Depends.... I bought at AT&T Premier and was told I have 30 days to return (with 10% restocking fee - ha right). I would be able to go back to my 3GS at any point in this time frame, reset to my old activation date, and get my activation fees back.
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Jobs says Signal Strength a "non issue"
- Thread starter samcraig
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Depends.... I bought at AT&T Premier and was told I have 30 days to return (with 10% restocking fee - ha right). I would be able to go back to my 3GS at any point in this time frame, reset to my old activation date, and get my activation fees back.
Why don't you all **** on here and go return your iPhone to make a real statement. Obviously Steve doesn't give a cent about forum complaints.
The a) "he" shouldn't be responding at all or b) the response should come from someone else's account.
The fact that he doesn't "sign" his email - to me, and to most, doesn't matter. He is the face of apple. His email address is the voice of Apple. When an email comes in from sjobs@apple.com - it's coming from the CEO. Because if they don't want it that way - or it shouldn't be interpreted that way - they should remove sjobs@apple.com and/or have an email address that doesn't use his name. That's my opinion as a Marketing and PR specialist for over 20 years.
Right Hand - 1 Bar
Left Hand - No Service
Something is wrong
Not enough beta/alpa testing.
I know that this has been mentioned already, but I can't replicate this issue at work? Not even one bar. At home if I touch that spot, it will go from 5 bars, down to 1 or none. 
I spoke with apple tech support last night. They asked if I restored from a backup of 4.0 (which I did). They had me restore as a new phone and then were going to call me back. He said if this doesn't work they would replace the phone. So I restored as a new phone and still had the same issue.
Meanwhile, I was checking sites and noticed that apple made an their official statement around @8pm, stating that all cellphones exhibit this behavior and that we should by a case.
Shortly after I received that return phone call from the tech who stated that there was nothing they could do at this time and that he could not authorize a replacement for this issue. He said that i could try the apple store, and that his hands were tied. Unbelievable!!!
I can't believe this. I will be heading to the apple store and demanding a replacement. If the replacement performs the same way, then looks like I will be returning phone. I can understand a bar or two dropping, but when at I touch that spot (atleast at home), all data ceases to go through. This has been confirmed using the speed test app, and is just plain unacceptable
I spoke with apple tech support last night. They asked if I restored from a backup of 4.0 (which I did). They had me restore as a new phone and then were going to call me back. He said if this doesn't work they would replace the phone. So I restored as a new phone and still had the same issue.
Meanwhile, I was checking sites and noticed that apple made an their official statement around @8pm, stating that all cellphones exhibit this behavior and that we should by a case.
Shortly after I received that return phone call from the tech who stated that there was nothing they could do at this time and that he could not authorize a replacement for this issue. He said that i could try the apple store, and that his hands were tied. Unbelievable!!!
I can't believe this. I will be heading to the apple store and demanding a replacement. If the replacement performs the same way, then looks like I will be returning phone. I can understand a bar or two dropping, but when at I touch that spot (atleast at home), all data ceases to go through. This has been confirmed using the speed test app, and is just plain unacceptable
It must be true I saw it on Youtube! News articles reporting what? Oh, threads like this one. Not to mention anecdotal accounts of calls to Apple.
Until there is an objective comparison of different handsets in the same location on the same network all we have is anecdote, speculation and whining. I seem to remember incessant complaints about dropped calls on AT&T's network. Now with the iPhone 4 we have ... complaints about dropped calls.
We are not going to agree on this but one thing is certain, by this weekend there will be lots of new iPhone 4s in use, I suspect the true nature of this problem - if there is one - will then start to emerge.
Explained by a Ph.D. in Electromagnetics:
The technical explanation for the variation in signal strength found when closing the iPhone's case gaps with one's fingers is, that the antennas are being "loaded". The loading from fingers, a material with a high relative permittivity of ~50 at 2 GHz, changes the input impedance and resonant frequency of the antenna resulting in loss.
If I had to take an educated guess, I suspect pressing one's fingers across the gap increases the gap capacitance and changes the feed input impedance and electrical length of the antenna. It is analogous to holding on to a piano wire with two fingers while it is being struck. Its resonant frequency will shift and its quality factor will drop, resulting in a sound that is off key and muffled.
A solution often employed in the field is to preload an antenna. Preloading is including a large permittivity in the design, so when a human puts it close to their body, there isn't a significant change. The down side of this is that it often reduces bandwidth and efficiency. So you can either have a great antenna that takes a hit when your fingers are near it or have one that is not quite as good but never changes. Isn't it like Apple to choose the former and like the masses to cry for the latter?
