(now cue the people moving the goal posts and saying the fact that they can't return it doesn't matter...)
You're so predictable Firewood.
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Consumer Reports Still Not Recommending iPhone 4
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(now cue the people moving the goal posts and saying the fact that they can't return it doesn't matter...)
You're so predictable Firewood.
Yep, CR has created an uproar among iPhone and non-iPhone users against them. It starting to backfire on them like they never expected. From subscribers cancelations to those calling them out for no credibility what so ever. It's starting to get scary.
No one cares about that "finger" issue except bloggers (and people who post comments on blogs). No normal human sticks a finger at the side of their phone. No one cares if the bars drop while the phone is next to their head where they can't even see them.
People care about phone calls. That condenses all these irrelevant issues down to just one.
Dropped call rate. The i4 is reported to be slightly worse than the 3GS in dropped call rate (I think the real reason for that difference isn't just that cases weren't available, as Steve hypothesized, but because the i4 looks so d*mn good without a case compared to all previous cell phones). That slightly different dropped call rate what you (currently have to) pay to get a compact slimmer smartphone with good battery life (that looks so good).
If you want a fatter phone with a smaller battery, but perhaps a currently 1% better dropped calls statistic, get a 3GS.
You can return it. Pay the restock fee (which you agreed to with AT&T) and get a 3GS (or some other AT&T phone) to fill the contract that you also agreed to. Caveat Emptor.
Agreed.I also don't understand about all these stupid fusses about one finger on the antenna. If we hold the phone normally the same way every phone has the attenuation problem. And that is all we care about.
From ATT's website:
"If the equipment you purchased directly from AT&T does not meet your expectations, you may return or exchange it at any AT&T owned retail store within 30 days from the date the equipment was purchased or shipped."
"Call the number on your invoice/receipt to cancel your service. You may cancel service within 30 days from the activation date to avoid the applicable early termination fee (the "Early Termination Fee" or "ETF")."
For the device return, ATT starts counting from purchase date (if in person) or ship date (if ordered) and allows 30 days. For avoiding ETF, ATT counts from the day of service activation and allows 30 days. Lying isn't cool.
Which other phones loses 20dB when you hold it in your hand naturally? Jobs spoke about bars but not about the real issue. Hell even with their bumper "solution" you still lose 7dB when you hold it and data speed goes rapidly down.
Good post. I took the liberty of focusing just on Google's own Jesus phone the Nexus One. Most are completely unaware that it too had reception issues. That's because it didn't sell. After 2 months of sales, only an estimated 135,000 phones had been sold. There were 1,700,000 iPhone 4s sold after the weekend of the official release. Think about that. To add more perspective on this about 100,000 Motorola Droids were sold on its first weekend -- and the HTC Evo? 300,000 in the first weekend. Therefore, an issue affecting a small percentage of phones/users appears to be a much larger problem simply because of the numbers involved.
Now let's go back to the Nexus One. Designed by Google, built by HTC, and running Android it was supposed to be the pinnacle of smartphone technology. But it wasn't, see above videos and support thread. And you know what, they thought it was a non-issue too. They claimed it was a software problem and pushed out a firmware update a few week after the release date that did nothing to fix the problem. Four months later they admitted what people had speculated - it was a hardware problem and no software change would fix it. link to article So how did Google inform their loyal Android devotees of the Google-branded phone? A press conference? No. A press release? No. An e-mail from the CEO? No.
What they got was a posting from a Google employee named Ryan, who goes by Ry Guy who appears to be some kind of Nexus/Android support forum moderator profile, on page 68 of a thread where users complained about the reception issue that read:
"I’ve seen some recent speculation on this thread about an OTA to improve 3G connectivity and I want to give you an update on the situation. While we are continuing to monitor user feedback regarding the 3G performance on the Nexus One, we are no longer investigating further engineering improvements at this time. If you are still experiencing 3G issues, we recommend that you try changing your location or even the orientation of your phone, as this may help in areas with weaker coverage.” Basically saying that Google knows that there is a hardware design defect and they don't plan to do anything about it. AND If users are having problems they need to move out of weak signal areas and change the orientation of their phone. That sounds a lot like your network sucks and your holding it wrong to me.
