Manufacturer needs feedback on new signal boosting cradle for iPhone

[Socom]

Since GPS is a large part of the 3G phone, my guess is when a Turn by Turn app does come out, it would require the phone to be sideways while driving. The design of the unit doesn't really seem to work for that. So you might want to consider that as well.

Good Luck!

 

[A-G]

it's huge!! i wouldn't buy it. besides my phone has decent reception.

 

[Rybold]

Since GPS is a large part of the 3G phone, my guess is when a Turn by Turn app does come out, it would require the phone to be sideways while driving. The design of the unit doesn't really seem to work for that. So you might want to consider that as well.

Good Luck!

Since when did the GPS have to be "sideways?"
I use mine in all different orientations all the time.

 

[Stargaze]

very promising looks like a great design I like where your taking this cradle how exactly does it mount in the car though? Again this device eventhough it is a cradle seems very palm friendly as if it could be carried in a laptop bag etc and used by hand. I believe you mentioned that the cradle has a internal antenna? If so I believe the device could also function outside the car with a "extended battery" that powers the antenna as well as the phone this would be helpful when people use their phones as a teathering device to connect to the Internet on their laptops

 

[Stargaze]

Sorry for the double post I wrote this on my iPhone and it lagged on posting and I can't delete the second post

 

[John566]

Because of the number of posts from people stating that they would need a cradle that would accommodate an iPhone with a case I'm going to schedule a meeting later in the week, with some of our engineers, to investigate this possibility. I still plan on addressing every post but since many of them are related to the issue of the iPhone fitting with a case I'm going to wait until the end of the week when I should have a better idea of if we can implement this by providing different inserts. If people could post whether they use a case or not, and what kind of case, it would be very helpful. Thanks.

 

[Stargaze]

Because of the number of posts from people stating that they would need a cradle that would accommodate an iPhone with a case I'm going to schedule a meeting later in the week, with some of our engineers, to investigate this possibility. I still plan on addressing every post but since many of them are related to the issue of the iPhone fitting with a case I'm going to wait until the end of the week when I should have a better idea of if we can implement this by providing different inserts. If people could post whether they use a case or not, and what kind of case, it would be very helpful. Thanks.

Hi john, I have the marware sportgrip case and several of my friends purchased the griffin silicone case (seems to be the more common case of choice up here in canada) the other case i've seen alot of is the griffin snap case hopefully that helps you

 

[SayWhat?!]

What's most important?

Because of the number of posts from people stating that they would need a cradle that would accommodate an iPhone with a case I'm going to schedule a meeting later in the week, with some of our engineers, to investigate this possibility. I still plan on addressing every post but since many of them are related to the issue of the iPhone fitting with a case I'm going to wait until the end of the week when I should have a better idea of if we can implement this by providing different inserts. If people could post whether they use a case or not, and what kind of case, it would be very helpful. Thanks.

John566:

As I indicated in my first post, I use a Griffin belt clip for my iPhone 3G.

My wife uses a Agent 18 EcoShield for her iPhone (2G), and my daughter has reverted to no case for her 2G.

This being said, I have to ask what the primary design objectives are?

I believe the most significant are those of the signal booster, and external antenna interface. This interface would require some close coupled, inductive interface, likely having fairly close tolerances to be most effective/efficient. Designing an adaptive interface to accommodate various case thicknesses with predictable results is a significant, and perhaps, cost prohibitive undertaking.

If the case is deemed a significant desirable feature by the user community (as some have commented), then, as I suggested before, consider your own case design so case dimension variance can be eliminated, and the coupling design optimized for signal amplification and antenna coupling.

Not having a good signal booster/antenna interface feature will be the deal breaker for me.

 

[SFStateStudent]

SFStateStudent, I promise you this is nothing like the sticker “boosters”. The best you will get from them is a placebo effect. Not all amplifiers/boosters are created equal. We test all of our competitors and there are a number of them that have real problems and don’t give you any real benefit and some of them even impede your performance over just using the phone by itself. I have personally tested our generic cradle with my 2G iPhone and it generally added 2 bars as well as improved my data speed on EDGE significantly.

John, That's quite impressive for the v1 iPhone, but I'm probably your toughest critic only b/c I've been burned after several attempts to boost my signal at my house. I live next to the San Francisco Bay in California, and my entire neighborhood is above my street and it would appear that I'm the lowest point in my neighborhood. Even the 3G coverage map (Blue) is totally blue just two streets away from me and 3G is 0-1 bars in my house, while EDGE is orange with 1-3 bars on average. I would describe my house location as being in the lowest part of a bowl or valley at the edge of the San Francisco Bay. KMA (Keep Me Advised) on other testing with 3G iPhones as well. I would really be interested with the 3G signal being boosted. I like the aesthetics of the prototype v. the drawing.