I can't wait for Verizon to get the iPhone...then we can start hearing about how "bad" their network is too, lmao. What a cop out by Apple, and it appears not too many are buying it. This PR move isn't helping them any, let's just hope they end up doing more than simply restating bar signal in the actual "fix".
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Apple on iPhone 4 Reception: Signal Strength Display Issue Only, Software Update Coming
- Thread starter fruitbat04
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This BULL **** for many reasons.
1. The current bar does correlate to my experience when using the iphone. 1-2 bar when covering the lower left corner = very slow surfing the net.
2. If it's a software issue why is it that apple is in desperate need of Antenna and RF hardware engineers.
I'm very disappointed with their explanation.
1. The current bar does correlate to my experience when using the iphone. 1-2 bar when covering the lower left corner = very slow surfing the net.
2. If it's a software issue why is it that apple is in desperate need of Antenna and RF hardware engineers.
I'm very disappointed with their explanation.
Just my 2 cents... i live on 69th street on the east side of nyc and ive had the 3g since it came out and the amount of dropped calls i get in my apt are ridiculous, it has always been a prob and is something i learned to deal with... Example during an hour call last night i experienced it being dropped and while calling back the call failed twice... as the old world saying is "s*** happens" anyone on att (with the iphone... or not) that hasnt had problems kudos to you, your entire body must be a super cellphone antenna, for the rest of us who love to hate att and our incredible phones we shall keep on keepin on
Noone I know has experienced any reception issues whatsoever... only about ~15 iphone 4s..
Southeast Michigan.
So you're saying that SOME units (possibly the majority) are defective and NOT a "design flaw", right? Did you test the 3 of them with the same person/hand?
If Apple's signal formula was wrong (showing more bars than it should) in the past then why could I still make and receive calls on my old 3GS with 1 bar?
I'm guessing that after this fix people who could get 1 bar in a pacticular location will now find themselves with "no signal" where previously they could make calls. How does this help anyone other than Apple??
I'm guessing that after this fix people who could get 1 bar in a pacticular location will now find themselves with "no signal" where previously they could make calls. How does this help anyone other than Apple??
I don't think that the Wireless Phones were ever meant to displace land lines....especially those in congested areas (tall buildings) with limited line-of-sight access to the local cell phone tower. You may want to invest in one of those home cell phone towers.
"Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong"
thats a bunch of *********. they knew damn well their formula inflated signal strength, anyone who's payed attention to the OS updates over the years have seen them do it before their very eyes. now because this new phone has a hardware problem and drops the calls, they can't lie about signal strength anymore, and have to fess up to bad connections.
give us a real fix apple. i'll stick with my 3GS until then.
thats a bunch of *********. they knew damn well their formula inflated signal strength, anyone who's payed attention to the OS updates over the years have seen them do it before their very eyes. now because this new phone has a hardware problem and drops the calls, they can't lie about signal strength anymore, and have to fess up to bad connections.
give us a real fix apple. i'll stick with my 3GS until then.
My god, there are a lot of stupid people on this forum.
Apple's statements do not contradict each other. The first statement about all phones dropping signal when held in the hand is still true. It's been recognised that the iPhone 4 has a tendency to do this in a particular way, and if this is a problem for you then hold it differently or use a bumper as suggested.
The latest statement is explaining why the signal drop can appear to be so dramatic, and this is due to the algorithm used for the five-bar indicator on the phone display. This reports signal strength in a misleading way, so it can appear that you get a huge signal drop when you hold the phone in a particular way, whereas in actual fact the signal strength was already low and the drop is not very dramatic at all. A software update is going to fix this soon.
And finally, they reasonably point out that if you really are not happy with the iPhone 4 in any way, simply return it for a refund. Seems reasonable enough to me! It's not rocket science, guys.
Apple's statements do not contradict each other. The first statement about all phones dropping signal when held in the hand is still true. It's been recognised that the iPhone 4 has a tendency to do this in a particular way, and if this is a problem for you then hold it differently or use a bumper as suggested.
