Tag: ANTENNA

It looks like the iPhone 4 isn't the only smartphone that's susceptible to the so-called 'death grip.' A recent study from the University of Bristol found that placing your thumb over any smartphone's antenna can reduce the device's sensitivity by up to 100 fold. The researchers also found that placing a buffer between your thumb and the antenna doesn't mitigate this signal-reducing effect. It ...

Watch these guys (who are, by any measure, braver than you are) free-climb a 1,768-foot broadcasting tower (just shy of the height of the Sears Willis Tower, if you count its antennas) after the jump. Apparently, OSHA lets workers climb without lines because those "safety" ropes just get in the damn way. Best/worst job ever? We're a bit nauseous now. ...

Apple may still refuse to admit that its iPhone 4 is plagued with design flaws, but Consumer Reports certainly won't. In a recent blog post, the company's testers confirmed that the signal problems many have noticed with the new iPhone are, indeed, the result of faulty design. After testing different phones in a so-called "radio frequency isolation chamber," engineers noticed that when they ...

After being widely lampooned for blaming its iPhone 4's reception problems on how users hold it, Apple has finally come out with a more legitimate-sounding, but equally head-scratching response to the issue. In a press release, the company said, "Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong." As it ...

Have you ever ventured to the ice-cream shop for a few scoops of your current flavor du jour only to find that they're all out? St. Paul, Minnesota residents might never experience that kind of heart-rending disappointment again. According to TechLand, local shop Izzy's Ice Cream has implemented a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag system for its ice cream inventory. Simply by visiting ...

Often, getting a patient to remember to take his or her medication is the most difficult part about treating an illness. Last month, we told you about new pill-bottle caps that glow and beep as a reminder. And now, some researchers at the University of Florida have developed pills that snitch on patients who don't swallow them down. According to CNET News, the pills are printed with a nontoxic ink ...

All of the major TV networks currently broadcast HD video over the air and in better quality than what you likely receive from your cable/satellite company. And despite any techno-babble you may read, you can receive HD television signals over the air using a regular old TV antenna (as long as your HDTV has a built-in tuner, which most do). To figure out what channels are available in your area, ...