“There’s a huge media fuss about a potential failing of the iPhone 4’s clever antenna design, with folks concerned it spells radio-drop-out call doom for the phone,” Kit Eaton reports for Fast Company. “We remain to be convinced. But here’s a $0.001 DIY fix anyway.”
“If you’re a user who feels they’re suffering from difficulties connecting to the nearest cell phone mast with your iPhone 4, then one theory–which has been given a degree of credence by official communications from Apple, including Steve Jobs himself–is that it’s because your hand is covering the GSM and Wi-fi antenna joint when you hold it,” Eaton reports. “Your slightly electrically conducting skin is bridging the slim insulating wedge of plastic that splits the phone’s frame at this point.”
So here’s the fix:
1. Get about an inch of scotch tape off the reel (that’s Sellotape if you’re in the U.K.).
2. Cut it carefully so that you make a rectangle something over a half-inch long and just tall enough to exceed the iPhone 4’s height (about 0.4 inches should do it).
3. Align the piece of tape so that it’s covering a section of the lower left metal side of the iPhone 4, some below the thin black plastic line and some above.
4. Stick it around the phone’s metal edge, making sure that all of the back of the edge’s metal strip is covered–you may even be able to leave the front uncovered, as it’s the back where your hand will rest. The main thing is to ensure that it’s unlikely that your palm will touch the metal on both sides of the black plastic line.
Eaton reports, “Result: Your iPhone 4’s twin antennas are now insulated against skin short-circuiting in the ‘problem corner.’ You don’t even have to use scotch tape–make a statement and do it in bright red electrician’s tape, if you feel better for it. It’s also exactly what Apple’s ‘bumper’ case, and probably every other iPhone 4 case too, will do–so you don’t need to worry with the fix if you’re an iPhone case fan.”
Full article, with photo, here.
MacDailyNews Take: Now we know what Gray Powell was supposed to be testing.
Five words: “Be a man; duct tape.”
Related articles:
iPhone 4 sensitivity to fingers explained by a Ph.D. in electromagnetics – June 25, 2010
Apple responds to iPhone 4 reception attenuation issue: ‘A fact of life for every wireless phone’ – June 24, 2010
A coworker got the iPhone 4 on day 1. He says the bumper doesn’t prevent this antenna issue.
How is this acceptable?!! My iPhone loses every bar and the call is dropped every time. It’s not a software issue, it’s not a non-issue, it’s a big issue. Granted, I only hold my phone that way when I’m surfing the web, or playing a game, but you lose all signal AND connection to data. I just can’t believe Apple isn’t doing anything about it. Still love my phone though…
@ccap1
@MizuInOz
Yes, with regard to putting some RTV in the joint between the two antennas, that wouldn’t work. Whether it’s air or RTV in the gap, the gap isn’t the problem. It’s electrically connecting the two different antennas by touching both.
It’s not so much tape over the “joint”, it’s tape over one—or both—of the antennas where you touch one—or both—of them.
If one were to fully passivate the bottom antenna using water, acid (vinegar) or warm vinegar (best yet), you could touch both the side and bottom antennas and not galvanically (electrically) bridge them.
I have two theories whey Apple didn’t pick up on this:
1) Most people are right-handed. It may be that the most natural way right-handers hold the phone doesn’t galvanically connect the side and bottom antennas.
2) It could well be that prototypes at Apple had more time before being handled and the stainless passivated better before they were handled. The Foxconn-produced ones are flying to the U.S. pronto and are quite “fresh.”
Again, I don’t know for sure that passivating like I described will work because I haven’t tried it. But I can tell you that when stainless like this (likely 303 or 304) is well-passivated, you have to mash the multimeter probes into the stainless to pierce through the oxide and to get any conductivity reading at all; passivation is like tape or a silicone rubber or plastic protective case, only much thinner.
Correcting something I wrote above, one doesn’t need to put tape over “the joint.” You can solve this by ensuring that at least one of the antennas is covered with an insulator at the spot where you naturally touch it. Or you can cover both antennas where you touch them (but only one is required).
Nope. Doesn’t work for my moisty midwest hands (or defective phone?). Tried it last night (proudly well before word of this got out ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” /> with two layers of electrical tape even covering from the button to the speaker. Phone has 3+ bars in old silicone case. Grrr!
Pretty impressive, how do you know all this stuff, maybe you should send your CV to Steve? ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
You know what they say about early adopters!….
“something, something…pay the price…gummy, sticky, blah-blah, wait in line for hours, whosit, whatsit”……..or something like that.
Anywho!, I’ll patiently await the good, working, non-sticky, dare I say…White……version.
You know what they say about patience!…..actually, you probably don’t…allow me…as we read from the book of Wiki:
Patience is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without acting on annoyance/anger in a negative way; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties. It is also used to refer to the character trait of being steadfast.
Amen.
Heh true that btaylor, let the suckers (= early adopters) pay the price (like the did with the first iPhone), the rest of us will be there to pick up the (finer) pieces:D
it turns out the iPhone 4 doesn’t drop left-handed calls. and the placement of the antenna helps reduce the chance of brain tumors. http://www.macdaddynews.com/?p=4368
The point everyone makes about this revolutionary antenna design is valid. And your $0.001 fix further justifies this. You shouldn’t have to add a piece of tape to your phone to prevent this phenomenon. Apple should have caught this in the design phase and addressed it. Period.
“(that’s Sellotape if you’re in the U.K.).”
Or is it Cellotape?
“You’re holding it the wrong way.” “Just apply some tape or clear nail polish.” The antenae is “beautiful. Really cool engineering.” With world-wide criticism gathering around the new iPhone’s design flaw and compromised performance, many of us will be pleased we held on to the 3GS. iOS 4 also doesn’t appear to be ready for prime-time yet. Upgrade required.
A more elegant solution would be to apply some nail varnish to the area nearby the gap. Hopefully the solvent in it will not harm the iPhone.
Whoops! somebody (Look Ma, No Hands) beat me to the idea
Whoops! somebody (Look Ma, No Hands) beat me to the idea 15 mins ago.
Just chill for a bit, I’m sure apple will fix this ASAP. They are usually pretty good about this, hell, it’s only been 2 days.
I just spent $400 to upgrade to a sleek futuristic device. I’m not putting some gluey garbage on it to help it work. Apple either figures out an elegant fix to this or we’ll all just have to not “hold it that way” until next summer.
It’s truly amazing the amount of energy and thought in this thread about how to fix the latest wonder product from Apple, the entire situation is unbelievable. Just imagine the MDN commentary if this had happened to the Droid X or Evo 4G?