, Shampoo

Misc

Toys	None	In the first three months Ahan wasn’t even interested in the one or two colorful noisemakers we got as gifts. Just show him anything, magazines, book covers that was sufficiently bright was entertaining enough for him. He liked listening to music and was soothed by certain kinds of music like classical guitar.
Books	Lots	Ahan really loves books. His favorites are a book about a red dog called Clifford and a book called Llama Llama Red Pajama.

If I think of anything else that I missed, I’ll update the list above.

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What do Americans really want?

Sidd — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:05:32 +0000

The Whitehouse recently announced a new program for getting feedback from people on what they really want. You can visit the site at http://opengov.ideascale.com/ and vote on other ideas or add your own.

I went through many pages of the site and it turns out that half the people want to make marijuana legal and the other half want to see Obama’s birth certificate.

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