Comment by ubernostrum | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ubernostrum | Hacker News Reader

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I've tried every combination of fingers and hands on every part of the phone in every configuration I'm physically capable of, and I can't make it lose signal with a touch. Similarly, plenty of videos have been posted of people who can't make it happen.

Which suggests that... wait for it... there's not some huge fundamental design/manufacturing flaw in the iPhone's antennae that Apple didn't notice or wants to cover up. Instead, it's just another cell phone that's picky about signal strength, like pretty much every other cell phone ever manufactured. Hell, Macrumors published video from 2008 showing an old iPhone doing exactly the same things people are now claiming to be a brand-new phenomenon unique to the iPhone 4:

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/23/iphone-4-signal-declines...

Add to this the fact that the "story" started at an outlet which has a pretty big and well-known axe to grind against Apple, and I feel like we need a whole lot more than some youtube videos and a bunch of "me too" posts in a forum to make a big issue out of this.

Just because a bug appears seemingly randomly does not mean it's not a bug.

When I was a kid watching tv with an indoor antenna, anytime there was poor reception I'd go and hold the antenna and reception would improve or get a lot worse.

So, I've no problems believing that this is an issue, that it affects different people differently at different times, and that Apple knew about it and made those shells as a fix (a trade-off in exchange for greater compactness of the device) for those who want it.

From my time at university doing electronics we observed that some people do cause this effect - one person in our department consistently shorted anything he touched. We never figured out why but I know a couple of other people who have the same problem.

Maybe depending on how "sweaty" people are, which would affect the contact resistance of their fingers?

It's something different. I used to tune in radios by waving my hands around the antenna like a theremin. Some people seem to throw off more of an electrical field than others. Yes, I am available for bizarre scientific experiments.

This comment made me smile - this is exactly what I did as a kid when my radio got static-y. Slightly changing my position with relation to the radio, without touching it, sometimes fixed it.

I have the same relationship with the cheap clock radio in my bedroom. It sounds great when I'm in bed (to the side of the radio), but as soon as I get out of bed (in front of it) I have to turn the damn thing off because the reception gets terrible.

I wonder if this means I shouldn't get the iPhone4? ;-)

It's completely possible that:

- it only affects some units

- some people are exhibiting superstitious behavior (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner#Superstition_in_t...)

- some combination of the two

Watching entire shows while standing up, holding an antenna: priceless. (Didn't feel like coming up with the first part of the cliche)

Actually, lying on the floor, holding up the antenna with my feet. Didn't think anyone would be interested in the details.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/24/some-iphone-4-models-see-...

Engadget/AOL doesn't have any big and well-known axes to grind, right?

Here's my take on it: Galvanically shorting the WiFi and GSM antennas is indeed an inherent design problem that Apple solved through some clever adaptive capacitance circuit or something. That solution is working on your phone, but on a certain lot of them, it's not properly adapting.

Or maybe...wait for it...you're just incredibly defensive about Apple and/or your new iPhone 4? And the story (sorry, "story", as you put it) started at Macrumors, not at Gizmodo, though it's humorous that you try to discount it because of the Giz connection.

There is nothing remarkable about a new product having issues. What matters here is that there's some mythology about Apple perfection that just isn't (and has NEVER been) backed by actual reality. So far there's the breakable unbreakable screen, the easily scratched unscratchable back, serious colour issues in the screen, and a possible antenna issue (hey, who ever holds a phone in their hand? BTW - Is Jobs left handed?), and that's among a very small number of pre-shipments. We shall see.

You missed the alleged supply constraints on the Retina display, and white version of the iPhone 4 that have "proven more challenging to manufacture than expected".

These are delays/contstaints rather than failures, but all together they point to the potential problems you give yourself when you need to differentiate your new models so much via novel product design.

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