http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/Jul 24th 2010 7:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/Jul 24th 2010 7:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/Jul 24th 2010 7:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
Good old Engadget fell for the "]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/Honestly. Too much news about the Apple Le-iPhone-.]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
Failed? Sorry but sales figures, revenue and profit don't seem to suggest that.]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/That why there is a 3 week wait for the iphone you troll. The phone is hot. I have one and tons of people coming into my hotel have one. The product is awesome.
Apple doesn't make Android shit phones where the competition has the same fucking OS. LOL!
Apple rules this generation of portable tech homey. They are in their renaissance period.]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/You just think so. You know the term "antennagate"? Yeah, the one Apple coined last 2 weeks ago? It's getting the iPhone 4's name everywhere, and millions of people are telling others that it's "no big deal" and "my phone still works fine." ]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
It still seems to me that most people don't have this antenna problem. I was at an Apple Store earlier today and tried to reproduce the problem gripping the phones on display. None of them dropped even a bar.

So either Apple has coated all this phones with something special or this whole thing has been blown out of proportion by a small number of people who have really conductive hands.

]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
My comment was in regards to the shitty antenna design. Everything else is great upgrade from the 3GS. Chill out fanboi.]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
And they're lying about the nature of the problem.

No other phone suffers from the same issues.

Here are the facts, the real ones:

Anandtech has shown that the Nexus One’s signal drops by only 10dBm when holding it normally, while the iPhone 4’s signal drops by 24dBm.

Even when gripped tightly, the Nexus One’s signal drops by only 17dBm, compared to 24dBm on the iPhone. And of course, nobody holds his phone like that in normal use.

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3821/iphone-4-redux-analyzing-apples-ios-41-signal-fix/3

CNET have done a video that has shown that, even when the iPhone 4 has 5 bars, by just touching the weak spot, the person on the other end can’t hear you anymore.

Source: http://cnettv.cnet.com/iphone-4-antenna-tests/9742-1_53-50090044.html

German Stiftung Warentest have done scientific testing and seen the iPhone 4’s reception drop by 90% when the weak spot gets touched.
They could not make other phones drop more than 25%, even when gripping them tightly.

Source: http://www.test.de/themen/computer-telefon/schnelltest/4116516-4116521/

Steve Jobs himself has confirmed that the iPhone 4 drops up to one more call per 100 than the 3GS (it must be very close to one, otherwise he would have used other numbers). AT&T’s average dropped call rate is 1.44%, they claim.
If the iPhone 3GS is an ‘average’ AT&T phone, that means the iPhone 4 drops about 67% more calls than the 3GS. A HUGE increase!

Source: boygeniusreport.com/2010/07/21/att-we-have-a-1-44-dropped-call-rate/

The real issue is not that you can make the signal drop, but HOW and by HOW MUCH.

HOW: Hold the iPhone 4 naturally in your left hand, like everyone does while surfing or making left-handed calls.
That’s very different from ‘death-gripping’.

HOW MUCH: 20dBm vs. 10dBm or 90% vs. 25% or 99% vs. 90%, depending on your system of measurement. Or, in other words: Much more than with other phones.

And I can even explain to you WHY the iPhone has those problems and other phones don’t.

The iPhone 4 is the only phone that lets yoou ground the antenna by bridging it with other metal parts.

Other phones let you shield the antenna, which of course causes attenuation. A drop of 10dBm means power drops by a factor of 10, or 90%.

But that’s very different to grounding the antenna, which causes it to become completely ineffective. A drop of 20dBm means power drops by a factor of 100, or 99%.

That means, if you hold both phones naturally, the Nexus One still recieves ten times the radiation power of the iPhone 4.

At -91dBm (the minimum for full 5 bars in iOS4.0), the Nexus One only shows 3 bars, but it can still easily make crystal clear calls when held naturally, even though it loses 10dBm, whereas the iPhone 4 gets very close to dropping the call, which happens at -113dBm.

Bars don’t mean anything. If one phone shows 4 bars at -90dBm and another shows 4 bars at -80dBm, the radiation power recieved by the first phone is still 90% less than that recieved by the latter.

