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

blasto333 said:
It is quite simple, apple is becoming arrogant. They won't admit there is a problem. They have plenty of money to do a recall or give everyone a bumper case.
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Have you genuinely thought this statement through.
If Apple announced a major problem - there'd be panic. Mayhem. People would show up demanding new handsets, even if replacement handsets were not manufactured. People would demand replacement handsets, even if they had not personally had any problems.

Now sit down, have a few deep breaths.
And imagine if you really had to manage this problem, what would you do? What is the least damaging way of proceeding? And not making matters worse by acting like Chicken Little.

You'd buy yourself some time, and put efforts into solving the problem.

C.
 
deluxx said:
If it's a software problem then why older iPhones don't have any major signal loss or drop calls when you hold it similarly to the iPhone4.
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You must have not been using your 3G or 3GS around San Francisco or New York City a few months ago. Dropped calls all the time. Tons of reports and published complaints. And some of those drops might have been due to the way people held their 3G and 3GS iPhones. They just blamed AT&T instead, because there wasn't a nice mark on the phone showing them where not to cover that portion of the iPhone for the very best results.

The new i4 has this new bonus feature. The spot to uncover for extra sensitive RF reception is now clearly marked. Brilliant. :)
 
firewood said:
The new i4 has this new bonus feature. The spot to uncover for extra sensitive RF reception is now clearly marked. Brilliant. :)
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I love this, we now have the signal enhancement touch button. Simply move your hand off the spot and enjoy enhanced reception for times when you need that extra umphh...
 
I'm the first one to admit I'm a supreme Apple fanboy, but this whole situation reeks of cover up. Changing the way the signal strength is displayed doesn't hide the fact that there is a problem with users dropping calls - which, to me, seems tied into the hardware design, not the software.

Apple, step up and do the right thing...don't put out press releases that insult your users' intelligence.
 
Carniphage said:
Have you genuinely thought this statement through.
If Apple announced a major problem - there'd be panic. Mayhem. People would show up demanding new handsets, even if replacement handsets were not manufactured. People would demand replacement handsets, even if they had not personally had any problems.

Now sit down, have a few deep breaths.
And imagine if you really had to manage this problem, what would you do? What is the least damaging way of proceeding? And not making matters worse by acting like Chicken Little.

You'd buy yourself some time, and put efforts into solving the problem.

C.
Click to expand...

This. What else can they do? Nothing. Yes, they're just buying time. It's a stalling tactic, and if people don't realize they're taking the best action possible, then they're probably idiots. In terms of the company, outright saying there's a hardware fault would definitely cause mayhem and disorder. I'd more expect a silent update to the manufacturing process, if they do find a fix. I really do mean if though; the way the design is its pretty hard to fix outright without changing the phone design. Perhaps antenna underneath the metal strips, insulated? That would really be the only way, as the surface antenna is clearly prone to problems when the two areas are bridged.
 
I think people should just keep discussing this and emailing apple

they've responded to this

and return it if you're unsatisfied
 
http://www.metalev.org/2010/07/android-vs-iphone-4-signal-strength.html

iPhoneVsAndroid.png


iPhone 4 vs Android isn't a huge difference. One drops a bar at -89, the other at -93. They both still report over half the range as full signal. (I suspect some of the oddities from Anandtech's numbers stems from the difficulty of correlating field test numbers with bars displayed. Too bad we don't have access to the iOS source code, eh? :) )

This is very different from my first-gen iPhone, however. Even as high as -87 dB, it shows only three bars.
 
Carniphage said:
I doubt whether that would be sustainable. I suspect they just need to stall enough until the iPhone4.01 in production.

C.
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Which is probably impossible, given what the guy from Motorola has said. With any new design, Apple would have to get FCC approval AGAIN. This would take some time. As soon as Apple releases this software "fix" and people realize they still have the problem... Apple's back in the same boat.

I don't see how this does them any good to promise a "fix" for an issue they can't fix. If anything, it might just make users MORE upset.

Yeah, it's to cover their asses... but it's not very well thought out.
 
Carniphage said:
If the fix was simply adding an insulated coating to the stainless-steel band, they could probably smuggle this change past the FCC.

Frankly if the FCC were competent, this would not have happened in the first place.
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Apple pays a third party to do all the testing, and the results are submitted to the FCC.

This is done with the phone held in test rigs (no hand holding).

The FCC reviews the results to make sure they meet standards. They could care less if holding it makes the output go down. (They would care if it made it go up.)
 
Two things come to mind on this issue.

1) I recall a software/firmware update to the 3G regarding making the signal bars more accurate when it first came out.

2) I have been calling *all* the AT&T, Apple, other retail stores in the Raleigh-Durham area and they claim Apple has halted shipments and they do not expect to receive any new shipments for at least 2-3 weeks. Anybody else hear this? Perhaps they are making some adjustments in production?
 
ruzz1141 said:
Two things come to mind on this issue.

1) I recall a software/firmware update to the 3G regarding making the signal bars more accurate when it first came out.

2) I have been calling *all* the AT&T, Apple, other retail stores in the Raleigh-Durham area and they claim Apple has halted shipments and they do not expect to receive any new shipments for at least 2-3 weeks. Anybody else hear this? Perhaps they are making some adjustments in production?
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I lost the trust in Apple and in at&t what ever they say its doesn't mater any more.
very sad. I am going to return my iphone before the 30 day, will buy one when they come out with a good one.
I have the MBP i7 17" glosy screen with the SSD hard drive works perfect. so let them make a perfect iphone then we talk again:confused:
 
3 separate unrelated issues w iPhone 4

1 Bars are not calculated correctly and have never been on iPhones.
OK, just cosmetics, who cares...

2 Squeeze it here and see the bars reduce:
Who cares about display of signal strength if the call does not drop, and even
if it does, I agree w Steve: don't squeeze it that way..

3 Bottom line:
I get better reception w iPhone 4 in my house and at work in places where
my 3G and 3GS did not

That's what I'm talking about!!
 
iPhone restocking fee dropped

So, anybody who's complaining can now get a full refund. My guess is 99% of those complaining, especially on this board, don't even have an iPhone 4, they just don't like Apple, the why is beyond me.

Estimate of return, probably 1% and those are customers that no one would want in the first place.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2366056,00.asp
 
Birra said:
So, anybody who's complaining can now get a full refund. My guess is 99% of those complaining, especially on this board, don't even have an iPhone 4, they just don't like Apple, the why is beyond me.

Estimate of return, probably 1% and those are customers that no one would want in the first place.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2366056,00.asp
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Wow old news and made up statistics all in one post, excellent work!
 
Carniphage said:
If all the fix does is change a table that maps signal strength to bars, then it really will not take too long to update the OS. Such a simple fix could be issued in a heartbeat.

So why the delay?

The delay is to buy Apple some time to implement a proper fix. And by proper fix, I mean a change to the manufacturing process.U

C.
Click to expand...
Actually I can explain the delay. It's part of Apples clever manipulation of the press and their customers. Essentially the software update will be completely worthless, since all it's designed to do is change the calibration of the signal strength display. By introducing a delay, many people will either decide to just live with it, and some will forget entirely.

Other than lip service Apples already moved on. Their too big, too wealthy, and too hood at avoidance to do anything about this.
 
It still makes me laugh that people believe a software update can fix an issue which occurs, albeit in poor reception areas, when you PHYSICALLY touch the device.
 
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