iPhone Hardware Engineering Chief Mark Papermaster Leaves Apple

[DMann]

"The only bad publicity is your obituary."

That is, unless you are an artist. 🙂

I agree they have a stark lack of leadership and vision right now, but they are executing on some fronts.

Yes, they literally have been executing on some fronts, currently:

Microsoft Quietly Begins New Round of Layoffs

I have the 4 and I haven't had a problem with dropping calls, though the sound quality seems really wanting this time around for some reason.

Perhaps you ought to consider swapping it out for a new one - the sound quality on mine is more than decent.

 

[markcres]

Zzzzzzzzz


How about something we actually care about for "rumors"?

Yeah..we want the usual MacRumors newz stories..like the barcode printed on the Mac Mini retail box is now 1 inch further to the right hand side than it used to be..with photos and everything....!

 

[Padraig]

Update from John Gruber....

From what I’ve heard, it’s clear he was sacked. Papermaster was a conspicuous absence at the Antennagate press conference. Inside Apple, he’s “the guy responsible for the antenna” — that’s a quote from a source back on July 23. (Another quote from the same source: “Apparently the antenna guys used to have a big chip on their shoulder. No more

I find it odd that he was the guy responsible for iPhone given his background, it's not like he'd have much experience in that field having come from IBM.

 

[JOHNGAETANO]

He isn't the Scapegoat, he is the guy making the big bucks that is in charge of putting out a good product. He obviously isn't as smart as IBM and Apple thought he was. He deserved to get fired. I mean the guy has an endless supply of money at his disposal, why put out a poor product?

Scapegoat

 

[Shambo4ever]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

And so the fail continues. When will Apple and Mr Jobs come out and accept responsibility?

 

[Ed91]

If it wasn't the antenna, it was the white iPhone. Possibly both.

 

[marksman]

I doubt this has anything to do with accountability; I think this has MORE to do with Papermaster's integrity! With Bloomberg reporting weeks ago a top engineer had issues with use of the external antenna integration and spoke openly to Steve Jobs which rejected the advisement; and Jobs also outright stated its ********, I think THIS is Papermaster's way of stating Jobs is lying and more going on with the antennagate situation; without pointing a finger.

That is one wrong way of looking at things.

You do know that top engineer came out and said he never said that right?

 

[aegisdesign]

Exactly... they went the same route as British Petroleum when the pipe line first started leaking... Point fingers at others.

BP hasn't been British Petroleum since 1998 btw but I have some sympathy with BP blaming others. The drilling was sub-contracted out so they're not *directly* responsible.

I'm not sure how it's the same situation as antennagate though. Apple couldn't blame somebody else for their issue though they did attempt to blame the entire industry for a different issue entirely and Apple's CEO hasn't fallen on his sword. Also not really comparable in world importance either - major eco/financial disaster v a few hipsters getting ratty over dropping phone calls.

Papermaster leaving the company is most likely because of the iPhone 4 flaws. I'd say thats a pretty good indication that Apple in fact acknowledges it is their problem.

Probably though I suspect we'll never know.

 

[marksman]

But that's the way Apple has chosen to compete in the market. Their platform on ONE phone, vs. Google who has put their platform on many phones. You can buy android apps and run them on different phones you know...it's the same thing as Windows vs. OSX, and no one looks at it the way you do about the phones, because that would simply be the incorrect way. Acting as if that's stupid way to look at it is a bit shortsighted, and perhaps ironic.

It's not outselling 3 to 1 either...yet. Eventually iPhone will be an extremely minor player in the phone market, same as OSX. And yes, I use the iPhone 4.

Of course if you want to run Skype on an android phone you can only do it on Verizon.

 

[BornAgainMac]

This is not related to the iPhone antenna problem because there is NO antenna problem! Do you have an iPhone 4? I do! No problems whatsoever!!!

So because you don't have the problem it must mean everyone else is lying. 🙄

You realize there are a lot of people that are complaining about this problem that have never even touched the iPhone 4. They just say what other people say. I tested with other phones as well as the iPhone 4 and was able to drop the signal but only when I do it with that intent. It works fine if you use it normally like other phones.

It looks like Papermaster is taking the fall for it regardless of who was responsible.

 

[Winni]

When Apple first hired Papermaster, I thought, "Really? They think someone from the IBM corporate culture would be a good fit?! What were they smoking?"

Maybe I'm not being completely fair, but all in all, IBM strikes me as a company that had all these little "islands" of groups working on various products or technologies without management cohesively tying any of it together into a sensible "grand plan".

I think it is time for you to read a book about Apple. But be prepared for a radical change of your perspective.

 

[wizard]

There will always be people with issues.

