Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

AppleCare Training Document on iPhone 4 Signal Issues Revealed

What is "interesting" is I can't make my iPhone to do this since I got it.

At home, my phone is on Edge but at work it uses 3G. No matter how I hold it I can't make the signal drop.

Not claiming bragging rights but I find it "interesting" that mine doesn't exhibit the "death grip" issues - is this a location issue? Frequency (is it different between countries/telecom companies?)?

I'm in the UK on Vodafone and live in South Oxfordshire.

- D
 
I've actually defended Apple and Jobs several times in these forums regarding the antenna issue. But, the fact that the employees are TOLD to try and sell a $30 piece of rubber as a fix, and there is no fix in near sight, is rather disgusting. This extremely expensive phone should work out of the box, and for those who can't make calls without dropping signal, this is quite a fiasco. Apple really should do something to please its customers, wether it be a free bumper, a gift card, or something else. While I love my iPhone 4, this really isn't making Apple look good.
 
TimothyJarman said:
I really cant understand how a multi Billion dollar company will not offer its paying customers a free bumper to help fix the problem.

You can not in anyway tell someone how to hold their phone, its a disgrace.

It not like people are holding it upside down lol

I have big hand and they wrap around the phone no problem. So unless its sorted i will not buy the iphone...simple.

These things happen, but there is a fix, use a bumper case.

I can understand apple wanting to play it down....but its an issue that needs fixing, not ignoring with standard customer speech scripts that everything is ok, ITS NOT.
Click to expand...

Bad sign when the sense of entitlement that everyone seems to have in the US is now spreading to the EU! Give me a free bumper!

Oh, I'm rather large with really big hands and the phone works much better than my previous 3G ever did. I guess I'm doing something right :)
 
BobVB said:
Ah a straw man - this isn't about the bars, its about dropped calls. The declining bars is just a warning you are going to drop a call in a situation the 3GS never did.
Click to expand...

It may be about dropped calls to some, but I'm convinced that a lot of folks are simply heartbroken when they see the bars go away. Whether they truly have a problem or not is an aside to the fact the on-screen indicator says they have a problem.
 
If thats the case you can sue Samsung and Nokia, among others because they all have the same exact issues with reception. Samsung even put it in their manual for their new phone.
 
I suggest that we all piss them off by trying out every phone we intend to buy and insisting on a new one until we all get one that does not have this issue.

I for one will be looking and testing each model. I won't purchase one that I can replicate the signal issue with. If EVERYONE does this, Apple will end up with a lot of open phones that no one wants. After enough junk phones builds up they'll have to fix the issue.

Option 2 is to jump on board with the lawsuit.
Option 3 is to avidly boycott the phone until enough negative publicity stirs that Apple sees no one buying their phone.
 
If cellular data is on the right side of the phone why is someone holding on the phone left handed with their inside hand touching the left causing problems?

Run on sentence for the win!
 
WOW. Being in Canada and not seeing our release yet I am telling everyone I know to hold out on this phone. I was going to switch but this is unacceptable.

It's like buying a $30000 car that has the engine die when you drive under powerlines and the only fix is to buy a $1200 accessory which takes away from the lines of the car to make it work right.

Billions in the bank and they can't even do a little damage control

Wrong decision Mr. Jobs.
 
Memo says nothing about left or right hand, but wouldn't the lower left corner pose more of a problem when holding with the right hand?

Based on your OP, the 3GS discriminates against right-handed people?
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
Apple really doesn't have paying customers, at&t does.

I see nothing wrong with the memo as it comes to dealing with the hysteria until the software fix comes out.

I feel sorry for those of you who have truly defective units, but too many people are freaking out simply from seeing bars dropping when holding the unit when this phenomenon has existed since (and before) the original iPhone.
Click to expand...

It's either software problem (in which case all phones should be affected for they all use the same software) or it's "truly defective units". It can not be both and actually now that this document was leaked we know that it's neither - it's a design flaw.

KidStallyn said:
Lets see.....600,000 pre orders that took place with HUGENORMOUS issues on the ordering side of Apple and AT&T......Issue with the antennae surfaces 2 days before the actual "launch" due to phones being delivered 2 days ahead of schedule......

What does the general public do....they go out, line up outside apple stores around the world, and buy another 1.1 MILLION phones by Saturday night. And, another 3 days have passed since, and what do people go and do...they head STRAIGHT to their nearest AT&T store, line up on a Monday evening so that they can BUY THEIR iPhone 4 Tuesday morning at 7am......

This is a HUGE non-issue, that's effecting a very small % of the population. I for one do not have this issue. I'm left handed.....I hold the phone exaclty as they say not to.....And mine does not drop calls....

As for Apple.....Your wish of burning badly.......Epic Fail........
Click to expand...

