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DIY: Use rubber bracelets as cheap iPhone 4 bumper

By | July 1, 2010, 3:02am PDT

Summary: The iPhone Guru points out a cheap, do-it-yourself alternative to the $30 iPhone 4 bumpers.

Remember those rubber bracelets that everyone was wearing a few years back? The ones like Lance Armstrong’s “Live Strong” wristbands that you might have worn to look like you were cool and charitable? If you’re an iPhone 4 owner, hopefully you held on to one of those because it could save you considerable cash and fix your antenna issues.

A bunch of new iPhone 4 users noticed right off the bat that there was something wrong with the reception. While Apple doesn’t want to really take much blame for the new antenna design, they’ve offered some advice like not holding the newest iPhone in your left hand and the option of springing $29 more for the protective iPhone bumper.

If I’m already going to pay $199 or $299 for a smartphone, the last thing I think I should be asked to do is pay even more money for what seems to be a required accessory. But The iPhone Guru has thought up a cheap fix for the problem: slinging one of those aforementioned rubber wristbands around the device. I haven’t tried this myself (as I still don’t have the new iPhone and probably won’t for a month), but it appears to work just fine and the quick-thinking idea getting some praise around the Internet already.

Think you might give it a shot?

[Image via The iPhone Guru]

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Apple iPhone, Smart Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

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Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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RE: DIY: Use rubber bracelets as cheap iPhone 4 bumper
ukpm@... 5th Jul 2010
No access to the dock connector, sleep/wake button, headphone port, volume controls, silence switch - not to mention that both microphones and the speaker aperture will also be blocked. I also believe that the long sides of the band are likely to be prone to movement and could prevent you from maintaining a secure grip of your iPhone.
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Seriously? If $30.00 is a lot of money to you then...
ye 1st Jul 2010
...you shouldn't own an iPhone 4. Instead of waiting in line to get one you should have gone to work.
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...you already may have a product to fix it
~doolittle~ 1st Jul 2010
@ye

some of us have kids that collect these things and have a certain amount of sentimental value and political statement - I doubt any of the the $30 to apple is going to fight breast cancer or remind us of a family vacation that was well enjoyed.
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And this is relevant how?
ye 1st Jul 2010
@~doolittle~: some of us have kids that collect these things and have a certain amount of sentimental value and political statement - I doubt any of the the $30 to apple is going to fight breast cancer or remind us of a family vacation that was well enjoyed.

Good for you. You've fought for the cause. I don't see how spending $30 on Apple iPhone 4 bumpers changes that.
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so much more than money saved...
~doolittle~ 1st Jul 2010
@ye

The gas to burn and time itself to go to the iphone store, both of which I prefer to spend on my family. I think I will put the $30 away towards a DSi game for when my kid gets good grades. Seriously the possibilities are endless - it can also fill up my car for a week or my dual-sport for a month.

If you want to line apple's pockets that is your own political statement I guess lol
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RE: DIY: Use rubber bracelets as cheap iPhone 4 bumper
jpdemers@... 1st Jul 2010
@ye So you advocate spending $30 when it's unnecessary? Good for you - I hope you're self-employed.
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RE: DIY: Use rubber bracelets as cheap iPhone 4 bumper
spookyone1 Updated - 2nd Jul 2010
@ye

Hear, hear. Too many people who have no business owning very expensive smart phones, who live paycheck to paycheck, are buying these things. They are as much to blame for our economic woes as anything else. If you have any unsecured debt ( read, credit card balances you don't pay off at the end of every month ) you have no business buying a $700 phone, no matter what the carrier subsidy. Then they get all up in arms when the first run product doesn't work properly because they can't go back to the old phone, often because they sold it to help defray the price of the phone they wanted but couldn't afford. I seldom buy a product at launch, as any defects are most likely to show up here, and when I buy a new phone, my old one is still available to return to if I need to go back to it and return the new one or simply wait until a fix for the inevitable first run problems is worked out.

But if this issue is fixed as easily as this, Apple is correct. This is a non-problem, and regardless of what Apple does I will be purchasing one, even if the "defect" still exists, from the third or fourth production run.
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Principle
tommcd64 1st Jul 2010
The fact remains that although you don't think $30 is a lot of money, $30 saved is $30 saved and I think this is a good tip for those who don't want to spend more money on top of what they have already spent to get a phone to work properly.
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And cheapen up your iPhone 4?
ye Updated - 1st Jul 2010
@tommcd64: What self respecting iPhone 4 owner is going to cheapen up their fashion statement with rubber bracelet bumpers? The fashion crowd will see right through that and shun them.

