Found a great blog post on forgiveness by way of Dave Winer. I think forgiveness is one of many things about life that many people don’t understand. They think of forgiveness as something that they give to others while it really has nothing to do with others. Forgiveness is something that you do for yourself. Forgiveness is letting go of baggage that all too many of us carry around all our lives. Forgiveness is something that we need to do.

On Friday Apple held a press conference to address the issues being reported about the antenna on the iPhone 4 and the resulting loss of radio reception that can cause the phone to completely disconnect from the network. I covered the details about the press conference, which I did not attend but watched via GDGT’s live blog, in my post on MobileContentToday. As I have been thinking about the entire issue I conclude that Apple and all of its fanboys are missing the entire point. The reaction that I am seeing on the Internet is not with the problem itself as much as it is to the arrogance at Apple that has been growing ever since Steve returned to Apple.

Fans of Apple might not get what I am saying, so let me suggest that they stop for a moment and remember how they felt about Microsoft during the ’90s. How much they hated Bill Gates for stealing Apple’s ideas, and the arrogance of Microsoft. Let’s just say that what goes around comes around and now is your time. When you put yourself on the pedestal, like the I’m a Mac ads do, don’t be shocked (shocked!) when at the moment you stumble people pile on. For most kicking those who claim superiority while they are down is sport, and saying that is what is happening does not help.

The fact of the matter is, Apple has not denied that there is in fact a problem with the reception on the iPhone 4. They won’t admit that putting the antenna on the outside of the phone is a design flaw, yet they are providing free cases (or the bumper) that is a sufficient work around to the problem. If there is no problem, why does the work around work? To my knowledge no other mobile phone requires a case in order to work properly, despite the fact all mobile phones do have a reception problem.

Oh and by the way, I think most mobile phone users will agree that there are times and places where their phones lose connection. The difference is, the manufacturers of those phones do not have their CEOs go up on a stage and proclaim the antenna design on their latest phone is the best ever. If you own a mobile phone think of the times when your phone has lost a connection. (iPhone or otherwise). I bet 99% of the time you blamed your mobile provider’s network rather than the phone. The great irony of Antennagate is that Apple has turned what has widely been considered a carrier problem and made it their own. iPhone 3G and 3GS users constantly bashed AT&T for their poor network; now iPhone 4 users bash the phone itself. I imagine the happiest about the whole affair is AT&T as it has taken some heat off of them.

This brings me back to my point. The backlash is not due to the phone, its due to arrogance, and Apple did nothing but fan the flames of reaction to it on Friday. Rather then spending slide after slide trying to build the case of why there really isn’t a problem, and that the iPhone is no different than any other phone, Apple should have simply stated that they are sorry some people are not happy, tell them what they will do to make it right with their customers, and thank their customers for continuing to buy Apple’s products.

I don’t think Antennagate is going to go away. Apple’s smartphone competitors will be smart to keep it in the press, no doubt saying that people can use their phones without the need for a case. Giving away cases and offering refunds is only a short term fix that will only work until Apple stops providing them in September. In my opinion Apple needs to do two things at this point. First, work on a replacement to the iPhone 4 that provides a more permanent fix to the problem, such as putting some type of clear coating over the antenna and get it to market by September. Second, finally bring a non-AT&T version of the iPhone to the market in the U.S. and put the whole radio reception issue back on the carriers, where it was before the iPhone launched.

On Friday Ruth and I attended the Sting concert at the amphitheater previously known as Pine Knob, now called the DTE Music Theater.  The concert is part of a tour promoting Sting’s latest album, Symphonicities that features some classic songs like Roxanne re-done to fit within the context of a symphonic background. On the tour and the album Sting is backed up by one female singer, a four piece ensemble, and the Royal Philharmonic.

If I had to classify the resulting style I would called it jazz, or maybe big-band, but really the concert features a wide range of musical styles and in my opinion really highlights Sting’s enormous talent. Friday night was a perfect blend of good music well performed in a wonderful outdoor setting on a beautiful summer night. My only disappointment was with some of the people who sat around me who felt it necessary to talk throughout the concert. Being summer it makes sense that the concert would be outdoors, as appears to be the case for most of the performances during the U.S. part of the tour this summer, however, the concert might have been better appreciated at a concert hall like Detroit’s Fox Theatre where people would be more inclined to listen to the performance.

If you are lucky enough to live in one of the cities that remain on the tour, I highly recommend that you go. Otherwise, check out the CD to see what I mean. I wouldn’t call myself a big fan of Sting, but I came away from hearing this performance impressed enough to seek out more of his music.

I see that Apple has released an update for the iPad and that reminds me of a flaw with it. Unlike Android iPhone and iPad updates can only be done by connecting the device with a personal computer. In this day when updates can be easily done over the air, it is surprising that Apple still retains the old model of connecting to a PC.

In a post I wrote for MobileContentToday on July 6, I wrote:

I think application stores should only be a small part of the decision process for developers deciding on which mobile platform they should write programs. Another important criteria is the potential size of the market, and simple math shows that Android, which is available for all four of the major U.S. carriers, has a bigger market opportunity than iOS, which is only available on AT&T. Not only is the total number of customers of each carrier a factor of the market size, but also the number of different handsets the operating system runs on. A developer that decides to only write programs for the iPhone is limiting themselves to one handset on one carrier.

On Saturday Louis Gray summarized what I wrote above into one word in his post explaining why he was switching from iOS (iPhone) to Android, that word is choice.

I have been using my iPad for a while now, and I am wondering how many out there are having the same experiences as me with apps just shutting down? For all the accolades people seem to pile on the iPhone and iOS, if my experience with the iPad is any indication the platform really is not much better than any other platform when it comes to performance. I am looking forward to seeing whether iOS 4 will be any better when I upgrade this fall.

The question that I have to ask myself is, if I bought the iPad before the nook would I buy the nook? The answer is probably not, I would at least start with reading books on the iPad. What I need to do its read some books on the iPad.

I am checking out the update to the WordPress Android app by writing this post. You can easily edit comments and view stats. Creating that hyperlink was pretty easy too.  It is definitely something that you want to try if you have a WordPress blog.

jkOnTheRun has created a table that compares the prices of eBooks on the New York Times best sellers list being sold by the four major eBook stores: Amazon, iBooks, Barnes and Noble, and Borders. You will see that the prices are all the same, and that is the result of Steve Job’s deal with book publishers to utilize the “agency” pricing model that publishers prefer. The model allows the publishers to set the price of books being sold in stores, and remarkably, all the publishers set their books at the same prices.

We like to think that in the United States we have a free market economy,  but I am not entirely sure we are talking about a real market economy. And I am not talking just about books. Ever wonder how it is that the price of a gallon of gas is the same at almost every gas station? When the prices of products are the same regardless of where it is bought then the people who set those prices can increase them (or decrease them) at will and you and I have not choice but to pay or not buy them.

Arstechnica has a very thorough review of Android 2.2 on the Nexus One. It provides details on the process of installing apps to storage cards that I did not have previously. If your mobile phone runs Android, you will want this upgrade.