Apple's antenna videos disappear from site

Updated at 11:54 a.m. PDT with comment from Apple.

Perhaps you remember the videos in which Apple proved beyond an unreasonable doubt that all cell phones have the same antenna issues of which the iPhone 4 is accused.

Hold, say, a Droid X just so, and, well, the signal bars go down like an Englishman after 11 p.m.

Strangely, these videos appear to have made something of a sudden disappearance from Apple's own site. Their disappearance seems first to have been noted by Noah Hendrix, a computer science student at Kansas University.

His observational skills were bolstered by TechCrunch, which trawled around to see where they might still be found. (One of the answers being Canada. Or more accurately, Apple's Canadian site.)

However, even landing pages for the videos on the U.S. site, such as this one for the Droid X video, now lead back to an uplifting page about Apple's antenna design labs.

What might have happened? Did the objections of RIM and others persuade Apple that the videos ought to be removed? Did Apple begin to feel that it might not entirely be winning the PR battle by creating videos that showed a problem that seemed not to be a problem for anyone who had bought, say, a Droid X?

Or did someone at Apple mutter: "Why the hell are we banging on about this? This clearly isn't a big deal for the vast majority of the world. And if we keep on saying that this has been overblown by the media, then what are we doing making more and more videos that overblow the situation even more rather than allowing it to blow over?"

My own feeling is that this last suggestion might be the closest to reality. Though, of course, leaving the Antenna Design landing page in place might, perhaps, presage an even more magical and revolutionary antenna design in the not entirely remote future.

An Apple spokeswoman told CNET: "We constantly refresh the content on Apple.com. If you'd like access to them, you can find them archived on YouTube.com/Apple."