No manual switch between 3G and Edge???

[kre62]

Not only considered but also mentioned it in this thread, right on page one (emphasis added):



Michael

That one vague line that didnt go into detail and was buried in a mountain of text? Yeah no one read that.

 

[Tinmania]

That one vague line that didnt go into detail and was buried in a mountain of text? Yeah no one read that.

I guess reading is not your strong suit. But don't paint everyone with the same brush. Do keep up.

If the baseband theory for the 4S is true, hopefully a software workaround can be achieved, whether that is by Apple or the Dev team, I would take it either way.

Michael

 

[kre62]

I guess reading is not your strong suit. But don't paint everyone with the same brush. Do keep up.





Michael

No one read that either.

Good thing I'm here.

 

[Tinmania]

No one read that either.

Good thing I'm here.

Delusional much?


Michael

 

[prism]

This is an excellent point and in fact, if I am not mistaken, the anandtech review actually hints to this! If it is at the hardware level then I guess there is nothing that can be done.

Has anyone ever considered that maybe the new Qualcomm cell chip does not allow this functionality?

You are comparing the 4S, which uses the Qualcomm 6610 to all prior iPhones, which use Infineon cell chips. It's very possible that the Qualcomm chips don't allow individual disabling of the radios, and thus is not an "OMG Apple took mah switch away!!!11" situation.

 

[prism]

On page 3 of the review: "One of the things I noticed was absent on the CDMA iPhone 4 was the 3G toggle. It does indeed make some sense to not include this in a CDMA 1x/EVDO scenario since power draw is about the same between the two air interfaces, however, the absence of this toggle has carried over to the 4S regardless of whether the phone is activated on a CDMA2000 or UMTS/GSM network. That’s right, you can go under Settings -> General -> Network, and there’s no longer any 3G Data toggle which you can disable and fall onto EDGE (2G) with now. It’s likely that this is absent to accommodate the multi-mode nature of the 4S (and thus the lowest common denominator CDMA mode)

 

[BiggAW]

On page 3 of the review: "One of the things I noticed was absent on the CDMA iPhone 4 was the 3G toggle. It does indeed make some sense to not include this in a CDMA 1x/EVDO scenario since power draw is about the same between the two air interfaces, however, the absence of this toggle has carried over to the 4S regardless of whether the phone is activated on a CDMA2000 or UMTS/GSM network. That’s right, you can go under Settings -> General -> Network, and there’s no longer any 3G Data toggle which you can disable and fall onto EDGE (2G) with now. It’s likely that this is absent to accommodate the multi-mode nature of the 4S (and thus the lowest common denominator CDMA mode)

They could still include it when it's running on the GSM side, and make it disappear when it's running on the CDMA side (as would be the case for the Verizon iPhone that has a foreign SIM put into it for international use).

 

[Tinmania]

They could still include it when it's running on the GSM side, and make it disappear when it's running on the CDMA side (as would be the case for the Verizon iPhone that has a foreign SIM put into it for international use).

The more I think about it the more I really don't think it is a baseband issue. I think they did it for the carriers. Even before the 4S it was a carrier decision whether to allow 3G to be switched off or not and many chose to not allow that option. As for AT&T they had that option taken off of the Bold several years ago--but a hack allowed it to be brought back (same with other phones). I suspect, if Apple does not enable it, or the carriers don't allow it, a hack should be forthcoming that enables it (albeit only if jailbroken).

I have read a lot on this subject and everyone seems to be parroting "it is a hardware issue!" that they heard from someone else--no actual facts. I found one reply from someone who claims to have enabled the option by first backing up a 3GS --while 3G was switched off--and then restoring to his 4S.

Found another reply from someone who seemed more knowledgeable than most who also didn't think it was a technical limitation of the baseband. "@Allan,
The baseband chip in the 4S is the Qualcomm MDM6610 (per iFixIt teardown). My research indicates that this chip should be capable of being configured for EDGE operation (i.e. disable 3G on GSM network). I'm curious to know the reference you've found that states that the chip is limited in this regard.
Thanks a lot."
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3385464?start=180&tstart=0




Michael

 

[capcaveman]

There is basically no excuse, it was a feature that was removed. Now a feature is not something that everyone would want to use but for those of us who live in areas where 3G is not reliable, having this feature was great!
Maybe they will come to their sense and reintroduce it in a future software update but I wont be waiting to find out.

I almost took back my 4s when I found that out too, but the 64gb storage, Siri, better camera, much faster browsing and other other benefits have outweighed the loss of the option to switch to Edge for me. Give the smart antenna some time, you've got a few weeks to try it out before you give up on it.

 

[brand]

I was staying at a hotel on the edge of 3G, and my Android phones was getting 1 bar of 3G, but when I forced EDGE (it had a custom ROM), it got 5, since an EDGE-only tower was much closer.

That is an assumption and not a fact.

 

[BiggAW]

The more I think about it the more I really don't think it is a baseband issue. I think they did it for the carriers. Even before the 4S it was a carrier decision whether to allow 3G to be switched off or not and many chose to not allow that option. As for AT&T they had that option taken off of the Bold several years ago--but a hack allowed it to be brought back (same with other phones). I suspect, if Apple does not enable it, or the carriers don't allow it, a hack should be forthcoming that enables it (albeit only if jailbroken).

Yeah, I think AT&T wanted it gone. The iPhone was the only device in the first place (other than hacked devices) to allow you to switch off 3G. Wish they would allow forcing on all devices, including forcing LTE device to UMTS or GSM as well.

EDIT: I'll get mine back when they release a JB. Day to day, I could probably use EDGE just fine, although given the excellent battery life, I'm not sure what incentive I would have to do that...

That is an assumption and not a fact.

WHAT? First of all, I could see the edge of the 3G coverage on the map, with strong EDGE coverage outside of that area, and second of all, what else on earth would explain a signal difference of several orders of magnitude?

 

[prism]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Did Apple just release an iOS update? Did anyone test?

 

[saving107]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Did Apple just release an iOS update? Did anyone test?

It was a tweaked version of iOS 5.0.1, current users won't be allowed to get this new version via Update (unless you do a full restore) but eventually these tweaks will be bundled in with iOS iOS 5.0.2 (or iOS 5.1)

The update is very minor

One possibility is that the tweaked update contains minor changes needed for the next round of international launches occurring tomorrow. iPhones sold in those countries may come with only iOS 5.0 installed, and users immediately updating to iOS 5.0.1 in those countries would receive the tweaked version updated for their markets.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1292075/