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Apple's Signal Strength Display Changes in iOS 4.0.1 and 4.1 Detailed
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Thanks!
Just for reference, the scale is in dBm which means decibels referenced to 1 mW (milliWatt = 1/1000 of a Watt).
So if you want actual linear numbers the 5th bar covers the range from 0.025 to 7.5 pico-Watts, and the fourth bar is ~0.002 to 0.025 pW....
The maximum received power on the scale is 10,000,000,000 times smaller than the power a typical 75 W incandescent light bulb uses.
B
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.
It can, if you jailbreak it...
They are. They used to write a letter to the editor, but now they just post comments in newspaper forums.
Heh... means different things to different people. Yeah, there will be people that translate the pic back to a numeric form, but there are other more pictoraly minded people who see "more" bars and simply see that as "better", not equating any numeric value to it.
I am like you. I translate the bars image to a percentage... but UI design isn't an exact science.
The original design to me looks like Apple tried to compensate for decibels being a logarithmic measure of signal strength and tried to "straighten it out".
Agreed, though having seen the bar-height change analysis done in another thread, I think the smallest bar should have been one pixel shorter to keep a cleaner line. (But that's really a niggling difference of opinion.)
I can't agree with that though. The 'stair-step' is designed to make it easier to tell at a glance how many bars you have. People with worse than normal vision will have trouble counting equal-height bars. The increasing-height layout allows faster, at-a-glance understanding of the graph.
Percentage of what? It's a logarithmic scale. Unless you live under a cell tower, your signal is usually less than 0.1% of full linear scale. It would always show 0 (zero) percent.
Just posted on "the other" Mac site...Good News.
"Apple likely does have a permanent hardware fix for iPhone 4 reception under its sleeve, new shipping notifications suggest. E-mails from Apple are said to be going out to some iPhone 4 buyers, informing them of an "unexpected delay" in delivery. RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky points out that estimates for online orders have stretched out from 7 to 10 days to three weeks, which may hint that a changeover is happening in production.
Both Abramsky and another analyst, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, argue that instead of handing out free bumper cases, Apple is choosing the permanent route to boost its reputation. "It is increasingly likely that the company will make an investment in the brand and calm the PR storm by offering current iPhone owners an in-store fix free of charge," says Munster. Whatever the decision, Apple is expected to announce it tomorrow.
Munster comments that in terms of financial impact, a hardware fix could disrupt sales for about a month, since Apple would have to modify the phones it already has in order to sell them. An earlier forecast of 9.5 million iPhones is likely to be off by 12 percent, the analyst says. The hit may still be preferable to a full recall, which could cost over $1 billion.
UBS analyst Maynard Um suggests that a recall is unlikely to happen at this point, as it would be more immediate, and involve Apple and the company's partners suddenly halting new orders. A question raised, however, is why Apple has organized a press conference instead of just sending out a press release. Um proposes that a release would not be enough to quell what has become a significant uproar.
Read more: http://www.macnn.com/articles/10/07/15/existing.owners.may.get.modifications/#ixzz0tms4wx8p "
"Apple likely does have a permanent hardware fix for iPhone 4 reception under its sleeve, new shipping notifications suggest. E-mails from Apple are said to be going out to some iPhone 4 buyers, informing them of an "unexpected delay" in delivery. RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky points out that estimates for online orders have stretched out from 7 to 10 days to three weeks, which may hint that a changeover is happening in production.
Both Abramsky and another analyst, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, argue that instead of handing out free bumper cases, Apple is choosing the permanent route to boost its reputation. "It is increasingly likely that the company will make an investment in the brand and calm the PR storm by offering current iPhone owners an in-store fix free of charge," says Munster. Whatever the decision, Apple is expected to announce it tomorrow.
Munster comments that in terms of financial impact, a hardware fix could disrupt sales for about a month, since Apple would have to modify the phones it already has in order to sell them. An earlier forecast of 9.5 million iPhones is likely to be off by 12 percent, the analyst says. The hit may still be preferable to a full recall, which could cost over $1 billion.
UBS analyst Maynard Um suggests that a recall is unlikely to happen at this point, as it would be more immediate, and involve Apple and the company's partners suddenly halting new orders. A question raised, however, is why Apple has organized a press conference instead of just sending out a press release. Um proposes that a release would not be enough to quell what has become a significant uproar.
Read more: http://www.macnn.com/articles/10/07/15/existing.owners.may.get.modifications/#ixzz0tms4wx8p "
Oh, how I wished the ability to change the 3G frequency to speak to T-Mobile USA towers could be done in software. That, plus turn on the FM radio! Weren't we supposed to have an app a year ago with the 3GS?
If so, why would they end their scale at -113 dBm when they could have gone down to -121 dBm?
No, it wasn't a conspiracy.
Data - With the single bar, I can load websites, check the App Store, etc. I wouldn't try streaming video or anything really intensive.
Voice - Hit and miss. First call failed, second went through fine.
The report claims that Apple's changes are doing away with a cover-up of AT&T's poor network coverage in many areas and will likely result in some confusion as customers see fewer number of bars than they are used to.
Yet Apple claims they were "shocked" to find the problem with the signal display in the first place?
Yet Apple claims they were "shocked" to find the problem with the signal display in the first place?
30% would definitely be an F, so no one would even *think* to make a call at that strength. Heck, even at 60% it's still just a D grade signal. Imagine if it was 10% or less though. At that point the phone would give up and issue an "Incomplete."
Verizon announcement
Never going to happen, but it would be awesome if they said "after the investigation of the problem regarding signal issues, Apple has found AT&T coverage to be unfit in handling the demands of the iphone. To help alleviate the problem, we will be releasing the iphone on Verizon in January."
Never going to happen, but it would be awesome if they said "after the investigation of the problem regarding signal issues, Apple has found AT&T coverage to be unfit in handling the demands of the iphone. To help alleviate the problem, we will be releasing the iphone on Verizon in January."
Morons
Every single person that complains about the iP4 that has a reception or screen problem with it is a MORON if they have not taken it back, refunded your money, or gotten a working phone.
My guess is that most of us are happy with our new iPhones. My family has four of them. They all work perfectly. BTW I am convinced that all the bad press is because Google is paying a few people to post bad pub about the phone and your all a bunch of sheep.
Every single person that complains about the iP4 that has a reception or screen problem with it is a MORON if they have not taken it back, refunded your money, or gotten a working phone.
My guess is that most of us are happy with our new iPhones. My family has four of them. They all work perfectly. BTW I am convinced that all the bad press is because Google is paying a few people to post bad pub about the phone and your all a bunch of sheep.
There are issues, to be sure, but they are definitely overblown.
Personally, I took back my first ip4 and got a replacement due to the yellow screen issue. No reception problems whatsoever.
By this, I am going to stick with a 3GS. Until Apple fixes the issue, I might not upgrade to the iPhone 4. I like waiting to see what bugs/defects new products have. iPhone 4 has a huge error that needs to be fixed.
New bars are fugly...
The more evenly spread range is good, but changing the bar height is just. useless
The more evenly spread range is good, but changing the bar height is just. useless