Out of those 1.7 million people probably 5 thousand visit MacRumors. They ALL pre-ordered. The remaining 1.6xxx million did not have a chance. They are just learning about this feature right now. They will start calling Apple customer support and guess what they will be told? Poor guys :D
 
I feared this. Apple simply can't admit that their most prestigious (and profitable!) product has a big hardware design flaw. And a biggie it is, let there be no doubt about it. A high end smartphone that loses signal strength when held normally, that's not good. Not good at all. :(

This is the dark side of Steve Jobs' infamous Reality Distortion Field. The seeming inability to admit mistakes. "The product is perfect, you're just holding it wrong". :confused:

This denial will come back to haunt Apple.
 
h00ligan said:
I'm thinking of returning the phone if this is their policy. Voting with the wallet... NOT cool Apple.
Click to expand...

Good. There are people standing in line to get yours. People who understand that the overall increase in signal from the external antenna is well worth scootching your hand a few centimeters.
But that's too hard for the geek whiners.
 
grahamwright1 said:
Total over-reaction!
Click to expand...

Not at all, why waste my once every 18 month upgrade credit on a POS that will have a very rapidly released 'update' that isn't a POS as quickly as possible?

Again, its a glass, stainless steel phone - it needs no case from a materials aspect. If it needs a case to operate properly there would be one in the box.
I have a totally fine 3GS and an nice iPad - I can wait a few months for the return of the retina display in iPhone 4.1

And since Apples being obtuse about this, lots of returns will maybe help them make better decisions in the future. Waiting or downgrading to 3GS harms me not one whit.
 
ReflexReact said:
Try leaving your padded room and travelling to an area of poorer reception... you might just find your so called perfect phone isn't so perfect any more.

Fact of the matter is, no one has shown a video of two iphone4s, one next to each other. both on the same network. one exhibiting the issue, the other not. Thats cos they're all faulty, however the issue is more predominant in certain poorer signal areas.
Click to expand...

I haven't dropped a single call yet. I have conference rooms in my building that my 3G couldn't get a single bar of service, and my iPhone 4 shows full signal strength. I have about 10 co-workers who ALSO have the iPhone 4 and don't have a single issue with dropped bars. When I get home I can take a video of me doing the exact same test shown on the other videos around, and NOT losing a single bar of signal.

You probably had a defective phone, sorry....return it, and get another one. There may just be a bad lot out there.....maybe the conformal coating inside didn't cure right....or isn't thick enough....or perhaps there's a bad solder joint.....who knows. I can hold my phone in the death grip and it works. Sorry you can't accept that.
 
grahamwright1 said:
Total over-reaction!

I've had mine since the 23rd and have 0 dropped calls, and I really don't care what the signal strength is if it's not dropping calls and I can still access the services I use throughout the day. For the VAST majority of people who aren't having a problem, this is another forum fueled storm in a teacup.

If you are having a real (not perceived) problem with your 4, then buy a case, exchange it or return it......
Click to expand...

I took mine out of the box, activated it. put the phone on my bed, full bars and 3g connection, made a call, it rang through. Picked up phone, and made another test call, the call went to voicemail. I thought the claims were an exaggeration, they werent.

If that was a customer for my business, i just lost them.

The phone is not fit for purpose.
 
Truly lame. Just send out a bunch of free bumpers, Apple, and slow the PR bloodletting.

Not a big deal.

(No problems with my new iPhone though. Awesome device.)
 
captmatt said:
I don't think software can fix it--it is a physical problem. Bridging the antennas with a conductive surface (i.e. skin) will change the effective length of the antenna. The antenna lengths are exactly determined in order to resonant. When that length is changed, it loses resonance and is no longer as sensitive. It would also affect the transmission effectiveness of the phone.

Probably an invisible non-conductive coating would've solved the problem. But there's no way to fix it without physical modification.
Click to expand...

Thank God someone has the exact clue of what's going on.
 
1) Apple representatives will operate within the boundaries of what has been defined as acceptable to share. On a big issue like this, they won't be saying something to the contrary until they get word from above, and that word probably won't come until a patch is available or imminent.

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Even if Apple has a software patch in the works to address or decrease the antenna issue, there's an excellent chance that Steve Jobs' hint will be the only mention until its release.

2) Folks should stop obsessing about this. I've been able to duplicate the gradual drop in bars in every iPhone I've touched. I sincerely believe every one of them is affected*. On the flip-side, despite numerous business calls and lengthy conversations, in good and bad signal alike, I have dropped only one call—amazing compared to my 3GS—and before this issue became common knowledge reviews were raving about improved calls. Everyone I know who has one has also enjoyed better performance. If someone's really that unhappy they've always got Andriod to jump to. Vote with wallets, but check first to see if the Android phone in question is one of a handful with a similar antenna unhappy spot.

*However this video shows something pretty crazy, which I haven't seen in any other iPhone, at Apple or among those purchased by people I know. If someone's having an issue like that they should take it back to Apple for an exchange.
 
The thing is, Apple made such a big deal about how beautiful the design is, the clean beveled edges of steel, not cheap aluminum, nay, STEEL...the rich, Corinthian leather...oh wait, that was the Chysler Cordoba... But anyway, why bother with all that if you're basically telling people you have to cover it up to make it usable anyway? I normally put covers on my iPhones but this is the first one where I was thinking "You know, maybe I could leave this one bare, it looks really nice."
 
Even those who would settle for a Bumper to keep a broken phone are a bunch of gutless cowards.

What´s wrong with you people? :confused:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back