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AppleCare Training Document on iPhone 4 Signal Issues Revealed

silversx said:
just spoke with level 2 apple care and they gave me the exact bs...

the guy even went as far as saying that it was by design that the reception stops when the lower left corner is touched. I had to have him repeat that cuz i was like wtf are you joking?

i had the whole conversation recorded too and when i said hey can you say that again ... you just said it's by design that the phone completely stops transmitting data/voice when the black bar is touched..

he got all panicky and start saying hey you need to talk to our legal department.. let me transfer you.. you better not record this.. and that conversations between apple care and customers are property of apple..

lol omg.. let me know if anyone wants the phone recording.. terrible attitude by the way.. no apologies or acknowledgement of problem.. kept telling me that i need to hold it differently and not touch the black bar..

:rolleyes:
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Nice job committing a crime. It is illegal to record a phone call when talking to someone in California without their permission.

What is wrong with some of you chuckleheads?
 
marksman said:
That does not make any sense.

If you held it with the screen facing the other direction and the microphone away from your face it would not work properly either.

Lots, if not most things, have to be handled/used/held in a particular manner.

Nobody is asking you to do anything extra ordinary. Just hold the phone like a normal person.
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That's how normal people hold the phones. Apple fanboys on the other hand hold phones by the top (or whatever Steve told them to do)
 
marksman said:
That does not make any sense.

If you held it with the screen facing the other direction and the microphone away from your face it would not work properly either.

Lots, if not most things, have to be handled/used/held in a particular manner.

Nobody is asking you to do anything extra ordinary. Just hold the phone like a normal person.
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Exactly. When this story first hit the internet, I was concerned.

Then I picked up my current iPhone (3G) and realized that I don't hold the phone in any way that would bridge that gap. Even when I'm texting or surfing the internet I don't touch that area.

I don't really understand why people are palming their phones like Lebron going in for a dunk in the first place.

I can't wait to upgrade to the 4 because this 3G is painfully slow and it is annoying not being able to run Pandora in the background. Plus iOS 4 has absolutely ruined most of my app's functionality on the 3G.
 
Ugh really Apple?

This is a pretty bad move.

All phones have this issue? Wrong. All phones dont have their antenas exposed.
Only YOUR phone has this issue. They're trying to divert attention from the fact that your hand is touching the antena. Even on the 3GS the antena is covered by plastic. That's not the same issue.


Hold it differently? What? You want me to hold a super fragile phone in a way that compromises its safety in my hands? So in an effort to make your device usable you'll fix all the glass when i drop it right? No? well wtf?
 
bluush said:
Acceptable to you, maybe.
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And most normal people. People elevate standards for Apple to things that no company could achieve. The nexus one had signal issues as well. You know what they did after acknowledging it? Nothing. No class action lawsuit, no continual complaints from users. They live with it, and many are still happy with the phone. Imagine that!
 
did anyone affected try shutting down WIFI / Bluetooth ?

Did anyone with issues tried to shut down the wifi and/or bluetooth or even GPS. I'm curious if turning them off would prevent the shorting and signal issues of the GSM antenna.

I could live with bluetooth and wifi turned off mostly, also helps save batteries.
GPS would be a bummer but i could also turn on that one just for specific purposes.

if none of that works and no software / hardware fix is announced this year i'm afraid i will wait out for iphone 5 :(
 
cobby10 said:
I understand how this upsets people, but everyone needs to calm down.

1. The FCC requires the antenna to be located at the bottom of the devise (for ALL devices, not just the iPhone). This is done to reduce the amount of RF the will be transmitted through the person.

2. This is a problem for EVERY phone (again, not just the iPhone). I find it funny that only now this becomes an issue, when it was there all along. and its really NOT any more prevalent on the iPhone4, it just appears that way because of the hype of the new iDevise launch.

This CAN be reduced by a software. The antenna PA (I believe Skyworks) can be programmed not to jump off a cliff with a sudden decrease in signal. The iPhone has always been finicky with sudden signal changes. Its never been a problem with the silicon, but with software interpretation. AT&T doesn't help either, signal strength changes by the second. Direct contact with the antenna doesn't seem to be the issue. The problem is with RF signal detection, Not with with voltage fluctuations in antenna PA. Which would happen if the issue was with skin being conductive.

While im not letting Apple off the hook on this. Some of this can be fixed with a software patch and the other half will never be changed because of FCC regulations. But time will tell, I hope im right and this can be reduced. If not, ohhhh crap....
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Does FCC requires the antennas to be exposed so that user could short them? I do not think so. Apple wanted flashy gadget, they got it. Now they need to pay the price.
 
This issue is more complicated than most are willing to admit. I have my iPhone 4 with me right now. I can hold it in my left hand covering the lower left corner exactly the way some of the videos show and there is zero signal degradation shown in the graphic display. It shows full strength either way. I have tried this experiment in other areas and I have had my signal go down just as the videos show. I think the issue is that the graphic display showing the signal strength is not accurate. There are times when it shows 4 or 5 bars when actually it should show minimal strength. At these times holding the phone with the left hand covering the lower left corner degrades the signal enough to drop the signal altogether.

Clearly this issue affects some people more than others. Either in the way they naturally hold their phone, or the signal strength at their home or office is low to begin with. But that doesn't mean that people that don't care about this issue are being Apple apologists. It is a complicated issue that varies based on your location, signal strength, and the way you naturally use your phone.
 
salesguy said:
Why even brag about how beautiful the phone looks and all the glass used when Apple tells you just to put a case on it, it is beyond comical at this point.
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You don't need to put the beautiful device in a bumper or case, if you are not so old and inflexible that you can still learn to "hold different".
 
absynth said:
Did anyone with issues tried to shut down the wifi and/or bluetooth or even GPS. I'm curious if turning them off would prevent the shorting and signal issues of the GSM antenna.

