The latter, similar to VW. This test is in no way standardized. It’s up to the manufacturer to determine the parameters.
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Chicago Tribune Claims iPhone Radiofrequency Radiation Levels Measured Higher Than Legal Safety Limit in Tests
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Not sure putting bluetooth transceivers in your ears is better. The car is definitely likely to decrease exposure. The energy falls off as as the square of distance, thus the concern with BT.
Interesting. I find it difficult to believe that Apple would really have messed this up? I suppose we will learn for sure in due course. In the meantime, as an 8 Plus user I guess I can be confident that I’m not going to turn into Godzilla overnight 
Ok. Time for Apple to upgrade my iPhone 7 plus to something because I ain’t paying for their latest phones :-D
Sarcasm going over someone’s head will never get old on these forums, haha.
Fun fact. If your iPhone is in your pocket and gets a notification, it actually transmits far higher-frequency radiation via its ****ing display.
Radio frequencies are non-ionizing; they simply aren't high-energy or high-frequency enough to be a problem. Look at the spectrum, this isn't rocket science. You see X-Rays and Gammas? That ****'s dangerous. Ultraviolet? Also kinda dangerous, which is why we wear sunscreen. Under that, the only dangers are with intensity. A laser can burn you, but it's not gonna give you cancer. Same with microwaves. The intensity of what can go in and out of your 2-8w pocket brick isn't gonna be worth writing home about unless your battery shorts.
Much like most radiation (including the actually dangerous, ionizing type), the "federal exposure limit" is probably based on an arbitrarily measurable number rather than any real clinical studies. Man are we a stupid species.
Fun fact: the federal radiation limit for tritium in drinking water is ~700 Bq/L. We tried finding an actual carcinogenic link on mice drinking the stuff at 1,110,000,000Bq/L (yes, that's billion) and couldn't find any DNA damage. Not cancer, mind you, we couldn't find any DNA damage whatsoever. At people-scale, that's roughly 260,000,000 Bq/L. A 1-banana-a-day-equivilant is about 7,000 Bq/L. Federal hasn't changed, though.
Radio frequencies are non-ionizing; they simply aren't high-energy or high-frequency enough to be a problem. Look at the spectrum, this isn't rocket science. You see X-Rays and Gammas? That ****'s dangerous. Ultraviolet? Also kinda dangerous, which is why we wear sunscreen. Under that, the only dangers are with intensity. A laser can burn you, but it's not gonna give you cancer. Same with microwaves. The intensity of what can go in and out of your 2-8w pocket brick isn't gonna be worth writing home about unless your battery shorts.
Much like most radiation (including the actually dangerous, ionizing type), the "federal exposure limit" is probably based on an arbitrarily measurable number rather than any real clinical studies. Man are we a stupid species.
Fun fact: the federal radiation limit for tritium in drinking water is ~700 Bq/L. We tried finding an actual carcinogenic link on mice drinking the stuff at 1,110,000,000Bq/L (yes, that's billion) and couldn't find any DNA damage. Not cancer, mind you, we couldn't find any DNA damage whatsoever. At people-scale, that's roughly 260,000,000 Bq/L. A 1-banana-a-day-equivilant is about 7,000 Bq/L. Federal hasn't changed, though.
Got two kids and that's enough; I think I am going to buy and carry 4 iPhones in my pockets.
An accredited (via NVLAP) compliance test laboratory runs the tests. They submit the results to engineering organization called a TCB which reviews the results and documentation for errors or omissions. Once satisfied, the TCB issues the certification on behalf of the FCC. The FCC randomly selects applications to audit.
The TCB has to be independent from the manufacturer, and the test lab has to have some separation. (RIM/Blackberry at one point had its own accredited test lab)
Apple recently has been using UL for both, their older stuff looks like a mix including UL test and CETECOM as the TCB.
The TCB step came about in the early 2000s, before that, the FCC did that step themselves. The issue was with wireless and computers exploding, FCC couldn't keep up.
Europe is more flat because there's no one government in charge. There, the manufacturer sends the device to a "notified body" which does the tests, analysis, and issues the CE mark under their responsibility.
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How dare you belittle my comment of Apples guilt with your reason!!!
Good to know they continue to test them though. As they should, make sure they don’t try to boost the power. Mind you it would help my XRs reception..
But the BT only has to travel form your phone to your ear, where as the energy from the phone has to make it to the base station, which is likely orders of magnitude further away. So it's likely that the energy for BT will be well below the threshold set by the FCC.
From the source article:
"In one phase of the Tribune testing, all phones were positioned at the same distance from the simulated body tissue that the manufacturers chose for their own tests — from 5 to 15 millimeters, depending on the model. Apple, for instance, tests at 5 millimeters."
The 2mm was the Tribune's standard distance for all phones.
Seems to be the latter. OEM's test and submit results to FCC
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/specific-absorption-rate-sar-cell-phones-what-it-means-you
It's sad that people don't understand the difference between ionizing radiation and electromagnetic radiation. They lump "radiation" as one term. There is no harm from electromagnetic radiation at these levels (or 100x these levels) at this frequency.
I have been using transmitters for 50 years at 1,000 watts out. Ain't dead yet!
Well, even if that's the case it doesn't bother me. My 6s rarely touches me. In the office it routes all the calls to my Mac, at home I put it on the speaker unless is a very private call and in the car there is Bluetooth. It only goes in my pocket when I am working in the field, usually 5 days per month.
Nah, everyone knows they have more kids for BOGO Android phones.
Put your head in a microwave oven and tell me it's a non-issue.
No, the margin of safety on IEEE limits at high frequencies, which are adopted by most governments, is estimated to be 10-50, by power. That means at the worst case, the safety limit is 1/10 that where harmful effects are observed.
At low frequencies, not relevant for cell phones, it's from 9-100. See IEEE Std C95.1-2005 section 1.3.1
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And the X stands for eXtra as in eXtra Radiation. LOL!