Counterpart Archive

  • Some iPhone 4 models dropping calls when held left-handed, including ours (Update: Apple responds)

    Some iPhone 4 models dropping calls when held left-handed, including ours (Update: Apple responds)

    digg_url = 'http://digg.com/apple/iPhone_4_bezel_antenna_actually_makes_it_DROP_calls'; What's more annoying than spending hours lining up for a shiny new gadget? Learning that your precious phone can't actually connect to the network. Well, depending on how you hold it -- word has it that the iPhone 4's bottom-left corner isn't playing nice with your skin. If you recall from the keynote, that's where the Bluetooth / WiFi / GPS antenna meets its GSM / UMTS counterpart. So we decided to test on two brand new iPhone 4 handsets purchased today in the UK.

    One iPhone 4 demonstrated the issue everytime it was held in our left hand (as a right-handed person is apt to do) so that our palm was essentially bridging the two antennas. You can see that in the video after the break. Bridging the two with a finger tip, however, didn't cause any issues with the reported reception. If we had to guess, we'd say that our conductive skin was acting to detune the antenna -- in fact, we've already managed to slowly kill two calls that way so it's not just an issue with the software erroneously reporting an incorrect signal strength. That said, we had no issues when Apple's $29 rubber bumper accessory (given to us free for standing in line) was attached, creating a buffer between our palm and the antennas. Our second UK-purchased iPhone 4 was fine, showing none of these handling symptoms. See the video evidence after the break including Insanely Great Mac's version which got us to worrying in the first place.

    P.S. Don't forget to take our poll and let us know if you're seeing both the yellow spots / stripes and reception issues. Unfortunately, we're suffering from both flaws which is not a good sign for quality control on this first batch of Apple handsets.

    P.P.S. Since some of you are asking, our review unit showed none of these issues.

    Update: Apple responds to the issue, and boy, it's a doozy.

    Continue reading Some iPhone 4 models dropping calls when held left-handed, including ours (Update: Apple responds)

    Some iPhone 4 models dropping calls when held left-handed, including ours (Update: Apple responds) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Not as cool as Gundam, but: Watch Gigantor protecting Kobe (video)

    Not as cool as Gundam, but: Watch Gigantor protecting Kobe (video)

    Remember Gigantor? Remember last October, when the Japanese city of Kobe erected a 18m high statue of the giant anime robot? Granted, the robo statue is nowhere near as big as its Gundam counterpart, but it's still pretty cool.

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  • MusicShake Brings Their No-Talent-Necessary Music Creation Tool To The iPhone

    MusicShake Brings Their No-Talent-Necessary Music Creation Tool To The iPhone

    We’ve all been there. The latest Black Eyed Peas garbage is looping on the radio for the thirty seven thousandth time this week, and you think to yourself: “I could do this. I could make this song. I could be rich!” So you run home, grab the demo of the most complicated music suite you [...]

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  • The Linksys E-Series router is for you while the Cisco Valet is for your dad

    The Linksys E-Series router is for you while the Cisco Valet is for your dad

    Cisco today announced two new lines of wireless routers: the Valet series and the Linksys E-series. Both share the same design, with the only obvious differentiator being the color. The white Valet routers target the general consumer, while the black E-series is designed for "tech enthusiasts" like yours truly.

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  • CrunchGear visits the Tsukumo Robot Kingdom in Akihabara (photo report)

    CrunchGear visits the Tsukumo Robot Kingdom in Akihabara (photo report)

    It's been over four months since I last paid a visit to a robot store in Akihabara/Tokyo, namely the Vstone flagship store. But I have to say the Tsukumo Robot Kingdom [JP] is much cooler, mainly because the shop is larger and offers more robots than its rival. The Robot Kingdom is located on the 4th floor of the Tsukumo PC Store II in central Akihabara.

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  • Move over Humping USB Dogs. Here comes the Dodobongo USB Dog.

    Move over Humping USB Dogs. Here comes the Dodobongo USB Dog.

    The Humping USB Dogs became so popular 2 or 3 years ago that the maker, Japan-based Cube, not only started selling the silly things internationally but also added a plethora of other animals to the line-up. And now, the same company has another USB-powered gadget ready, the so-called Dodobongo USB dog.

