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Apple admits Iphone 4 antennas blunder
WHEN GADGET DESIGNER Apple launched its Iphone 4 it described the design as wonderful, innovative, even magical but failed to mention that it is pants.
It also failed to mention that unless you hold it in the way that Steve Jobs tells you it will not work.
After complaints from early Iphone 4 buyers surfaced, Apple has finally acknowledged that the way you hold the Iphone 4 can hinder the device's reception.
In a statement Apple said that gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance with holding it in certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas.
"This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your Iphone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases," the company said. This is the first time that a manufacturer has ever had to tell the users how to hold their mobile phones.
The problem is that there are two antennas on the Iphone 4, which are built into the steel band on the exterior edges of the device. The one running on the left side of the Iphone 4 is for Bluetooth and WiFi, the one on the right is for cellular reception.
Left handed people will get a different type of reception than those who are right-handed.
It seems that the only way around the problem is to splash out and buy a case for the thing.
Gearlog is calling it the "death grip" problem. It seems that unless you hold your phone the way Steve Jobs tells you, you will suffer from a death grip.
Is there no end to the strange controls that Apple will inflict on its users? µ
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Got one on release day. Everything better than the 2G it replaces (including reception). Reception issue blown way out of proportion. Love it. Screen awesome. Photos good. Calls clear. Apps supreme.....
Apple recommends using a pedestal with iPhone4.
I just found out that Apple is taking this very seriously. They just assembled a team of 260 hardware engineers, programmers, rocket scientists,and a blond with big hooters to develop an app to properly align your grimy paws on the sacred phone that is not to be named. They expect to have it ready for in-house testing in 90 days, beta 37 days later. It should be available by Christmas for extremely fair price of $172.92. I wonder how much extra it is for the blond?
I had some Apple-Cinnamon flavoured chewing gum, and stuck a big already-been-chewed (ABC) gob on each lower side of my new iPhone4.
Problem solved! And even better, when you use the phone the gum-blobs stick to your hand and make the phone almost impossible to drop!
After the gum gets a little dirty, you can either peel it off and chew it some more to suck the dirt out of it then put it back, or even replace it with new ABC gum. I was going to attach a picture taken into a mirror, but another piece of gum got stuck on the iPhone's camera lens.
I think I deserve to get a job in Apple R&D where I can fix more Apple products with chewing gum. Hopefully Steve Jobs is reading this post...just send your job offer to: AppleflavoredGumiPhone@hotmail.com (I need a high six-figure income in order to "feed" my appetite for Apple gadgets and Apple-flavoured chewing gum).
Good article. Apple's designers made a mistake and they deserve to get criticized. I like Apple, but no one wants to buy defective products. So I guess we'll see how they respond to fixing this situation. As far as I'm concerned, if a firmware update can somehow fix this (I doubt it), then great. Otherwise they have to make it right and replace the phones with units that are corrected.
All new users will now get a free roll of ducttape with their iphone4 purchase, oh and the price was increased with 10 quid to reflect that initiative.
/snideness
Unfortunately your EXPERT is wrong to point the finger of blame at the FTC as no other phone suffers from this problem to quite the extent that the iPhone 4 does.
The problem is entirely one of poor design - form over function. Clear insulation over the segments would fix the problem at minimal cost - hardly the fault of the FTC that someone forgot to insulate the antennae segments, is it?
You don't need an EXPERT to tell you whose fault it really is.
I have nothing against fanbois. If they want to spend their money on overpriced, crippled and corporation controlled electronics; let them. It's their choice.
The simple solution to the reception problem is; spend more money on an iPhone cover.
The simple solution to screen discoloration; buy a brand new iPhone.
The simple solution to easily scratchable glass; buy a protective cover, but ideally you should just buy a brand new iPhone.
There's a reason why it's made of glass, because glass breaks, chips and scratches. This requires you to buy a new one.
There's a reason why the reception drops when you hold it a certain way, so you can spend more money buying a protective sleeve.
There's a reason why your screen turns yellow, so you can buy a brand new one.
The key thing that makes Apple customers happy is...spending more money and buying the next Apple gadget.
This is all very carefully planned planned obsolescence. Steve knows that Apple fanbois are like Scientology followers. They will all do as they are told, never question their leader, ignore any outside common sense, and send their money to their leader.
