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YOURS is fine!, well why didn't you tell us earlier? How can there possibly be a problem with anyone else's phone if YOURS is fine? We must just all be imagining our dropped calls and data grinding to a halt because if YOURS is fine how could it be possible that ours aren't? It doesn't make any sense...

Anandtech
...

Actually Anandtech reported the issue correctly unlike the others. iPhone 4 has better reception IN THE WORST CASE than most phones. But the bars have been showing it wrong and the drop from best to worst way of holding is worse than most phones.
 
Actually Anandtech reported the issue correctly unlike the others. iPhone 4 has better reception IN THE WORST CASE than most phones. But the bars have been showing it wrong and the drop from best to worst way of holding is worse than most phones.

That doesn't explain the instant cessation of any download/upload over 3G when skin contact is made lightly over the black strip - that is a flaw other phones, including Apple's own, don't have.
 
Commercials

I'm really looking forward to AT&T's new commercials that will feature the newly increased height of signal bars 1 and 2.

Buildings, hedges,and other shapes resembling the signal meter....and then the voice over...

"AT&T - Bigger bars in more places"
 
no more call or bar drops on iOS 4.1 beta

Im in Japan and i was experiencing bar and call drops when holding the death grip area and tests with speedtest app just confirmed that. After iOS4.1 beta i have no more issues with drop calls or bars ! Tests with speedtest app shows same result when holding or not the grip area!

My iPhone week production is 24 ( from the serial number )
 
500x_signalbarsatt.jpg


the new bars look ugly ugly ugly

Yes they are. I wish they'd make it an option to have the original or new ones in the Settings app. I wonder why they didn't just remove the little placeholder blips at the bottom. It probably would have made each bar a bit taller, and thus easier to see while still keeping them equally proportional.
 
just want to say i've been enjoying macrumors more than ever.

i enjoy everyone's witty remarks

:p

at the end of the day it's a phone and we can laugh at apple and enjoy life :)
 
Jacksonville, FL must be a bad spot

I personally know of 8 iPhone 4's that all have the same problem here in Jacksonville. Not all areas mind you but most, I'm sitting here right now at my house and when I pick my phone up and hold it the, natural way I have always held my iPhone, it drops from 4 to 1. Doing a speed test the DL speed is half what it is when I hold it "unnaturally" for me, and the upload simply stops unless I move my hand. It just so happens that when I am holding it, the bottom left corner goes right into my palm. I know this is the way I naturally hold it since I have to make myself hold it up a little more to keep it from happening.

I have lost about 10 calls over the two week period that I have had the phone which is about 10 more calls than I ever dropped on my 3GS. I can sit here with both phones and do the same data test at the same time and the 4 dies while the 3gs just keeps on truckin.. This is a problem for me.

I do not want to return my wonderfully shiny new phone and would love it if Apple would fix it somehow, but so far they seem to be just ignoring it.

I am not exaggerating at all when I say that I personally know 8 people that all have this same issue. Me and my wife, my mother, her mother and my brother, 2 co-workers and one of their wives. All with this issue. Clearly it has something to do with the network AND the iPhone 4 together as none of our 2g, 3g or 3gs's ever had this issue.
 
From All Things D:

Apple will be holding a press conference this Friday.

Thoughts?

This is going to get interesting.

I don't know about other users, but I know my mom's iPhone 4 and mine both exhibit the dropped signal when being held in the left hand, or the right hand if your pinky happens to bridge the gap. This is in all cities within 30 miles of my house. Hopefully we get some real answers on Friday.
 
From All Things D:

Apple will be holding a press conference this Friday.

Thoughts?

sad to say but personally, i think it will be a smoke and mirrors to announce the game part. I doubt there will be much to any thing on the antenna or proximity sensor issues. Their stock lost a lot the other day, and to divert attention from the antenna fiasco, break the normal release cycle and announce games, they are always a good money maker.
4.1 already in beta to devs and phones haven't been in peoples hands for a month?
 
Okay, for everyone out there who doesn't understand, software CAN mitigate SOME hardware problems if the software is aware of the problem and is capable of dealing with it to an extent. It most likely wouldn't be perfect, but if apple can at least mitigate the problem, it would probably be sufficient for some users who have the problem, which many don't.

