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Apple never ONCE said that this software update was a "fix" for the antenna issue. It was people on here to who made the assumption based on the timing of the announcement that there was an "issue" with the formula the iPhone had been using to calculate signal strength.

Here's what Apple said:

we were surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them. Here is what we have learned. ...

iPhone 4 can drop 4 or 5 bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band. ...

We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising.

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong.


They say that "the cause of this dramatic drop in bars..." is "...the formula..."

Am I misreading their letter?
 
Starting to hear reports that the beta is working on all iPhones, and not just those that are on the dev program, which is interesting.
 
If they could make the bar signal display more accurate, why didn't they do it before releasing the first Iphone not to mention iPhone 4?
 
really you cant tell the pictures big enough perhaps you should open your eyes ;)

it's not that bad but it doesnt have as good a finesse about it

ya really dude, I cant beleive you would even care.. its such a tiny change its not noticeable... or do I care what friggin signal bars look like.. :rolleyes:
 
Can't get my phone to lose the last bar no matter how hard I squeeze. The bars do drop but stop at the first bar. So, I make a call and it works.

This is with no case and my left palm entirely covering the antenna. Still works.


Why is it that people still think that the expression "Death Grip" has anything to do with how "hard" your squeezing the phone? It has nothing at all to do with how hard your gripping the phone. The term "Death Grip" simply means the signal dies (Death) when you hold (Grip) the phone by touching the bottom antenna and the left side antenna at the same time.

I thinks it's hilarious how many people out there are squeezing the crap out of their phone trying to reproduce the issue. LMAO!
 
If they could make the bar signal display more accurate, why didn't they do it before releasing the first Iphone not to mention iPhone 4?

Because they obviously wanted to make the combination of iphone and AT&T look like it had great reception.

Oh, it was rhetorical?
 
Bigger bars must mean that size really does matter?!?

That lying, two timming, ugly faced....

Oh nevermind :rolleyes:
 
If they could make the bar signal display more accurate, why didn't they do it before releasing the first Iphone not to mention iPhone 4?

Actually, Apple released an update shortly after the 3G that magically showed increase signal strength (or it just used some other algorithm for displaying each bar). In other words, the bars were more accurate prior to that update, now they are changing it back, I guess.
 
Making the bars taller is being completely honest and good? Seems somewhat shady if you ask me. Which you didn't. But come on, it doesn't seem completely honest either.

Now when we have one little stubby bar, it will at least look like there is signal, even though the connection is likely in the crapper.

WTF!? Seriously?

One bar = one bar. Odds are that you'll probably have one bar more often now (due to a more honest display of signal strength), so they made it bigger so you have less difficulty seeing it. How is that not honest!?
 
They say that "the cause of this dramatic drop in bars..." is "...the formula..."

Am I misreading their letter?

No, that's exactly what they said.

What they didn't say is that the dramatic drop in signal strength and data throughput is down to holding the phone in a certain way.

I know which of those two I care about most.
 
So that means if I was getting one tiny bar in most areas, now I'm going to get a slightly taller one, if any? WTH, Apple?
 
C'mon, man, you're just looking to be argumentative with this. There's a difference between reproducing an issue with a Death Grip Demo and having it affect the way one actually uses a device.

I hold my phone differently when I'm dialing. When I'm on a call. When I'm web browsing. When I'm flicking through email. When I'm responding to email. When I'm texting. Etc. Etc. Etc. I would imagine you don't use your phone in the exact same grip for all purposes, do you?

There is no question there is an issue. There is no question it needs to be addressed. But anybody claiming -- and once again, not saying you are, but this was the gist of my comment -- that it makes the phone unusable for everybody or is fatally flawed is engaging in hyperbole.

The problem is that if someone is talking on the phone for, say, 30 minutes, s/he will change the grip many times during such conversation. Are we supposed to monitor carefully how we hold the phone all the time? I'd categorize this as "phone-boarding" (i.e. mild form of torture not recognized as such by some people).
 
