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I appreciate Apple. I believe Steve Jobs when he says that he and his company care for their customers and will do everything in their power to ensure an amazing user experience. For those of you wondering if there will be a "secret new design" after September 30... you are morons. And you are doing exactly what Steve Jobs and the rest of the Apple Execs openly admitted to being hurt by today. Hope your proud of yourselves. You are the reason a great company is giving away 90+ million dollars. (That's €23 ($30) times 3 million, for those of you who are bad at math) And what they can't provide for themselves, they are going to pay for from 3rd party vendors.

To me, that speaks volumes of the integrity and sincerity of Apple. That they would be willing to give away that amount of money just to please you. Keep in mind that this hurts their second quarter earnings statement, AND remember the fact that they are a business ultimately interested in earning a profit... although it seems that they put customers over profit. Facts are facts and they speak for themselves. Most of the threads I've seen about this are filled with complainers who are dishonest and disrespectful. The phone works like it should. Few people have been actually affected by the signal issue. FACTS, people... they are all that matter. Hearsay is not doing a thing for you.

Seriously, you people who have done nothing but complain since day one. I am SICK and TIRED of your pathetic excuses and complaints. STOP. You sound like children. Phones aren't perfect. Apple isn't perfect. People aren't perfect. Get over it. It's a phone. Seriously, get over it. Take your free case and shut up. If you don't like it, well you have 3 or 4 days to return it still. So, take it back. Get a droid for all I care, although I've read some pretty awful stuff about that phone too...

Do anything you want, but stop sobbing over the internet about a phone that, in my opinion, works fine. Better than I expected. If you expected perfection you are delusional and should probably see a shrink. Seek help. Or Grow up. One of the two, but for the rest of us that are happy... do it FAST. I will not have my pleasant user experience diminished by a cry baby moron.

Here's a thought... all of you people out there who are not really having a problem with the phone's signal and reception... why don't you skip the free case. I will not be applying for a free one, because I was going to buy one anyway and I am happy with my phone. Why cost a good company more money? So, if you are happy, show your support and leave the whiners to their lame bittersweet victory.

wow Apple, I'm amazed, the kind of brainwashed loyalty that you can get out of some people is truly astonishing.

Listen, Microsoft spent 1.5 BILLION on their defective consoles... but uuh poor Steve has to give away 30c bumper cases for free, for a month.....

The design is defective, it's a fact, and Apple is doing nothing about it. Other phones might lower the bars but they don't cut the connection completely.

And if they have 18 PhD and the best engineers and Steve knew that all the phones have these problems, how include the antenna on the outside where it gets in contact with a user's hand?

Typical Apple and Steve, make a defective product and instead of fixing it and apologizing, spread the blame around the whole industry.


Steve – “We think this has been so blown out of proportion... it's fun to have a story, but it's not fun on the other side.”

How many millions did you spend on your Vista bashing ad campaign again?
 
Apples antenna labs remind me of the x-men film :D

This guy can see all the iphone users like cerebro in x-men can see mutants hahahaha




lab-facilities-20100715.jpg


patrick_stewart_x_men_001.jpg


Apple rules!
 
kudos for apple wanting to make all their users happy, even the less than 1%.

It's a kind gesture that most companies wouldn't do.
 
Reasonable response by apple

They showed that the issue is not just with iPhone but all smartphones with antenna , put out the 4.0.1 update shows bars that are not over stating the signal strength compared to before update, giving free case, and allowing returns without restocking fee. Seems reasonable.

I have iPhone 4, and though I do see a signal drop when I put my left hand all away around it I have not had calls dropped. If other smartphones did not have this issue I would be concerned. The fact is they do. So this issue is no bigger than those with all the others.

Have we become so non-trusting that we put on blinders when we have seen the issue we have complained about is an inherent problem with majority of smartphones, and still complain that Apple should have not had this problem.

Oh well, I am not going to stress and enjoy my phone.
 
Like I've been saying in other threads, I can NO longer get my phone to display "no signal" after the 4.0.1 update........and even then.......I could ONLY duplicate the "no signal" with a certain death grip. (but like I said, I can't replicate it anymore, and no more call drops or data cut outs) I've been using my phone all day WITHOUT any case whatsoever, and I never lost 3G or went below 2 bars.

All in all, this press release was HUGELY impressive. I liked Apple as a company before, but this just shows that Apple truly does give a damn. If ANYONE is peeved or still upset about their iPhone......then do as the intro video to the press conference said.......return the damn phone or live with it.

So, I would like to say that I proudly own a iPhone 4, and I love it.
 
They showed that the issue is not just with iPhone but all smartphones with antenna , put out the 4.0.1 update shows bars that are not over stating the signal strength compared to before update, giving free case, and allowing returns without restocking fee. Seems reasonable.

Explain why a case alleviates the problem. Explain why a case works with phones where the antenna is not exposed.

