Basyang, the latest tropical depression to pay our shores a visit, reminded us that our ubiquitous connectivity can vanish in an instant. Mobile phone signals, wired and wireless Internet connections, and even cable TV can become scarce in a few minutes of savage lashing by storm-brewed winds and rain.

Despite our post-modernist pretensions, despite all our technology-driven illusions of invincibility, nature, or any of its forces, can easily bring us back to the Stone Age with a mere flick of a finger. Or a couple of hours of strong winds.

Yet, in these days of botox-seeking teen singing idols, it pays to focus our attention on the basics — those things that we truly cannot and should not live without. It is never the number of latest-model, shiny gadgets we have, how fast our laptops are, how smart the PDA phones we have. What matters is who and what we are, how we treat other people — those we get in contact with everyday, our families, our friends, coworkers, even the people we barely nod to in recognition, or even merest of awareness.

And never forget to love yourself. After all, moms are not always around.

Antenna, Antenna

Thou shall not call attention to others’ shortcomings to cover up yours.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs might have learned this lesson, the hard way. Rival smartphone makers Blackberry, Samsung, and HTC each issued statements rejecting claims by Jobs that other smartphones are also saddled with antenna troubles similar to those reportedly affecting the iPhone 4.

At a recent press conference, Jobs presented smartphones made by these companies to support his assertion that all smartphones have radio signal and reception problems. Rivals' reactions, varying in their ferocity depending on the companies' relationship with Apple, promptly followed Jobs' presentation.

RIM co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie' statements were the harshest so far. The heads of the Canadian smartphone vendor said that "Apple's attempt to draw RIM into Apple's self-made debacle" is not acceptable. The duo claims that Apple is intentionally distorting the public's perception of Apple's antenna design fiasco.

Korean vendor Samsung also expressed its consternation, but on a less fierce note. The Korean company, after all, is one of Apple's major suppliers of components and parts. HTC's reaction was more in line with those of RIM's.

Apple's handling, which seems more like mishandling, of the antennagate issue has been quite uncharacteristic of the uber-cool company. And so far, it has reminded an industry watcher of how Ballmer's Microsoft did Vista (see http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/iPhone-4-Windows-Vista-Share-...).

That would be the height (or low) of adding insult to a gaping wound. Imagine being compared to a company you have always considered the complete antithesis of yours?

Bad Press

As always, coins do have two sides.

This corner is taken aback by the huge amount of negative media attention that Apple has been getting over the iPhone 4 issue. And then there are hordes of bloggers rubbing the problem in.
Is it because Apple is no longer seen as the anti-establishment, antihero bent on combating the Wintel homogeny? Maybe, for an increasing number of consumers, Steve Jobs and his company have become the new Microsoft, something too big and successful for everybody else's comfort?

That's all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.