Taiwanese TV explains Antennagate

NMA News, the Taiwan TV station that recreates news events as 'fly on the wall' 3D animations, has applied its gift to Antennagate. It starts slow, but really gets going when the lightsabers come out. Bonus: Gizmodo is mistakenly referred to as "Gizmondo." Hat Tip: Thanks, Michael Logan! Update: Now with English subtitles. [via Cult of Mac]

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donniebnyc

No matter how I hold or touch or wrap my hands around my cheapo Samsung SGH-T229 (on T-mobile) the signal strength doesn’t change. So it doesn’t happen to all phones.

Although I am right-handed I hold my phone in my left hand (bad right ear). As soon as I gripped my friend’s iPhone (same location as above) in the way I normally hold my phone the bars dropped to 1. If I held it with two fingers touching only the upper antenna, there was no signal drop off. I guess that’s the “right way” to hold it.
Yunny

The video is way more entertaining if you couldn’t understand the subtitles/narrator, and thus relying solely on the visuals to piece together the narrative.
- Unmutual
  
  I watched it with the sound off, and it was perfect just like that. I was genuinely impressed by their analysis of the whole iPhone 4 fiasco, and of Steve Jobs. I thought their previous animations were funny in an absurd sort of way, but this one was spot on.
Robert

That was brilliant! I didn’t understand a single thing that was said, but the visuals were so spot on that I didn’t need the commentary.
G144

#34 “It’s amazing to me that someone in another culture could get the Star Wars sourced Jobs-Gates transition of power analogy so correct.”

The nerd in me has to point out that George Lucas borrowed much from Kirosawa, and Darth Vader’s iconic helmet is based on samurai (or shogun?) helmet. So it is not too surprising that they get the analogy spot on.

I just like the fact that it reminded me of Rick Moranis in Mel Brooks’ send up “Space Balls” !

I just ordered an iPhone 4 after antennae-gate broke (isn’t there a better name to be had?) I’m betting that the problem is overblown. If not, I’ll be sending it back.
zureta

Who knew the best use of machinima so far was absurdist news reporting? Perfect fit! We can only hope the next Sim game is half as entertaining as this teaser.
toyg

Fanboi complaining “it’s not funnny” in 5, 4, 3…
- bradleyjp
  
  Won’t say it wasn’t funny but isn’t their best.
Anonymous

Dang, I’d love to see a Gizmondo2000 mashup. This would fit right in.
dr.hypercube

OMFUG! Wonderful reportage – I wish US based trad media were half as good.
thewinchester

Hilarious. This is the news, after a case of energy drinks, lines of crack and buckets of mushrooms.

And did anyone else notice that Sydney was China at 56sec?
13tales

PSA: I’m an Apple fanboy(tm) and I endorse this video.

What I find less funny is this mythical straw-fanboy people keep beating on about… but I guess you guys need a hobby, right?
- Anonymous
  
  Do you see him *now*?
  
  Besides, you’re saying you’re a fanboy. I assert that you are not. Liking many or even all of their products is not enough. To be a true fanboy, you must be waiting in line before the stores open on launch day, for every version. Or are you denying that happens?
- Blue
  
  >What I find less funny is this mythical straw-fanboy people keep beating on about
  
  Darth Job’s power is a tricksy one, with the means to wriggle and shift-shape, and thwart by obscure and diverse means any challenge to iReality.
- Brian
  
  Go here:
  
  http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2010/07/apple-iphone-4-antenna-issue-iphone4-problems-dropped-calls-lab-test-confirmed-problem-issues-signal-strength-att-network-gsm.html
  
  If you can’t find any fanboys in the comments, I can’t help you.
  - Anonymous
    
    Cognitive dissonance works both ways; I believe you;re on the flip side.
  - Anonymous
    
    “Me and thousands or others saw the Blackberry 9700, the HTC Droid Eris, and the Samsung Omnia II in the famous “deathgrip” and watched as their signal diminished – with our own eyes. I suggest everyone do the same.
    
    At the least I would think you would also like to know if this is an industry wide problem, and not just Apple’s. So, there are two options. You could that claim Jobs doctored the video and provide proof. That proof, by the way, could really damage Apple.
    