P.S. YES SOFTWARE CAN FIX HARDWARE ISSUES. Don't tell me it can't, just wanted to get that out there.

how can software fix the fact that grabbing a bare exposed dipole with your flesh effectively changes the wavelength of it causing signal degradation.

i'm not an expert on this, but maybe you can help clear it up so that some of us feel more confident about the situation.
 
WTF!? Seriously?

One bar = one bar. Odds are that you'll probably have one bar more often now (due to a more honest display of signal strength), so they made it bigger so you have less difficulty seeing it. How is that not honest!?

Well yes but it's definitely a subtle suggestion that that 1 bar signal is more usable than you used to think it was because the old display made it look so timid and weedy.
 
Why is it that people still think that the expression "Death Grip" has anything to do with how "hard" your squeezing the phone? It has nothing at all to do with how hard your gripping the phone. The term "Death Grip" simply means the signal dies (Death) when you hold (Grip) the phone by touching the bottom antenna and the left side antenna at the same time.

I thinks it's hilarious how many people out there are squeezing the crap out of their phone trying to reproduce the issue. LMAO!

I know how to recreate the problem. Just using the term everyone else made up. I think this is all BS. The phone has never dropped a call for since I got it almost 3 weeks ago. Not 1 dropped call. Not even from a supermarket that I never could get a signal from before.
 
My phone works perfectly and I don't work for Apple. I just don't bitch and gripe like a 3 year old who get's his/her pacifier taken away.

Duh, I wouldn't bitch and gripe if my phone worked perfectly either - do you just presume thousands of people, who have never felt the urge to complain about their 3G/3GS are now doing so with the 4 just for fun? The level of fanboy retard on this site is disturbing.
 
I am in litterally shock... There were two ways apple could try to deal with this issue

A) admit u ****ed up, do a recall on defective devices and fix the hardware issue once and for all so nobody can poke fun of or complaine once it's all said and done with. You will look bad for a few months bit rectify the problem and move on, people will forget and want to buy the phone because they know it works an everyone is happy... They will more than make up the money again once it's fixed...

B) keep pretending people are retarded and issue a software fix. Not only are they admitting that the ip4 signal falls uunlike any other phone on the market BUT they are now making the signal bars bigger and "more accurate" (after 3 years of using the wrong algorithm???)

and have the balls to think that because it will show ur signal weaker but with bigger bars you will be ok with the call dropping more cause you only had 3 bars at the beginning of the call...

This blows my mind, do a recall it's the only way to get through this without destroying future sales for ip4

Or deal with customers who contact their customer support organization and address their issues. Ignoring mindless ranting on Internet forums and sensationalist news media does not mean they are not fixing problems.

Nearly dell PC ever released has had a manufacturing run with a defective piece of hardware. When users call in and the problem is identified they fix the problem. Apple did the same thing with the MBP power adapters a few years ago that would just fall apart after a couple years of normal use. Normal support issues do not require a press release. Issuing a press release in this case would just cause everyone to make more noise next.

All this noise is hurting some customers that have legitimate problems. They are suffering with a potentially defective device and waiting for an announcement from Apple when they could have a new working device tomorrow if they just called Applecare.
 
I know how to recreate the problem. Just using the term everyone else made up. I think this is all BS. The phone has never dropped a call for since I got it almost 3 weeks ago. Not 1 dropped call. Not even from a supermarket that I never could get a signal from before.

No, I haven't had a dropped call either. I've had data speed fall away though. And I've had the sodding prox sensor problem. Seems to happen when the other person is a bit too loud so I tilt the top of the phone away from my ear a bit. Learning to turn the volume down instead and keep it clamped on.
 
I wonder if their just masking the issue with a GUI update?

Interested to see if the problem continues

I wonder if people ever actual read what Apple said they were going to do, and are now wondering when they do it if they are just masking the issue with a GUI update?

Apple said they were going to adjust the signal bar display. They didn't say they were going to do anything else.
 
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