death-grip
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'Antennagate' press conference video and official pages up
Now that Apple's command performance for journalists in Cupertino this morning to deliver the full story on the iPhone 4's image problem is concluded, the company has posted the video of the event [link fixed] for your viewing pleasure. See the fetching Keynote presentation and the demonstrations of other smartphones' reception issues with your very own eyes! Enjoy. Along with the video, there's a new section on apple.com that shows the anechoic chambers, the design process, videos of other smartphones and more than you ever wanted to know about antenna engineering for modern cellphones. Apple clearly wants us to understand that the iPhone 4 wasn't just thrown together by some cavemen in a cubicle. [For those who were getting the WWDC video off that link, the CDN redirect was flaky -- the canonical link for it is http://www.apple.com/apple-events/july-2010/]
Why Apple has a split personality when it comes to keeping iPhone owners happy
After shelling out top dollar, the customers felt betrayed and angry. The shine on the company's new flagship product was tarnished. The remedy wasn't cheap... and the CEO stepped up and spoke to those irate early adopters. "We want to do the right thing for our valued customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of us," he said, responding quickly after the first complaints came in. Within a few weeks, the PR hiccup was calmed, and the new product went on to glory and success. Looking back on that experience is illuminating. With the rapid response, the willingness to pay for customer happiness, and the frank handling of the situation, it's a bit surprising to be in the midst of the current stressfest and see how things have deteriorated. Where's the corporate responsibility and the can-do attitude of 2007 when we need it? Let's take a look at how the two scenarios diverge, and why Apple didn't -- or couldn't -- step up to the plate now like it did then.
TUAW presents: iPhone 3GS 'death grip' video, 3GS / 4 reception comparison
TUAW fans who watched Erica Sadun's proprietary "Strength" app in action yesterday saw proof that there is a degradation in signal quality on the iPhone 4 when it is handheld. The so-called iPhone 4 "death grip," which consists of cradling the phone in your left hand to manipulate the screen with the right hand, appears to be another example of regular cell phone signal loss caused by the proximity of a human hand to the antenna of a working cell phone. In the video above, we tested an iPhone 3GS with Erica's app, and found pretty much the same results -- the signal strength is lower when the 3GS is held in the hand, and recovers when it is not being held. The big difference between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS is that the 3GS doesn't tend to drop calls as often as the iPhone 4 does. Erica also provided the photo shown below, which shows an iPhone 4 (left) and an iPhone 3GS (right) both running the app. They're both on the AT&T network (the 3GS has an O2-rebranded SIM purchased at Circuit City) and they're both the same distance away from the cell towers. The iPhone 3GS is running on iPhone OS 3.1.2 rather than iOS 4.0, which should not affect signal strength readings in any way. It displays a different font than the iPhone 4 as the older OS does not support custom fonts. What the photo shows is that although both of the iPhones show 5 bars of signal strength, the actual signal strength is lower on the iPhone 4 (-95 dB vs. -85 dB on the 3GS), and the Apple Graded Signal Strength is also lower (29 vs. 45 on the 3GS). This is in line with Apple's PR statement of July 2nd that says "the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength." The iPhone 4 should be showing fewer bars than it is, since it's apparent that the reception of the vaunted stainless steel antenna is worse than advertised.
Video evidence of the iPhone 4 death grip -- this time with real numbers
You wanted a demonstration? You got a demonstration; we've put together a video to show how the iPhone 4 antenna issue is not simply a result of Apple's miscalculation of how many bars are being displayed. Our own Erica Sadun wrote an iPhone app (at the suggestion of Engadget's Nilay Patel) to display the raw signal strength, the number of bars, and what Apple calls the graded signal strength. Erica's tests (see video above) show that the "Kung Fu grip of doom" results in the signal strength dropping to almost zero. According to Erica, removing her hand from the antenna gap brings the signal strength back to normal. The Apple iPhone Bumper provides a cushion, but Erica's tests show that the death grip (otherwise known as holding the iPhone 4 normally in your hand, as shown in Apple's promotional video) can kill signal integrity even with the bumper installed, depending on the signal strength in your area. Marginal signal areas are affected most by antenna signal attenuation. Users in areas with strong reception will not see the same results. It looks like Apple needs to 'fess up on this issue, and soon. NBC's Today Show brought up the antenna problem this morning, continuing to publicize the issue to a nationwide audience. They also cited the wave of YouTube videos from irate owners showing the grip issue. You can view the Today Show clip by clicking the Read More link at the bottom of this post.
