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NYT: It's a fixable software problem
- Thread starter Cougarcat
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Yup, you would think that software fix would take priority over the signal detector.
Apple Is Not Expected to Recall Troubled iPhone
By MIGUEL HELFT
Published: July 15, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO As Apple prepared to address the mounting controversy surrounding the antenna of the iPhone 4, one thing appeared clear: the company does not plan to recall the popular device.
A person with direct knowledge of Apples plans said it would not announce a recall at a press conference scheduled for Friday at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. The person was not authorized to speak for Apple and asked to remain anonymous.
The iPhone 4s antenna is built into a steel bracket that surrounds the device. Soon after the phone went on sale, buyers complained that holding it a certain way caused reception problems. On Thursday, Apple denied a report in Bloomberg BusinessWeek that a senior Apple engineer and antenna expert had warned Steven P. Jobs, the chief executive, and other senior managers about problems with the antenna design last year. It did not comment further on the controversy.
One person with direct knowledge of the phones design said Thursday that the iPhone 4 exposed a longstanding weakness in the basic communications software inside Apples phones and that the reception problems were not caused by an isolated hardware flaw.
Instead, the problems emerged in the complex interaction between specialized communications software and the antenna, said the person, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.
The person said the problems were longstanding but had been exposed by the design of the iPhone 4. All cellphones can be affected by the way a hand grips the phone, but well-designed communications software compensates for a variety of external factors and prevents calls from dropping, the person said.
Mr. Jobs did not learn about the software problem until after the iPhone 4 shipped last month, the person said.
The glitch could presumably be fixed with a software update, and it appears to be unrelated to one that affected the display of the phones signal strength.
Two weeks ago, Apple said that while looking into customer complaints about reception, it had discovered that a longstanding software bug was causing the iPhone 4 and its predecessors to display signal strength incorrectly. It promised a fix, which it released Thursday. But Apple continued to say that the iPhone 4 had better wireless performance than any previous iPhone.
Apples headaches mounted on Monday after Consumer Reports called into question the veracity of Apples response. The magazine said its testing had led it to conclude that the iPhone 4 suffered from a hardware design flaw. Consumer Reports said it could not recommend the device to its readers until Apple fixed the problem. In a seeming contradiction, Consumer Reports also said that despite the flaw, the iPhone 4 was the best smartphone it had tested.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, wrote an open letter to Mr. Jobs on Thursday demanding that Apple give customers a permanent fix to the problem at no cost
By MIGUEL HELFT
Published: July 15, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO As Apple prepared to address the mounting controversy surrounding the antenna of the iPhone 4, one thing appeared clear: the company does not plan to recall the popular device.
A person with direct knowledge of Apples plans said it would not announce a recall at a press conference scheduled for Friday at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. The person was not authorized to speak for Apple and asked to remain anonymous.
The iPhone 4s antenna is built into a steel bracket that surrounds the device. Soon after the phone went on sale, buyers complained that holding it a certain way caused reception problems. On Thursday, Apple denied a report in Bloomberg BusinessWeek that a senior Apple engineer and antenna expert had warned Steven P. Jobs, the chief executive, and other senior managers about problems with the antenna design last year. It did not comment further on the controversy.
One person with direct knowledge of the phones design said Thursday that the iPhone 4 exposed a longstanding weakness in the basic communications software inside Apples phones and that the reception problems were not caused by an isolated hardware flaw.
Instead, the problems emerged in the complex interaction between specialized communications software and the antenna, said the person, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.
The person said the problems were longstanding but had been exposed by the design of the iPhone 4. All cellphones can be affected by the way a hand grips the phone, but well-designed communications software compensates for a variety of external factors and prevents calls from dropping, the person said.
Mr. Jobs did not learn about the software problem until after the iPhone 4 shipped last month, the person said.
The glitch could presumably be fixed with a software update, and it appears to be unrelated to one that affected the display of the phones signal strength.
Two weeks ago, Apple said that while looking into customer complaints about reception, it had discovered that a longstanding software bug was causing the iPhone 4 and its predecessors to display signal strength incorrectly. It promised a fix, which it released Thursday. But Apple continued to say that the iPhone 4 had better wireless performance than any previous iPhone.
Apples headaches mounted on Monday after Consumer Reports called into question the veracity of Apples response. The magazine said its testing had led it to conclude that the iPhone 4 suffered from a hardware design flaw. Consumer Reports said it could not recommend the device to its readers until Apple fixed the problem. In a seeming contradiction, Consumer Reports also said that despite the flaw, the iPhone 4 was the best smartphone it had tested.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, wrote an open letter to Mr. Jobs on Thursday demanding that Apple give customers a permanent fix to the problem at no cost
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I still call BS on this. It's a hardware flaw plain and simple. Software might be able to help it but it could never fix it.
Fix = alter how the bars are shown, so they don't bottom out.
I'm no fan of lawyers, but this is class action worthy. When apple becomes the butt of jokes like AT&T is, they will wish they spent the 1 billion on a recall.
I'm no fan of lawyers, but this is class action worthy. When apple becomes the butt of jokes like AT&T is, they will wish they spent the 1 billion on a recall.
I agree...perhaps they found out really really late, after they posted that iPhone 4 letter about the signal detecting?
If that was the case then wouldn't it make sense to have all of your resources going to that fix instead of fixing the least important thing (signal detector) first?
If they knew this was a software fix then they would have told us that instead of feeding the whole story about a wrong signal strength formula.
And if they knew about it then, why didn't they say so in that letter, instead of a half-assed response that made people even angrier? Seems like they discovered this very recently.
Edit: basically what you just added to your post.
Who cares. Steve Jobs is an idiot if he knew about this wayyyy ahead of time. What a moronic thing to do.
Did you read the article? "Mr. Jobs did not learn about the software problem until after the iPhone 4 shipped last month, the person said."
Edit: beaten.
Class Action for what? If you are dissatisfied with your purchase then return it. You have the option to do that. Just because you want it doesn't mean you can sue because it doesn't work like you want.
If people are going to start expecting members to actually read on this site, we’re going to have problems.
Most of the news reports today are saying that Apple is going to have people return their phone to get a internal hardware fix and they’ll be without the phone for 6 weeks. I seriously doubt that, as well. We’ll know soon, unless Apple just really blows it tomorrow and tells us nothing.
If people are going to start expecting members to actually read on this site, were going to have problems.
Most of the news reports today are saying that Apple is going to have people return their phone to get a internal hardware fix and theyll be without the phone for 6 weeks. I seriously doubt that, as well. Well know soon, unless Apple just really blows it tomorrow and tells us nothing.
Wow. I haven't read the whole "go without your phone for 6 weeks" reports. Good luck getting people on that train. Especially those who already sold their 3G or GS (me).
My internal conspiracist is telling me that the problem was detected and decided to be real enough right before pre-orders started and that is the reason the white phone was stalled. They couldn't not have a phone come out after telling the world it was coming. I still don't understand why a white casing would have any issues a black wouldn't, but I'm no engineer. Thoughts?
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