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

[BobVB]

Bob, sorry AT&T gave you a hard time, but it is really premature to say a class action suit will win. You have no idea if Apple's software update will fix the problem or not. You have some idea as to why the bars are dropping, not why you are having a problem with calls dropping. Just out of curiosity. Did you run iOS4 on your 3GS?

Yes dropping calls was an immediate and obvious iP4 thing - I answer calls sitting at my desk all the time, never had a problem with dropped calls from my end. From the moment it was the iP4 picking up the phone dropped the calls.

I mean ignoring the bars we see there is in one test an over -18DB drop when holding the phone normally over a less that 2 drop with the previous version of the phone. Its not a mystery as to what the problem is and if  is being honest, and this 'fix' is going to be telling me I am being dropped on a 3 bar call rather than a 5 bar call, that's no fix at all.

Normally holding a phone that results in -18DB drop is a design flaw - not admitting it and fixing it will see the class action suits win if history in tech suits is any indication.

 

[kernkraft]

I guess I'm one of those .00001% of people who returned their IPhone4.

If ONLY YOU returned your iPhone, that .00001% makes the total number of sales 10 million.

 

[MacPhilosopher]

I guess I'm one of those .00001% of people who returned their IPhone4. I actually discovered the issue first, then sought the forums out to see if other people where experiencing the same type of issue. Sitting on my couch 1/2 hour or so after unboxing, I noticed that all 3g access would stop when accessing email or safari.

Now I've used my similar 3g all the time checking emails and things from that spot on the couch, so I knew immediately all was not well.

I really don't understand the reaction people are having to this issue, I obviously like apple products and also have a macbook pro but it seems the masses are brainwashed. Not sure if it's the hype, or the cool factor or the scarcity apple created with the preordering but why would people keep a product that doesn't live up to it's core function is strange.

I like Apple for the great visual design of their products, however, a phone needs to function as a phone. Who is really going to remember to grab the thing by two fingers and hold it like a british cup of tea when on the phone for an hour or having to make a quick call when distracted.

And I would say to all the people who have had the issue, and are keeping their phone or running out to buy a case. In essence your complicit in this game. All fairness to apple, if only a couple thousand phones get returned why would you expect them to act any differently. I'm sure if they go 100-150k, their actions would be totally different.

Your vote is basically with your money! And not voting is supporting this type of corporate behavior and not keeping Apple honest.

Perhaps a majority of the people are happy with their phones and have no reason to return them. This forum is hardly the best place from which to derive data regarding how many devices are working fine. At best you can say there are people on here that do not like the reception on their device. You can also say there are people on here that like the reception with their phone. You cannot say anything conclusive about all iPhone 4 users.

 

[Julien]

I think I will.

Good, not stop crying and move on.

 

[darkhunter139]

I never found the issue to be a big one but this is the biggest bull **** response to an issue I have ever read. They were "STUNNED", give me a break.

 

[Kahnyl]

I never found the issue to be a big one but this is the biggest bull **** response to an issue I have ever read. They were "STUNNED", give me a break.

Cut them some slack. They're still in shock. Everyone was sent home early to let it sink in.

 

[thermal]

Folks, this is what happens on the bleeding edge of technology. Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, Adobe, they are all the same in one respect: early adopters are essentially final beta-testers that pay to help these companies perform the final tweaks necessary to really shore up their products.

Yes, Apple has had tremendous success (luck perhaps) with their products being thoroughly tested and they haven't had to deal with something like this before. However, Apple hasn't been in the cell phone business that long (not nearly as long as companies like Motorola, Nokia, etc.) and being the front runner in what has become and extremely heated market, they were bound to make a mistake eventually. These are growing pains that Apple must learn from. Apple is going to need a little time to adequately diagnose the real problem and then find and deploy a fix (more than the two weeks the device has been on the market). OS level software updates have to work their way through what I hope is Apple's pretty stringent QA process.

