There has been a lot of talk more recently that the HTC Desire S actually suffers from the major problem that the iPhone 4 had which was the Death Grip where your signal would completely drop out when you held your phone normally. I can confirm that this is partially correct – there is a lot of speculation as to what the actual problem is. I seem to see it more when you are connected to a wi-fi point where the signal will drop around 20 dbm when you move your hand across the phone. There are reports that this is also the same for the likes of your 3G & H band signals but it seems that the user case is different each time.

 

The major problem is that no one problem is the same. Some people are experiencing problems with wi-fi signals some with their GSM radio signal – the best thing to do is to monitor your findings over a long period of time, a couple of weeks to be exact so that you can see a patern and then decide on the best course of action. You will also probably be looking to install a wi-fi signal monitor that will accurately tell you the signal strength so that you can measure it at different times and with the phone in different positions. Once you find a pattern (if there is one) next you will need to do a little bit of research see if anyone running the same software as you with the same radio and model has the same problem. A lot of people seem to think it is a software problem which will lie in the radio updates, where as other think it is actually a design flaw in the phone. Especially since the main antenna is in your battery cover (little gold contacts – check them out).

 

To solve the issue is really up to yourself, there are some serious problems in identifying where the actual problem lies and you will need to do some serious research in to try and find out a solution for your problem. My gut instinct is telling me to solve the issue you will need to fully update all the software the phone is running, OS and radio. This at least  gets rid of one of the variables and leaves you with the hardware issue itself.

 

This fault has been reported on both stock and modified ROMS so be careful what you choose to flash and for the love of god make sure you flash the correct rom/radio for your specific phone. I will not be held accountable for silly mistakes you make like that – you have been warned!!

I have recently the pleasure of being able to play around with a couple of laptops, netbooks and tablets that have had built in GSM/3G modems. However, over the past couple of years we have been given the USB 3G modem which gives nearly every person with one of these the ability to connect to the internet on the go using a laptop or netbook. I have used these previously, and have run into several issues regarding these dongles. The first and probably most important one is that they are not built to last. They have a great deal of movement when placed into the socket which gives you connection issues and a multitude of problems when moving around as they potentailly can break in two.

Looking at the alternative which I have been usindg and these are usually built into the device. They work the exact same as your mobile phone (to a point anyway) they are usually joint via a series of connectors onto the main board of the system, and usually consist of a sim card reader and a bunch of fancy electornics that allows the connection to happen and also a antenna or aerial.

These aircards are by far superior to the 3G modems, they allow you not to worry about knocking the dongle out the device, or having some form of driver or connection issue. Usuaully with an Aircard you get better signal strength and better configurability. Aircards are great for systems you want to take with you on the go, a laptop fitted to a car mount so that you can track specific taget zones when driving. Seen in Storm chasers, majority of radar data is pulled using a Aircard to download the latest radar images for specific target areas. I have used these sort of systems in the past, but instead of chaasing storms I have used them for planning routes and journeys to avoid traffic on the go. They also give you the additional entertainment value unlike what a standard sat nav unit would give you.

The biggest technical adavnce regarding these form of systems has to be the tablet computers that have been launched over the past couple of years. iPads, Kindles, Android Tabs, and a wide range of other tablet machines all now come with built in 3G modems allowing the users to take out a pay monthly internet contract or even a pay as you go tariff to allow you to connect on the go. Maximising productivity, performance and overall satisfaction.

 

Tips for the future, if you are going to invest in one of these systems get one that has been well reviewed, works well and allows you to configure it to whatever specification you want it to. Also please remember to be safe 😉