AppleCare Training Document on iPhone 4 Signal Issues Revealed

[oliversl]

How about that software fix? Will it solve it?

Another thing, I don't think is big deal since you can hold the phone little different and it will solve the problem. I remember reading a nokia manual telling me how to grid the phone.

Android fans: enjoy winning the flame war!
Normal users: keep downloading apps and enjoying the phone.

 

[nospeed411]

Ok...my 2 cents....software issue my left a$$!!

Wife's phone is a week 23 phone No signal loss at all period end of story

My phone is a 22 week phone and I can hold it side by side with hers and mine has vanishing signal.


If it where software then both phones would act the same.

 

[trekkie604]

How do you fix a hardware issue with a software

while(True){signal.bars=5;}

 

[kevinroy]

I bet BIG MONEY you don't return and neither do 75% of the people that are complaining. Go buy a case and be quiet. The fact that everyone is willing to shell out around $100 a month for a phone, but not willing to protect their investment with a case is ridiculous. I UNDERSTAND YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE TO BUY A CASE, but why wouldn't you?

The iPhone 4 w/ a case is still way better looking than any other phone out there.

Go to Android all complainers! Open up the network for those of us that are enjoying our phones! Think this phone isn't great? Take a look at the reviews.

Yes this is right, I will use my perfectly functioning 3gs instead of the shiny new iphone 4 because last years technology works!, so yup its going back!

 

[sushi]

Got a source for this claim?

Agree. Would like to see backup for that claim as well.

 

[ghostface147]

And yet, your name is ghostface. Are you a superhero entrepreneur like batman? Or some d-bag living with his parents?

Looks like.... the jury is still out on this one, Frank.

No I live on my own. Don't be mad.

 

[appleseed76]

This is a hardware issue, not software. They should have just put the seam at the top of the unit.

Which would have been fine for phone calls, but if you turn the phone sideways to watch a streaming movie, or send an email...

 

[ventro]

I guess Apple is still in the Denial stage of grief here.

 

[daneoni]

Now THAT is customer service

I guess they've just made up my mind for me, i shall be returning my other iP4 also.

 

[puttputt]

IMO... this is a minor drawback. This device is so flipping awesome, I can deal with losing a few bars. I have not had a call drop. I plan to get a case or bumper some day... but it is fine "naked." And I "fixed" it myself with a small strip of adhesive laminate.

 

[lilo777]

I bet BIG MONEY you don't return and neither do 75% of the people that are complaining. Go buy a case and be quiet. The fact that everyone is willing to shell out around $100 a month for a phone, but not willing to protect their investment with a case is ridiculous. I UNDERSTAND YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE TO BUY A CASE, but why wouldn't you?

The iPhone 4 w/ a case is still way better looking than any other phone out there.

Go to Android all complainers! Open up the network for those of us that are enjoying our phones! Think this phone isn't great? Take a look at the reviews.

You are so wrong!

First, iPhone with a case looks just like all other phones - case and a screen. In the case, you will only be able to recognize the iPhone by its boring home screen.

McRumors is a site for discussing everything Apple (including the problems). You want a site for worshiping Apple. It's you who needs to create a new site.

 

[Garion]

Then Apple at least choice wisely.... frustrating the lefties, whom there are much less to complain. I'll bet everything I own, someone at some point during the iPhone 4's design... someone said the antenna better be on the left side, just for this reason... not to get the righties up in arms (or hands).

Please, can we all just quit with the lefty-nonsens? This is an issue for ALL iPhone 4 owners, not just lefthanded users! Holding the phone to your right ear instead of your left during a phonecall is no big deal. But how does a normal righthanded person hold the iPhone when surfing the web and tapping and swiping on the touchscreen? That's right, in his/her LEFT hand, so as to operate it with your right hand! So in fact this issue is worse for RIGHThanded people than "lefties".

 

[hackum]

Also, why people keep bringing lawsuits up? It's laughable.

Apple doesn't force you to use their phone. If you don't like it or it doesn't work - return it and they'll give your money back.

 

[lxngtnguy]

are you off the mark!

Really? I have owned 4 phones so far, and people in my family have owned way more than that, so I have been able to test out a dozen of phones throughout the years in detail, these were Nokias, Motorolas, Samsungs and other big brands of phones. NONE of them had any kind of signal drop when holding or when not holding the device whatsoever.

The correct statement is more like this: most phones DON'T have signal issues and work the way you expect them to, at least when you consider the antenna part. Holding almost any mobile phone results in no change in call quality, signal strength, or even the signal strength indicator bars. There are some phones that do have issues, but they're a small minority. Most phones have their antennas at the top, at the back, where you're least likely to hold the phone.

So fooling around with your families phones for a little while is "testing in detail" no scientist would agree with that, you can not extrapolate conclusive evidence without having tested the devices in many many environments. I highly doubt you were able to take each phone across the country and test the signal and noise levels and how much each area changed in dB levels and record those. I can not believe that you are also able to validate that you are an expert on each devices way of reporting its signal to noise ratio through it's signal indicator bar and how that is coded per device. Finally obviously you cant know what you are talking about since the FCC mandates that all mobile phones and devices with integrated radio transmitter/receivers must have their antennas at the farthest point from the users head...meaning that since this was passed all phones have had their antennas at the bottom of the device not the top!

 

[firewood]

Sorry more likely a design error.

