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Release Date: August 05, 2009
Genre: Games
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Release Date: September 29, 2009
Genre: Rock
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Discover New Music

  • Supernature

    • 10 out of 10
    • Goldfrapp
    • On their latest CD, Supernature, Goldfrapp has put together a successful mix of 1980-era New Romanticism, German cabaret, and T. Rex glam that leaves you riveted even through the album's lulls. It's a great amalgam that sounds current without sounding at all dated.

  • Trouble

    • 8 out of 10
    • Ray LaMontagne
    • At first, Ray LaMontagne might strike you as just another breathy-voiced knockoff of folk/rock guitarists like John Mayer and Jack Johnson. But he's actually got a better voice than either, he tell

  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Once More, with Feeling

    • 10 out of 10
    • Various Artists
    • Most musical episodes of TV shows frankly stink. They are usually little more than ill-conceived vehicles intended to let the stars show off what musical talent they have. Once More, With Feeling,

  • Machine Gun Etiquette

    • 8 out of 10
    • The Damned
    • Punk rock is mostly associated with three chords and a bad attitude, but the Damned were one of the few bands of the era bent on bringing musicianship and a good sense of humor to the scene. And while
  • Zooropa

    • 10 out of 10
    • U2
    • This record is perhaps U2's finest hour, yet it has been forgotten as a strange by-product of the ZooTV tour's overload, and is generally regarded by most fans as a poor effort. It is this sentiment t

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News

BW: iPhone’s Failure Rate is Low

Manufacturing a device as complex as the Apple iPhone in large quantities entails the statistics of engineering failure. However, the iPhone failure rate appears to be much smaller than the industry standards, and Apple will continue to improve it, according to Business Week on Thursday.

"What’s important about bugs or glitches in any new product, annoying as they may be, is what the manufacturer learns from each individual episode and what’s done about it to ensure that it doesn’t recur," Arik Hesseldalh wrote.

Despite few reported problems, users who do have problems can make a fuss on the Internet, and that gets the news organizations salivating all out of proportion to the problem.

The BW author, with the help of iSuppli, took a close look at just one part of the iPhone, the multi-layer display, which is quite complex. "I don’t know exactly how they were manufactured, but no amount of prying or scraping could get [two of the layers] apart," said Andrew Rassweiler of iSuppli.

Despite the iPhone’s complexity, the author’s informal estimate of the failure rate puts the number at something less than 1 percent. Another iSuppli employee, Jagdish Rebello, said that it’s not uncommon to see failure rates of 3 to 4 percent, especially when a product is new.

"What’s important is that the failure rate goes down over time. As products mature, and the understanding of the various pitfalls in the manufacturing process improves, Mr. Rebello said, the failure rate drops in most cases to 1% or less. We don’t know the actual failure rate on the iPhone. Apple isn’t in the habit of releasing such data, mainly because it’s not material to earnings," Mr. Hesseldahl concluded.

That’s the key to understanding Apple’s approach. They look at the overall statistics, not the juicy headlines, and work to learn from their mistakes.

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