Antenna
iPhone 4: The duct tape solution
July 12, 2010: 12:33 PM ETConsumer Reports is not the first to offer a workaround to the signal-weakening Death Grip
Photo: Consumer Reports
After minimizing the iPhone 4's antenna issues on its Electronics Blog 10 days ago, Consumers Reports made news Monday by announcing that it could not recommend Apple's (AAPL) newest smartphone phone after all. It had reexamined the signal attenuation problem and determined that it was real.
Then it did something unusual: It offered a funky, "affordable" workaround.
"Cover the antenna gap with a piece of duct tape or another thick, non-conductive material. It may not be pretty, but it works. We also expect that using a case would remedy the problem. We'll test a few cases this week and report back."
And so ConsumerReports.org joins the dozens of sites that have found inexpensive ways to make the iPhone's so-called Death Grip problem go away. Among the fixes I've seen:
-
Apple PR: Steve Jobs iPhone 4 "conversation" is a fake
Apple's CEO did not tell an angry customer "calm down," "retire," "it's just a phone"
An e-mail exchange being attributed to Steve Jobs is a fake, and was not written by him, according to Apple (AAPL) public relations.
The conversation was published Thursday by The Boy Genius Report and linked to by more than three dozen other sites. In it, a writer pretending to be Apple's CEO tries several times to mollify MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 1, 2010 7:14 PM ET -
Linda and Kevin win race to sue Apple
The first class-action suit over the iPhone 4's antenna is filed in Maryland
Is there any company that sues or gets sued more than Apple (AAPL)?
According to the Wikipedia entry Apple Inc. Litigation, Apple itself has filed more than 350 cases with the U.S. Trademark Office alone between Jan. 2008 and May 2010, including suits over the use of the term "apple" by people who sell the fruit.
So there's a certain MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 1, 2010 6:21 AM ET
