Apple Takes on Droid X With Latest Smartphone Antenna Video

[kdarling]

Show me that you can make a call at -121 dB, as anandtech proved on iPhone 4, with an internal antenna. It's a trade off: sensitivity for attenuation. Once you know what spot to avoid, the iPhone 4 is indeed a better PHONE than previous models.

If so, then Apple could and should be making videos showing that the iP4 antenna can be beneficial in some situations.

That would be a lot more impressive and positive tactic.

And a far, far better defense of the antenna than insanely pointing out that it can behave as badly as some other antennas.

 

[DMann]

If so, then Apple could and should be making videos showing that the iP4 antenna can be beneficial in some situations.

That would be a lot more impressive and positive tactic.

And a far, far better defense of the antenna than insanely pointing out that it can behave as badly as some other antennas.

Quite true, and perhaps, in the near future, they will.

Unfortunately, Droid's ad campaign "Hold the phone anyway you like" made it necessary to address things accordingly.

 

[macchiato2009]

Did Steve have a testicular cancer or what ?

the whole story about the lost prototype was already ridiculous

now, Apple is only trying to prove us that they don't have the balls to assume that they screwed up with the conception of the iphone 4...

 

[stingerman]

Quite true, and perhaps, in the near future, they will.

Unfortunately, Droid's ad campaign "Hold the phone anyway you like" made it necessary to address things accordingly.

True that. It's clear that behind all the Apple bashing were Google employees and developers. They started it at their I/O conference. Apple is not stupid, Apple is not going to just sit by while Google and co play their dirty tricks.

Notice how quickly the Antennae issue went away in the press after Apple stepped into the ring, that alone tells you how fabricated the iphone bashing is...

 

[DMann]

Did Steve have a testicular cancer or what ?

the whole story about the lost prototype was already ridiculous

now, Apple is only trying to prove us that they don't have the balls to assume that they screwed up with the conception of the iphone 4...

If the design performs better in terms of reception and sensitivity, I'd hardly consider it a "screw up."

If ripping the case off of my old Blackberry would have improved the reception on that thing, I would have done the same.

 

[stingerman]

Did Steve have a testicular cancer or what ?

the whole story about the lost prototype was already ridiculous

now, Apple is only trying to prove us that they don't have the balls to assume that they screwed up with the conception of the iphone 4...

iPhone 4 works great, better reception than an Android phone. o we even want to discuss the awful battery life of the Android phones if you actually try to use them for anything more than a phone. The inconsistency, the regular crashes, the multitude of OS versions out in the wild. Google is still in beta with Android, and if their previous software products are any indication will continue to be a beta for the next 5 years.

 

[DMann]

True that. It's clear that behind all the Apple bashing were Google employees and developers. They started it at their I/O conference. Apple is not stupid, Apple is not going to just sit by while Google and co play their dirty tricks.

Notice how quickly the Antennae issue went away in the press after Apple stepped into the ring, that alone tells you how fabricated the iphone bashing is...

How right you are.

Instigators are rarely held accountable in regard to the perception of situations, such as this.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

iPhone 4 works great, better reception than an Android phone. o we even want to discuss the awful battery life of the Android phones if you actually try to use them for anything more than a phone. The inconsistency, the regular crashes, the multitude of OS versions out in the wild. Google is still in beta with Android, and if their previous software products are any indication will continue to be a beta for the next 5 years.

I don't understand these comments. I have had my EVO for a week now and had an original iPhone up until then. Honestly besides the UI being different they do the same exact damn thing.

 

[Son of Matrix]

this is getting to be childish. why don't you focus on fixing your own problems apple and how about actually releasing the white iphone? that'd be great mkky thks bye

I don't like the way Apple handle things these days. I am disenchanted as well. Come on. You are marketing premium products and we are paying extra for them. But now they want to compare themselves with the "commons".

I hope Microsoft will use this opportunity to do something like Apple vs Microsoft with the joke now on Apple.

Why bother about exposing other people's problem when the fact that iPhone is first phone where people initially realised the problem? Why Apple's customer realise it but not other phone's customer?

I feel that this behavious has no class...no dignity...not gentlemanly... it's like very very very dirty.. make me sick of associating myself with Apple product

 

[i.mac]

Went to the mall...

Handled ever smart phone available...

Evident that each phone is competing with iPhone 3Gs...

every phone (smart or not) exhibits the same behavior of signal attenuation...

