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iPhone 2.1 Firmware Now Available
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I have been thinking about this a little and wanted to post my thoughts.
What if the software was not well tuned to the signal strength in the first place? What I mean by this is that if the software was thinking it had a weak signal, when in fact it didn't, it would then try to roll over to the Edge network thus dropping the call. By "re-tunning" the giving it more bars for the same signal you keep the phone from rolling over to the other network. I work in a hangar that is made of metal and I used to suffer from dropped calls when walking from point a to b. Now I have no problems at all so I am a firm believe that they did fix something.
That's not even remotely true. The tuner is simply handing off statistics, it's up to the software to decide who to listen to.
One difference that I have seen is that the handoff between 3G, EDGE, GPRS and WiFi is much faster than it used to be. I've had it switch from one to another and back over a period of a few seconds when riding on the train. Under 2.0x this took much longer, so there were extended periods of "dead time" with poor signal before it flicked over.
This is purely software.
Maury
The 2.1 update did NOTHING for signal strength... run field test if you do not believe me.
However, it did increase the number of bars that are displayed on the phone.
On a side note... my number of bars has recently dropped down again...
anyone else getting that??
I've been doing pretty well with this update. I think my battery life has improved and my 3G speed has increased. I tested before and after the update. The speeds have stayed high. These screenshots were taken just after the 10% warning. I got the 20% warning about 8 hours ago.
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All too true, if one assumes that the bars measure signal strength. If one assumes it measures signal quality, then the increase in bars is perhaps very real.
Maury
Yes, but if the dB levels are off with what the phone is actually getting then it would switch over when not necessary. THe idea is to keep the phone from switching (and dropping calls) when you have plenty of signal to stay on the current network. So, the update may have tuned that.
not sure if this has been mentioned or not but with 2.1 update now CALL forwarding number is saved rather then manually having to add the number to forward to everytime you want to set this up.
This is very useful for me because I am in an area where AT&T only gets 1 or 2 bars (even with 2.1 update
) So I forward my calls to land line whenever I am home so people can still get a hold of me through my cell phone without the frustration of dropped calls/crappy reception. Now I can easiliy toggle this on and off. If only there was a shortcut rather than having to dig through menus to turn the pref on and off. Sometimes I forget when i go out and have a bunch of messages on my land line when I return.
This is very useful for me because I am in an area where AT&T only gets 1 or 2 bars (even with 2.1 update
) So I forward my calls to land line whenever I am home so people can still get a hold of me through my cell phone without the frustration of dropped calls/crappy reception. Now I can easiliy toggle this on and off. If only there was a shortcut rather than having to dig through menus to turn the pref on and off. Sometimes I forget when i go out and have a bunch of messages on my land line when I return.
Crashes in what way? Apps crash? Phone locks up? What?
That certainly hasn't been the case for me. Safari will crash every now and then but other than that the phone has been fine.