Why do Phones Make Your Speakers Buzz?
Chances are you have been annoyed by the static interference your speakers have (also known as “speaker buzz”) when a cell phone is nearby. I know that I get the speaker buzzing almost every morning from my baby monitors and it drives me nuts. So why do cell phones cause this to happen?
Really, it all comes down to what kind of phone and what kind of speakers you have. Essentially, the speakers that buzz the most have the least amount of shielding — that is, shielding from any type of radio frequencies. Many times manufacturers will bring down the cost of speakers by limiting the shielding they have. So unless you have rather expensive speakers, the ones you have are more susceptible to all sorts of interference.
It also depends on the kind of phone you have. In most cases the speaker buzz will be caused by a phone running on a GSM network, such as AT&T or T-Mobile in the US (and almost every carrier outside the US).
Whenever GSM phones are in use they will pulsate radio transmissions; ie. the radio turns on/off at a fast rate, causing them to pulse. This pulsing is what you are hearing when the speakers buzz. This typically happens when a call or text message is coming in, or in the car when your phone is transferring from one tower to another. But it can even happen when the phone is sitting still and not doing anything.
You’ll also notice that the volume of the speaker buzz changes, especially car speakers. This is because interference increases as your distance from the tower increases, causing the phone to transmit at a higher power just to be able to communicate with that tower. It can also be simply because your phone is so close to the speaker.
What can be done about the annoying buzzing? Unfortunately, not a whole lot. I’ve found a couple things that work — firstly, make sure your phone is not right next to the speaker. In my car, the interference dies as I move my phone farther away. If that doesn’t work, try pointing the phone away from the speaker. If the antenna is pointing a different direction that may help limit the amount of interference pointed in the direction of the speakers. Lastly, get a CDMA phone (one that works on Verizon or Sprint). While this is not the worldwide standard, they transmit in a completely different fashion that does not cause your speakers to buzz.
Visit this website to go even further in detail.
Check out this article about how using magnets will stop the buzz.
Why I Beta Test iPhone Apps
So I have embarked on a new adventure — to beta test new iPhone applications.
Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? For some, yes. Others may be wondering what the heck I’m talking about. With thousands of new iPhone applications being introduced to the App Store on a regular basis, it’s hard to know which ones are total junk and which ones have real promise, and I’m tired of downloading a new app, only to be let down by bad quality, bugs, crashes, or just bad implementation. Beta testing is a great way for developers to improve their app and make sure it can be of actual use to iPhone users.
And frankly, I feel that I can make an excellent contribution to developers by giving them publicity on my blog in addition to helping them find ways to improve the product. And it’s just neat to play with a product that’s not publicly available yet.
Now, while the idea sounds quite glamorous, betas are not public for a very good reason — they have a LOT of bugs that need to get worked out before the final product gets submitted and hopefully accepted. The last thing any developer wants is to sell a buggy app that everyone has issues with and nobody likes. It certainly wouldn’t help their reputation, either. So while I enjoy testing out and previewing apps that nobody else has been able to play around with, it’s no pleasure trip. There are certainly some responsibilities that go along with the privilege.
I know most of you would like to know about the latest and greatest apps coming out, and I want to continue raising the bar of expectations for iPhone apps. In the 3 months since the App Store came out, the bar of expectations has been raised significantly, and there’s no reason why it can’t keep going up. I have doubled the productivity of my iPhone in the last 2 weeks alone due to several new apps.
How does one become a beta tester? A little mixture of luck, associations, prior experience, digging, and asking around. My new adventure is all about learning what it takes to become one. So far I have been able to test two, and am eager to add more to my list.
So my plan is to use my blog as a vehicle of publicity for developers, and to give myself something else to do late at night that doesn’t involve TV.
Tell me — are you interested in knowing what to be on the lookout for? Would you like to know how to get the most out of your phone?
My mission is to help you get the most out of your phone, and to keep an eye on the newest trends in wireless. And I love playing with new stuff. So that is why I beta test iPhone apps.
Are iPhone Updates Following Logical Path?
Written by Brad Molen
While millions of consumers have purchased the iPhone, and overall is a pretty good device, by no means is it perfect. In order to fix bugs and come out with new features Apple has instituted several updates to the iPhone OS and continues to develop more updates.
I am concerned, however, that these updates do not follow a logical path. Obviously the 2.0 update was the largest update with the introduction of the App Store amongst a large number of other things, while 2.1 attempted to fix bugs as well as boost battery life and phone reception. Recently apple developers received a beta version of OS 2.2, which does…Google Street View?
Street Maps is neat, sure. But it’s not copy/paste. It’s not email in landscape mode. No picture messaging still. Take a look at this website and you’ll see thousands of iPhone users voting for the features they want the most. But the pleas remain ignored.
