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iPhone 4 Drops Calls when Left Corner is Touched

bisonthrow said:
I live in northern NJ, work in NYC, and go to school in PA. All of these complaints dont matter if we are planning on putting the phone in a bumper correct? No one is having these issues unless it is skin to phone contact so if I am planning on doing this it should be ok?
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Yeah that's right. You buy a $600 telephone that doesn't work, but that don't matter because your planning on buying a $30 accessory which will allow it to perform it's primary function....

Hey kid, I got a real nice car here I'll sell you for $20,000. It doesn't have an engine but that shouldn't matter since your planning on buying one from me for another $5000.

Steve Jobs likes guys like you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
bisonthrow said:
I live in northern NJ, work in NYC, and go to school in PA. All of these complaints dont matter if we are planning on putting the phone in a bumper correct? No one is having these issues unless it is skin to phone contact so if I am planning on doing this it should be ok?
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From what I've been reading, it seems to cure the problem. As long as you are ok with covering a possible design flaw by Apple, with a $29 Apple product, I say go for it. :apple:
 
Hahahah!

bisonthrow said:
ok now i would appreciate an answer from someone other than a 40 year old man with nothing better to do at work than take pictures of himself with a rubber band around his phone
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That's funny. Almost as funny as you willing to succumb to using a $30 piece of rubber to make your new iPhone work. Almost.
 
NetScheduler said:
Yeah that's right. You buy a $600 telephone that doesn't work, but that don't matter because your planning on buying a $30 accessory which will allow it to perform it's primary function....

Hey kid, I got a real nice car here I'll sell you for $20,000. It doesn't have an engine but that shouldn't matter since your planning on buying one from me for another $5000.

Steve Jobs likes guys like you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

ok well obv someone is a little pissy today... i was more so asking because i was planning on placing a bumper on it anyways so as a temporary solution until they fix it im ok with that. If it works now and they fix it then for me it will always work... doesnt seem like to big of a deal to me
 
I've always had a really weak signal at home on my 3GS with it barely clinging onto a 3G connection. However, the signal strength on my iPhone 4 is constantly showing full bars on 3G.

When I hold the bottom of the phone, it does drop a couple of bars after awhile but generally, I'm getting a better signal than I did previously so it's more of a mild annoyance for me personally.

Be interesting to see how Apple deals with this.
 
I just got off the phone with Apple about trying to get a replacement overnighted to me for this very issue. First, the guy told me to use a bumper. I told him that I shouldn't have to use a bumper but if it will work temporarily until the issue is resolved, go ahead and send me one for free. No go. Then I asked if they could send me a replacement overnight. He said they could but they'd have to put a hold on my cc for the entire amount. I said fine so he put me on hold to speak with his supervisor. He comes back and tells me that they can overnight me a replacement at a cost of $30 for shipping. I tell him no freaking way am I paying to have a phone overnighted to me. At this point he either wants me to spend $29 on a bumper that may or may not fix the problem or pay $30 to have a phone overnighted to me with no guarantee that it won't have the same issue.

I tell him no thanks and that I'll just keep my genius appt for Sunday to see about getting it replaced. He then proceeds to tell me not to hold the phone by the sides. I tell him that 99.9% of the population probably holds their phone that way so how else am I supposed to hold it? He told me that I should hold it up against my head by pushing on the phone from the back:p! I asked him if he knew how ridiculous that sounded and he said yes and also said that the phone he had in his office had the exact same problem. He told me that they're hoping to fix this issue quickly but don't have a timetable but I kind of knew that already. I was very nice to the guy and he was nice too but it's very clear that:

a. They are getting bombarded with complaints today and
b. They have no idea how to properly handle this.

At a minimum they should be sending out free bumpers to everyone that calls with this issue. Expecting people to pay $29 for something that shouldn't even be necessary and may not even work is crazy. And then charging for overnight shipping to replace a defective phone? Not the best way to handle this issue.
 
just talked to an apple senior advisor

Just got off the phone with an iphone senior advisor. They admit there is a problem, but because it's so new, it's going to take 24-48 hours before they can get back to me with initial resolutions - which could include providing bumpers, which seem to resolve the issue.
 
I just got my 32gb iPhone 4 activated and it does this same thing you guys are talking about.

As for the bumper fixing the problem...I don't want a bumper to put on the phone and cover it up. It's just a phone and I don't need some piece of rubber or plastic to protect it. I run these things naked, so what are we supposed to do then?
 
I was forwarded to a "level 2 tech" and he said the senior engineers are tearing apart the phones right now to find a way to fix it. He has my contact info and is supposed to call me in a couple days as soon as they figure out what to do.
 
At this point, it is just hearsay, but I just read on a Dutch iPhone forum, that there is apparently some Gizmodo visitor that got off the phone with Apple. They told him that there is a certain batch of iPhones which does not have some sort of protective coating on the metal edge, a coating meant to prevent this type of stuff from happening.
If this is true, we can all breathe more easily, because it would be a "limited" production error, not a major design flaw. God, I hope so >_>
 
Soliber said:
At this point, it is just hearsay, but I just read on a Dutch iPhone forum, that there is apparently some Gizmodo visitor that got off the phone with Apple. They told him that there is a certain batch of iPhones which does not have some sort of protective coating on the metal edge, a coating meant to prevent this type of stuff from happening.
If this is true, we can all breathe more easily, because it would be a "limited" production error, not a major design flaw. God, I hope so >_>
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Gizmodo and Apple? I don't think so with what has happen with them lately.
 
ASFx said:
I was forwarded to a "level 2 tech" and he said the senior engineers are tearing apart the phones right now to find a way to fix it. He has my contact info and is supposed to call me in a couple days as soon as they figure out what to do.
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Sounds like a design flaw to me. Oh well.