Conclusion: iPhone 4 is the best phone with the best user experience (think of the awesome FaceTime feature)

I don't understand these comments. I have had my EVO for a week now and had an original iPhone up until then. Honestly besides the UI being different they do the same exact damn thing.

Evo == original iPhone + 3 years late

No it's actually PLAIN FACT I was in both the stores myself yesterday.

I am sorry you cannot accept pure anecdotal evidence but then again you probably think the iPhone 4 doesn't drop calls.

It does not for me

 

[Veri]

I feel that this behavious has no class...no dignity...not gentlemanly... it's like very very very dirty.. make me sick of associating myself with Apple product

So true. Sell your product on its merits. Respond to criticism of your product by proving the criticism wrong or by fixing the problem.

"We may suck but everyone else sorta does too," is treating the consumer as a bleating, helpless fool. And when people defend their right to be treated as bleating, helpless fools... well, I look up and notice I'm living in the West at the start of the 21th century.

This poem needs update.

 

[shambolicious]

Went to the mall...

Handled ever smart phone available...

Evident that each phone is competing with iPhone 3Gs...

every phone (smart or not) exhibits the same behavior of signal attenuation...

Conclusion: iPhone 4 is the best phone with the best user experience (think of the awesome FaceTime feature)

But the iPhone the only one entirely disabled with the single tip of a finger.

Conclusion: A telephonic device that cannot telecommunicate is a useless telephone.

It really is that simple.

 

[JRabin]

I own a Droid X, and the signal and sound quality is outstanding

I've never owned an iphone, including the iphone 4, so I don't have any comment on how serious the antenna issue is.

But, I do own an Droid X, and I can tell you that the signal and sound quality are excellent. I've had it for two weeks, and never had a dropped call. I can make phone calls from the underground garage in my office building, and from within the elevators (which are surrounded by a lot of steel and concrete). No problems. Of course, I don't even bother thinking about the number of bars, because I have no problems with maintaining connections, so I have no idea if the Apple video of the Droid X is correct or not.

The iphone4 may have many advantages over the Droid X, but I really doubt the Droid X is inferior to the iphone4 with respect to call quality. It's immature of Apple to pick on the Droid X in this manner.

 

[DMann]

I don't like the way Apple handle things these days. I am disenchanted as well. Come on. You are marketing premium products and we are paying extra for them.

iPhone pricing is equivalent to most other smart phones on the market.

iPad's pricing is considerably less than the recently-canceled, competing products.

I hope Microsoft will use this opportunity to do something like Apple vs Microsoft with the joke now on Apple.

With what?

Why bother about exposing other people's problem when the fact that iPhone is first phone where people initially realised the problem? Why Apple's customer realise it but not other phone's customer?

I feel that this behavious has no class...no dignity...not gentlemanly... it's like very very very dirty..

Perhaps you ought to be directing this hostility toward Google, not Apple:

"Hold the phone anyway you like", 6/20/2010

 

[Son of Matrix]

iPhone pricing is equivalent to most other smart phones on the market.

iPad's pricing is considerably less than the recently-canceled, competing products.

These two Apple products are dumbed down simplified versions. I'm sure.

 

[Veri]

iPad's pricing is considerably less than the recently-canceled, competing products.

Well, 30 seconds before writing this post I sketched up a competing product at $299 so... yes, comparing with the price of a product which was never produced is meaningless.

Perhaps you ought to be directing this hostility toward Google, not Apple

Let me be the first to say that, in political terms, Google suck. Compared to Google, Apple are unicorns and roses. Apple want to sell me hardware. They want my loyalty. They want to control my technology experience[tm]. I'm not happy with all of that, but I know what they want.

Google, OTOH, make it their business to know everything they can about me. Their PR is way more insidious than Apple's. Apple claim to be shiny perfect (and they are very good). Google claim to be moral perfect (and they're nowhere near).

However, as far as the argument goes, it may be directed to whoever produced the ad and Apple.

 

[ActionJax]

All I know is that my iPhone 4 goes from 5 bars to 1 when I hold the phone in my left hand (iOS 4.0.1). I've never seen any other phone do that. Apple can post a hundred of these videos and it won't change the fact that the iPhone 4's response to human touch is in another league than its competitors. If my job didn't require me to have the latest iPhone, I would return it and wait for the next iPhone.

