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iPhone 4 Signal Strength Indicator Issue Alleviated by Use of Bumper or Case

field service mode

el3ktro said:
May I ask how you know that? Not that I don't believe you, I'm just really curious.
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normally I would say put the phone into the field service mode, *3001#12345#*, but THAT DOESnT seem to work with the new phone or ios4
 
2contagious said:
Got an iPhone 4 reserved for tomorrow morning.
Question is: BUY or wait? :confused:
Click to expand...

Buy if you have a strong AT&T signal. It seems that when I was out today with full bars, holding it however I wanted didn't affect the bars.

In my house however, holding it with my left hand reduced bars significantly.
 
kemal said:
While in the queue at the Apple store I tried the IP4 belonging to a store employee. I took off the bumper and saw the expected drop in signal. With the bumper back on I did not see a drop. This was outside the store, in the great outdoors.

Once inside, not more than 25 feet away, I tried seven more of the phones which were on a display table. I tried with and without the dock cable, with and without wireless and/or Bluetooth on. All without bumpers. My same hand technique could not get a one of them to drop in signal strength.

My friend did buy his phone. No signal loss either.
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In Apple stores that normally have poor signal strength, Apple has been putting 3G mini towers in there for the last couple of years so that could be why you got the signal drop outside and not in the store.
 
2contagious said:
Got an iPhone 4 reserved for tomorrow morning.
Question is: BUY or wait? :confused:
Click to expand...

Not really something we can tell you, it's a personal choice.

The sensible thing to do is to wait (could be like 6 months) until it's all acknowledged and resolved and perhaps there's a revision B (64GB models?) where they might've done a lot of fixing. Besides it'll take that long for some developers to catch up and sharpen up their UI elements to look good on the retina display.

OTOH, the desire for new shiny tends to get in the way of being sensible. I'm slowly learning to just hold the phone in the other hand :p
 
I have a bumper case

No signal problems here, but I put the bumper case on when I got it... so I haven't tested it without the case
 
mnemonix said:
This.

The change in the antenna when touched is causing the firmware to not only display less bars, but actually manage the connection differently or drop it, thinking it's unsustainable when it isn't.

It's as plausible an explanation as any, if not the most likely I've heard yet, which would indicate a firmware update will actually fix it. Embarassing for Apple sure but not the end of the world.

Whilst the evidence suggests this is a real issue, the absurd over reaction and just plain scientifically incorrect and ignorant claims being made on this and other forums is frankly worse. Way to throw your toys out of the pram people. If it's a firmware fix, it'll come. If it really is a hardware problem you have recourse to an exchange or refund. Now don't any of you have lives beyond a new phone?
Click to expand...

Then explain to me why data completely gets choked midstream. Whether this be a phone call or the web, it just stops. Dead.

Furthermore, sure these people have lives beyond this phone, however, Apple themselves have no one to blame but the man in the mirror on this.

They've hyped this revolutionary antenna design into the stratosphere. When you are as high profile as they are, you better be able to deliver.

This is not what I would call delivery. This is a huge disappointment and quite possibly one of their biggest blunders in quite some time , if not all time.
 
I think a software update would fix this issue

Having different antenna active when needed might be the fix apple is referring to.
 
Now I get why Steve pitched the bumpers... he knew!

Okay. Is it just me, or did it seem a little odd that Jobs made a point at all about the "bumpers?" Sumpm tells me Apple already knew that this 'juuuuust might be a problem.' Aside from the conveniently (soon to be?) available antenna covers... err... bumpers, what-say someone volunteers to play loose with their warranty and clear-coats the metal bands. Or hey, we should try scotch tape first... or why not some of that fancy colored 'lectrical tape? Seriously, someone try out these home brewed fixes and get back with us.
 
The problem is created simply by bridging the two antennas. It doesn't have to be your left hand. I was able to kill my signal by simply putting a finger directly on top of the black spacer effectively bridging the bottom antenna with the side antenna.

From a design point of view I think Apple knew about the problem stemming from the antennas being connected. Otherwise they wouldn't have created a black rubber spacer to separate the antennas in the first place. Of course, Apple wasn't going to say anything prior to a launch because no one wants to buy a defective product and they would just wait to buy the next revision.

It's curious that they stepped into the case accessory market just as this design problem popped up in their phones and it just happens to eliminate any reception problems.