    Or two, if you can’t provide proof, which is much more likely, then you and I and everyone else could demand that PC World, Consumer Reports, or anyone else do an objective, scientific test for all smartphones and publish their results.
    
    If those videos are an indication, I suspect these “weakspots” are inherent to nearly all phones. It’s probably been there forever and no one made a big deal out of it – because it isn’t a big deal. You have to be in a weak signal area to start, hold it a certain way, and so on. Apple happens to be the king of the hill at the moment, and everyone likes to kick the king of the hill.
    
    So, I’m waiting for RIM, Android, and WinMobile to provide a new case – or something – for the weakspots on their phones. Aren’t you?”
    
    Sounds pretty fair and balanced to me.
    
    I just think you hate Apple; in the same way as some love Apple. Taking labels on to people doesn’t change anything.
    - Anonymous
      
      iPhone4 actually has 2 antenna problems:
      
      Issue 1. As demonstrated in Apple’s video, blocking a smart phone’s antenna will cause signal drop. As most smart phones are becoming smaller than our hands, it’s a physical limitation
      
      Issue 2. Demonstrated in many youtube videos such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvH-i7rKPJc , bridging the gap between antenna cause signal loss. This is unique to iPhone4 due it’s design
      
      Apple’s Friday press conference focused everyone’s attention on Issue #1, while avoided talking about issue #2. The free case is a workaround for the issue that they won’t admit to. “This isn’t the antenna problem you are looking for”, slick Jedi move.
fnc

Thanks to the internet, I no longer watch news unless it’s a 3-d animation made in another country, or auto tuned.

It’s amazing to me that someone in another culture could get the Star Wars sourced Jobs-Gates transition of power analogy so correct.
Anonymous

Hi!

Actually NMA is still not a TV station. NMA is ran by the NextMedia Group, they publish newspapers and run a website which offers news in animations, they are keen to found a TV station, but Taiwanese government has rejected their registration for obtaining a license for many times.

Weizhong
Sagodjur

This is freaking awesome! If you’re going to forgo the unbiased reporting, comparing Darth Jobs to a Sith Lord is the way to do it.

I’d actually watch the mainstream media if they reported the news in the context of Star Wars.
- Anonymous
  
  Actually they were comparing Darth Gates to Obi Wan Jobs, but Jobs killed Gates and turned into Darth Jobs. That’s actually a pretty important part of the video … I think.
  
  Although completely unbiased and sensationalist media (which I hate) it is pretty bloody funny.
Unmutual

The best one of these I’ve seen. Brilliant.
KingDingDong

HA! Chopping off fingers to make the stupid iPhone work is classic! Jobs is an absolute ass- telling customers not to hold the phone a certain way, then blaming vendor software specs, I’m surprised he didnt come up with the digit modification idea himself- certainly more than a handful of iCult followers would have tried it!
- flosofl
  
  You mean the way most mobile phone manufacturers tell customers how to hold their phones?
  
  http://daringfireball.net/misc/2010/07/eris-antenna.png
  
  I think the design was not well thought out, but the pile-on for the “yer holding it wrong” is a little strange, considering many other companies have a “don’t hold it like this” section in their manual.
  - Unmutual
    
    That may be true but I’ve had more than a handful of phones in my life and never had a problem like this.
    
    Granted I do not actually own an iPhone but for this problem to be getting this kind of media attention then I can only assume it is significantly worse than any other phone, including previous iPhones.
    - a random John
      
      There are any number of reasons why this problem might be getting more media attention than similar problems on other phones.
      
      One is that anything Apple does gets more attention than other phone makers. What percentage of the general public has even heard of HTC? So doing a story about HTC phones isn’t worthwhile for most news organizations.
      
      Another is that the spot you need to grip it at is pretty clearly marked by the design of the phone itself.
      
      It is also worth remembering that when this story broke Gizmodo was pushing it hard, which helped it gather steam. I wonder why they would do that???
      
      In any case the problem is real, just as similar problems with other phones are real, but the story has now taken on a life of its own. Usually Apple is the beneficiary of this sort of media amplification, but not this time around.
monopole

Very sharp, condenses all of the recent absurdities at Apple into one narrative. Big trouble for Apple if they don’t take this seriously. Apple has been driven for a decade by the RDF making admittedly good products into “insanely great” products. If Apple becomes a laughing stock they revert to being a high end consumer electronics company.
MarlboroTestMonkey7

The awesomity of it all makes the Gizmondo gaffe completely forgivable.
Caroline

Most people would call me an Apple fangirl, and I laughed my ass off at this video. Animated RDF wins so hard.

