TOKYO, Japan – I’ve always found Japanese press conferences to be infuriating polite.
And that’s initially how it seemed Thursday as we were ushered into a large conference hall at Toyota’s Tokyo headquarters for a presser called to unveil the company’s much improved quarterly results.
It was packed, and soon highjacked by the recall crisis, putting beleaguered executives on the defensive, describing quality as their “lifeline.” They revealed that the recalls would cost Toyota a staggering $2 billion in lost sales and costs to put right the gas pedal problems which have led to the recall of more than 8 million vehicles worldwide.
 |
| VIDEO: Hearts sinking in Toyota ci |
Just as I was beginning to enjoy it, Toyota called time. Thirty minutes had been allocated, and after precisely 30 minutes, that part ended. Then another executive in a grey suit took the hot seat to talk – for exactly 30 minutes more – about new problems, this time with Toyota’s best selling hybrid, the Prius.
The Prius problem is a brake problem, and involves dozens of complaints about inadequate braking on bumpy or frozen roads. It doesn’t appear to be on the scale of the gas pedal recalls, although the company announced later the recall of 270,000 units of its latest-generation Prius in Japan and the U.S.
However, Prius’ woes have a broader significance – the hybrid is the jewel in Toyota’s crown, and these cars were made in Japan.
Until now, there has been a real tendency here to see the quality problems as a foreign problem. Several times I’ve been told, “This could never happen in Japan.”
Toyota here is more than a car company – it’s a national icon. Only last week it was named as Japan’s best known and most valuable global brand.
…(read more)
Filed under: Bugs/Recalls, Apple TV
We’ve heard a few reports of sync issues with the new Apple TV 3.0 software over the past few days, and apparently the chatter on the Apple support boards was on the mark: Apple has shipped 3.0.1, which is supposed to fix problems where 3.0 units would unexpectedly dump all their loaded content. You can get all the details from Apple’s tech note.
Since it’s a giant pain to resync gigabytes of media over the network link, it’s nice to see this fixed promptly…. but considering that the Apple TV 3.0 update was billed as a major improvement to Apple’s ‘hobby,’ this bug is not going to make any fans out of Apple TV foes.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
TUAWHeads Up: Update your Apple TV to 3.0.1 ASAP, says Apple originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Filed under: Bugs/Recalls, iPhone, Jailbreak/pwnage
If you want to have a hot and steamy exchange with your sweetheart via AIM on the iPhone, you might want to think again — if you have an unlocked or jailbroken phone.
CrunchGear reports that Till Schadde with Equinux has discovered an iPhone exploit where AIM messages could be sent to random people without you even knowing it. Schadde discovered this when he was notified that a message he had sent to his iPhone version of AIM got intercepted by someone else. That person proceeded to contact Schaddle, sharing the screenshot shown at right with him. Schadde posted the screenshot and detailed the bug on Twitter after testing it once more from his computer.
The exploit is being blamed on iPhone 3.0’s push notification and seems to be limited to unlocked/jailbroken iPhones at the moment.
[Via CrunchGear]
TUAWiPhone push exploit sends AIM message to unintended recipients originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
