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iPhone 4 Drops Calls when Left Corner is Touched

Don't palm it

I don't have an iPhone, either old or new. AT&T is not available where I live. But I do have a Blackberry Storm2 provided by my employer. It is of a similar style of course. When I hold it up to my face to talk, I don't "palm" the corner. I just hold it with my fingers and my palm doesn't touch the corner at all. So I am assuming I would hold and iPhone in a similar manner. This seems like a non issue to me. Even if it is as bad as some are saying, the solution is simple. Don't wrap your palm around the lower left corner. There, problem solved.:rolleyes:
 
ChocolateApple said:
I guess I'll be keeping my iPhone 3GS just in case the 4 has to be sent back for a recall. I sense that it may.

What an unfortunate PR nightmare. Now my 2 co-workers who hate the iPhone but know I love it will be in my face laughing.
Click to expand...

And they'll be right to do so. This is Apples version of the 360's RROD. 'cept ours is the silver ring of death. What a giant cluster****.
 
At home, I have a really strong signal, 5 bars all the time. When I tried touching the left bottom side last night (as well as covering ALL the metal parts) with my hand, I could not replicate the reception problem.

However, at work, where my 3GS could hardly hold a signal, I get full bars on my IP4. When I touch the left bottom side, the bars start to drop until there are no bars left. As previous posters have stated, it may be due to the signal strength or the band that you are on...

The reception is better than my 3GS here at work, so I can deal with it until a solution comes out (not sure if I want to go the bumper/case route)...
 
I'm scared to activate the pretty little phone sitting next to me.

EDIT: And I feel like Apple should have tested/known about this after all the R&D time. Hopefully there's some sort of fix.
 
Would it be a possibility that because of the demand activating phones and usage that there are reception problems?
 
Exegesis48 said:
Does anyone think that Apple may not have identified this issue due to the 3GS "disguise" case that Gizmodo reported to have found the iPhone 4 prototype in? If all of their testers were forced to use this case, then obviously this issue would not have been identified.
Click to expand...
Field testing with units disguised as 3GS was only part of the process. Obviously they've held naked iPhone 4 prototypes in their hands a million times, on the Apple campus, in their homes with the 3GS camouflage removed, etc. It's like Michael Jackson's kids... obviously they didn't live 24/7 with their heads wrapped in fabric... only in public.
 
I got my phone yesterday .. as did 4 co-workers, none of us are having that problem, or the yellow haze either.
 
i5pro said:
Wow...makes me glad I didn't jump on the iphone 4 and beta test antenna designs. I feel bad though, I guess I'll wait for Iphone 5 next year.
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I do hope a lot like you feel the same. Makes it a bit easier to get.
 
I've only been able to replicate this reception issue is if I pinch both seams (lower left and right corner) and also the volume buttons which is odd. The way I hold the phone does not exhibit this phenomena...lol

Seems like the antenna around the metal band isn't the greatest idea now but I don't feel like this would affect me much if at all. And I know people will whine about it which is fine because they expected a phone that doesn't lose signal when you're holding it in a certain way:p
 
bahooki said:
What you describe as "normal" is uncomfortable as hell to me. My normal has it resting against the palm of my hand.
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What I meant by normal is that you hold the phone as an ordinary object, not as a phone with which you are making a call.
 
help4u11 said:
In regards to the Micro Wank Cutters, I have heard that there are some who are advertisng it alot cheaper and apparently my friend purchased one from ebay only to find that the cutter was not of good quality and ruined his sim card.

I have contacted the rebel sim team who have ensured me that there product is one of which is more durable , I have placed an order with them and will see if it is.

Will keep you all informed.

xxxxxx.com/
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Go deepthroat a horse.
 
All of the videos of calls dropping appear to be from people who already had shaky signal. I doubt the keynote location had anything less than full bars. The other thing that the doom and gloom crowd are forgetting is FIRMWARE fixes. There may very well be a way to address the issue in firmware.

