June 24, 2010

Conversation with Steve Jobs

So I pinged Steve Jobs about this issue with the iPhone 4 antenna. Sounds to me like they knew about it in testing but figured its not a big deal.

Amazing to have been able to chat with The Man Himself, anyway. We'll see how this antenna thing plays out, I guess...

Hi Steve,

So, um, just got my iPhone 4. Its lovely and all, but this 'bridge the two antennae to kill your reception' thing seems to be a bit serious. If I bridge them with my hand or with a piece of metal the bars slowly drop to 'Searching...' and then 'No Service'.

Its kind of a worry. Is it possible this is a design flaw?

Regards

- Rory Sinclair

His reply:

Nope. Just don't hold it that way.

I texted someone from the phone and noticed reception dropping as I texted, down to 'No Service', so I emailed again:

Actually, its not calls that concern me, but i've just been writing a text and its very natural for me as a right-handed person to hold it that way, with the part of my hand at the base of my thumb covering the point the antennae meet, and it kills the reception each time.

I mean, pretty much as soon as i move my hand it comes back, but its pretty crazy... is this the reason Bumpers exist?

- Rory

Another one-liner is my prize:

Just don't hold it that way then.

Hmm.. I persevere:

Well, yeah, thats what i'll do, but you have to admit thats a workaround, yeah? I mean, normally there aren't limits to how you can hold a phone.

I seriously dig the phone, its totally amazing, but I think this is what many would call a design flaw.

- Rory

His last reply:

Sure there are - every phone has these areas of sensitivity, depending on the location of the antenna. Some phones even ship with labels warning customers to not cover certain areas with their hands.

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