
Antenna designer writes about the iPhone 4 - Anechoic
http://www.antennasys.com/antennasys-blog/2010/6/24/apple-iphone-4-antennas.html
======
doron
A comment at techcrunch is priceless

"It's not a design flaw. Steve is just trying to bring gentility and good
manners to mobile phone usage. The correct way to hold an iPhone 4 is with the
thumb and index finger on either side of the phone, while extending the pinky
outward as if holding a fine china cup (the pinky will also act as a
supplemental antenna). Once the user is holding the phone like a Regency
dandy, he will naturally tend to behave like one, showing the world what a
well-mannered chap he is. Pure genius. "

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davi
This is one of those articles that makes me love the web. In the midst of a
wave of angst about iPhone4 reception, we get a high S/N article, bubbled up
from a vast froth of noise on the topic.

It's like HN is my antenna for the internet.

~~~
philwelch
Yeah, but if you open another tab for Reddit in Safari and have your mouse
pointer overlapping both tabs, your bandwidth goes down.

~~~
napierzaza
Really? I feel nauseous when I have a Reddit window open. Is that why?

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neonfunk
It's a somewhat reasonable account (notably by an iPhone owner), though I
remain skeptical (i.e., not trusting either side).

I've had an iPhone 4 for two days now, and I have yet to be able to reproduce
the problem; I even tried licking my finger and wrapping it around the bottom
left corner, making sure to connect both antennas. I couldn't get it to drop
even one bar.

This is not at all to say that it's not a real issue, but the sensationalism
belies how little we know about it so far. Of course, people are going to
delight in exploiting any chink in Apple's armor, especially today.

~~~
pkulak
I wouldn't trust the "bars" to indicate anything.

~~~
jarek
This. If we are going to have a discussion about this, I really, really hope
to at least see some dBm numbers.

From a test right now, picking up my Blackberry 8100 (antenna along the
bottom) in roughly the manner I would use to hold it to my ear, I lose about
10 to 15 dBm (from around -66 to -69 to around -79 to -81), which means the
received signal power drops by around 10 to 30 times. I don't know if that's
particularly good or bad; I've never had problems with dropped calls.

~~~
nitrogen
Are there apps available that show signal strength in real numbers (dBm)
instead of "bars"?

~~~
DrJokepu
Not sure about Blackberry, but on Android: Settings / About phone / Status /
Signal strength

~~~
m_hughes
You can always call this number from your iPhone: _3001#12345#_

and put your phone in field test mode

([http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/iphone/iphone-field-test-mode-
let...](http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/iphone/iphone-field-test-mode-lets-you-spy-
on-the-att-network-277797.php))

~~~
rryyan
Unfortunately this capability has been removed from iOS4:
<http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=942533>. Just confirmed it on my
iPhone 4.

------
suraj
FTA -

| So, naturally, the design evolved to meet requirements - and _efficient
transmission and reception while being held by a human hand are simply not
design requirements!_

This is analogous to saying driving experience doesn't matter as long as car
pases emission tests which is certainly not true (I hope). People don't buy
phones because it passes FCC testing they buy phones to make calls! If you
don't factor human hand into your design, word of mouth will kill the phone.

~~~
fname
_word of mouth will kill the phone_

I'm not so sure. Of all the complaints about AT&T consistently dropping calls,
people are still flocking to the iPhone. I realize they don't have a choice,
but once again, people are voting with their dollars. They're willing to
accept a subpar network for a cool phone.

~~~
ramy_d
people do have choice
[http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iph...](http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone)

people are voting with their dollars. The design of the product is more
important than its functionality (this is to say: the average consumer likes
pretty things).

~~~
fname
By choices, I'm referring to the network. Most consumers (not ones who
jailbreak, mind you...) don't have a choice. If they want the iPhone, they're
stuck with ATT.

~~~
jarek
* in the U.S.

