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Steve Jobs Again Speaks Out on iPhone 4 Antenna Issue via Email

HLdan said:
I was at the Apple store yesterday and tried out 3 iPhone 4's. All of them were on wifi. I gripped 2 of the phones in my left hand and placed my thumb over the top area where the buttons are. 2 of them dropped signal completely. On the 3rd one I did the same test and it didn't drop AT ALL, not even one signal bar. I gripped it with both hands and covered it as much as I could with my bare hands and still no drop in signal. That shows me that not every iPhone 4 has this problem but 2 out of 3 does sorta prove the majority does.
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This.
 
"retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it."

Spoken like a true person who has been forced to recognise what true values in life really are because you have had serious bad health issues. It alway's seems to only be people who suffer from this that realise there is more to life then a mobile phone :rolleyes:
 
chris975d said:
Then why buy a first generation (and this is a first generation of a totally new design) product when you have to have the funds from the sell of the one before it to buy the other?
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Look. You asked why people who are complaining aren't simply returning the phone. I offered some theories as to why that is. There's really no point in arguing against each theory like *I* was the one not returning the phone (it has yet to go on sale in my country). I'm merely trying to explain that people are prone to following the path of least resistance. Returning the phone is far from impossible, but it's enough of an inconvenience (for any number of reasons such as the ones I suggested and probably fifty others), so they don't. That doesn't make them any less upset about the defect.
 
LagunaSol said:
The third test was to show that speed variations using this testing method are normal and the drop from test 1 to test 2 was not necessarily due to antenna blocking.
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You forgot to mention that the desk was made entirely of freshly severed human hands so that the perceived attenuation would be similar to that when being held. ;)

B
 
WiiDSmoker said:
Are you siding with Jobs on this? Do you have an iPhone 4? Give it away to charity. Relax, it's just a phone. Everything will be fine!
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Im with steve on this and yes i have iphone 4
and i care about my kids more than my shiny iphone
Its just a phone you people need to get over it.
if you don't like the product return it and get a different phone and shut up already.

Everyday thousands of gallons of oil are going into the ocean and people care more about there iphones then they do that and what about the suicides of the worker making these phones? where the did worlds priorities go? oh yeah to hell.
 
Wow, 28 pages of replies. I feel happy since MR will get more hits, on the other side, this is getting silly. A few points/facts:

1. Steve Jobs's emails are not official Apple statements, no way to verify them
2. The problem is related to the signal quality in your area
3. Apple will issue some official answer, but you will have wait a little longer, maybe in the 1 month aniversary of the launch.

Now, you all can continue to explain how insulted with this "issue". And how your life is now miserable because of this antenna problem.

And in the meantime, just don't touch that tiny black line, ok? Peace!
 
oliversl said:
Wow, 28 pages of replies. I feel happy since MR will get more hits, on the other side, this is getting silly. A few points/facts:

1. Steve Jobs's emails are not official Apple statements, no way to verify them
2. The problem is related to the signal quality in your area
3. Apple will issue some official answer, but you will have wait a little longer, maybe in the 1 month aniversary of the launch.

Now, you all can continue to explain how insulted with this "issue". And how your life is now miserable because of this antenna problem.

And in the meantime, just don't touch that tiny black line, ok? Peace!
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Remember, after all the name calling starts..Some of us think your pretty cool.
 
wovel said:
Motorola is unchanged, almost no activity at all really. Really sparking the public interest with the impending Droid X.
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Down 16% YTD.

Motorola is screwed. They'll release the Droid X and everyone will talk about it for a week. Then HTC will release something new and grab the spotlight for 2 weeks, followed by Samsung's new "It" device for another 2 weeks...

I would hate to be in the Android hardware business. Talk about a road to nowhere (for everyone but Google, that is).
 
LagunaSol said:
Down 16% YTD.

Motorola is screwed. They'll release the Droid X and everyone will talk about it for a week. Then HTC will release something new and grab the spotlight for 2 weeks, followed by Samsung's new "It" device for another 2 weeks...

I would hate to be in the Android hardware business. Talk about a road to nowhere (for everyone but Google, that is).
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Yep everyone else spends the money and effort, google gets all the brand recognition, app fees, etc.
 
donny77 said:
And yet only 1.8 times as bad as the Nexus One. Personally I think the 3GS numbers might be erroneously low, I'd like to see more data.
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Each 6db you go down, cutting the signal by 50% you are.

