Apple has removed videos showing antenna performance issues across a number of rival smart phones from its website, prompting many to wonder why.
The videos, which were revealed after Apple's press conference about the iPhone 4's non-existent reception (or attenuation) issues last month, were created by Apple to take the light off the iPhone 4 troubles and show that all smart phones are affected by antenna issues, with targets including the Blackberry Bold and Droid X.
But (as first spotted by TechCrunch) today they seem to have disappeared, with the files no longer available on Apple's specially-created Antenna page on their website. Instead, users are met with a new page showing images of their state-of-the-art testing facilities and a brief description about their testing program, which could previously be found elsewhere on the Apple site. The exception is Apple Canada, where the old page still lives.
The last video was uploaded just one week ago -- showing the so-called "death grip" at work on the Motorola Droid X -- and you can still find the clips on Apple's official YouTube account, although they are no longer grouped in a featured playlist.
Apple has yet to comment on why the videos have been removed, but it's thought that the threat of legal action by companies whose phones have been demonstrated (including Research in Motion who weren't happy) or the negative backlash from the public could be behind the change.
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