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From: Jochem Huhmann on 5 Jul 2010 11:57 Sak Wathanasin <sw(a)nan.co.uk> writes: > I'm not an antenna engineer, so way beyond me, but it does sound > plausible that when you bridge the 2 antennae, you change their > behaviour. This seems to be clear, yes. The question is if this is an disadvantage you're willing to accept for getting the advantages (better reception otherwise, smaller case, more room for a larger battery) or not. It's hard to say if this will be the same as with other things with earlier iPhones (no real keyboard, no copy&paste, no exchangable battery! Apple is doomed!) which then nobody talked about anymore after a while. Or if it will be a real show-stopper. Without using one for a while it is impossible to say if the antenna holding problem is a real annoyance or just a mild oddity. The whole iPhone is an exercise in trying things nobody dared to try before. Putting a touchscreen over the whole front and leaving away a real keyboard was one of them, having no battery cover was another, maybe having an external antenna you have to grip somewhat carefully may be the next. Imagine a smartphone with a high-res screen large enough to use the web, a real keyboard, a battery compartment, an internal antenna and still a battery large enough to keep the thing alive for a good while and you may end up with something so large you don't want to carry it at all. I have no idea if Apple is overstretching it now or if they will get away with it again. Would be funny if in one year all Android phones had external antennas too, with the gaps in the very same places ;-) Jochem -- "A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
From: Justin C on 5 Jul 2010 11:18 On 2010-07-05, Jochem Huhmann <joh(a)gmx.net> wrote: > me32(a)privacy.net (R) writes: > >> Jochem Huhmann <joh(a)gmx.net> wrote: >> >>> I still wait for someone actually doing some real tests by taking a 3GS >>> and a 4 and test them both in the same situations to see how they >>> compare. >> >> Like this test? >> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znxQOPFg2mo >> >> iPhone 3GS left, iPhone 4G right. > > Yeah, but this is via WiFi, not 3G. And more than 500 WiFi stations in > one room is not what I would call a "normal" situation. And > anandtech.com has measured the iPhone 4 WiFi as getting a boost of 10 dB > when you grip the antenna anyway, so the iPhone 4 WiFi should work > *better* when you hold the thing... > > No, what I meant was: Someone should take a 3GS and a 4, hack both to > display dB values instead of bars and take a few days to drive around > and test both in several places and situations, writing down the signal > strengths. Then we'd have real-world data to look at and compare. > > I can believe that Apple screwed up here majorly, but I can also believe > that this is just a minor problem most people will never see and can > avoid easily if necessary and that this thing works as designed. I have > no idea what's true, actually. There are people who like to blow such > things up totally out of proportion just because it is Apple and there > are also people who would defend Apple even if those things would bite > their fingers off. Yeah, I'm hoping, for Apple's sake, that the whole thing boils down to a Spinal Tap like 'this goes up to eleven', and it is, therefore a software thing, and not hardware. If it's proved to be hardware I believe that this will give all those supporters of WinMob devices a nice big stick with which to beat Apple. Even if it's proved to be software there will be some sceptics out there who say that the software has been tweaked to make the hardware look good. Overall I think it's been a bit of a foot shooting exercise, couldn't have done it better myself. Justin. -- Justin C, by the sea.
From: Jochem Huhmann on 5 Jul 2010 12:08 peterd.news(a)gmail.invalid (Pd) writes: > Jochem Huhmann <joh(a)gmx.net> wrote: > >> No, what I meant was: Someone should take a 3GS and a 4, hack both to >> display dB values instead of bars and take a few days to drive around >> and test both in several places and situations, writing down the signal >> strengths. Then we'd have real-world data to look at and compare. > > But isn't that exactly what Anandtech did? No, Anandtech hacked the iPhone to show dB values instead of bars and then showed how much signal attenuation you get when you grip it. It didn't show though how good was the signal to begin with. These numbers are interesting but they're meaningless when it comes to judge if this thing is better or worse than the old iPhone in real use. The only real-world comparison between the iPhone 4 and the 3GS in that article seems to indicate that the 4 is a massive improvement in reception, which is somewhat curious then. It's funny that this article is both used by people who want to show that the iPhone 4 is a failure and by those who want it to be the best thing since sliced bread. Jochem -- "A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
From: Adrian on 5 Jul 2010 12:15 Justin C <justin.1007(a)purestblue.com> gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying: > If it's proved to be hardware I believe that this will give all those > supporters of WinMob devices a nice big stick with which to beat Apple. I'm not so sure. MS themselves don't make WinMob hardware. Nor, to be frank, does anybody but the most rabid MS fanboi think that WinMob is actually anything but a rancid pile of pig excrement. The iPhingy competition isn't coming from Redmond, but from Android. If there's any cross-over to the OS X vs Windows debate, it's to harm Apple even further when it comes to the "OS X is stable because it's restricted to a walled garden of hardware, and doesn't have to support such a wide range of devices" theory. I'm not sure that'd be a valid extrapolation, however. The other theory is to support the "Jobs is an arrogant dictator whose cult of personality nobody internal dares to query" theory (cf: Flash). And that's not one that could ever have been levelled at MS, oh no...
From: smurf on 5 Jul 2010 12:23
Jochem Huhmann wrote: > Sak Wathanasin <sw(a)nan.co.uk> writes: > >> On 5 July, 13:47, Jochem Huhmann <j...(a)gmx.net> wrote: >> >>> I still wait for someone actually doing some real tests by taking a >>> 3GS and a 4 and test them both in the same situations to see how >>> they compare. There's just too much speculation going on. >> >> <http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2> > > Yeah, I read this days ago, it's actually what got this whole > discussion started. It seems to confirm that the iPhone 4 has > massively better reception than the 3GS, except when you grip the > antenna in a certain way and the signal is weak to begin with. > > > Jochem So as long as you dont hold it, its a great phone? |