Well, I purchased my first ever Apple product – and iPhone4. Actually, it was a free upgrade with my Verizon Wireless account.
Have no doubts people, the Apple iPhone4 WiFi design is a piece of ****. But I will get back to this comment later.
First, understand my bias.
Back in the early 80’s I worked for IBM and help design one of the first personal computers for IBM, the IBM PC. I worked in several departments at IBM as a co-op but decided to focus one Electromagnetic Compatibility – (i.e. measuring intentional and unintentional electromagnetic radiation from computing devices for global regulatory compliance).
I first started programing in the late 1970s. When I started using computers they used punch cards. There were no hard drives video screens, just punch cards and hardcopy printouts. My first computer was a DOS system. The computer had a 5MB harddrive, 540k or RAM and a 720 kb floppy disk and DOS took up about 100 Kbytes in memory.
In 1988, I started working for NCR which became AT&T GIS in 1992 which ended operations in 1994.
While at NCR, I helped with the design, calibration and FCC approvable of the first ferrite only semi-anechoic chamber for testing computing products for radio frequency (RF) designs as well as unintentional radiation.
In the early 90’s after AT&T took over NCR, I (along with our German co-workers in Augsburg) worked on the designs for the first tablet PCs. Had AT&T management pull it heads out of its Azz AT&T would have been the “Apple” of today. Instead the idiots at AT&T decided there was no profit in tablet PCs and closed down operations in 1994.
In any event, I am an expert programmer; I am one of the best wireless designers you will meet and a top level electromagnetic compatibility engineer. I can’t remember how many computers I have constructed for my own use or how many wired and wireless networks I have setup and used over the years.
So I know what I am doing when it comes to wireless communications and networking.
Consider that I do not like the Apple OS or Apple products, I find them to be over priced and under performers.
I have always worked and DOS and windows systems so I have a clear bias.
Still, since they were free, I decided to order two iPhone4s for my Verizon system.
What a mistake . . . all bias aside . . . believe me when I tell you the wireless communication hardware for the iPhone 4 is a piece of **** design.
Any good designer will tell you that you can either spend money on the transmitter and use a cheap receiver or spend money on the receiver and use cheap transmitter. For example, I have designed the wireless communications for automatic meter reading (AMR) for water meters. To keep costs down, one uses a really cheap transmitter design but sinks lots of money in the receiver design (to compensate for the cheap transmitters). Reason -- there are 100,000s of transmitters (water users) and only a few receivers (guy driving around in a truck reading the meters).
What Apple apparently did was design a piece of **** cheap receiver. Bad mistake as Apple cannot be sure of the quality of the transmitter (router) or the quality of the EMI environment (how much unwanted RF energy is around causing interference) the iPhone will be used in.
Another possibility is that the manufacturing in China is not consistent. Such is a problem with products made in China - - not consistent in quality. They will change critical parts without telling anyone. IF a part becomes unavailable they can either stop the manufacturing line (right, lol) or use a similar but untested substitute part. Guess which one they do? Yep, use the unauthorized substitute part. This can be a nightmare.
Such is why I believe there is such a variety of experiences with iPhone 4 users. What Apple should have done was spend more money on its wifi hardware parts and design so that it would work with the cheapest transmitters (routers) in the most hostile EMI environment out there. They did not. Or they need to take better control of the manufacturing process in China.
For whatever reason, I had to spend days finding a solution to my problem.
First, I tested three different products:
- (1) Samsung Galaxy III
- (2) DROID RAZR
- (3) Apple iPhone4
The Galaxy III and RAZR consistently had down load speeds of between 25MB/s to 35MB/s.
The POS iPhone4 would vary from no connection, to 3MB/s to 20MB/s.
I used various routers from old cheap routers to mid-range router products – products with a price that is reasonable to expect a typical user to be able to afford.
I am not going into all the details but the cheap router test sucked for the iPhone but not the Galaxy or the DROID.
The “mid-range” (for home use) router that gave somewhat consistent results was the Netgear WNDR4500 with both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz transmitters active – some with security and some with no security.
Security did not make a noticeable difference. Galaxy and Droid phones worked flawlessly . . . the iPhone4 sucked – both of them.
I do not have the ability to open up and examiner the wifi hardware nor do I have schematics. So my hardware diagnostic abilities is limited – but not zero. I was able to use a few “tricks” that are known to improve the reception of just about any receiver and BOOM, I found a fix.
Not going to tell Apple, they can kiss my butt. My first Apple product and I have to spend days correcting their cheapazz hardware. They can find the fix on their own.
I am simply here to tell you guys that if a Galaxy or Droid works on your network, it is not your network, it is the iPhone4. These Apple people will have you chasing your azz and saying it is everything but their phone – all mfgs do this, not just Apple.
Have a friend come over with a Galaxy or Droid for some other smart phone and test the system. If such phones work, 99% your iPhone is ****.
Keep sending the POS iPhones back until you get a good one or purchae Samsung or Motorola Droid products.
I am not a very politically correct person so not sure if this post will survive review.