Note that if the antennas were designed to be inside the case as opposed to being part of it, they would likely have a loss somewhere between the best (unloaded) and worst (loaded) performance of the existing antenna. It's all an engineering tradeoff.
The best solution is to not touch the antennas at the gap (Steve is right) or to buy a phone cover that keeps your high-permittivity sausages away from the RF sensitive areas. Apple made the trade off for you and in my opinion it is a novel and good one, provided it can survive the bad PR generated by the griping gap grippers.
The technical explanation for the variation in signal strength found when closing the iPhone's case gaps with one's fingers is, that the antennas are being "loaded". The loading from fingers, a material with a high relative permittivity of ~50 at 2 GHz, changes the input impedance and resonant frequency of the antenna resulting in loss.
If I had to take an educated guess, I suspect pressing one's fingers across the gap increases the gap capacitance and changes the feed input impedance and electrical length of the antenna. It is analogous to holding on to a piano wire with two fingers while it is being struck. Its resonant frequency will shift and its quality factor will drop, resulting in a sound that is off key and muffled.
A solution often employed in the field is to preload an antenna. Preloading is including a large permittivity in the design, so when a human puts it close to their body, there isn't a significant change. The down side of this is that it often reduces bandwidth and efficiency. So you can either have a great antenna that takes a hit when your fingers are near it or have one that is not quite as good but never changes. Isn't it like Apple to choose the former and like the masses to cry for the latter?
Note that if the antennas were designed to be inside the case as opposed to being part of it, they would likely have a loss somewhere between the best (unloaded) and worst (loaded) performance of the existing antenna. It's all an engineering tradeoff.
The best solution is to not touch the antennas at the gap (Steve is right) or to buy a phone cover that keeps your high-permittivity sausages away from the RF sensitive areas. Apple made the trade off for you and in my opinion it is a novel and good one, provided it can survive the bad PR generated by the griping gap grippers.
don't know if people saw this since the page gets bumped so quickly but:
technically if it was due to something shorting wouldn't the same thing happen if you put your finger across the seam by the headphone jack?
technically if it was due to something shorting wouldn't the same thing happen if you put your finger across the seam by the headphone jack?
So if Barack Obama started saying things on his twitter account like "BP FTW!" or "The economy is the best its ever been" it wouldn't have an impact on his job as President? Think again.
As I said. Company CEO speaking from his official company email address is like a company comment. Want to say something personal? Use your personal account, thats what it exists for.
And to be honest a CEO of a company should have enough business sense to know not to do something like that. When you reach a public figure position everything you say will get put under the microscope, it goes along with the fame. This isn't Steve's first day as CEO.
Didn't you see the keynote with iAds? Steve put in his e-mail to win the car giveaway... "sjobs@apple.com"
However, she said that they are aware of this and engineers are working on a solution. She said they could not give out any more bumpers as they were "on hold" in terms of how to respond to callers on this matter. They are apparently awaiting word on an "official" fix which is expected in the next few days.
So I guess stay tuned? I hope there isn't some bogus software fix that merely fakes the signal strength. All I wanted was some free swag.
I suspect that Apple knows exactly what the problem is at this point and probably issued a change order to correct future units.
That said, they got themselves in a jam because I have no doubt over a million defective units went out the door yesterday. They will replace any unit that customers want replaced at this point. I think what they are banking on is that a large number of 1st day users will simply accept Jobs' ridiculous "Learn how to hold it" or "Put a cover on it" fix. I read this morning that something like 77% of iPhone 4 users are "repeat" iPhone buyers, out of the 77% I'm sure a large percentage of these are brainwashed fanboys who will just accept anything that comes out of Jobs' mouth.
So maybe in the end Apple will have to replace 200,000 - 300,000 phones quietly without the embarrassment of a recall or admitting that anything is wrong. The rest of the zombies will simply buy covers, bumpers, or hold the phone as their messiah instructs them to.
But that is a different antenna. There are three. The issue seems to come about bridging the bottom one with the one on the left.
On the basis that the product is not fit for purpose or not satisfactory in quality, your statutory warranty period applies.
Within 14 days, you may return your 'fit for purpose, nothing wrong with it' iPhone.
I would certainly try and return the faulty phone. Whatever Apple Inc wants you to believe, a phone should keep calls regardless of which hand you are using.
I don't think it was smart of Stevie to come out and say that so fast. He must be pretty sure of himself to reply quickly like that.