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Is it just me or was the chart showing the different phone bar counts backwards. Under "Min" was the highest number of bars (before gripping) and under "Max" was the lowest number of bars (during grip). Shouldn't those headers be reversed?
 
Same with all compact cell phones.

Wrong. If I super death grip my T-mobile mytouch slide with two hands I loose one bar. My Motorola F3 was designed with antennas at both ends of the phone, so there is never a problem there. I never had a single hand placement signal loss issue with my first generation iPhone, and as far as I know my wife never had such issues with her iPhone 3G.

Bad design is bad design, period. Making excuses for Apple making such an obvious design blunder is just sad, especially when they have ~25 billion in the bank. It's not like they couldn't have afforded enough people to design this thing right.
 
This kind of double-speak is exactly what makes Apple lose even more credibility:

1) It's not a 'real' problem. It's a problem with the software mis-reporting signal strength.

2) Even if it is a problem, it's caused by users.

3) Even if it is a problem, it's a normal problem common to many smart phones.

4) We'll give you a free Bumper to fix the problem that doesn't exist.

I have an iPhone 3G. My friend has the iPhone 4. IN THIS ROOM, holding my phone every which way does not cause a loss of signal while holding his phone naturally (in the palm of my hand, not in a dainty manner with my finger tips) the cell signal and data speed drop off.

Apple is quietly working on the problem, hence the deadline for free Bumpers. New iPhones will not have this problem. My guess is that they'll apply a coating to the antennae that reduces conduction upon contact. This is just their way of skirting a recall. Poor.

Mike
 
It really makes me sick to my stomach reading all this anti-iPhone 4 stuff. It is without a doubt the greatest phone / mini computer I have ever owned in my entire life. I've owned each of the previous iPhone designs and this one absolutely blows my socks off. Excellent job Apple.

ALL TOGETHER NOW!

IF YOU DON'T WANNA AN iPhone 4!
Don't buy it!
IF YOU BOUGHT YOU AND YOU DON'T LIKE IT!
Bring it back!


...but you know you won't.
 
It really makes me sick to my stomach reading all this anti-iPhone 4 stuff. It is without a doubt the greatest phone / mini computer I have ever owned in my entire life. I've owned each of the previous iPhone designs and this one absolutely blows my socks off. Excellent job Apple.

ALL TOGETHER NOW!

IF YOU DON'T WANNA AN iPhone 4!
Don't buy it!
IF YOU BOUGHT YOU AND YOU DON'T LIKE IT!
Bring it back!


...but you know you won't.


ALL TOGETHER NOW!

APPLE PREVENTS US FROM RE-SELLING OUR APPS IF WE LEAVE

I have a large catalog of apps that I would lose. I would not mind re-selling the licensees I bought to use them, like users who leave other OS'es can do (e.g. OS X or Windows). If Apple would let this occur, then the mantra of "leave if you don't like it" is 100% acceptable. Otherwise, why should I give up two years of purchases, for the sole reason that Apple has given us a phone that many cannot use in your left hands.
 
If I super death grip my T-mobile mytouch slide with two hands I loose one bar.

I have one of those. It didn't even get a connection inside my old office building. Didn't even give my one bar to lose.

The 3GS would give me at least one bar, but drop a call after picking it up if I didn't immediately walk nearly outside the building.

I have no problem believing the i4 antenna is better in more situations than it is worse in.
 
Says the one who refers to his laptop as a "Badboy Pro TM":rolleyes:

Well Steve,

Ya managed to grace the stage and wave the hand 'nothing to see here, there is nothing wrong with my phone blah blah'

What was interesting though is that you bummed and blowed about the 3GS yet it wasnt even compared in the death grip comparison. I suspect your hard data has been magically dreamt up. 055% complainers????? Very hard to believe.

And heres the thing Stevey boy, All those phones that you showed dropped bars - I accept that but at no stage did they show 'No Service' The guy was gripping them for dear life - you merely have to hold the iP4 to get he drop and No Service.

I suspect that that come September all iP4 will be fixed with some sort of coating on it. There is reports of this happening already yet you failed to acknowledge the long term plan and how that would affect early adopters.

And to top it all off you have made people more sceptical by not showing the Q & A session. The Q&A of probably 100,000+ that need answering.

Honestly, man up and perhaps you ned to go back into hospital to get a set of balls attached.
 
i knew it. rim didn't like using their blackberry to demo the signal loss issue of the Iphone4. i wonder when Samsung and HTC will step up and issue statements.

here's one from RIM.

"Apple's attempt to draw RIM into Apple's self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple's claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public's understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple's difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage. One thing is for certain, RIM's customers don't need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple."
 
i knew it. rim didn't like using their blackberry to demo the signal loss issue of the Iphone4. i wonder when Samsung and HTC will step up and issue statements.

here's one from RIM.