It makes no sense to me that Apple would come out with an update solely to include Google Street View. There HAS to be something else to it. There just has to be! And why wouldn’t they add more? I don’t think it would be that hard to include some of these much-desired features. I wonder if Google is paying Apple quite a bit just to have their features included in a Apple software update.
But if you’re going to come out with a software update and go through the process of redoing OS X code, sending out betas for developers to test, and spending a couple months to do all this, wouldn’t it be more cost and time efficient to involve a few extra programmers and include some of these features that would appease millions of loyal fanboys?
After 2.0 and the iPhone 3G came out, I read that Apple decided not to include copy and paste because it just wasn’t a high enough priority at the time. That’s okay, I can accept that. But some of these minor updates are the perfect time to introduce features that weren’t high enough priority to make it into the major update.
So, I’m starting to think that Apple doesn’t have a planned path for the iPhone updates; and if it does have a plan, it doesn’t make any logical sense. To me it looks as though Apple got done with 2.1 and said “okay, what should we do next for 2.2?” and decided Street View was the next big focus. Have they planned 2.3 yet? 2.4?
Millions of phones are being sold, yes, but there are still many people who won’t get the iPhone because it doesn’t have certain features. Maybe it’s worth investing a few extra bucks to get these features added, and perhaps another million or so could be sold already.
I could be completely wrong; the real version of 2.2 could include a lot more than the devs have leaked to us. But, so far it doesn’t look all that spectacular.
What do you think? Am I completely off on this? Or do you see a natural progression in the updates that I just am not seeing? Please sound off.
Crunching Numbers: AT&T profits
How much does AT&T make off of each wireless customer?
Before I tell you, go ahead and take a guess. The answer may come as a complete surprise to you.
AT&T had its quarterly earnings call yesterday morning in which it announced how many iPhones were activated, how many new customers were added and the total revenues and profits for the wireless segment. While I am not currently a stockholder, I am certainly interested to see how beneficial the iPhone is to AT&T.
First, a few facts. When a new customer or eligible current customer purchases the iPhone 3G, AT&T subsidizes $375 off each one. In other words, AT&T pays Apple $575 for a 8 GB iPhone 3G, yet only charges the new customer $199 with two-year contract. The normal subsidy for AT&T phones is roughly $150-200 at the most. The big moneymaker, in this case, is Apple.
Because of this large subsidy, AT&T didn’t expect to start profiting from the iPhone until around 2010. In fact, it was announced yesterday that AT&T suffered a $900 million drop in overall income due to the iPhone. But that was something the company was willing to do because it contributed to an additional 1.7 million customers, bringing the total to 74.9 million (still the leader — at least, until Verizon’s acquisition of Alltel is final).
Now to answer my first question: how much did AT&T make off of each customer?
Overall income was $2.322 billion for the quarter. Divide that by the 74.9 million customers, and it comes out to $31.001 per customer per quarter. That means per month, AT&T made an average of $10.30 from each customer.
I always thought these big companies made more than that, but I guess all those dumb fees they make you pay don’t actually go toward padding the stockholders’ wallets. I would love to see a more detailed list of exactly what kinds of costs are involved in maintaining the network, adding new customers, etc. It would certainly be an interesting look into where that $10 per month is coming from.
Questions:
What was your guess on how much AT&T makes?
Does this come as a shock?
T-Mobile Inventory Concerns
Anticipation is mounting for the upcoming release of the very first Google Android-powered phone, the T-Mobile G1. In a future post I will cover some of Android’s features that stand out against the other big mobile OS competitors out there.
Today I spoke with a T-Mobile employee and asked how many they would be getting in stock. To my surprise, the answer was 0. Zilch. Upon further inquiry, I found out that this was because we do not live in a market that has 3G yet; and since it is a 3G phone, not as much emphasis would be placed on it in this area yet.
The employee did go on to tell me that the G1 would still be available to anyone who orders online. My first thought was of concern for the employee who gets paid on commission, yet cannot take advantage of the launch of one of the biggest devices ever to hit T-Mo. Coming from a salesperson’s point of view, that would be reason enough to be plenty frustrated.
My second, more lingering thought is: if a customer from a non-3G market can order a G1 online, how is it any different from purchasing it in the store? I don’t see any difference at all. They’re still enjoying the same exact phone in the same exact non-3G area. Is it that there’s less of a risk if it’s sold online?
The thing is, 3G phones are backwards compatible. If you are not in 3G coverage, you can still get GPRS/EDGE. While it may not be as fast, it still works quite well. It still makes calls, still accesses internet (especially with WiFi). Um, am I missing something here?
I don’t pretend to know anything about inventory control. Perhaps there’s some underlying truth I just haven’t been told about. But this seems to be a no-brainer. If it’s going to be a national launch, make it available in every store, not just online. Those customers in non-3G markets shouldn’t be punished for something that’s not their fault.
