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Apple posts job listings for iPhone, iPad antenna engineers

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 · 1:01 pm · 29 Comments

“Apple has quietly begun a search for several antenna engineers, corporate job listings show,” MacNN reports. “People who win one of the positions will be expected to “optimize the radiation performance for wireless portable devices,” specifically the iPad and the iPhone. Candidates must have 10 or more years of experience in the field.”

“All of the openings appeared on June 23rd, the day many people began receiving the iPhone 4, which has fueled speculation that they may be related to the reception issues people began reporting at the same time,” MacNN reports. “Three other positions connected to iPhone antenna work became available on June 16th, however, which suggests either that Apple has been aware of problems for several weeks or that the June 23rd additions are purely coincidental.”

Link to the Apple Inc. job postings in the full article here.

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Comment Feed

29 Comments

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TowerTone

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 1:11 pm · Reply

Meanwhile Microsoft is trying to hire them some Fugly Fixers…
Not everybody uses the same radio

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 1:13 pm · Reply

Probably has nothing to do with the 4′s issues with AT&T;. More like rolling out international versions with the new design or other devices. Now that the iPad is here, a smaller iPhone would be nice that’s just a really good touch screen phone.
Micro Me

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 1:15 pm · Reply

Why not just advertise for a sticky tape or rubber bumper engineer?
X

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 1:15 pm · Reply

How Microsoft is relevant in something regarding Apple’s screwups again?

Cultism at its finest.

Hey, I don’t know that antennas use current and shouldn’t be touched, but at least a device that spends 90% of its time hidden in a pocket is relatively “pretty” and thus pretend I am a non-geek despite standing 215423 hours in a line to get one!
yeah

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 1:18 pm · Reply

Coincidental. Apple is releasing the iPad and iPhone to new carriers around the world as markets expand, they may need to adapt to China’s requests and its unique frequencies, not to mention Verizon rumors and new frequencies and network systems in the US, etc. It’s an ever-evolving platform of products fitting into many wireless niches around the world.

It’s therefore no surprise that Apple needs new engineers from time to time…

Furthermore, reports indicate the vast majority of iPhone 4 users are having no problems with calls and reception, they work as well or better compared to previous iPhones. (In fact some report improved reception! ) This leads many to believe there is no hardware (antenna) “problem” with the new iPhone 4.

Whatever that death grip hysteria is about, it may be normal for cell phones in general, it may be a software tweak showing enhanced sensitivity to the reception bars, it may be the external antennas at some frequencies lose some sensitivity when pressed in certain ways – like touching a TV’s rabbit ears would change reception. Totally normal. Whatever. It does not appear to be a hardware problem. (And all have agreed that a cheap insulating bumper fixes it for those who have it, so whatever, it’s a non-issue.)

There are videos showing Nokia and ANdroid phones doing the same thing (without any external antennas), so at that point you have to say, meh, let’s move on.
Digital Mercenary

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 1:21 pm · Reply

All Apple’s job postings are done quietly. This sounds like an attempt to spin an article. We need more reporting and less editorializing.
deepdish

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 1:26 pm · Reply

Maybe they should start field testing their phones WITHOUT any cases.

Regardless, get a case, problem solved.

My iPhone cost me $300. My big gripe is the bumper case cost $30. That stupid bumper case should be free. It cost Apple maybe $4 each. So my iPhone cost 10% more because I need a $4 case to get the phone to work.
R2

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 1:27 pm · Reply

That’s one awfully glaring coincidence.

What a terrible black mark on Apple. They clearly chose form over function when it comes to the iPhone 4. They knew good and damn well what was going on and made those bumper cases as the solution.
theloniousMac

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 1:30 pm · Reply

1. The FEDs force mobile phone designers to place antennas at the bottom of the phone due to radiation issues.

http://tinyurl.com/2c2mcyp
According to antenna expert Spencer Webb, don’t blame Apple… blame the FCC.
“…Just about every cell phone in current production has the antenna located at the bottom. This insures that the radiating portion of the antenna is furthest from the head. Apple was not the first to locate the antenna on the bottom, and certainly won’t be the last. The problem is that humans have their hands below their ears, so the most natural position for the hand is covering the antenna. This can’t be a good design decision, can it? How can we be stuck with this conundrum? It’s the FCC’s fault.

