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Apple Hires Antenna Engineers. Really.

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the you're-holding-it-wrong dept.

kangsterizer writes "Sometimes, news items are just about a good laugh. You may or may not like Apple, but the way it has been handling its antenna issue has been like a small tech soap opera — Steve Jobs, the CEO, saying 'not to hold the phone that way,' rumors of software issues, and the latest but most crunchy part, since the antenna issue has been widely discovered, on 23 June, several 'antenna engineer' positions opened up at Apple. Seems someone got fired: Antenna engineer job position 1, Antenna engineer job position 2, Antenna engineer job position 3." I just figure they did all their testing in California, where AT&T dropping calls is as common as $4 coffees.

16 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Messed up links by Pojut · · Score: 5, Funny

    "If you experience problems with links sending you to the wrong URLs, just don't click on them that way." -Steve Jobs, paraphrased

    --
    Living With a Nerd
  2. AppleCare memo on how to mislead users... by recoiledsnake · · Score: 5, Informative

    From a memo to AppleCare reps:

    Exact procedures AppleCare reps must follow when dealing with any reception complaints regarding the iPhone 4.:

    1. Keep all of the positioning statements in the BN handy – your tone when delivering this information is important.

    a. The iPhone 4’s wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. Our testing shows that iPhone 4’s overall antenna performance is better than iPhone 3GS.

    b. Gripping almost any mobile phone in certain places will reduce its reception. This is true of the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, and many other phones we have tested. It is a fact of life in the wireless world.

    c. If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 3GS, avoid covering the bottom-right side with your hand.

    d. If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 4, avoid covering the black strip in the lower-left corner of the metal band.

    e. The use of a case or Bumper that is made out of rubber or plastic may improve wireless performance by keeping your hand from directly covering these areas.

    2. Do not perform warranty service. Use the positioning above for any customer questions or concerns.

    3. Don’t forget YOU STILL NEED to probe and troubleshoot. If a customer calls about their reception while the phone is sitting on a table (not being held) it is not the metal band.

    4. ONLY escalate if the issue exists when the phone is not held AND you cannot resolve it.

    5. We ARE NOT appeasing customers with free bumpers – DON’T promise a free bumper to customers.

    --
    This space for rent.
    1. Re:AppleCare memo on how to mislead users... by commodore64_love · · Score: 5, Insightful

      From the Customer Handbook:

      1. So you say there is a problem if I hold the phone the wrong way? (wait for response). Please show me the correct way.

      2. That seems very impractical and uncomfortable. I'm liable to get hand cramps. Is it true you have a rubber bumper that will fix the problem?

      3. Well since we've established the phone is defective, and this rubber bumper fixes the problem, then it should be free. So I'll give you a choice: Either give me a full refund for my phone, or fix the problem at no charge. Pick one. Or else I and a million other customers will drag you into court, and make your life a living hell.

      4. Remember:

      There's no excuse for corporations to Steal money from customers with inferior or defective products. The customer is not always right, but in most cases the Consumer Protection Laws are on your side. Previous corporations that challenged the U.S. Government typically lost, and the customers received refunds or free fixes.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    2. Re:AppleCare memo on how to mislead users... by epiphani · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, because committing fraud is a reasonable response. How about you just return the damn phone.

      --
      .
  3. Reading into it? by _merlin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Someone got fired, or they just realised that you can't expect it to work properly if you don't hire experts. Reminds me of all the issues with noise in the G5 towers getting onto the supply rails and then into the audio I/O and Firewire power that lead to them hiring analog electronics experts to fix it. When I first read that the stainless steel surround was an antenna, I predicted these kinds of problems - you can't expect an antenna to maintain tuning while allowing a meatbag to touch it, especially when you need to be able to tune several microwave bands from hundreds of MHz to GHz. The laws of physics are against you, and any engineer should be able to point that out. Other handsets have issues where your hand can obstruct the signal, but the iPhone 4 is unique in allowing you to place things in galvanic contact with the antenna, which has a far bigger effect on its RF performance.

    1. Re:Reading into it? by jeffmeden · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because that piece of metal is only useful as an antenna when someone's not grabbing hold of it. Even close counts when it comes to RF (try walking around an FM radio with marginal reception), but grabbing the thing with your hand is going to *wreck* it. Apparently Steve wanted too much for it to look like a Leica camera (whose stainless steel bodies were, surprisingly, *not* doubling as antennas) and too little for it to work in every possible situation (like being held by a sweaty person.)

