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Apple Working On Method Of Reducing iPhone Accessory Wireless Interference

I've only been with Cingular/AT&T for about 6 months, but my service has been great.

I don't really live in a rural area, but I travel through some to get to my house and my calls always go through/stay connected.
 
jholzner said:
What's with the smarta** strike-throughs in the article? Doesn't seem appropriate even if you don't like ATT.
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I put the strike-throughs as an experiment to see how the community would respond. Obviously, the response has been mixed so far, with at least one person voicing approval of their use, and a few of you voicing disapproval (note that disapproval typically gets voiced more than approval, however).

That being said, we decided to remove the second strike-through comment. Note that it was not that I particularly dislike AT&T Wireless. I personally have had no experience with them.

That being said, I felt that the patent involved bode well for the story to include a little fun with AT&T's claims about having the fewest dropped calls of any carrier (which I think most customers of theirs would tell you is complete horse crap).
 
Seems to me everybody is paying far to much detail to interpretation than the fact stated.

All this is saying, from where I sit, is that if there is interference the device will advise you. It is that mechanismn that is under patent.

It's not that hard to find other devices on the same frequency, but is kind of nice that the device could warn you. On the flip side the conversation should be more centered around the device fixing it.
 
Just wait, the funny part will be when they discover the detector itself is causing interference...which couldn't be detected...
 
BobbyDigital said:
I have Sprint. I get dropped calls EVERY DAY. Its because I live in a rural area. I travel around the country alot, and when I do, my phone works great most of the time.

Let me just say, I hate when people argue over cell phone providers based on reception. I think they all suck equally as much. They all drop calls. Some cell phone providers are better in certain locations than others.... but in general, they ALL suck.
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I do agree. I don't like when people try to support things based on their own experience. I know I just did that a few posts ago, but it was to show that just because a few people have good service with Cingular doesn't mean that Cingular is the best company. I agree with you... all of them suck equally, some more than others in some areas.
 
longofest said:
How so? It's an Apple patent...
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Because now all we are talking about is iPhone this and iPhone that. Even if I was in the market for that wonderful cell phone... the rumor mills too saturated with it... just like a few weeks ago, with all of the santa rosa this and santa rosa that hoopla. What about my fullscreen iPod with 120GB of storage and sweet iPhone based UI?

Or how about that MacMini that may be discontinued? Can someone send Thinksecret or Digitimes an annonomous tip so we can get some real speculation and rumors going.
 
bdemers said:
The thing about Cingular/ AT&T service is that it is GSM, rather than Verizon's CDMA.

Talk to anyone in the city, big-business types, they are nearly all on Verizon (at least in Boston). Get out of the city, hit the wide open spaces, Cingular/AT&T can't be beat.

The two types of technologies are better suited for different locations. GSM just doesn't seem to penetrate large buildings like CDMA does.
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Hmm... I have the opposite experience. I work in a new concrete office building and I get excellent service with Cingular anywhere in the building (except the underground parking garage, naturally). My co-workers with Sprint and Verizon literaly have to stand within a foot of the windows to get any signal at all, and even then it's spotty. Most of them go outside to make a call. This BTW is in Downtown Seattle where there's tall buildings all around us.
 
Digital Skunk said:
Because now all we are talking about is iPhone this and iPhone that. Even if I was in the market for that wonderful cell phone... the rumor mills too saturated with it... just like a few weeks ago, with all of the santa rosa this and santa rosa that hoopla. What about my fullscreen iPod with 120GB of storage and sweet iPhone based UI?

Or how about that MacMini that may be discontinued? Can someone send Thinksecret or Digitimes an annonomous tip so we can get some real speculation and rumors going.
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There are other forum threads.....
 
HiRez said:
Just wait, the funny part will be when they discover the detector itself is causing interference...which couldn't be detected...
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That cackling you hear is Schroedinger's cat laughing his furry hindquarters off.....
 
HiRez said:
Just wait, the funny part will be when they discover the detector itself is causing interference...which couldn't be detected...
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If it DID detect itself and alerted the user, that would self-justify its existence. You'd have to have one just in case you had one.

The patent says
An illustrative wireless portable device in accordance with an embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 1. Portable devices may be small portable computers such as those sometimes referred to as ultra-portables. Portable devices may also be somewhat smaller devices. Examples of smaller portable devices include wrist-watch devices, pendant devices, headphone and earpiece devices, and other wearable and miniature devices. One category of portable devices is handheld devices. The invention is described in the context of wireless handheld devices, however the invention may be implemented in any suitable wireless portable device.​
What else might Apple apply it to?
 
