Things you can't do while in a call in iPhone 5

sergiozambrano · Nov 22, 2012

Your phone is not different

tymaster50 said:
I've had no issues with the calling feature. I could speak on speaker from 10 feet away and they could still hear me perfectly.

I know. Your case is not mentioned in my list.

NOBODY uses "speaker" option (which keeps the historical technology advance curve) for looking at the time, for example, and ANY CHEAP PHONE will send your voice properly to your caller if you keep talking while you do.

Will you keep the "speaker" option just to check the signal bars?
or will you stop talking worried not to be heard?

sergiozambrano · Nov 22, 2012

Earpieces or speaker mode on are NOT the point.

aphexacid said:
Regular earpiece or speaker phone.

Your "clarification" shows you UNDERSTOOD my point, yet you prefer to play dumb.

It seems you consider normal to use the "speaker" mode just for watching the screen.

I'll make the upcoming chain of "play dumb" answers short: Do you consider correct that a feature that will benefit you (actually to your call party) 5% of calls (when talking from a noisy place) forces you to push a button to get it work correctly the other 95% of times that you are just talking as you used your whole life with the rest of the phones?

Don't you think it's better to push a button every time you want to speak from a noisy place than pushing a button for all the other times?
(making your caller's voice public for the rest of the conversation of pushing that button again for every time you move?)

Where you pushing the speaker button EVERY TIME you did something from the above list with older phones? (I don't know about iPhone 4s) or do you ALWAYS use some wired/ear device?

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Menel said:
Confused.

Find it odd that you're like the ONLY person with this complaint? Maybe yours is broken, return it. Or you're broken. One or the other.

I went to the AppleStore, and the other devices did the same. Tested by me and the Apple genius in the back of the store (far from store's noise)
It seems all of you live with the earbuds on.

Use it AS A PHONE - not as an iPod - watch the phone while speaking, and hear yourself from the other phone (earpiece for the other phone, to prevent feedback). Your voice is MUTED partially or completely.

macingman · Nov 22, 2012

sergiozambrano said:
Since the noise reduction FAILS when the phone is NOT against the ear, EVERY call I had since my new iPhone 5 I got a "I can't hear you".

Apple's official response is: "use the speaker function, the earbuds or a bluetooth device".

In other words: "This is our super-cool new microphone (system) so use it as we tell you" It works worse than a 70 years old microphone, but hey! it helps your caller to understand your words when you are in a noisy place!

Super cool!

Now, this is the list of things a 10years old phone can do but you can't while in a call in an iPhone5:

Separate the phone from your ear to let it cool

Give someone a number from your agenda

Give someone directions from your map

Read out loud an email or message

rest your arm's position by rising the phone's bottom

Look at your phone and insult your caller

Turn on the volume

Add a call while speaking

Checking the time in the phone

or checking the signal bars!

Speak while lying on bed (really, try it!)

and basically any other scenario you are not aware of, but yet you actually hold your phone in ANY other position other than both a) your ear against the speaker AND b) your mouth next the FRONT of the phone (and that the voice comes from below up, so it's greatly better listened by the lower mic's guts than the back mic)

So you have an agenda!, but can't read on-loud. You have a map, but can't share directions. You have email in your phone!, but you can't tell anybody.
You have a phone with noise canceling, but it cancels your own voice. You have a proximity sensor and it can't tell the phone you are far from it, and thus the noise canceling WILL FAIL.

Ridiculous.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/20204125#20204125

You've had this issue since November 5. Return the thing if it is that much of a disaster for you. But you won't return it. Why? Because it really is a non issue in reality and you are just whining.

sergiozambrano · Nov 22, 2012

It's a matter of annoying / useful ratio.

takeshi74 said:
So you never hold the iPhone 5 to your ear for a call and you've never used the speaker function?

I don't hold the phone away my ear all the time, but as soon as I do ANY of the above, the voice is cut.

Bottom line is: CHEAP PHONES and the whole history of phones don't need you to worry that much for a simple call.

With ANY other phone I can rise the mic, rest my ear, watch the phone screen, all of it without worrying at all.

Using speaker mode will ALSO make my caller's voice public to the people around me, and none of you seem to see the ratio "failing times" against "useful times".

