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Nissan Leaf delayed in UK, backup warning signal to blame
Surprise of all wonders, the Nissan Leaf has suffered another delay, but this time there's at least an amusing anecdote to quote while you wait. You see, The Northern Echo quotes a Nissan spokeswoman as saying that the Leaf's backup warning signal emits a loud beep, but UK law requires that such sounds be disabled between the hours of 11PM and 6AM. "The audible system on the Leaf did not allow for that to be done, so the beeping sound is being removed entirely before the cars can be driven on roads in this country," Nissan said, which will result in a "slight delay" in shipping the cars from the company's Japanese plant. Amusingly, US law actually requires electric cars to make noise these days.
Thieves damage South African traffic lights, reach for the juicy SIM card innards
Johannesburg, South Africa had six hundred high-tech traffic signals, each with a cellular modem and GPS chip. The idea was, if one malfunctioned, they'd call home immediately. Well, that plan isn't working out so well, because only two hundred are still in working order -- vandals ripped apart the rest to get at their SIM cards, causing traffic jams and accidents. Apparently, the government-provided cards are a ticket to unlimited free phone calls for the thieves -- at least until the individual devices are identified and their permissions revoked. The Johannesburg Roads Agency told the Mail & Guardian that the crime looks like an inside job, because only the SIM-equipped signals seem to have been targeted so far, despite looking visually identical. The damages are piling up, with the agency figuring it will require ZAR 8.8 million (roughly $1.26 million) to repair the four hundred signals currently out of order. Needless to say, the agency is looking at ways to better secure the traffic lights. We're guessing that switching to CDMA is probably off the table. Embedded SIMs, perhaps?
Chip implanted in spinal cord could help sufferers of chronic pain (video)
Researchers at Sydney's National ICT Australia (NICTA) have spent the past two years developing an incredibly futuristic invention which could bring relief to those who suffer from chronic pain. What it amounts to is a series of 'smart' chips inserted into biocompatible devices and strung together. These are then sewn into a very small (1.22mm wide) lead made of a polymer yarn and wires, which are then inserted into the spine. The device is them connected to a battery and computer which can measure and gather information about the pain-carrying nerves signalling the brain. The device can also respond by sending 10 volt electrical pulses to block the signals' path to the brain, tricking the brain into thinking there is no pain. There are devices such as this one already in existence, but they are much larger than this new device, and its smaller size increases accuracy as it can be implanted closer to the spine than previous models. The NICTA's device is set to go into human trials next year. Video after the break.
'Signal' jailbreak app for iPhone maps out your towers, turns death gripping into a pastime
If you're familiar with Android apps like CellFinder, you've got a good idea for what this is -- and the name "Signal" is a pretty accurate representation, too. Basically, iPhone Dev Team member planetbeing has thrown together a neat little app that shows you signal strengths of your phone's connections to nearby cell towers along with their position relative to you (if the positions can be determined), an especially welcome utility considering that you can't access Apple's old "field test mode" in iOS 4. Our favorite part, though, has to be planetbeing's desire to turn this from mere information into entertainment -- and to hopefully take the edge off your pain and deep-set resentment over the signal strength and call dropping issues in your iPhone 4 -- by adding a mode where your goal is to get the signal to drop completely, at which point you'll hear the voice of Spock announce a Vulcan death grip. Who knew an engineering defect could be so much fun? If you're jailbroken -- or you're willing to jailbreak -- you can score Signal in Cydia for a five-spot. Follow the break for video of the app in action. [Thanks, Pytey]
hacksugar: Move past FieldTest with Signal
Missing FieldTest? It was a "secret" iPhone application that used to report all kinds of basic signal and connectivity details for your phone. You could access it by typing a special sequence (*3001#12345#*) into the Phone app. Field Test would list your local cell towers, their ids, relative strengths, and so forth. Apple ditched Field Test in iOS 4, which made a lot of people sad. Having that information in-hand can really help with certain diagnostic uses of the phone, not to mention assist with home brew location calls. (Core Location has not been available from the command line, making home brew workarounds a handy asset.)
Apple shows Nokia's N97 Mini can be force choked, too (video)
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/apple/Apple_shows_Nokia_s_N97_Mini_can_be_force_choked_too'; Nokia claims it always prioritizes antenna performance over physical design, and we'll take them at their word, but that apparently didn't exempt one Espoo handset from Apple's grip of doom. Here's the Nokia N97 Mini going down for the count, from a full seven bars to two. Of course, Apple doesn't mention whether calls or data drop when the handset's held this way. Video after the break. [Thanks, Lyndon W.]
