Following RIM, Nokia and HTC, here’s the first official Samsung statement about reception problems shown by Steve Jobs on stage at last Friday’s special iPhone conference.
Posts tagged with "apple"
Samsung Responds to Apple’s “Antennagate”
Nokia and HTC Respond to Apple’s Press Conference
Following RIM, Nokia and HTC have publicized their responses against Apple concerning their mobile devices. Nokia’s response:
In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held. That’s why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all real life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand. Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying how people hold their phones and allows for this in designs, for example by having antennas both at the top and bottom of the phone and by careful selection of materials and their use in the mechanical design.
HTC came to the defense of their Droid Eris by comparing the numbers. Pocket-Lint writes:
“Approximately .016% of customers,” Eric Lin, the company’s global PR and online community manager exclusively revealed to us before adding that “we have had very few complaints about signal or antenna problems on the Eris.”
Weighing in, it’s fair to say that you have to intentionally grip (pretty tightly) a Blackberry, an HTC Droid Eris, or a Nokia phone to have it drop bars. Where you could accidentally touch “the spot” on an iPhone 4, you have to try pretty hard to do it on competitors phones. I don’t think I’m being unreasonable – that’s my honest observation. I do think Apple reached a bit too far in trying to expose other smartphones – if it’s arguably a “non-issue” on the iPhone 4, why explore “non-issues” on other phones?
[via Engadget (Nokia) and Pocket-Link (HTC)]
Jonathan Mann’s Steve Jobs Love Song
He’s the same guy of the Antenna Song, the one Apple played before the special iPhone 4 conference two days ago. Now we must be happy for the popularity he gained, and recorded a new song - only for Steve Jobs.
I wonder if Steve is going to listen to this every morning on Youtube.
RIM Responds to Apple’s Antenna Conference
Oh yeah people, get ready for every cellphone maker that was mentioned by Apple yesterday to respond with an official statement.
Of course first is RIM. You know, those behind Blackberry. They’re saying that Apple’s attempt to show a common issue is unacceptable, that RIM is a global leader in antenna design and that Blackberry users don’t need to wear protections on their phones.
Check out the full statement below.
Inside Apple’s Antenna Labs
Brian X.Chen, reporting for Wired:
“Led by Ruben Caballero, a senior engineer and antenna expert at Apple, the tour gave about 10 reporters and bloggers a peek at Apple’s custom-built wireless testing lab, which consists of several anechoic chambers to measure frequency of each device in various settings.
Apple called the lab a “black” lab because it was a secret facility that even some employees were unaware of. The company made the lab public to show the world that Apple takes antenna design and wireless testing seriously.
“This is the most advanced lab for doing RF studies that anyone in the world has,” said Phil Schiller, vice president of marketing at Apple. “The designs we do wouldn’t be possible without it.”
Each test chamber is lined with blue pyramid-shaped styrofoam designed to absorb radio-frequency radiation. A robotic arm holding gadgets such as iPads and iPhones spins 360 degrees while a piece of analytics software (ironically running on Windows XP) visualizes the wireless activity of each device.
“To do the most challenging design in the world, this is what we have to do,” said Bob Mansfield, Apple’s senior vice president of Macintosh hardware. “This is hardcore stuff.”
Apple’s Antenna Labs Get a Webpage, Too [And Video]
Following the official apple.com/antenna webpage, Apple has also introduced a section dedicated to its Antenna design and test labs.
Apple Launches “Antenna Performance” Webpage
Following today’s press conference over at Cupertino’s campus, Apple has just launched a new webpage: apple.com/antenna where they explain all the details regarding the signal degradation issues people have been recently reporting.
Apple Purchases Online Mapping Company, Poly9
The Android comes with free Google Maps Navigation. iPhone owners will often downplay this feature of Android handsets, but for me it’s the definitive feature that has kept me from using an iPhone handset for my daily needs. Google Maps Navigation is super convenient to have, and I’m looking forward to when Apple releases a similar, competitive product of its own (if they ever will that is). As Apple’s and Google’s relationship dissolves in the smart-phone market, they may be looking to absolve themselves of Google’s services at some point down the road. Mainly their Maps feature.
FaceTime: Now Working on Planes, Too
Ok, so we know FaceTime is a great technology. Video calling is nothing new, but Apple’s implementation is perfect: one-tap calling, simple UI, easy to use.
How stable and compatible can Apple’s FaceTime be, anyway? We’ve read reports of firewalls blocking its connection. Still, the good folks over at TUAW have managed to talk with a reader who was on a plane, thousands of feet above Earth, using Gogo in-flight Wifi service. The same service which blocks Skype and other VOIP softwares, it worked just fine with FaceTime.
The quality of the call is good, and Bills even changes camera to show that he’s actually on a plane, FaceTime with us poor Earth dwellers. Check out the video after the break.