
The weirdest (but working) iPhone 4 reception trick I have ever heard - BorisBomega
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/03/15/the-weirdest-but-working-iphone-4-reception-trick-i-have-ever-heard/
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jgrahamc
Not really weird. There's a boundary there between the air in the glass and
the glass itself. So you've got a dielectric boundary and you'll get some
reflection going on inside the glass. Lots and lots of things reflect radio
waves to a certain extent. I'd guess that's what's happening here.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-line-of-
sight_propagation#R...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-line-of-
sight_propagation#Reflection_losses_at_dielectric_boundaries)

~~~
Yzupnick
I don't think by weird the op meant "Wow, this is a miracle that can't be
explained by science." It was more along the lines of "Wow, this interesting
and I would never have expected that to work. And boy would it look strange if
everyone walked around with their phone in a cup."

And I agree with that statement. So yes it is weird, despite the fact that it
has an explanation.

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iwwr
Is this a good illustration of the phenomenon?

<http://i.imgur.com/cDgjD.jpg>

The glass is the antenna and the shape (here a circle) radius at a given point
is the signal strength at that point.

The glass is exploiting some anisotropies(?) in the cell phone signals. i.e.
the red arc is somehow bigger than the black arc. I am using the circle as a
way to depict an isotropic signal. If the signal is not isotropic, the shape
would be somewhat more bulged in the left region (pear-shaped).

Sorry, IANAP, if someone can explain it better...

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zinkem
I think what OP is referring to is when light hits glass, some times it is
reflected and sometimes it will move through the glass, depending on the angle
it makes with the surface of the glass. So the signal is probably bouncing
around inside the glass so the phone is able to pick it up.

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JonnieCache
If you stick it in a pint glass it makes the speakerphone a lot louder as
well.

I can foresee some funny looks from strangers however, if you were to sit
there in a bar on your own shouting at your phone in the bottom of a glass.
Maybe that kind of thing is normal in california, I have no idea.

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joelhaasnoot
This was Amsterdam, people in Amsterdam are weird to Americans, so who knows
:)

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bonsaitree
I suspect this is more about isolating the phone from the radio energy sinks
of the human body (surface moisture on the skin & saline blood plasma) than
anything to do with the glass itself.

Any suitably insulating (capacitive) enclosure (such as a "napkin swan",
teacup, etc.) which preserves a largely vertical orientation (perpendicular to
the local ground plane) should work just as well. We're still comfortably
within the far-field <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far-field> performance
envelope for transmission, but well within transmission-line power transfer
regimes at these frequencies with a cell-phone-sized antenna.

If the glass were lead crystal (extremely unlikely in the bog-standard bar
tumbler pictured), there's more potential for interference and a spatial locus
of signal above the noise floor is possible. Typical window and utensil
glassware is essentially transparent to these frequencies.

~~~
grandalf
This seems like the most plausible explanation to me.

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drzaiusapelord
This is questionable. A couple stray observations for the boffins at HN:

1\. Confirmation bias. Sure it works, because when it doesn't we don't think
about it or publicize it on the net.

2\. Glass holder removes your big meaty hand from the equation. Your hand
absorbs radiation and is the equivalant of wrapping a phone in a steak.

3\. Only works because the iphone radio is such a mess. You may be looking at
bar strength changes that are happening anyway.

4\. Works but because of orientation. Holding up compared to laying it down
may give you better reception.

5\. No controls. He should try this with a plastic holder or hanging it in the
same orientation with a string. I wish the "aha I discovered something
amazing" crowd would learn what controls are.

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jerf
I love that people are thinking about confirmation bias, but you can't really
"confirmation bias" your way from "I can't receive calls at all" to "Now I'm
getting three bars and reliable signals of some types". There's an empirical
state transition there, not just an opinion the way "I went from 2.1 bars to
2.8 bars" is unreliable.

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hendi_
So, he's in this uber cool restaurant, spending a nice evening with his
daughter. And the first things he thinks of? Yeah, "checking in" and
"tweeting". Am I the only one who finds this sad?

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nollidge
Those two things probably take 30 seconds total.

~~~
DTrejo
While typing from inside a glass?

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Bud
Tested with an Apple Bumper case and a 500ml Arcoroc glass in my apartment: no
effect.

Tested without the Bumper: still no effect.

Perhaps only certain kinds of glasses will work? Certain shapes or sizes?

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bl4k
yes only certain types of special glasses. you can buy them from my online
store for $29.95

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Bud
Sorry, I only want it if a) Jonny Ive designed it and b) it has a nice etched
Apple logo on the side and c) it's an ideal size for quaffing fine bourbon.

There should also be a stainless steel band around the base which interferes
with reception if you hold the glass the wrong way, ideally.

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Roritharr
just tested it in our office in germany with o2 as carrier, went vom 1 bar to
three bars in about 20 seconds inside the glass... amazing.

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maxklein
Why would it take 20 seconds for this to work? Radio is not slow.

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jamesbkel
Surely it's just a result of the bars being smoothed/some sort of running
average of strength.

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maxklein
But if I move my iPhone around in the room, it seems to change pretty quickly.

~~~
lukeschlather
To save power, the phone shouldn't be constantly trying to acquire a signal
when it can't find one. It should try for 10-20 seconds, give up, then go to
sleep, only waking every 30 seconds or so to try again, briefly.

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peterwwillis
I'm going to risk sounding like a dunce here, but IIRC some frequencies are
more prone to bouncing off glass - for example in metropolitan cities with
lots of high-rise buildings. While this is a detriment in the city, it could
also be acting as a "satellite dish" making it easier to collect stay signals
while also directing most of the transmission upward. Considering the antenna
is supposed to be at the bottom of the phone the effect should be more
pronounced as more of the glass can be used to direct the signal.

Am I crazy?

~~~
snorkel
Mobile devices tend to operate in the 700 to 900 MHz range which translates to
a wavelengths of several inches, so it's quite possible the geometry of the
drinking glass is providing a bit of focus to the signal.

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odysseus
If you don't have a glass nearby, this also works when putting your 3GS (and
probably other phones as well) at the same angle inside an upside-down clear
plastic CD spindle cover. Went from 2 to 4 bars. Took the phone out, dropped
down to 2.

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juiceandjuice
It probably has more to do with antenna response characteristics due to
polarization (antenna is similar to a j dipole
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slim_Jim_(antenna)> or a modified inverted V
(since it's a U) maybe <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_vee_antenna> ) +
isolation from your hand. Without your hand (which is similar to a non-
efficient ground plane) screwing up the antenna response, a vertical iphone
would likely have better reception, _especially_ if it's a dipole-like.

~~~
juiceandjuice
Also of note, most antennas at towers tend to be an array of dipoles with
reflectors.

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moomba
Your glass will always be half empty with an iphone in it.

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achivetta
I wonder, is the glass just holding the phone at the right angle for the
polarity of the phone's antenna and the available signal to match up? If so,
this trick wouldn't likely work places other than that restaurant.

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ElliotH
Works on my cheap Galaxy Apollo in a pint glass - nice.

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JoeAltmaier
Could there be a metal component to the glass?

~~~
rjprins
It could be lead glass.. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_glass>

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shakhan
So....let's try it...here's the glass..in goes the phone..[20 seconds
later]...dang...doesn't work...oh wait, wasn't there waterrrr.....sh##, double
sh##... :P