You early adopters of the iPhone 4 are going to have to endure this problem a little while longer or return for a refund. The iPhone 4 will still be there in a few months when Apple has this issue behind them. If your phones are so important, ask yourself if being on the bleeding edge is worth it? Can you continue to afford to be a beta-tester with a device (if you're anything like me) that is pretty much essential to your daily life and has to always work? I love technology as much as any other IT professional, but I've never found it worthwhile to be an early adopter of any product.

What I really hope comes out of this is two things. First, that Apple really learns from this matter and emerges a bit more humble of a company that becomes far more responsive to what their customers actually want and refrain from their tendency of telling their customers what they want. Second, that maybe next time people will remember that new products are almost always buggy and/or flawed and take that into consideration before racing to buy the latest and greatest product.

Excellent post.

 

[xgman]

Obviously not a software issue. Kind of insulting to us masses. Talk about pulling the wool over our eyes, but like many, I will bumper it up, suck it up and go on my merry way, but it still isn't right. Doesn't surprise me though. Imagine if their production line works anything like their product launch did. That's trouble.

 

[MacPhilosopher]

Design trade-off. Making the antenna external allowed them to make it bigger and with less metal blocking it, allowing it to grab more of a signal.

Unfortunately that only works if you don't touch it.

Worth it? Not to me. Maybe to everyone else.

This and the comment you responded to are true only if all of the iPhone 4 users experience the problem. I see plenty of satisfied customers on this site and have friends that love the phone and have no problems.

 

[darkhunter139]

Cut them some slack. They're still in shock. Everyone was sent home early to let it sink in.

Yeah they were stunned they actually got caught trying to misrepresent the signal we were all getting on our 3g and 3gs phones. I feel like my whole life was a lie now

 

[Jeffacme]

And I would say to all the people who have had the issue, and are keeping their phone or running out to buy a case. In essence your complicit in this game. All fairness to apple, if only a couple thousand phones get returned why would you expect them to act any differently. I'm sure if they go 100-150k, their actions would be totally different.

Your vote is basically with your money! And not voting is supporting this type of corporate behavior and not keeping Apple honest.

Really, Complicit, for adapting or putting a case on a phone. You are free to return yours if it doesn't work for you just as I am free to keep the phone that works great for me.

I am happy with all the improvements in the phone and it has better reception than my Iphone 3G did.

You can get a full refund what more can Apple do?

 

[cmaier]

This and the comment you responded to are true only if all of the iPhone 4 users experience the problem. I see plenty of satisfied customers on this site and have friends that love the phone and have no problems.

No, my statement is true regardless. There is ALWAYS an antenna detuning. Often it's not enough to affect call quality. It always affects data speed, though not always enough to matter to the user. That's why it's called a "trade off." As I said, the tradeoff is not worth it to me (because I lose calls). It may be worth it to everyone else.

 

[uzziel]

Fail = cancel

I read all the thread to here. My "Ships by July 14" iPhone 4 order gets canceled. I will wait until Apple learns to tell the truth. Where I grew up, if you weighted the scales in your favor, it was seen as outright theft. Admitting you are a thief is not what makes it right. What makes it right is:


A public apology
Restitution plus 20%
Stop all sales until it is fixed
Fix it, or don't sell it


Oh, and the theft did not start with iPhone 4. By their own admission, the theft began 3 years ago...

 

[marksman]

This is pathetic.

Without talking about stupid bars...

I can do a speed test on 3G signal and get 2.5mb download speed and then just touch the black line on the left and the test will show 100k. Also if I run the test and then in the middle of it touch the black line, the download INSTANTLY freezes and then as a release my finger it resumes. How can that be cosmetic?

Unbelievable, basically, its a hardware design flaw that apple will not admit to. I mean, how could they? They have sold millions and couldn't possible correct each device. Its clear that many people will be happy with that press release, but I am certainly not. I feel insulted that apple are saying it is a cosmetic issue.

Clearly some of you do not understand the words coming out of Apple's mouth.

To start with, gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars. This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones.

This means in a case like yours you have like a signal of 2 to begin with, and when you touch it, it is dropping to a zero. That is why you are having a problem. Apple didn't say that you can't make the signal reduce by touching the phone. Right now you may be seeing 4 or 5 bars, but that is wrong.