      This is only reasonable engineering if function follows form. I try not to bash apple, I really do, but in this case it's painfully obvious what they are after when they "engineered" this thing.

  4. Probably not antenna designers' fault by Saishuuheiki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Somehow I doubt it was the idea of an antenna designer to put it on the outside where one would hold it. Anyone with any antenna theory knowledge at all knows that your gain would then be changed easily based on how it was held by a conductor (eg, you)

    The only think you could blame the antenna engineer for is not properly stating what a bad idea it is.
    Heck, it's entirely possible they didn't have any antenna engineers and now realize that's probably idea for a product masquerading as a phone.

    1. Re:Probably not antenna designers' fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I hope they at least compensated for the capacitance of the human hand touching the antenna by using a varicap circuit to tune the antenna. (You use a longer-than-ideal antenna, add capacitance to compensate, then back off the capacitance if you determine that it's too high because somebody is touching the antenna.) I'd expect them to have something like that anyway because it's impossible to build an ideal antenna for such a broad range of frequencies.

      If they have a *software-controlled* varicap, they might be able to fix the entire problem in software by just pushing the capacitance higher when they determine that a human hand is bridging the antennas. So a software update might be possible if they have a good way to test the capacitance on the antenna with the existing hardware (or I suppose they could just watch for a sudden drop in signal strength and try adjusting up, see if it helps, then try adjusting down if it made things worse).

  5. From the job listing: by genka · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hands on experience is required

  6. Re:Just give it a different name by Trevelyan · · Score: 5, Funny

    You mean:

    iPhone !Touch

  7. Re:Bumpers by trapnest · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They did the testing with the iPhone 4 inside an iPhone 3GS case... so no one would know what it was.

  8. Yes... but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    a fanboi would probably suggest sucking Steve Jobs' dick as a solution.

    I tried that when my new phone starting dropping calls, but he kept telling me "not to hold it that way."


    ...
    Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week. Tip your waitress, try the veal.

  9. Hammertime! by Urza9814 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now all Apple needs to do is make a commercial with MC Hammer.

    "Can't touch this!"

    Best part is, they could use the same video - it's already people dancing in front of a white background. Just crank up the contrast until the people turn into silhouettes, and add some headphones.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c4L4CPfQY8

  10. Re:Secrecy is a double edged sword. by ballwall · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well, they probably did test, but their testing apparently included a case that looked like the iphone 3gs to hide the fact that someone was out using a new iPhone. I'm wondering if that's why they didn't discover the issue sooner. None of the testers were using bare phones.

  11. Re:The funny part is, it's still better than Andro by Pojut · · Score: 5, Funny

    What do you EXPECT me to do on these phones, anyway?

    I expect you to DIE, Mr. Bond.

    --
    Living With a Nerd
  12. I hope the engineers didn't fall on their sword by Tobyb · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Disclaimer: I am an engineer (electrical test, in fact) so I'm a bit biased. But from the brief insights that we can get about the Apple development process, Jobs loves to keep different parts of the organization completely oblivious from each other. My guess is that the actual antenna engineers never had knowledge of the final design of the phone. The process guys designing the machining to make the external antenna probably didn't know they were making antennas. The only people that probably knew the whole picture was Jobs, Ive, and the usual group that is in that iPhone 4 video shown during the keynote.

    If statistically it is shown to be a huge problem as such to trigger a recall, the board should do its job and hold one someone in this high level team responsible. Obviously, it is a cultural thing with Jobs. He loves to get feedback of what is possible from the engineering staff and then ignore it. For example, the Mac Mini. He famously asked what was the smallest computer they could build at the time. He got feedback and then said make it 1" smaller in each dimension. Sometimes it works. I have done some of my best work for people who were similar, just unflinching in their demands. It is gratifying to complete such a project. However, this time taking industrial design over engineering backfired, and big time. Apple has been inching towards this day for a long time. For example, why no strain relief on the old Macbook MagSafe connectors? Aluminum backs on the original iPhone? I'm hopeful that this episode shakes up the culture and process a little bit. Enough to be cautious when necessary, but not to stifle their crazy industrial design creativity either.