I bet NONE of you have any problem but also NONE of you speak from a noisy place more often than you do any of the above things in the list.

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darster said:
The poll title has nothing to do with the OP's post. This thread is a fail.

The poll speaks for itself.
The ratio of "times it's useful" and "times you do anything in the list (which will break your voice)" is EXACTLY what determines that having the "noise canceling" feature ALWAYS ON IS A MISTAKE.

It can be EASILY de-activated when the proximity sensor determines "the noise canceling will mute you".

It's cool ONLY if you need it. If you don't, it changes the way you speak by phone for the last 10 years. Straight like a soldier. No rest. Burning ear.

The OP has been complaining about his iPhone 5 since at least November 2nd, but does nothing. Does not return it, does not exchange it, but whines about it as if his whining will somehow fix it.

I haven't returned it because it's NOT a hardware issue.
It's a software issue and it will be fixed soon, whether Apple admits there was any issue or not. (right now if you look for "noise canceling issue" my post appears far from the top, while other posts even without those keywords in the title are shown 1st. They use SEO to bury negative posts).

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peeaanuut said:
In what situation would you take the phone away and not use speaker/bluetooth/headset?

DO you always answer without reading the OP's original post?

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lordofthereef said:
You are upset that noise reduction doesn't work in speakerphone mode?

No. In speaker mode there's no way to predict what's noise and voice. Noise reduction is turned off in speaker mode.
I ignored the rest of your post since you didn't read mine further than the title.

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jettrue said:
No, he's saying that when he pulls the phone away from his ear (and that list is all the ways/reasons you might pull your phone away from your ear), then the noise cancelling function of the phone cancels out his voice.

You are the first person out of six that actually took the time to read, understood, and answered honestly.

I understand your usage doesn't include much of the above, and yes, since the iPhone is less than a phone than the rest of mini-computer marvel, I agree that the proportion makes it less noticeable, but don't forget that they've put all this computer in a phone because that's the device that we'll ALWAYS carry with us, and so we have to respect the host device whose microphone has de-voluted 70 years in the last version. -No mic from the 30's was SO in-sensible as this one if you don't bother to push the darn button in every move.

It's like a directional microphone like those used in the movies. It's SUPER COOL, but requires two people following you and aiming a giant device to you constantly.

Thanks for your answer.

sergiozambrano · Nov 22, 2012

iPhone's noise canceling is not a gun

Knowimagination said:
Why would we? I understand how the noise canceling features work and use my phone accordingly.

If you had understood, you wouldn't be using your earphones or the speaker mode.
Both of them disable noise cancelling in the phone.

The earphones use their own built-in mics and NOT the phone's.
The "speaker" option is the only used method to tell the phone your voice will be entering through more than one mic and the noise reduction will fail (while the proximity sensor could have been used)

I think you believe the phone cancel the noise for YOUR ear, and it doesn't at all. It cleans your voice for YOUR CALLING PARTY.

You can't use the phone to mute your wife's voice, nor this thread's subject. (At least she is talking you through an iphone 5 and is insulting you as we all do while watching the phone angry, which will cancel her voice)

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peeaanuut said:
Im thinking he has a roulette wheel with random iPhone 5 complains he found on the net and then spins it and makes a post about it.

I bet you $100 that you call me from your iPhone5 and read a number from your agenda (no speaker mode), and I'll post your audio while you post your video while doing it and your voice will be cancelled in my end. If not muted, way less volume than a 2003's translucent Nokia hehe while placing it in the same position.

We can do it live if we get a trusted way to accomplish it (Think of requiring more than one computer/video recorder or sound converter from internal to quicktime screen recorder)

sergiozambrano · Nov 22, 2012

Test it!

xraydoc said:
I can't say I've ever had the problem the OP refers to.

Would you test it?

Test 1: rise your phone (rotate it to align the bottom to the horizon in front of you, like when you raise your elbow after 5 minutes of listening your wife and you want to rest your arm's position). Your previous phone would have worked just fine even if you flipped your phone upside down like when you speak with your lover

Test 2: Check the bars while talking, or the time, or the number you justa called (or ANYTHING else Apple decided to turn the screen on for)

Test 3): Wile speaking at the same voice volume level, look at the phone angry and tell names to the other person, hehe. This one is actually a feature! (curse filtering). I told Conan to include it in his Apple parody series!

