14 DAY TRIAL // Cupertino-based Apple has removed the famous 'smartphone signal attenuation' videos from its antenna information page. Previously, the said page displayed a series of videos showing the various popular smartphones on the market suffer from attenuation of reception when held in certain ways, just as its newly released iPhone 4 does. All those videos have disappeared from the said webpage, which now displays photos of Apple's antenna design and test labs.
“Every smartphone has a cellular antenna. And nearly every smartphone can lose signal strength if you hold it in a certain way. To make sure our antennas work as well as they possibly can, Apple has invested more than $100 million building its advanced labs. Our engineers have logged thousands of hours designing and testing iPhone 4 in these state-of-the-art facilities,” is what Apple notes on the antenna page on its web site.
However, the aforementioned videos, which demonstrated that devices such as BlackBerry Bold 9700, Nokia N97 mini, HTC Droid Eris, Samsung Omnia II, or Motorola DROID X, beside Apple's own iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS, can also lose reception when a certain grip is applied, are all gone. According to Apple, the content on its website is being constantly updated, this being the reason for which all those videos are gone, at least this is what a recent article on slashgear notes.
“We constantly refresh the content on Apple.com. If you’d like access to the videos, you can find them archived on YouTube.com/Apple,” Natalie Harrison, Apple spokesperson, commented on the move. The site now explains what a smartphone antenna is all about, and how Apple worked on carefully designing the one in iPhone 4.
The site was put in place last month, soon after the company held a press event to dismiss claims that its iPhone 4 would lose signal due to a faulty design. At that time, rival handset vendors, including HTC, Samsung, Nokia or RIM, reacted to Apple's claim, stating that their customers did not complain of such problems with reception.