“Apple (AAPL) does not screw around with antenna design,” John Paczkowski reports for All Things D. “I know this because on Friday I was part of a small group of journalists given a tour of the company’s antenna design and testing facilities which are as impressive and confounding to an outsider as you’d expect them to be — massive anechoic chambers, CT scanners, prosthetic heads and hands filled with fluids designed to match the dielectric characteristics of the human body, all manner of RF measurement equipment and similarly equipped vans for field testing.”
“The facilities are referred to internally as ‘black labs,’ because their purpose had until that day been a closely held company secret,” Paczkowski reports. “Quipped an Apple PR rep, ‘The existence of this lab used to be secret. Now it’s not.'”
Paczkowski reports, “And as Friday’s revelations went, this was perhaps the most interesting of all. Because it’s not like Apple to pull back the curtain like this.”
Full article – recommended – here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
reminds me of that scene in the Wizard of Oz when they pull back the curtain.
I used to have a Black Lab. Now I have a Chessie.
So my neighbor’s dog is a closely held company secret? Wait, what?
With $100 million labs, dozens of PhD’s, and professed love of ‘users’ – the iPhone 4 remains the ONLY smartphone on the market where you can drop a call simply by touching it in a single spot with just one finger.
Embarrassingly poor engineering clearly explained by putting form over function.
Come October, Steve Jobs will announce that these really smart PhD’s working in these ‘Black Labs’, have engineered a hardware fix that solves the problem. We will then have the newly designed iP4 or maybe even the iP5.
The question is, will those of us trapped with the original crippled phone, surrounded by an ugly rubber band or case of some sort, get to exchange it for one of the new ones.
That will be the real test of just how much Steve loves his ‘users’.
We’re counting on you, MDN, to be there for us!
Let’s see Nokia and Rim’s labs. Probably look like Consumer Reports’ labs. LOL
Hey doubletalk,
I will enjoy my iPhone 4 as it has the best reception and os of anything out there. You enjoy your crap phone whatever it is.
@Doubletalk
You should really cut back on the caffeine. It’s a phone!
@Doubletalk
Did you miss the memo that you could return the Iphone 4…You’re not stuck with anything…
I can’t seem to get my IPhone 4 to drop signal with any grip. On one attempt I just did, it actually went up a bar in signal strength. Guess they don’t all have the problem.
You need to see this in a TV PR ad that shows of the more that $100,000,000 ‘black labs’ vs. the Consumers Reports modified garage / storage room testing facility. Apple could offer the ‘black labs’ to Consumers Reports to do a real smart phone testing the next time. Good PR and would have real controllable data.
@ bananamonkey
“……..and you’re little dog too”
Apple has yet to pull back the curtain on their secret area 24 labs.
I hear they’ve actually got a few G5 Powerbooks in the area 24 labs.
@Doubletalk
Which competitor do you work for? Or maybe you work for Consumer Reports?? Useless (and quite obvious) shill.
Apple obviously designs products for intelligent people; not idiots who refuse to adjust their own behavior to use an advanced piece of equipment. “OMG, if I lay my foot on the brake pedal while driving because my foot is tired, MY CAR GOES SLOWER!!! OMG!!! I’M GOING TO SUE!!! Why didn’t Ferrari consult me before designing this car!??” Idiots.
What the idiots don’t know is the antenna gap is actually an I.Q. sensor to determine if an idiot is holding the phone. If it detects an idiot it immediately shuts itself down in self-defense. The smart ones recognize the advantages of an antenna designed like this and hold it accordingly.
I guess this needs repeated:
IF YOU ARE STILL BITCHING ABOUT THE IPHONE, RETURN IT FOR A FULL REFUND.
See, problem solved.
@ Al:
Yeah, and they’re 6 inches tall and have liquid cooling with 6 fans.
@Doubletalk
Let me just tell you straight up that you are full of shit. There will be no iP5 before next and probably not even then. Anyone imagining Apple will back down on their design is just as retarded as people who still think there will be a Verizon phone before Verizon is LTE and 2012 arrives.
Not quoted in the excerpt above, but the real news in Paczkowski’s short piece, is the revelation that the iPhone 4 design was tested for 2 years — in facilities that are probably the equal of, if not better than, any in the world.
Two years! Can any other handset manufacturer claim that level of assiduous attention to design quality?
Didn’t think so.
Looks painful if you tripped and fell.
recall back in the day when a mac was likened to a Porsche, Ferrari or some other high end performance car AND a PC was likened to a chevy or some other car that just provides basic transportation?
well that is the same analagy that should be used with the IP4 vs other smartphones because in order to get out exceptional “car” performance there are going to be some kind of design trade offs which high end sports car purchasers understood.
I realize most around this site take the position that Steve put the “PR problem” behind him at the presser.
You are wrong about that. As much as you would like it to be so, Steve said there was a problem with the design causing more dropped calls that previous iPhones.
That’s unacceptable and comparing the iP4 to all other phones, makes it the same as all other phones when we were told we would be buying the superior phone “the best ever” “the best on the market” – NOT like all the rest.
In about six weeks there will be another presser announcing an amazing break through in technology – the design flaw actually gets fixed.
I want one of those phones, not the crippled one I bought on good faith and later told by the CEO that there was a problem with it.
@ Doubletalk:
RETURN YOU DAMN PHONE!!! ARE YOU DENSE????
Then….go out and buy the “new and improved” version when it comes out. PROBLEM SOLVED. Geez….????!!!
The existence of this lab just makes this debacle even mire inexcusable. It like Microsoft spending billions on R&D and advertising and havingnothing to show for it.
@Doubletalk
You know you can return your phone for a full refund right? If not, now you do. So please, run, don’t walk, and return your horrible phone. Then either buy a different, superior phone or wait a few months for the hardware fix to come around and get a new iPhone. In the meantime, get by with your old phone or a cheapie. If you are unwilling to do this, at least do us all the pleasure of quieting your complaints. You have options, try using them for once instead of just complaining.
@doc e
Sounds like you’re the idiot. Would you buy a car that has the gas
And brake pedal switched around, but is amazing in all other respects? All you have to do is change your behavior right?