Hasta La Gadget!

After a press conference Friday addressing the iPhone 4’s antenna, Apple gave journalists a private tour of its radio-frequency test facility to provide a glimpse into the process of designing wireless products such as iPhones and iPads.

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.

The tour was held after a press conference, in which Steve Jobs attempted to mitigate a media thunderstorm surrounding the iPhone 4’s purportedly flawed antenna by offering free cases to customers. During the conference, Jobs reinforced his original position that every phone has reception issues when held in certain ways, and he said a flawed software algorithm was making the iPhone 4’s attenuation look worse than it actually was.

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’s existence public to show 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. Caballero said each gadget is run through a chamber for at least 24 hours.

In another test process Apple also has people sitting inside test chambers, holding a device for about 30 minutes while software analyzes its wireless performance to evaluate its interactions with the human body. Synthetic heads, hands and even feet (think Nike +) are used for some of these tests as well.

Apple’s testing lab looks similar to Celecom’s cellphone radiation testing lab that Wired.com visited last year. Manufacturers who create wireless products must gain certification from an independent lab, which verifies that each device meets acceptable radiation standards set by the Federal Communications Commission.

The difference with Apple is it built its own lab for the sake of having full, granular oversight on the design (and redesign) of its products. Prototypes go through several iterations and tests before they’re finalized into Apple products. (Of course, having its own lab also helps Apple better guard its secrets.)

Before the iPhone 4 became an official product, prototypes of the device were tested in chambers for about two years until Apple settled on a design, Caballero said.

“It’s not trivial to design antennas,” said Caballero, reminiscing on the days older antennas had a single frequency.

After “passive” testing of devices inside isolated chambers, eventually Apple engineers drive around a large van containing synthetic hands gripping gadgets, with a laptop in the back running wireless analytics software to determine how the devices perform in real-world settings. Sometimes humans sit in the car seats holding the devices, too. During the tour, Apple showed a van containing a table full of synthetic hands gripping iPhone 4 devices.

“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 earlier today also posted a description and video of its test lab.

See Also:

• Apple’s Answer to Antennagate: Free iPhone 4 Cases
• It’s Time Apple Fixed the iPhone 4 Antenna Problem
• Consumer Reports: iPhone 4 Best Smartphone Despite Antenna Issues …
• IPhone 4 Loses Reception When Antenna Band Is Touched

Photos courtesy of Apple

Nokia’s looking to ride the mojo of any negative fallout from today’s Apple press conference, slipping out a rather fascinating statement this afternoon. The gist of it is that Espoo’s keen on letting everyone know how much blood, sweat, and tears they’ve poured into perfecting their antenna design strategy over the years, going so far as to say that they “prioritize” it over the physical design of the phone if they need to in order to optimize its call performance — an opinion moderately different from the “we want to have our cake and eat it too” philosophy espoused by Jobs today. In closing, Nokia acknowledges that a “tight grip” can mess with the performance, though they say they’ve done a bunch of research on the ways their phones are typically held so that the antennas are placed optimally. Interestingly, there was a stink not long ago about the severe signal degradation some E71 users were seeing when they placed their hands on the lower rear of the phone — but you can’t win ’em all, we suppose. Follow the break for the full statement.

Continue reading Nokia: ‘we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict’

Nokia: ‘we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Apple posts iPhone 4 press conference video, ‘smartphone antenna performance’ page

Apple posts iPhone 4 press conference video, ‘smartphone antenna performance’ page originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After arguing that all smartphones have the same antenna problem the iPhone 4 has, Apple has given a solution to the “non-problem”. The one we asked for: Free bumpers or cases. Here are all the details. More »

CUPERTINO, California — Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicked off a press conference Friday at his company’s headquarters with an unusual admission of fallibility.

“We’re not perfect. We know that. You know that. And [our] phones aren’t perfect either,” Jobs told the assembled crowd of about 90 journalists and bloggers, addressing widely-reported problems with the iPhone 4’s antenna.

“We’ve been working our butts off to understand what the real problems are,” Jobs added, referring to the problem as “Antennagate.”

However, those hoping for a recall or redesign of the iPhone 4 were disappointed. To address problems with the iPhone 4’s reception, Jobs offered customers their choice of a free case. Protective cases have been shown to eliminate the reception problems, which are caused when a user’s fingers or hand make an electrical connection between the phone’s two external antennas.

Customers who already bought a case will be able to get a refund of the purchase price, Jobs said. The offer will be available on Apple.com starting next week through September 30. He also reiterated the company’s 30-day return policy, which is unchanged.

In addition, Jobs said the company was working to resolve some bugs with the iPhone 4’s proximity sensor, which have resulted in people inadvertently muting or hanging up calls. And he said the delayed white version of the iPhone 4 would be available July 30.

Jobs stated that the company has invested $100 million in building a state of the art antenna testing facility, and cited test results showing that other cellphones, such as the HTC Droid Eris and Research in Motion BlackBerry Bold 9700, suffer from similar problems as the iPhone 4 when gripped tightly.

He stated that just 0.55% of iPhone 4 customers have called the company’s customer support line to complain about antenna problems, and that just 1.7 percent of iPhone 4s were returned by their customers. By comparison, he said, the iPhone 3GS return rates were 6 percent.

“When we look at this data, it’s very hard to escape the conclusion that there is a problem, but that that problem is affecting a very small percentage of users,” Jobs stated.

In addition, Jobs reiterated that the company’s latest software update has addressed a problem with the way the iPhone displays its signal-strength bars, and that a hardware redesign would not be needed.

Negative press about the iPhone 4 spiraled out of control after Consumer Reports said it could not recommend the device because of its faulty antenna.

A recall was never very likely, given the costs and potential damage to its brand. (For comparison, take a look at five of the most brutal product recalls in recent history.)

When the iPhone 4 hit stores June 24, numerous anecdotal reports spread across the web with customers claiming that covering the lower-left gap of the phone caused a significant drop in reception, as signified by cellular bars.

In a letter to customers, Apple said the reception loss was an optical illusion caused by a software algorithm that was making the cellular bars exaggerate the iPhone 4’s signal strength.

Later, a few bloggers and Consumer Reports replicated the problem with testing and concluded that the iPhone 4’s external antenna design was more susceptible to signal degradation (when held the “wrong” way) compared to other phones.

That conclusion compelled Consumer Reports to tag it with an ugly “can’t recommend” to the iPhone 4 — giving a big black eye to Apple, whose products traditionally earn high ratings from reviewers across the board. Duly, Apple’s stock dropped nearly 8 percent Wednesday morning.

When Apple invited members of the press to the event, it only said the topic was “iPhone 4″ and gave no further details. Some journalists had predicted that Apple would reinforce its stance that the device’s antenna issues are related to software, not hardware, which would eliminate the need for a recall.

Photo: Apple CEO Steve Jobs addresses journalists at the company's "Antennagate" press conference. Photo by Brian X. Chen/Wired.com.