I think it's just a fundamental design flaw and not a software glitch or manufacturing defect. If it were either of those two problems, don't you think Apple would have said "We are aware of the issue and are researching a solution"? Instead they say, "You're holding it the wrong way", which is upsetting a lot of people who are now returning their phones. I would think the last thing they want is for mass returns of the iPhone 4.
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Jobs says Signal Strength a "non issue"
- Thread starter samcraig
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I think it's just a fundamental design flaw and not a software glitch or manufacturing defect. If it were either of those two problems, don't you think Apple would have said "We are aware of the issue and are researching a solution"? Instead they say, "You're holding it the wrong way", which is upsetting a lot of people who are now returning their phones. I would think the last thing they want is for mass returns of the iPhone 4.
Just had a 5 minute phone call outside. Call was dropped THREE times within 5 minutes. Each time I looked at the phone there was 0 bars, no data.
Phone call ended with the other person saying "Wow, your phone sucks."
I have had no dropped calls with my 3GS in the past year.
Phone call ended with the other person saying "Wow, your phone sucks."
I have had no dropped calls with my 3GS in the past year.
I agree, i think its a pretty poor response from apple. For a company that charges a premium for their products claiming innovation and customer service, they've failed pretty hard in responding to this.
I think the reception is bad even without touching the bands, I was out today running errands and tried to make a call only to be greeted by 1 bar, in places where my 3g would have no issues getting full strength.
I'm waiting until Monday to see if something comes out from them, Im not about to get stuck to a 2 year contract with a phone thats worse off than my old 3G.
I think the reception is bad even without touching the bands, I was out today running errands and tried to make a call only to be greeted by 1 bar, in places where my 3g would have no issues getting full strength.
I'm waiting until Monday to see if something comes out from them, Im not about to get stuck to a 2 year contract with a phone thats worse off than my old 3G.
I'm back in the northern part of Chicago. North avenue to be exact and my wife and i are constantly losing bars and searching for signal when holding the phone. No issues what so ever in the burbs where signal is strong but where it's weaker like the city the phone is virtually useless. Waiting for signal to come back so I can post this. If I stayed in the burbs like I normally do, I would be on the other side starting threads like "my phone works 100%", " you guys are exaggerating the issue", "stop whining". This is an issue with all 4g phones, some just haven't been in poor areas yet.
While I totally understand your frustration in this whole ordeal I can also see that you'd never make it successfully running a company serving hundreds of thousands of customers.
You would certainly want your customers NOT to be as unreasonable as you are being about this iPhone issue. Every company puts out products with flaws that need to be addressed but as a customer you also have to have a certain level of patience. Do you really expect a company (even as large as Apple) that has hundreds of customers standing in line around the world for a product to have a fix in under a week? I guess that's not entirely unreasonable to expect but based on the fact that you had to be the first kid on the block with a new toy and were not willing to wait it out to avoid first production issues, then I can say that your expectations are quite unreasonable.
I would not expect a fix this fast but I would expect a company like apple to admit there is an issue and STOP sales until there was a resolution.
Fair point, I think I just expected apple to announce that they are working on the problem not releasing the information publicly always makes me worry.
I seriously doubt you will hear much of a peep out of them. for a while. Anything they say could kill their stock value. So when their service people said an announcement was coming on friday i knew it was "they were told to say that", and it wouldn't happen.
well now that i boxed up one of my iphone 4's and had at&t restore the number to my 3gs i am happy. I am waiting until monday to do the other iphone 4.
(i even sold my apple stock on friday lol)
That's all people need, I think... communication. Bidirectional communication. At times like these they have to make an exception from their long standing policy of stonewalling the masses when something goes wrong. They can't confuse the ***** out of everyone with left field statements like "you're holding the phone wrong" and then decline further comment. They lose so much goodwill that way. Haven't they learned anything from people who "do the poodle"*, like, I dunno, Hugh Grant on Letterman, or the CEO of BP?
* = "do the poodle" is a Swedish expression coined by a communication strategist who commented on a politician who held a press conference and apologized for something (can't remember what it was). The strategist wrote:
"He swiftly took command of the press conference and read from a well worded script. He did it with considerable and sincere humility and profound understanding of the reactions nationwide. He did the 'full poodle' – laid down on his back with his legs in the air."