Apple issues official word on iPhone 4 reception: it's the bars, man
If you didn't see the thorough reports from AnandTech and Richard Gaywood on the behavior of the iPhone 4 in low-signal areas, one of the conclusions they came to is that 'bars are bogus.' The behavior of the signal indicators on the phone is wildly shifted toward the optimistic, with over half the available signal range displayed as a cheery five bars. This contributes to the death grip problem: users who are giving up some antenna sensitivity when they grab the phone may not realize that their signal was iffy to begin with. Guess what: Apple agrees with them, at least in part. The company posted a letter/press release today (unsigned, rather than the attributed-to-Steve past Thoughts on Music and Thoughts on Flash; they could have called this one Thoughts on Bars, but that would have been a little cruel) that admits "We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising." The letter continues: "Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong." Totally wrong? Golly. Apple says it will be releasing a software update to recalibrate the signal display so that users will be aware of the low signal that they didn't think they had, and as a result the problem of not being able to make calls when they hold the phone 'the wrong way' will be less evident. I guess. We're all for clarity in signal displays, but what's not clear is how a more sophisticated formula for computing the "more bars in more places" will help users who have bought bumpers, or returned phones, because their iPhone 4s could not make calls in places their 3GS phones did. As Apple notes, there are plenty of users who are not having problems, and in fact get better reception and fewer dropped calls than they did with previous generations; all that does not invalidate the issues that are causing grief for Death Grip Nation. In their review, Anandtech acknowledged that the iPhone 4's antenna capabilities and performance in low-signal areas are much improved over the earlier generation, with the ability to hold calls in conditions where the 3GS would have dropped them. Still, their conclusion is sound and straightforward: "At the end of the day, Apple should add an insulative coating to the stainless steel band, or subsidize bumper cases. It's that simple." Note: Whether you are having reception issues or not, please be respectful and constructive in your comments.
How you hold your iPhone
Earlier this week were discussing the Death Grip and comparing how we hold our iPhones. I thought we should pose the question to you. Several readers added photos of their preferred method to our Flickr pool, and we noticed two main styles among them: the Cradle and the Death Grip. The Cradle is pictured at right. The iPhone rests on top of the pinky while the other fingers support it like a stand. The thumb is then free to reach and tap. The Death Grip is any hold that contacts the lower left-hand corner of the phone and bridges the gap between the two antennas, as that's what appears to trigger the signal issue. The results were nearly split: 9 of you used some variant of the Cradle, while 8 employed a full-on Death Grip. One fellow followed Apple's suggestion to a T, as you'll see in the gallery below. Thanks for sharing your photos with us, everyone. Now ... who's got antenna issues? Take our poll from earlier today and let us know. %Gallery-96633%
BGR posts AppleCare reception troubleshooter for iPhone 4
As Erica demonstrates in the video above, for some iPhone 4 users it's not that hard to show how the phone's reception is affected by holding it 'wrong.' BoyGeniusReport has a copy of what they claim is AppleCare's internal troubleshooting procedure for iPhone 4, which boils down to "the iPhone 4's antenna is great; avoid holding it that way; and no, you aren't getting a free bumper." BGR also points out that if this is the official line, notably absent is any hint of a software fix coming (counter to what AppleInsider suggested last week). Of course, if there isn't a problem, then why would Apple be planning to fix it? To an extent, Apple (and Steve Jobs who was widely reported to have told a user not to hold their iPhone a certain way) is right. All cell phones have this issue. Yes, Nokia, even yours. But Apple's blasé response to this issue is going to give it legs, especially when Apple's solution is to buy a $30 bumper that they just happened to have started selling to coincide with the iPhone 4 release. Speaking as someone who remembers when iPhones used to come with a dock in the box, and who assumes that the actual production cost of a bumper is probably closer to $5 than $30, I'm surprised Apple isn't trying to avoid the seemingly inevitable class action lawsuit by throwing in a bumper to anyone who has the problem and brings their iPhone 4 into an Apple Store. After all, Nintendo put a wrist strap on the Wii Remote but still gave away plastic grips to help people who were losing control of them. And the story died. There's no doubt that this issue is clouding the iPhone 4's release, even if the issue is only affecting a small percentage of iPhone 4 users (and we don't know what that percentage is). My friend Richard Gaywood posted a detailed explanation of the issue and why it is more likely to be discernible in areas of weak coverage (which AT&T customers refer to as "just about everywhere"). AnandTech posted a detailed explanation as well. MacRumors reported the experience of one user who resolved reception problems with a reseating of the iPhone's MicroSIM, which is easy enough to try on your own. So our question to you iPhone 4 owners is: have you seen it? %Poll-48827%
Talkcast tonight 10 pm ET: Show us your death grip!
