Apple Sends Out Refund Information to Australian iPad Customers

[gpsouza]

I didn't say they weren't mutually intelligible. I just said they are different, which they are. Spelling is different. Pronunciation is different. Certain words are different (and not just slang words), as are certain grammatical rules.

We do have different accents in the US, but the differences aren't as great as the difference between American English and British English in general. As for Siri, I was a little surprised that they included Australian English but not Canadian English, but the more I think of it, at the spoken level there isn't much difference from American English (it's mostly at the written level). Perhaps as it matures, Siri will add an "International English" along with Indian English.

I know that, i'm not saying it's the same, but it is easier to do a port from American English and British english than make siri compatible with Portuguese. But, as you see improvements in both voice recognition service, you can't see any information about siri available in other languages.

Actually, in all the TV advertising I've seen here in the US, there is never a mention of LTE. The only feature ever mentioned is the Retina Display. The wireless capabilities are mentioned primarily on the website, fairly low down the page. Most iPads sold are Wi-Fi-only models.

Even the rumor sites the day before were suggesting that the international version might not ship with LTE support of any kind.

That said, Apple should have made the websites clearer at launch. I see now that they have fixed the pages. See the link to the UK site below. The wireless capabilities are still improved over the last version (faster support for HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA).

http://www.apple.com/uk/ipad/features/

Yes, you are right, they made several changes in their website as I can se now in portuguese apple. Before they were REALLY advertising the new iPad as 4G compatible, now it has changed to HSPA, HSPA+ e DC-HSDPA.

It might not be that simple. I looked at Vodafone's German website and saw only a single LTE-compatible device (an HTC Android phone). It's entirely possible Apple isn't able to get the chipsets in sufficient volume or yield. This is their first LTE device of any kind. If they are ordering a bunch of European-compatible LTE chipsets, my guess is that they are being allocated to the upcoming iPhone, which is far more important to Apple's profits than the iPad right now.

http://www.vodafone.de/privat/tarife/lte-smartphone.html?menuKey=1020

As you can see here http://www.tmn.pt/4g/#cobertura
Portugal have LTE support, and by the end of the year will be available to all country. I know that we are small, but still.
And TMN do offer support for Galaxy S2 and Galaxy Tab.

Unfortunately, LTE support is complicated. Even in the US, for once the carriers all agreed on the same air-to-ground transmission standard, but they all have different, non-overlapping spectrum. Apple will need to support 4 LTE frequencies just to get coverage on all of AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint's respective networks. Europe adds 3 more non-overlapping bands.

It's not just Apple. According to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association, a plurality of LTE devices are designed around the 700MHz spectrum, because of the pace of LTE adoption in North America.

Interestingly, the UK regulator is considering allocating the 700MHz spectrum to LTE, partly because of its wide scale acceptance in the US.

Thats other thing funny in the USA, you like to be different. As the rest of the world uses the metric system, you use the imperial system (its not my intend to offend you or any american citizen) as the rest of the world using 800, 1800 and 2600 MHz for LTE, you use 700mhz.
800mhz has a better performance, better penetration, causing better reception indoor.
But stil...

The point is just that Apple don't support Siri outside USA, don't support other LTE bands, crap iTunes store in some countries etc etc...
But we still love them, don't we?

 

[Chlloret]

I understand the different accent in each country, my point still that Siri is only usable within USA area. The good stuff, such as look for a nice restaurant, directions, blablabla doesn't work outside USA.

Alongside the Retina display, comes LTE, otherwise it wouldn't be available yet.
My point isn't having or not LTE, from beginning I said that Apple isn't caring that much for non-USA customers, and my example was Siri and LTE.

I don't mind not using LTE because I have an iPad 2, and my model even is the 3G. Just get me frustrated that we come in 2nd place.

