Originally Posted by Kangal (Post 754496)

Actually the iPhone 4 has the best antenna DESIGN available. By using the stainless steel band, you give the phone a professional and appealing aesthetics AND give the antenna more direct access to radio signals.

What Apple did wrong was put a cheap/inferior receiver/module compared to the norm:
since the design should've allowed for better signals, it would have to be a bad software stack (i highly doubt) or antenna that is weaker ... to bring the reception quality down (even when you aren't touching the bridge)


(actually you can, continue reading)

And another thing Apple did do wrong was put the bridge in the wrong spot. If they expect people to use this without sticking duct tape or having to put a case on.
I am right handed so I probably wont cover that bridge while on a call. But if I have to multitask (jot a note etc) I will change hands and now cover the bridge.
If they put the bridge on the top or bottom, there would be an issue of dropped reception when holding the phone in landscape (horizontally). For instance, streaming media while playing games or watching videos (multitasking) or even streaming videos ... I will still be bridging the two bands.
So where to place it?
On the left or right side on the the top (near corner).
1) I won't be touching it while holding the device in landscape (TICK).
2) I won't be touching it while holding the device in portrait (small tick) ... while people can shift the phone down from the usual grip position to accidentally bridge with the inside of the index finger medial phalanges. But the incidence would be much lower and users wouldn't need to but could easily adapt to avoid the issue.

Win, Win?

No!



As mentioned earlier, this places the antenna much closer to your central cortex (brain) so there is increased radiation danger.
It is all about compromises.

1) Go with the inferior but proven design (Nokia, Samsung, HTC etc)
Design= Mediocre reception, Mediocre radiation, Mediocre aesthetics
2) Go with the iPhone 4 design and lose reception
Design= Low reception, Mediocre radiation, High aesthetics
3) Go with the iPhone 4 design and destroy the design by placing a duct tape or use a phone cover over the bridge.
Design= Mediocre reception, Mediocre radiation, Low aesthetics
4) Go with the iPhone 4 design but have a large plastic/non-conductive material placed where the bridge rests by the OEM
Design= Mediocre performance, Mediocre radiation, Mediocre aesthetics
5) Go with the iPhone 4 design but place the bridge on the top left (or right for left handers) corner
Design= High performance, High radiation, High aesthetics

Ofcourse, these are some possibilities, the OEM may choose to tweek the actual antenna and design to make it more appealing, or less radiation to people, or better reception than what is inferred.

If I was designing a slate phone (like the iPhone) as a user:
My first choice would go to numb 5 if the radiation level was acceptable.
Then numb 1, I want a universal design, not areas where the aesthetics looks poor
Then numb4, it may not be the best but it is acceptable and gives a universal design
Then numb 3, poor aesthetics but good reception is better than no reception
Then numb 2, ppfffh!

Originally Posted by techngro (Post 754420)

Better yet, how about prioritizing not screwing over your customers by end of lifing their (new) OS and then telling them that your (newer) OS won't be supported on their device.

Originally Posted by Venemo (Post 754735)

What the **** are you talking about?
The next OS will be supported by the N900. That has been stated many times already.

I don't know why people keep whining about this all the time.

Originally Posted by Laughing Man (Post 754516)

I guess returning to "dumbphones" is an option but I've grown to like having access to the Internet everywhere. (my how things change).

Originally Posted by ossipena (Post 754644)

you are acting like n900 wasn't only for early adopters and nothing more.

Originally Posted by Venemo (Post 754735)

What the **** are you talking about?
The next OS will be supported by the N900. That has been stated many times already.

I don't know why people keep whining about this all the time.

Originally Posted by Venemo (Post 754735)

What the **** are you talking about?
The next OS will be supported by the N900. That has been stated many times already.

I don't know why people keep whining about this all the time.

Originally Posted by gabby131 (Post 755388)

iPhone customer got a defect on device. reports to apple. apple appologize and handed a new phone and says "we need to release an OS updatte"

customer bought a nokia phone......and then defect! reports to nokia, nokia says "sorry for the inconvenience" after that "we need to make a new device!"

Originally Posted by Laughing Man (Post 754546)

We need to go back to the days of manually extending the external antenna. One of the many things lost in the cosmetic revolution..

Originally Posted by techngro (Post 754602)

Steve Jobs by himself could BUY Nokia.

Originally Posted by ossipena (Post 757611)

yes in some imaginary world. if you'd know how stock markets function, you would not claim such things.

Originally Posted by Laughing Man (Post 754546)

We need to go back to the days of manually extending the external antenna. One of the many things lost in the cosmetic revolution..

Originally Posted by Laughing Man (Post 760082)

Ah, thanks for the info. Didn't know that on most of the devices they are fake.Makes me wonder what's the point in making fake extendable antenna..

Originally Posted by ossipena (Post 757611)

yes in some imaginary world. if you'd know how stock markets function, you would not claim such things.