Test 4: separate the phone from your ear and mouth about 3-4 inches, which ANY OTHER PHONE could handle, and keep talking. Your calling party will notice a 200% volume reduction compared with previous phones.

More tests: Count all the times you move the phone away from your face just for a second while talking (you don't need to hear because you are the one talking), compare it with the times you speak from a noisy place, and tell me if it's worth the worry and your arm's stiffness (remember! you can't distend your arm or ear during the whole call!

More tests: call yourself to your skype number (or other phone with earphones), move the phone in several positions you thought the voice was catched fine, and let me know the difference

Good luck.

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adam044 said:
I can do all of this, not my fault you chose Verizon

What does the carrier have to do with this?

I have ATT.

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Nokaoi said:
Sounds like a Verizon user.
OP either has a serious problem with his phone, a Verizon user or pulling **** out his/her @ss.

It seems you can't tell the difference between noise reduction and dual band.

With Verizon I couldn't speak while checking the map (at least I loaded the map BEFORE to place the call) (as far as I remember, at least they use dual band now which would allow you to use data and voice at the same time)

Nokaoi said:
Sounds like a Verizon user.
I can do all of these and never had a problem with my iphone 5.

If you can, you are NOT using the noise reduction in the phone, since it gets DE-ACTIVATED while you plug-in your earbuds or car-speakers.

Since you NEVER USED THE FEATURE IN THE PHONE, but your other device's.
Not my fault you are happy with features you haven't gotten to actually use

iapplelove · Nov 22, 2012

Possibly worst thread ever

sergiozambrano · Nov 22, 2012

Worst thread I agree.

iapplelove said:
Possibly worst thread ever

I agree.

It's like the guy in the movie trying to tell others about the moster is about to eat them, and all of them laugh without turning back to check.

Weren't Apple users the ones not going with the herd just because the rest is running too?

Tyler23 · Nov 22, 2012

I do exactly what you're talking about in your OP all the time, that is, I take my phone away from my face and keep talking even when not on speaker phone (usually to check the time or let it cool).

And yes, sometimes I do this in very crowded, noisy places. And yes, people can hear me just fine.

But my question to you is, are you trying to have entire conversations like this? If so, how do you expect to hear the other person when they respond when your ear is nowhere near the earpiece?

sergiozambrano · Nov 22, 2012

There was a first guy who found out the antenna issue too

Menel said:
Confused.

Find it odd that you're like the ONLY person with this complaint? Maybe yours is broken, return it. Or you're broken. One or the other.

You would have found odd there was a first person who complained about the antenna while the rest was happy to get an iPhone. There's always a first person that makes it to the front of the herd.

I don't wonder none of you actually used the noise reduction feature, since plugging-in the earbuds and using the speaker option (hands free) disables it.
Not my fault.

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Tyler23 said:
How do you expect to hear the other person when they respond when your ear is nowhere near the earpiece?

If you just think about it, the times you briefly looked to the screen you've been probably talking, so you won't miss a word from the other person.

If you did it when the other person was talking, it doesn't count your testimonial, since you probably don't care what the other person have to say as much as whether they hear you fine or not!

It takes longer to push the speaker button than just reading the screen, so it's a waste of time to activate/de-activate it for 2 seconds in which they missed your words.

Tyler23 · Nov 22, 2012

sergiozambrano said:
If you just think about it, the times you briefly looked to the screen you've been probably talking, so you won't miss a word from the other person.

If you did it when the other person was talking, it doesn't count your testimonial, since you probably don't care what the other person have to say as much as whether they hear you fine or not!

It takes longer to push the speaker button than just reading the screen, so it's a waste of time to activate/de-activate it for 2 seconds in which they missed your words.

Alright then, so you're making all of this fuss over 2 seconds where you take the phone away from your face to check your screen very quickly?

Again, I can take the phone away from my face for a few seconds while talking and the other person can hear me just fine. Maybe your phone is defective. Either way, seems like a lot of fuss over nothing. If you're taking your phone away from your face that often while on the phone, maybe you're just rude.