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cpr
This article by the same fellow is great stuff:
[http://www.antennasys.com/antennasys-blog/2010/5/30/30-db-
in...](http://www.antennasys.com/antennasys-blog/2010/5/30/30-db-
in-30-minutes.html) .

~~~
wallflower
If you enjoy Sherlock Holmes-type problem solving and forensic engineering,
check out the user-contributed Sherlock Ohms series on Design News.

"Famous investigations into the most diabolical real-world cases in
engineering."

<http://www.designnews.com/blog/Sherlock_Ohms/index.php>

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vault_
I've gotta say, this was both informative and amusing to read. I wish I got to
read articles like this more often.

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jboydyhacker
My bet is once the author actually can get a physical handset in his hands he
might change his view somewhat. I don't think the author is aware of the
extent of signal loss. While Apple's statement is true that any handset will
experience signal loss from being held tightly, the loss with some IPhone 4s
is almost total loss. The comment by Jobs "just don't hold it that way" is
probably going to tick a bunch of folks off. I still love the phone tho.

------
lutorm
This is a perfect example of the effects of "optimization by proxy" that was
discussed in the lesswrong article posted here yesterday.

The examples are really countless, auto crash tests and insurance safety
ratings is a pretty good one, whereby "safety" has come to mean "safety to the
occupants without any consideration of the risks to others".

~~~
Robin_Message
Actually, the European crash safety tester does include pedestrian safety in
its ratings: [http://www.euroncap.com/Content-Web-
Page/6019e175-a493-4cce-...](http://www.euroncap.com/Content-Web-
Page/6019e175-a493-4cce-bb94-df5bee4656bb/pedestrian-protection.aspx)

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tharris7
I wonder if increasing the gap between the metal antennae pieces would make
any difference (i.e. the distance any signal would have to travel through your
hand is increased, hence greater impedance).

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defdac
I've always wondered about the design flaw of keeping the buttons on the phone
below the screen, making it next to impossible to hold the phone with one hand
and use the thumb to press the buttons. If you flipped it upside down it was
easy to use the thumb though. (actually I still have a button phone, but I
figure that everyone reading this thread will have a more modern type of
phone..)

~~~
SoftwareMaven
You mean the volume buttons? Just be left handed and all is well.

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boltofblue
"Putting this iPhone 4 in your pocket will likely couple more energy into your
body (you bag of salt water, you) than did the first generation model. Yep, I
predict it will be worse."

I hope this isn't dangerous to your health.

He is buying one, so I assume not.

~~~
jodrellblank
"While certain media outlets continue to claim that regular cell phone use is
unlikely to cause brain cancer, you should know that Interphone found "heavy
users" of cell phones were found to have an approximately doubled risk of
glioma, a life threatening and often-fatal brain tumor, after 10 years of cell
phone use.

What was the definition of a heavy user?

About two hours … a month!

When this study was conducted (1999-2004), cell phone use had not yet exploded
to the extent it has today. Now, the results are clearly outdated, because in
the decade that's passed since the study was begun, cell phone use has grown
exponentially and it is not at all unusual for people to use a cell phone for
two hours or more a day!

What this means is that if you use your cell phone for two hours a month or
more, you may be doubling your risk of a potentially fatal brain tumor. Use
your cell phone significantly more than that, and your risk is likely much,
much higher."

[http://emf.mercola.com/sites/emf/archive/2010/06/10/how-
the-...](http://emf.mercola.com/sites/emf/archive/2010/06/10/how-the-telecom-
industry-deceives-you-about-brain-cancer-risk-and-cell-phones.aspx)

~~~
hoggle
As you seem to be well informed about the topic: Do you know if it is usual
for cellphone designers to use the optional headset/headphone combination as
an extended antenna and if so if it is still better to prefer it to a
bluetooth based solution? I think this is something a lot of people would like
to know as heavy cellphone use ia often unavoidable these days.

~~~
dfox
Almost all phone manufacturers use headset cable as FM antenna. On the other
hand there is almost no way how it could be used as antenna for anything other
than FM. (antennas for GSM/GPS/WiFi/whatever bands are carefully designed
devices with tight tolerances and not pieces of wire of some approximate
length)

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ajg1977
"And sometimes an antenna that's not great, but good enough, is good enough."

Clearly his carrier isn't AT&T.

~~~
mikeklaas
Normally funny, I suppose, if a bit tired. _But this man designs antennae for
use on AT &T's network_

