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Jobs says Signal Strength a "non issue"

Just watched NBC nightly news. Apple is a laughing stock. And SJ's cryptic and petulant response only makes matters worse.

I'll buy a bumper for mine but the $30 just to make an iPhone work properly won't fly with a lot of the public.
 
The real question is, for people who have bought bumpers already, will they get a $30 Apple gift card if they give bumpers away for free soon?
 
ValSalva said:
Just watched NBC nightly news. Apple is a laughing stock. And SJ's cryptic and petulant response only makes matters worse.

I'll buy a bumper for mine but the $30 just to make an iPhone work properly won't fly with a lot of the public.
Click to expand...

Only said this about a dozen times, but its Friday and I'm bored. Bumper won't fix the problem.
 
I think they've overstepped the mark with this issue and I'm confident the courts will concur in time.

I'm already looking forward to a copy of my receipt to be sent to Apple so I can have the £50 I spent on two bumpers back. They should have been supplied free with the handsets in the first place. Alternatively you could pay for physiotherapy to cure my cack handed condition so I might be able to have a conversation with my new phone on a hot summers day without it dropping calls faster than BP's stock.

While they are at it they may as well send me replacements for all my pre 3gs dock cable connectors which no longer fit because the bumper's dock connector hole is too small to fit the classic connectors - at least half a dozen in my possession but most annoyingly the dock in my car and my very expensive Russ Andrews interconnect to my hifi means the bumper has to come off to plug in.

If there's a class action thread somewhere, for the UK or worldwide - count me in.
 
This is why its not always good to have super secretive products which undergo substandard testing in the wild (apart from Gray Powell). I mean they should have had hundreds of people testing this thing to make sure it was 100%, especially with a new antenna design.
 
ValSalva said:
Just watched NBC nightly news. Apple is a laughing stock. And SJ's cryptic and petulant response only makes matters worse.
Click to expand...

I'd like to see Jon Stewart jump into this one.

Fuchal said:
AppleInsider is reporting that this is a firmware issue and will be fixed by Monday: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/06/25/death_grip_hysteria_may_end_monday_with_ios_4_01.html
Click to expand...

The article is not exactly encouraging though:

cellphones in general (and in particular the iPhone) have always only presented a very rough approximation of signal strength in the signal bar display, averaged over time. It appears that iOS 4, more so than previous iPhone software, presents a less accurate signal meter, showing less signal at times than an iPhone 3GS while still being able to achieve the same or better call quality.
Click to expand...

That makes it sound like the "fix" is to change the display to show a higher signal. I'm not sure that's going to help people with dropped called and connection problems.
 
I use a silicon case and I still have signal problems with dropped calls. I dont believe the bumper will help all people. I think there will still be alot of problems. I dont use a landline and this is my only source of communication so this is a big problem
 
I've been trying to replicate this signal thing since they first started talking about it and have not lost one bar no matter how I hold the phone. And I live in the country were signal is not good on other phones. I get better reception with iPhone 4 than with my 3GS. I think these are isolated issues and not a problem for everyone. If it doesn't affect everyone then I don't consider it a design flaw.
 
Huubster said:
Here is my conspiracy theory.

His Steveness is looking for an excuse to step back and retire without having the shares drop too much. The problematic phones will be fixed one way or another. Massive publicity and positive customer support unheard of will save the future for Apple without his Steveness :p
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Good one. ;)

My conspiracy theory isn't so complicated, and doesn't really involve any conspiracy either, but it goes something like this:

It was a gamble that misfired. Apple has been testing the limits of form-over-function for a few years now to determine to which degree people are willing to trade functionality for thinness/slickness etc, with pretty amazing results. They put high-gloss screens and chicklet keys on everything and it didn't hurt sales. They made the crippled little thing called the MacBook Air and it sold well. Every time, it worked.

So now they were faced with a choice. "OK... we can make the new iPhone thicker than the last, or we can make it thinner, with the tradeoff that we have to use the metal edge as the antenna. This might actually require people to hold the phone in a certain way to avoid killing the signal". Emboldened by the history of high acceptance/tolerance for odd design choices and compromises, they thought... "hey, we can pull it off. We can make people adapt the way they hold the phone. They want the iPhone so bad, they'll accept it. And besides, most people use a case anyway."