HTC fires back at Apple antenna demo with percentage pew-pew
Apple's Friday press conference may have left a bad taste in some rival handset manufacturer's mouths, but not all of them are taking Cupertino's derision of their devices seriously -- HTC's Droid Eris was arguably the most affected by the grip of doom, its bars dropping to zilch when held, but the Taiwanese company's keeping any controversial opinions to itself for now. Instead, it's sharing a simple percentage to help clear the air. Whereas Apple claimed over 0.55 percent of customers called AppleCare with reception-related complaints, HTC's Eric Lin told Pocket-lint the Droid Eris technical support rate was 0.016 percent, nearly thirty-four times lower -- though even with a seven-month head start, we have to wonder if the Eris sold close to three million by the time Verizon brought the axe down.
Nokia: 'we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict'
Nokia's looking to ride the mojo of any negative fallout from today's Apple press conference, slipping out a rather fascinating statement this afternoon. The gist of it is that Espoo's keen on letting everyone know how much blood, sweat, and tears they've poured into perfecting their antenna design strategy over the years, going so far as to say that they "prioritize" it over the physical design of the phone if they need to in order to optimize its call performance -- an opinion moderately different from the "we want to have our cake and eat it too" philosophy espoused by Jobs today. In closing, Nokia acknowledges that a "tight grip" can mess with the performance, though they say they've done a bunch of research on the ways their phones are typically held so that the antennas are placed optimally. Interestingly, there was a stink not long ago about the severe signal degradation some E71 users were seeing when they placed their hands on the lower rear of the phone -- but you can't win 'em all, we suppose. Follow the break for the full statement.
'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/]
The iPhone 4 Apple Press Event metaliveblog
Apple Press Event Welcome to our iPhone 4 live press conference event! Today we'll be metaliveblogging Apple's iPhone 4 announcements, adding our traditional TUAW twist to the proceedings. Will Steve Jobs offer a $29 bounty or free bumpers to all early iPhone 4 adopters? Or will the iPhone 4 itself be recalled? (We seriously doubt it!) Or is today's announcement about new service providers for those mysterious iPhone3,2 and iPhone3,3 models that Engadget uncovered a while back? Join us as we find out! Sources for today's metaliveblog include: Engadget Ars Technica gdgt Macworld Fortune
Join us tomorrow: Apple's iPhone 4 Press Conference
Apple Press Event Please join us tomorrow at 10AM Pacific (1PM Eastern) for a live TUAW blogging event as Apple addresses the press over its controversial iPhone 4 device. CEO Steve Jobs is expected to lead the event. The question on everyone's mind is, of course, will Apple be holding the event in the right place? Your guess is as good as ours. As the reception from the press might turn out to be a little cheeky in the proximity of such a big announcement, expect a bumper crop of interest from Apple enthusiasts. You can signal your interest by signing up for an e-mail reminder of the event from CoverItLive. What: Apple iPhone 4 Press Event Where: Here on TUAW! Except in the bottom-left-hand corner of the site. When: 10AM Pacific, 1PM Eastern
iOS 4.0.1 hitting iPhones right this second (update: 3.2.1 for iPads, too)
Well it's not the full 4.1 we were expecting... but here's a little tidbit from Apple. One of the main features? The update "improves the formula to determine how many bars of signal strength to display." Interesting. We're updating some devices right now, and will report back with what we find. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Update: It looks like iOS 3.2.1 for iPad is coming down the tube, as well. We'll let you know what changes we're seeing! Update 2: Here's a quick before-and-after shot of the signal meter. Clearly, Apple wasn't yanking any chains about changing the sizes of those leftmost bars.
