Woz Suffers iPhone 4 Antenna Woes, Doesn’t Care

Nicole Martinelli ()

Woz Suffers iPhone 4 Antenna Woes, Doesn’t Care

Steve Wozniak activating his iPhone 4. @Engadget

Steve Wozniak loves his iPhone 4, but carries a back-up phone because of “death grip” antenna problems.

In a conversation with Dutch journalist Henk van Ess,  Woz says that he immediately noticed reception problems with the latest Apple smartphone.

Henk van Ess: How did you find out about the antenna problems?

Steve Wozniak: The first time I tried I was able to duplicate the problem. My wife was driving me to the airport and as soon as I got a short distance from my home, and no longer on wifi, I tried it by accessing a web page (using Safari on my iPhone 4) and observing the progress bar.

As the bar started to proceed I lightly (‘lightly’) touched a couple of fingers to the trouble area and the progress bar froze. When I lifted my fingers the progress bar continued it’s (sic) rapid progress. Putting my finger[s] back down halted the progress bar again. Lifting my fingers another time allowed the web page to finish loading.”


While it’s not so surprising that Apple co-founder Wozniak still roots for the Cupertino team, his advice that iPhone 4 users should “carry a Verizon device for back up” is probably far from what the average user considers a viable solution.

Known for toting an arsenal of tech, instead of a piece of duct tape or a bumper case, Woz says:

“If you can afford it, carry a second Verizon phone for backup. Another option is to carry a Verizon mifi and rely on Skype on your iPhone. I have used this mifi technique to rescue my own, and others’, iPhones on occasion. If you buy a Verizon Palm Pre, you get free mifi on it so that is possible the best ‘compromise’ solution, to carry a Verizon Palm Pre along with your AT&T iPhone 4.”

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Still, he’s not abandoning the iPhone 4 anytime soon, saying it “works well enough and its beauty is worth the care in holding it.”

Via TechCrunch

13 comments »

About the author

nicole_martinelli

Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco native who has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek. You can find her on Twitter , Facebook and Google+.

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Posted in iPhone 4, News, Top stories |

  • Joe

    Wow –

    Woz’s advice is probably the least useful I’ve ever heard. Thanks a lot, buddy.

  • Eren

    brilliant… Do they really assume an apple-customer spent around $300 to carry a second Verizon device?

    its the worst joke(!) I’ve ever heard…

  • digital_junkie

    Seriously is he for effin’real? Carry a back up device? The man should be fired! Apple better be doing some serious PR damage control on Friday. And by serious I mean RECALL. I ain’t buying this iphone 4 and I work for a large Telecommunications company in Canada. It’s not even out here yet and I’m already telling customers NOT to buy the iphone 4.

  • sangony

    When I grow up I wanna see life just like the Woz :)

  • Kavok

    “Seriously is he for effin’real? Carry a back up device? The man should be fired! Apple better be doing some serious PR damage control on Friday. And by serious I mean RECALL. I ain’t buying this iphone 4 and I work for a large Telecommunications company in Canada. It’s not even out here yet and I’m already telling customers NOT to buy the iphone 4.”

    Um… Why should he be fired? He doesn’t work for Apple and hasn’t for QUITE some time. Where have you been living? Apple isn’t going to recall the iPhone 4, and you aren’t buying one so why do you even care? Go crawl back under your maple leaf.

    This article is a bit silly because Woz ALWAYS carries around 2 phones. He has ever since the original iPhone that I’m aware of, and probably earlier than that. Saying he only carries around an extra phone because he is using an iPhone 4 is very misleading, especially to those that don’t know anything about him like my Canadian friend above.

    :flame on:

  • ArabMOFOhasRETURNED

    Woz’s just trollin’

  • Robert

    Great article Nicole, way too piss off the rest of the world and give them more ammo to throw at Apple.

    Oh brother, I think i’m going to unsubscribe to all things that write about apple, not because of apple’s products but simply because the writers on these blogs are really just subpar.

  • lfom

    People, Steve Wozniak was one of Apple’s founders, but he doesn’t work there anymore for ages.

  • http://www.applebitch.com applebitch

    Woz always carries 2 iPhones, 3 iPads and a pack of mince (just in case someone wants to make spag bolognese)

  • http://www.zoomata.com Nicole Martinelli

    @kavok — in fact, we made a point of saying that he’s known for carrying around more than one device at a time…The point here is that he’s advising other people to get a back up due to the antenna problem, too.

  • Nathan

    Even after all of this, I think I’d still buy the iPhone 4 even if it isn’t changed before it comes here.

  • Church of Apple

    @Kavok
    Woz actually is still an Apple employee and on Apple’s payroll, believe it or not. What actual WORK he does anymore… =\

  • Oskar

    I don’t think most people would want to, even if they could afford, carrying two smartphones. I actually DO carry two phones on two different carriers, but the one siding with my 3GS is an old SonyEricsson T300 on a prepaid card, and before I got that for free from a friend I used my old trusty T39m. Although the T300 signal is sometimes better than the 3GS’s (most likely due to dropping when going from 3G to GSM) the main reason for me is having two numbers, one personal and one for my company, and also still being able to make calls if my 3GS battery runs out. (Seriously, to all modern smartphone manufacturers, why not add even just a millimeter to the handset thickness for a radically improved battery?)