However what they are saying is you are doing this in an area of poor coverage to begin with, and by touching it you are making the signal reduce to a level of non-existence. Nothing you state in your post contradicts what Apple has said in their statement.

What ultimately will happen is you will have zero bars and get zero signal. They never said that touching the phone in a specific way would not hinder the signal. Just like you can get the same exact result on any other cell phone if you hold them a certain way. They are saying it is not a hardware design flaw it is what it is, and all phones have similar issues.

If you were in an area of full 5 bar coverage (real full 5 bar coverage) and you touched that spot, it would not cause your connection to stop. That is what they are saying.

 

[sslanchi]

I do not own and Iphone 4 (yet, but soon depending on what happens with this issue) but after reading the reports of the reception problem I can understand what the problem is. It is a simple miss match of antenna. I am to understand that the 2 aerials used by the phone, WiFi and cellular, are incorporated in the metal around the edge of the phone and are separated by the thin black strips, one on the top and the important one on the left bottom corner. When your hand comes into contact with the bottom left corner your hand is effectively joining the 2 aerials together, because it conducts, and therefore causing a miss match with the antenna, just like the VSWR being out of range on the old CB radio equipment.
Someone with an iPhone 4 can help me out here by testing this theory by putting a pair of rubber gloves on and putting their hands on the bottom corner and see if the drop in signal is as dramatic as it is without the gloves. You will, as Steve Jobs says, lose some signal by covering the antenna in any way but see if it isn't as bad as with your bare hand. I am interested in your findings.
If I am right the only real way to cure this problem would be to put a non conducting coating around the edge of the phone, or bumper, or change the design to put the antenna/casing joints (thin black strips) on the bottom and top of the phone, where nobody touches when using the phone.
Let me know what you think and, Steve Jobs, if you're reading this and think I have a good point and maybe I'm right I am open for a job if you have one for me, I'm fed up of being self employed and not appreciated.


Just thought of another little test to prove my point.

Are you listening Steve Jobs!!!


On the top of the iPhone 4 there is another little black strip, which separates the 2 antenna's, try putting your bare hand across that and press hard like you would grip your phone on the side and see if it does the same because in theory you are still joining the 2 antenna together.

I'm 99% sure this is the problem, please prove me wrong so Apple don't have to redesign the case which would mean me waiting a while to get one.

If you could let me know if my thoughts are right or wrong I would be very grateful. Email me at dk2002@onetel.com
Thanks
Darren

Thank for this info Darren. I dont think anyone had considered this theory up to this point.

 

[Jeffacme]

I read all the thread to here. My "Ships by July 14" iPhone 4 order gets canceled. I will wait until Apple learns to tell the truth. Where I grew up, if you weighted the scales in your favor, it was seen as outright theft. Admitting you are a thief is not what makes it right. What makes it right is:


A public apology
Restitution plus 20%
Stop all sales until it is fixed
Fix it, or don't sell it


Oh, and the theft did not start with iPhone 4. By their own admission, the theft began 3 years ago...

put down the crack pipe now

 

[xgman]

What I don't get is that there are a million videos floating around clearly showing that when you touch that spot data stops and when you let go, data starts back up. I guess Apple doesn't watch videos.

here is a good one of those videos:
http://www.9to5mac.com/node/18982

How can you deny this?

 

[marksman]

Im not convinced by this.

5 bars of signal, bridge the attenas and web page stops loading. How can adjusting bar representation change this? Surely its not saying 5 bars is more or less 1 bar and bridging sent it to no signal?

Because when you are doing this you don't have 5 bars, you have like 2 bars, and you are going from 2 bars to zero bars, not 5 bars to zero bars.

I really think the Apple letter explains this fairly straight forward. I am at a loss for the basic confusion on this.

 

[firewood]

Name me another cell phone where you drop calls and lose data connectivity the minute that you touch a particular part of the phone.

ALL cell phones. Every brand. The signal will degrade with your hand over the antenna by a specific amount. Say it's a 10 dB loss. If you only have 5 dB more coverage than needed for a connection, the connection will drop once you degrade the antenna by 10 dB. Say it's a phone with only a 2 db degradation. Then that cell phone will drop connection in any location with only 1 dB of headroom.

