July 16, 2010

421 words 2 mins read

iPhone 4 Antenna Problems

Last month, Jon talked about the iPhone 4 and one of the things he discussed was the antenna design and like many new things, “The real question is: will it work well?”

Thus far, the answer seems to be a resounding no.

For those of you who may not be aware of this, shortly after the phone was released people started complaining about dropped calls, and at one point Apple responded by telling people that they were “holding the phone wrong”. They later amended that statement with a

more PC version: “Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, depending on the placement of the antennas.” At one point they even claimed that it was actually a software issue that has been around since the first iPhone. This bug apparently overestimates the number of bars you have by 2 in certain cases. Apparently, no one bought that excuse.

As the teeth gnashing continued, Apple started recommending people buy one of their bumper cases for around $40. The bumper cases however make it difficult to plug things into your iPhone. Things like your headphones, and possibly more importantly the iPod interface cable. It seems that anything but the very latest iPhone adapter will not fit in the case. I noticed this problem yesterday when my boss asked me if I had an iPod cable. He tried both of the cables I had and neither fit. He had to peel off the bottom of the case in order to get the adapter in and charge his phone. If you only had to do that to charge the device, maybe it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but if you have a car adapter or anything like that… well, do you really want to constantly be peeling off the bumpers?

There have been suggestions that Apple should provide every iPhone 4 user out there with a bumper case. It was estimated that Apple could do that at less than a $1 per case, and since this would be much cheaper than doing a recall it seems like a cheap option, but I don’t think that is what Apple will want to do.

The Apple press conference will be starting shortly and supposedly they will be explaining what their fix will be. Considering that one or more engineers raised concerns that the design could result in dropped calls, it should be interesting to see how Apple spins this. As usual, engadget will be blogging it live. Check it out here.

antenna apple iphone iphone4

iOS 4 is out (UPDATE: Horrible noises)

June 21, 2010

As of about 11AM PST this morning, the new iOS 4 was available for download via iTunes. I plugged in my iPhone 3GS, hit “Check for updates” and gave it a whirl. It took about 20 to 30 minutes to do the entire process. That included backing up (8GB), downloading, updating some apps, installing new OS, backing up again, etc.

Developing on an Android device under Windows 7

April 22, 2010

One of the first things I did after getting my shiny new Nexus One was to plug it into my computer for development. After all, development was the entire reason I bought this very expensive new toy (well, it might not be the only reason, but it is the one I use to justify actually plunking down and buying it when I already had a fine and functional iPhone). I thought it would be as simple as plugging in the device and going, unfortunately it wasn’t quite that easy.

Mass Effect 2 on first playthrough – Part 2

February 12, 2010

As I mentioned yesterday, I recently beat Mass Effect 2. Today I wanted to talk about a few things, what I liked/disliked, my end game team, guns, and lastly what the “bonus” was for beating Mass Effect Galaxy (the iPod Touch/iPhone game). Liked: The improved combat system The upgrade system — no more pausing mid-fight to adjust ammo types as necessary, or installing an upgrade for one weapon and moving your upgrade into another, etc, etc The planet scanning instead of taking the Mako down to run around the planet The heavy weapons Three different versions of Barrier: Fortification (for more Armor), Geth Shield (for more Shield), and Barrier (for more… biotic Barrier).