You see, when the FCC tests are run, the head is required to be in the vicinity of the phone. But the hand is not! …”
———————–
2. Of course Apple was aware, it is evident that most mobile phone developers are aware. Again, this is not specifically an Apple issue. MDN supplied video showing the exact same problem on 3 other phones yesterday:

Nokia E71: http://tinyurl.com/3azz5bb
HTC Droid: http://tinyurl.com/2frah7u
Nexus 1: http://tinyurl.com/22l2zn8
————————
3. Nokia Goes so far as to state:
“..Antenna
Your device may have internal and external antennas. Avoid touching the antenna area unnecessarily while the antenna is transmitting or receiving. Contact with the antennas affects the communication quality and may cause the device to operate at a higher power level than otherwise needed and may reduce the battery life….”

Clearly Nokia is aware of the problem also.
———————-

4. The furor over this is largely being driven by Gawker Media through Gizmodo. They harp on it daily, they create Facebook petition sites, they encourage class action law suits and so on.

———————

5. San Francisco (Kook capital of the world) is forcing cell phone makers to disclose radiation levels, which I think might concern Apple. Though Apple is about average in radiation, they are not among the 20 lowest-radiation devices. The iPhone 4 is kinda high at 1.17 SAR rating (watts/kg) digital. While this is still meaningless, it’s enough to scare people. (I hear the esteemed mayor of San Francisco is now working on legislation for foil hats.)

The Apple job description specifically mentioned radiation levels.

If one were to lower radiation dramatically, perhaps you could convince the FCC to allow antenna placement elsewhere in the phone to cut down on the antenna contact/reception problem.

Why Apple has drawn all the attention on this is one of those media vs. Apple mysteries that never gets discussed. Singling Apple out is like picking one Airline and blaming them for turbulence.
Eddie

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 1:35 pm · Reply

The posts for the new job are presumably due to the iPhone hitting Verizon. Each carrier has it’s own requirements for their technology. CDMA and LTE use a spectrum of frequency that dependent on surface structure as well as boundary loss due to the wavelength of signals and how they travel. Keeping with Verizon and their tolerance for signal quality these positions may be for signal degradation due to radio frequencies traveling on similar planes (CDMA AND LTEAND GSM )for global roaming capabilities

Just a thought guys
theloniousMac

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 1:37 pm · Reply

@Eddie

A good point.
R2

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 1:40 pm · Reply

“Again, this is not specifically an Apple issue”

Yes, other phones do it but it’s not to the extent of iPhone 4 signal loss. It’s not even as bad on older iPhones. They don’t have their antennas literally wrapped around the outside of the friggin case.

And who the hell cares about what some Nokia phone does anyway? They also suck at downloading and playing music, does that give Apple an excuse to suck at those things too?

You’re right, it is being driven by Gawker. But if Apple hadn’t released such a flawed product, they wouldn’t be open to Ryan Tate’s shenanigans. Steve Jobs handed them this golden nugget, it wasn’t created.
MEES

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 1:45 pm · Reply

It is highly regarding the future iPhone/iPad that may be able to use 4G.

No more of this antenna reception silliness.
iVista4

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 1:50 pm · Reply

Thanks Thelonious Monk, I mean Mac – great name – but isn’t it infinitely more correct for Nokia to openly discuss the positioning of the antenna and related reception issues, then have Apple reluctantly step-up to the plate after the public caught on to the problem?
theloniousMac

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 1:50 pm · Reply

I would also like to point out that the audio call quality of my iPhone 4 is much better than that of the predecessors. In addition the iPhone 4 hangs on to calls much better. I constantly get 4 or 5 bars in areas of the house where I was lucky to get 2 on my 3G or 3GS. Ironically, being made conscious on a daily basis of where I put my hands on my phone may have made my call quality even better.