If you're going to play in the Apple weight class be prepared to play in it the right way.
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star-bellied sneeches
~doolittle~ 1st Jul 2010
@ye

I feel the non-fashion crowd will see right through them and laugh right back, and say they didn't have the brains to come up with any other solution except pay (or waste) $30 more to apple.
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You mean all two of them?
ye 1st Jul 2010
@~doolittle~: happy
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Exactly
Fletchguy Updated - 1st Jul 2010
@ye Thats right if your stupid enough to pay that money for that crappy of a phone on the worse possible network you go out and waste another $30 to show you are a true full fledge moron That is so stupid they would buy a cell phone that cant make calls if you hold it in your left hand at an agle touching the sides or while in the sun. You stand and be the dumbest moron you can by the way to you iphone users I have a toaster made out of cardboard you cant make toast with it but its new hard to get and you can buy a old fashion toaster from me for $50 later the cardboard toaster is $399 but it only can handle cardboard toast as long as you dont touch it.
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That typical smug self-satisfaction may play
kaninelupus 2nd Jul 2010
@tommcd64

when that "fashion item" actually works! To continue such bravado when it clearly DOESN'T just seems overly facetious!
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For 300 bucs
DS-Solutions 1st Jul 2010
Maybe Apple should go and give you a product that works.
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RE: DIY: Use rubber bracelets as cheap iPhone 4 bumper
jpdemers@... 1st Jul 2010
@DS-Solutions: Several million people think it works. Guess they didn't consult you.
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warranty
michael.tindall@... Updated - 1st Jul 2010
This non-Apple solution to an Apple design problem will probably void the warranty...unless Jobs approves of the charity for which the wristband was sold to raise money.

Do we have an ETA on the list of approved charities?
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RE: DIY: Use rubber bracelets as cheap iPhone 4 bumper
jkohut 1st Jul 2010
Maybe they can just start calling them an iPhoney, as they don't seem to be much use as a phone ! wink
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RE: DIY: Use rubber bracelets as cheap iPhone 4 bumper
jpdemers@... 1st Jul 2010
Left-handed fashion victims who can't bear the thought of hiding the stainless steel that they paid so much for, can simply paint over the problem area with clear nail polish. Everyone else seems to be covered ... maybe ZDNet can let this die now?
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RE: DIY: Use rubber bracelets as cheap iPhone 4 bumper
richbrunt 1st Jul 2010
To me it is not the cost of some device to rectify the antenna issue that bugs me, it is the fact that engineers spend a lot of time making the iPhone as small and light as possible so it slides nicely into your pocket,... and then we have to put some ugly rubber device on that makes it bigger and, due to the nature of rubber, less easier to slide in and out of your pocket.
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I have always used Speck Cases...
smithrg 1st Jul 2010
I have always used Speck candy shell cases for my iphones. They are soft on the inside, hard shell on the outside. They do not add much bulk and it still slides into your pocket easily. I've dropped my 3 GS iphone on concrete with the Speck and it survived so I was planning on getting one for my iphone 4 anyway.
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RE: DIY: Use rubber bracelets as cheap iPhone 4 bumper
sekars144 2nd Jul 2010
If apple thinks 30$ is very small amt customers can throw(to apple's booty!), let apple give the bumper free to customers for making iphone work-instead of teaching ppl how to hold a cell phone!
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Apple Price Gouging
dl@... 2nd Jul 2010
Thirty dollars for a piece of rubber called the "protective iPhone bumper"? That's bringing price gouging to new heights -- or should I write depths. Has Steve Jobs no shame? Then again, the fans of anything Apple have allowed Apple to price gouge them for decades. Why should Apple change now?
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RE: DIY: Use rubber bracelets as cheap iPhone 4 bumper
jhooten@... 2nd Jul 2010
If that is the 'Fix' Apple should be giving every phone owner a case for FREE not charging for it. Anyone paying them for that case as a Fix is an idiot that supports the Idea that they can sell junk and not stand behind it. It is still far cheaper for Apple to give away the case than face a recall or return in mass.
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RE: DIY: Use rubber bracelets as cheap iPhone 4 bumper
sco@... 3rd Jul 2010
Firsty, let's all congratulate the person who came up with this ingenious solution, instead of complaining. It's a great fashion accessory as well.

Secondly, it would be a good idea for Apply to throw in their rubber excuse, I meant bumper, for free.
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RE: DIY: Use rubber bracelets as cheap iPhone 4 bumper
ukpm@... 5th Jul 2010
No access to the dock connector, sleep/wake button, headphone port, volume controls, silence switch - not to mention that both microphones and the speaker aperture will also be blocked. I also believe that the long sides of the band are likely to be prone to movement and could prevent you from maintaining a secure grip of your iPhone.

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