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Apple on iPhone 4 Reception: Signal Strength Display Issue Only, Software Update Coming

I just did a test on my iphone 4 and i held it with the death grip the signals went down too 1 bar then went up , so i was like what is going on so i made a call while holding it ( Death Grip ) with one bar of signal and the call went fine without any problems , so i do believe apple that its just an issue on how the iphone 4 is displaying the signal strength.


So no problem here with reception even though it shows less signal bars :)


UK iphone 4 here
 
BruiserB said:
I get the frustration felt by those who are saying that Apple is only fixing the display issue without fixing anything else...but I wonder if that's true. Don't all cell phones change the amount of power they use to broadcast depending on how strong they "think" the signal is? i.e. when you have only 1 bar of service, the phone ramps up its power to ensure that it holds the signal and it can back off and conserve power when there are 5 bars of service. Would it be possible that the phone has fooled itself into thinking the signal is stronger than it really is? Therefore it might be displaying 5 bars when there's really only 2 bars of service but maybe it is adjusting itself to only use enough power to hold the signal for 5 bars, resulting in a lost call?

.
Click to expand...

Don't know if this theory is right, or not, but it is irrelevant as my phone drops to 1 bar right before 0 and the dropped data and call connection, so the phone does think it has 1 bar right before 0.
 
THIS SOFTWARE FIX HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH FIXING THE SIGNAL DROP ISSUE AND APPLE DOES NOT CLAIM THIS IN THE PRESS RELEASE.

Christ, reading comprehension is terrible here.
 
Ofc it takes several weeks to change the bars...

1. first they need those 8 antenna specialist they seek.
2. next they need them to hack the software to grasp onto the dying signal with whatever they can. Takes a week or two.
3. use 10 minutes on changing the formular for the bars.
4. some quality testing
5. ?!?!?
6. fanboys: see changing the bar calculation worked. its better now!
 
BruiserB said:
I suppose a negative effect of correcting it could be shorter battery life as the phone will have to ramp up the power to properly maintain connections.
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Aye - there's the rub eh? Suppose this does fix it as per your scenario - but battery life drops to 3-4 hours. MAYBE that's why they're holding off releasing the "fix" just yet.

Of course - they could just program around that. They could just not ramp up the power based on signal and call it a day. Who knows. All I do know is that they are fixing a different issue than the one that people are having.
 
I'm not surprised that they are feeding everyone BS about this situation. Cell phone carriers have been fooling people for a while now. For instance I had sprint about 3 years ago and where ever I went I would have full bars but once i went to make a call it would drop to 1 or sometimes no service. Its something these carriers do to make you assume you have great service everywhere even if your not trying to make a call. It just so happens in this case that enough people complained and noticed it and apple couldn't really ignore it at this point.
 
NT1440 said:
You realize that every single cell phone maker handles signals different ways right? What may show as 2 bars on an iPhone could be 4 or 5 on a Blackberry. If you want to believe that there is some massive conspiracy going on over a phone fine, but to really think that your letter is going to do anything other than allow you to stew in your mistrust is laughable.

Use some of that energy for doing something actually productive instead.
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Thank you very much for your analysis. I will go be a good little boy now :D
 
yentrog31 said:
Originally Posted by citrate
I love how the apple fanboys have gone from, "there isn't a problem", to "you're holding it wrong", to "buy a case" and now we're at "just return it for a refund". Never wrong are they?
Quote:
Originally Posted by outz
it's funny how fanboys don't like to see people complain about apple products.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pic620
indeed, the blind fanboys will follow and defend any move apple makes, and when left with no real argument they've nothing to say but "return it".
These blind fanboys are pathetic really. It's just as bad as the fanboys defending the 360 RROD fiasco.
__________________
keep bumping this
Click to expand...

I wish I could stop reading this thread but i'm fascinated..

When you buy something you are dissatisfied with, you return it - you don't bitch about it all day on the internet til it's too late to return it, then complain about the fact that you can't return it...
 
I'm thinking that no-one here can conclusively say that it's going to work or not going to work, as it hasn't arrived yet. Phone.app and signal.app work together constantly so maybe it will work. We can't know for sure until it's applied - we can only speculate.

IMHO we need to give it a chance before we criticise further.

Just saying.
 
Sam Abul said:
I just did a test on my iphone 4 and i held it with the death grip the signals went down too 1 bar then went up , so i was like what is going on so i made a call while holding it ( Death Grip ) with one bar of signal and the call went fine without any problems , so i do believe apple that its just an issue on how the iphone 4 is displaying the signal strength.


So no problem here with reception even though it shows less signal bars :)


UK iphone 4 here
Click to expand...


OK, ladies and gentlemen, we have irrefutable and exhaustive testing, guess it is just a problem with the display.

"I am continually shocked by the stupidity of my fellow man." - Steve Jobs, after seeing the posts on this forum from people believing the Apple PR BS.
 
I have an iP3G and whenvever I hold it "like your supposed to hold it" I lose at least 2 bars every single time, usually 3 or 4. When I put it back on the table it goes back to all bars, but I've never had any problems with it, ever. I've got an iP4 on order so we'll see what happens.
 
