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This is getting ridiculous. Poor Apple.

No. Poor people.

People will accept just about anything.

I will not buy the iPhone until Apple has made a new batch of fixed iPhone 4s, but there are many who will buy the broken phones, what a bunch of losers!
 
Signal boost

It's not the SIM, it's how we hold it.
And this was SJ's idea of holding it correctly.
article-1290583-0A2FD6C7000005DC-614_634x469.jpg
 

The report concludes that holding the phone a certain way may attenuate the signal more than other phones unless you use a case. The report also concludes the iPhone 4 has a much improved antenna and much more sensitive receiver allowing it to continue to function well even in marginal areas.

These conclusions are directly at odds with most of the people claiming to experience problems.
 
The report concludes that holding the phone a certain way may attenuate the signal more than other phones unless you use a case. The report also concludes the iPhone 4 has a much improved antenna and much more sensitive receiver allowing it to continue to function well even in marginal areas.

These conclusions are directly at odds with most of the people claiming to experience problems.

It isn't at odds at all.

The effect of attenuation on the iPhone 4 is much greater than the iPhone 3GS when holding it naturally.

So, while the iPhone 4 has a better sensitivity than the 3GS at the same signal strength, if you hold both of them in the same location the iPhone 4 will have a lower signal strength. And that's not going to help you if you "bottom out" or drop below the lowest possible threshold. In that situation you will see dropped calls on the iPhone 4.

Therefore:

People with strong signals won't see a problem
People with marginal signals could see a problem

arn
 
At this point any information to try to fix this issue is welcome... if you don’t think it will work don’t try it, if you want to give it a go, well go for it…

However I think is just a matter of time before someone gets a pair of scissors, cuts the SIM wrong and then email Steve Jobs telling him what they did wrong lol
 
"SIM not Installed" Error

Don't know if it is related to this issue at all but all of a sudden last night my iPhone 4 started giving me "SIM Not Installed" error and I could not use the phone anymore. Where it shows AT&T on the top left corner when it is connected to the network it was showing "No SIM". Clearly the phone wasn't recognizing the SIM all of a sudden for a no good reason. I have seen this problem in the past with other phones. Sometimes it s a faulty SIM card and sometimes it is the phone that is the problem. Multiple restarts did not fix the problem. So finally I managed get hold of a gem clip and popped the SIM out and popped it back in and viola problem solved. Am I getting better signal and "More bars in more places" now?? I can't tell. I have a secret feeling I am :D Perhaps imagination?? :confused:
 
Does not work!

I carefully applied clear tape to the edge that appears to contact the SIM tray. If you look closely you can see where the contact slide across the SIM card. I covered about 40/1000 of an inch of the edge without interfering with the contact area.

I then tested the phone with and without the bumper installed.

I see absolutely no difference after isolating the SIM frame from the SIM card.

It is a plausible situation, however it did not have any effect on my issue.

My reception is better as long as I am not holding the phone the normal way. I have to hold it like I'm having afternoon tea, with the pinky extended and a very light grip.

Let's hope that Apple finds a reasonable solution soon.
 
Haha, this reminds me of AT&T's #1 fix for every iPhone problem. "Let's replace your SIM CARD".

FAIL!
 
Never had a problem....until now!

So this is interesting. I got my iPhone 4 on launch day, and after hearing all the complaints about the death grip, I was very happy to discover that as hard as I tried, I could not get the bars to drop when bridging the gap on the lower-left corner.

Yesterday I had my first 'scare' as I accidentally dropped my iPhone and smacked hard on cement below. I was relieved to find the phone survived relatively unscathed, except for a tiny nick on the plastic on the corner between the glass and steel, BUT ever since then, the death grip kills the bars......every time.

So, I don't know if this is related to this sim tray theory, or some other part of the hardware that got jostled during the impact, or if it's simply a strange coincidence. Nevertheless, it was quite weird.
 
My reception is better as long as I am not holding the phone the normal way. I have to hold it like I'm having afternoon tea, with the pinky extended and a very light grip.

Let's hope that Apple finds a reasonable solution soon.

Pinky extended? You just made my morning! Totally reminded me of that scene in the Birdcage where he's holding the tea cup... I couldn't find the exact photo but this one is good for a laugh!

birdcage.jpg
 
Tested this theory here, not good results.

I took a tiny strip of Scotch tape and insulated that edge that is "touching," no difference observed. (Still drops bars when "gripped" and still can halt upload speeds with the speedtest.net app)

Also, that micro sim tray looks painted on the area where the sim's contacts would touch.

I build electronics as a hobby. Scotch tape is not an insulator as electrical tape is. Scotch tape can actually be a conductor.

I have no idea if these fixes work as I'm waiting on my iPhone 4 but at try the proper insulator so we can all get an idea if this is a possible fix or not.
 
[...]Touch the left side, and bars drop within seconds, all the way down to 0, and then the phone switches to a different cell. On average the entire process takes 25 seconds. Standard deviation is 3 seconds. I have compared the effect to the attenuation effect, and found, unsurprisingly, that it is different (mere loss of bars). The effect cannot be reproduced on my two iPhone 3gs's or my 3G, again not surprising since a dielectric protects the antenna from detuning by touch.

