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*** iPhone 4 Antenna Issue MAY BE FIXED VIA SOFTWARE (Video Proof)

Eso said:
You are incorrect that it doesn't happen with the iPhone 3GS running 3.1.3, plain and simple. It doesn't happen when you hold it in your left hand - it happens when you tightly squeeze your entire hand around it, just like any other cell phone.

There's a video on the front page from 2008 that shows it on the 3G.

Now, please answer my question.
Click to expand...

Dude, it's not a death grip - watch the damn video. I'm holding it as if I am using it to surf the internet, text, and/or anything else a normal person would do.

You probably don't own a 3GS - because if you did, you'd know this was not an issue like it is with the iPhone 4.

We'll just see come next week what's gonna happen with this rumored "fix" from apple. Only they know what's up - even though these videos may not prove anything substantial, I know for a fact my 3GS never had this issue before iOS 4.0 . I'm not going to give up my iPhone 4 - a cover will do just fine really.

I don't understand why you insist on making it 100% sure that it's hardware and it's iPhone 4 only.
 
sammich said:
Dunno the technicalities but from what I understand, placing your hand over an antenna (not necessarily touching it) will alter the signal field around the phone. So the iPhone would then attempt to choose a better frequency to alleviate the loss of signal. But somewhere in that code, it messes up, losing reception.
Click to expand...

Pretty good summary. A lot of you guys are tricked into associating touching with a response, just like on the iPhone's screen where you touch something and you get a response, but in this case, the touching isn't what is causing the problem, it's the interference. When you put your hand around the phone like that, it supposedly causes the phone to have to switch frequencies or something in order to retain the signal, and THAT'S what's supposedly failing, which is why it ends up losing the signal.

So it isn't that the issue is 'touch here and boom there goes the signal', it's not like a button, rather it's that the hand placed in that proximity is causing interference with the signal. Something that would have otherwise not mattered and would've been handled correctly by previous firmware versions, but now is not due to a bug that creeped in when the engineers devised a new, supposedly better, way of choosing signals. Perhaps this new way of choosing signals is indeed better, the point is that this bug is preventing us from knowing that. Once this is resolved I'm sure we can all expect to see the purported better reception, etc. Something like this would definitely be easily fixable by a firmware update, since that's where the issue supposedly lies, in the firmware.

It isn't the first time a firmware update has fixed signal issues.

For proof, go to wikipedia's page for the history of iOS firmware versions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_version_history

Specifically, look at version 2.1 "Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display." (not as related to this issue) and version 3.0.1 "Improves reception"

I have this reception problem too. I am not ruling any possibility out, but I would also like to hope for the best, and being a software developer myself I can see how this (it being a software bug) is a possibility.

And do those saying that this is not the same thing because it does not ultimately end up with 'no service' or 'searching...', this does not matter. Not everyone who has this reception problem has has their bars turn into the 'searching...' text. Some people have, but for example, not me. I do have the issue and the bars disappear quite fast, but it does not ultimately say 'Searching...' or 'Not Connected', and I've been testing this many times during the day to see if it somehow fixes itself (which I now doubt).
 
iPadThai said:
You probably don't own a 3GS - because if you did, you'd know this was not an issue like it is with the iPhone 4.
Click to expand...

I do own the 3GS, and I can post a video too of it losing all but 1 bar while I squeeze it. It won't lose many bars unless I am squeezing it, and it will never display no service.

What do you mean when you say, "this is not an issue like it is with the iPhone 4", (which is exactly my argument) because it sure sounds like you are now agreeing with me. It's an issue on the iPhone 4. It's not an issue with the 3GS. They are running the same OS. Since only one exhibits the issue, and they run the same OS, it's not an issue with the OS.

iPadThai said:
I'm damn sure my 3GS did not have this skin holding phone issues like the iPhone 4 until iOS 4.0 was installed.
Click to expand...

Look, it's not a "skin holding" issue. There's two things going on here.

1) Smothering a phone with your palm will degrade the signal

2) Touching the frame on the iPhone 4 will drop your signal completely.

The first is a problem where the entire hand blocks the cell signal and is a factor for all cell phones, including the 3GS on iOS 4, the 3GS on 3.1.3, and the 3G in 2008.

The second problem is when nothing but the skin of a person's hand bridges the gap between two antennas on the iPhone 4 and it loses the cell signal.
 
great work op hope this "flaw" gets mangled out asap, I have no problems with my iPhone4 but I can get the signal to drop if I hold it in rather weird positions since this doesn't affect me I'm fine but I hope this will fix the problems of the other users.
 
sammich said:
Not all the phones have this problem, maybe they have that clear coating that stops the bridging effect.
Click to expand...

I personally don't believe there is some mystery coating floating around in the supply chain and has something to do with the particular 3G band of the tower being used.

However, has anyone taken a ohmmeter to their steel band to check the conductivity of it? It would be interesting to see the results from someone who can produce the problem and someone who can't.
 
I think part of it software bc I went into a building where I nvr had service, I got my ip4 went in lost service and nvr regained it, I had to turn off my iPhone and restart it to get service again, and nvr touched the antennas either, that's software
 
For what it's worth, I upgraded my 3GS to the 4.0 GM when it was released at WWDC and I had a helluva time maintaining a 3G signal for the week or two up until the iPhone 4 was released. I never had that issue before upgrading, so I know that was definitely caused by iOS 4.
 
Eso said:
Furthermore, if it is software, how come the 3GS running iOS 4.0 doesn't display the same symptoms? Yes, it loses the signal, but it doesn't search for a better frequency, fails, and displays no service. If it were the software, it should behave exactly like the iPhone 4 does and lose service completely.
Click to expand...

Did it ever occur to you that the same software behaves differently running on different hardware?
 
Eso said:
You are incorrect that it doesn't happen with the iPhone 3GS running 3.1.3, plain and simple. It doesn't happen when you hold it in your left hand - it happens when you tightly squeeze your entire hand around it, just like any other cell phone.

There's a video on the front page from 2008 that shows it on the 3G.

Now, please answer my question.
Click to expand...

Doesn’t happen with my 3G.
 
My 3G S running 3.1.3 JB will get all the way to 1 bar from 5 by firmly holding it in my left hand, not death grip, but like how strong you'd hold it when in a crowd or something.

Taken about 5 mins to return to full.
 
We'll see tomorrow if indeed apple releases a patch to fix this issue. If it does not fix it, then you can consider the iPhone 4 defective.

I'm very sure there's a good reason why the white ipHones are out yet. crossing my fingers it will be resolved.
 
Can't wait to see if this is truly software or hardware (which is obviously a bit of hardware + software) - but if it doesn't fix this issue, then we're all fckked!
 
We know this. Nothing new.

The problem is the iPhone 4 drops calls when the 3GS doesn't.
 
MattZani said:
My 3G S running 3.1.3 JB will get all the way to 1 bar from 5 by firmly holding it in my left hand, not death grip, but like how strong you'd hold it when in a crowd or something.

Taken about 5 mins to return to full.
Click to expand...

"death grip" implies you have to squeeze the phone. You can observe the problems with just putting a a finger on the left side. Pressure is not needed.
 
dagomike said:
We know this. Nothing new.

The problem is the iPhone 4 drops calls when the 3GS doesn't.
Click to expand...

NO - the 3GS goes into NO SERVICE at times. Not all the time, but you do lose data/slowed down to a crawl and/or not working.

So yes, this is an issue with the 3GS - and not before iOS 4.0 installation.

Bottom line, it's both software and hardware for iPhone 4. But it's something to do with software on iOS 4.0.
 
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