This thread is serving as a great filter for my ignore list. Clearly anyone that thinks this is acceptable or a non-issue has no capability for independent, rational thought. They have no place in a discussion forum (all they can do is regurgitate others' arguments which have already been stated) - or at least not my forum!
yes , same identical problem with both 4's. Serial numbers were way different, probably since i placed the orders for them about 2 or 3 hours apart.
and i do need a working phone, so i had my 3gs restored to my main number on friday and shipped that one back. And it(the 3gs) works fine. And on monday i will ship the second iphone 4 back and have the other number restored to my 3G. ( i ran out of packing tape and it was too late to get back to the post office after i did buy some more)
I'd say it's an issue. I setup speakers near the phone so that you could actually hear the sound of the data stopping and restarting as I touched the sweet spot on the phone. You can also see the website stop loading and resume again when released.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzn8QhrYIvI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzn8QhrYIvI
I was actually considering to go get one today, since I figured all the hysteria might have died down and Im tired of my crappy 3G.
Actually I'm pleasantly surprised by how many members are capable of independent, rational thought, it's a healthy reaction that shows that the Apple/Mac community has grown and matured. The Mac community is what kept me away from Macs for the longest time, it was such an intolerant and depressing cesspool of bitter defensiveness, knee-jerk reactions, hate, reality distortion, cultism and "if you're not with us, you're against us" attitude. As Apple's products have become much more popular in the last 15 or so years, and the fear of Microsoft taking over the world has diminished, the Mac community is no longer the rabid and exclusive cult it used to be, but a more welcoming place where "normal" people can feel right at home. That's a major leap forward if you ask me.
I was actually considering to go get one today, since I figured all the hysteria might have died down and Im tired of my crappy 3G.
Aggie,
hmm well don't stop getting one cause of me. Also one thing to consider, how is the signal strength on your 3g on average. If you live in an area where there are a lot of towers, you might not even notice it.
I live on the fringe, i usually only get 3 bars of 3g on my 3gs.
during my testing on friday, as long as i stayed with in 2 miles of a tower it was okay, only slight loss of signal and no dropped calls.
I don’t live in a big city, so the coverage can vary here, which is why I considered getting one at the AT&T store, since I should know fairly quickly how bad the problem will be for me. I can’t remember, but did you have to work at it to lose signal, or does it lose signal just by touching it normally? I wasn’t going to use your experience as a determining factor, but I do listen to more of the sane people around here (e.g. samcraig, who started this thread, but was going to still keep the phone for the “non-issue").
Did you ship it back to apple? I was inquiring about mine and I was told i needed to return it to the apple store...ATT wouldn't take it and they never mentioned anything about being able to ship it back
I figured since i pre ordered it tru Apple i should be able to ship it back..?
Thinking about this some more, I really can't see how this is a software issue.
I for one will be taking my iPhone 4 back for a refund if Apple don't come up with a proper fix.
One temporary bodge that might be worth trying though, get one of the scratch protection products (e.g. http://www.wrapsol.com/en_US/Home+Page/Products/iphone+_+mobile/apple/iPhone+4.aspx) and stick that over the antennas. I've got some 3M Di-Noc in the garage that I might try. (But don't do nail varnish, Apple could then deny you a refund/warranty).
I'm not buying an iPhone until September, so none of this really pertains to me. But, I would suggest that anybody who is not happy with their iPhone should return it to Apple for a full refund. Now, wasn't that simple?
Ok so there is now a competing thread by some idiot with a number of other idiots saying that their phone is perfect. Let's give the idiots the benefit of the doubt:
IF their phone is perfect and not having the issue.... than this thing is hardware based and limited to some phones and we need to beat it down to Apple stores to get a replacement. Right?
IF their phone is perfect and not having the issue.... than this thing is hardware based and limited to some phones and we need to beat it down to Apple stores to get a replacement. Right?
Aggie,
in my case , i didn't have to work on it at all to loose connection. I would just hold it in my left palm sort of like a loose hand wrap, like i normally do for web browsing, like i did with my 3gs. But here, being on the fringe of coverage, i soon noticed i could just lay it on a table and take my thumb and middle finger and just hole both sides and it would drop to no service.
i wouldn't jump to that conclusion, since people aren't relating thier exact locations in refernce to towers etc.
it is too bad apple wont be saying the whole real issue, it would hurt thier stock value even admitting it is a problem.
oh also i read 2 of those threads, and one guy in particular who says he has no problems doesnt even own an iphone 4 lol