By showing us bars, instead of doing real reception and audio quality measurements, Apple essentially admits that other phones don’t have any real issues.]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
Dude, are you writing a book about this or something? Jesus Christ!]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
If Engadget doesn't tell the truth, I have to.]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
I agree completely. I'm usually on the its Engadget's site, they can do what they please camp, but this getting ridiculous. There is absolutely no new information in this article at all. Unless you have some new info on the subject, give it up already. With all the childish bashing in the comments and the repeated worthless articles, I'm just about ready to give up on Engadget. This site has really gone down hill in the past year.]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
I tried that on at least 10 phones at the Apple Store and they didn't drop bars. Now a regular customer is going to go into the Apple Store and try it just like I did and they're going to conclude that stuff they read on the internet is totally inaccurate and buy the phone.

I have 2 friends with the iPhone 4 and neither of them have problems either. So the problem here is that you can't reproduce the problem 100 percent. And if Apple is right, it seems to only affect 1.7 percent of users.]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
I tried it with several iPhones in the Apple store and ALL of them dropped bars.]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
You really think Apple is going to put out phones on display that have this behavior? Hell no.]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
All iPhone 4s show this behavior, if Apple haven't modified the ones in their store.

And I'm pretty sure they haven't cause I've been able to replicate the issue with all of them.]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
Not that I believe you, but you're missing the point. It doesn't happen to most people or Apple would be experiencing more returns. They're not. And the fact that anyone can walk into the Apple Store and try it for themselves is going to help Apple sell lots of phones.]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
Personally I think I should be able to buy a phone I like and put any damn OS on it I like. Let H/W manufacturers make H/W and S/W providers provide software.

No more TV/VCR phones....

]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
It's a design flaw. It happens to every single iPhone 4.

You know, that's the definition of design flaw ;)

However, people are blaming AT&T.
]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
Nobody's blaming AT&T. Have you seen the latest AT&T survey. 73 of iPhone users love AT&T.

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/07/24/yankee-group-73-of-iphone-users-are-happy-with-att/]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/Jul 24th 2010 7:46PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/Jul 24th 2010 7:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
73% is not that high. And whether they love AT&T or not, they're all used to dropping calls.

Most of the people who bought the iPhone 4 already are also fans and faboys/-girls. They wouldn't even return it if it couldn't make calls at all.

Anyway, no need to discuss this. There's a design flaw which makes every single iPhone 4 drop signal (by 20dBm or 99%) if you touch its weak spot.
And this is the natural way of holding the phone.

Other phones do not suffer from this issue, because you can only make it drop 10dBm or 90% by "death gripping" them, which still allows them to make crystal clear calls.
And nobody "death grips" his phone anyway.

Those are the facts.

Story told. Apple failed. Let's move on.

If anything, Engadget should finally tell the real facts, instead of quoting Apple's nonsense all the time.]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
The news media is like a huge magnifying glass amplified by lies and half truths. Blogs are no better.

But I am with you, this is yesterday's news.

If a web author wants hits, he'll report on what's popular. And if he wants to be considered favoribly, he'll pander to his audience.

In my opinion Apple's new hardware/software release history is plagued with major flaws, and it is never a good idea to adopt their first gen products.]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/Jul 24th 2010 7:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/That's the most intelligent comment I've read all day. +1]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
Let me suggest some names for your book, maati.

"Please don't buy this damn iPhone - by maati."

"Are you f*cking kidding me with this sh*t, Apple? - by maati."

"The iPhone's antenna kills children and kittens! - by maati."

"I complain about Apple on Engadget and they still sold 3 million phones! - by maati."


What do you think?

]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
Its amazing how large an army of paid shills Apple has in the journalism industry! My dear Ross Rubin, the problem is not signal attenuation which every smart phone has and Apple is showing that. The problem is antenna de-tuning which the iPhone4 suffers from and drops calls whereas those other phones don't. So now AT&T is to blame for the revolutionary-never-been-done-before-precision-engineered antenna? LOL Thats like claiming I can mug someone's wallet and should be let scot free just coz I dont have enough money for an XBox360.