I know it will be interesting to see. Apple cant man up to this obvious design fail and is now setting about trying to side swipe the attention.

All the other phones showed that they had a drop but at no time did they show no service.

If I where RIM i would be seeking to tke a few pounds of the bad Apple. Its really a shame the phone simply doesnt perform.

Like a lot of users i think its a great device but as a phone its such a let down and with that comes less faith in a company which fails to admit its failures to its consumers.
 
Well Steve,

blah blah blah

And heres the thing Stevey boy, All those phones that you showed dropped bars - I accept that but at no stage did they show 'No Service' The guy was gripping them for dear life - you merely have to hold the iP4 to get he drop and No Service.

blah blah blah

And to top it all off you have made people more sceptical by not showing the Q & A session. The Q&A of probably 100,000+ that need answering.

Honestly, man up and perhaps you ned to go back into hospital to get a set of balls attached.

What an uttler lack of class you show in this post....First there's the obvious little man syndrome you clearly suffer from by referring to Steve Jobs as "Stevey boy" thus attempting to infer some sort of superiority over one of the most successful CEO's and innovators in technology (What have you ever done?). Then you really get down in the gutter and take a pot shot and the man's health.

It's you that needs a pair of balls attaching.
 
and the data?

For two weeks, reading complains in forums like this I was convinced that there was something seriously wrong with this phone, yesterday I learned that the device has only an increase of <1 % in drop calls over the previous iphone (without as many cases and signal in more places) honestly less than 1%!. If the number is true, Where the is the problem with this phone? Shouldn't we talking about this number. It is totally shocking to me. This seems to be a social phenomenon more than a technological one.
 
It really makes me sick to my stomach reading all this anti-iPhone 4 stuff. It is without a doubt the greatest phone / mini computer I have ever owned in my entire life. I've owned each of the previous iPhone designs and this one absolutely blows my socks off. Excellent job Apple.

ALL TOGETHER NOW!

IF YOU DON'T WANNA AN iPhone 4!
Don't buy it!
IF YOU BOUGHT YOU AND YOU DON'T LIKE IT!
Bring it back!


...but you know you won't.

When you keep making fun of competitors (Microsoft, Google) you can expect something in return when you screw up yourself.

And the same goes for the community and the fanboys. Don't like Windows or Android? Don't use it and shut up. If you don't follow this advice, then don't complain when the tables turn.
 
When you keep making fun of competitors (Microsoft, Google) you can expect something in return when you screw up yourself.

And the same goes for the community and the fanboys. Don't like Windows or Android? Don't use it and shut up. If you don't follow this advice, then don't complain when the tables turn.

The difference is that I don't go trolling on Windows and Google forums. This is Macrumors......Clues in the name.
 

Apparently, they couldn't get hold of the woeful 2008 Nokia E71, which had problems where... er... if you happened to hold it to tight or left handed or just in an unlucky way the signal would drop.

Of course Nokia did a reca... No, wait, they didn't. Well, they offered free ca... No, no, they didn't do that either. What did Nokia do back then, let me remember...

Ah yes. They kept selling the E71 till all their production stock ran out, and quietly fixed the hardware issues in the E72.
 
Most???!!! Really???!!! I can't remember last time I saw one like this. Maybe a few, but most? I just did a Google image search on 'cell phone' and paged through 10 pages and only saw really old cell phone bricks with any kind of antenna sticking out.

I said the law dates back to 1996. If you are limiting your search to phones from 2010, you missed the point of the word "most" in regards to 14 YEARS of cell phones under that rule. It was implied that Apple could not put their antenna surface at or close to the top of the phone because of SAR and FCC regulations and I'm saying that's nonsense if you look at the phones from the past 14 years since that regulation.

They are required by the FCC to put the antenna at the bottom of the phone to move the radiation as far away from human flesh as possible. Before you go ranting on like a fool, make sure you know the facts.

I'm not the one that looks like a fool. Where do the latest Android phones put their antennas at? Here's a hint. They're not at the bottom. Like I said above, the SAR rule has NOTHING to do with WHERE the antenna should go, but the amount of radiation being absorbed. If the phone meets that requirement, that's all that matters. This rule has existed since 1996 and a heck of a LOT of phones have had their antenna at or near the top of the phone since then. The latest Android phones have them in the upper left corner. No one holds their phone up there while talking and so they do not have the problem that iPhone 4 has. You might also ask yourself why previous iPhones haven't had this problem to this degree. It sure as heck doesn't have anything to do with bar meter calculations.

Wrong, almost all phones now put the antenna at the bottom of your phone so it is farther away from your brain when you are using it.

