Logically Deconstructing Apple's Statement

[Small White Car]

How with all the research apple and att must have done into dropped calls that they didn't figure out the bars were a misrepresentation of true signal strength?

No no no. They did it on PURPOSE. Years ago.

It's so people who lived in houses that used to say 2 bars will now say 5 bars. Wheee! Everyone's happy!

In other words, they decided that lying to you would make you happier.

But in the end it simply made the iPhone 4's reception problems (which are real) look even bigger than they really were. So Apple's being punished for trying to cheat the system.

Karma

This would have been a MUCH smaller deal if people knew their real reception. It would exist, but there would be less threads about it than about smashes glass backs.

 

[Bodhi395]

But do we know they're not doing those things? No. They didn't TELL us they were doing them, but they DID say that this fix will take several weeks. Does it take several weeks to change the bar icons? No. Thus I'm certain that they are working on these other fixes in addition to the ones they told us about.

I wouldn't get worried yet. Wait and see what they come up with. I suspect it will be a much bigger software change than they told you this morning.

If they are really working on actually solving the problem, and choose to give us a BS announcement instead of saying how they will actually solve the problem, its an incredibly horrible PR move.

 

[Small White Car]

If they are really working on actually solving the problem, and choose to give us a BS announcement instead of saying how they will actually solve the problem, its an incredibly horrible PR move.

I can't think of an alternative. They're still testing. It would be irresponsible to say anything about that part of it for at least another week or two when they start getting some answers. Saying ANYTHING before you know what you're dealing with can be very, very bad if you guess wrong.

So the "right" answer is to say nothing for another week.

But clearly they can't do that. They had to say SOMETHING. So they did that: They just said something.

It's not particularly useful, but that's because they don't have anything useful to say yet. It will come with time. People have to understand that engineering and science don't happen overnight. CSI isn't real. Things take time.

 

[kdarling]

Even apart from the whole bar issue, Anandtech confirmed that the iPhone 4 is much worse at blocking a signal when you hold it than the 3GS.

On the iPhone 4 it drops about 20 db when held naturally while the 3GS only drops about 2 DB, a ten times increase.

Decibels are logarithmic. 2 to 20 would be a HUNDRED times more drop.

That is scientific proof holding the iPhone 4 drops the signal significantly more than on the 3GS, and they didn't rely on just looking at the bars. Apple's fix therefore will have no effect on the actual issue, which is that holding the iPhone 4 degrades the signal significantly more than other phones.

 

[Bodhi395]

Decibels are logarithmic. 2 to 20 would be a HUNDRED times more drop.

Even worse than I thought, thanks for the info.

 

[Slip Jigs]

You're really having trouble with this. Here, let's go with an example:

Pretend there is a house that gets 2 bars. (This is not a 100% accurate way of saying it, but I've gotta say it this way to make this make sense to you.)

Now pretend there is an iPhone 4 and a Blackberry in it.

The BB shows 2 bars.
The iPhone shows 5 bars.

But they're both really getting 2.

With me so far? This is what Apple said is going on in their phones. (They did this to fool you into thinking you had better signal. Naughty Apple! This is why lying is a bad idea...it eventually catches up to you.)

NOW - We cup our hands over the Blackberrie's antenna. It drops 1 bar and now shows 1 bar.

We do the same to the iPhone...it now figures out it only has 1 bar (just like the Blackberry) and shows 1 bar.

You think you lost 4 bars, but you really lost just 1.

The Blackberry and the iPhone work the same (2 bars down to 1 bar) but the iPhone user thinks he lost more bars than the BB!

So they're gonna make the iPhone more like the Blackberry and have it show 2 bars in the first place.

Got it?

The problem with that example is you're saying the iPhone is showing the incorrect number of bars at first, and then showing the correct number of bars when cupped.

It's either reporting the strength correctly or it isn't. The only difference may be that it's less inaccurate in the lower range.

 

[aforty]

I can't think of an alternative. They're still testing. It would be irresponsible to say anything about that part of it for at least another week or two when they start getting some answers. Saying ANYTHING before you know what you're dealing with can be very, very bad if you guess wrong.

So the "right" answer is to say nothing for another week.

But clearly they can't do that. They had to say SOMETHING. So they did that: They just said something.

It's not particularly useful, but that's because they don't have anything useful to say yet. It will come with time. People have to understand that engineering and science don't happen overnight. CSI isn't real. Things take time.

All your posts in this thread win on so many different levels. Good job.

Exactly what I've been trying to say this whole time but perhaps not communicating it as eloquently as you. I will be referring to your posts from here on forward.

 

[aristobrat]

Even apart from the whole bar issue, Anandtech confirmed that the iPhone 4 is much worse at blocking a signal when you hold it than the 3GS. On the iPhone 4 it drops about 20 db when held naturally while the 3GS only drops about 2 DB

Right, and then Anandtech goes on to say this:

There's no doubt in my mind this iPhone gets the best cellular reception yet, even though measured signal is lower than the 3GS.

So is this accurate?

iPhone 4 con: measured signal drops more than any other iPhone when held naturally
iPhone 4 pro: phone functions much better in low-signal situations than any other iPhone ever has

 

[aforty]

So is this accurate?

iPhone 4 con: signal drops 20db when held naturally
iPhone 4 pro: phone functions much better in low-signal situations than any other iPhone ever has

You got it.

 

[diabolic]

CSI isn't real. Things take time.

Surely if a 16 year old posting on YouTube can figure out the signal issues a real engineer can do it in 5 minutes.

 

[elohel]

I guess what I wanna know is how I can go from getting 200-400kB download speeds to nothing

is it possible that on a weak ass signal you can get good dl speeds and the attenuation just blocks it or?