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Apple's Signal Strength Display Changes in iOS 4.0.1 and 4.1 Detailed
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If Apple truly did use different formula's to cover up AT&T's bad coverage, there's certainly a legal issue in the works.
A masterful job of diverting people from the real issues of...
1) Does the iphone 4 antenna design cause a signal to drop more signficantly than other phones?
2) How does overall iP4 reception compared to other AT&T phones?
Boiling it down to a simple bar representation will make it much easier for phase 2 (kicking off with the presser tomorrow) blaming AT&T for all of the problems.
It'll be just like when you pretend to throw a ball to a dog. The customers (dog) will run as fast as they can chasing something that doesn't exist.
Nice move Apple!
1) Does the iphone 4 antenna design cause a signal to drop more signficantly than other phones?
2) How does overall iP4 reception compared to other AT&T phones?
Boiling it down to a simple bar representation will make it much easier for phase 2 (kicking off with the presser tomorrow) blaming AT&T for all of the problems.
It'll be just like when you pretend to throw a ball to a dog. The customers (dog) will run as fast as they can chasing something that doesn't exist.
Nice move Apple!
I love how people are complaining about a better representation of the signal strength.
Nothing can please some people.
The update not only increases the lower range that the phone will work... but now the bars actually are distributed more evenly.
Nothing can please some people.
The update not only increases the lower range that the phone will work... but now the bars actually are distributed more evenly.
I recall hearing that some farmers were complaining that the extra hour from Daylight Savings Time would burn their crops. Maybe that was just a rumour.
s.
Thats what I'm understanding too. Looks likey might of gotten rid of the no signal by lowering the dB so low where theres no way it can get that low. Thats lameo dude
Good God, those original calculations look completely terrible. I have to say it, I'm ......I'm........stunned. 
But seriously, how could they have put that calculation in there by mistake? Look at that third bar. It's comical. It's like "let's make it so it will almost always show 4 bars instead of 3, and often even 5".
Geez, Apple. This is getting bad.
But seriously, how could they have put that calculation in there by mistake? Look at that third bar. It's comical. It's like "let's make it so it will almost always show 4 bars instead of 3, and often even 5".
Geez, Apple. This is getting bad.
As a developer I love that idea. Just don't know if the general public would like it since it may be more precision than they need to know. Like if it shows 30% would they think it won't work when it will work just fine.
this isn't meant to "fix" the phone in anyway as far as dropping signal from the antenna issue. The old DB rating was indeed pretty odd if you look at the range of the bars. The fix has to be done hardware wise because thats where the issue lies. If you watch the podcast "twitch" they had a guy on there last episode or the episode before that clearly explaining what is happening. The DB rating is part of the issue just in the fact that your not getting that great of a signal to begin with, but no the main issue is the fact that its a hardware issue.
Hopefully they do fix that tomorrow, but we'll see. I have my 3GS and I know most people hate AT&T, but I love them. I live in southern Oregon in a small town and they are one of the best providers here. I never drop calls, always have 3g everywhere I go. Just don't live in a big town, duh!
Hopefully they do fix that tomorrow, but we'll see. I have my 3GS and I know most people hate AT&T, but I love them. I live in southern Oregon in a small town and they are one of the best providers here. I never drop calls, always have 3g everywhere I go. Just don't live in a big town, duh!
Seriously, maybe all this wouldn't be an issue if AT&T wasn't so concerned about their bottom line and their shareholders, and actually fixed the goddamn network.
What, it's been like two weeks and their whole 3G upload speeds are disgraceful for any wireless carrier, and I have more holes in my coverage map than swiss cheese.
Notice how NO ONE is mentioning any other international carriers that the iPhone 4 was released for, nor their users who might be complaining about similar issues. All I hear is that it's pretty localized to the US and AT&T.
What, it's been like two weeks and their whole 3G upload speeds are disgraceful for any wireless carrier, and I have more holes in my coverage map than swiss cheese.
Notice how NO ONE is mentioning any other international carriers that the iPhone 4 was released for, nor their users who might be complaining about similar issues. All I hear is that it's pretty localized to the US and AT&T.
Forgive my ignorance
But can't we just have a number rather than trying to represent things in bars?
If 100 was the strongest signal the phone could ever receive and zero was when the call was dropped due to not enough signal to maintain the connection.
So in comes the conundrum of what apple's UI designers were facing. As humans, we think in very linear terms. 50 is half of 100, etc.
However, decibels is a logarithmic unit and therefore the signal strength is on a logarithmic scale. -20db is not twice as good of signal strength as -40db. That is one of the reasons why phone UI designers use bars and don't translate the strength into any kind of number.
This post is exactly what this update was supposed to do.
"This antenna sucks!!... ARGH, Apple!
""Wait... why do I have so few bars now?... ARGH, AT&T!
"
But.... can u make voicecalls/datacalls now where before u couldn't?At my desk at work, with 4.0, I did not get service. Ever. ( "Searching..." )
Now, with 4.0.1, I have 1 (giant
I must be getting between -113 and -121.
Cool article. Very informative, unlike 99% of threads/comments on this site.
I really hope Apple is able to explain everything tomorrow. Unfortunately we are dealing with incredibly technical details, db readings, logarithm , attenuation, and no matter the truth, public perception of these complicated definitions will be everything.
I feel like we hear so much about the issues in the U.S. but not around the world. Is it AT&T? The design? The location? There are just too many factors, but at the end of the day, the answer will be how does the phone perform in customers hands. That's all.
I feel like we hear so much about the issues in the U.S. but not around the world. Is it AT&T? The design? The location? There are just too many factors, but at the end of the day, the answer will be how does the phone perform in customers hands. That's all.
I'm not following. 2 of 5 bars equals 40% to me, 0 of 5 equals 0%, and so on. What am I missing?
This is why I love MacRumors: An entire, detailed article about literally a couple of pixels, and how many dB are mapped to how many pixels on the new version of the iPhone 4's firmware compared to the old one. Any "normal" person would totally not care, and my girlfriend would think I'm weird if I told her I'm reading about this on a daily basis. However, this is exactly the kind of detailed stuff that interests me. And I'm not being sarcastic!