I could live with bluetooth and wifi turned off mostly, also helps save batteries.
GPS would be a bummer but i could also turn on that one just for specific purposes.

if non of that works and no software / hardware fix is announced this year i fear i will wait out for iphone 5 :(
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Also, do people have this issue when the connect the antenas at the top of the phone? There's another seam there right?
 
If you say your phone has better reception and it's part of the design, but not state that the way you need to hold the phone to get a good signal, makes it Apple's fault in my book.

People make it sound simple to just return the phone. It's not. Who's going to credit me for all the apps I bought on the first day. I needed a GPS app, and bought Tomtom. Apple ain't going to credit me over $50+ And here I was wondering why every time I held the phone in landscape mode, I kept loosing GPS. It's not just voice. Even data speeds get affected.

I bet those that don't loose signal is probably because they are very close to a cell tower or repeater. The reason why I couldn't duplicate it in a different Apple store that had 5 bars, but could once I was about 5 stores away.
 
lilo777 said:
Does FCC requires the antennas to be exposed so that user could short them?
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I don't think the antenna is getting shorted out. If it was wouldn't shorting out always cause a signal loss? I find the signal loss to be inconsistent (or even non existent) depending on my location.
 
BobVB said:
Are you on drugs? Holding the phone is the center of gravity of the phone in the center of your grip. For those who aren't princesses or have tiny doll hands that means the 'kill zone' is firmly in the meat at the base of your thumb. It was a stupid design! Your knife analogy would be after years of making knives with handles the company suddenly puts a blade coming out the top of the handle. Both  and the knife company screwed up.
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This is evidence that some people having reception problems hold the phone in a very unusual and abnormal manner. Just read the description above it makes no sense. The only way to get your thumb in "the meat" is to be holding the phone all whack jobish.

Hold the phone like a normal person. If you want to see how a normal person holds a phone, well I don't know where to tell you to go, because it might be hard to find normal people.


chrmjenkins said:
Except in all the cases where it does, as evidenced by numerous reviews and anecdotes of people reporting improved reception and call quality. It's simple, don't touch that part of the phone. It's easy to avoid.
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This can't be stated enough.
 
chrmjenkins said:
And most normal people. People elevate standards for Apple to things that no company could achieve. The nexus one had signal issues as well. You know what they did after acknowledging it? Nothing. No class action lawsuit, no continual complaints from users. They live with it, and many are still happy with the phone. Imagine that!
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That's a lie. Google fixed the problem by software update.
 
yayitsezekiel said:
Does anyone think that the white iPhone might fix this issue???
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f the white iphone. i am waiting for it but once i know it's not fixed i won't even bother with the iphone4, this device is phone first and everything else second for me. i will hold my 3g until next year or droid x.

if the phone doesn't work (regardless of how i hold it), then it's damn worthless. i don't buy for form over function! screw the bumper - that :apple: cover is ass fugly. jobs u f'd up.
 
I can't believe people are even getting into arguments or not... whether you hold the phone in your left hand or your right hand, it's a stupid error on Apple's part... they can do better than this. And the fact that people who hold it in their right hand are using that to try and feel superior and degrade each other, well, that's pretty pathetic.
 
1. If you don't have the reception problem, good for you -- but don't try to belittle the people that do have this issue -- It's frustrating.

2. Perhaps all phones degrade in reception when held, but I've had more dropped calls and sloooooow web browsing on my iphone in 1 week than I ever had with my 2G or 3G iphones that I had for a total of 3 years. So, I don't care if every phone had degradation issues, this one causes my calls to drop, not just bars to drop.

3. I don't care if you think it's silly not to buy a case to 'protect your investment', but I've never used a case and I've never dropped or cracked my iphone. I will return my iphone before I put a case on it.

4. I think Apple knew about this defect before release, and for them to charge $29 for a case that has to be at least a 3000% profit is ridiculous. And for them to offer that as a solution.

I have always held my iphone the exact same way, and now I'm having issues. You really think it's fair for me to have to change the way I hold the phone to 'appease' apple? Sure, it seems easy enough, but I was on a 60 minute call the other day and constantly ran into a choppy connection and dropped calls because I would inevitably place my finger in the problem area -- It would be like someone telling you to change the way you walk -- As long as you're thinking about it sure, but once you start thinking about something else, you go back to what you're used to.

I don't want to think about my hand position the whole time I'm on a phone call.

And you can add me to the small percentage of people that will be returning the phone. I'm not all talk! ;) I think it's an amazing Ipod touch, but I didn't buy an ipod touch, I bought an iphone and I need to at least have reception that is equal to the 3G -- is that asking too much?
 
cobby10 said:
2. This is a problem for EVERY phone (again, not just the iPhone). I find it funny that only now this becomes an issue, when it was there all along. and its really NOT any more prevalent on the iPhone4, it just appears that way because of the hype of the new iDevise launch.
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Sorry cobby but that's cobblers. I've had at least 8 phones before this iPhone 4 and none of them have ever dropped calls because of how I held them. I've never even had to consider how I held a phone before, because it was never an issue. While other phones may have this problem to some degree, it's not to to a degree that is significant in every day use and results in dropped calls. The issue is FAR MORE prevalent on the IP4 than any other phone. The iPhone 4 is amazing at everything... apart from its basic function of being a phone.
 
I just made my 3GS drop signal based on the 'lower-right corner' issue. It definitely exists.

I think the phenomenon with the iPhone 4 is the fact that the antenna is on the outside and people think that it is more subjected to the 'death grip' when in reality it is on all phones.

If you have a 3GS, try covering the bottom right corner. I went from 5 bars to 2 bars (T-Mobile).

I'll make a video if anyone doesn't believe me or cannot replicate it.
 
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