[fmg00]

Love it! Some holes resisted more, but it definitively works

[MalayZN]

Wow but isn't the plastic or foam or whatever it is suppose to prevent dust from getting in and causing any damage?........

[cockyjeremy]

Yessss.. it does work! I just tried it.. thanks!!

[ZipZapp]

I cannot see how punching a few very tiny holes through a rubber gasket is going to somehow now open the floodgates for dust. Removing the flap is another story. If you are so worried....carry the phone upside down in your pocket.

What ever you do, I would not use compressed air to blow out the speaker...that WILL force dust into th iPhone.

If apple had been wiser they should have used speaker foam. At least foam lets sound waves pass.

[Herbnhero]

What about the sound quality? Does poking through this 'membrane' cause any kind of distortion or poor sounding music/ring tone? Loud music that sounds like crap isn't any better than soft music sounding great

vince

[Archie Bunker]

i'd like to introduce myself to the forums by offering for sale an official iphone speaker fixer tool for sale, $19.95 and FREE SHIPPING!! paypal accepted:

[nuggett76]

I too was skeptical because the volume on my phone, as well as my wife's iPHone, sucked horribly. Being the daring type, I gave it a shot. My volume has easily increased 200% No exaggeration whatsoever. I do believe that my phone was prolly a lot worst off than others. I had an early build of the device. Here's to early adopting...

[uxihc]

I thought my sound volume was already pretty high, but this definitely did the trick! Did it while I played a song, and at the same instance my needle went into one of the holes I could hear the volume go up quite a bit!! Very good discovery :-) I don't think dust will be much of a problem.. I'll get iPhone v2 by the time it does ;-)

[Archie Bunker]

Originally Posted by uxihc

I thought my sound volume was already pretty high, but this definitely did the trick! Did it while I played a song, and at the same instance my needle went into one of the holes I could hear the volume go up quite a bit!! Very good discovery :-) I don't think dust will be much of a problem.. I'll get iPhone v2 by the time it does ;-)

aint that the truth! the type of person that bought an iphone is the same type that will replace it with v2..lol

[joedornan]

So being the cautious type, before punching a hole I took a needle and carefully cleaned out the gummed up holes in the speaker grille to see what diff it made.

To my amazement, whenever I lightly pressed down on the plastic (or whatever) barrier/cover Apple installed under the grille of the speaker, the volume increased a lot! Let go and the volume went back to low. Pushed again and raised the volume again. etc. etc.

So maybe what is happening is that when people have low volume it is a result of this internal barrier/cover coming loose or shifting. And what is happening when people puncture the barrier/cover is that they are pushing it back into place (maybe the glue holding it to the body of the phone failed?). And maybe what is happening when people punch holes and there is no change, is that the barrier/cover simply came loose again when they took the needle out.

To those people in the final third category, I ask you to press down on the barrier/cover with a needle or whatever. Even in the holes around the edge of the grille. Does pressing down increase the volume? If so you have provided evidence that this theory may be correct.

And that Apple will now be held to account for selling malfunctioning iPhones.

To all those who are trying to resolve sounds issues through software... take note: you may be futzing around with your settings for nothing.

-Joe


Appreciate this post? Thank me! :-)

[NitrousFlare]

I couldn't find this thread for the longest time.

But now I found it on Engadget.com

This worked really well, I didn't even bother with the difficult ones and it is quite loud (like it should have been) now.

[jrelmor2]

You know, not to be a rude, but all of the people who have used the argument for it being ok to poke a hole in the speaker 'cover' because they haven't heard anything bad happen due someone doing this are pretty d!@m stupid. It takes some time for things such as dust or magnetic particles to accumulate, and this thread and fad has only been going on for what, 2 months? You need at least half a year before that argument becomes remotely valid for something with relative small holes such as the ones being poked in the speaker's cover. While I wouldn't be surprised if nothing seriously bad does happen to the phones which have been altered, there is still a relatively high probability that bad things could happen down the road. Do you really want to risk breaking a phone that cost's roughly half a grand for a bit louder speaker volume? I mean, honestly, if you can't hear the phone when it rings on full volume, then you have to be pretty deaf. I can hear mine easily from halfway across my house with lots of noise in the background from TVs and washing machines and such. I guess its your choice, but I still done think it's a wise idea for people who aren't rich yuppies with tons of money to throw away to do something as rash as this. Oh well!

[sziklassy]

I guess the volume could be louder, but it's not any softer than any other phone I have had, but the sound quality is better. has anyone actually taken the black cover off and looked to see if you are actually perforating something? I mean for all you know, something has come loose and you are just pushing it out of the way right? Or are you actually puncturing some sort of membrane?

[BigBoss]

I tried this on two phones and noticed no difference whatsoever. Note though, I didnt ever think there was a volume problem in the first place. Perhaps most you that have low volume just have clogged ports.

[ZipZapp]

He's right....

I often walk around with microscopic metal particles and dust in my pocket. Its a nice cushion for my iphone. And yes these particles easly pass through a pin size hole on their way to destroy my iphone.