MHaynes772 · Nov 22, 2012

sergiozambrano said:
Since the noise reduction FAILS when the phone is NOT against the ear, EVERY call I had since my new iPhone 5 I got a "I can't hear you".

Apple's official response is: "use the speaker function, the earbuds or a bluetooth device".

In other words: "This is our super-cool new microphone (system) so use it as we tell you" It works worse than a 70 years old microphone, but hey! it helps your caller to understand your words when you are in a noisy place!

Super cool!

Now, this is the list of things a 10years old phone can do but you can't while in a call in an iPhone5:

Separate the phone from your ear to let it cool

Give someone a number from your agenda

Give someone directions from your map

Read out loud an email or message

rest your arm's position by rising the phone's bottom

Look at your phone and insult your caller

Turn on the volume

Add a call while speaking

Checking the time in the phone

…or checking the signal bars!

Speak while lying on bed (really, try it!)

…and basically any other scenario you are not aware of, but yet you actually hold your phone in ANY other position other than both a) your ear against the speaker AND b) your mouth next the FRONT of the phone (and that the voice comes from below up, so it's greatly better listened by the lower mic's guts than the back mic)

So you have an agenda!, but can't read on-loud. You have a map, but can't share directions. You have email in your phone!, but you can't tell anybody.
You have a phone with noise canceling, but it cancels your own voice. You have a proximity sensor and it can't tell the phone you are far from it, and thus the noise canceling WILL FAIL.

Ridiculous.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/20204125#20204125

...

Knowimagination · Nov 22, 2012

sergiozambrano said:
If you had understood, you wouldn't be using your earphones or the speaker mode.
Both of them disable noise cancelling in the phone.

The earphones use their own built-in mics and NOT the phone's.

The "speaker" option is the only used method to tell the phone your voice will be entering through more than one mic and the noise reduction will fail (while the proximity sensor could have been used)

I think you believe the phone cancel the noise for YOUR ear, and it doesn't at all. It cleans your voice for YOUR CALLING PARTY.

You can't use the phone to mute your wife's voice, nor this thread's subject. (At least she is talking you through an iphone 5 and is insulting you as we all do while watching the phone angry, which will cancel her voice)

I understand completely actually. It makes perfect sense for it to cancel your voice if you are not holding the phone up to your ear. If I read a phone number to my caller while I am on the phone and not wanting to use speaker mode I simply look at the number, place phone back to my ear and say the first half then look again and say the second half. It's really not that complicated.

If I don't want to have to do that then I use speaker mode for the number and then take it off speaker when I am done.

nickm81us · Nov 22, 2012

To the OP (Sergio) --

I think I understand what you're running into, and I agree, that would be pretty friggin annoying if you need to glance at the phone screen for a few things, and keep talking. However, I wasn't able to duplicate the problem you described. But just to make sure we're talking about the same thing...

For my test, I called a test phone number (408-647-4636) that allows you to record a message, then play it back to hear yourself. This kind of service is basically to do one-person troubleshooting for phone line quality problems, and especially VoIP/QoS issues. In this case, I started the recording, then started speaking the numbers 1, 2, 3, all the way up to 20, one number per second. While I was doing this, I alternated putting the phone next to my ear normally, then pulled away from my ear (so that I saw the screen come on again), all while continuing to speak. When I stopped the recording and played it back, I was able to hear all 20 of my spoken numbers normally. Just to be safe, I tried this same test two more times, and I was able to hear all of the recorded messages, while alternating holding the phone to my ear, and putting it back down again. For reference, I am using an AT&T iPhone 5 32GB.

I remember doing this type of thing frequently with my previous iPhone 4 (as in, putting the phone down for a second to look up a phone number or appointment), and I don't think I ever cut out or had to repeat myself while I was looking at the screen. Definitely sounds like something might be going on with your phone.

If I misunderstood your original post, I apologize, but good luck getting this resolved, or getting the phone exchanged.

jettrue · Nov 22, 2012

Tested it too, and no problem in clarity. The phone did not cancel my voice when pulled away from my ear.

bushman4 · Nov 22, 2012

Does it all. No problem with clarity.