I just read where a Ph.D in wireless network planning techniques referred to the iPhone as a “lousy phone.”

The Ph.D (unfortunately named Dick Gaywood) is some yahoo from Cardiff University. He is not specifically an antenna engineer and I doubt he could qualify for Apple’s job postings. (That name is very suspicious).
theloniousMac

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 2:08 pm · Reply

@R2,

“…Yes, other phones do it but it’s not to the extent of iPhone 4 signal loss. It’s not even as bad on older iPhones. They don’t have their antennas literally wrapped around the outside of the friggin case. …”

With all due respect, you are wrong.

Have you watched the E71 video? Hand placement drops signal strength completely to ZERO.

Hand placement on the droid drops up to 22% in dBm.

Hand placement on the Nexus one drops from 79 dBm to 101 dBm, a 22% drop, and the phone drops 3G and switches to Edge!

The problems are equally as pronounced as the situation on the iPhone.

There is a trade off with the external antenna. Placing antennas on the outside of the phone will improve signal strength, however touching the antenna can weaken the signal quickly.

I for one prefer the option of using my tiny brain and not touching the antenna. I get better call quality if I don’t touch the antenna. I like that much more.
Hm

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 2:12 pm · Reply

@theloniousMac

And all this is completely irrelevant because the problem is not hands blocking the signal (a signal which can actually pass through a lot of things, including ie, plastic), but hands conducting the current of the antenna.

The signal might be affected by hand placement in all phones, but few (or none) allow someone to actually touch the antenna itself, which then leads to the completely different (and more dramatic) problem of the current inside it now going/getting wasted into you.
theloniousMac

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 2:20 pm · Reply

@iVista 4

I think Apple simply does not know how to react to something that has been known for sometime suddenly being declared “An iPhone Issue.”

This is as bad as all the media reports when AT&T;’s website got hacked referring to the website hack as an “iPad Security Breach.” That was also a Gawker Media conducted smear campaign.

And the primary point of my post is that Apple is not “reluctantly stepping up to the plate.”

This is an interpretation of a job posting. I’m far more inclined to believe @Eddie’s interpretation.

“Reluctantly stepping up to the plate” would imply that this is an iPhone issue and not a generic cell phone issue.

Again this is like saying Southwest Airlines 767s experience turbulence so turbulence is a Southwest Airlines problem. Then if Southwest turns around and asks, “Hmmm.. can we actually do something about turbulence,” acting as if that is proof that they are culpable.
Hm

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 2:20 pm · Reply

Your personal bar experience is also irrelevant, because bars do not represent some kind of % of some fixed standardized signal power. (or else, tell me what that is)

Phones simply display 5 bars up to the point they can do a quality call, and then continue to display 5 bars for EVEN STRONGER signals.

This means that if someone is in an area with an exceptionally strong signal, even if he halved his signal’s strenght, he could still be getting 5 bars even if he is affected by the problem.

On the other hand, if someone is right at the edge of the 5 bar “qualification” then he would actually see the problem. In other words: Not all 5 bars are equal.

If some people are lucky then and have really nice (let’s call it, 10 bar) signal in their area whereas damaging the signal has no effect, because the remaining signal is still good enough, this doesn’t mean that they can dismiss the experience of those whose might be further away from the cell tower.

And of cource if the first category moved into a location where this was the case, they would be affected too. In fact, any test between phones that does not happen in the same area is rather silly.
Branedy

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 2:20 pm · Reply

The antenna issue has NOTHING to do with it’s placement. it has to do with the hand touching and GROUNDING the antenna with the metal on the side of the phone. DESIGN ERROR! Pickup and try using a cheap walkie-Talkie by the metallic antenna, and it won’t work either. insulate the metal from the skin, and guess what, signal strength will return. Glass, non-conductive plastic, painted wood they all would all work, and look pretty too! Metal on skin, FAIL!