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How to tell when the new "silent" revision of the iPhone 4 comes out

motulist

motulist

macrumors 601
Original poster
Dec 2, 2003
4,236
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It's well known that when apple puts out a new product, that along the way they make small changes to the design of the product they're shipping, but don't announce it as a new version. With a product design that's almost totally brand new, it seems very likely that the iphone 4 hardware will get some silent updates. Any guess as to how long it'll be till the first new iphone 4 revision is shipping?
 
dejo said:
Have there been silent revisions to previous models?
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Nope. Other than a capacity bump with the first gen, there haven't been any "silent" hardware updates to any of the other iPhone models.

No reason to believe iPhone 4 will be any different.
 
dejo said:
Have there been silent revisions to previous models?
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I'm not sure, but I remember lots of times when people in the past were talking about things like "week 52 model" having fixed the problem in earlier versions of the same product. I forget if that type of talk was ever about the iphone or not though.
 
Sky Blue said:
June/July 2011
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+1.... (for a design revision)

Design revisions do not occur often but manufacturing revisions occur all the time.

motulist said:
I'm not sure, but I remember lots of times when people in the past were talking about things like "week 52 model" having fixed the problem in earlier versions of the same product. I forget if that type of talk was ever about the iphone or not though.
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That is a manufacturing revision (the design doesn't change).

motulist said:
I'm confused. Are you saying you don't think there'll be any silent revisions made to the iphone 4?
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Nope, the next design revision will be iPhone 5.
 
I'm pretty sure he is asking about a manufacturing revision to fix some of its problems.

I would sure as hell hope so and would expect it. Though there would probably be no way of us really being able to tell besides a serial number change (which would only really signify the week of manufacturing most likely).

I wouldn't be surprised if they had a corrective action on the assembly line sometime in the next few weeks if it hasn't been implemented already.
 
Agree with June/July 2011. But, if you're asking if Apple will add a coating or something like that to the antenna, the phone will have to pass through FCC testing again, and places like engadget will be all over that like white on rice. There's no way to make significant changes to the phone without it being widely known.
 
motulist said:
I remember lots of times when people in the past were talking about things like "week 52 model" having fixed the problem in earlier versions of the same product.
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Plutonius said:
That is a manufacturing revision (the design doesn't change).
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Ah, but that's exactly what I was referring to. (I guess I was using the wrong terminology?) The reason why I want to know when the next silent "manufacturing revision" is coming out is because Apple is certainly gonna try to ameliorate the i4's hardware issues as much as they can as quickly as they can. I'm sure they'll be able to tweak the manufacturing process to at least improve the antenna situation, and I'm sure they're looking to do it as soon as possible.
 
motulist said:
A The reason why I want to know when the next silent "manufacturing revision" is coming out is because Apple is certainly gonna try to ameliorate the i4's hardware issues as much as they can as quickly as they can.
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Apple is working on a fix for the antenna issue by replacing their algorithm for reporting signal strength. It's not actually going to stop the dropped calls, it'll just report zero signal strength instead of showing bars when there shouldn't be any.

I'm sure they'll be able to tweak the manufacturing process to at least improve the antenna situation, and I'm sure they're looking to do it as soon as possible.
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As someone mentioned above, if they physically change the antenna they'll need to go through a new round of testing and approvals. Someone will pick up on it, and it won't be a silent revision.
 
mikethebigo said:
if you're asking if Apple will add a coating or something like that to the antenna, the phone will have to pass through FCC testing again, and places like engadget will be all over that like white on rice. There's no way to make significant changes to the phone without it being widely known.
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miles01110 said:
if they physically change the antenna they'll need to go through a new round of testing and approvals. Someone will pick up on it, and it won't be a silent revision.
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I would guess that the FCC has provisions which allow for very minor hardware alterations to proceed without additional approval. For instance, if they keep the design of the antenna, transmitter, and all other communications hardware exactly as-is, but they apply a very thin transparent plastic coating to the sides of the phone, I can't imagine that that would require any additional FCC approval.
 
motulist said:
I would guess that the FCC has provisions which allow for very minor hardware alterations to proceed without additional approval. For instance, if they keep the design of the antenna, transmitter, and all other communications hardware exactly as-is, but they apply a very thin transparent plastic coating to the sides of the phone, I can't imagine that that would require any additional FCC approval.
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I'm pretty sure any change to any of the radios needs new approval due to the issues that could arise with it.
 
There was a "silent revision" to the iPhone 3GS around December of last year. They updated the bootrom so that it was much harder to jailbreak. That's what lead to the so-called "MC version" 3GSs because the new versions were identical except for the serial number beginning with "MC" (though that's not actually a good way to distinguish them). The point is that Apple has done this before, and will most likely do it again.

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple did in fact do a silent (unannounced) change to the underlying iPhone 4 hardware in some way, but that probably won't be for a few months. I wouldn't wait on it.
 
fishmoose said:
I'm pretty sure any change to any of the radios needs new approval due to the issues that could arise with it.
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mikethebigo said:
+1. Change the antenna, need new approval.
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Again though, a manufacturing revision might be able greatly improve the reception issue without changing the antenna hardware one iota. For instance, a very thin clear plastic coating around the outside edges of the phone.
 
motulist said:
Again though, a manufacturing revision might be able greatly improve the reception issue without changing the antenna hardware one iota. For instance, a very thin clear plastic coating around the outside edges of the phone.
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The outside edges of the phone are the antenna. Putting a coating on the antenna is changing the antenna.
 
mikethebigo said:
The outside edges of the phone are the antenna. Putting a coating on the antenna is changing the antenna.
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Exactly, can't imagine FCC not wanting to check that. Everything is possible but I don't think Apple would do a silent revision either way, FCC or nor FCC.
 
motulist said:
I would guess that the FCC has provisions which allow for very minor hardware alterations to proceed without additional approval. For instance, if they keep the design of the antenna, transmitter, and all other communications hardware exactly as-is, but they apply a very thin transparent plastic coating to the sides of the phone, I can't imagine that that would require any additional FCC approval.
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What i cant undersand is cant the DIY people just add a very thin transparent plastic coating to the sides of the phone. And see what happens???? Im pretty sure someone with enough knowledge can try this out????
 
krUnIzZlE said:
What i cant undersand is cant the DIY people just add a very thin transparent plastic coating to the sides of the phone. And see what happens???? Im pretty sure someone with enough knowledge can try this out????
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One thing to point out is that people have tried wrapping the entire external antenna with electrical tape, which functions like a non-conductive coating would. They still experience signal drop when they touch the bad seam. Only when you have a significant amount of material between your hand and the phone (like with a case) does the attenuation appear to be decreased. I don't think a thin non-conductive coat will fix the issue.
 
mrblack927 said:
There was a "silent revision" to the iPhone 3GS around December of last year. They updated the bootrom so that it was much harder to jailbreak. That's what lead to the so-called "MC version" 3GSs because the new versions were identical except for the serial number beginning with "MC" (though that's not actually a good way to distinguish them). The point is that Apple has done this before, and will most likely do it again.

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple did in fact do a silent (unannounced) change to the underlying iPhone 4 hardware in some way, but that probably won't be for a few months. I wouldn't wait on it.
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Now THIS is the type of on-point info that I was looking for! Thanks! How much time was between the initial release of the 3GS and the silent revision coming out as the MC version?
 
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