I hope they give away the bumpers for free.
 
Scottsdale said:
It isn't going to be a software fix.
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Though I'm slowly getting more nervous that it could be a technical issue, it's still absolutely possible that it's just a software issue. If you touch the antenna, it's characteristics will change, and the software that processes the antenna signal will undoubtedly detect that change in characteristics. A bug in this software could now very possibly make the OS think that there is no signal, even if there still is a signal. The OS then tells the running app, for example Safari, "hey sorry there is no data network available", and Safari stops loading the page.

Well at least I really hope it's just something like this.
 
this just reminded me of something. about 4-5 months ago, apple requested a patent on a handheld device feature. the feature was that functions could be carried out on a phone by holding 2 exterior points on the phone to activate functions (the current passed between the two points through the holder would activate it). perhaps the iphone 4 had this built in, but has not yet been activated and is now bugging up the rest of the phone?

just a small guess/wonder
 
Crackbone said:
Then explain to me why data completely gets choked midstream. Whether this be a phone call or the web, it just stops. Dead.
Click to expand...

I already did, but here it is again: the change in the antenna when touched is causing the firmware to manage the connection differently or drop it, thinking it's unsustainable when in fact it isn't. If it decides to drop the connection then of course it will stop dead. It doesn't mean however that touching the antenna really is killing the signal, just that the firmware is interpreting the change, however insignificant it might be, incorrectly.

Crackbone said:
Furthermore, sure these people have lives beyond this phone, however, Apple themselves have no one to blame but the man in the mirror on this.
Click to expand...

And again, I pointed out that whatever the issue is it's embarassing for Apple, however the over reaction, ignorance and conspiracy theories I'm witnessing here are absurd and over the top.

I'm not sure I understand the purpose of your reply.
 
FWIW - I went to an AT&T store and tried out an iPhone 4. The display is easily the best I've seen in any device in terms of clarity, sharpness, contrast, you name it. Simply beautiful. The camera impressed with clean flashless shots. The build was slim and sturdy, it made the 3GS feel like a toy.

As for the antenna issue, I held the iPhone 4 in my left hand, gripped all three antenna areas, even placing my finders right on the seams and squeezing hard. 5 bars. 20 seconds later - 5 bars. No yellow bands or spots either.
 
Spoke to technical support

So I finally decided to call into tech support. To their credit, I used the Apple website and I got a call from a tech support guy in less than 1 minute.

I was referred to a senior specialist, who told me that engineers were "furiously" working on this issue and that they hoped to issue a software patch by Monday. If not, he said they would replace the phone.

I have a hard time believing this is a software issue, but I guess we'll see. But the bottom line is that Apple seems to be well aware of this problem and is trying to fix it. Can't believe they couldn't have seen this coming before launch, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydVxwKJWGV0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6oflC4qo8M
 
mattydee87 said:
Yup but I get a pretty poor signal anyway in my house - usually on 1/2 bars. Having said that, even with this issue I never lose service.
Click to expand...

Where in the UK do you live and on what network are you? Have people with O2 had any problems so far? I was able to see the same problem happening to all iPhone 4's in store (Regent Street Apple Store, London) that were running on the Orange network, but O2 and 3 seemed to be fine.. no signal drops when holding the phone in store with these networks.
 
dwcolt said:
So I finally decided to call into tech support. To their credit, I used the Apple website and I got a call from a tech support guy in less than 1 minute.

I was referred to a senior specialist, who told me that engineers were "furiously" working on this issue and that they hoped to issue a software patch by Monday. If not, he said they would replace the phone.

I have a hard time believing this is a software issue, but I guess we'll see. But the bottom line is that Apple seems to be well aware of this problem and is trying to fix it. Can't believe they couldn't have seen this coming before launch, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydVxwKJWGV0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6oflC4qo8M
Click to expand...

If there is truth behind what was said, I wouldnt expect to see a jailbreak for the new iphone 4 until that update is released.
 
I am able to produce the same reception issue with both the iPhone 3G S with the latest update and the 3G without the latest update. In both instances by covering the top/sides of the phone and holding it close to my body, I was able to decrease my reception level from five bars down to one. It isn't as easy as they show in the videos with the iPhone 4, but it is in fact possible. I honestly hope this isn't a hardware problem, but it sure is looking more and more like it.
 
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