You see Brazil... They only got the Brazilian iTunes Store and App Store this year, before, they had to use USA or Argentine Store, which can't be used without USA or Argentine credit cards... So people that don't know that gets like about an incredible amount of cracked apps that they use.

The reason why directional services are not available outside the US yet is not Apples fault, but in one part European legislators that prohibit for data protection reasons such funktions and in other parts google, they did not make these funktions available outside north America yet. Also, wolfram Alpha is only available in English, a fakt Apple got nothing to do with.

Siri is available in English, German, French and Japanese, soon we will see Italian, Spanish, Korean and of course, Chinese.

Yes, Portuguese is not among them. Now, lets look at the marketshare for the iPhone 4S in Portugal und Brazil.......you get what I say? Sorry, but Apple inc wants to make money, lots of it so you can not really blame them.

In all adverts I saw about the new iPad (State side as well as here) the main feature is the Retina Display. After a while and on they website a bit down, they mention "vastly improved connection speeds", LTE is not mentioned at all.

With your argument the Americans could be complaining that Apple is doing too much for the people outside the US, as they get access to faster networks then the in part quite crappy LTE there.

You can not make it right for everyone.

 

[KPOM]

Thats other thing funny in the USA, you like to be different. As the rest of the world uses the metric system, you use the imperial system (its not my intend to offend you or any american citizen) as the rest of the world using 800, 1800 and 2600 MHz for LTE, you use 700mhz.
800mhz has a better performance, better penetration, causing better reception indoor.
But stil...

The point is just that Apple don't support Siri outside USA, don't support other LTE bands, crap iTunes store in some countries etc etc...
But we still love them, don't we?

The 700MHz spectrum freed up when we shut off the old analog TV networks a few years ago. It isn't a matter of performance, etc. (Europeans like to claim whatever frequencies they use have better performance - in reality, there isn't much difference between 700MHz and 800MHz). It's a function of what spectrum is out there. Lower frequencies like 700/800MHz tend to perform better than higher frequencies like AWS and 2100MHz.

I'm guessing actual use of 2600MHz for LTE is going to be very limited. It doesn't penetrate buildings well. Interestingly, Sprint has 2500MHz spectrum in the US, which is considered the least desirable frequency for LTE here. They missed out on the 700MHz auctions, which were dominated by AT&T and Verizon.

 

[gpsouza]

The reason why directional services are not available outside the US yet is not Apples fault, but in one part European legislators that prohibit for data protection reasons such funktions and in other parts google, they did not make these funktions available outside north America yet. Also, wolfram Alpha is only available in English, a fakt Apple got nothing to do with.

What has data protection to do with the subject? If you go to google maps and search for "Restaurant Blablabla, Madrid" it will give you the result, right? At least in Portugal it works. So, Siri could try to access googla maps built-in iOS to fetch this data.
I never mention Wolfram lol

Siri is available in English, German, French and Japanese, soon we will see Italian, Spanish, Korean and of course, Chinese.

Yes, Portuguese is not among them. Now, lets look at the marketshare for the iPhone 4S in Portugal und Brazil.......you get what I say? Sorry, but Apple inc wants to make money, lots of it so you can not really blame them.

Well, here you don't have a point. Brazil have a MUCH more larger market for smartphones than Italy and Spain together. That become even more truth if you see that Foxconn has a factory in brazil producing iPhones and iPads.[/QUOTE]

In all adverts I saw about the new iPad (State side as well as here) the main feature is the Retina Display. After a while and on they website a bit down, they mention "vastly improved connection speeds", LTE is not mentioned at all.

In Portugal, the apple site had LTE in iPad features list.

With your argument the Americans could be complaining that Apple is doing too much for the people outside the US, as they get access to faster networks then the in part quite crappy LTE there.

You can not make it right for everyone.

What? This doesn't make sense... If everyone have the same functions everywhere in the world, why this would matter at all to the americans?

