Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPod Family, Bugs/Recalls
Cellphone Interference with video-capable iPods
Ryan Block, over at Engadget, has a post about reported interference on the new iPod being caused by cellphones. There's even a 3GP video file hosted over at this site.
I was skeptical of this one at first, but I just flipped up my Razr and made a call while playing a song and watched as the volume jumped erratically up and down on my iPod. Not very cool at all.
I wonder if I waltz into the Apple Store and show them this, if they'll replace my iPod. I wonder if they have properly shielded ones mixed in or if they all have this problem.
Dear Steve Jobs, please advise.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
David C. said 9:43PM on 11-14-2005
why is it such a big deal? does this interference only happen with cellphones? if so, can't we just keep our cellphones within a reasonable distance from our iPods
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g0atbutt said 11:08AM on 11-15-2005
Is this that complicated? Hold up a cell phone to a monitor that has poor sheilding, and you will see the same thing. This isn't rocket science, the iPod(5th gen) is about 30% thinner, which obviously took out some sheilding.
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Chris H. said 10:21PM on 11-14-2005
Or did Apple build in/hide a wireless interface to the iPod that happens to get interference from some cell phones...? Maybe over the coming months we'll see some new tools introduced that can control the iPod (volume/song selection/FF/RW/etc.) wirelessly.
Is this one step closer to controlling Front Row with your iPod or vice versa?
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arkowi said 10:24PM on 11-14-2005
I have the Motorolla E815. It is almost identical in every way to the RAZR except it is fat and ugly. I tried making some calls whilst playing a song on my iPod. This strange gadget bacchanalia yeilded no results for me.
I am on Verizon though, so my phone is CDMA which uses a different frequency than you GSM folk. Damn, that is actually very insightful of me. Mark the date, Arkowi leaves a well thought out comment and not a fart joke.
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Eric B. said 10:43PM on 11-14-2005
Thank you David C., this doesn't seem like much of a story or problem. On a side note, I can hear my cell phone interference make clicking noises though my speakers on my desk and in my car. Maybe Acura will give me a new one because it isn't properly shielded?
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jimmie geddes said 10:43PM on 11-14-2005
I tried it with my Treo 650 and had none of these problems described.
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kivers said 11:00PM on 11-14-2005
You should only see the problem exhibit itself when using a GSM phone.
YARCIB = yet another reason CDMA is better
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jimmie geddes said 11:04PM on 11-14-2005
I have a Sprint Treo 650 (CMDA) so thats probably why I guess:)
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kivers said 11:10PM on 11-14-2005
To be a bit more descriptive, it's the TDMA (GSM and iDEN included) technology that causes these problems. These types of phones really only transmit during their assigned time cycled (time is the T in TDMA), this constant pulsating of the radio on the phone causes this interference. This is one of the reasons why people with hearing aids have had trouble using cellphones for years.
If you have an old CRT monitor, put your cellphone right next to or underneath it and call it. Just before the phone rings you'll see the screen shake for a second. This should work with either CDMA or TDMA phones.
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archie4oz said 12:35AM on 11-15-2005
Tried w/my Sony Ericsson W800i (obviously GSM), next to both my iPod nano and my iPod video, and nothing happened.
"I am on Verizon though, so my phone is CDMA which uses a different frequency than you GSM folk. "
Actually this isn't 100% true. Depends on who your carrier is. In the US, CDMA ( carriers (Verizon, Sprint, etc.) are on the PCS band (1900MHz). GSM carriers (Cingular, T-Mobile, etc.) are also on the same band in the US. T-Mobile IIRC is strictly a PCS band carrier, while Cingular also has quite a bit of 850MHz GSM network picked up from AT&T (legacy D-AMPS network converted to GSM).
Since I'm on T-Mobile (who's 1900MHz only) and it didn't affect me, it's quite possible that this only affects Cingular users when they are broadcasting on the 850MHz band. Just a theory...
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Nathan Sweeney said 1:58AM on 11-15-2005
Isn't there some kind of FCC thing that states that a device will not produce interference but will accept any interference coming in or something like that? I remember seeing something like that on the bottom of a lot of things a while back.
So would that make the phone, not the iPod, at fault?
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Sam Katz said 7:28AM on 11-15-2005
I should mention that GSM is not worse or better, but different. We have a local GSM carrier here which never dropped calls. Why? Because of the GSM standard. If I don't move very much, once I make a call, I keep the bandwidth until I terminate the call. CDMA doesn't work that way --it works differently. The A in CDMA stands for access. CDMA allows handsets to negociate and trade the tower's resources or something like that.
My verizon phone can therefore recieve calls fine with only 2 bars of signal strength, although the sound quality isn't as good as on GSM. (This is in part due to the way signal strength is calculated, but that is too complicated for this post.)
--Sam
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Karsten Seiferlin said 4:04AM on 11-15-2005
I had mine in my car next to my SE 910 (Swiss GSM), connected to a no-name FM transmitter. It went bezerk. One could clearly HEAR handshaking between GSM stations and the phone over the car's radio, the iPod's screen went on now and then, the volume on the iPod was switched up and down in a chaotic manner, it paused and resumed...when I took my SE 910 some 30 cm away from it everything was fine and back to normal.
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LaRoche said 8:59AM on 11-15-2005
My V3 makes my speakers buzz all of the time. Not only in my car, but also my computer and my stereo. I usually keep it on vibrate now as my whole house lets me know it's ringing.
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gowolverines said 12:28PM on 11-15-2005
I just had this same thing happen to me with my black 4gig nano. I have a Moto V635 and had both in separate, but close pockets and this started happening. I then took the nano out and kept it on my leg and the problem went away. I've seen my cell do this to a CRT monitor, but what in an iPod could cause this?
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nomaded said 2:46PM on 11-15-2005
I don't find this surprising. If Apple is using FingerWorks technology in the new iPods, then this is a known problem. The same problem should occur in the scrolling touchpads on the latest PowerBooks and iBooks.
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