The latest statement is explaining why the signal drop can appear to be so dramatic, and this is due to the algorithm used for the five-bar indicator on the phone display. This reports signal strength in a misleading way, so it can appear that you get a huge signal drop when you hold the phone in a particular way, whereas in actual fact the signal strength was already low and the drop is not very dramatic at all. A software update is going to fix this soon.
And finally, they reasonably point out that if you really are not happy with the iPhone 4 in any way, simply return it for a refund. Seems reasonable enough to me! It's not rocket science, guys.
BTW - do you think the battery actually lasts longer - or did Apple just "fix" the formula which figured out how much juice you had left?
Battery? We're not talking about EVO
It's easy to measure, anyone can use a stopwatch, and it works as advertised.
Apple does seem to have taken a very anti-consumer stance on this whole issue.
"You're holding it wrong"
"Oh you're having signal problems? You must be in a low signal area."
And their concessions so far has been "Oops! We've been telling you your signal is better than it actually is! Let us fix that for you!"
The weakness of the iOS platform really shows in this situation. You can't simply go to another manufacturer who didn't botch their design. You're stuck here. I'm an iOS developer with at least a few thousand dollars invested in the platform, development devices, and purchased applications, and even I'm considering defecting to Android. If only "just returning it" was so easy.
"You're holding it wrong"
"Oh you're having signal problems? You must be in a low signal area."
And their concessions so far has been "Oops! We've been telling you your signal is better than it actually is! Let us fix that for you!"
The weakness of the iOS platform really shows in this situation. You can't simply go to another manufacturer who didn't botch their design. You're stuck here. I'm an iOS developer with at least a few thousand dollars invested in the platform, development devices, and purchased applications, and even I'm considering defecting to Android. If only "just returning it" was so easy.
Does one need to be an engineer to understand that it either works or doesn't work?
If you touch the black line and the phone completely stops working, it stops working.
Unless you are grabbing the phone from th top (which I am right now), I can't imagine typing on this thing without it losing signal completely. I missed 5 phone calls in 30 minutes while checking e-mail.
What if one of those calls had been an emergency? That's why this phone is going back. I'll eat the restocking fee, and go from there.
I consider myself a fanboi, but I can't believe how many 'kool-aid' drinkers there are on this forum. Apple can do wrong. I suppose some people walk through life with blinders on for more important issues than this, so why not a phone.
Do not waste your time answering questions from someone like "i.mac ". These PEOPLE (?) are the fans SJ likes best. No independent thinking. No question. absolute follower.
That may be true. Hmmm...
Anyway 500+ posts about this? Pah! I'll wait for the update and then see if the fix actually stops calls being dropped by the phone being funny about switching towers.
Apple might have to do that, that's why they're are so afraid.
If this was a car, a washing machine or a computer, the manufacturer (working with the retailers) would have to arrange a collection and a hardware fix. In the case of the iPhone, that would mean that you would be provided with a return option on Apple's expense and Apple would have to come up with a solution, whether it's a repair or providing you a replacement without the issue. Here comes the important part:
if it is a design flaw, Apple's responsibility doesn't stop on Day 30. This patronising 30 day return window is just a PR exercise to shift attention from the problem that Apple should rectify the issue for good. Just because people don't come across with the dropping calls yet, that doesn't mean that they won't in the future. What then? They have a malfunctioning device, due to a design flaw and they cannot return or expect a hardware fix?!
The only thing warming my heart about the scandal is that many people mindlessly defending Apple Inc WILL experience the issue at one point in the future (IF they have an iPhone 4).
Ahh, I live in the Village. No tall buildings here. It did suck for a long time though when the iPhone 3G first came out. The calls do keep dropping on my iPhone 4 though so I guess I'm in the same boat as you. We can thank Apple for giving iPhone 3GS and 4 users equity in s**tty service then. Cheers.
Battery? We're not talking about EVO
It's easy to measure, anyone can use a stopwatch, and it works as advertised.
Ahhh but the shut down is triggered by the software determining what % you're at. Which means that they could tweak that to be whatever amount they want in the background, no?