Truth be told, nobody should be too upset because you have to know Apple will fix this for us at some point soon, even at a great expense to them. The PR hit if they don't do exactly this would be disastrous. Toyota bounced back already, I think Apple can weather this storm.
 
Soliber said:
At this point, it is just hearsay, but I just read on a Dutch iPhone forum, that there is apparently some Gizmodo visitor that got off the phone with Apple. They told him that there is a certain batch of iPhones which does not have some sort of protective coating on the metal edge, a coating meant to prevent this type of stuff from happening.
If this is true, we can all breathe more easily, because it would be a "limited" production error, not a major design flaw. God, I hope so >_>
Click to expand...

BS.

That's one HUGE BATCH they screwed up. Also, that coating would wear off FAST with sweat, dirt, grit and the like. I don't know of ANY coating that could stand up to that. The metal is bare and you can feel/see that. The coating would make it smooth and shiny.

Yeah, I call BS
 
Soliber said:
At this point, it is just hearsay, but I just read on a Dutch iPhone forum, that there is apparently some Gizmodo visitor that got off the phone with Apple. They told him that there is a certain batch of iPhones which does not have some sort of protective coating on the metal edge, a coating meant to prevent this type of stuff from happening.
If this is true, we can all breathe more easily, because it would be a "limited" production error, not a major design flaw. God, I hope so >_>
Click to expand...

Yeah... I don't think Gizmodo is on too friendly of a term with Apple... I noticed that Engadget got a review unit while Gizmodo didn't.

Apple should have made the sides out of glass so there the antennas are not exposed.
 
CubeHacker said:
Obviously, if you see your bars drop when you touch the strip, then you do have the problem. But what i'm trying to say is that if you DON'T see the bars drop, that doesn't mean your phone is immune to the problem. You need to see the actual signal strength to determine that.
Click to expand...

Finally, someone with a brain in this forum! I tested this on my iPhone in dBm mode.

Take any phone, bring inside your car...it will drop 10db. Hold your phone in your hand, the wrong way or on or near it's antenna, it will drop also 10db on average.

So let's say you drop 20db placing your nickel or finger over that gap. Starting at 51 db and dropping 20 db will still display 5 bars on the iPhone even though the signal dropped down to -70dBm.

But start at -91 dBm (also 5 bars) and drop 20 dB, and you will have 1 or zero bars. Bottom line, the 5 bars does NOT cover the full dynamic range of the iPhone radio (which is -51 to -113). Anything from -51 to -91 is displayed as 5 bars. From -91 to -113 is 5 to zero bars.

So I see two things:

1. There will some spots on any phone that will drop the signal somewhat. Period.

2. If the gap is particularly a sore spot, Apple probably had a non conductive coating over the metal (this is a very common thing to do). Perhaps some phones did not get a good job done in production. And therefore the bumper helps.

That is the way I see it. And I verified this on my 3GS. I will do the same on my 4 when I open it. And you will see the same thing on a Nokia or Moto if you place your hand over the plastic back were the internal antenna is. You do not actually have to touch metal to see this effect (hence when you are in a metal building, you lose signal).

P.S. and also, BTW, the metal bezel on the 3G and 3GS is also part of the antenna...this is why some see the same thing there.

This is the only logic that explains the diverse results people are posting here today.
 
My Phone Does NOT Have the Signal Problem

Folks, this is NOT happening on all iPhone 4 units. My phone definitely does NOT drop calls, nor does the signal degrade, when I hold it in my left hand. I can cover up the entire left/lower corner and the signal stays full strength. It looks like some people have bad phones, but not all the new phones have this problem. My guess is very few have the problem.
 
You don't need to hold the phone to reproduce this problem. Lay your phone on its right side, then simply use your finger tip to bridge the gap in the metal seam on the bottom left corner of the phone. it will make the signal drop to nothing.
 
zmonster said:
Folks, this is NOT happening on all iPhone 4 units. My phone definitely does NOT drop calls, nor does the signal degrade, when I hold it in my left hand. I can cover up the entire left/lower corner and the signal stays full strength. It looks like some people have bad phones, but not all the new phones have this problem. My guess is very few have the problem.
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You guess wrong. Few is not the right word. It seems people like you are the MINORITY in this case.
 
NAG said:
Yet another test with my left hand. Bars went from 4 to 1 to 3 to 5 and then held steady all while holding it still.

This has to be partly a software issue. No way can it jump all over the place like that unless AT&T is screw with the towers for giggles.
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But You've got it all wrong. AT&T knows when you are touching the phone with your left hand so then they start to screw with the towers (but only in your area) You better bust out the tin foil hat, its the only hway* to stop them from reading your thoughts!!!11!1!!ONE!!!1!

*omg he put the h before the w (u know he's serious)
 
AbSoluTc said:
BS.

That's one HUGE BATCH they screwed up. Also, that coating would wear off FAST with sweat, dirt, grit and the like. I don't know of ANY coating that could stand up to that. The metal is bare and you can feel/see that. The coating would make it smooth and shiny.

Yeah, I call BS
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Yeah, dude, call BS or any other acronym which makes you feel cool all you want. I'm just repeating what I'm reading; I've found the original link the Dutch guy was talking about.
http://gizmodo.com/5571171/iphone-4-loses-reception-when-you-hold-it-by-the-antenna-band
Just got off the phone with Apple. They're sending me an overnight replacement. They're aware of this issue, and I was told that a batch of phones went out without some sort of protective coating (jives with the comment about clear nail polish).
Click to expand...
Let me clarify, I said a Gizmodo visitor, aka "reader", not Gizmodo themselves.
Btw, I hope you are not under the assumption that iPhones get produced in 6- or 12-packs... Batches are indeed "huge".
 
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