Stop parroting Apple's paid lines.
]]>Jul 24th 2010 7:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/Great post!!!!
Your comments are spot on.
I've been watching the dB in the status bar of the N1 now, and I think more than holding it in any particular way is just fluctuations in the natural signal strength due to the environment.
I can lay the phone flat and observe fluctuations of up to 10+ dB over time.
Either way, with the custom mods that boost reception on the N1, there is never a problem.
That's what is great and the N1, we can mod it to our delight! ]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
I assume that you're using an Android phone and are happy with your decision. You must be in the minority of those who would buy another, because according to The Yankee Group, 80% of present Android users won't be buying an Android phone next time around. Fail.]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
"Are you f*cking kidding me with this sh*t, Apple? - by maati."

I'll take that one.

But actually I'm more upset with media who talk about "antennagate" and "death gripping", than with Apple themselves.

I mean, Apple want to sell phones and if they think lying helps, they'll lie.

But the media should stick to facts. You know, like the huge increase in dropped calls over other phones (1.44% is AT&T's average and the iPhone 4 drops one more), the real nature of the issue (grounding the antenna vs. shielding it) and so on.]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/You are wrong and you are probably trying to give android a bad reputation. The truth is that 70% of android users are willing to buy another android phone as their next phone.]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
THANK YOU. Been telling everyone this for weeks. Then, when the fanboys get called out on it, they trivialize it and spew anecdotal evidence.


]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/haha, ive been googling this poll that you say exists..and i dont see it..cnn reports these numbers- no one else. How can it be verified if you cant see the sample population..and deviations...]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
I get it. That's why Google sells 160,000 Android phones vs. 90,000 iPhones a day. Cause people hate Android.

Yankee Group are either Apple fanboys or paid by Apple. Read their articles, they're insanely biased. Definitely not worth talking about.

This one is more interesting: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/01/04/user_interest_satisfaction_in_android_approaching_the_iphone.html

Shows the same 77% satisfaction rate for the iPhone, but 72% for Android. And that was before the Nexus One, the Evo, the Droid Incredible...]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/Because 27% equals nobody? Please redo your math.]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/Jul 24th 2010 8:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
And 77% of iPhone 4s went to existing iPhone owners. http://news.softpedia.com/news/84-iPhone-4-s-Went-to-Existing-AT-T-Customers-145570.shtml

Any correlation with that? Maybe we iPhone owners are just used to dropped calls? :-)]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/btw. When you want to be the one 'with the facts', dishonestly claiming that according the anandtech the iphone drops by 24 dB when hold naturally is probably a bad idea (it drops 19.8).]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/Jul 24th 2010 8:33PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
But the source link is there for everyone to check. I wouldn't have included the source link if I purposefully posted the wrong number.]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/Well... if it means 1% more drop calls.
Let's say an average iphone user makes 30 calls a month.
Has the phone for an average of a year.
That's 360 calls.
The probability that this does affect you is... umh.. alright, i don't wanna do the math, but it's more than 50%. You might say you can live with that - fine, but that's a different matter.
]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
Seriously, could this writer sound ANY more like a fanboy?

"Apple is giving away a free bumper, when they REALLY don't have to. They are benevolent supermen, thankyou, almighty Apple!"]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/Yeah, I kinda realized that when I reread it. Have some good points, though.
]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
iPhone 4 users drop 3 calls per 100 instead of two (AT&T's average is 1.44).

That's an increase of 50%.

Pretty big, if you ask me. The media coverage is definitely not overblown.

]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/"It's a design flaw. It happens to every single iPhone 4."

NO - it happens to Some USERS! Like YOU - so your hands are obviously better at short-circuet the iPhones antennas!

If only 15.000 out of 3.000.000+ customers have called in about a problem, something tells me IT DOES NOT happen on EVERY iPhone, but only to SOME users.. comprende?

Could we PLEASE agree to start talking about the facts and not the 'how it works for ME' senario?

It's simply amazing how hard it is for people to get the facts straight...]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:46PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
They use signal booster in stores so the signal is much stronger which makes it more difficult to block the signal.]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/switched-on-of-guiltlessness-and-giveaways/
Just because users don't notice it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

It happens to every iPhone user. They just don't realize it's an issue with the phone, rather than the network.

By the way, the percentage of complaints about bad reception with the iPhone 4 is 35 times higher than that about the Droid Eris, according to HTC. They only get complaints from 0.06% of their customers, instead of Apple's 0.55%.

And that 50+% increase in dropped calls tells a pretty clear story.]]>Jul 24th 2010 8:58PM