A Look Inside Apple's Wireless Testing Facilities

[newdeal]

...

All this demonstrates is what everyone already knew. Scientific testing is good but controlled test lav results do not equal real world results. Testing in an isolated chamber isn't the same as walking down the street and to say apple put the band there on purpose to show off where not to touchnit is BS. The band should have been on top of the phone problem solved

 

[Piggie]

Same here as well. When I grip my Blackberry Curve 8530 on Verizon that I have for work, I've noticed the same thing. The bars go down from 5 to 3 in my house. I loose 2 bars when gripping my Blackberry Curve 8530.

Can you take the tip of one finger and by pressing this single finger tip alone, anywhere on the outside of the phone, cause the single strength to drop right down?

 

[MorphingDragon]

Can you take the tip of one finger and by pressing this single finger tip alone, anywhere on the outside of the phone, cause the single strength to drop right down?

My old nokia did that.

 

[Deepshade]

Just goes to show...you can have millions of $ of tech to hand... but what it really needs is real world field tests with USERS, not engineers.

 

[liamoblomy]

this posting of everything they went through at the conference is a bit lame. just post the video link, most people have seen all this already from the live feed of the event.

 

[Entrance]

.

On the subject of H&S (and privacy), I did feel a little uneasy to observe that one doctor I used from time to time was using an iPhone (not 4) as an administrative device in the surgery. Oh well, at least it wasn't logged into GMail!

Hmm, you might have a point. My doctor has her iPhone sitting in a dock on her desk ... think it's her private phone. If it's not maybe there is a health and safety issue

 

[kernkraft]

So their failure with coming up with a decent design wasn't down to not having the right facilities.

What might have happened was that somebody at the design team was louder than anybody from the engineering team.

 

[Journojulz]

Bad ass.

Just goes to show...you can have millions of $ of tech to hand... but what it really needs is real world field tests with USERS, not engineers.

Three million users, increase in dropped calls compared to 3Gs? less than 1%

Even assuming they didn't do real world tests (and it's pretty safe to assume they did) the margin of error in a real world test would have dwarfed the findings.

 

[tkingart]

I have been an owner of the iPhone 3G for almost two years. At first, my reception was outstanding, better than any phone I have owned in the past. But for the last 6 months or so, I have experienced the worst reception I can ever recall. Typically, I have about two or three dropped calls per day, rarely am I on the "3G" Network AT&T brags about, usually I am on the "E" or, Edge Network that they don't talk about because it is so crappy. And no, I don't live in the sticks, I live in a large city that is about one hour away from Atlanta. This has been an ongoing battle that I, as an AT&T customer, am losing every day. Upon calling to question the poor reception on my iPhone 3G, they respond by telling me the entire State of Georgia is experiencing outages and it could take some time to repair. Now, I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday... is this what they tell all of their customers experiencing dropped calls and crappy coverage? I am convinced this is an AT&T issue, they refuse to acknowledge that they suck, and they are passing the buck to Apple.

I also think that the network may be a significant factor, or even at the root of the issue.

I've been going through posts here and there, too busy to do anything but a brief sarcasm or make light of things, but reading how people in London aren't having any dropped calls, and they appear to have a strong network there, I'd love to see an iPhone4 tested in many locations on another network, just for the sake of argument.

 

[Journojulz]

What might have happened was that somebody at the design team was louder than anybody from the engineering team.

Or the engineer that showed the external design works better in low signal conditions was louder and was joined by the battery engineer.

Everything is a compromise

 

[OllyW]

$100 million on test facilities and they still didn't spot the signal strength display was inaccurate, even though cnet had noticed 2 years ago.

 

[uMac]

I've seen similar (though much larger) rooms for satellite testing, I'm amazed although not surprised that Apple is doing this level of testing.

 

[Max(IT)]

Whether they spend $100 million or $500 million on antenna test facilities, if they don't test their products the right way, then they will release a defective product. I bet not a single one of their anechoic chamber tests involved even a human dummy holding an iphone. They probably just tested the iPhone 4 in total isolation.

here we go again ...
Someone thinking to be the smartest guy of the world, knowing how to teach to 18 RF engineers how to do their job

So Apple spent $100 million on this facility, but they clearly are just a bunch of amateurs, right ?

 

[chim9999]

im curious. i'm out of town, can't update my phone. anyone have a screen shot of what the new bars look like?

 

[chocolaterabbit]

Three million users, increase in dropped calls compared to 3Gs? less than 1%

Nope, the increase in dropped calls compared to 3Gs overall might be less than 1%, however that figure is pointless without comparing the relative increase.
Let's assume that dropped calls are around 1 per 100 for a 3Gs. If the iPhone 4 drops one more call per 100, that's 2 per 100 calls, or an increase of 100%.
A more forgiving scenario might be 20-30%, in which case 21-31% is still around 5% more.

