Makes me wonder about the role of the brush/pen. Is it just an extension of the finger, or does it bring more than that to the artist using it?
Considering the comments on the page, it seems to me artists have different opinions about this as well. One thing missing is pressure sensitivity, of course, but I wonder if the lack of a stylus touched upon in the comments have more to do with what one is used to than actual advantages. I can imaging that well-working pressure sensitivity in conjunction with a finger gives more precision than using a brush, once one is used to it.
I agree with you, except I don't know that a lot of iPhone 4 users consider this a huge issue. I remember people getting upset about slight color imperfections in the iPods a couple of years back. People tend to consider Apple products more than just a phone/mp3 player/whatever, so even minor problems are considered huge issues.
I think they feel that most of this reception frenzy has been whipped up by people who don't own/use the phone, and whose basis of determining the usability of the device is a series of youtube clips.
I respect the shouting and screaming from those who made the 0.55% of AppleCare calls regarding this issue, and the 1.6% who returned the phone. But I think the majority of the noise is made by others, which feels a whole lot more lika whining to me. And I'm hard pressed to respect whining.
The point is the single data point you are providing. Finding iPhone 4 users with this same data point of not having a problem point to the fact the you entirely missed the point.
In what way has Apple forgot that their customers are reasoning individuals? I don't see how you come to that conclusion in this case, but you seem to argue that this has happened before?
Well, by their behavior with respect to pornographic or erotic apps, their response to jailbreaking, their decision to completely lock the device against unauthorized apps, and their censoring of books and comics over non-sexualized nudity. From the very beginning, Apple has demonstrated a near complete dismissal of their customers' ability to make decisions for themselves, as can be seen from their decision to make a walled-garden sort of marketplace where customers can play around without getting hurt.
With respect, I think a lot of reasoning individuals who are Apple customers like or are at least indifferent to the walled garden approach. Just as those saying that they get better reception from the iPhone 4, or saying nothing at all like or are at least indifferent to the antenna design.
It seems that many critics of the walled garden approach as well as the antenna design have a hard time realizing (or conveniently forget) that those not complaining loudly aren't necessarily mindless drones who buys anything with an Apple logo on it.
So in my mind, I'd say that there are huge amounts of intelligent, reasoning individuals who are using the iPhone 4 at the moment who like the phone as it is. So while I agree that they should have done more when it comes to telling the world they were on the case, even though I doubt it would have helped much, I think your image of how badly Apple treat their users is vastly exaggerated.
I'm sorry, but do you honestly compare the Droid X eFuse story, which has been written about in select geek blogs to some extent to the iPhone 4 reception story, which has occupied pretty much every mainstream news reporting media outlet for quite a while now?
I was comparing the wrongness of the story, and how it was relatively easily defused by further research and by honesty on the part of Motorola. Mind you, there response left much to be desired, but it was a vast improvement over the "there's not problem" response from Apple.
I took a course in philosophy during my Cognitive Science studies, and our course book (http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Mind-Anthology-John-Heil/dp...) was really useful, since they had an original text and a couple of criticisms of that text, sometimes followed by a retort on that criticism. That was really good to get a grasp of the subject, even though I agree with others here that having an excellent teacher did a lot more to get the subject than any book would have.
I bought GEB when I was 13, mostly because I liked the Escher paintings. I was hooked after reading the first Achilles/Turtle episode, though, and even though many concepts went over my head at the time. I still haven't read it cover to cover, though, but I still have a hard time not agreeing with this particular recommendation.
Considering the comments on the page, it seems to me artists have different opinions about this as well. One thing missing is pressure sensitivity, of course, but I wonder if the lack of a stylus touched upon in the comments have more to do with what one is used to than actual advantages. I can imaging that well-working pressure sensitivity in conjunction with a finger gives more precision than using a brush, once one is used to it.