Ever since the iPhone 4's announcement we've been waiting for the Talkcast where we could say "Hey, how is everyone enjoying the new iPhone 4 magic?" Little did we know that it would be a discussion centered around the precise grip patterns of the average mobile phone user and the conductivity of human skin. Guess that's just the way things go sometimes -- and we're all hoping for some updates tomorrow that may alleviate the issues. Meanwhile, whether you're a new iPhone 4 owner or not, you're welcome on the Talkcast! We'll be live at 10 pm ET, taking your calls and questions as best we can. To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (take advantage of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free X-Lite SIP client; basic instructions are here. Of course, the full TalkShoe client includes its own 'Shoephone' VoIP tool as well. For MP3 streaming on iPhone or iPad, you can try this link once the show starts (may or may not work).
Daily Mail runs iPhone 4 recall story based on fake Steve Jobs tweet
No, wait -- it's not credible. Despite the fact that @ceoSteveJobs is 100% fake, which a casual reading of the account timeline shows, Britain's Daily Mail newspaper still ran with a story yesterday that quoted the Twitter account as saying Apple might have to recall the iPhone 4. The story has been removed from the DM's website, but it's still posted on multiple syndication sites and scraper pages. Meanwhile, MacRumors cites a newly received SteveMail that says "There is no reception issue. Stay tuned." This lends credence to the AppleInsider post that anticipates an iOS 4.01 release to correct the signal problems associated with the 'death grip.' Never a dull moment! Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
Lichborne: Demystifying Death Grip
Welcome to Lichborne, your weekly source for tips, news, guides and opinions on the death knight class. So recently, as I've been working on trying to get the Loremaster title before Cataclysm hits, I've rediscovered the joy of queuing for the random dungeon as DPS. The 10- to 20-minute queue times offer a perfect little window of opportunity to finish up a good chunk of questing while I wait to get back on the emblem treadmill and allows me to take a break from tanking to get in a little bit of good old hacking and slashing. Of course, all this dungeon queuing has given me a good opportunity to see both some of my fellow death knights in action and to see how other people react to having a death knight DPSer in their group. Between that and observations from browsing the web and even simply from reading comments on past issues of Lichborne, I've noticed that one skill seems to be the most misunderstood and reviled by non-death knights: Death Grip. Thus, I figured that this week, we'd take a quick look at this much-maligned skill, so that you can understand the best practices to get the most out of this undeservedly hated and unique death knight ability. These tips will mostly apply for 5-man dungeons, but you'll probably find a lot of the basic principles will also apply to PvP and raiding.
Abilities I usually wish didn't exist in 5-mans
Most tanks are control freaks. As a matter of fact, you should hope that your tank is a control freak, because the ones who shrug off a mob running around loose are the ones you probably don't want tanking your run anyway. With that in mind, there are several player abilities that, while great for soloing or PvP, don't make the transition to a 5-man very well. Either they make life a real nuisance for your group members due to inherent design, or they tend to do so in the hands of a player who doesn't deploy them in a particularly helpful fashion. Not all tanks will have the same degree of irritation with all of the following skills (for example, I play a druid, and because bears don't have a ranged silence, a knockback on a caster mob is much more likely to annoy me than, say, a death knight tank), but I promise you that they've all been mentioned by my tanking colleagues as abilities with a high chance of blowing a pull.
Lichborne: A death knight primer for tanking 5-man dungeons
Welcome to Lichborne, the weekly death knight column. This week, your host is in a bit of a tanking mood. Those Emblems of Frost don't earn themselves! So when the Dungeon Finder came out, it was pretty cool even for DPS. A 10 minute wait for a DPS slot for a 5-man dungeon is pretty insanely awesome. If nothing else, it was certainly faster than the old way of sitting in Dalaran for 2 hours picking your nose and watching the LFG channel. Now that the dungeon finder has been around for a while though, things are getting a bit stickier for DPS. My server averages around 15-20 minutes for a level 80, and I've heard some battlegroups are up to 30-45 minutes, even at prime time. To make matters worse, tanks and healers can continue to boast instant or near-instant queues almost everywhere, leaving the poor DPS green with envy. Now technically, this is how it's almost always worked. Tanks and Healers get groups pretty quick, DPS has to wait around. And all told, the dungeon finder system is still pretty cool, and you still get a group faster than the old way. That said, now that we've had a taste of true power, I'm sure we're all loathe to lose it. Luckily, death knights have an out: We can go tank. Whether you're a DPS DK considering going tank for shorter queue times, or a 5-man DK tank newbie looking to up their game, this column's for you.