Fast forward to today. The Nexus One is being discontinued after 7 months, yet it's the only Android phone that currently officially supports the hyped Froyo update. So what Google is telling their loyal customers is that the only way to have the latest and "best" OS for their smartphone is to use their own branded, defective, and discontinued phone. How's that for customer service? Where are the angry mobs with pitchforks and torches calling for Eric Schmidt's head? Where is the endless drumbeat of blogger and media sites hyping this issue?
Looks to me like Apple is right on this one while CR and other media sites are looking really foolish right now for blowing things out of proportion.
The bottom line is that people care about Apple, both its supporters and detractors. Steve Jobs is a polarizing figure. But apparently no one gives a **** about Google (except technophiles) and people wouldn't know who Eric Schmidt is if he came up and punched you in the face.
One more thing. I don't care what kind of phone you have or your opinion of me because I'm happy with my iPhone 4. If you have any one of the many Android phones - good for you. I hope you enjoy it, I considered switching to an Android phone but after evaluating each one in terms of my situation - the iPhone was the best fit for me. If you have a RIM, Nokia, Palm, or any dumbphone - same to you, except I never considered switching to those.
And last, if you have an iPhone 4 and aren't happy with the reception - try a case or a skin like Stealth Armor. If that doesn't work or you don't like it, return it and get the phone that will make you happy. If you're concerned about your apps like that moron FoW - they still sell the 3GS.
AT&T is telling customers that the activation date is the date the order was taken -- which has got to be wrong. But that is what they are in fact telling customers.
On a side note, I've had my iPhone 4 since 6/23, and absolutely love it. I bought my wife one yesterday.
CR is protecting themselves
Americans and some other consumer breeding nations that depend for their living on what consumers think and want, have Consumer Reports agencies that do not serve public, but themselves.
In reality they recommend a very few products in the market. If American CR doesn't recommend any smart phone, does it mean all smart phones are bad?No. It simply means CR is defending their liar and arses in a case someone decides to sue them for recommending or endorsing a device that may have some problem.
Because all smart phones do have a reception problem as clearly demonstrated by Apple -- and what normal people outside US know for ages -- of course CR cannot recommend any. All smart phones are prone to issues that affect their basic functionality.
Is CR protecting consumers? Nope. Just themselves. They're just being political and clever inside the insane consumer society.
Americans and some other consumer breeding nations that depend for their living on what consumers think and want, have Consumer Reports agencies that do not serve public, but themselves.
In reality they recommend a very few products in the market. If American CR doesn't recommend any smart phone, does it mean all smart phones are bad?No. It simply means CR is defending their liar and arses in a case someone decides to sue them for recommending or endorsing a device that may have some problem.
Because all smart phones do have a reception problem as clearly demonstrated by Apple -- and what normal people outside US know for ages -- of course CR cannot recommend any. All smart phones are prone to issues that affect their basic functionality.
Is CR protecting consumers? Nope. Just themselves. They're just being political and clever inside the insane consumer society.
You do realize that the "using your finger to make the bars disappear" trick doesn't necessarily mean you lose all reception, right? And that the real world impact of such action is dependent on more than just you touching the antenna?
Things like signal strength and network congestion are two such factors that would also impact reception and data rates.
YMMV, but I can sit at my desk at work - where the signal isn't the greatest - touch the band with my finger and watch the bars disappear. But I can still make and receive phone calls and download data. Granted the data rate crawls and it kills my battery as it struggles to compensate, but only once did it fail to connect to the server.
It's my experience and may not mean anything to anyone else, but don't try to say that the finger touch is a problem for every user in daily use.
Spread that "Don't Buy" recommendation all over the place. Hopefully it keeps away enough people so I can get my limited quantity defective white iPhone without any hassle on July 30.
I've used over 100 phones, including the previous 3 iPhones and I have never had an issue like the iPhone 4. My sister has a blackberry bold 9700 and it doesn't drop signal if you hold it normally. The only time it drops signal is if you grip it in both hands covering the whole phone, and who does that? Apple should have had those phones laid out on a table on the stage so Steve could demonstrate the signal drop live on each handset. Videos can be tampered with so the videos shown are unreliable.