Both my and my husband’s iPhone 4s (iPhones 4?) lose bars when held barehanded, but we haven’t experienced dropped calls. Before the software update bars would drop from 3 to 1 in our house; now they drop from 2 to 1. Anandtech found that the phone loses signal but performs well with low signal; that jibes with my experience. I intended to get a case for my new phone before the phone even came out, so it’s been a total non-issue for me.

Yes, other phones do it. This one is more noticeable because the spot is in a place you’re more likely to hold it.

I think it was a dumb design screw-up on Apple’s part, and they should have just given out free bumpers from the beginning — but I also think it’s been blown out of proportion in blogs and mainstream media. If computers catching on fire didn’t herald the end of Apple, this certainly won’t.

Either way, though, this video cracks me up and I love it.
sporkinum

The ever present reality distortion field brought to visual life was awesome! That, and chopping off the fingers to make the phone’s antenna work properly.
dross1260

Jason Chen looks, um, different. What OS is at 1:26?
Gutierrez

If they had just used patented Nokia “Side Talkin’”â„¢ technology on the single antenna side of the phone they would have never run into this issue.
ryanrafferty

When you condense months worth of reporting into one cogent narrative, it shows how absurd the picture is that’s being painted.

Despite this, people are still here repeating the memes that have been burned in their skulls… Few to none ever questioned the story, nor asked how much of this problem was AT&T. I’m willing to bet that most of the boosters of this story have never used an iPhone 4. I’ve never had a dropped call in Canada, or had to deal with network congestion… and, from past experience, Im willing to wager the iPhone 4 will be no exception given that we Canadians seem to have sufficient infrastructure in place.

It goes to show that some people truly do have a slavish attitude.
- toyg
  
  Despite this, people are still here repeating the memes that have been burned in their skulls…
  
  … yeah, like “it’s all AT&T’s fault”! I mean, how absurd is that, right? Blaming a carrier that works perfectly ok with all other phones?
  
  Few to none ever questioned the story, nor asked how much of this problem was AT&T.
  
  Yeah!… wait, what?
  - ryanrafferty
    
    Toyg, from all estimations AT&T “works perfectly” with the iPhone 4 as well.
    
    But when AT&T has coverage problems, to the point that people can’t purportedly get signal in their homes… don’t you see that this is more than simply an antenna issue?
    
    It’s not absurd to question this story, and not absurd to call in to question the role of AT&T’s network.
    
    Do you think that one day all the engineers at Apple came to work hungover and decided “let’s design the antenna system today”… a lot of work, and research went in to the design of the phone, to the point Apple built a $100M test chambre.
    
    To reiterate my point: I am willing to bet this non-issue “issue” is not going to be a problem when the iPhone launches in Canada at the end of the month… because we have ample network coverage.
    
    Finally, do you own an iPhone 4? Have you experienced this problem?
    - toyg
      
      give up, man: I reproduced the issue on a friend’s iPhone 4… and we’re in the UK.
      
      Nobody is perfect, we all screw up from time to time; this time Apple engineers (drunk or not) simply screwed up.
thecheat

#13: don’t hold the top of the phone isn’t the same as don’t touch the part of the phone that you naturally cover when you hold a phone.

Or at least the way I hold a phone. I have yet to touch the top of any of my htc phones while in a call. Do I lose 3G when typing on my g1 keyboard with my hand on the antenna? Yes. Do I lose it holding it on a call? No.
Anonymous

Anyone know what software they’re using? I’m still not sure why we don’t have grade-school level software for making little movies with premade poser-people in normal-looking rooms.

You could even have simple animation presets, like walk-cycle and talking. I tried Molyneux’s “The Movies” and it’s all wrong — preconfigured entire scenes of a set length with a set number of people.

The only other thing I’ve seriously considered is the Sims engine.

Also, poor fingerless fanboi and no reality-distortion field or lightsabers needed!
ogvor

I own a Macbook Pro and the new iPhone 4 and I thought this was hilarious!
Anonymous

I loved the AT&T ball and chain, so very apt.