There’s been lots of talk lately about the “iPhone4 Death Grip” now known simply as “the Death Grip.”
The Death Grip in a nutshell is a well known phenomenon which happens when you wrap the phone with your hand thereby shielding the antenna. This leads to a decrease in the signal being received by the phone, causing the phone to transmit more power in order to reach the cellular tower while maintaining connection quality.
Most of this discussion has focused on the lost reception and call drops on the iPhone 4.0 with its antenna newly positioned around the device circumference (where you hold the phone).
We decided to add another perspective to this discussion – we checked out the impact of the Death Grip on the level of radiation a user is exposed to. We checked this on several devices in parallel – the iPhone 4.0, the BlackBerry 9700, and the Android Nexus One.
As you can see in our quick demo, this phenomenon is not exclusive to the iPhone – the way you hold the phone – and specifically blocking the receiver – increases the transmission power of the phone to maintain good cellular connectivity, and thereby increases radiation levels you’re exposed to.
There are many other factors influencing radiation levels – such as your location, operators network load, your phone model SAR levels, etc – but during this demo we made an effort to keep changing factors constant so we could isolate and see the impact of the Death Grip on several different phones.
For those of you wondering how we’ve suddenly added Android into the mix, this is a sneak preview of the first Android version to be released soon. As you know, tawkon on BlackBerry is now available from App World ,Mobihand and Handango, and as you can see in this clip, tawkon works on the iPhone (all models) but you’ll have to wait to download it because Apple has not yet approved it. If you want to see tawkon available to control your exposure to mobile phone radiation on the iPhone, please sign our quick petition here.
Now back to the Death Grip demo – we welcome you to take a look and as always, we look forward to your comments!
More information about the biological effects of non-ionizing radiation from wireless technology is coming out every day. Enough is not being done by cities, counties, states and the Federal Government to protect us from the potentially devastating health and environmental effects. Through the 1996 telecommunications act the telecoms are shielded from liability and oversight. Initially cell phones were released with no pre-market safety testing despite the fact the Government and the Military have known for over 50 years that radio frequency is harmful to all biological systems (inthesenewtimes dot com/2009/05/02/6458/.). Health studies were suppressed and the 4 trillion dollar a year industry was given what amounts to a license to kill.
On it’s face, the 1996 telecommunications act is unconstitutional and a cover-up. Within the fine print city governments are not allowed to consider “environmental” effects from cell towers. They should anyway! It is the moral and legal obligation of our government to protect our health and welfare? Or is it? When did this become an obsolete concept? A cell tower is a microwave weapon capable of causing cancer, genetic damage & other biological problems. Bees, bats, humans, plants and trees are all affected by RF & EMF. Communities fight to keep cell towers away from schools yet they allow the school boards to install wi fi in all of our schools thereby irradiating our kids for 6-7 hours each day. Kids go home and the genetic assault continues with DECT portable phones, cell phones, wi fi and Wii’s. A tsunami of cancers and early alzheimer’s await our kids. Young people under the age of 20 are 420% more at risk of forming brain tumors (Swedish study, Dr. Lennart Hardell) because of their soft skulls, brain size and cell turn over time. Instead of teaching “safer” cell phone use and the dangers of wireless technology our schools mindlessly rush to wireless bending to industry pressure rather than informed decision making. We teach about alcohol, tobacco, drugs and safe sex but not about “safer” cell phone use. We are in a wireless trance, scientists are panicking while young brains, ovaries and sperm burns.
[...] and some suspect it’s because it doesn’t want to scare away potential customers.On its blog, Tawkon said:As you can see in our quick demo, this phenomenon is not exclusive to the iPhone – [...]
[...] its blog, Tawkon said: As you can see in our quick demo, this phenomenon is not exclusive to the iPhone – [...]
[...] IntoMobile, Tawkon SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "More Death-Grip Fodder", url: [...]
This is not true.
First, all phones must past TA test before release in the market. And in the standards, even the phone works in its full power, the radiation level is safe.
Second, it also depends on the radiation patter of the antenna. This decides how much radiation that your body or brain has been exposed to.
We are living in a world rich of radiation sources, so even if you are not using your phone, you have been radiated constantly by this and that source.
Don’t worry too much about the mobile radiations.
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