Anyone who says hardware can't be "fixed" with software. Most hardware in electronics devices, especially things like cell phones is controlled and managed via software. They are the fuel that makes the hardware work and without the software the hardware would literally do nothing.

I think you just need to ignore anyone who says you can't fix a hardware issue through software, because it is blanketly ignorant.

That being said, Apple has never said there is an issue. They have simply said the iPhone 4 has similar issues with reception decreasing when interfering with the antenna like other phones.

There is some data suggesting some people might actually have faulty phones. Some of those people seem to want to just complain until Steve Jobs comes to their house in a Sleigh and swaps it out for them.

If you bought an iPhone 4 at release and have had significant reception issues all along and you have not swapped it out and had a better experience, or returned it for a refund, you have NOBODY to blame but yourself.

I already know what is going to happen, but I can pretend like some people will take responsibility for themselves and not keep their phone which they claim does not even work beyond the return period. I am confident people will be clamoring and demanding Apple extend the 30 day return period and fly them to Aruba and whatever else they can come up with...

However at this point, for anyone who bought a phone in the first week and continues to be plagued by reception issues, return the phone and exchange it for another one. If you have already done that, then figure out how to get a refund. Stop playing games and making spectacles of yourself.

It is all nice to say that the phone should just work and you want an iPhone. However when we move into grownupland we sometimes have to realize something is not going to work for us and thus we need to move on with our lives. We can't simply stomp our feet and hold our breath until it is magically replaced/repaired.

If you want to get upset and blame apple for not making an iPhone 4 that works for you, go for it. If you want to not return it/exchange it and complain after your return period is over that Apple screwed you, like some of you will, then get bent.
 
iPhone 4 has a 25db signal loss if you hold it in a certain way. Most cell phones have about a 15db signal loss if you hold them a certain way. But the iPhone 4 has about 10db better reception than the 3Gs. The new way of calculating the bars shows more clearly what is going on.

Apparently this is too complicated for most of the press (including MacRumors) to report.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2

Now THAT is a good read. If what he says is true, then apple's algorithm could actually be the culprit of the entire problem. Just remember to read the entire article :)
 
Bwahahahahahahhaaahaahahhhhaaaaahhhaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAHAAHAHHHHAAAAAHHHAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And now may I present to you the Applemmings, those faithful, those staunch defenders of freedom, yea, the happy masses who look reverently to their Lauded Lemming Leader, defending him, hark! Hark how they defend him, madly rushing behind him to support him.....gleefully praising his magically unflappable creation all the way dooooooooowwwwwwwwwnnnnnn.....

***thud-th-th-thud-thud-th-th-thud-thud-thud-th-thud-th-th-thud-thud-th-thud....***
 
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAHAAHAHHHHAAAAAHHHAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And now may I present to you the Applemmings, those faithful, those staunch defenders of freedom, yea, the happy masses who look reverently to their Lauded Lemming Leader, defending him, hark! Hark how they defend him, madly rushing behind him to support him.....gleefully praising his magically unflappable creation all the way dooooooooowwwwwwwwwnnnnnn.....

***thud-th-th-thud-thud-th-th-thud-thud-thud-th-thud-th-th-thud-thud-th-thud....***

lay off the caffein...
 
Ahhh Hello Apple, this did not fix it!

4.1 did nothing to fix the problem in fact i'm really sorry to say I think it made it worse on my phone. Before I had to really squeeze hard to get the results everyone else was having so i did not think it was that big of a deal, now after 4.1, I just hold it slightly and the bars drop like a rock! :mad:
 
still an issue

Just installed 4.1 on my iphone 4. Same exact signal loss bars dropping. Wow what a suprise.
 
Anyone who says hardware can't be "fixed" with software. Most hardware in electronics devices, especially things like cell phones is controlled and managed via software.

That's like saying I can fix my Satellite TV from dropping signal just by doing a firmware update on the receiver, even though there is a tree blocking the signal. I'm sorry a firmware update ain't gonna move that tree.
Same applies for your palm. It's hardware flaw.
 
Read the article posted by that guy i quoted up there. ^^^ It seems that your signal may already have been weak, it was just being displayed as 5 bars.

Oh so my old 3gs is lying about the signal too and my blackberry and they have 5 bars. Huh I don't get it.
 
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