 

[Chlloret]

What has data protection to do with the subject? If you go to google maps and search for "Restaurant Blablabla, Madrid" it will give you the result, right? At least in Portugal it works. So, Siri could try to access googla maps built-in iOS to fetch this data.
I never mention Wolfram lol

do not ask me, ask the regulators. Never wondered, why this is not working with any device over here? and yes, it will give you the restaurant on google maps but not by voice, only direct via google and not over the servers of Apple (data protection) Wolfram Alpha is significant for the rest of the "nifty" stuff.

Well, here you don't have a point. Brazil have a MUCH more larger market for smartphones than Italy and Spain together. That become even more truth if you see that Foxconn has a factory in Brazil producing iPhones and iPads.

No, Brazil is not. It got the size, it got the people but not the market. Remember, Apple wants to make money. The Foxconn factory got little to nothing to do with the Brazilian market but the diversification of factory sites, tax incentives and cheap labor. The devices made in Brazil are only marginal cheaper in the Brazilian market, lower taxes are upset by higher wage demands.

In Portugal, the apple site had LTE in iPad features list.

on the website, next to the pictures of the logos of the 5 supported networks in the US. Not on TV, not in the store, nowhere actually.

What? This doesn't make sense... If everyone have the same functions everywhere in the world, why this would matter at all to the americans?

but they do not. Europeans get a better deal, because they have faster connections with the iPad and even within the US LTE is not for everyone. You could argue then, that you are mislead because you bought the iPad 3G LTE but can not use it on LTE because you are with SPRINT or t-mobile. Thats why Apple specifically notes the providers that are supported, if yours is not among them, it is NOT supported. That should be easy to understand for everyone.

 

[gpsouza]

The 700MHz spectrum freed up when we shut off the old analog TV networks a few years ago. It isn't a matter of performance, etc. (Europeans like to claim whatever frequencies they use have better performance - in reality, there isn't much difference between 700MHz and 800MHz). It's a function of what spectrum is out there. Lower frequencies like 700/800MHz tend to perform better than higher frequencies like AWS and 2100MHz.

I'm guessing actual use of 2600MHz for LTE is going to be very limited. It doesn't penetrate buildings well. Interestingly, Sprint has 2500MHz spectrum in the US, which is considered the least desirable frequency for LTE here. They missed out on the 700MHz auctions, which were dominated by AT&T and Verizon.

Yeah I know, maybe 700/800mhz should be universal, would be good to everyone

Sprint has no money to buy lower frequencies lol

 

[gpsouza]

do not ask me, ask the regulators. Never wondered, why this is not working with any device over here? and yes, it will give you the restaurant on google maps but not by voice, only direct via google and not over the servers of Apple (data protection) Wolfram Alpha is significant for the rest of the "nifty" stuff.

I'm not even asking for voice direction, just to give me the goddamn location would be great lol

No, Brazil is not. It got the size, it got the people but not the market. Remember, Apple wants to make money. The Foxconn factory got little to nothing to do with the Brazilian market but the diversification of factory sites, tax incentives and cheap labor. The devices made in Brazil are only marginal cheaper in the Brazilian market, lower taxes are upset by higher wage demands.

Believe-me, they do have the market and the price of 1 iPhone there is equal to 3 in the USA. So, they make a lot of money there. In addition, portuguese is the 6th most spoken language in the world, in front of japanese and french.

on the website, next to the pictures of the logos of the 5 supported networks in the US. Not on TV, not in the store, nowhere actually.
but they do not. Europeans get a better deal, because they have faster connections with the iPad and even within the US LTE is not for everyone. You could argue then, that you are mislead because you bought the iPad 3G LTE but can not use it on LTE because you are with SPRINT or t-mobile. Thats why Apple specifically notes the providers that are supported, if yours is not among them, it is NOT supported. That should be easy to understand for everyone.

There is TV commercial outside USA? Serious question...
I really don't mind. For me WiFi only is the best deal for I have the iPhone 4s, so i can tether