Inside Apple's Black Labs

It is not surprising that after Apple ended the press conference about problems with the iPhone 4 antenna, the company wanted to go even further and say “yes, we really test these phones to the full before releasing them to the public”. Although Steve Jobs in his presentation told about the many different tests of wireless equipment that take place at the headquarters of Apple, the guys from Cupertino did not think so. And therefore, it seems to us, we (along with a small group of other journalists) were invited to a small tour of Apple's laboratories on the Infinite Loop (the street on which Apple's headquarters is located - approx. Per.). Despite the fact that we were not allowed to shoot video or photos, we can tell you about what we saw and heard behind closed doors.


After Jobs rounded off his nearly one and a half hour presentation, Apple PR employees pulled us aside and led us through the block center to the Infinite Loop - this was a new experience for us, since we had never been deeper than one of the company's presentation theaters. When everyone gathered (there were Jason Snell from Macworld, John Gruber from Daring Fireball, and a bunch of mainstream journalists from Wired, USA Today and New York Times), we were taken further through headquarters to a separate building. After a series of double doors and long nameless halls, we found ourselves in a large warehouse-like laboratory, stuffed with test equipment in the midst of massive tables covered in mysterious black cloth (we were not allowed to look under the cloth). Phil Schiller, Greg Josviac, Bob Mansfield and engineer Ruben Caballero were waiting for us. The latter became a controversial figure this week, because it was rumored that he knew and talked about the problems of the new antenna design in advance (according to an article on Bloomberg, which Jobs called nonsense at yesterday’s press conference). Ah, yes, there were also a number of PR department employees who made sure that especially zealous journalists did not get out of control.



So, our group stood in a room of concrete and steel - rather empty and utilitarianistic, not quite what we expected from Apple - with giant aluminum cubes (several of the company's 17 anechoic chambers) and a small group of Apple representatives. Ruben began by telling us that these labs were once secret even for Apple employees — something that they called “black labs”. He also told us that 40 engineers working in these laboratories are experts with doctoral degrees in physics, telemetry and other black magic, allowing the company to develop and test wireless technologies. We were led to one of the stranger cameras, with a box on one side and a tapering part on the other, which gave the whole structure a bird's beak. Ruben informed us that that this particular camera cost about $ 1.2 million dollars. Inside, the room was covered in massive greenish-blue pyramids made of foam restricting the sound and radio signal, and there was also an iPad attached to a rotating mechanism, which, we were told, was used to understand what the wireless signal would be from different angles. This was a passive test, in contrast to active tests with people and real interference (more on that below), and this test was carried out using Macs running ... Windows XP. When we asked why they are still testing the iPad, Bob and Ruben laughed, telling us that they had been testing the iPad for years, and then Ruben smiled and explained to us that they continued to test the products after they were launched to the market. OK. Inside, the room was covered in massive greenish-blue pyramids made of foam restricting the sound and radio signal, and there was also an iPad attached to a rotating mechanism, which, we were told, was used to understand what the wireless signal would be from different angles. This was a passive test, in contrast to active tests with people and real interference (more on that below), and this test was carried out using Macs running ... Windows XP. When we asked why they are still testing the iPad, Bob and Ruben laughed, telling us that they had been testing the iPad for years, and then Ruben smiled and explained to us that they continued to test the products after they were launched to the market. OK. Inside the room was covered with massive greenish-blue pyramids of foam restricting the sound and radio signal, and there was also an iPad attached to a rotating mechanism, which, we were told, was used to understand what the wireless signal would be from different angles. This was a passive test, in contrast to active tests with people and real interference (more on that below), and this test was carried out using Macs running ... Windows XP. When we asked why they are still testing the iPad, Bob and Ruben laughed, telling us that they had been testing the iPad for years, and then Ruben smiled and explained to us that they continue to test the products after they are released to the market. OK. which, we were told, was used to understand what the wireless signal will be like at different angles. This was a passive test, in contrast to active tests with people and real interference (more on that below), and this test was carried out using Macs running ... Windows XP. When we asked why they are still testing the iPad, Bob and Ruben laughed, telling us that they had been testing the iPad for years, and then Ruben smiled and explained to us that they continued to test the products after they were launched to the market. OK. which, we were told, was used to understand what the wireless signal will be like at different angles. This was a passive test, in contrast to active tests with people and real interference (more on that below), and this test was carried out using Macs running ... Windows XP. When we asked why they are still testing the iPad, Bob and Ruben laughed, telling us that they had been testing the iPad for years, and then Ruben smiled and explained to us that they continued to test the products after they were launched to the market. OK. why are they still testing the iPad, Bob and Ruben laughed, telling us that they had been testing the iPad for years, and then Ruben smiled and explained to us that they continue to test the products even after they are released to the market. OK. why are they still testing the iPad, Bob and Ruben laughed, telling us that they had been testing the iPad for years, and then Ruben smiled and explained to us that they continue to test the products even after they are released to the market. OK.

