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BigWayne1386

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 5, 2010
11
0
Ok I just got the iPhone 4 and its my first iPhone in general. I switched over from VZW. Now leading up to waiting for my phone, I saw all the threads etc on the atennea problem and Apples response that it was just a "software" problem with how they show the signal bars. So if i were to believe Apple let me get this straight..., the formula they use leads to inncorrect bars so if that were the case how is it possible that I have 5 bars in my house and when I do the test I loose them all. Even if this was supposed to be 3 bars why would I loose all 3 bars when I do the test? Does Apple think that its customers are that stupid? Granted there might be since Apple seems to have a lot of fanboys who think the company can do no wrong but its clearly not just a software issue but an issue in design. I find it hard to believe that the software can really be that far off as wouldnt they just use the same formula as they did on previous models? If so than that must mean they've been wrong for the last 3 years. I switched from the Blackberry Storm and this phone is lightyears better but this is just my gripe that Apple is ridiculous.
 
or perhaps just dont comment if you didnt want to hear what i had to say. if it bothered you this much than you have really showed me how serious you are by taking time out of your day to comment on this.
 
Ok I just got the iPhone 4 and its my first iPhone in general. I switched over from VZW. Now leading up to waiting for my phone, I saw all the threads etc on the atennea problem and Apples response that it was just a "software" problem with how they show the signal bars. So if i were to believe Apple let me get this straight..., the formula they use leads to inncorrect bars so if that were the case how is it possible that I have 5 bars in my house and when I do the test I loose them all. Even if this was supposed to be 3 bars why would I loose all 3 bars when I do the test? Does Apple think that its customers are that stupid? Granted there might be since Apple seems to have a lot of fanboys who think the company can do no wrong but its clearly not just a software issue but an issue in design. I find it hard to believe that the software can really be that far off as wouldnt they just use the same formula as they did on previous models? If so than that must mean they've been wrong for the last 3 years. I switched from the Blackberry Storm and this phone is lightyears better but this is just my gripe that Apple is ridiculous.

Their previous models also have the same formula and has displayed the same behavior as the iPhone 4 as does other cell phones when you cover their antenna.

I do believe this issue has to do with signal strength. Yes, your hand causes interference with the antenna. As I stated before, a lot of other phones also have signal drop when the antenna is covered. So if you're in an area where the db drop is enough to make the bars go down, you will see a drop in bars like I do at home with my iPhone 4. If you're in a strong signal strength area, then the db drop won't cause the bars to drop like I had with the same phone at a baseball game I went to and couldn't cause the bars to drop.

If the update gives you a more accurate display of signal strength, then this issue could "go away". But, you can't escape the fact that covering the antenna does decrease your signal strength.
 
its not broken im just pointing out that how can the formula be off by 5 bars? i can understand 1 or 2 but if i have 5 bars and its supposed to be 2 bar thats still 3 incorrect bars which is a lot. how can that be? For a billion dollar company to make that mistake is a bid unbelieveable.
 
its not broken im just pointing out that how can the formula be off by 5 bars? i can understand 1 or 2 but if i have 5 bars and its supposed to be 2 bar thats still 3 incorrect bars which is a lot. how can that be? For a billion dollar company to make that mistake is a bid unbelieveable.

The problem is you're talking about two different things. The software fix for how the iPhone displays an incorrect signal strength through the bars is going to be fixed. This fix however does not resolve the issue with losing signal strength when covering up the antenna. If you cover up the antenna, and are in an area that doesn't have the greatest cellular coverage, you will drop down to one or even no bars. The software fix is not going to change that.
 
The problem is you're talking about two different things. The software fix for how the iPhone displays an incorrect signal strength through the bars is going to be fixed. This fix however does not resolve the issue with losing signal strength when covering up the antenna. If you cover up the antenna, and are in an area that doesn't have the greatest cellular coverage, you will drop down to one or even no bars. The software fix is not going to change that.

I know this is 2 different issues and thats more or less my point. Apple specifically said that the anttenea problem was due to this software problem which just isnt true what so ever. It is a design flaw first and formost and nothing else. For them to say the problem will be fixed in an update in a few weeks is not genuine as they are 2 totally different problems.
 
Their previous models also have the same formula and has displayed the same behavior as the iPhone 4 as does other cell phones when you cover their antenna.

I do believe this issue has to do with signal strength. Yes, your hand causes interference with the antenna. As I stated before, a lot of other phones also have signal drop when the antenna is covered. So if you're in an area where the db drop is enough to make the bars go down, you will see a drop in bars like I do at home with my iPhone 4. If you're in a strong signal strength area, then the db drop won't cause the bars to drop like I had with the same phone at a baseball game I went to and couldn't cause the bars to drop.

If the update gives you a more accurate display of signal strength, then this issue could "go away". But, you can't escape the fact that covering the antenna does decrease your signal strength.

This is the response that Apple wants you to believe, but don't listen to it.

Ever since I got my iPhone 4, I've been having dropped calls like crazy (1 every 5min) and it doesn't even matter where I hold it on the antenna. With a different phone, I've never received any dropped calls in any location including this one in the past 2 years. I live in the middle of Las Vegas, so reception is not an issue and I always got full bars on my old phone as well as the iPhone.
 
This is the response that Apple wants you to believe, but don't listen to it.

Ever since I got my iPhone 4, I've been having dropped calls like crazy (1 every 5min) and it doesn't even matter where I hold it on the antenna. With a different phone, I've never received any dropped calls in any location including this one in the past 2 years. I live in the middle of Las Vegas, so reception is not an issue and I always got full bars on my old phone as well as the iPhone.

So you're not going to believe my own experience with my iPhone 4, videos of the Nexus One, Evo 4G, older iPhones ,etc?

I am not discounting that there could be a hardware issue or missing coating or something. But, we do not know the amount of iPhone 4's having a missing coating vs simple location. And yours does sound like a hardware issue because the main complaint on this board is holding it where you touch the lower left hand corner blocking the antenna which causes this signal drop. If you drop a call no matter where you hold it or how, then that does sound like it is hardware.
 
mine works perfectly so do the iPhone 4's of everybody I know that has one so far.

Call me skeptical but with a Join Date: Jul 2010 and starting off with the exact troll topic that can be found from many of the new users that have joined to troll or hate on apple, I cannot help but to feel that this is nothing more then a troll thread.
 
Just enjoy your new phone. The signal 'problem' is quite blown out of proportion.

If anyone remembers when the iPhone was first released Apple was using the correct formula to calculate signal bars and many people were complaining "I used to have 4 bars or 5 bars on my other phone (with an antenna sticking out of the top of the thing) but now I have only 2 or 3" and so on... Then Apple released an update that changed this formula and all of a sudden we had 5 bars almost all the time. They knew what they were doing and it is ridiculous to think Apple was using the wrong calculation all this time.

The placement of the antenna might not be ideal but it is an incredible phone. If we were holding our old phones by their antennas we would have been experiencing the same thing. Just enjoy it!
 
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