Many do not know, but I am and have been heavily involved in the Test and Measurement Software business. This involves writing software for the design, verification, and manufacturing of radio devices like cell phones. I know you probably know me as the guy who created the iPhone Sketch Book and the iPhone/iPad Stencil, but Kapsoft is a consulting firm dedicated to the Test and Measurement Business. I have worked for over 30 years designing software (mostly .NET C# based systems). Even today I’m writing a very large system for Hardware Integration Testing for a large client that is involved with developing GSM and 4G radios.

So what do I think of the latest iPhone 4 admission by Apple? SNR is the key (first) test we run on any RF or Antenna System. SNR is the ratio of Power to Noise. Less noise – more power – more bars. So let me get to the point. If you give a monkey a nose job what do you end up with? Right. A monkey with a nose job. So a more meaningful metric is the SNR number itself – not some arbitrary translation to a bar graph that has too few increments. What they really said is the “network” is not as good as we first lead you to believe.

I still love this frigin thing. Bottom line.