Steve Jobs denies Judas Phone antenna problems

Haters will hate

He must have got fedup with all the haters and the FUD.

The bumpers should have been free or uber cheap in the first place to be honest.

Everyone should be happy now.

Haters can still hate (while trying to save battery on their HTC's), fanbois get their free bumpers and wannabes can take get a refund. Everyone's a winner!

Just here for the comedy

"exactly how an anechoic chamber tests radio reception, he didn't say."

Can you hear me no... oh, never mind, that's someone else.

"Like Mark Twain's death, reports of the iPhone 4's reception problems have been greatly exaggerated, Jobs insisted."

He is aware that Mark Twain is, in fact, dead?

Let's get this straight...

All phones suffer from this problem, it's inherent in mobiles and no-one has solved it yet. There isn't a design flaw in the device, the external antenna performs brilliantly and doesn't have any worse problem than any other phone.

Yet at the same time, fitting a bumper case corrects the problem.

Therefore, doesn't that make it a problem with the design? If the phone's chassis had the antenna inside an integral bumper then there'd be no problem.

I'll bet you £5 that iPhone 5 is a minor upgrade, while iPhone 6 is a new design that doesn't have an external antenna.

Lifetime Warranty?

Are the free rubber bumpers going to be replaced free of charge when worn or damaged? Since we would expect the iPhone to last much longer than a rubber case, and the bumper is being supplied to remedy a design flaw with the iPhone, shouldn't we be entitled to a lifetime supply of the bumpers, for the life of the iPhone 4?

Oh for goodness sake!

Why it needed a press conference in the first place to state the obvious that any problems with iPhones are common to all phones I didn't know until I saw the inane questions from some of the (supposedly) tech audience at the end of the press conference. Having had the whole issue of signal degradation explained virtually in words of one syllable and demonstrated on a number of other phones (which we call all see ourselves on YouTube or experience first hand anyway), some of the audience (judging by their questions) still apparently didn't get it. I think therefore we now have to assume that the Apple bashers don't want to get it and this has gone way past any rational discussion.

Whilst I haven't up until now been a rabid fan of Apple (though I am a satisfied user of an iPhone4 and some other Apple stuff) ,this issue has certainly driven me more towards the company. It is rapidly becoming apparent that the excellent service I have received as a user since I started looking at and buying their stuff is the norm and a load of the negative stuff that I have read I am now assuming comes from those who are not interested in facts but simply Apple bashing.

I dare say that I will get flamed on the Reg for this but frankly I don't give a rats... I want products that work well and have good support and Apple provide them. Every day I meet more and more regular people who have bought into the Apple ecosystem and are delighted with the products. It may well be that Steve Jobs has his faults and I am sure that Apple are out to make money but that's fine by me, all I want is good products and stellar service and that's what they provide. After this (non)issue I can now see through the smokescreen of the Apple bashers.

Anechoic Chambers are required for Antenna Testing!!!!!!!

A point of illumination to the author regarding anechoic chambers and RF antenna design.

When one considers an anechoic chamber, one usually thinks about sound echoes. (like the author)

The same echoes happen with radio frequency waves, only worse since they move a lot faster and travel farther.

The RF anechoic chamber looks quite similar one designed for sound attenuation but is made of different materials designed to absorb and trap RF energy. In fact, anechoic materials designed for RF can attenuate both sound and RF.

I have been in several large anechoic chambers designed for antenna/radio/radar signal testing throughout my career. They are an integral part of FCC part 15 and CE approval testing.

Take note Mr. Jobs, the device being tested sits in a non conductive cradle in the middle of the room. Not a good way to test how it works in the "real world" or your hand.

This is due to the high signal levels that are often being used and most technicians will not enter these spaces when the transmitter is live. Apparently, tinfoil hats and underwear don't work all that well. Most techs I've met seem to have an aversion to having their family jewels microwaved.

It affects all phones does it?

I have NEVER in my life heard of anyone who had reception problems when holding their mobile phone before this I-Phone issue.

So Apple are talking total and utter bollocks IMO.

Two points

Surely, having a phone with an external antenna which can be gripped directly with the hand will make it more susceptible to RF attenuation than one in which the antenna is internal and comes into no direct contact. Yes, there will be some attenuation when you put you hand around any phone, but designing one with the antenna on the outside is asking for trouble, isn't it?