Black Magic · Nov 22, 2012

I looked at the OP list and everything he said can't be done on the iPhone 5 can be done with ease. In fact, the problem the OP identified appears to be isolated to him and his phone.

Not really sure what to make of this thread or the OP......

peeaanuut · Nov 23, 2012

i still dont understand in what situation this is happening so often that its a problem? And if it is a problem, wouldnt a sensible person go buy an ear piece already? Or use the ones that was provided? I live near an airport and it can get loud. Do you know what I did to be able to hear my TV? I got bigger speakers. I didnt blame the airplanes for being too loud.

sergiozambrano · Nov 24, 2012

peeaanuut said:
i still dont understand in what situation this is happening so often that its a problem? And if it is a problem, wouldnt a sensible person go buy an ear piece already? Or use the ones that was provided? I live near an airport and it can get loud. Do you know what I did to be able to hear my TV? I got bigger speakers. I didnt blame the airplanes for being too loud.

You are confusing the listener with the talker.

The voice goes lower or muted to my calling party, not for me. Several people told me "I can't hear you", so it's not an issue with hearing problems.

matttye · Nov 24, 2012

You SHOULD use the speaker function when the phone isn't held to your mouth.

sergiozambrano · Nov 24, 2012

Hate somewhere else.

MHaynes772 said:
You need to reevaluate your life, seriously, If you have such a problem with it, return it. Quit your stupid bitching. Go buy something else. I used to work at Apple and I hated people like you. You have a 1000 different options for phones. If you don't like this one, move on.

How would you call your comment? If you don't like my post, don't answer. It seems you are the same kind of stupid you are accusing me to be. Something made impossible to resist to answer me, even when I didn't offend or do anything to YOU.

Now, before doing what you said, I WENT to the AppleStore, and the other unit did the same, proved by the Genius girl. May be she, someone "your kind" is a stupid bitch too as per your words?

If you hated your customers when they complained about non-admitted issues, I bet you were fired.

----------

macingman said:
Because it really is a non issue in reality and you are just whining.

It's certainly an issue for me, and I'm free to decide when It's too little or too much to return it, when it's general or the three units I tested, when to consider others idiots by not even testing it and just going with the herd, and when to stop posting polls to be surer about anything.

You too, are in your right to not replying if this whining hurts you that much.

Oh, whining is also my right. What if I am?

sergiozambrano · Nov 24, 2012

No need to have whole conversations like that

Tyler23 said:
But my question to you is, are you trying to have entire conversations like this? If so, how do you expect to hear the other person when they respond when your ear is nowhere near the earpiece?

What makes you think I want to speak like that all the time?

No need to have whole conversations like that in order to be annoying. Also, for whole conversations like that, it doesn't bother to push the speaker option. It bothers for times when the simple action of pushing the button wastes more time than what's saving.

I'm just pointing out the frequency of the annoyment and the reduction on historical mic sensibility (which includes having to aim right to the mouth or blocking the back mic with the hand to get the right quality) is not worthy.

The poll in this post shows the noise canceling feature is less than 5% useful, and if the rest of the phones work like mine (and the ones the genius and me tried at the Apple Store), that means the improvement doesn't justify the issues.

By the way, in Florida, while outdoors, YOU WILL WANT to speak most of your conversation with the phone a few inches away your face, or you'll soak the phone in sweat and burn your ear.

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Black Magic said:
the problem the OP identified appears to be isolated to him and his phone.

It's not my fault the phones I tried had the same issue.

I'm not trying to create a buzz for an inexisting issue.
That's as dumb like saying "it works fine for me" while watching the screen in a unnatural position, like eating the mic while forcing the eyes down to read, instead of doing it like other phones can handle.

sergiozambrano · Nov 24, 2012

Thank you all

Thank you all for the feedback, even for the _ _ _ that felt insulted even not understanding what the feature is or didn't even read or are not able to understand it.

I've been able to get at least 4 clean testimonials of this not happening for others (I guess they were honest enough to have considered even lowered volume rather than complete muting) so I'll go to the AppleStore and will test more phones.

I might be able to even make a video of those phones having the issue if I put a voice-memo volume meter next to the speaker so you can "see it" in the video.

sergiozambrano · Nov 24, 2012

matttye said:
You SHOULD use the speaker function when the phone isn't held to your mouth.

