Apple Continues to Quietly Bash Competitors and Bulk Up Antenna Page

[Mes]

... Jobs obviously lacks experience when it comes to handling PR crises.,,

Or more likely .... this is Steve Jobs ... like it or not

[CaptainChaos]

If the iPhone 5 design goes away from this "outer antenna band" design that would be more fuel for the fire that something was wrong with the design.

I wonder what the people that defended the iPhone 4's design will have to say then? People, fueled by Apple's silliness, have been overlooking the videos that show you can cause the death grip effect by putting the base of your thumb on the left corner of the phone.

I do not know of anyone that talks on their phone using the grips shown on the antenna page.

When the 5 comes out the troubles of the 4 will be forgotten. The issue will have been fixed by then although the masses that got the bad batches will be stuck with a bumper. My money is going to be bet on the assumption that the white iPhone will be delayed because Apple will be looking for a fix so that in the end they can say "See! We care!(even though we knowingly sold you a flawed black iPhone 4)".

[nicksti]

They cannot hotfix the white iPhone 4. People's memories may be short but I doubt they are that short. They cannot go out there and say "this is Physics" (how was that for a cocky, insulting answer by Jobs) and then change the design.

I wonder why it was so important for Apple to put the antennas on the outside. When I saw the leaked pics I thought it was just a bezel. Never once have I seen in the marketing about how thin the new iPhone 4 is so I think they could have left the waistline a little bigger thus avoiding this fiasco.

[AnthonyGiola]

I have an X and an Eris currently in front of me. Am holding them and covering every square inch with skin. NOTHING whatsoever is happening. I call BS/ Doctoring/Setup BS

[Cer0]

I have an X and an Eris currently in front of me. Am holding them and covering every square inch with skin. NOTHING whatsoever is happening. I call BS/ Doctoring/Setup BS

Your holding it wrong.

[KartRacer]

What people want is Apple fix the phone by swapping with coated antenna, technician in Apple store can open the phone up swap the antenna and put it back together. Not hard, not expensive.

To be fair, and not disagreeing in any way with what you've said at all, swapping antennas isn't that simple. From taking the back off my iPhone 4 it appears that everything inside the phone is bolted in some fashion to those two pieces of stainless steel. It isn't very simple to completely disassemble this phone and change out two very major components. They appear to be structural so it would take alot of time and patience to swap them out. Even if you employed people at Apple stores doing nothing but swapping those two pieces you'd have lines out the door for weeks. The only real way to do this, swapping out an antenna for a different design, is to change the overall connection between the two to isolate tem from one another. I'm no engineer but that doesn't seem to be easy. They'd have to figure that out, manufacture enough to meet the demand of swapping everyones phone, and then do a one for one swap on each phone that was request for a replacement. That takes time, money to reengineer, and then they would have to figure out what to do with all the ones they swapped out. Trash them? Probably not cause that would be dumb on so many levels. The only thing they could do is use them for spare parts and having an on hand inventory of 3+ million phones takes up alot of space and probably has to be accounted for on some form for tax purposes. Not easy at all. The bumper/free case route is the one they chose as being the easiest way to mitigate the problem, and since it's not affecting every phone they've made, probably the cheapest too. I think they've screwed up by basically ignoring the truth and denying what's happened. But speaking from experience in a manufacturing environment it's probably the cheapest. Yeah they have a boatload of cash, yeah they screwed the pooch, but that's what they've decided. All I can think of is the end user either returns it or eats having to have a case, and their giving them out for free. Not ideal, but what can you do?

[cobrita]

So did anyone notice that Apple pulled the Droid X from their antenna page? I heard that several Droid uses pointed out that the display didn't show 3G, and users weren't able to repoduce the "death grip".

Update:
...Nevermind, they added it back, but still makes me question the whole 3G data icon missing.

[rruready]

So did anyone notice that Apple pulled the Droid X from their antenna page? I heard that several Droid uses pointed out that the display didn't show 3G, and users weren't able to repoduce the "death grip".

Update:
...Nevermind, they added it back, but still makes me question the whole 3G data icon missing.

Ha. I never noticed that the 3G was missing. I got my Droid X a few days ago and I tried this today in a rural area driving from work with 2 bars of 3G showing. I gripped it like a gorilla shown in the video and I gained a bar somehow. I removed the grip and held it like normal and it went back to two bars lol. I wish I could do this type of grip more often and actually use it like, but it's not very comfortable since you have to wrap your fingers around the front. Seeing as how the "3G" is missing on this video, I have to wonder what else they've done to tamper with it.

[xclusiveiphone]

To be fair, and not disagreeing in any way with what you've said at all, swapping antennas isn't that simple. From taking the back off my iPhone 4 it appears that everything inside the phone is bolted in some fashion to those two pieces of stainless steel. It isn't very simple to completely disassemble this phone and change out two very major components. They appear to be structural so it would take alot of time and patience to swap them out. Even if you employed people at Apple stores doing nothing but swapping those two pieces you'd have lines out the door for weeks. The only real way to do this, swapping out an antenna for a different design, is to change the overall connection between the two to isolate tem from one another. I'm no engineer but that doesn't seem to be easy. They'd have to figure that out, manufacture enough to meet the demand of swapping everyones phone, and then do a one for one swap on each phone that was request for a replacement. That takes time, money to reengineer, and then they would have to figure out what to do with all the ones they swapped out. Trash them? Probably not cause that would be dumb on so many levels. The only thing they could do is use them for spare parts and having an on hand inventory of 3+ million phones takes up alot of space and probably has to be accounted for on some form for tax purposes. Not easy at all. The bumper/free case route is the one they chose as being the easiest way to mitigate the problem, and since it's not affecting every phone they've made, probably the cheapest too. I think they've screwed up by basically ignoring the truth and denying what's happened. But speaking from experience in a manufacturing environment it's probably the cheapest. Yeah they have a boatload of cash, yeah they screwed the pooch, but that's what they've decided. All I can think of is the end user either returns it or eats having to have a case, and their giving them out for free. Not ideal, but what can you do?

You are complicating this matter out of proportions. Have you considered that they just applied the coating on the iPhone without having to remove the antenna?