It's not a design error to put the antenna is the best possible location, and then teach people not to block the antenna.

You don't pick up a kitchen knife by the blade end often, do you? Or perhaps you think a good carving knife design should have the blade hidden between two handles or something so you can't cut yourself?

 

[freejack]

My buddy got his iPhone 4 yesterday and neither one of us could get the call to drop after trying the death grip for up to a minute at a time.

He was going to try again today from his office at work where the reception isn't quite as good, but we were both a little surprised that neither of us could replicate the problem after reading all the complaints here.

So the problem either:

A. Doesn't affect all phones (manufacturing variances, bad batches, etc)
B. Largely depends on the signal strength/frequency/channel, etc
C. Depends on differences in one's body chemistry (no clue if this could play a factor or not)
D. Some combination of the above

The answer is B and I am almost 100% certain. Among my friends we have a total of five iphone 4's. We tested together in certain areas where the signal strength is medium to weak and we were ALWAYS able to replicate the signal drop issue on EACH of our phones. Those of you who think you are getting away scott free are seriously deluded. One day you'll wander into an area where the signal is less than ideal and before you know it, you're call will have dropped. It's foolish to think this is an isolated issue.

Unless the five phones we were testing with just happened to be all defective, you better believe this affects pretty much every iphone 4 out there. Stop defending Apple. They screwed up and they need to admit it ASAP.

Btw, I still believe this problem is mainly due to a bug in the auto band switching code and hope that we see a firmware update soon. I say mainly because it's a fact that the signal will degrade a bit when the antennas are bridged but not to the degree where you lose your service entirely.

 

[pab277]

i'm left-handed and use my phone with my right hand. non-issue.

 

[lkrupp]

****ing FAIL

I know at least three dozen iPhone users personally through my employer and family. Not one of them, not a SINGLE one, uses their iPhone without a case. So while this may be an actual problem, and the professional jury is still out on this one, the impact would seem to be limited to an obsessed minority. I suspect that the vast, vast, vast majority of smartphone owners, of all makes and brands, use some sort of protective case.

Again, this is indeed an issue for a certain, probably small segment of users but it will NOT bring down Apple as the trolls predict and so fervently desire. There are already multiple videos popping up of other smartphones demonstrating reception issues by just holding them the hand.

Normal users will just shrug their shoulders and buy a case. Or they will never notice the issue because they use a case as a matter of course.

So we will see the panties-in-a-knot crowd stroking out for a while longer, the trolls trolling a little longer than that, some sort of fix, software or otherwise, and then nothing. Oh yes, and a class action lawsuit too which will disappear into the bowels of the judicial system and pop up a couple of years later with a settlement in which the lawyers get millions and the customers get a coupon for the rubber band. And that will be that as they say.

 

[Ubuntu]

I bet BIG MONEY you don't return and neither do 75% of the people that are complaining. Go buy a case and be quiet. The fact that everyone is willing to shell out around $100 a month for a phone, but not willing to protect their investment with a case is ridiculous. I UNDERSTAND YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE TO BUY A CASE, but why wouldn't you?

The iPhone 4 w/ a case is still way better looking than any other phone out there.

Go to Android all complainers! Open up the network for those of us that are enjoying our phones! Think this phone isn't great? Take a look at the reviews.

I'd happily bet against you. Some people simply won't want to get a case for their iPhone - to buy one just to fix this issue would make you a mug.

Also, what do reviews have to do with it? I'm sure every pretty much every iPhone 4 user will think its a fantastic phone, except for these particular issues that aren't occurring on all phones. Many reviews have even mentioned the issue themselves - have you actually read them?

 

[ChrisA]

If you are waiting for a software fix foran antenna, you will be waiting a long time.

I suspect it will be released right after the firmware update that makes the screen larger or or the update that removes scratches from the glass.

An antenna is a physical device and if you cover it, the cover blocks the signal.

 

[emaja]

I am right handed but use my left hand on the phone. So it's not just left handed people screwed over, a lot of right handed people talk on the left.

Me too. I figure that I want my right hand free since that is the hand I use the most.

 

[Antares]

I hope that the people who are complaining actually own the 4G. That they're not just simply reading other people's overreaction and responding....herd mentality. A lot of people seem to be overreacting. Sure, there's a problem with attenuation...but it's not as bad as some people are making it out to be.

 

[ramuman]

It's comforting to know that there are a lot of RF engineers on this forum.

 

[wovel]

Now THAT is customer service

I guess they've just made up my mind for me, i shall be returning my other iP4 also.

You are going to return your phone based on some text typed into a Web page at BGR? Because they claim they heard it from an "Apple Connect"? Probably the same "Apple Connect" that told them it would be fixed by software and released on Monday.. (Both recent BGR stories..)

Either you are going to return it because it does not work and they will not/ can not help you or you are not. Returning it because of a post on a tech blog would just be silly.

 

[Sean4123]

If this is true, and Apple is not going to fix the problem, then it is obvious Apple has jumped the shark.

We, blogs, and news media can all talk about this for a month, followed by lawsuits, and the end of the Apple halo will come.

If you think this is the "end of Apple" then you've got to be the most ignorant person i've ever met. You must have no idea how successful they have become over the last decade. With the inevitable rise in iPad, iPhone, iMac, and Macbook users, things are looking GREAT for Apple. It doesn't matter if this phone fails miserably, (which it won't, as people are still lining up for them.)