Originally Posted by techngro (Post 760110)

Yeah, you're right. Jobs is only worth 5.5 Billion, so he can't just buy Nokia outright.

He'd definitely need to take out a loan...

Originally Posted by woody14619 (Post 760076)

Uh... Hate to mention this, but on most devices, those antenna are fake. Cell antennas tend to be coiled, at a specific radius, and to a very specific length. I've owned several different varieties of phones over the years, and with the exception of the very early brick phones all of them with extendable antennas had a plastic antenna that was hollow. :)

I have at least two motorola phones (flip varieties) still around that have the extendable plastic bit that looks like an antenna on it. The real antenna is in the core/cap, coiled around the hole where the plastic bit slides up and down. I actually took a pair of needle nose pliers and clipped the antenna off to show a friend of mine that it was 100% plastic. Nothing conductive at all in there, purely cosmetic.

Worse, in most of those early designs, the coils were near the top, near the fake antenna. Meaning it was right next to your head...

Originally Posted by woody14619 (Post 760076)

Uh... Hate to mention this, but on most devices, those antenna are fake. Cell antennas tend to be coiled, at a specific radius, and to a very specific length. I've owned several different varieties of phones over the years, and with the exception of the very early brick phones all of them with extendable antennas had a plastic antenna that was hollow. :)

I have at least two motorola phones (flip varieties) still around that have the extendable plastic bit that looks like an antenna on it. The real antenna is in the core/cap, coiled around the hole where the plastic bit slides up and down. I actually took a pair of needle nose pliers and clipped the antenna off to show a friend of mine that it was 100% plastic. Nothing conductive at all in there, purely cosmetic.

Worse, in most of those early designs, the coils were near the top, near the fake antenna. Meaning it was right next to your head...

Originally Posted by windows7 (Post 755352)

.

Nokia owning symbian, due to the lack of apps on the n900, nokia should release a Symbian emulator for us to run some of the great symbian apps available. If they cannot create an emulator then maybe they should release the symbian source code for the community to come up with something, then we could share the symbian success on the n900, as well as everything else.

Originally Posted by danramos (Post 759972)

Who the hell TRULY understands how the stock market works? Certainly not anybody on Wall Street.

"The way to make a small fortune in the stock market is to first begin with a large one."

Originally Posted by Mara (Post 760133)

That might be the case lately just before all have gone to internal antenna design... But my first phone (Mobira CItyman 5000) I purchased in 1994 had this kind of extended antenna. It worked properly only in two positions (fully in or fully extended). On those positions there was a metal collar making snug fit to the antenna base . If I hold the antenna in the "middle" where the antenna wasn't making proper contact, I quickly lost many bars or dropped connection completely. The top (stub) end had this coil that you mention. I think its purpose is to extend the antenna electrical length to quarter wave... (It was 900MHz phone)

Originally Posted by ossipena (Post 760202)

you just went thousand miles off the track. and you are so wrong that you can't even have a clue... it is shame that people criticizing wall street people are the ones who don't even bother read up on what stocks really are etc..

but lets start with basics: share price is a price the deals are made currently with relatively small quantities. if Jobs has more cash than nokias share price multiplied by amount of shares, he can't get all the shares. that is because when you buy shares in large quantities, prices go up (demand becomes higher). usually when trying to get all the shares, you have to pay a premium. the higher the premium, the bigger the probability that you will succeed. but I'll say that with nokia it would have to be something like 200-500% to even look a bit realistic.

If I'd own nokias stock, Jobs would have to pay me about 500% premium for it.... if he don't, he doesn't really want it.

Originally Posted by danramos (Post 760567)

Hah... socially, lad, you were the one thousands of miles off track. :) I was being funny. (hence the humorous quote.)

On the other hand, you're right. Wall Street understands the stock market JUST FINE. Otherwise, they wouldn't be scamming so many people so often for so much money.

Wall Street. How do I loath thee... Let me COUNT the ways: Depression-one thousand, Keating5/Savings-and-Loans-one thousand, BCCI-one thousand, Enron-one thousand, 2008-Collapse-one thousand... ;)

Originally Posted by ndi (Post 760032)

Oh, and, Nokia is a public limited company and a strategic industry of Finland. There is no "for sale" sign at he entrance of Finland.

Originally Posted by ndi (Post 761456)

You shouldn't separate halves of phrases. What i meant is that as a registered legal company and a strategic economy branch, Finland can legally get involved. Last I checked, strategic industry branches required state approval for changes in ownership in most countries. I assumed it would be valid in Finland as well.

Well, to be frank I don't know how things work over there. But I am pretty sure this won't be an unchecked decision.

Originally Posted by skripis (Post 761474)

Most likely the Finnish government would be close to powerless - would they like it? No. Could they stop it? Dunno. But that's my guess based on earlier transactions, like for example Ford selling out Volvo to China. The laws here in Europe/Scandinavia are pretty harmonized due to the EU...