“A scientist presented Wired.com with an intriguing theory that can be summed up as ‘cleanliness is next to FAIL,'” Van Buskirk reports. “A post-doctoral biochemistry fellow at a leading American university claims that dampness and naturally-occurring salts on the hands of the general populace help them form a better connection with the iPhone 4’s exposed antenna than the clean hands of testers in Apple’s sterile lab environment would have done… ‘This problem will be difficult to reproduce in Apple’s labs, because the engineers are required to wash their hands before touching devices, which also strips off the natural hand electrolytes that are ever-present in the field on a hot day.'”
“This would also explain why certain users experience the problem, while others — who may have washed their hands more recently — can’t seem to replicate it,” Van Buskirk reports. “A rubber case sold by Apple for $29 solves the problem by interrupting contact between the hand and the antenna, though Apple customer support has apparently been told not to offer them for free to complaining users. So, how should Apple address the issue, if this biochemist is right?”
Van Buskirk, “The company need not redesign the antenna, he says, but should add an electrically insulating organic hydrophobic layer atop the bare metal,’ such as the thin layer of plastic that encases soda cans.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: More proof that everyone and their mother has theories and “solutions.” All cell phones attenuate when held. We’re reserving judgement until Apple releases their software update. One thing: common sense would dictate that if you’re sweatin’ to the oldies while trying to hold onto a smooth glass object, you might want to have it in a more-grippable case of your choosing so that it doesn’t go slipping out of your fingers onto the ground.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brendan D.” for the heads up.]