The bottom would be a MUCH better place to put the antenna than the side NEAR the bottom where your hand holds the phone! The bottom is almost as good as the top for ideal reception while in actual use. The SIDE is a terrible place to put the antenna. Other models that have them on the side can also have this problem. That doesn't make it a good place to put the antenna. The antenna could also go on the back of the phone near the top so it's directed away from the head, but also stays away from where the hand typically holds the phone which is around the bottom 1/3 of the phone. But Apple decided to put it EXACTLY in that spot and voila, dropped calls, cheesed off customers and people making excuses for them by saying they HAD to put it right there when their own antenna engineer said don't do it, whom Steve plainly ignored and then told people himself that no problem existed. I'm saying it' a bunch of nonsense. No previous iPhone had this problem to this degree. There is some evidence of the case itself being part of the problem. This new design with less curves appears to be easier to squeeze the sides inward and straight lines are usually more likely to cause all kinds of problems from waves than their previous curved side/backings.

Have you not been paying attention. The FCC requires it be placed at the bottom of the phone away from the ear piece. That's already been covered.

Amazing how fast bad information propagates as the truth. The FCC requires a certain SAR rating. They do NOT dictate WHERE to put antennas as the Android phone demonstrates (side near top corner). As I said, the bottom is almost as good a location as the top to put the antenna. The lower side is the WORST possible location because that's where you hand rests.
 
It'll blow over...

I just saw Apple get shredded on the NBC news tonight. At this point it doesn't matter if the phone is actually flawed or not. The press feels that it is, and apparently they also feel that Mr. Jobs acted poorly (I forget the actual word they used). No, this isn't going to destroy Apple, but it does leave a black mark on their "permanent record". Said mark would have been much smaller if Apple had said "hey, we are working on a fix, and as soon as it is ready, we will contact you to bring your phone in for repair. In the meantime, have a bumper case on the house."

The press has ADD - so they will only mention again when Apple does.

Steve's right in his analysis of the AppleCare and return rate data. He just shouldn't have said it publicly. But in the end, as others have pointed out, 20k-40k will return their iPhone 4s. The other 3 million users won't and will continue to use their phones in public and tell others things work fine. Apple loses maybe 3-5% of market share at most.

Those that returned their phones will feel like idiots and probably 1/2 will come back to Apple and iPhones again in the future, especially if they continue to innovate.

Could Apple have handled it better. Probably. But I can only imagine how the 50+ PhD's, Ives and others are inside Apple dealing with this. They have got to be defending both their design and the fact that all phones do suffer signal loss when gripped. Not all drop calls, but then again the facts seem to prove iPhone 4 doesn't drop that many more than 3GS.

It's Toyota all over again. Remember that? Did Toyota survive? People still buying Toyotas? Is the press still analyzing the new braking systems out of Japan?

And to think, Apple's iPhone 4 hasn't killed anyone (that we know of).
 
I have an iPhone 4, I have had no signal loss (in bars as reported by the phone) issues. I however have had plenty of dropped calls on all iPhones, and I have owned all models. The 3Gs was the worst, but I will not assume it was the phone, as it could have been the spike in customer usage and AT&T's network just the same. So far, I think the iPhone 4 drops less calls, or AT&T is getting better, who knows. I did seem to notice that I had plenty of signal most of the time when dropped calls occurred, but I cannot know what the signal was of the other user I was talking to.

What I found most interesting in the press report was that AT&T has dropped call data, by phone manufacturer and device. Jobs talked about the difference in dropped calls per every 100 citing a .52 increase, so less than a 1 call increase per 100 calls between the iPhone 3Gs and the 4

Without real numbers, just percentages, I'd looove to see AT&T publicly release the dropped call data for all other phones on AT&T's network compared. Furthermore, I'd like to see FCC regulations require this data be released for all US carriers and maintenance of quarterly reports so consumers can be better informed.

Fanboy or not, iPhone users or not, we as consumers deserve to see the service quality we can expect, especially when we are signing up for two year contracts. If service is less than a minimum quality set by the FCC we should be entitled to a refund for bad service, just like when your cable TV or internet service is interrupted for a period of time. You call today to complain about dropped calls and all you will get is "sorry" or we are working on it. We are paying for a service and there needs to be some FCC regulated, standardized quality metrics brought to this industry. Steve seemed to complain about this by saying "none of this is standardized by the way" Same should apply to data transfer rates for data plans, not just quantity of data.
 
to add it to the above post, remember lots of people downgraded from unlimited to 200MB data plan.

earlier i used to turn off Wi-Fi now i am almost on wi-fi whenever i can (yes, i am on the 200MB data plan) may be these things help ATT also, who knows?
 
1-800-MYIPHONE

I encourage anyone that experiences reception drop or hasn't seen more than three bars since 4.0.1 to use the above number.

Their data stating 0.55% of users call into AppleCare may be accurate, but it is not precise.
 
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