Antennagate 2

[applefanDrew]

I found this on my iphone and wanted to see if others could reproduce it...

When I cover the slit on the top of the phone, it causes my wifi signal to degrade, just like the lower left does to cell signal. It only happens when I am away from the router (other side of the house vs. right next to it). Its not a big deal just wondered if anyone else can replicate it.

 

[w00t951]

I can't... Is this a problem? It's not justifiable to call it "Antennagate 2". The chances of this happening to people who use it normally is next to none.

 

[Aucun Express]

Antennagate 3

Antennagate 3: put the iPhone underwater and it drops calls!
Just kidding

 

[applefanDrew]

I can't... Is this a problem? It's not justifiable to call it "Antennagate 2". The chances of this happening to people who use it normally is next to none.

Calm down, its not important at all. The title was just to catch people's attention. I didn't get what was the big deal with the actual antennagate

 

[shandyman]

so using it at the edge of it's coverage where signal is low and you put your finger on the antenna blocking it.... that's not a fault, thats just doing something absurd....

 

[applefanDrew]

so using it at the edge of it's coverage where signal is low and you put your finger on the antenna blocking it.... that's not a fault, thats just doing something absurd....

Actually I had full 3 bars, then it dropped to 2 when I did it. Again, lighten up people. Not a big deal, just interesting. I always wondered why touching the top one didn't effect the cell signal

 

[iphone1105]

Actually I had full 3 bars, then it dropped to 2 when I did it. Again, lighten up people. Not a big deal, just interesting. I always wondered why touching the top one didn't effect the cell signal

You ask people to lighten up, yet you post something with the intent to get people to comment, they do, and you say lighten up, when you intended to cause a reaction.

Also, IMO worthless thread, this isn't an issue.

 

[applefanDrew]

Antennagate 3: put the iPhone underwater and it drops calls!
Just kidding

lol

<sarcasm>

dude, thats totally Apple's fault! It should be waterproof! I expect my phone to work underwater, in the air, after throwing it off a cliff....

</sarcasm>

 

[applefanDrew]

You ask people to lighten up, yet you post something with the intent to get people to comment, they do, and you say lighten up, when you intended to cause a reaction.

Also, IMO worthless thread, this isn't an issue.

Yea I wanted comments, not anger over it.

 

[Coukos34]

Yea I wanted comments, not anger over it.

Looks like the real antennae gate has really gotten everyone really touchy around here. Ill have to try this and see if I can reproduce. Its interesting if true (if only to know that it is there). People need to calm down....

 

[shandyman]

i wasn't angry, just baffled about the absurdity of the statement, you cover an antenna, its gonna lose some signal. thats not a fault.

 

[Aucun Express]

lol

<sarcasm>

dude, thats totally Apple's fault! It should be waterproof! I expect my phone to work underwater, in the air, after throwing it off a cliff....

</sarcasm>

lol, actually, how sweet would it be??? Imagine that, a waterproof iPhone, we could take pictures underwater, that would be just awesome!

 

[applefanDrew]

lol, actually, how sweet would it be??? Imagine that, a waterproof iPhone, we could take pictures underwater, that would be just awesome!

Yea it would be sweet! It'll prob be like iPhone 13 or something.

 

[Coukos34]

i wasn't angry, just baffled about the absurdity of the statement, you cover an antenna, its gonna lose some signal. thats not a fault.

While I agree with your statement.....There is a difference in "covering" an antenna, and placing a lone fingertip on one certain spot. Notice that apples comparison video's didn't show that behavior on any other cell phone they tested.

Oh well, I'm over it anyway. I returned my launch iPhone and then hemmed and hawed everyday for a month about what I should do next. My original 3G died so I said screw it, and picked up another iPhone 4. I grabbed a case immediately and have been happy ever since. I do have to mention that the signal drop/data-stall, I could not reproduce as badly on this new phone. Good enough for me. I got too caught up up in this whole "Antenna gate" crap before anyway. Haven't dropped a call yet and have seen better overall reception than my 3G.

 

[shandyman]

While I agree with your statement.....There is a difference in "covering" an antenna, and placing a lone fingertip on one certain spot. Notice that apples comparison video's didn't show that behavior on any other cell phone they tested.

well since the width ot the antenna seems to be the aluminium side of the case, putting the fingertip on it covers the width, so you are, in essence, covering the antenna, part of it anyway. but still covering it... and since he was at a point where he woulda had very little signal anyway, of course blocking some of it would kill the rest, if you covered any other phone's wifi antenna like that, same problem. the difference with this to the big original antennagate is that you wouldn't normally hold the iphone there like that. anyway i have an iphone 4 that has not had this antennagate issue anyway, perfectly fine so no biggy to me.

