Motorola Droid X antenna problems

Apple has released videos to demonstrate industry wide challenges with mobile phone antennas.  These videos compared the signal displays of the iPhone 4, BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris, Nokia N97, Samsung Omnia II and iPhone 3GS.  When held tightly, the signal drops without exception on all phones.

Understandably, competitors have rejected the suggestion that their products share the same antenna problems as the iPhone 4.  BlackBerry and Nokia have responded as blogged here.  Samsung has responded since.

Apple certainly isn't shy when it comes to bringing its competitors back down to earth.  As this cage match continues, the latest to be thrown into the ring is, the new Motorola Droid X.

It will be interesting to watch how this plays out.....

Free Bumper! Get your Free Bumper!

Planning to get a free bumper?

Joel from ZDNet has an article with his views and tips.

It appears there is a 3 to 5 week wait on bumpers.  So unless you can wait...  you might probably just get them yourself!

If you just wanted instructions on how to get your free bumper Adrian from ZDNet can help here.

iPhone 4 Antenna Problem Blown Way Out of Proportion

Here's an article describing how the iPhone 4 antenna problem has been blown way out of proportion.

This brings some balance to the "hoopla" created by the media. 

To summarise, the author goes to Best Buy to purchase an iPhone 4 and asks how many complaints have they received.  To which the sales person said none. 

Perhaps the antenna problem in real life is not much of a problem and is only mentioned in isolated cases.

I will keep my eyes peeled for more news.... good or bad.

Bumpers fix the iPhone antenna problem

Consumer Reports is a US based independent, non profit organisation providing product reviews.

I didn't realise how highly regarded Consumer Reports are.  In the future I will certainly be using them for reviews on other products.

They have an article about the bumper solving the antenna problems.

I have always purchased protective cases for my phones and hence I am not fussy about this "issue".  I will probably end up getting a screen protector too for the iPhone 4 screen.

iPhone Antenna problems fixed. Free bumpers.

Steve Jobs announced in a Press Conference that Apple will be offering free bumpers for the iPhone 4's "Antennagate". Apple will send the bumper to you when you go to their website.

It appears that Apple will be unable to meet the demand for the iPhone 4 bumpers and will be sourcing other types of iPhone 4 cases. According to Steve, this website for getting free bumpers or cases should be up sometime towards the end of next week (23 July 2010).

Steve further illustrated how other smart phones experience similar problems with the antenna such as the Blackberry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris and the Samsung Omnia II.

Interestingly, Apple has also dedicated a page on its website explaining industry wide challenges of smartphone antennas. Just this morning RIM and Nokia have issued a response to Apple using their phones as examples when describing the smartphone antenna problem.

The music video (below) used at the start of the Apple Press Conference was quite amusing.