 

[leorou]

I couldn't care less about how to grab other cellphones to verify the lack of signal problem. The bottom line is that Apple messed up on where to put the antenna and for that is paying a high punishment. C'mon Apple, this videos only show how the other manufacturers care about the antenna position and how they thought about it so they wouldn't messed up as you did. The videos are plain sad, that's my opinion.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

Evo == original iPhone + 3 years late

Wrong. I have the original iPhone and an EVO. The EVO is on par to the current iPhone they are just different. Its like the Ford vs Chevy argument.

 

[firewood]

But the iPhone the only one entirely disabled with the single tip of a finger.

Conclusion: A telephonic device that cannot telecommunicate is a useless telephone.

It really is that simple.

And this kind of post simply reduces your credibility to zero. Why? Because I'm downloading and reading your comment on a bare iPhone 4 with the tip of my finger directly on the "death gap" (wifi off, cellular data on).

And my 3GS is entirely disabled without even touching it! Why? Because it doesn't even get a signal in some places where my i4 does.

It's really is that simple.

 

[MorphingDragon]

In the CPU etc sense I agree, and it's reasonable in context to use "computer" to mean "something which computes", but when most people read "computer" they think "general-purpose electronic computer". An iPhone isn't one of them - it lacks the interface and the opportunity for control (unjailbroken).

The touchscreen is a perfectly adequate conduit from man to machine by way of thumbs.

By your logic, I could also say that any computer running windows is not a real computer as it lacks the opportunity for control, ditto for Mac OSX. (Think about that)

FWIW, my original IBM AT Model M keyboard is still going strong and still several times more powerful and more capable (in mechanical terms) than many of the better keyboards on the market today. The interface and the openness of the AT's internals are simply not matched by the iPhone.

Did you seriously compare a keyboard to an entire computer? That's just as useless as the car-computer analogies. Also, such a thing is a non-comparison. The iPhone doesn't have keyboard hardware internals.

 

[kdarling]

Notice how quickly the Antennae issue went away in the press after Apple stepped into the ring, that alone tells you how fabricated the iphone bashing is...

It tells me how shallow-thinking the press is these days. Jobs did some handwaving and nobody questioned even the most outrageously simple misdirections that he presented.

E.g. Giving only the ATT return rate instead of Apple store or even overall return rates. If anyone of us here posted half-baked stats like that in this forum, we'd get instantly nailed

As for the issue being taken care of, my 85 year old non-tech-news mother shocked me by telling me how "sad" it was for Apple that CR didn't recommend their phone. She even knew it was an antenna problem. So she'd heard about CR. But she never heard about the press conference.

Perhaps you ought to be directing this hostility toward Google, not Apple:

"Hold the phone anyway you like", 6/20/2010

Not a Google ad. You mean Motorola?

 

[-aggie-]

It tells me how shallow-thinking the press is these days. Jobs did some handwaving and nobody questioned even the most outrageously simple misdirections that he presented.

E.g. Giving only the ATT return rate instead of Apple store or even overall return rates. If anyone of us here posted half-baked stats like that in this forum, we'd get instantly nailed

As for the issue being taken care of, my 85 year old non-tech-news mother shocked me by telling me how "sad" it was for Apple that CR didn't recommend their phone. She even knew it was an antenna problem. So she'd heard about CR. But she never heard about the press conference.

Not a Google ad. You mean Motorola?

With the rush to judgement the press made before the press conference, don’t you think the press would have rushed to report a story about all the people returning their iPhone 4’s? If you think people have been returning their phones in droves and the media/press didn’t realize this, then I don’t know what to think. This is all that matters, not what Steve said at a press conference that was for damage control.

 

[macpro2000]

All of this is so old already.

 

[LagunaSol]

If so, then Apple could and should be making videos showing that the iP4 antenna can be beneficial in some situations.

Agreed.

And a far, far better defense of the antenna than insanely pointing out that it can behave as badly as some other antennas.

Is it an "insane" defense when your competitors are publicly using this as an attack point without admitting their own products feature a similar (if arguably less sensitive) flaw?

Should Apple sit by as Moto/Verizon run ads saying you can hold the DROID X "any way you like" - a point which, as we've seen in video evidence (from Apple and actual DROID X users), is not true at all?

NOTE: sorry, I now see DMann addressed these same points in an earlier post.