It's really rather sad.
So the official remedy is not to use multitouch on the bottom half of the phone?
Seems like a fit-for-purpose issue to me. If Apple sells an add-on case that makes the phone work for left-handers while still letting them hold it securely, it might well be that it's faced with anti-discrimination as well as consumer-rights actions unless it starts giving away the accessory as part of the package.
this seems like a pretty dumb thing to be up in arms about. who doesn't buy a case for a glass touchscreen phone?
Apple screwed it big time. Apple forgot to mention that usually the antenna of device is not exposed. Touch 3GS as much you want but you won't lose the reception.
What you have here is exposed antenna, and by touching two different antenna bands you are short circuiting them thus confusing them as they are designed for different frequencies.
This is a case for recall. Just take Apple to the court and show them the "way" Jobs is holding the phone along with Apple commercials.
Misleading the customers? Surely
Still up to our old reality distortion tricks I see!
I can't reproduce this with three iPhones myself, not saying it doesn't happen but I've tried and can't get it to happen.
So for anyone that REALLY cares here is a great write up by an EXPERT in cellular antennas:
http://www.antennasys.com/antennasys-blog/2010/6/24/apple-iphone-4-antennas.html
Asking users to "hold slippery new touch-screen iPhones from the top" is asking for these said phones to be dropped and damaged.
Which of course adds up to more iPhone 4's sold as replacements.
Brilliant!
Oh, and someone should calculate the microwave field intensity at the surface-mounted antenna that users' hands can be exposed to. It must be huge, as it increases as 1/distance squared. No real concern on the part of Apple during the design of this phone for the effects of high microwave fields on users' health, then.
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/4434/charltonheston2.jpg
Floating around the web.
R2D2 here,
I laughed till a resistor blew out my nose! Apple says you must hold your iP4 a certain way for reception. Too funny! Here's a thought: Take your head out of Job's axe and the reception will improve. No such problems with my Droids. The force is with us!
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drashek
Will it blend?
I don't know why but I find this hilarious. Apple didn't know what they where putting out? And the problem with screens and loss of signal. My 4 year year old Motorola net cost$50.00 and works as good as the day I got it. Also I have never had a dropped call. I live in an area with degraded reception and the phone is amazing.This brings up why I don't like Apple, there hardware is worse than average and software is a little better than Microsoft. I won't buy into Apple.
At $29 apiece. Remember, Apple is *all* marketing, no opportunity is left to chance.
I have some duct tape, so if you like to send me your iPhone, -
I took a chance clicking on a Nick Farrell article - about a defective Apple product. (Why even bother, right?)
Expecting the usual click-magnet trolling, I was surprised to see such a level article. Only a *few* muted barbs.
Either Nick is off his game, or I will be back to reading his articles more often. In the event that Nick *is* at death's door and could not muster the "inner troll" I offer: "Get Well Soon."
This isn't even about *covering* the antennae - have a look at some of the videos demonstrating the problem, one guy has the iPhone on it's side and places a door key across the black strip and hey presto the signal disappears.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvH-i7rKPJc
The problem is not that the radio signal is being blocked (which is a valid problem for all phones) it's that the two segments of the antennae on the iPhone 4 are exposed and when electrically connected (shorted) the network signal is entirely lost.
You could put a paper clip across the two segments without anything else blocking the signal and the iPhone 4 would drop off the network!
It's the sweat from a users hand that is shoring the two segments - the signal blocking caused by the hand is just a red herring/smoke screen from Apple, it's not the problem.
The phone design is defective.
What's wrong with releasing an app for it
(1) This is an old story. Even the original iPhone 3G would lose signal if you covered the antenna with your hand. See this video from 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN6265QQwhU
(2) Some other companies *do* tell their customers how not to hold the phone - they include warnings in the manuals.
(3) Shock Horror! If you cover the screen with your hand, you can't see it! Covering the lens with your finger ruins photos! Covering the microphone makes it hard to hear what you're saying! Massive design flaws all over the place!
So, to "fix" Apples incompetence at understanding how an aerial works they are selling you a £30 rubber surround so you can't touch it, or you have to look a bigger tit than you already are for owning one and having to hold the phone between two fingers. Classic!