New Apple software reduces dropped calls
Link: Apple Patents Cell Phone Software To Reduce Dropped Calls
Apple has won a patent for a cell phone “accessory detector” that helps battle dropped calls. The accessory detector has two functions. It supposedly ensures that the various different radios on cell phones don’t interfere with each other.
In addition, it also supposedly ensures that devices attached to phones also don’t cause any interference or dropped calls. “There is a need for techniques that ensure the integrity of the wireless communication with a mobile device when an accessory is coupled with the mobile device,” Apple wrote in its patent application.
Interesting. Quite what it does, or how it works - who knows. Perhaps it will feature in the upcoming iPhone?
….So Apple make an announcement that they have come up with a funky UI, and all of a sudden they can turn lead into gold? Please. This is classic hype. Now everyone will believe that an iPhone is technically the best handset as well. Congrats Mr Jobs, yet more Reality Distortion.
Dropped calls have a whole lot more to do with the network design, in particular cell neighbour lists being correctly populated to ensure correct handover algorithim implimentation, than whether or not you happen to be using an accessory at the same time. Accessories such as Bluetooth / WiFi use 2.4GHz frequencies a long way from the GSM or 3G bands used to talk to basestations, and a massive amount of effort goes into building the best possible filters into the handset radios to minimise interferance from all sources, not just accessories. Or do people genuinely believe that Apple’s MP3/PC engineers know more about this stuff than the collective rocket scientist PhD-grade engineering might of 3GPP, IEEE, UMTSF, MNO’s, Handset vendors etc etc.
This smacks of ‘clamp this wee magnet on your fuel line, get an extra 2MPG’ flim-flammery.
I’m sure the patent will be subject to exhaustive analysis, it’ll be nice if they have discovered something new. But I think a much bigger iPhone issue is the fact that you’ll only be able to use it on one network per country (as things stand) so there’ll be no basis for comparison. If your carrier is rubbish how will you know who’s at fault?
Dropped call rates on good networks are heading down into fractions of a percent now, as everything gets a whole lot smarter and (in 3G) handsets begin to use 6-sector rake receivers etc etc . Could you tell the difference between 1% and 0.9%?
Posted by Mike on June 10th, 2007 at 7:23 am.