Apple Beefing Up iPhone and iPad Antenna Engineering Staff

[chrmjenkins]

I am surprised they need PhD level staff. Someone with a High School Degree could figure how to resolve the antenna. Common sense should be the only qualification.

They don't call RF design part "Black Magic" for nothing. Normally, electrical engineers don't have to design for environments in which the users may be actively touching the components during operation, and the environment is constant unless the temperature reaches a critical point. RF engineers have to deal with the human body, orientation, and a variety of environments. It's not easy.

 

[NT1440]

Hey, instead of attacking the reasonable comments in this thread as being "illogical", why don't you (and nt440) apply your logical powers of deduction to the matter in hand? I'm sure I'm not the only one who seeks enlightenment from your goodselves. If such enlightenment is not forthcoming then you should cease making comments that continue to expose your arrogant ignorance.

We're just sick of the "theres an issue! therefore apple did literally no testing, knew of the problem, its a massive conspiracy!" type posts. Can we keep the discussions to the known facts.

Fact: There is a problem
Fact: Without any official word there is no current known cause, it may be the design, but it can just as easily be a software issue.

I personally think its a software problem, but I'm not ignorant enough to declare it fact and get others frenzied up about it. I'll wait till the facts are known, you know, patience.

 

[chrmjenkins]

My EVO doesnt drop signal when my finger covers any one part or the phone. Neither does my BB9700... sorry!

I see your anecdote and raise you:

http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g/107786-signal-loss-when-holding-evo-same-iphone4.html

All phones do it. The iphone 4's issue is more exaggerated than others.

 

[e-coli]

which reminds me...when are they going to release that long awaited fix for the WiFi iPad's reception / DHCP issue?

I'm beginning to think Apple considers us to be a bunch of raccoons: "Look at the shiny object." Maybe partially true , but that shiny object should work.

 

[Poll Smoker]

We're just sick of the "theres an issue! therefore apple did literally no testing, knew of the problem, its a massive conspiracy!" type posts. Can we keep the discussions to the known facts.

Fact: There is a problem
Fact: Without any official word there is no current known cause, it may be the design, but it can just as easily be a software issue.

I personally think its a software problem, but I'm not ignorant enough to declare it fact and get others frenzied up about it. I'll wait till the facts are known, you know, patience.

Wow, imagine that. Speculation taking place on a site called "MacRumors."

Fact: There is a problem.

Fact: Jobs denied there is a problem.

Now what, Apple Butt-Boy?

 

[NT1440]

which reminds me...when are they going to release that long awaited fix for the WiFi iPad's reception / DHCP issue?

I'm beginning to think Apple considers us to be a bunch of raccoons: "Look at the shiny object." Maybe partially true , but that shiny object should work.

You guys realize that issues take time to fix then test right? Then one fix might open up a whole other flaw. Design is not an easy thing to do.

Besides, didn't that issue have something to do with routers not switching correctly or something like that?

 

[Archeriomc]

Crazy

Again I have had all of the different generations of iPhone if you wrap your hand all the way around any of them the bars would drop!! That's the way this stuff works when you touch a antenna when it's trying to send or receive your impeding it's ability, you guys never had a TV with rabbit ear antenna's did you. Bunch of whinners

 

[Mr. Zorg]

Those were all posted before the iPhone 4 even came out, so clearly it's not "in response" to user complaints.

But still funny...

 

[Fuchal]

Again I have had all of the different generations of iPhone if you wrap your hand all the way around any of them the bars would drop!! That's the way this stuff works when you touch a antenna when it's trying to send or receive your impeding it's ability, you guys never had a TV with rabbit ear antenna's did you. Bunch of whinners

Bars dropping is not the same as ending all data and voice...

Putting a finger on the left hand corner works like a flood gate for data on my phone - pages load when i lift my finger, when i put the finger down all loading stops... can repeat over and over during one page load.

 

[misterquin]

This is totally unrelated to the faulty design of the iPhone 4.

 

[TonyLukes3]

We're just sick of the "theres an issue! therefore apple did literally no testing, knew of the problem, its a massive conspiracy!" type posts. Can we keep the discussions to the known facts.

Fact: There is a problem
Fact: Without any official word there is no current known cause, it may be the design, but it can just as easily be a software issue.

I personally think its a software problem, but I'm not ignorant enough to declare it fact and get others frenzied up about it. I'll wait till the facts are known, you know, patience.

Thank you, I too am sick of the bandwagon comments. We all know there's an issue, but people also tend to forget that Apple is a major corporation that didn't get to where it is by releasing products early and without testing. Let's all shut up and wait for an official response before playing armchair quarterback and spouting nonsense If they offer a fix that doesn't work, then by all means have at them! But seeing as a majority of us aren't experts on cellular technology, particularly as it relates to antennas and radio signals, let's ease up on the conjectures and speculation.

And to those of you who think that these job postings are all in response to this issue, really?! Do you not understand HR and the hiring process, particularly for big corporations? It's not like they'll filter through thousands of applications, interview, and hire someone within a few days so they can get right to work on this problem! Wow...

