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Mine does it too, I guess I just cant talk on the phone with my left hand. Guess Im glad to be right handed...

Being right handed is precisely why I hold a phone in my left. It's like a right handed baseball player, the glove in the left and the right hand does most of the work that requires precision.
 
Same issue here. In my room I used to ONLY get like 2-3 bars, now sometimes I get full signal strength(while my Verizon Droid Eris only gets 2, Iphone 4 full), however in my room is where I can recreate the signal loss problem 10/10 times. Outside I cannot.

I think you're on to something. Smarty pants. ;)

Yup, and to further insult us Apple thought we would simply buy a "Bumper" for freakin $29.00 USD.

To quote my 15 year old. "Epic Fail Steve".

I'll be waiting at least 6m on this product. Lovin my 3GS on iOS 4.:apple:
 
can someone snap a picture with an iphone 4 and a rubber band around the bottom portion of the phone, and photoshop the following words to the image:

Apple Iphone 4 Fix

you can also throw in a FAIL if you like..

first one who does it wins!

You know the sad part? It actualy WORKS!!!!

I tried everything else in the office, but nothing worked. I read your post, and figured why not. Maybe a small drop in bars, but nothing like I have been seeing:eek::p:D
 
this might have some merit. I have noticed a couple things, same as reported here. If I have a strong signal, ALL BARS, I CANNOT get it to drop at ALL no matter WHAT I do or HOW I hold it. but, if I have 2-3 bars and hold in the left hand, or complete the circuit, boom it goes down, 3G goes away I have even seen the GPRS DOT. When was the last time you saw the DOT?

What I HAVE found is that somehow using the HEADPHONES makes it better. Historically it was rumored that the headphones acted as a secondary antenna, but I thought that was bunk. If I MAKE a call with the headphone in, I cannot get the BARS to drop

When I have all 5 bars on 3G and I touch the corner it goes away. Confirmed by my own tests about 20 times in a row. 5 bars, touch corner, 0 bars after a minute or less. Rinse, repeat.
 
Interestingly, if i leave my phone flat on a table, it gets full bars + 3G. As soon as I pick it up, instantly, it drops to 1 bar with no 3G or edge. Looks to me a software issue, surrounding how the phone deals with changing levels of reception. That is MUCH more likely that a design fault THIS big. I have faith apple with deliver a prompt software update (or a mega massive recall :D)
 
I have a 3GS upgraded to iOS4. Holding it in the "suspect" manner does not affect the signal strength. It seems clear to me that, having the antennae exposed on the outside of the phone is to problem.

+1, and the signal strength at my house is crap at the best of times. I can't get the signal strength to change however I hold my 3Gs (iOS4)
 
Of course in the AT&T store I could not replicate this no matter how hard I tried, but happens everytime at my house. Definitely a starting signal strength/tower type issue.
 
I also have the reception issue, BUT it's location dependent. I can reproduce the problem from 5 bars to none at my house, but I can't get it to lose a single bar when I'm at work, so maybe the issue affects ALL phones but some people aren't seeing the problem due to their physical location to cell towers, etc.

Just a thought, and my own experiences.
 
I have this trouble to a lesser degree (ie, dropped signal strength, but rarely any actual cutouts) with my 3GS. I use a silicone skin thingy which may make a difference. But my 3GS doesn't have this new type of antenna, so what's going on? Either way, I think it's just disastrous for Apple to let this happen.
 
I also have the reception issue, BUT it's location dependent. I can reproduce the problem from 5 bars to none at my house, but I can't get it to lose a single bar when I'm at work, so maybe the issue affects ALL phones but some people aren't seeing the problem due to their physical location to cell towers, etc.

Just a thought, and my own experiences.

Even those with working iPhones need to test this to indeed prove/disprove that this problem is location (and therefore tower signal interpretation) based.
 
I just played with my friends new 32GB and it had no problems with that. I couldn't reproduce it at all. Tried gripping it down with both hands, tried just the left hand, tried just my finger on the bottom left corner -- nothing.

Maybe it is a network issue where when it's weak enough already it will just fade out when doing that. This one stood steady at 4 bars the whole time.
 
I also have the reception issue, BUT it's location dependent. I can reproduce the problem from 5 bars to none at my house, but I can't get it to lose a single bar when I'm at work, so maybe the issue affects ALL phones but some people aren't seeing the problem due to their physical location to cell towers, etc.

Just a thought, and my own experiences.

How sweaty their hands are is maybe another factor. Not everyone conducts as well as the other.
 
The AT&T store had a microcell, I'm guessing.

Actually they didn't. On 3G for sure. At the mall in town now looking for a case and no issues here either. Like I said, I could not complete a single call at my house last night or this morning.
 
Problems with theories?

Hi folks,

Just my tuppence worth, sat at home with my iPhone 4:

- In the UK, with O2
- have full signal strength of 5 bars
- cannot get a 3G signal here, so 3G switched off

And the "shorting" problem still occurs. Just by cupping my hand around the lower left corner. Same thing happens with wireless on or off, location services on or off. My hands are only moderately sweaty.. :) The signal drops, over about a minute or so, down to one or two bars tops - haven't managed to lose the service altogether yet but maybe only because I get bored.

If this problem is related to RF bleed between the two antennae then hands close to or touching the antennae might be expected to exacerbate things - you naturally couple to RF signals anyway - for example the 50/60 Hz hum if you touch a microphone lead. The more your hands overlap the antennae, the greater the coupling and the worse the effect... ? If the software can't cope with what it then sees as an increase in noise then pop, down goes the signal.
 
Yeah I don't understand the panic. It's annoying for sure but it's not like Apple will just laugh at you and accept the fact that it's selling a defective product. It will be resolved one way or another, get your phone, enjoy it and let time do it's thing.


I still wouldn't let a soul pry this beautiful gadget out of my hands. I'm very grateful to have an Iphone 4 right now, I wanted it badly and am very pleased with it. It's still early ladies...

To the people who are having the problem: this is a very VERY serious issue. The fact that apple didn't realize this in their testing baffles me. The notion of selling a phone that the phone function doesn't work or you have to turn off 3g!!!! Is truly insane! The engineers had to have seen this in the testing...

NOW to those who are dismissing this playing it off like "just turn 3g off" or "hold it differently" or the best yet "just enjoy your device till they come out with a fix" lol you guys have to be kidding me!!! They have every right to be pissed off and upset, nothing dismissive about this problem should occure, apple has been the proponent of "it just works" campaign and this just "doesn't " work!

Finally my favorite are the people who are saying "it just appears as though it's losing signal, it's just a software fix" wrong! The only thing the software can do is try to force it to not go into search mode however the call will still be droped, the 3gs doesn't have this problem on ios 4 and thus it's purely hardware. It will be interesting when steve blames it on AT&T again!
 
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