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  • Microsoft Turtle and Pure deets are revealed

    Microsoft Turtle and Pure deets are revealed

    With the huge announcement of Windows Phone 7 out of the way, we’re anticipating what was rumored about another Microsoft phone last week: news about a project Pink revival. Before Microsoft can say anything officially, however, the folks over at WMExperts have unearthed some gritty details about the coming phones. The Turtle, pictured above, is a [...]

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  • Skyfire For Symbian Brought Up To Speed

    Skyfire For Symbian Brought Up To Speed

    Between UI enhancements, bug fixes, and neat new features like smooth scrolling, Skyfire has been slamming out the updates as of late — but only for one platform. While the Flash/Silverlight-capable mobile browser is available for both Windows Mobile and Symbian, the latter edition hasn’t seen any updates in months… until today. Just minutes ago, Skyfire [...]

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  • They made a King of Fighters live-action movie and the trailer looks terrible

    They made a King of Fighters live-action movie and the trailer looks terrible

    Since the 1990s, 2D fighting game series King of Fighters has always been the (smaller), and some hardcore gamers say better, counterpart to Streetfighter. Streetfighter saw not one but two live-action movies based on the thin story lines of the games, and now someone in Hollywood decided it's time for a King of Fighters movie. And does it surprise anybody the promo trailer that was just released looks horrendous?

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  • Review: Alesis DM6 Drum Kit

    Review: Alesis DM6 Drum Kit

    Short Version: The Alesis DM6 drum kit is a full set of electronic drums that is extremely accessible, yet just as difficult to master as the real thing. In un-packing the box it came in, one thing was immediately clear; this is no kid’s toy. This is a nine-piece set (10, if you include the [...]

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  • BlackBerry Curve 8530 brings optical trackpad to Verizon

    BlackBerry Curve 8530 brings optical trackpad to Verizon

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    Twinning nicely with its 8520 counterpart currently available on T-Mobile, RIM's BlackBerry Curve 8530 marks the brand's new low-end full QWERTY device with a 2 megapixel camera, 528MHz "next generation" core and QVGA display all paired up with EV-DO and WiFi, marking Verizon's newfound commitment to launching WiFi on BlackBerrys that we first saw on the Storm2. It's got a full 256MB of storage on board (expandable with 32GB microSD cards, theoretically, when they're available) and is going to see duty in your choice of black or "smoky violet" -- just hold out for November 20, when it'll materialize for $99.99 on contract after rebate.

    BlackBerry Curve 8530 brings optical trackpad to Verizon originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Is Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol the first e-book to outsell its hardcover counterpart?

    Is Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol the first e-book to outsell its hardcover counterpart?

    What's the one area of technology that I'm still relatively keen on? That's right: e-books, but that's because I like the idea of having several books on my person at all times in a device that fits inside my trousers. (The latest: The Wages of Destruction by Adam Tooze. Not an e-book, by the way, since I'm not made of money.) Devin, on the other hand, who also reads his share of books, is not as big a fan of the tech. We're like The Odd Couple! Anyway, I bring this up because it looks like Dan Brown's latest novel, The Lost Symbol, is the first book on record that is selling better on the Amazon Kindle than its hardcover counterpart. (Blah, blah, the death of books...)

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  • Glam Media Goes Mobile

    Glam Media Goes Mobile

    What do you do when you're sitting on a nearly endless torrent of finely-focused content and a few million bucks in venture capital? You go mobile. That's exactly what Glam Media, the distributed media network behind the womens lifestyle site Glam.com and its male-oriented counterpart Brash.com, is about to do. As one of the fastest growing sites on the web, its taken a bit longer for them to take on the mobile front than we would have guessed - but their quest to conquer portables begins tomorrow.

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  • Just how is the new EGM going to survive?

    Just how is the new EGM going to survive?

    It was a sad day 'round these parts last January when Ziff Davis shut down EGM, the long-running video game magazine. Last May, when it was announced that the magazine's original founder, Steve Harris, had bought back the rights, there was muted cheering. “Yay, they're bringing it back; did we really miss it?” But now that Harris has given an interview to Publishing Executive, I can say that I'm a little more excited about the new magazine's prospects.

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  • Sprint to offer the BlackBerry Tour (9630) on July 12

    Sprint to offer the BlackBerry Tour (9630) on July 12

    Not to be outdone by Verizon, Sprint announced today that the BlackBerry Tour would start selling on my birthday, July 12. The final cost of the Tour will be $200, but there’s a $100MIR and a $50 instant rebate. In case you forgot, the Tour is the Curve’s (8900) 3G counterpart.

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