Sorry, but I've gotten so sick of all the posts and bs articles on the issue. There's my rant for today lol

 

[Gators Fan]

Apple is squandering a great goodwill opportunity

Apple is being "penny wise and pound foolish" by not just providing disgruntled owners of the iPhone 4 with a free bumper. For the sake of the pennies it costs to produce them, the company would be wise to just provide them to those that can demonstrate, in person at perhaps the Genius Bar, signal degradation when the phone is held "normally." Yes, the company will lose the potential revenue of selling bumpers to some, but they're putting their entire product line at-risk by failing to be proactive as a responsible tech giant should.

Apple spends hundreds of millions of dollars getting people into their stores. This seems like a perfect opportunity to do just that for pennies-per-unit.

 

[Master Chief]

Good news. Apple appears to be taking things seriously, but these 'new' positions might not be related to iPhone 4 issues. Maybe Apple is just preparing for (a) future product(s).

 

[Anuba]

I don't believe this has anything to do with the current issues, other than the possibility that they sacked a bunch of people and are now filling the vacancies.

In Apple's warped universe, the iPhone 4's antenna design was a monumental success, and they're now hiring more hands to continue in the same direction and build even weirder antennas in the future. They're probably looking to put a similar antenna on the iPad. Heck, for the next iPhone they're probably hoping to move the antenna to the headphones and bringing in 'radiation experts' to see if it can be done in any way that doesn't fry the user's brain, just cook it a little bit.

 

[merlinw]

These jobs were posted before the "problem" and aslo if you read one of the last articles here, many phones have less signal than iPhone 4 even touching the left corner and about all have less signal when held in hand. So i'm sorry, considering also micro sim issue, probably Steve is completely right.

Right, as were the 'bumpers'
Looks like they did find out about the problem BEFORE the release.

 

[Ingot]

Glad this news made it to the site!

1st bumper cases out of the blue and now number of "antenna jobs" means only one thing... Skip iPhone 4 and possibly get iPhone 5 next year

That's my plan. Nothing wrong with my 3GS yet.

 

[CalebF]

Um, this is how i see it:

1. apple designed the iphone 4 with a crappy antenna design
2. apple released the iphone 4 and there are huge hardware issues
3. apple fires the iphone 4 antenna staff
4. apple denies any antenna issues to the public
5. apple begins to hire new antenna staff to fix the antenna problem....for the iphone 5
6. iphone 4 customers are screwed until the iphone 5 comes out
7. apple will release the iphone 5 next year with a revolutionary and magical feature, the iphone 5 now makes....phone calls.

= Fail

You forgot:

5. We ARE NOT appeasing customers with free bumpers – DON’T promise a free bumper to customers.

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010...-iphone-4-antenna-troubleshooting-procedures/

 

[carlgo]

Jobs really needs to get out of the Imperial Palace. I sense a disconnect from the people and he needs to go out amongst them. When he knows them, he will treat them as worthy souls, not just cash cows.

Oh, and take only an iPhone and travel around some...

 

[Tarrant64]

I bet the whole iPhone4 engineering team was fired.

I was just about to post that myself. I bet you this is the replacement for their iSuck at developing phone antenna team.

I'd be more irritated if the decision to leave it as it upon production release was a management decision, and not at fault of the engineers (most likely the case).

 

[Tarrant64]

Jobs really needs to get out of the Imperial Palace. I sense a disconnect from the people and he needs to go out amongst them. When he knows them, he will treat them as worthy souls, not just cash cows.

Oh, and take only an iPhone and travel around some...

Everyone had the same feeling back when Apple was struggling a few years ago and it was questionable whether or not they had a future. Granted, they were under a different CEO at the time, but the overall treatment of Apple towards it's customers remains fairly the same now as it was then. And they are still turning massive profits.

 

[DaREdBaRoN]

This is not due to customer complaints as the jobs were posted before people got their iPhones. This is probably to work on making the next iPhone compatible with 4g technology thats going to be rolled out this year

 

[Rootus]

Shouldn't Apple have hired the antenna engineers before they released their problematic "revolutionary" antenna to the world? I guess that's just not the way Apple does things...

Obviously what they should be doing is coming onto MacRumors and consulting all the 16 year old "engineers" here.

 

[ChrisJSNh]

This is not due to customer complaints as the jobs were posted before people got their iPhones. This is probably to work on making the next iPhone compatible with 4g technology thats going to be rolled out this year

please,,,,, about 50% of the preorders were delivered on the 23rd... i am not saying conspiracy, but setting facts straight.
i can also tell you i called apple to say i had big problems with 2 phones at 12:30 Easterntime on the 23rd

 

[harley3k]

costly secrets...

I think if Apple weren't so secretive about their designs and testing, they may have caught a reception/antenna issue like this if they allowed phones in the wild without Disguised Cases to make them look like 3G phones.

Still I'm not having any issues with reception, no matter how I hold the phone.
I always have a very strong signal pretty much anywhere in Dallas, and maybe that is the reason I don't see the problem.

It would be interesting to see tear-downs of phones that have the problem and those that don't to see if there are any differences.

 

[Eriden]

From a legal perspective, it's not really "evidence" at all.

My mistake! I should have said that all the internal emails and memos (minus those subject to privilege) relating to the decision to hire multiple antennae engineers before the i4 launch will be used as evidence that Apple knowingly launched a defective product.

But we both know that a class action is very unlikely to make it to discovery, much less trial. The parties will settle out of court long before a trial date approaches. Members of the class will collect just enough to pay for a bumper case, and the KPR attorneys will walk away millions richer.