6 ms·

John Gruber about Papermaster and "That Damn Antenna"

18 points by barredo 16y ago

ergo98 16y ago
Gruber claims that Apple caught the antenna bug two years ago. Why then, after all of the reports, did Apple claim to be working tirelessly around the clock for some 22 days to find the issue? Secondly, it isn't "one spot": Touching the antenna anywhere attenuates and detunes it, which is why no other phone has an antenna in places that you touch. The whole bridging antennas thing is a red herring. I fully expect an upcoming revision of the iPhone -- perhaps even the white version and then a Rev.B black version, to have a coating on the antenna.A simply layer of epoxy and it would still look groovy and would eliminate almost all of the issues. The downside is how that will wear over time, which I'm sure they're testing right now.
- mlinsey 16y ago
  Reading your comment on my iPhone 4 made me curious: after a few minutes of trying, I can't make the signal drop enough to lose bars by touching it anywhere besides the gap between antennas, which makes me lose two bars every time. Even if touching it anywhere should theoretically cause a problem, it's definitely much more pronounced when you bridge the gap.
  - tptacek 16y ago
    Agreeing and adding the data point that having band-aided the "death gap" on my antenna, I get significantly better reception on my i4 than I did on my 3G. I think the original commenter's point is a crock.
    - ergo98 16y ago
      Just to confirm: You believe that touching an external antenna doesn't detune or attenuate the signal. That's a fascinating belief that goes completely against all antenna design. It's interesting that the iPhone 4 is the first device with a touchable antenna, and that was done purely to reduce the size of the device. Must be magic.
buster 16y ago
It's so boring to read Grubers fan posts over and over again.. Why are they so popular on HN? They are usually full of subjective opinions on how great Apple is, nothing more.
- robgough 16y ago
  I always presumed that's why the originating website appears in brackets next to a headline. So you can avoid reading sites you aren't interested in. I'm surprised this so far has alluded you.
  - drivebyacct2 16y ago
    No, I think he's asking a legitimate question. Who finds these enjoyable to read? iPhone fanboys that love being told what they want to hear? What other purpose does it serve to not only write about the antenna for the dozenth time, but to post it on HN yet again?
    - robgough 16y ago
      I shouldn't have gone sarcastic at the end there, but I was quite serious. I presume the front-page algorithm has some sort of "magic" in it so that the only articles making it to the front page are that which a significant proportion of the user base would want there. Is that not correct? Not every post is going to be interesting everyone, but as I mentioned before, the originating URL makes it easy to spot ones from URL's you know that you're not interested in. Myself, I am a bit of an apple fanboy - and seeing what other HN-ers opinions are on Grubers posts does interest me. I think there are probably a fair few apple fanboys on HN who agree with me. On a similar, but unrelated note, most (not all) of the articles I read on HN I've already seen through some other means anyway. It's really only the comments that I'm interested in, which are generally of vastly superior quality than that of the originating site (if it has them). edit: at the time of writing, the story does only have 8 votes. Is HN using popularity of previous stories from that domain to push it to the front page quicker? It does seem a little odd - maybe I'm wrong, and the users of HN really don't care about this story anymore.
CERTIORARI 16y ago
Truly, Apple has become the most boring tech company of today. Months and months of discussions about phones, antennas, internal policies, petty theft, and now business executives. It must be hard being an Apple blogger, and feigning excitement over such trivialities.
- mgw 16y ago
  Apple is about as boring as every other tech company when it comes to those issues. The big difference though is, that people talk about it when these things happen there. With every other company everyone just ignores it. That makes Apple one of the most (or the most) exciting tech company to many people.
- benologist 16y ago
  Are you kidding? Every time they spew out some rubbish they make another month's rent.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

18 points by barredo 16y ago

Gruber claims that Apple caught the antenna bug two years ago. Why then, after all of the reports, did Apple claim to be working tirelessly around the clock for some 22 days to find the issue? Secondly, it isn't "one spot": Touching the antenna anywhere attenuates and detunes it, which is why no other phone has an antenna in places that you touch. The whole bridging antennas thing is a red herring. I fully expect an upcoming revision of the iPhone -- perhaps even the white version and then a Rev.B black version, to have a coating on the antenna.A simply layer of epoxy and it would still look groovy and would eliminate almost all of the issues. The downside is how that will wear over time, which I'm sure they're testing right now.

mlinsey 16y ago
Reading your comment on my iPhone 4 made me curious: after a few minutes of trying, I can't make the signal drop enough to lose bars by touching it anywhere besides the gap between antennas, which makes me lose two bars every time. Even if touching it anywhere should theoretically cause a problem, it's definitely much more pronounced when you bridge the gap.
- tptacek 16y ago
  Agreeing and adding the data point that having band-aided the "death gap" on my antenna, I get significantly better reception on my i4 than I did on my 3G. I think the original commenter's point is a crock.
  - ergo98 16y ago
    Just to confirm: You believe that touching an external antenna doesn't detune or attenuate the signal. That's a fascinating belief that goes completely against all antenna design. It's interesting that the iPhone 4 is the first device with a touchable antenna, and that was done purely to reduce the size of the device. Must be magic.

buster 16y ago

It's so boring to read Grubers fan posts over and over again.. Why are they so popular on HN? They are usually full of subjective opinions on how great Apple is, nothing more.

robgough 16y ago
I always presumed that's why the originating website appears in brackets next to a headline. So you can avoid reading sites you aren't interested in. I'm surprised this so far has alluded you.
- drivebyacct2 16y ago
  No, I think he's asking a legitimate question. Who finds these enjoyable to read? iPhone fanboys that love being told what they want to hear? What other purpose does it serve to not only write about the antenna for the dozenth time, but to post it on HN yet again?
  - robgough 16y ago
    I shouldn't have gone sarcastic at the end there, but I was quite serious. I presume the front-page algorithm has some sort of "magic" in it so that the only articles making it to the front page are that which a significant proportion of the user base would want there. Is that not correct? Not every post is going to be interesting everyone, but as I mentioned before, the originating URL makes it easy to spot ones from URL's you know that you're not interested in. Myself, I am a bit of an apple fanboy - and seeing what other HN-ers opinions are on Grubers posts does interest me. I think there are probably a fair few apple fanboys on HN who agree with me. On a similar, but unrelated note, most (not all) of the articles I read on HN I've already seen through some other means anyway. It's really only the comments that I'm interested in, which are generally of vastly superior quality than that of the originating site (if it has them). edit: at the time of writing, the story does only have 8 votes. Is HN using popularity of previous stories from that domain to push it to the front page quicker? It does seem a little odd - maybe I'm wrong, and the users of HN really don't care about this story anymore.

CERTIORARI 16y ago

Truly, Apple has become the most boring tech company of today. Months and months of discussions about phones, antennas, internal policies, petty theft, and now business executives. It must be hard being an Apple blogger, and feigning excitement over such trivialities.

mgw 16y ago
Apple is about as boring as every other tech company when it comes to those issues. The big difference though is, that people talk about it when these things happen there. With every other company everyone just ignores it. That makes Apple one of the most (or the most) exciting tech company to many people.
benologist 16y ago
Are you kidding? Every time they spew out some rubbish they make another month's rent.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]