OK, so you are in the majority of people who have no issue. So what. It does not negate the fact that some do have a problem. Stop living in a bubble.

Stop making excuses for not understanding technology.

Consider the following:

Some people can't keep their cars on the road, do we let them blame Ford?

Some people shoot themselves in the foot, do we blame Smith & Wesson?

Some people can't handle alcohol, do we blame the farmers growing the corn or wheat? Or for that matter do we blame Jack Daniels?

Some people smash their thumbs when driving a nail. Do we then blame the nail or the hammer?

***********

The point is iPhone 4 works fine when used properly just like every other cell phone. Sure there are idiots that can make it fail with regularity, but that is no different than running a car into a ditch and then expecting to drive out. It doesn't matter if you ended up in that ditch on purpose or by accident, sitting there blaming the car serves no useful purpose. Likewise finding a weak point on a cell phone and then dwelling on it as a flaw also serves no useful purpose. There is nothing made by man that is perfect, as such you are far better off focusing on the positive or good than the negative.


Dave

 

[BornAgainMac]

That is one wrong way of looking at things.

You do know that top engineer came out and said he never said that right?

I laughed when I heard Steve Jobs said he called up that engineer to verify the story. The engineer said that is bs. Of course he will say that to his boss or get fired on the spot.

 

[nascimento]

nah, the career path of ex CEOs and senior excs is usually pretty easy to predict. They rise and make their marks with big-name companies and get lured away by another brand company. Usually though the time frame is about five years at each. They get canned and then move to a smaller company and then smaller still. The small dogs always hire them because they are thrilled to get a chance at the former star big-name blue bloods. This will continue for their entire careers.

The most disgusting thing is that they will never go down in salary as they descend. They only stay at one place long enough for them to begin to be exposed.

It's a blueprint. Go to a new company and promise the world in a "five year plan". By the time everyone realizes you haven't delivered they are wealthy and moving on to the next five year plan. Good work if you can get it.

TRUE

How people cant see this is astonishing. Same thing happens with politicians.
No reason to rob a Bank nowadays you just need to reach one of those jobs even if only for a few months and your setup for life.

You dont even have to be good at it as long as you can Hype yourself there its OK

 

[Winni]

Probably the most interesting reply in this thread! If you can put it simply for n00bs - what is 'wrong' with the OSX architecture? And what would you like Apple to do differently?

Just to scratch the surface:

The entire Mach kernel architecture as used by Apple is ineffective due to its massive communication overhead and synchronization issues -- this is what causes the annoying beach ball to appear.

Monolithic kernels, as for example Linux, suffer from other issues that can affect stability, but they generally provide MUCH better performance. It actually is no wonder or miracle that Linux runs circles around Mac OS X on the SAME Mac.

You could fill books with what Apple could and should have done differently. It's not just limited to the lower system parts like the kernel. Their esoteric choice of programming languages that NOBODY else in the ENTIRE industry uses is another example for their rather obscure design selections. Then there is the Dock that is one of the poorest GUI decisions they ever made - even Microsoft's Windows 95 Start Menu was already years ahead of this (hierarchical program groups are simply a MUST HAVE when you have more than a dozen applications installed on your system).

And just let's not forget Apple's ridiculous design choices when you try to copy a folder to one with the same name - they DELETE(!) the existing target folder instead of doing what EVERYBODY else in the industry does: MERGE the content.

But it goes along with Apple's abuse of the word synchronization: They simply delete the target and put the content of the source to the target. Well, my friends, just let's be very clear here: Synchronization, in the true meaning of the word, which is "COMBINE", is a BI-DIRECTIONAL process.

Apple might provide a user-experience that is more comfortable or better than what most of their competitors provide, but they are FAR from being perfect.

 

[MorphingDragon]

Just to scratch the surface:

The entire Mach kernel architecture as used by Apple is ineffective due to its massive communication overhead and synchronization issues -- this is what causes the annoying beach ball to appear.

Monolithic kernels, as for example Linux, suffer from other issues that can affect stability, but they generally provide MUCH better performance. It actually is no wonder or miracle that Linux runs circles around Mac OS X on the SAME Mac.

You could fill books with what Apple could and should have done differently. It's not just limited to the lower system parts like the kernel. Their esoteric choice of programming languages that NOBODY else in the ENTIRE industry uses is another example for their rather obscure design selections. Then there is the Dock that is one of the poorest GUI decisions they ever made - even Microsoft's Windows 95 Start Menu was already years ahead of this (hierarchical program groups are simply a MUST HAVE when you have more than a dozen applications installed on your system).

And just let's not forget Apple's ridiculous design choices when you try to copy a folder to one with the same name - they DELETE(!) the existing target folder instead of doing what EVERYBODY else in the industry does: MERGE the content.