The other thing that puzzles me is why so many iPhone 4 customers *haven't* seen the problem. These millions of satisfied customers can't spend all their time in strong reception areas - they are *mobile* phones. Even if some customers are more sensitive to signal drop-off than others, it still suggests there might be a fault which only shows up on some examples of the iPhone 4.

So, to sum up

Steve doesn't see any problem.

Well, I suppose it *is* hard to notice that your call has been dropped when you've got your fingers jammed firmly in your ears and are singing "LALALA LA LAAA!!" at the top of your voice to drown out the, like, totally unfair criticism and stuff.

steve jobs

sounds to me this idiot owner is trying to cover up the real problem with the antenna issue and making out its nothing. blaming the media for it er jobs the media dont make phones idiot they cover stories fool. and this is the best apple can do give cases and offer refunds god hes got to much money to the brain hes frightend his company will loose no1 spot to microsoft haha. god apple gets worse as goes on they cant be open and honest say look we need to have all the iphones recalled no thats to much for apple and there croanys and there idiot fanboys screw you apple il pick a phone thats reliable and keeps signal iphone is crap and shit anyway.

Weird

All phones have the problem apparently.

My nexus must be broken then as it seems to work brilliantly.

Never thunk it

OK, I would have expected a pony show like that out of Balmer, but Jobs? I wonder what Woz’s opinion is on all this? Never thought I’d utter these words again, but I actually miss John Sculley.

As for Apple’s $100 Million dollar “investment” in test chambers and PhD’s; well Steve, I think you totally pissed that money away.

Maybe Paris buys your bullshit, but anybody with at least 2 functioning brain cells can see that you're essentially hoping if you ignore all the complaints long enough, the problem will just go away.

Very sad, indeed.

Cool, Broken But Cool.

What is funny is how Apple went to great lengths to point out how clever their new antenna was and how cool it looked. The fanbois ended up with wet patches in their pants just thinking about it.

Now they've got the cool stainless steel "band" you've got to cover it up with a piece of rubber.

And if you think that piece of rubber is worth £25+ and doesn't actually cost Apple 50p then you really need to visit a Chinese sweat shop more often.

"Here we've sold you a phone with a design defect but we love you so much we're going to give you a 50p rubber to stick it in!" How cool is that !

The cult of Apple rolls on. For the iPhone 5 they will merely take £400 out of your bank account and simply give you nothing in return. Millions of Apple fans will be grateful and enter into internet arguments to defend Steve Jobs.

And as for this being a smartphone issue. BS. No one I've met with a smartphone can drop the connection to their provider with the tip of their little finger. Its design flaw with the iPhone. Its probably too late to save anyone who can't see that ...

not 1% more calls

El Reg fell for the dropped calls spin. Apple say they do not know or cannot repeat what ATT say how many calls they drop, but the i4 drops less than 1 call per hundred more than the i3.

Lets say it drops very nearly 1 call per 100 more.

So, if the i3/i3gs etc drop 10 calls in 100, then the i4 is 10% worse than the i3.

if the i3 drops 5 calls in 100, the i4 is 25% worse.

if the i3 drops 1 call in 100, the i4 is twice as bad

if the i3 drops 0.1 calls in 100, the i4 is ten times as bad.

now, I'm not saying that Apple are making the numbers up, but they chose to use stats that sound good but are meaningless. Where is The Under Cover Economist when you need him to explain bad statistics!!

What is all the whingeing about -

- a bit of clingfilm wrapped round the bloody thing would sort it. Or am I missing the point ?

Meh...

I thought: "I'll be fair to this Jobs character and his messianic phone: I'll check out his speech on the Apple website"

Of course when I got to Apple's website it tells me that my already-Quicktime-capable browser needs the genuine Quicktime to see the messiah perform. The link takes me to downloads for Quicktime for Windows. So...no Quicktime for Linux and Apple's website won't allow my OSS Quicktime plugin show me the messiah in Firefox.

Ah fuck it then. I'll believe what everyone else is saying about the iPhone 4 if Apple won't let me view their content in the way I want to view it. I'll stick to my unattenuated Android phone. Fuck you Apple!

JabScreen 4 sales rate under half that of Android

So they claim 3 million sales in 3 weeks. But they claimed 1.7 million sales in the first 3 days. So that means 1.3 million sales in 18 days, or 73,000 a day, which is under half the Android sales rate of 160,000 a day. Epic, epic fail.

Title

I wonder his Steve's liver came with a warranty.