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Tour of Apple's Black Room shows desire to get things right

Tour of Apple's Black Room shows desire to get things right

Posted: 17 Jul 2010, 18:11, by Alan F.

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Tour of Apple's Black Room shows desire to get things right

During Friday's press conference, Apple CEO Steve Jobs referred to his company's wireless lab. According to the exec, over the last 5 years, Apple has spent more than $100 million in antenna design testing. After the press conference, Apple allowed journalists to go where most people never get a chance to tread-Apple's wireless test lab. To protect the secrecy of ongoing projects, desktops were covered with a black cloth. Inside the large test facility is 17 anechoic chambers that the Cupertino based firm uses to test devices like the iPhone in controlled conditions. Each chamber is made up of a different number and levels of foam pyramids, like Mr. Jobs showed pictures of during his talk with the press yesterday, to prevent signals and sounds from leaving the chamber. The first chamber-called "a Beak"-holds a device in isolation from human contact to see how it acts without the human touch. Another chamber adds moving panels and a cellular transmitter. To test how a device interacts with humans, a device is placed against water filled plastic hands, heads and feet. This is done to simulate the interference that comes naturally from the human body. One of the most important of the 17 chambers is called Stargate because of its ring shaped signal detector. A real human sits in the middle of the ring and uses a device, like the iPhone, as realistically as possible and checks detectors to see if a signal is blocked. Outside of the lab, Apple places the device in a van equipped with the water filled plastic body parts and a real living and breathing engineer which allows Apple to test real-world conditions without requiring a case on the device. The company even uses CT scanners to check the inside of a product without having to be invasive with the product. Even after a product is released, it continues to get tested for wireless performance. During the tour,an iPad was being tested in "the beak". This helps test the effects of any firmware updates or to check why a unit was defective and needed to be returned. The reason for the tour was to ensure the public that Apple does test the iPhone and other products for wireless issues before a product is shipped.

Apple iPhone 4 Specifications | Review

source: electronista


Large chamber for human testing (L), Stargate chamber (R)

The "beak" with the iPhone 4 being tested

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1. hawk62 posted on 20 Oct 2010, 01:47 1 0

All that and the the iphone is the best they can do? Really? WOW! Kinda sad.

2. Gowireless posted on 17 Jul 2010, 19:19 0 0

+1 for that

5. Phonatic posted on 17 Jul 2010, 21:48 0 0

Wow. Not sure why your emotions are so wrapped up in Apple. Lack of hugs? In any case, it was a joke. And a damn funny one. I know your hands are slippery from all the iPhone drool you've been wiping from your trembling fanboy lips, but try and get a grip on reality. Not nice to bring mama's into the fray.

10. iHateCrapple posted on 18 Jul 2010, 11:33 0 0

I haven't seen the ILOVEIPHONE douchbag around lately, oh wait, he changed his name to NOVAinc....

14. cc16177 posted on 18 Jul 2010, 14:32 0 0

Ah, that makes much more sense now.

4. wade1968 posted on 17 Jul 2010, 21:42 0 0

What apple should have gotten it right before it hit the stores.

6. iTony523 posted on 18 Jul 2010, 01:43 0 0

Are those Spikes..?

11. iHateCrapple posted on 18 Jul 2010, 11:34 0 0

Foam pyramids

7. ilia1986 posted on 18 Jul 2010, 01:55 0 0

This is getting ridiculous. What's next? A tour of Steve's private bedroom to ensure that his sex-life was good during the iPhone 4 production?? As if anyone actually believed that an Apple product could be released without more extensive testing than what is done in NASA before a shuttle launch (and to remind you - even they have failures).

8. ellistiu911 posted on 18 Jul 2010, 04:23 0 0

well mr. jobs is sterile much like the iphone not getting signal. . while is cock ain't shooting coconut juice. . because he isn't holding his cock the proper way much as the iphone :))

9. arqjav posted on 18 Jul 2010, 10:13 0 0

All of those testing rooms didn't work at all for the Iphone 4 still is a flaw jaja.

12. Slammer posted on 18 Jul 2010, 12:42 0 0

It looks more like a recording studio to practice his PR speeches.

13. Slammer posted on 18 Jul 2010, 12:45 0 0

It looks more like a recording studio to practice is PR speeches.

15. QWIKSTRIKE posted on 19 Jul 2010, 15:39 0 0

What does this mean to a flawed design that passed this so called test protocol? Jobs then tells people don't hold the phone that way, and gets angry because people are concerned about a phone that doesn't work. After paying money for a phone that should work people should not have to buy parts for it to fucntion properly! How he test a device is irrelevant to the fact that the device is flawed, and he tried to avoid doing anything about it until bad pulbic news coverage, and a senator writes him a letter!