I can reproduce the effect of bars going away within seconds by gripping my 3GS and covering the lower third from the back. Being on 3G (UMTS) network it will go down to zero bars, switch to Edge and then go back up to 2-3 bars (depending on location). As soon as i release my grip, the 3GS will go back to full bars 3G (UMTS) within a few seconds.

In the past i often had issues with slow or no internet connection (but thought it would be due to bad reception or moving while commuting by train), so this is no imagination (besides the fact, that the effect is reproducible).

Thus i doubt the problem is related solely (if at all) to shortening antennas on the iPhone4, but instead at least partially also related to other factors (like a wrong baseband calibration or simple physics with signal shielding under certain conditions) - otherwise the problem would be iPhone4-exclusive.
 
850 vs 1900MHz

It isn't at odds at all.

The effect of attenuation on the iPhone 4 is much greater than the iPhone 3GS when holding it naturally.

So, while the iPhone 4 has a better sensitivity than the 3GS at the same signal strength, if you hold both of them in the same location the iPhone 4 will have a lower signal strength. And that's not going to help you if you "bottom out" or drop below the lowest possible threshold. In that situation you will see dropped calls on the iPhone 4.

Therefore:

People with strong signals won't see a problem
People with marginal signals could see a problem

arn

I really wonder if this "problem" has to do with which frequency your iPhone is using. AT&T has recently made a big push to migrate 3G onto the 850Mhz spectrum, which can penetrate buildings (and maybe hands?) better than the 1900MHz spectrum. Given the talk that the iP4 is better at "choosing signal quality over signal strength" and the lack of reproducibility - even in the same phone - at different locations, it would seem that which frequency you are using could play a big role...
 
The portion of the SIM tray that touches the contacts on the SIM card is coated with non-conductive material (I tested myself with a multimeter). Isolating with tape or whatever won't make any difference.
Quit with the tape, people. At best nothing will happen. At worst the tape will snag the next time you eject the SIM and you'll have a SIM cavity full of tape scraps, which could make your phone perform even more poorly.
 
I can reproduce the effect of bars going away within seconds by gripping my 3GS and covering the lower third from the back. Being on 3G (UMTS) network it will go down to zero bars, switch to Edge and then go back up to 2-3 bars (depending on location). As soon as i release my grip, the 3GS will go back to full bars 3G (UMTS) within a few seconds.

In the past i often had issues with slow or no internet connection (but thought it would be due to bad reception or moving while commuting by train), so this is no imagination (besides the fact, that the effect is reproducible).

Thus i doubt the problem is related solely (if at all) to shortening antennas on the iPhone4, but instead at least partially also related to other factors (like a wrong baseband calibration or simple physics with signal shielding under certain conditions) - otherwise the problem would be iPhone4-exclusive.

You don't understand that there is a huge difference between "covering" the antenna, and touching one tiny spot with a fingertip.
 
It's pretty silly for some of you to say this is a fix and then believe it is the complete truth.

Reading through the pages of comments left here made me realized one thing.
Those of us who blindly follow the band wagon, cutting sim cards, taping contacts and claiming they have better reception is being praised.

While those who want to solve the issue by asking for a more concrete proof of the solution to the symptoms are being bashed. Disregard science? really? People deserve a more controlled experiment (even if it is just a home-made DIY fix). Speedtests won't do didly squat because speed is determined by signal strength, ping, NETWORK CONGESTION, and various factors.

Correlation between one and another does not mean its the truth.
There is a correlation between alien abductions and those who are left handed. So do we then KNOW that all left handed people have been abducted with probes shoved in their asses?

Anyone notice their computers run faster after a restart? yeah... those who claim speeds increase, or signal is better right when they plug the sim back in is seeing that effect. I am not saying the fix didn't work for you. But boldly claiming that this is a fix-all because your phone just did a reset means nothing.

No one is denying that this attenuation issue is occurring. I just think that we need to AT LEAST have a poll if you want any meaningful data to come it. That way, at least we can see whether insulating the power/ground pins on a sim card (that doesn't look the same) housed in a sim tray with non-conductive tray, helped the issue with antenna attenuation.

Take all advice here with a grain of salt, after all this is a rumor site.
 
this work on mine.. i used a stickie part of a post it im at work so. i put it on two sides the one where the contacts are to close and the bottom where they are close to. now it works fine in the deeth grip position. i'll keep testing
 
You don't understand that there is a huge difference between "covering" the antenna, and touching one tiny spot with a fingertip.

Quite some people claim that "covering" the antenna on other cellphones would not impair the signal reception at all, so i assumed that this problem could be a little bit more complex and not iPhone4-antenna-exclusive. Maybe a misinterpretation on my side...
 
I checked mine and the gold connectors were touching the sim card holder I placed some electrical tape where it was touching and I still had the attenuation problem.
 
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