Sounds like those stickers that were popular a decade ago. Stick it on the inside of your battery cover.
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Hands-On With the Reach79 Signal Boosting Case - Does It Work?
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The Pong Research web site makes it sound like these cases provide more benefit for transmitting rather than receiving. That could be equally valuable.
There's not much point in testing these things other than in controlled laboratory conditions.
There's not much point in testing these things other than in controlled laboratory conditions.
Antenna79 is the parent company of both Reach79 and Pong. Reach79 is a new direction the company is taking, with a focus on boosting signal strength rather than offering radiation protection. Pong is a separate product line that will continue to exist.
Stupid is what stupid buys.
Products like these are the Q-Ray of the phone industry; products for people that won't use common sense or rational thought to dismiss the claims of a product and are influenced by a placebo effect that the product actually works.
Also the price of the case is what convinces naive and gullible people that it must work. If the case was $10, most people would naturally think it is bulls**t. But make the case $80 then it must work. Same as why Q-Ray costs hundreds of dollars, because slapping $2 worth of plated aluminum around your wrist naturally would be bulls**t.
Now for the annoying blog argument from people that think Q-Ray actually does work...
Products like these are the Q-Ray of the phone industry; products for people that won't use common sense or rational thought to dismiss the claims of a product and are influenced by a placebo effect that the product actually works.
Also the price of the case is what convinces naive and gullible people that it must work. If the case was $10, most people would naturally think it is bulls**t. But make the case $80 then it must work. Same as why Q-Ray costs hundreds of dollars, because slapping $2 worth of plated aluminum around your wrist naturally would be bulls**t.
Now for the annoying blog argument from people that think Q-Ray actually does work...
Even if you have a case that magically improves reception from a wireless tower, you would still need to further amplify your signal to reach said tower; meaning, the case must have an amplifier and battery.
It would be useless if it improves the incoming signal while your outgoing signal is unable to reach the tower.
It would be useless if it improves the incoming signal while your outgoing signal is unable to reach the tower.
So basically in real-world conditions it only offers a slight improvement.
(See how much time/space I saved there?)
I find it telling they said "almost half of the time " . That seems to me no better than chance. To those who say it should just be tested under lab conditions , bullocks. If it doesn't yield gains in the field it is worthless. It doesn't matter what it does under ideal conditions.
I don't believe this is working as a parasitic element, but rather through inductive coupling. Thus, no directionality change.
Not true. I go out to my cousin's house out in the boonies and AT&T and Sprint work fine. No service on Verizon. There is a subway close to where I work and all the other big three providers work fine when we walk in (co-workers have different carriers), but no service on Verizon. Yet there is a Firehouse subs where all other cell phones work, but AT&T doesn't. How odd. Overall though, I am happy with Big Red.
Net benefit
These sorts of products, with more or less random results, are often sold as "helping in some situations". The trouble is, they do nothing or make things worse in others. At the end of the day, the net benefit of the device is probably zero.
Not for nothin', but conformation bias is a powerful effect, and this plays right into it. Anecdotal stories are not a way to evaluate this antenna. Claims like that from a manufacturer are most likely intended to mislead consumers. The claims aren't false exactly, but they leave a hell of a lot out.
A series of well designed & replicable tests is the only way to actually evaluate this thing. If the effect is real it will stand out against the noise of the experiments. For example, the average number of bars of the enhanced phone will be higher than the average of a standard phone during a set of trials.
These sorts of products, with more or less random results, are often sold as "helping in some situations". The trouble is, they do nothing or make things worse in others. At the end of the day, the net benefit of the device is probably zero.
Not for nothin', but conformation bias is a powerful effect, and this plays right into it. Anecdotal stories are not a way to evaluate this antenna. Claims like that from a manufacturer are most likely intended to mislead consumers. The claims aren't false exactly, but they leave a hell of a lot out.
A series of well designed & replicable tests is the only way to actually evaluate this thing. If the effect is real it will stand out against the noise of the experiments. For example, the average number of bars of the enhanced phone will be higher than the average of a standard phone during a set of trials.
Not saying that Verizon is perfect but for the vast majority of the time I have no issues. I drove from Chicago to California a few ago and there was only one location that had zero service; at the bottom of Muir woods. I have also driven to New York, Florida and Canada and have yet to see a major issue. Verizon has been one of the most reliable services I've used. Not saying that it's 100% bullet proof but good enough not to want some silly case to boost signal throughout my daily activities.
Seems like a lot of skeptics out there, but I'll say this:
If it even only offers a small improvement, I'd be interested. I have very spotty service inside my house, but extremely strong service just outside. We suspect this is due to our radiant barrier and unavoidable.
Sometimes I can hold 1 bar, but it cuts out and is inconsistent. I'd be interested in trying this case out just so I could get an extra bar's worth of consistency so I can receive calls at home. It's not an issue when talking with friends or family as we can just use FaceTime Audio. But when calling the cable company or some other vendor I often have to go outside and therefore can't read off numbers or give them information they are looking for.
This case would offer a far cheaper option than a $200 microcell or booster antenna that requires work to mount and set up.
If it even only offers a small improvement, I'd be interested. I have very spotty service inside my house, but extremely strong service just outside. We suspect this is due to our radiant barrier and unavoidable.
Sometimes I can hold 1 bar, but it cuts out and is inconsistent. I'd be interested in trying this case out just so I could get an extra bar's worth of consistency so I can receive calls at home. It's not an issue when talking with friends or family as we can just use FaceTime Audio. But when calling the cable company or some other vendor I often have to go outside and therefore can't read off numbers or give them information they are looking for.
This case would offer a far cheaper option than a $200 microcell or booster antenna that requires work to mount and set up.
Inductive coupling is a form of parasitic energy exchange. RF radiation patterns will change due to any inductive element(s) in the RF near-field.
A good example of why people should read the full article before getting preemptively offended & ranting.
As an EE and radio operator for years, you have that right. What I see here is the case places on an parasitic antenna grid that can improve signal if pointed at the sell tower properly. I guess you can use the signal strength indicator on the iPhone to tell if you have your iPhone in the right orientation. The refresh rate of that indicator is not the best and would take several seconds.
One thing I really see this help-out out is having an iPhone tethered as a WiFi hotspot where the iPhone is usually stationary. Tilt the phone in the right location and you get better signal strength and from that, better bandwidth.
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Seen that work on iPhones!
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At least no air pressure of concern.
This. Enjoy having more dropped calls when you turn your head.
Apple spent over $1 billion to build their cell testing division. Pretty sure if it was as simple as a 10 cent piece of copper they'd have just done that.
This article smells of paid product review and promotion.
I hope MacRumors realizes that if they do not clearly disclose that this is paid or even that they got the product for free, they could see huge law suits from everyone here under the FTC laws.
Haha this is scam! Much like those power balance bands with the hologram sticker that resonates to improve an athletes energy/performance.
You can't create more RF energy our of thin air without... POWER... and there doesn't seem to be any battery hidden inside this case.
Therefore if any improvement is seen by the user it's because RF energy is getting focused in a certain direction which results in another direction experiencing a lower signal.
You can't create more RF energy our of thin air without... POWER... and there doesn't seem to be any battery hidden inside this case.
Therefore if any improvement is seen by the user it's because RF energy is getting focused in a certain direction which results in another direction experiencing a lower signal.
Isn't this just a knockoff of a Pong Case, which has been around for years?
http://www.wired.com/2013/06/an-iphone-case-that-makes-being-safe-sexy/
http://www.wired.com/2013/06/an-iphone-case-that-makes-being-safe-sexy/