The trade-off with the i4 is that the degradation is a whopping big 24 dB, BUT the cell phone has a LOT more sensitivity to compensate. That's a reasonable trade-off, because...

Because, an intelligent user can easily learn how not to degrade their antenna. Case or "hold different". You learned not to stick your fingers over the camera lens when taking pictures with your iPhone, didn't you?

What would you say to a friend who says: "I can't take photos; stupid Apple put the lens on the side where I usually put my hand. So all I get are pink splotches!!!! OMG! Its a defective picture phone!!!!"
??

 

[MacPhilosopher]

lol

Now that's funny!

I have to say that my experience with people and technology tells me there are some out there that really have something wrong with their phone. Others are just getting caught up in the hysteria. I did sales for Bell Atlantic/CellularOne years ago and we used to laugh when people extended the antenna on the flip phones we sold because it was just a placebo antenna. It was just plastic and had no real effect other than to make the user feel like they had done something. The antenna was built into the device itself. When people brought one in to have the fake antenna fixed we would just snicker under our breath. This is what the software fix is from Apple. They know they need to do something to appease the hysterical, but since the real problem includes variables that Apple has no control over, they need to adjust the placebo antenna, in this case the reception bars that are probably only loosely tied to real world data. I even fell for it myself last year with my old iPhone. I complained to AT&T about my poor reception in my home and they did a "firmware update" over the network. It changed nothing, but was designed to make me feel better. The truth is that I live in an old adobe home with thick walls and the cellular technology has changed little in twenty years regarding signal reception and signal loss inside buildings. As a matter of fact, it has gotten worse since they dropped cellphone wattage when digital technology replaced analogue. Phones went from 6 watt(the brick) to 3 watts(the flip) to under 1 watt(most digital phones). Add in the high traffic most cell networks must handle and there are countless variables to consider. For those that did get a bad device, take it back. The rest of you that perceive a problem but can only replicate it with extreme prejudice towards how you grip the phone or hold the phone, I also say take it back. You have already decided it isn't working and such skepticism will negate Apple's placebo fix.

 

[neil1980]

Hmmm.

Ok as it stands it really doesn't bother me about the signal drop... I don't hold it that way usually so its a none issue for me.

However....

If what they are saying is that your true signal is what it shows in the death grip then at home I have no signal at all.... so if thats the case how come when I hold it normally and it shows 5 bars it works fine? Surely going off that press release I'd have 5 bars but wouldn't be able to make a call?

 

[xgman]

Because when you are doing this you don't have 5 bars, you have like 2 bars, and you are going from 2 bars to zero bars, not 5 bars to zero bars.

I really think the Apple letter explains this fairly straight forward. I am at a loss for the basic confusion on this.

You don't even need to use bars to see this problem. Just try to load a web page. The bars are almost irrelevant here. The bars may need to be adjusted, but that isn't what everyone has been complaining about. I can't imagine Apple has missed this point.

 

[cmaier]

ALL cell phones. Every brand. The signal will degrade with your hand over the antenna by a specific amount.

Putting your hand over the antenna is not the same as "touching a specific spot."

 

[Wags]

Exactly what I was thinking. How does a software update solve "No Service"?

Ditto !!
Old iPhones - No problem with calls and Data connectivity
Iphone4 - Same locations. Can't make calls or drop calls if holding 'incorrectly'. I can go from full bars and 3G connection to No service.
I guess we are supposed to see the new display level calulations and blame AT&T or have noting to complain about because the display says we can't make a call.

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

Yes, Apple has had tremendous success (luck perhaps) with their products being thoroughly tested and they haven't had to deal with something like this before.

Not really considering the issues with freezing/flickering iMacs, random shutdown macbooks, etc. It's nothing new and history repeated itself here with customers insisting it's an unfixable hardware defect only to have Apple come out with a software fix.

Also keep in mind that the first fix may not necessarily resolve the real issue. Some of the freezing/flickering iMacs needed a 2nd try in order to fix the real issue.