Apple spun the statistic. You would be foolish to quote the absolute figure.

 

[Veri]

So Apple spent $100 million on this facility, but they clearly are just a bunch of amateurs, right ?

Microsoft claim to have spent $6,000,000,000 on Vista development, so by my calculations Vista is a 60 times better experience than an iPhone antenna.

Apple spun the statistic. You would be foolish to quote the absolute figure.

Contrary to that awful song, it's not just about the dropped calls but the increase in battery usage, lower data transfer speed and dropped voice/data packets. My old Nokia 6230 is very good at tenaciously hanging on to calls even when I can't hear half of what's being said. This is a good thing, as I want to be the one to decide when the call's not worth continuing, but it wouldn't count in a dropped call stat.

 

[scoobydoo99]

.... a claim Jobs today called a "crock" and "total ********".

wait. it's okay for MR to post profanity on the front page, but i can't use it in my reply. hmmmm. the height of self-important arrogance. now that's a crock of ****!

 

[carlgo]

and by where you mean the test van they stated they used to drive around everywhere and test the phone jackass?

Everyone knows that is the AT&T mobile cell van that follows Jobs everywhere so that he has good reception, even with the iClotheshanger antenna.

 

[Orion27]

I'm curious. I have an iPhone 4. I think it's a great device and it's actually more receptive in places where previously I had difficulty getting a signal. That being said, I have a case which prevents the attenuation issue. If Apple were to come up with a hardware fix before my one year warranty, what would my options be? Would I be entitled to an iPhone 4 B revision phone?

 

[Chad H]

here we go again ...
Someone thinking to be the smartest guy of the world, knowing how to teach to 18 RF engineers how to do their job

So Apple spent $100 million on this facility, but they clearly are just a bunch of amateurs, right ?

Exactly what I was thinking. I love how some people on here think they are masters at RF engineering. No, I'm not a fanboy I'm just saying that Apple really does hire some of the smartest people in the world in certain areas. What does this mean? That some members need to realize they aren't cellphone engineers.

 

[PolarIced]

Other Cool Engineering Sites (Slightly OT)

This is cooler:

...but of course, these guys are probably copying Apple

Thanks for posting that!

I was going to post my home town's Johnson Space Center Building 14 - Antenna Test Facility. Here's a Quicktime panoramic:

http://www.time.com/time/reports/space/quicktime2/chamber.html

Remember to mouse it around!

 

[NewtonsApple]

Whoah, Steve Jobs really IS Willie Wonka!!!!!!

Dude, you hit the nail on the head! It was bugging me what the conference reminded me of and Wonka was it! Steve IS Willie Wonka of a modern age!

 

[.Andy]

Exactly what I was thinking. I love how some people on here think they are masters at RF engineering. No, I'm not a fanboy I'm just saying that Apple really does hire some of the smartest people in the world in certain areas. What does this mean? That some members need to realize they aren't cellphone engineers.

Including hiring a few extra when things went pear shaped.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/30/apple-hiring-iphone-antenna-engineers-for-some-reason/

 

[kernkraft]

Everything is a compromise

That's a noble thought, although I don't think that there was a need for this compromise. In this case, style considerations must have grossly overshadowed everything else. The battery gain is not entirely coming from the placement of the antenna. They could have used plastic or an antenna that was better implemented.

I feel that 'everything is compromise' fitting situations, like when I'm hesitant between a 323i and a 318i. One is more powerful and better equipped, but the other one is better on fuel and cheaper to insure.

 

[Piggie]

I can give you an example from where I work.

In the past we had a numbering scheme that had worked perfectly for decades.
Each item was given a number to identify it, and these items were related to 1 product.

So, each product was given it's own unique number (in house) and everything related to product was given a sub number that was related to this master number.

Meaning that with just 1 number, every other sum-number (item) could be found.

And this worked perfectly for years and anyone I could explain this to, would see it was simple, logical and foolproof.

Then along comes a new guy who the boss thinks is Mr Wonderful and everything he does is right.

He decides this old working system is no good and he says his new system is better.

Every item (related to the same product) has it's own unique number that it unrelated to any other item for that product.

So, nothing can be found, unless you use a computer to keep track of everything.

I try and explain, this is fine in a perfect world, but in the real world, things don't always get recorded 100% and mistakes can happen and the old system, was simple and was foolproof and had proven itself over literally decades.

So what is the outcome?

I am deemed a stick in the mud, not wishing to embrace change. The new system has been implemented (that I have to work with)
And already many times things can't be found as (as I warned) records are not always kept as up to date as they should be.

So many things are in a mess, but we can't move back to the old way.

And all because someone the boss thinks can do no wrong has his own idea to change a working simple system.