Since 2.1

If people will recall... when the iPhone 3g came out people were complaing about not getting very good 3g reception. Then voila! Apple rolls out 2.1 which was supposed to be a "fix" because the phone just simply "wasnt displaying the proper 3g signal strength." This, I believe, is when the new scale Ars showed us was deployed. And now that they have an antenna that affects signal strength a little more this scale they introduced is biting them in the ass a little. So expect the old scale to be brought back and then the old complaint of bad 3g reception to be common place.

Personal Rant:
I for one have owned every iPhone since day 1. Loved them all..except my 3g that thing dropped calls like a mother *********. This new phone really is amazing. My screen is blow away, the ringer is finally louder, the camera is stunning, and its really fast. However I have two glaring issues. One. My proximity sensor is wonky and i hang up on people all the time. And Two. The antenna issue is kind of ridiculous. I fully expect Apple to revise this hardware in time for Verizons iPhone launch. And I will be buying it then. AT&T is just flat out ridiculous. I work for a large third party National retail outlet for Verizon AT&T and T-Mobile and AT&T just simply has a lot of issues. I will give them until the 29th day to change my mind but I dont see that as likely. SO most likely I will be going back to my 3GS until a permanent hardware fix is released or Verizon gets the iPhone.
 
I agree the signal strength indicator is definitely different on the iPhone 4. Since we bought the MicroCell, we had great signal consistently on our previous iPhone 3Gs and now the signal fluctuates according to the indicator while we have seen no change whatsoever in our home with ability to use voice - calls and texts. Hopefully, they can get this "calculation" issue addressed.

Maybe Apple will use this explanation as a cover for some other software antenna tweaking...
 
aughsum said:
I wish I could stop reading this thread but i'm fascinated..

When you buy something you are dissatisfied with, you return it - you don't bitch about it all day on the internet til it's too late to return it, then complain about the fact that you can't return it...
Click to expand...

That's not how it works in the UK.
 
iannufc said:
I'm thinking that no-one here can conclusively say that it's going to work or not going to work, as it hasn't arrived yet. Phone.app and signal.app work together constantly so maybe it will work. We can't know for sure until it's applied - we can only speculate.

IMHO we need to give it a chance before we criticise further.

Just saying.
Click to expand...

Ok, I am with you, but why weeks? If it was days, or hours I would say let's just be patient and judge the result, but weeks?
 
Arcus said:
How will this resolve a dropped call when touching that area? Id REALLY like to hear your explanation for this one.
Click to expand...

samcraig said:
If (and I say IF) the fix is simply visual - as in appropriately showing signal strength - then there's no fix and no resolution. If for some reason those bars and the formula have an affect on whether or not the phone hold the call despite the bars then perhaps. But that scenario wouldn't make sense logistically. If, for example the phone cuts the radio (no calls) when hitting 0 bars - changing the formula isn't going to change that. So I hope you can see why many, including myself, don't see this as a fix to the ISSUE. It's a solution to a different and minor problem.
Click to expand...

People have assumed that the calls drop because gripping the phone tightly stops the signal getting to the radio chip. ASSUMED. It's entirely within the realms of possibility that the signal strength bug, when there isn't a full signal, makes the phone think that the signal has dropped too much and that the software goes into some sort of waiting/reconnect mode until it thinks the signal is back again, even if the radio chip is actually still receiving a signal.

The fact is that you don't know and I don't know. Only Apple know. So until it's been released and we know for sure if it works or not, I think it would be wise to keep quiet.

Do you really think that Apple would have knowingly launched a new product that is fundamentally defective and then advertised new job opportunities to fix the issue even before the product is launched?

That is all.
 
sneezymarble said:
Surprisingly, no matter how I hold my iPhone 3G at my house it never completely loses signal and I'm always able to make calls. But, if I place my pinky finger over the little black strip on the bottom left side of my iPhone 4, my signal drops and I can't make any calls. That, Apple, has nothing to do with the number of bars being displayed.
Click to expand...

+1

This has been my experience with two iphone 4's now when compared to my 3G. This is not a display issue for me - I get dropped calls in places where I used to be fine!
 
outz said:
it's funny how fanboys don't like to see people complain about apple products.
Click to expand...

If all it was is complaints then I don't think you'd see the "Fanboys" complaining about YOUR complaints. The complainers are showing a tremendous amount of Apple hatred, calling Steve Jobs names and insults, law suit threats and now disbelief in Apple's statement about how they are going to fix the iPhone 4 issues. What do you want people to do. I think you should take a look around this forum first and verify what I just wrote before you just outright insult people by calling them fanboys. :p
 
Could someone start a thread for the non iPhone4 owners who wish everyone discussing issues would return theirs? So they can troll there.
 
jontucker said:
Do you really think that Apple would have knowingly launched a new product that is fundamentally defective and then advertised new job opportunities to fix the issue even before the product is launched?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Apple and other companies have done far worse things in the past.
 
aughsum said:
I wish I could stop reading this thread but i'm fascinated..

When you buy something you are dissatisfied with, you return it - you don't bitch about it all day on the internet til it's too late to return it, then complain about the fact that you can't return it...
Click to expand...

Yeah, you are right, never complain, just spend your time on forums posting "Return it", what a moron.
 
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