But it goes along with Apple's abuse of the word synchronization: They simply delete the target and put the content of the source to the target. Well, my friends, just let's be very clear here: Synchronization, in the true meaning of the word, which is "COMBINE", is a BI-DIRECTIONAL process.

Apple might provide a user-experience that is more comfortable or better than what most of their competitors provide, but they are FAR from being perfect.

..and Mr Half Truth tries to make his particular type of brown lighting strike again.

I could write essays on the assumptions, bias and simplifications of those statements.

---

If you really want to put it simply for a noob, most OSes are less than average in their own particular way and it all draws down to which slaps you in the face the least at the end of the day.

I'm interested to see what Microsoft will do with Singularity RDK though. A kernel written with an extention of C# sounds good but some of the claims seems a bit extravagant.

 

[slackpacker]

Slow news day. Mac is still dead.

Ya what gives !!!

Bringing out NEW machines NOW without USB 3

where has the old Apple gone?

All apple has done for the last 3-4 years is redesign the same platform with new graphics and cpu's thats it.

 

[MorphingDragon]

Ya what gives !!!

Bringing out NEW machines NOW without USB 3

where has the old Apple gone?

Umm, I still haven't seen a PC with USB3 and the only motherboards I can find it with are a few high end ones.

 

[alexacker]

Did he get free bumper case before he left?

 

[soundfish]

One heck of a shock. He only stayed to see the launch of one product at launch. Frankly, I haven't had any call drop issues with the iPhone 4 even though the bars do drop.

I don't have any problems with my phone either, but for instance my coworker's phone keeps dropping calls. We work like 5 feet away from each other...

 

[UTclassof89]

... it is possible to be a fan and really see the negatives in the company. It's because I'm a fan that I talk about these things and hope they fix them.

Boy, I wish more people on this site thought like this, or at least understood this sentiment, instead of flaming anyone who's the least bit critical of Apple.

 

[G4DP]

That's not an investment, it's an expense. The value doesn't appreciate.

Buying AAPL is an investment. The goal of acquiring investments is an increase in value.

Are you gainfully employed and living on your own? You don't write like someone who is managing his own income and expenses, someone paying for the roof above their head and the food on the table.

I still get the feeling that you are a generally unhappy person. I remember you claiming that you are a hardcore hardware person and know all the specs about everything, but there appears to be little joy when you talk about anything.

While it may rankle some people here, at least I am very enthusiastic about being an AAPL shareholder!

😀

Having read all the rubbish you've posted in this thread, do you need a new poster of Steve yet?

 

[AidenShaw]

Umm, I still haven't seen a PC with USB3 and the only motherboards I can find it with are a few high end ones.

HP 8740w laptop:

Dual or Quad core
16 GiB RAM
Display

17.0" diagonal LED-backlit WXGA+ anti-glare; 17.0" diagonal LED-backlit WUXGA WVA anti-glare​

Graphics

ATI FirePro M7820 graphics with 1 GB dedicated GDDR5 video memory
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800M graphics with 1 GB dedicated GDDR3 video memory
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2800M graphics with 1 GB dedicated GDDR3 video memory​

Expansion features
Ports

2 USB 2.0
2 USB 3.0
1 eSATA
1 external VGA monitor
1 DisplayPort
1 1394a
1 stereo microphone in
1 stereo headphone/line-out
1 AC power
1 RJ-11
1 RJ-45
1 docking connector
1 secondary battery connector​

Slots

1 Express Card/54
1 Smart Card Reader
1 Secure Digital​

Also the HP Pavilion Elite HPE-3xx series desktops have BTO options for USB 3.0.

I'm sure that other PCs also have USB 3.0 - this is what I saw in two minutes on the HP site.

 

[MorphingDragon]

That's not an investment, it's an expense. The value doesn't appreciate.

Buying AAPL is an investment. The goal of acquiring investments is an increase in value.

Are you gainfully employed and living on your own? You don't write like someone who is managing his own income and expenses, someone paying for the roof above their head and the food on the table.

I still get the feeling that you are a generally unhappy person. I remember you claiming that you are a hardcore hardware person and know all the specs about everything, but there appears to be little joy when you talk about anything.

While it may rankle some people here, at least I am very enthusiastic about being an AAPL shareholder!

😀

Investment is more than just "put money into something and hope to get more back". In fact, Investment's meaning is "the action of investing time and money for profit or material result". I invested a lot of money into my computer, not for profit (That would be nice) but so I have a tool to help me earn my degree. My parents invested in real estate, not to earn money but to keep the money "safe". Another example would be gold, gold's value is reasonably stable and is a good way to keep one's money safe from inflation.

 

[3goldens]

I'll miss him, he was a nice guy to work with!