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Get an Inside Look at Apple's Early Field Failure Analysis Program Ahead of the iPhone 6 Launch
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There was no such flaw, and cases were never required. That antenna design is STILL sold today (the 8GB, over 4 years later) and works fine. The phone got better reception than its predecessor, which had already been praised for its reception, and better than many competing phones (some of which also had externally exposed antennas--not an Apple first). Yes, as with any phone, the way you hold it can affect you when you're in a weak signal location.
There was a PR "flaw," of course! Lots of people without iPhones moaning on behalf of the supposed masses of iPhone users with problems. VERY few actual owners posting complaints for themselves. Which is astonishing, considering the media hullaballoo made people LOOK for a problem they could have seen on any phone in history.
Antenna gate was mostly myth. It died accordingly, and Apple giving out the cases (which would help ANY phone ever made, and which most people already use anyway) was simply part of their PR response.
I was glad to get my free caseAnd I used it only when hiking, because it simply was not needed for reception.
Excellent reply! It always amazes me as to the high percentage of people that always believe the press and never learn the truth.
When that event occurred, I tested every phone I could get my hands on, including my old Motorola Flip-Phone. Every one of them, without exception, had the same problem. All phone makers now jimmy the signal bars to hide the problem that still always happens today, on every hand-held phone. You can't disobey the basic laws of Physics. Just as when you jump in the lake you're going to get wet, when you wrap your hand around an antenna, you're going to impact the signal... always!
Having a background in Quality Assurance, I must say that this is very impressive. If "we" worked liked this....let's just say taxpayers would get more bang for their buck
Sounds like if you are a little patient and get a month 2 unit you will get a hardware revised unit to solve minor but real problems.
Given I wanted to get mine in the store I ended up with a November phone anyway as they went out of stock almost immediately.
I wonder what action is taken against the individuals on the production line. You can't expect 100% perfection with a mass produced product, can you?
Again, the problem was not about wrapping your hand around a phone. Not even close.
In the iPhone 4's situation, it could drop a call by accidentally bridging one tiny -> | <- easy to touch spot with a part of a finger.
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As for signal level bars, Apple's original version was very different (much more optimistic) than any other phone I've tested. (When the Apple event occurred, I had just finished doing research on device signal bar strengths for our own phone based field app projects.)
E.g. at times, Apple was showing five bars where other major phone makers... like Blackberry... would show three.
Maybe an antenna engineer decided he'd better use a more optimistic signal strength chart. Maybe some boss told them to make it look stronger. Or perhaps it was just an innocent goof by a programmer who made up his own values. Who knows. I prefer to think that most coders make mistakes unintentionally.
Maybe. I'm still using my iPhone 4, and for the last several months without a case. Deliberately bridging the antenna separator can, sometimes, lower the signal level by one bar. Other times, not. I realize this is not a scientific test, but it has led me to believe that the flaw is real, but not as obvious or godawful as it was represented to be. More on-topic, this is the kind of issue that would presumably be picked up in a field analysis program and fixed quite quickly in production, especially if the solution was as trivial as some of the geek media insisted. The argument that these things happen because "Apple doesn't care" is highly suspect, if only because it is ridiculous at face value.
Not an flaw but an inherent quality of antennas present in tons of phones and wasn't in issue for everyone (which a true flaw would be). Even Consumer Reports qualified their comments saying it was only a concern for those in areas with crappy cell phone service. If you weren't in one of those areas the drop had no actual result other than the visual of a bar disappearing.
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The real issue is that there are several things that can cause that button to not work. Such as dirt getting into it, dropping the phone so it lands on the top and damages the button. Even cases that are particularly stiff can cause issues cause you have to apply more force than was anticipated during testing.
Ultimately there may be no 'flaw' in the button but Apple decided to do a replacement program simply cause they were tired of folks calling and griping or they wanted the good press of doing it even though many of the phones were fine for as long as a year. They picked those dates because that was where the highest number of incidents happened in and out of warranty. Regardless of the actual cause of the issue.
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more like the 4 or 5 batch considering how quickly they push out tons of phones those first few weeks. EFFA isn't going to come up with an issue, the cause and the solution in a few days. more like a couple of months
I agree.
Perhaps Anandtech threw that in because it made the other choice... lack of testing... more palatable to the fanboys.
Like I've always said, the antenna problem was hidden by all the secrecy. Not just the camouflage cases, but the fact that even insiders were (and likely still are) discouraged from discussing new products with each other.
Such forced silence is, in my experience, a giant mistake. I can't count the number of times that we have pinged onto a potential problem because two or more testers were talking about one-off or rare occurences, and said, "Hey that happened to me, too!" That's when you find the situations that would otherwise come back to bite you later on
Fair point. I feel the article should concentrate on the expediency of diagnostics and swiftness of a permanent fix and application to the line.
I agree.
Perhaps Anandtech threw that in because it made the other choice... lack of testing... more palatable to the fanboys.
Like I've always said, the antenna problem was hidden by all the secrecy. Not just the camouflage cases, but the fact that even insiders were (and likely still are) discouraged from discussing new products with each other.
Such forced silence is, in my experience, a giant mistake. I can't count the number of times that we have pinged onto a potential problem because two or more testers were talking about one-off or rare occurences, and said, "Hey that happened to me, too!" That's when you find the situations that would otherwise come back to bite you later on
Perhaps. It's a tradeoff for certain. Like they say in show business, never step on your own applause lines.
In the past I've offered up the opinion that Apple might be better off pre-announcing a new product long before shipping in some cases. One of the reasons: knowing that Apple is entering a product segment can log-roll the competition. Microsoft is the past-master of this technique. (The difference being, in their case the products are sometimes fictional.) It hasn't been a popular suggestion.
An "antennagate" sort of issue is less likely the way Apple is going about this launch. Once the product is no longer secret, it can be tested more openly, and presumably at least some issues resolved before shipping.
EFFA requests are referred to as "captures"...Engineering requests captures of Tier 2 agents for particular issues, but always any hardware failure on a product within 30 days of launch.
For example, the iphone 6 may have captures requested on any hardware failure, but there may also be capture requests for macbook airs, imacs, etc. for specific issues: e.g. capture any imac where the customer complains about screen color.
Even slight spec bumps may trigger a new round of captures.
For example, the iphone 6 may have captures requested on any hardware failure, but there may also be capture requests for macbook airs, imacs, etc. for specific issues: e.g. capture any imac where the customer complains about screen color.
Even slight spec bumps may trigger a new round of captures.
I always wait a few months before buying new tech. I refuse to spend 100s or 1000s just to be a beta tester.