Even if the Blackberry, HTC etc really did drop signal too its a case of 'if your friend jumped off a bridge would you do it too?' He said Apple was an engineering company and innovative. Just because other handsets drop signal it doesnt make it acceptable that iPhone 4 drops signal too. Use some of those engineers and make it better than the other manufacturers.
When talking on the phone my last 2 fingers are always at the base of the phone so my finger lines up exactly with the dead spot. It's a natural way to hold the phone. Any other way of holding it feels unnatural and feels like the phone will drop.
Also iPhone 4 does not only drop signal in weak areas it drops it at any signal strength. I've had numerous people complaining they can't hear me and blocky voice when in calls. I've never had this problem with any other phone.
As for the retards who accept this free case as a fix get your head out of steves ass.
That whole press conference was a joke. He spent the majority of the time making excuses. What he should of said was they are making hardware mods, until they arrive have a free case and then you can exchange the phone for the fixed model later.
I just bought myself a new htc desire until apple have a real fix.
Even if the Blackberry, HTC etc really did drop signal too its a case of 'if your friend jumped off a bridge would you do it too?' He said Apple was an engineering company and innovative. Just because other handsets drop signal it doesnt make it acceptable that iPhone 4 drops signal too. Use some of those engineers and make it better than the other manufacturers.
When talking on the phone my last 2 fingers are always at the base of the phone so my finger lines up exactly with the dead spot. It's a natural way to hold the phone. Any other way of holding it feels unnatural and feels like the phone will drop.
Also iPhone 4 does not only drop signal in weak areas it drops it at any signal strength. I've had numerous people complaining they can't hear me and blocky voice when in calls. I've never had this problem with any other phone.
As for the retards who accept this free case as a fix get your head out of steves ass.
That whole press conference was a joke. He spent the majority of the time making excuses. What he should of said was they are making hardware mods, until they arrive have a free case and then you can exchange the phone for the fixed model later.
I just bought myself a new htc desire until apple have a real fix.
Hmm Mentioning small claims court is probably an easy resolution here.
My boyfriend and I got iPhone 4s on launch (and also my brother), and none of us have had any problems with them. I also got another one for work about a week ago. I don't have any sort of case on either of mine, and I haven't had even a single dropped call yet.
The only thing I'm worried about is being able to get a couple of actual bumpers (free or otherwise and preferably not in black) before I go on holiday soon. I've gotten paranoid about dropping it and the glass shattering they're pretty slippery compared to the previous generations. I have a feeling the bumpers are going to be next to impossible to get now.
Not happy with the case/bumper.
I can't use the craddle or my bose speakers unless I remove the case or bumper crap each time. If you ever saw those bumbers, they are cheap piece of thick rubber.
Cry me a river.
You would never get around binding arbitration I'm afraid. The way to fix this is to bring media attention -- sunlight is the best disinfectant.
Their return policy doesn't mention binding arbitration. If it's there, I guess it's in the terms of service. Fortunately, (as with plenty of stipulations in modern ToS "agreements") it looks like in many cases for a while now, judges aren't buying it. http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/102639
What are you Doing in America, get yourself to live to Cuba or Venezuela. They Might admit you.
I truly hope someone takes AT&T to task over this. Even though I'm not interested in returning my iPhone, and I think Apple has been stand up here, AT&T is still proving to be a weed in the garden and deserves to be called out!
Never thought of it that way
This is an excellent point. Many items that we use every day work flawlessly so long as we don't put our hands/fingers in a place that interferes with their operation.
This is an excellent point. Many items that we use every day work flawlessly so long as we don't put our hands/fingers in a place that interferes with their operation.
Absolutely. We intended to pre-order (as usual), but we failed because of ATT's eligibility server underprovisioning. On launch, we opted for the Apple store over ATT. They definitely leave something to be desired; whereas, the purchase process in the Apple store couldn't have been more pleasant.