Consumer Reports confirms iPhone 4 antenna problems -- and so do we
Although there's never been any question that there's something going on with the iPhone 4's fancy new antenna system, we really haven't seen any rigorous testing confirming that the issue is real, severe, and affects every phone. That just changed: Consumer Reports tested three iPhone 4s and several other AT&T phones in their RF isolation chamber that simulates varying levels of signal from every carrier, and found that the iPhone 4 was the only handset to suffer signal-loss issues. What's more, CR directly says that its findings call Apple's explanation of a miscalculated signal meter into question since the tests "indicate that AT&T's network might not be the primary suspect." CR found that simply putting duct tape over the bottom-left corner is enough to alleviate the issue -- we're guessing that's Jony Ive's worst nightmare -- and says that while the iPhone 4 has the "sharpest display and best video camera" of any phone it's tested, it simply can't recommend the device until Apple comes up with a permanent and free fix to the antenna problem. Ouch.Of course, we couldn't sit around waiting for someone else to test the iPhone 4 in a more controlled way, so we actually asked our good friend Erica Sadun from TUAW to write us a bespoke signal strength app for iOS 4. Obviously we couldn't submit it to the App Store, but we've been running it on all of our phones here at Engadget and we can independently confirm Consumer Reports' finding that there's a serious signal attenuation issue with the iPhone 4's antenna -- every phone we've tested displays dropped signal when held with the bottom left corner covered. Now, what we don't know is whether that signal attenuation consistently affects call quality and data rates, which we suspect is more directly related to the network in the area; some of our iPhone 4s drop calls and experience low data rates with alarming frequency, while others -- like our review unit -- have almost never dropped a call and have had no data problems. However, now that we've confirmed and clarified that the antenna issue affects every iPhone 4, we can take on the next step, which is sorting out exactly when and where the issue is most severe. Either that, or Apple can do something to actually fix the issue -- we'll just have to wait and see. For now, check our app in action after the break.Update: To clarify, "here at Engadget" is a virtual location -- our iPhone 4s are actually located across the country in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York, and we saw the app respond that way regardless of location. Dropped calls and other effects weren't as consistent, however, and we're still testing to sort out when the effects of the antenna issue are the most severe.
Consumer Reports now 'can't recommend' the iPhone 4
After a recent positive blog post stating that the iPhone 4 reception issues were not something that should prevent someone from buying the new iPhone, the nationwide testing firm has now changed its mind and given a thumbs down to Apple's latest efforts. In lab tests, Consumer Reports says the signal "can significantly degrade to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you're in an area with a weak signal." Three iPhone 4s were tested in an RF isolation chamber, and while the signal fell out on the new iPhone, CR didn't see the same issues on an iPhone 3GS or a Palm Pre. The tests also showed that putting some duct tape (of course!!) on the lower left portion of the iPhone antenna strip helps a great deal, and they speculate a case would do the trick as well. The testing firm adds that the iPhone 4 scored at the top of the list in every other feature, so the reception issue is a deal-killer for the firm. CR says that Apple will have to provide "a permanent -- and free fix" before it recommends the iPhone 4.
iPhone 4's antenna problem looks worse than it is, but it's still bad
The iPhone 4's antenna issues have sparked off a firestorm of debate as to the root cause -- Apple says holding the phone differently or buying a case are the best answers, while other are going down a more voodoo path -- but our friends at AnandTech have done some more scientific testing of the problem and come up with a few interesting results. Turns out the iPhone 4 actually performs slightly better inside a case than a phone like the Nexus One, which has had similar issues crop up, but it's slightly worse when held in the hand, reporting an average signal drop of 20dB. Here's where it gets a little wacky, though: the signal meter in iOS 4 is logarithmic, so that 20dB drop can either leave you looking steady at five bars or drop you all the way to zero, depending on what the actual signal level in the area is like. Take a look at the chart above and you'll get it: the range of values between one bar and four spans just 23dB, while the range for five bars is 40dB. That means holding the phone in an area with a strong five-bar signal will have no apparent effect -- you can lose 20dB at full signal and still see five bars -- but holding the phone in an area with weaker coverage will easily drop the meter to one bar, since the 20dB signal drop covers almost the entirety of the remaining 23dB scale. Oops. Of course, that's just the on-screen display, which Apple can and likely will tweak in a future iOS update. The real question is whether the reported signal has anything to do with performance, and Anandtech agrees with our general experience, saying that the iPhone 4's improved signal to noise ratio means it actually does a better job of hanging onto calls and using data when there's low signal than the iPhone 3GS. In their words, "this iPhone gets the best cellular reception yet, even though measured signal is lower than the 3GS." However, there's no getting around the fact that we've definitely dropped a couple calls with the iPhone 4 by holding it the wrong way, and Anandtech says the only real solution to the antenna issue will be for Apple to either subsidize free bumpers or add an insulative coating to the antenna band. We'll see what happens -- we've got a feeling an iOS update is on the way, but we'd definitely love to see Apple pursue a more aggressive solution to this problem.