...or accept that other phones do not have this issue. All phones will lose signal if you block it but on most phones, you can't touch the antenna. Apple's explanation doesn't seem to hold water.
 
since when has 100% been considered a "very small proportion"?

Every single person can duplicate this, it is a design flaw.

It is a design trade-off, not a flaw. If 94%+ of customers don't return it, the trade-offs were in the correct directions. It's a flaw if it's a safety hazard (catches fire, toxic paint, etc.), or if more customers return it than is standard for the industry.

The vast majority customers prefer the thin and shiny i4 to the fatter 3G/3GS which are better at hiding the antennas, but have smaller batteries.
 
Listen, Microsoft spent 1.5 BILLION on their defective consoles... but uuh poor Steve has to give away 30c bumper cases for free, for a month.....

How many millions did you spend on your Vista bashing ad campaign again?

MS had consoles dying in mass quantities. That's quite different than the iPhone4 issue.

And regarding bashing Vista, business is business.
 
I think that the press conference was about as successful as it could be given that Apple can't (or won't) fix the phone.

I do hope that Anand or CR or another tech blogger tests the phones mentioned in Steve's presentation as also having signal attenuation to see whether they lose as much signal as the iPhone.

I tend to doubt that too many people who already have a IP4 will return it - although there are certainly many who were waiting to hear Apple's response before deciding.

The real question is whether people who haven't yet bought the iPhone - especially people in countries where it hasn't rolled out yet - will buy the phone or not. It's one thing to buy an iPhone having no idea that there might be an antenna issue; since you already own one, you are in a perfect position to decide whether it's worth taking back. It is quite another thing to have not yet purchased an iPhone, to have heard about the antenna issue, and to have to decide whether to risk the unknown. *Especially* if you are an average iPhone consumer and not a tech type. I'm not sure whether Steve has allayed the fears of these people. And these people will decide whether the iPhone sells 6 million or 12+ million in the next year.
 
Cynicism Rules

WOW...serio??? I feel the whole, "fixes the signal strength display" is a clever way Apple will add more bars to the display while not improving any signal strength whatsoever...just my opinion :)


Except that you have it backwards. The change LOWERs the number of bars for any given signal strength.
 
Explain why a case alleviates the problem. Explain why a case works with phones where the antenna is not exposed.

Thicker dielectric, resulting in smaller capacitive coupling to the body/hand. Thus lower losses, and possibly better SWR.

I have an antenna tuner for a shortwave antenna. It has capacitors to tune (and detune) the antenna, at least as seen by the transmitter output.
 
Well there should be more outrage at the other phones. If they lose signal when they do have a block between user hand and antenna then iPhone seems to be doing well with direct human contact.

I never claimed a case would solve the issue, but that the response by Apple is reasonable given than other phone manufacturers can not avoid the issues even with their hidden antennas.
 
I think cuzz the Google Nexus One support forum is exploding (almost like the Droid X is) with complaints, Android fanatics have decided to come to this forum.
 
This is really ironic. Most everyone said Apple would never hand out free bumpers (me being one of them) and now they're doing it.

Thanks Apple! :)
 
Your not going to get a $50 case for free. No doubt you'll get a $29.00 credit toward the cost of the case.

Agree w/ atomicbatteries. They have $10,000 diamond encrusted iPhone cases, I highly doubt Steve Jobs implied we are entitled to choose one of those.
 
it is amazing no thirdparty has come up a solution like some kind of invisible coating that could solve the issue. Sell an invisible coating for $29:)

I thought that this is what Apple would do for the fix. Seems simple enougn. However I am now hearing rumors that there IS a mechanical fix in the new White iPhones that will insulate the Antenna from the metal casing around the phone. Anyone else hear this yet?
 
Steve did it again. Made me thinking about buying an iPhone 4 again (iPhone 3G here).

However, facts (not Steve's) say that in an area that you have 2 bars you will get a dropped call if you hold it in a way that attenuates the signal since it

I wish you were correct. Unfortunately, with iOS 4.01, I have 4 bars. Today here in lower Manhattan, while reading MacWorld's live coverage holding the iPhone 4 in my left hand I noticed that I had no signal. When I switched hands the signal returned to 4 bars. Also, the iPhone 4 is the only one of my 4 iPhones that has dropped calls. Now I have to decide whether to downgrade to the 3GS or use a bumper.
 
satisfied

I think that Apple did everything just how they should have. They've handled this whole ordeal very well in my opinion. They obviously do care about their customers and want them to be happy. I still can not wait to get my white iPhone 4.

I agree that the questions asked during the Q&A were beyond poor. Seriously, if you grabbed 5 random macrumors members to ask the questions you'd have better info right now.

What a waste of a very important mans time. I hope that guy who asked about Job's health is fired.
 
I love Steve gets away in saying,yeah there's an issue but alot of crap phones has the same issue. I'm Steve so I don't care if stocks dropped a bit,I know it'll go up again. Here's a bumper,happy?

This phone sold 3million. And now since it has a problem,he compares it to phones that sold nowhere near the same.
 
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