 

[-aggie-]

My phone works underwater Briefly

 

[sinsin07]

Calm down, its not important at all. The title was just to catch people's attention. I didn't get what was the big deal with the actual antennagate

You start a thread about nonsense on a touchy subject and use a sensational thread title and then say calm down. Brilliant.

 

[jason221]

This picture isn't exactly clear on which antenna is for which service... but according to this, covering the bottom left antenna wouldn't affect cell (GSM) signal, but rather Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/GPS. Now I'm confused.

By the way, my Wi-Fi also drops from three bars to two bars when I touch the top antenna. I'm currently downstairs, though, and my router is upstairs.

 

[applefanDrew]

This picture isn't exactly clear on which antenna is for which service... but according to this, covering the bottom left antenna wouldn't affect cell (GSM) signal, but rather Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/GPS. Now I'm confused.

By the way, my Wi-Fi also drops from three bars to two bars when I touch the top antenna. I'm currently downstairs, though, and my router is upstairs.

Yea, by looking at that picture, you would think that touching the top and bottom left slit would kill the cell signal. But it's only the bottom left, why is that?

 

[Sleazy E]

Some people just look for things to complain about

 

[-aggie-]

Yea, by looking at that picture, you would think that touching the top and bottom left slit would kill the cell signal. But it's only the bottom left, why is that?

It’s called not understanding how antennas work.

 

[applefanDrew]

It’s called not understanding how antennas work.

duh....thats why I asked.

 

[Rend It]

Yea, by looking at that picture, you would think that touching the top and bottom left slit would kill the cell signal. But it's only the bottom left, why is that?

The sensitive parts of the antennas are the feedpoints. These are the points where the board makes connection to the antennas, usually via a coaxial cable or connector. For the cell signal, this point is at the lower left of the phone. For WiFi, this point is the top, near the headphone jack. It is typically easier to notice the effect of bridging the top gap by running one of the Speedtest apps while using WiFi.

The WiFi effect is noticed less often because people generally use WiFi in areas of relatively strong signal. If 3G signals were generally stronger (i.e., coverage was actually as good as what is claimed by the networks), then Antennagate #1 would have been much less of an issue. I live in Colorado and I returned my iPhone 4 because of the antenna problem (this was before there were so many case options). But, I was in DC recently and noticed (with the dBm meter enabled on my iPhone 3G) that coverage there is much better than out here.

These variations in coverage are, in my opinion, why this is such a heated topic: some people really do not experience reception problems. I had two friends out here that just purchased iP4s, and unfortunately they're experiencing all the same issues I had. The problem now is that they have to wait 4-6 weeks before they can get their free case. 4-6 weeks is anywhere between 0 and 14 days past the 30 day no obligation return policy. Pretty lame.

 

[applefanDrew]

The sensitive parts of the antennas are the feedpoints. These are the points where the board makes connection to the antennas, usually via a coaxial cable or connector. For the cell signal, this point is at the lower left of the phone. For WiFi, this point is the top, near the headphone jack. It is typically easier to notice the effect of bridging the top gap by running one of the Speedtest apps while using WiFi.

The WiFi effect is noticed less often because people generally use WiFi in areas of relatively strong signal. If 3G signals were generally stronger (i.e., coverage was actually as good as what is claimed by the networks), then Antennagate #1 would have been much less of an issue. I live in Colorado and I returned my iPhone 4 because of the antenna problem (this was before there were so many case options). But, I was in DC recently and noticed (with the dBm meter enabled on my iPhone 3G) that coverage there is much better than out here.

These variations in coverage are, in my opinion, why this is such a heated topic: some people really do not experience reception problems. I had two friends out here that just purchased iP4s, and unfortunately they're experiencing all the same issues I had. The problem now is that they have to wait 4-6 weeks before they can get their free case. 4-6 weeks is anywhere between 0 and 14 days past the 30 day no obligation return policy. Pretty lame.

Thanks for the response. Does that mean Apple could "switch the wires" and have the GSM feed go to the top? That wouldn't eliminate the problem but at least make it less noticeable.

 

[Rend It]

Thanks for the response. Does that mean Apple could "switch the wires" and have the GSM feed go to the top? That wouldn't eliminate the problem but at least make it less noticeable.

Not without a significant board redesign. The other problem is that you generally want the transmitted (from the phone) radiation to emit from a point on the phone as far away as possible from the human head. The FCC doesn't exactly require this, but most every manufacturer does so to meet the SAR requirements. Another issue is that the antenna lengths matter to some degree. (Though not as much as some think, because the antennas are by design, wideband. They're not the old-fashioned "resonators" that some might imagine).

In short, there were a lot of engineering challenges that had to be overcome in developing the iP4. The antenna is in large part, an engineering tradeoff most likely with the benefit of a much bigger battery. Apple is probably reevaluating these tradeoffs and determining how to make the antenna less susceptible to touch. But, any change is going to require quite a bit more engineering time.