What they didn't count on was the "backlashy" mood in the air, after the whole embarrassing affair with the Gizmodo leak, plus the fact that Apple recently became larger than Microsoft (and also the arrogant attitude towards Flash and the public war with Adobe). Apple isn't the sweet little underdog anymore... it's become a behemoth and the media can't wait to sink their teeth into any mistake that Apple makes. Well now they made a pretty significant mistake and spiced it with classic Steve arrogance ("you're holding the phone wrong" etc)... it has the potential of evolving into a PR nightmare in the long run. Letterman/Leno will be all over this... Android will have a field day with "iDon't" commercials that mock the antenna issues... and at some point there will be a Gizmodo trial where Apple will potentially send a blogger and a couple of others to jail for stealing "that f***ed up iPhone with the bad antenna you can't touch".
 
Anuba said:
... and at some point there will be a Gizmodo trial where Apple will potentially send a blogger and a couple of others to jail for stealing "that f***ed up iPhone with the bad antenna you can't touch".
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Priceless! :D
 
May I take this time to congratulate the thread starter, sorry excuse my manners but reading 2000+ posts in I forget their name, on a most exquisite informative and enlightening thread. I now have all pathetic fan-boys noted.

You know who and what you are so no need to reply. Good day. :cool:
 
Just got the bumper case and it still drops from 5 bars to 1. Called Apple they are sending me a new one to swap it out with.

Bigworm36 said:
I use a silicon case and I still have signal problems with dropped calls. I dont believe the bumper will help all people. I think there will still be alot of problems. I dont use a landline and this is my only source of communication so this is a big problem
Click to expand...
 
TrunksGoku said:
also, i dont think some of you realize how sporadic a radio frequency is when it comes to cellphones. the number is always ever changing. Manufacturers of cellphones have to use their better judgment to determine how to properly report a signal in terms of bars, so that our obsessive compulsive minds dont flip out when we see bars jumping up and down sporadically. Just because you see zero bars on a reception signal, doesnt mean you cannot make a phone call. It could mean a number of things, signal not being represented properly, etc.
Click to expand...

just going to go ahead and quote myself


and then link this:

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/06/25/death_grip_hysteria_may_end_monday_with_ios_4_01.html

Additionally, cellphones in general (and in particular the iPhone) have always only presented a very rough approximation of signal strength in the signal bar display, averaged over time. It appears that iOS 4, more so than previous iPhone software, presents a less accurate signal meter, showing less signal at times than an iPhone 3GS while still being able to achieve the same or better call quality.
Click to expand...
 
Well dont people feel a bit conned? they advertise the iphone 4 on there site with no bumper as useable! yet now to use it we have to have one!

Will apple change the iphone 4 gallery and photos with the bumpers on now? and that will be the iphone 4 for this year!

Even the keynote steve did not have a bumper on his phone this is false advertising! I see a disclaimer on there terms coming up!

*iphone4 can only be used with a choice of bumper failing to so so will cause unreliable reception
 
BobHail said:
They´re sending you a new bumper? :D
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It's the large version of the bumper, it goes on top of the first bumper. Tests have shown that with 6 or 7 layers of bumpers, you're good to go. Plus you'll have a 15-inch phone in your pocket to show the girls.
 
Anuba said:
It's the large version of the bumper, it goes on top of the first bumper. Tests have shown that with 6 or 7 layers of bumpers, you're good to go. Plus you'll have a 15-inch phone in your pocket to show the girls.
Click to expand...

Perfect! :p
 
aibo82 said:
Will apple change the iphone 4 gallery and photos with the bumpers on now? and that will be the iphone 4 for this year!
Click to expand...
And will they reshoot the commercials so that the actors will all be holding the phones in the approved manner? They revised the ones showing Flash content on the iPad... you never know.
 
Eric S. said:
I'd like to see Jon Stewart jump into this one.



The article is not exactly encouraging though:



That makes it sound like the "fix" is to change the display to show a higher signal. I'm not sure that's going to help people with dropped called and connection problems.
Click to expand...

Your reading comprehension is much good not... :apple:

Readers who saw the original forum discussions say that the issue is believed to occur when switching frequencies; because the lag is allegedly not calibrated correctly, it results in the device reporting "no service" rather than switching to the frequency with the best signal to noise ratio.
Click to expand...
 
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