Some iPhone 4 models dropping calls when held left-handed, including ours (Update: Apple responds)
What's more annoying than spending hours lining up for a shiny new gadget? Learning that your precious phone can't actually connect to the network. Well, depending on how you hold it -- word has it that the iPhone 4's bottom-left corner isn't playing nice with your skin. If you recall from the keynote, that's where the Bluetooth / WiFi / GPS antenna meets its GSM / UMTS counterpart. So we decided to test on two brand new iPhone 4 handsets purchased today in the UK.One iPhone 4 demonstrated the issue everytime it was held in our left hand (as a right-handed person is apt to do) so that our palm was essentially bridging the two antennas. You can see that in the video after the break. Bridging the two with a finger tip, however, didn't cause any issues with the reported reception. If we had to guess, we'd say that our conductive skin was acting to detune the antenna -- in fact, we've already managed to slowly kill two calls that way so it's not just an issue with the software erroneously reporting an incorrect signal strength. That said, we had no issues when Apple's $29 rubber bumper accessory (given to us free for standing in line) was attached, creating a buffer between our palm and the antennas. Our second UK-purchased iPhone 4 was fine, showing none of these handling symptoms. See the video evidence after the break including Insanely Great Mac's version which got us to worrying in the first place.P.S. Don't forget to take our poll and let us know if you're seeing both the yellow spots / stripes and reception issues. Unfortunately, we're suffering from both flaws which is not a good sign for quality control on this first batch of Apple handsets.P.P.S. Since some of you are asking, our review unit showed none of these issues.Update: Apple responds to the issue, and boy, it's a doozy.
High tech smoke signals: a luddite's dream (or nightmare?)
"For Those Who Can See" is an art project by Daniel Schulze. Using smoke machines, speakers, and a 7 by 7 grid of concrete slabs, the speakers are programmed to pulse at specific intervals, triggering the smoke when they do. The slabs of concrete have been drilled with holes, resulting in 'modern smoke signals.' Schulze's project is not yet fully realized, and a complete installation is set to debut at DMY Berlin. Below is a video mockup of the project.
How would you change AT&T's 3G MicroCell?
We know, we know -- AT&T's 3G MicroCell isn't even out nationwide yet, but for those select markets that have access, we're hoping you'll chime in on the pros and cons as to enlighten the other folks before their time comes. By and large, the GSM femotocell works exactly like the Airave for Sprint, though this one does fully support 3G data as well as simultaneous voice and data usage. For those that have taken the plunge: are you satisfied with the value proposition? Is reception really any better? Have you ditched your landline yet? What would you change about the service or billing? Voice your opinion on the matter below, and remember, life doesn't present you with many chances such as this. Wouldn't want to waste it, now would we?
Guest post: Setting up an AT&T MicroCell with Murphy Mac
Editor's Note: We welcome guest poster Murphy Mac, a long-time friend of the site who shared with us his experience of setting up one of the new femtocell AT&T repeaters that promise to improve reception for well-heeled iPhone users... or will they? Good times for Charlotte, North Carolina: First AT&T makes Charlotte one of six cities getting a 3G speed boost by the end of 2009. On the heels of that news comes the MicroCell, a device that facilitates AT&T 3G calls where coverage is weak or nonexistent. How? The MicroCell acts like a miniature cell tower in your home or office. Your 3G phone connects to the MicroCell just like it's any other tower. Voice and messaging traffic is then relayed across your broadband Internet connection. Charlotte is the sole initial test market for AT&T's version of the device, though other carriers are distributing their femtocells more widely. Here's the full breakdown on pricing: Purchase Price: $150 Monthly Charge: None Optional Unlimited Voice Minutes Plan while using MicroCell: AT&T Customer with both AT&T landline and DSL: Free Customers with AT&T Landline or DSL: $10 per month All others: $20 per month I installed a MicroCell for a friend the other day, and after one small hiccup it's running. But is it everything I hoped it would be? Setup for the MicroCell is straightforward. Most users will probably connect it via Ethernet to their router, which is exactly what we did. Optionally, the device can be placed between the router and the modem, giving MicroCell traffic priority handling over other Internet connectivity. If you don't have a router, the MicroCell can be plugged directly into your broadband modem and your computer can be connected to the MicroCell. %Gallery-74487%
Wi-Fire long-range WiFi adapter hands-on and impressions
It's an age-old problem. What do you do when you're just barely out of range of a nearby WiFi signal, and moving closer really isn't a convenient option? hField Technologies has been solving said quandary for years with its continually revamped Wi-Fire, and we were fortunate enough to grab hold of the newest, third-generation version in order to put said company's claims to the test. Quite frankly, we were more than skeptical about this so-called range extender; let's face it, this thing has all the markings of an 'As Seen On TV' trinket that does little more than fantasize about delivering on its promises. Thankfully for all of the parties involved, we're happy to say that our doubts were hastily shelved. Read on for more.