All that said, it's for sure an issue. I have said all along that I blame Apple as much, if not more than AT&T when it comes to reception issues.




ash =o)
 
help4u11 said:
In regards to the Micro Sim Cutters, I have heard that there are some who are advertisng it alot cheaper and apparently my friend purchased one from ebay only to find that the cutter was not of good quality and ruined his sim card.

I have contacted the rebel sim team who have ensured me that there product is one of which is more durable , I have placed an order with them and will see if it is.

Will keep you all informed.

http://blog.rebelsimcard.com/
Click to expand...

Please do not advertise or spam your site on these forums.
 
I called Apple. They sent me to ATT. ATT is befuddled. I'll try picking up a new SIM later today.

When I tried to call Apple back...
 

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ashVID said:
All of the videos of calls dropping appear to be from people who already had shaky signal. I doubt the keynote location had anything less than full bars. The other thing that the doom and gloom crowd are forgetting is FIRMWARE fixes. There may very well be a way to address the issue in firmware.

All that said, it's for sure an issue. I have said all along that I blame Apple as much, if not more than AT&T when it comes to reception issues.




ash =o)
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How would a firmware update fix a hardware problem? Think about it. How does the PHONE know you are holding it there? It doesn't. It's hardware. The only fix is a recall.
 
I Imagine

This is what I imagine:

Worst case scenario, I believe, would be a massive recall and image hit. The competing phones and networks will have a blast with this. Apple will have to come clean and redesign the phone fast while giving those without phones something, be it a 3GS or money. This will branch into another problem as some will be so angry that they'll want to get out of their new carrier contracts to switch to non-AT&T phones rather than accept another from Apple. But for those who are willing to stick with the iPhone...

The newly designed/fixed iPhone 4.1 will be re-released to angry buyers. It will be better than ever, reviews will reflect the improvement, Apple and the iPhone will regain its status, and over time, this will be looked back upon as a bad bite out of the Apple that was resolved.

But I do think it's going to get bad before it gets better based on the reviews, comments from engineers and just new users. Everyone can't be wrong.
 
We probably need a "How do you hold your iPhone 4" or "How to hold your iPhone 4" hahaha and Apple will release a support page for it:D
 
I can easily replicate it. Thank god I don't hold it like that...and plan to use a bumper. But still....no phone should go from 5-1 bars like that depending on how you hold it.


Hoping this is a software issue...but not looking like it. Wonder how and if Apple will present a solution to this.
 
FWIW, can't reproduce the problem on my phone.

No matter how I hold it - including cupping the phone with both hands so that the entire outer band is covered - I can't seem to reproduce the problem. Reception fluctuates a lot, but that's no different than my last iPhone, and it doesn't appear to correlate to me covering any part of the antenna.

I'll just consider myself lucky.
 
When this signal strength issue first popped up yesterday, it was a non-issue for me. When I picked up and held my iPhone 4, not only did the signal strength not drop, it sometimes would go up.

Ahhhhh... but I'm right handed! Mike's video makes it VERY clear that the issue revolves around directly "shorting" that seam between antennas that's in the lower left corner. And, sure enough, if I cross the seam with skin, my iPhone 4's signal strength drops. Even if the iPhone 4 is laid on a table, and I bridge that seam with just a finger (no other part of my hand touching the iPhone), the signal strength drops. And it does it 100% of the time. It is completely repeatable and completely consistent.

HOWEVER..... Here at home, I typically have 3 bars of signal, sometime 4. And, so far, in MY testing with bridging/shorting that seam, I can't get the iPhone to drop a call. The signal strength drops all the way down to a single bar but it doesn't drop the call. I've tried hard to make it drop the call and it just won't.

Maybe my signal is just a little bit stronger where I'm testing and, thus, no dropped calls.

But, bottom line, this does seem to be a real issue that needs to be looked at by Apple.

My thanks to Mike for his excellent (and more "scientific") approach to demonstrating this problem!

Mark
 
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