Okay guys... enough with the asterisk-bypassing the profanity filter. Been letting it slide because the original post using it was critical of me (yes, i was sensitive to not censoring dissent), but we like to keep threads here clean, especially news threads.
 
actually i was wondering about this for a long while now.... Thinking about how "smart" the iPhone is, gave me all kinds of evil ideas for little accessories I could put on the bottom of the thing. seriously.
 
Wireless

It is good to have something unique built in to iphone. Let's wait till it launches and find out all other smart features Apple is hiding right now ;)


Jenny
 
syklee26 said:
the only accessory that causes interference is your big melon that creates G-force.
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How does your "melon" create G-Forces and how does G-Force relate to cell phones? G-Forces, as I know and work with them on a daily basis, require acceleration tanget to your current vector at a force greater than 1G to be felt. Just curious how this relates to electrical interference :cool:
 
This thread has certainly gotten off topic. Anyway, back to the original topic... I like the idea of this device/patent. From what I take from this blerb is that this built-in device will detect any interference the iPhone may generate (caused by the cell phone portion) and tweek the phone's RF so it doesn't interefere with any accessories. I currently have the xtrememac luna ipod alarm clock and when I place my cell phone next to it the clock's speakers periodically makes all those strange noises when my phone transmits data or is about to recieve a phone call. (It sometimes wakes me up in the middle of the night) No more weird noises!
 
Does anyone know if the iPhone will have bluetooth for OBEX and such? I'm sure it will have bluetooth for handsfree, but will downloading of files and such be carried through only on iTunes (meaning you can't exchange pictures and make your own ringtones)?
 
Ugh!

"FEWEST" dropped calls please...

this really gets me every time. it's not comparable with Apple's slogan "think different", as there IS a context in which this would be grammatically correct. besides, Apple are cool enough to be different but AT&T aren't.
 
matthewHUB said:
"FEWEST" dropped calls please...

this really gets me every time. it's not comparable with Apple's slogan "think different", as there IS a context in which this would be grammatically correct. besides, Apple are cool enough to be different but AT&T aren't.
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I agree, but must we use the corporate plural ALL the time? I thought that was falling on disfavor :D

Seriously, though, just go to their home page. AT&T got it right. The transcription here didn't. For those OS X 10.4 users who care even a bit, use your dictionary widget to look up "few" and scroll down to usage.
 
I think it's a pretty sad state of affairs when US cell phone companies have the need to claim - in their marketing speak and commercials - that they have the fewest dropped calls.
There shouldn't be any dropped calls in the first place. They should fix their damn coverage and/or network hardware.

Dropped calls is a non-issue in europe. It does happen, but it's extremely rare. It tends to happen on new years eve or something like that. When millions of people are sendings SMSs and calling each other at the same exact moment.
 
Goldfinger said:
I think it's a pretty sad state of affairs when US cell phone companies have the need to claim - in their marketing speak and commercials - that they have the fewest dropped calls.
There shouldn't be any dropped calls in the first place. They should fix their damn coverage and/or network hardware.

Dropped calls is a non-issue in europe. It does happen, but it's extremely rare. It tends to happen on new years eve or something like that. When millions of people are sendings SMSs and calling each other at the same exact moment.
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Have you seen America? There are wide open areas with so few residents where it makes no sense to put cell towers. There are areas where environmentalists or homeowner's associations fight tooth and nail to prevent the construction of cell towers. My parents face this very problem where their house is.

I'll admit to never having been in Europe, but from what I've seen in pictures of the major population centers, wireless carriers probably don't have to put up as many specialized towers. They probably have more deals to use rooftops in Europe than they do here in America. (Anybody know for sure?)

It's a trade-off: smaller devices, less power, shorter-range (less cancer:p ), more repeaters, or less coverage.
 
SeanMcg said:
Have you seen America? There are wide open areas with so few residents where it makes no sense to put cell towers. There are areas where environmentalists or homeowner's associations fight tooth and nail to prevent the construction of cell towers. My parents face this very problem where their house is.

I'll admit to never having been in Europe, but from what I've seen in pictures of the major population centers, wireless carriers probably don't have to put up as many specialized towers. They probably have more deals to use rooftops in Europe than they do here in America. (Anybody know for sure?)

It's a trade-off: smaller devices, less power, shorter-range (less cancer:p ), more repeaters, or less coverage.
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Yup, I've been there and I know that you have large open spaces between cities. (AND I've had a dropped call there once :p )
But, we have our rural areas as well but they do have 100% coverage. The thing is that even in some major cities your networks bug down and fail (Especially Chicago, so I've heard). Which is something I find very strange.

Antennas are located mostly on rooftops in cities yes, or on towers outside of large cities.
 
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