Lichborne: Death Knight tips for Trial of the Crusader, Part I
Welcome to Lichborne, your weekly foray into the news, strategy, and zen of being a Death Knight, with your host, Daniel Whitcomb. So. You've conquered Ulduar and Naxxramas. Or maybe you've just collected a lot of badges and got some nice shiny gear. Either way, you're ready to go humor that old codger Fordring and fight and die in his silly little Arena. Even if the whole thing is obviously a waste of good time that could be spent killing the Scourge, the Ebon Blade's agreed to cooperate, so you'd better be ready too, death knight. So today, we'll give you a few tips about surviving the first few bosses of the Trial of the Crusader the death knight way.
The lost art of crowd control
The emblems changes are driving traffic back to the Heroics, and I love it -- 5-mans are my favorite thing to do in the game, and there's nothing more fun to me than sitting down with a group and trouncing a Heroic, reeling in all of the gold and loot we can carry. But there's something missing, still, even in these glory days of achievements and Stone Keeper's Shards and Emblems of Conquest. Yes, it's crowd control. Groups are still gung-ho on AoEing everything in their way, and Blizzard hasn't shown any indication, even in the design of the new instances, that crowd control is anything they want to keep around. I can't remember the last time I trapped something in a group on my Hunter, and I'm sure that the last time I did, some Death Knight broke it right open, Death Grip-ped it back into the group, and then AoE'd it down to nothing.Bornakk actually replies in the thread that we're just being nostalgic for nostalgia's sake, and that even when CC was required, people whined that they needed to have certain classes in their groups. But what class doesn't have CC these days? Even Shamans got their CC, just as it wasn't actually needed any more. Crowd control added some semi-serious strategy even to trash fights in instances, and while we originally heard that it would come back at some point, Blizzard certainly seems to be done with it.But we can be patient. The new instances in 3.2 are light to completely empty on trash, so maybe they're waiting for Icecrown to really put our CC skills and coordination to the test. I play a Hunter at endgame currently, so I might be biased, but I do love 5-mans, and I do miss the extra coordination and teamwork that a big CC-required pull provided. Hopefully they can find a way to mix that back in without requiring certain specs or classes to be along for the ride.
Breakfast Topic: How would you be honored ingame?
Being honored ingame with an NPC or an item is, I think we can all agree, the height of player cool. Not that this will ever happen to me, mind you. Realistically, the only thing I expect to get from Blizzard is a letter bomb, or possibly a bloodstained horse head for going live with that article on the Death Grip bug, and perhaps I deserve it. To this day I feel kind of bad, or at least I do until I remember my guild leader's Death Knight sending a goblin NPC flying off the dock, and then I laugh and laugh, and realize that I am a terrible person who should probably be locked up somewhere. It's fun to wonder, though, and I've settled on two wishes. The first would be making my beloved main into a Thunder Bluff NPC among the Druid trainers, kitted in full Tier 6 with an Origin of Nightmares. She would be friend and counselor to all young Druids and full of unsolicited advice for them, most of it incorrect. The second, less dignified, and perhaps more realistic legacy I would leave to the game is a series of cow-shaped impact craters at the bottom of various Northrend cliffs and in Crystalsong under the Dalaran sewers' exit pipe, in tribute to the several falling deaths incurred while mindlessly jumping from heights without the benefit of Cold Weather Flying. Little signs could be posted below informing players of the sites' historical significance, although I'm not sure how Blizzard could squeeze the phrase "Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.........." onto the flavor text.On the chance that Blizzard ever decides to honor your august self ingame, what would you want honored and how?