I KNOW I SHOULD, as it's designed. That's the problem. I SHOULDN'T.
For 10 years voice microphones have been progressing, and the current sensitivity when the phone is not in a strict position is a setback.

Considering Apple decided I MUST choose between holding the phone in a STRICT position or go to speaker mode, NO ALTERNATIVES, then yes, I SHOULD keep my mouth and ear stuck to the phone, even soaking wet my ear when outdoors.

But forcing users to change the way they speak to be able to rely on the sound quality is not the way to promote a new feature. Both should be compatible.

It's not just my opinion. They are facts:
1) Getting the voice through both mics makes the voice canceling unusable
and
2) The proximity sensor automatically switching the screen on-off means that Apple ALREADY determined that YOU SHOULD be able to move the phone away your ear, and without having to "TELL IT" when,

THEN,

IT'S A FAILURE of design not to use the same sensor to PREVENT you having to tell the phone you want the noise canceling stop FAILING.

The hardware is ok. It's the despotism by Apple designers that want to tell you how to use their phone, or else Well, no, actually it's not the designers but the marketers who are looking the other way because the noise canceling is the big marketing point now.

If I was so idiot by not switching to speaker mode just to put the phone away my face while talking and it was SO OBVIOUS as you say
Why do you think Apple STILL wants me to choose it by hand?
They could easily switch it on-off with the proximity sensor! and help me to be less dumb.

or why doesn't just Apple make me switch the screen on-off manually?

or why don't they just turn BOTH the speaker and noise-canceling feature on-off automatically with the proximity sensor?

Thinking consistently is what makes designs evenly good. This doesn't make sense.

For the ones who tried it out, are probably just ignoring the lower volume, which compared with the iPhone4 (don't know the 4S) sucks.

If you make the test with an iPhone4 in front of you, you'll notice it has a greater voice volume for the same position.

matttye · Nov 24, 2012

sergiozambrano said:
I KNOW I SHOULD, as it's designed. That's the problem. I SHOULDN'T.
For 10 years voice microphones have been progressing, and the current sensitivity when the phone is not in a strict position is a setback.

Considering Apple decided I MUST choose between holding the phone in a STRICT position or go to speaker mode, NO ALTERNATIVES, then yes, I SHOULD keep my mouth and ear stuck to the phone, even soaking wet my ear when outdoors.

But forcing users to change the way they speak to be able to rely on the sound quality is not the way to promote a new feature. Both should be compatible.

It's not just my opinion. They are facts:
1) Getting the voice through both mics makes the voice canceling unusable
and
2) The proximity sensor automatically switching the screen on-off means that Apple ALREADY determined that YOU SHOULD be able to move the phone away your ear, and without having to "TELL IT" when,

THEN,

IT'S A FAILURE of design not to use the same sensor to PREVENT you having to tell the phone you want the noise canceling stop FAILING.

The hardware is ok. It's the despotism by Apple designers that want to tell you how to use their phone, or else Well, no, actually it's not the designers but the marketers who are looking the other way because the noise canceling is the big marketing point now.

If I was so idiot by not switching to speaker mode just to put the phone away my face while talking and it was SO OBVIOUS as you say
Why do you think Apple STILL wants me to choose it by hand?
They could easily switch it on-off with the proximity sensor! and help me to be less dumb.

or why doesn't just Apple make me switch the screen on-off manually?

or why don't they just turn BOTH the speaker and noise-canceling feature on-off automatically with the proximity sensor?

Thinking consistently is what makes designs evenly good. This doesn't make sense.

For the ones who tried it out, are probably just ignoring the lower volume, which compared with the iPhone4 (don't know the 4S) sucks.

If you make the test with an iPhone4 in front of you, you'll notice it has a greater voice volume for the same position.

What's so hard about tapping speaker?

An "auto use speaker when moving the phone away from the ear" would be a cool option, but it's not the end of the world without it.

Things you can't do while in a call in iPhone 5

How often you need to speak from a noisy place?

Less than 5% of your calls

5-10% of your calls

10-20% of your calls

20-50% of your calls

50-80 or your calls

Most of your calls

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