AppleCare Training Document on iPhone 4 Signal Issues Revealed

[CharBroiled20s]

Two things,
1. Many phones due this very same thing when held by the user, I have a droid and when I heard about this signal loss I tried it on my phone and it does the exact same thing. So let's not single out apple on this one.

2. All you I phone 4 Owners talk a big game, If your all so bothered by it then get rid of it..........Oh wait, that's right, because it's the greatest phone EVER made, and with people waiting in line for days, and apple selling a half million of these a day they must be pretty good phones.

NOT TO RAIN ON YOUR CONDESCENSION PARADE BUT BLOW ME. I'VE GONE BACK TO MY TRUSTY 3GS FOR THE TIME BEING...

and no.. (yes) it has nothing to do with the reception or that my 3GS is jailbroken on iOS4..... ahem.... what?

JUST SHUDDUP

 

[jesusvel101]

Just got my iPhone 4 today and I can't simulate this signal issue whatsoever….Thank Goodness

 

[riverob]

Lol

It's not a big deal.

--Steve

Sent from my iPhone 4 with no reception issue

2funny!

 

[rhanley]

Cell phones? Natural? We evolved with cell phones in the African Savannah 100's of thousands of years ago?

The things have bloody been around for less than one generation.

And I've only been driving a vehicle for 15 years. If we suddenly switched from right side driving to left-side driving, it would be no big deal, right?

You said, 'bloody', so maybe you're a brit.. but you get my point.

If I hold my phone the exact same way for 3 years, and suddenly I have to change it, it's not as easy as it sounds. If I sit there and focus on how I'm holding my phone on a 2 minute call, sure... but what about when I'm on a call for 30 minutes, an hour?? Do you really think it's so easy to remember to hold the phone in a new way -- Should I really have to?

If Apple would have come clean about this issue and stated that I may need to hold the phone in a new, "cutting edge" way, then yeah, I could understand it -- but this is obviously a design flaw they are trying to hide or pretend doesn't exist.

I work in computer software and I wish any time a bug was found in my software, I could provide a workaround that inconveniences the customer, and results in the least amount of revenue lost for our company and the customer just deals with it. Furthermore, I had other customers that used my software coming to my defense... are you ********** serious? This is insane!

I feel like Apple employees are being paid to try and calm the storm on the boards-- some of you are completely out of line.

 

[lilo777]

It's not a big deal.

--Steve

Sent from my iPhone 4 with no reception issue

Hi Steve,

Prove it! We saw how well you were sending messages from your iPhone 4 at WWDC. Have you finally learned how to hold the phone?

 

[Macshroomer]

I am trying to keep a good juju thought process right now, but this is just getting insane. I am covering a conference for Homeland Security in an area of town that has poor AT&T service at best and everyone who has an iPhone wants to check out my snazzy new phone.....this includes the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mullen, not to mention many other luminaries. What they notice after the gorgeous screen is my lack of signal even when I am not holding the phone....and they have like, 3-5 bars.

This is SO not good, lol!

I hope for Apple's sake and the rest of us who took the plunge that this turns out ok....frankly I don't have a good feeling about it at this point.

 

[spiritlevel]

Cell phones? Natural? We evolved with cell phones in the African Savannah 100's of thousands of years ago?

The things have bloody been around for less than one generation.

Holding something up to your ear to talk with somebody far away was a completely weird experience that the Bell company had to teach the pubic. Similar to a magic show for some people. The huge telegraph companies thought this phone thing was a useless fad.

It's all unnatural and taught.

Yes but this isn't like the introduction of the telephone. This is the iPhone 4. why should I have to relearn to hold it compared to an iPhone 3? It's basically the same shape if a little thinner and flatter. I've held cell phones the same way for about a decade now. It's very hard to unlearn a decade of ingrained practice. It has become natural over that time.

And this whole "hold it differently" or "properly" as you humorously call it is just a fig leaf anyway. IT'S THE DESIGN that is the problem, not the users.

Products are designed for people, not the other way round.

 

[rhanley]

Aha. That's very telling, I think. I'd be willing to bet you were accidentally hanging up on them.

I'm seriously starting to think a good portion of these "dropped calls" are face hang-ups. Again -- not that there isn't a reception issue.

Definitely not the case for me - I always mute the phone by mistake when trying to hold with my shoulder, but this is not the case with my iphone4 issues, I'm definitely not disconnecting with my cheek as I get the message stating the call failed and the option to call back.

 

[Butts M Biggilo]

I think we have to pause, step back and ask ourselves a very serious question. Is Steve Jobs a raging dickface?

Once we answer this question it will lead us in the right direction.

 

[Foxypaco]

Hahahahahaha

 

[amphibiou5]

Products are designed for people, not the other way round.

Very eloquently stated!

 

[rhanley]

I think we have to pause, step back and ask ourselves a very serious question. Is Steve Jobs a raging dickface?

Once we answer this question it will lead us in the right direction.

hahaha, I think we can all learn something by searching deep within ourselves and answering this question as eloquently and honestly as we can

I answer yes, yes he is!

 

[Mike Reed]

Cell phones? Natural? We evolved with cell phones in the African Savannah 100's of thousands of years ago?

The things have bloody been around for less than one generation.

Holding something up to your ear to talk with somebody far away was a completely weird experience that the Bell company had to teach the pubic. Similar to a magic show for some people. The huge telegraph companies thought this phone thing was a useless fad.

It's all unnatural and taught.

Unlike the unchangeable laws of physics.

I hold my cell phone like I hold every square shaped object of roughly the same size. The fact that it's a cell phone and not a box of raisins is a fairly recent development, however humans holding an object that large and roughly that shape is not.