Death Grip wormhole is a bad, bad thing
As much as we enjoyed watching what is arguably the most phenomenally fun bug ever, it should come as no surprise to anyone that exploiting it is a very bad thing. In particular, GMs have been alerted to the bug and are on a keen watch for players who attempt to do it. After Elizabeth Harper's experimentation -- all done in the name of journalistic investigation, we promise -- resident killer Rogue Chase Christian attempted it, too. He was very swiftly messaged by a Game Master informing him that he would be banned if he ever did it again.The boys over at DeathKnight.info confirm the same thing, not only because it is under close watch by GMs, but because it has serious repercussions for players who are 'pulled' into the wormhole. Players with the temerity to try it out have reported getting stuck in limbo and had to submit tickets to get their characters unstuck. No doubt a deluge of tickets describing suspiciously similar circumstances was more than enough to raise alarms over at Blizzard. So while we enjoyed showing that video of the Death Grip bug, we hope you didn't follow such bad examples. I mean, you didn't, right? Of course not. Good boys and girls.
Breakfast Topic: Bugging out
There are bad bugs, and there are good bugs. Bugs like Wintergrasp crashing the continent every time someone wins? That's bad. Bugs like Death Grip giving players a psychedelic free trip around the world? That's good. Well, as good as bugs go, anyway. I know, Blizzard's developers would probably freak out at the mention of 'bugs' and 'good' in the same sentence, but there are just some fun ones that have popped up over the years.At WoW Insider, we try to make it a point not to report on exploitable bugs that can break the game or give players an unfair advantage over other players. But I have to confess that there are just some bugs that are too fun to ignore. There was once this bug in Shattrath involving potions and vanity pets that probably put an unnecessary strain on the server -- but I thought it was cool that there was at least one way to have all your pets out at once.In your time playing the game, what kind of bugs have you encountered or seen that struck you as more fun than flawed? Small orc shoulders were certainly not fun for all the orc players, but I can just imagine Alliance having a good laugh at their expense. Oh, and for the sake of not getting ourselves banned and all that, let's talk about bugs that are no longer in the game. Except, well, for the best bug ever. Don't do it! But man... it's just too darn cool.
Best. Bug. Ever.
We received the above video from tipster Jimmynorden (better quality video on Vimeo here) about an absolutely amazing bug with the Death Knight ability Death Grip. If you initiate a duel with a Death Knight who's aboard the ship in Booty Bay while you're standing on the dock, Death Grip will pull you -- not to the ship itself, but all the way across and through the world. Elizabeth Harper has just tried this on live servers ("You get PvP flagged from flying through the arena in Stranglethorn!") and her character finally landed on a random ship in what the map insists is the Alterac Mountains, southeast of where Dalaran used to be.Death Grip is described as harnessing the unholy energy that surrounds and binds all matter. They certainly got that part right. I don't have a Death Knight online in my guild right now and I'm really curious to see if this just works in Booty Bay, or if it works wherever there's a ship or zeppelin docked. I'm assuming it's the latter; from my admittedly limited understanding of the game's plumbing, once you're on a ship you're not actually where the map "thinks" you are but rather in some nebulous area without real coordinates before the ship transfers you between servers. UPDATE: A few guildies and I tried this; you'll find additional results and notes behind the cut.Elizabeth had time to take a few screenshots, which you'll see below: %Gallery-44142%
The Queue: Punching our way to greatness
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Yesterday we were talking about the Bros Before Ho Ho Ho's achievement a bit. Specifically, do you need to be level 77 to get it if you're a Horde player? Most of us thought yes, you do, but stacy (one of our readers) popped in with some pretty creative instructions on how to do it. Check that out, then we'll get on with the Q&A!Classy asked...Anyone know a good place to fall to get the "Going Down?" achievement?
Death Knight's Death Grip as crowd control
I haven't played a Death Knight on the live realms yet (I leveled one through the starting experience during the beta, and am only 79 so far on my main), but I have grouped with quite a few of them now, and the ability that real stands out to me and others seems to be Death Grip. A lot of the other Death Knight abilities are just new versions of other classes' spells, but Death Grip is a pretty new mechanic -- instead of charging or jumping away from a mob, you're bringing the mob to you. And with all new mechanics, players have found new ways to play with them. As you can see in the video above, Death Grip, when chained by a few Death Knights, can even be used as crowd control.I've seen it used in a few other wild ways, too -- it works great as an interrupt, and when combined with a Hunter trap, it's finally a reliable way to trap ranged attackers and casters. And most of the Death Knights I've seen use it for pulling -- they suck the caster in from a group, and the rest of the mobs come with, and group right up for AoE. And I haven't even been to any PvP matches with Death Knights yet -- I imagine the uses there are even more hilarious, not to mention that I'd be yelling "Get over here!" every time I hit it. Very fun mechanic for the new Hero class.Thanks, Michael!