We were shown another room opposite the “beak”, where the iPhone 4 was squeezed into a curious-looking styrofoam cube, rotating at regular intervals. The panels in the room also rotated, while the antenna on the leg (transmitting a cellular signal to the device, it was an active test) periodically changed its location. To say that we were not slightly concerned would be a lie - all this was like some small mechanisms from the movie “Saw”. According to Phil, the room was “the most advanced radio signal testing laboratory in the world.”



It is worth mentioning the sequence of types of testing that we saw, each of which added a little more variables and human influence, which, in the end, led us, perhaps, to the most interesting thing that we managed to see: the room from the picture above.

The third camera was something like a throne room, or “Stargate”, as, according to Ruben, it is called in Apple. And she really looks like something from a science fiction film. Roughly speaking, this room is used to test a 360-degree radio signal around a subject holding or using a device. The structure surrounding the chair is covered with antennas - these little yellow pluses are the only purpose of which is to tell the tester whether the signal is received or not in a certain position. We cannot exaggerate how isolated these cameras are. Calling them dead rooms would be an understatement. We had been in rather dead rooms before, but these are just coffins of foam. In this room, one person from our group started asking about the amount of time that a standard test takes, but Apple people didn’t want to say how much they tested specific devices. Even when they were asked about the “average time” for an anonymous product, there was no answer. The company, however, said that the products pass each experiment for at least 24 hours, but this does not mean anything about long-term testing.

Ruben and the team led us through another hall to a separate laboratory, where testing focused on interference from the “heads” and “hands”. The heads are made of plastic and filled with a liquid mixture that copies the contents of ... uh, a human head. The hands are made of some foamy rubber, which, according to Ruben, is not a standard, which means that this is not what the state commissions use when testing phones. These hands are used to test interference in various positions. In the same room, we were shown a “leg” made to order for $ 20,000, on which the Nike + radio chip was tested. Then we were led through the station, where the insides of the iPhone were shown on two large monitors using computed tomography. Ruben explained that when there is a problem in some device, opening it will change the conditions of the experiment,

Finally, we were brought outside, where there was a minibus stuffed with various devices, in which Apple testers moved. The machine contained several stations for the “heads” and “hands” that we saw earlier, as well as places for people to take devices into the real world. The purpose of this demonstration, as well as the whole tour, was to show that Apple takes the testing of antennas and wireless communications very seriously - if anyone had doubts about this.

And we understand that - over the past few weeks there have been many people who hinted that Apple simply did not test the phone before it was launched to the market. Or as if Apple were so dumb-headed that they only tested phones in camouflage cases to bring phones to bars, and so they didn't notice the problem. However, let's be honest - this is a multi-billion dollar company that has been manufacturing wireless devices for a long time. This is not their first phone, this is their fourth, and although there have been problems with the previous models in terms of reception, nothing suggests that Apple does not make all the necessary efforts to make phones. To be honest, we did not need a tour to understand this, but maybe some doubted it.