Using an iPhone 4 to kill a monitor

I discovered that in certain conditions (iPhone in Edge Mode) that placing my iPhone 4 under my monitor turns the screen completely black. You can see the blue power light is still on but the monitor goes out. This is pretty repeatable and makes me wonder what this thing is pushing out in Edge mode that’s powerful enough to turn a monitor off. Sorry for the poor quality of the video and no sound but I shot this at work and I’m in a big shared space with other companies and I wasn’t up for doing a V.O. on this one. I might revisit it at some point.

Can anyone else get this to replicate? The real trick was to make sure it was in Edge Mode with signal. WiFi seemed to have no effect either way. Pretty weird eh?

Related posts:

  1. Matrix Wallpaper for iPhone
  2. The death of an idea
  3. Say it brother!
  4. Girl in San Francisco

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 1:06 pm. It is filed under Tech and tagged with . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

You're a moderator for http://jpd.me Site admin
You're following this conversation Unfollow
Conversation 
Joined
See all
Sign in and Post
mCeslim's Avatar
mCeslim moderator
Pending approval
Rate Down Rate Up

(this comment has been deleted)

Approve comment
Delete post Hide post Unhide post Ban user
Reply View comment
jkarneges's Avatar
jkarneges moderator
Pending approval
Rate Down Rate Up

Reminds me of how sometimes phone activity would cause my computer speakers to make some noise.

Approve comment
Delete post Hide post Unhide post Ban user
Reply View comment
chris's Avatar
chris moderator
Pending approval
Rate Down Rate Up

Yes! especially on older cell phones I would hear something like Morse code on my desktop speakers.

Approve comment
Delete post Hide post Unhide post Ban user
Reply View comment
cellphone's Avatar
cellphone moderator
Pending approval
Rate Down Rate Up

@chris Yep, this is caused by the radio waves used by phones interefering with the speakers and using them as an antenna of sorts, causing feedback and crackly sounds.. Right before a you phone rings, your phone and a cell tower exchange a "handshake" of information to establish communications and to tell the tower that the phone is ready to accept the call.

Approve comment
Delete post Hide post Unhide post Ban user
Reply View comment
jkretch's Avatar
jkretch moderator
Pending approval
Rate Down Rate Up

That's insane, reminds me of holding a magnet to an old-school CRT, although it's obvious why that has an effect. Have you only tried iPhone 4? Curious if any other phones in Edge mode cause the same reaction. Antennagate continued? heh heh ;-)

Approve comment
Delete post Hide post Unhide post Ban user
Reply View comment
jpdef's Avatar
jpdef moderator
Pending approval
Rate Down Rate Up

@jkretch I tried a 3Gs but it was before I figured out the Edge only gimmick. I should try it again with those settings. Will give it a go tomorrow.

Approve comment
Delete post Hide post Unhide post Ban user
Reply View comment
jkretch's Avatar
jkretch moderator
Pending approval
Rate Down Rate Up

(this comment has been deleted)

Approve comment
Delete post Hide post Unhide post Ban user
Reply View comment
Mutiny32's Avatar
Mutiny32 moderator
Pending approval
Rate Down Rate Up

Is that a P221w? Can't get it to work with my HTC Touch Pro2 searching for GSM or in CDMA 1X or EvDO Rev.A. Wifi doesn't phase it either. Since the SIM I have doesn't register in the US, I can't test EDGE or HSPA, just tower searching.

Approve comment
Delete post Hide post Unhide post Ban user
Reply View comment
jpdef's Avatar
jpdef moderator
Pending approval
Rate Down Rate Up

@Mutiny32 I'll check out the monitor version when I get to work tomorrow.

Approve comment
Delete post Hide post Unhide post Ban user
Reply View comment
jpdef's Avatar
jpdef moderator
Pending approval
Rate Down Rate Up

@Mutiny32 It's an Acer X233H

Approve comment
Delete post Hide post Unhide post Ban user
Reply View comment
Jon's Avatar
Jon moderator
Pending approval
Rate Down Rate Up

Acer, right? I have the same monitor, and if I look at it wrong it goes out.

Approve comment
Delete post Hide post Unhide post Ban user
Reply View comment
deusdiabolus's Avatar
deusdiabolus moderator
Pending approval
Rate Down Rate Up

@Jon - I have that monitor too, and I have had several bouts getting it to behave when booting Ubuntu.

Approve comment
Delete post Hide post Unhide post Ban user
Reply View comment
jennalanger's Avatar
jennalanger moderator
Pending approval
Rate Down Rate Up

@Jon Interesting. So do you think it is a monitor, Edge network, or iPhone problem? I'd like to try it with a variety of phones and other devices.

Approve comment
Delete post Hide post Unhide post Ban user
Reply View comment
Jason DeFillippo's Avatar
Jason DeFillippo moderator
Pending approval
Rate Down Rate Up

Seriously...

Approve comment
Delete post Hide post Unhide post Ban user
Reply View comment
monkee13's Avatar
monkee13 moderator
Pending approval
Rate Down Rate Up

talk to apple maybe you can get a free bump case for your monitor too..... That is weird, think about what it is doing to your body if you have that thing in your pocket in edge mode.

Approve comment
Delete post Hide post Unhide post Ban user
Reply View comment

Trackbacks

  1. It’s been a few weeks since launch, so who’s on Livefyre? | The Livefyre blog says:
    August 25, 2010 at 2:17 pm

    [...] Wiredprworks.com thestove.net Lumma.de (das German) Startupweekend.org Thedreaminaction.com jpd.me Allthingsuncharted.com unlooped.net [...]