 

[firewood]

And I've only been driving a vehicle for 15 years. If we suddenly switched from right side driving to left-side driving, it would be no big deal, right?

You said, 'bloody', so maybe you're a brit.. but you get my point.

Not a Brit. But it didn't take me very long during business trips to London and Tokyo to learn to look the "other" way before crossing the street. And I'm alive to prove it. So are zillions of other travelers.

 

[Gooberton]

Just got my iPhone 4 today and I can't simulate this signal issue whatsoever….Thank Goodness

Thats cause there IS NO ISSUE, ive had my i4 for 5 days, the reception is not much but slightly better than my 3gs, wtf are these people talking about. it HAS to be certain batches of phone cause if not for dumbass people on you tube 99% of people wouldnt even know about this isolated antenna thing

 

[bretm]

Aha. That's very telling, I think. I'd be willing to bet you were accidentally hanging up on them.

I'm seriously starting to think a good portion of these "dropped calls" are face hang-ups. Again -- not that there isn't a reception issue.

You can't hang up the phone with your face. It's part of the design. Unless that's defective too.

 

[rhanley]

Not a Brit. But it didn't take me very long during business trips to London and Tokyo to learn to look the "other" way before crossing the street. And I'm alive to prove it. So are zillions of other travelers.

You obviously missed the point . Let me be more graphic. I'm sure if you went to prison for a few years, you could learn to 'take it with a smile'... that doesn't make it ok, does it?

 

[jbondkicks]

Definitely not the case for me - I always mute the phone by mistake when trying to hold with my shoulder, but this is not the case with my iphone4 issues, I'm definitely not disconnecting with my cheek as I get the message stating the call failed and the option to call back.

I'm sure the reception issues are very prevalent for a lot of people. I'm just think it needs to be sorted out how many dropped calls are dropped calls and how many are accidental hang ups.

I suspect that a fix for the proximity sensor would go a long way in reducing the number of people that think they are dropping calls.

 

[wovel]

But this is the problem, apple isn't letting us exchange our phones for another one if all we have is the reception issue, if apple would allow us to and get working phones, then you would see the amount of complaints drop significantly.

Who did you speak to at Apple that refused to exchange your phone?

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.

Have you asked for a credit? I bet you would be surprised. If someone refused who? Did you escalate?

Are you brain dead? He said he's never had a dropped call based on how he HELD the phone. That is in no way like saying he has never had a dropped call.. This is not an issue of dropped calls because of AT&T.. we're talking about a very obvious design flaw.

It is exactly that. How the heck does he know why any call was dropped..

Interesting, because here I sit, bridging the two antennas with my finger, my palm, even a coin as you suggested, yet I can't make it lose bars, drop a call or stop loading data.

Yet in another part of town I was able to do this by holding the phone in the grip of death.

There's more to this issue than a simple bridging of antennas.

Nah you were just doing it wrong. Don't you know that everyone not having the problem is doing something wrong and everyone who is having the problem is doing it correctly.

If there are two parties in the conversation how can only one of them claim to "own" it?


Post it on some overseas site and put the link here. Looking forward to that...

You will be dead of old age long before your curiosity is satisfied.

Between Jobs' email insisting that there's no problem and this memo, I think we're seeing what Apple does in response.

"memo" What memo? Link me a memo. We have some text type into a grey box on BGR that they claim they were told by someone at Apple. Even BGR does not claim to have seen a memo. Do we believe it is authentic because they put a nice blue line next to the grey box?

 

[jbondkicks]

You can't hang up the phone with your face. It's part of the design. Unless that's defective too.

Trust me, my proximity sensor is NOT working up to the standards of previous iPhones. I have seen this issue on other phones as well (and there are a few threads about it).

 

[Gooberton]

You can't hang up the phone with your face. It's part of the design. Unless that's defective too.

obviously not following , there IS an issue with the face sensor

 

[bdorpetzl]

I'm sure the reception issues are very prevalent for a lot of people. I'm just think it needs to be sorted out how many dropped calls are dropped calls and how many are accidental hang ups.

I suspect that a fix for the proximity sensor would go a long way in reducing the number of people that think they are dropping calls.

Happened to me 3 times today. The sensor might be a little too sensitive.

 

[bobbleheadbob]

Stop whining and hold the phone differently or buy a bumper. I've had mine since Thursday and haven't had any problems at all.

 

[rhanley]

I'm sure the reception issues are very prevalent for a lot of people. I'm just think it needs to be sorted out how many dropped calls are dropped calls and how many are accidental hang ups.

I suspect that a fix for the proximity sensor would go a long way in reducing the number of people that think they are dropping calls.

You could definitely be onto something there. I know that I don't have great reception at my house here, but my iphone 3G worked here... just a little choppy at times.

In this environment where there is already a weak signal, it is very obvious that the iphone 4 is far worse, especially when holding the phone as I always have, which unfortunately puts my ring finger in the 'sweet spot'.

When I go to my office (only 2.3 miles away), I can get my signal to drop from 5 down to 3, but calls are still good and I'm not concerned with that. As long as my calls work and my browsing speed is decent, I'm happy.

It's the choppy reception and dropped calls that peeves me.

I think the issue is probably not as big as it seems now, but I can assure you the ones that do experience it are not exaggerating, or at least I'm not.

 

[rhanley]

Stop whining and hold the phone differently or buy a bumper. I've had mine since Thursday and haven't had any problems at all.

Hey everyone, Bobblehead Bob hasn't had any issues, so we must all be imagining things.

Thanks for clearing that up Bob!