Wednesday, January 7, 2015

CES 2015: Reach79's iPhone 6 Case Claims to Double Signal Strength and Improve Battery Life http://goo.gl/lt2JGm

It's one thing to keep an open mind -- but it's another to understand some basic science and realize that this product CAN'T work as claimed.


For starters, you can't improve on an antenna's reception of a signal by placing other objects (metallic or not) next to it. They'd have to physically touch it, which is not possible with this case.


Think about the old fashioned "rabbit ears" antennas for a TV set or an antenna for an FM radio. Did you *ever* see somebody successfully get a better signal by stacking some empty beer or soda cans beside it? Nope. What *sometimes* helped was changing the antenna's shape or length by wrapping some aluminum foil around it -- but that involved it physically touching the antenna.


And secondly, there are certain optimal configurations for antennas based on which frequencies they're supposed to receive. This is where someone like a HAM radio enthusiast could go into much more detail than I can. But I remember from tinkering with CB radios, years and years ago ... there were what they called "full wave", "half wave" and "quarter wave" antennas sold for them. The idea was, the length had to match up with the size of one of the radio waves to get optimal CB reception - but alternately, you could go with shorter lengths too, as long as they were exactly 1/2 or 1/4th the length of the optimal "full wave" antenna's length. Anything else was less than ideal.


I'm sure with all the research Apple did, they already chose antenna configurations for the iPhone 6 which are the proper length and placement in the phone to receive the intended cellular frequencies. Adding more metal with a snap-on case isn't going to make it come closer to ideal, even IF it could magically make a physical connection with the internal antennas.




Actually, I still use rabbit ear antennas. And I live in a weak signal area for both cell phones and televisions.


You do not have to have physical contact with an antenna to improve its signal. Otherwise my reception wouldn't improve when I actually enter the room with the antenna. Reception also changes depending on how I sit in the chair. Some channels come in better when I place my arms and legs certain ways despite not being next to the antenna.


It's weird, but true.


And yes there is foil on the antenna posts that I've shaped a certain way. I've also noticed that my reception will also improve when my neighbor comes home and parks their car outside my window. When their car is here, I can get channels that won't come in at all otherwise. It's annoying when my neighbor leaves in the middle of a good show.


So obviously placing things somewhere in proximity will help.


I've also used the antenna stickers for cell phone reception that others say don't work. With my reception, I had nothing to lose.


I haven't used them on every phone I've had, but I have used them on 3 phones. Those particular phones always dropped calls and never worked at my house. The reception was so terrible that if the phone did manage to ring when someone called, it would drop the call by the time you said hello.


After placing the stickers inside the phone's battery compartment, the phones were suddenly reliable and never dropped calls again.


I've used them on a flip phone, a HTC windows phone, and a HTC Android phone.


Sure I was skeptical. But when you have something that won't work, what have you got to lose by trying? $7 wasn't much of a gamble on a sticker.


So, I'll reserve judgement on this new case until after it is released and publicly tested.


Just like the stickers had mixed results depending on the user, the phone, the service provider, and the geographic area, these cases will likely help some people.


Source Article from http://www.macrumors.com/2015/01/06/reach79-signal-boost-case/
CES 2015: Reach79's iPhone 6 Case Claims to Double Signal Strength and Improve Battery Life

No comments:

Post a Comment