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> He spoke indisputable truth Scott Adams' problem seems to be that he is living inside the reality distortion field. Part of the whole problem with Jobs' ha

by zmmmmm 16y ago

> He spoke indisputable truth Scott Adams' problem seems to be that he is living inside the reality distortion field. Part of the whole problem with Jobs' handling of this is that he has repeatedly failed to tell the truth (at very least not the whole truth, but arguably he has lied in an absolute sense). To be specific: Jobs stated that all phones have this flaw. But all phones do not have this flaw. The flaw is that the phone has an antenna that is shorted by the user holding it a normal way. No other phones have this flaw. It is an outright lie. Jobs himself made a big deal on stage about how no other phones have this kind of antenna when he was selling it as a good thing. Now he says that all phones have the same problems that are caused by this unique antenna design. No they don't. It's a lie. The real tactic here is simply to gloss over the truth and hope you get away with it - at the moment I'm not sure whether Jobs has or not.

othermaciej 16y ago
If you lose signal, does it actually matter if it's caused by bridging two antennas, or by shielding, or capacitive coupling, or whatever phenomena cause other phones to degrade in signal quality when held? It seems like what really matters is not the specific physical process that causes signal attenuation, but rather (a) how likely are users to run into the problem, relative to other phones; and (b) how severe is the problem, when you do run into it? Harping on the mechanism seems like a way to try to score gotcha points, rather than a genuine concern for users of the device.
- recoiledsnake 16y ago
  From the Q&A session: >10:43AM Ryan from gdgt: You showed people almost covering the entire phone in their hand, but on the iPhone 4 it can happen with just a touch. Can you explain that difference? Bob: When you touch the phone, you put yourself between the signal and your phone, so when you touch that spot you can attenuate the signal, and if you grip it with your whole hand, you can attenuate it even more. We don't build phones with an antenna on top... >Hmm, that didn't really sound like an answer to us.
  - ZeroGravitas 16y ago
    There's some Apple bloggers collecting evidence that this applies to all phones, with excerpts from manuals and such. http://dontholditwrong.tumblr.com/ http://dontholditwrong.tumblr.com/ Interestingly almost all of them say "don't touch the external anntenna" (as in the old-fashioned stick out the top kind) yet no-one has connected these statements with the revolutionary design decision of making the external antenna into the part of the phone you hold.
loewenskind 16y ago
Jobs stated that all phones lose signal when held in a certain way, he did not say "normally". Further, according to the only hard data I've ever seen (from Apple) it looks like less than 1% of users of the phone actually experience this issue. If what you say is true, how are the other 99.9% of users holding the phone exactly, if not normally? >Now he says that all phones have the same problems that are caused by this unique antenna design. That's a misrepresentation. He said they have a unique antenna, and he said that all smart phones have an issue when held a certain way. So you could interpret it that iPhone 4 has a superior antenna design, but it can be shorted by normal use so it ends up being equal.

by zmmmmm 16y ago

othermaciej 16y ago

If you lose signal, does it actually matter if it's caused by bridging two antennas, or by shielding, or capacitive coupling, or whatever phenomena cause other phones to degrade in signal quality when held? It seems like what really matters is not the specific physical process that causes signal attenuation, but rather (a) how likely are users to run into the problem, relative to other phones; and (b) how severe is the problem, when you do run into it? Harping on the mechanism seems like a way to try to score gotcha points, rather than a genuine concern for users of the device.

recoiledsnake 16y ago
From the Q&A session: >10:43AM Ryan from gdgt: You showed people almost covering the entire phone in their hand, but on the iPhone 4 it can happen with just a touch. Can you explain that difference? Bob: When you touch the phone, you put yourself between the signal and your phone, so when you touch that spot you can attenuate the signal, and if you grip it with your whole hand, you can attenuate it even more. We don't build phones with an antenna on top... >Hmm, that didn't really sound like an answer to us.
- ZeroGravitas 16y ago
  There's some Apple bloggers collecting evidence that this applies to all phones, with excerpts from manuals and such. http://dontholditwrong.tumblr.com/ http://dontholditwrong.tumblr.com/ Interestingly almost all of them say "don't touch the external anntenna" (as in the old-fashioned stick out the top kind) yet no-one has connected these statements with the revolutionary design decision of making the external antenna into the part of the phone you hold.

loewenskind 16y ago

Jobs stated that all phones lose signal when held in a certain way, he did not say "normally". Further, according to the only hard data I've ever seen (from Apple) it looks like less than 1% of users of the phone actually experience this issue. If what you say is true, how are the other 99.9% of users holding the phone exactly, if not normally? >Now he says that all phones have the same problems that are caused by this unique antenna design. That's a misrepresentation. He said they have a unique antenna, and he said that all smart phones have an issue when held a certain way. So you could interpret it that iPhone 4 has a superior antenna design, but it can be shorted by normal use so it ends up being equal.