I am aware of that I happened to be laying in bed with mono...that aside you are totally correct... but the point of my story was to tell the other guy from nyc that i believe he is in a unique position never having a call dropped in his apt... calls get dropped, fail, whatever, and its more a fact of life of using a cell... does it happen so much that it is unbearable no, id say my call drop rate is MAYBE 10%-15%... a home cell phone tower just seems impractical for most people that live anywhere in proximity to a cell tower and im pretty sure there are one or 2 of them in nyc
I think you are oversimplifying this. I can make calls in areas my 3G would not. Many others have reported this as well, including reviewers. The downside is I can't touch a 1 cm area on the left side of the phone. That is function over function not form over function. Do you want more calling area or being able to touch the entire outside of the case.
We are also assuming that an internal antenna would function better. Correct me if I am wrong, but I know of no other cell phone made solely of glass and metal. the internal antenna may have gotten worse signal all of time. Or, the attenuation may have been the same since glass and plastic do not have the same insularity. So the exterior antenna may have been the best possible location.
We didn't work on engineering for this phone for 3 years. We simply do not know what they tried and what their lab results say. To say this was a stupid design decision and form of function is simply not necessarily true.
Riiiiiiiight....
Well, that's a bunch of crap. ...Reporting two more bars than it should...MY ASS!!!
Come one Apple, admit that you didn't think the design through and that this is really a HARDWARE issue!!
Now you're going to release software update that changes the equations on how the phone does calculations to read signal strength?
What does this say about how cell phone companies can lead us to believe that we are getting great reception when we're really not???
"Oh, lets change the algorithm, we're really reporting two more bars than we should be. They won't know the difference."
This means that with any software update the formula can be changed and we can be led to believe that we are getting GREAT reception anywhere, anytime. "Hey, i'm out here in Bum-**** Egypt and I am getting GREAT reception on my nice new Apple iPhone 4!!! Look-a' that!! FULL BARS!"
And I'm not ragging on just Apple, if they can change how many bars are displayed with a software update, then so can ANY cell phone manufacturer. We can't trust a single one of them...I was going to get an iPhone 4 as soon as the local AT&T store got some in, but now I think I will hold off until Apple introduces the iPhone 4G...if AT&T ever gets off their asses and gets the network up and running. On second though, I'm going with Spring and getting the HTC Evo. **** all this waiting...
Dear Apple, I still love you, (I own an iMac, a MacBook Pro, a MacBook, two iPhones, an iPad, have an Apple tattoo on my right butt-cheek...so don't any of you say that I'm not a "Mac guy" as my wannabe fanboy coworker is wont to say...) but I cannot commit myself to you and your shiny new iPhone until you iron out all the kinks.
--
love ,
Nick.
Well, that's a bunch of crap. ...Reporting two more bars than it should...MY ASS!!!
Come one Apple, admit that you didn't think the design through and that this is really a HARDWARE issue!!
Now you're going to release software update that changes the equations on how the phone does calculations to read signal strength?
What does this say about how cell phone companies can lead us to believe that we are getting great reception when we're really not???
"Oh, lets change the algorithm, we're really reporting two more bars than we should be. They won't know the difference."
This means that with any software update the formula can be changed and we can be led to believe that we are getting GREAT reception anywhere, anytime. "Hey, i'm out here in Bum-**** Egypt and I am getting GREAT reception on my nice new Apple iPhone 4!!! Look-a' that!! FULL BARS!"
And I'm not ragging on just Apple, if they can change how many bars are displayed with a software update, then so can ANY cell phone manufacturer. We can't trust a single one of them...I was going to get an iPhone 4 as soon as the local AT&T store got some in, but now I think I will hold off until Apple introduces the iPhone 4G...if AT&T ever gets off their asses and gets the network up and running. On second though, I'm going with Spring and getting the HTC Evo. **** all this waiting...
Dear Apple, I still love you, (I own an iMac, a MacBook Pro, a MacBook, two iPhones, an iPad, have an Apple tattoo on my right butt-cheek...so don't any of you say that I'm not a "Mac guy" as my wannabe fanboy coworker is wont to say...) but I cannot commit myself to you and your shiny new iPhone until you iron out all the kinks.
--
love ,Nick.