Edit: (or is it 3db, i always mix them up)
 
I like how Steve Jobs talks about his products as "magic" and "revolutionary" at keynotes, but when discussing a problem says, "It's just a phone." Can't have it both ways, Steve.
 
Ok, now I'm finally in from work, settled down, out of my work clothes, and relaxed, I'll comment on this topic in greater depth than I could when I was on my iPhone 4 earlier.

Whats-his-name, who replied initially, if you've replied again I won't have read it and I'm not going back through previous pages to read another dig.

For the record, on my iPhone 4 I can replicate the issue. However it is circumstantial. Now, right now, any "hater" reading this will be scrunching their eyes up and frowning while gasping "WTF" at their screen. Hear me out, I'm here to comment, not to bitch or get involved in petty arguments.

When I am in my home my O2 signal is, as always, horrendous. Even on my iPhone 3G I was lucky to get three bars and GPRS. I could not, I repeat could NOT, get 3G or Edge in my home for love nor money. The price of being on the outskirts of Glasgow City Centre and on O2. This is the same with my iPhone 4, GPRS and two/three bars at most.

In the City Centre, where I work, the O2 signal is full blast five bars on 3G. This was the case on both my old iPhone 3G and my iPhone 4.

As I type this, I have picked up my iPhone 4 .... three bars, GPRS. I will try to replicate the issue, as I have done before, and lose reception.

Three bars to two bars: 12 seconds.
Two bars to one bar: 8 seconds.
One bar to zero bars: 6 seconds.

So, basically, from three bars signal on GPRS to "Searching" in 26 seconds.

However, when I try to replicate the issue when in a full 3G reception area, it just will not drop a single bar. I have stood outside St Enoch Shopping Centre in the heart of Glasgow City Centre waiting on my wife picking me up, and have stood there with my hand "clawed" round my iPhone 4 trying to drop the signal. Minutes passed, not a single bar dropped.

When in my office, which is notorious for poor reception, I get three bars and Edge on my iPhone 4 and again, I can replicate the issue.

On my own PERSONAL experience, it is circumstantial depending on the quality of the signal in the area you are in at that time.

Believe me, don't believe me, it means nothing either way to me. I am posting to be informative to those who wish information. Haters who have inhabited and taken over this site for the purpose of bitching about anything Apple or Jobs does, will read what they do and see what they want within the words.

That's my experience above, and as I said earlier, I do not "cup" the lower end of the phone deep inside the palm of my hand and never have done. That's not to say people should have a certain way to hold a phone, but it's very much a case of an issue coming to light and people leaping on it.
 
My friend picked up my iPhone for me, so he bought two iPhones at the same time from the same store. My phone has this reception issue and it's easily reproduced while he says his is fine. He totally doesn't understand what all the fuss has been about and he's not interested in getting a bumper.

I have already ordered a bumper online (since the stores have been out of stock since Day 1) even though I really don't want one. If it will prevent the reception problems, I have to give it a try.

I have been experiencing trouble with dropped calls, texts not going thru and slow internet on my phone just from how I've been holding the phone. This is on top of the usual poor signal strength of AT&T (even tho I live in the DC area where it should be strong). So hopefully the bumper will allow me to hold the phone anyway I want.

So it makes me wonder if I should consider my phone a defect and return it, if not all phones are experiencing this problem or if I should just "stay tuned"...
 
cmaier said:
If I don't hold it there, it feels like it will slip out of my hand, and I'm pretty sure Apple won't give me a new one if I smash it.
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For clumsy people like me (maybe you too, I don't know), non-slip case. That's the original reason I got a bumper.

I can also wrap my thumb and 4 fingers tightly all almost all the way around the middle of my i4, and still leave an air gap between my palm and the lower left side. I get a better signal that way, even with a bumper.

For the best signal, I use speakerphone mode, or plug in a headset, and hold the phone high and upside-down. I learned that trick, not on my i4, but with my old 3GS in a building with really bad coverage.
 
Anuba said:
Look. You asked why people who are complaining aren't simply returning the phone. I offered some theories as to why that is. There's really no point in arguing against each theory like *I* was the one not returning the phone (it has yet to go on sale in my country). I'm merely trying to explain that people are prone to following the path of least resistance. Returning the phone is far from impossible, but it's enough of an inconvenience (for any number of reasons such as the ones I suggested and probably fifty others), so they don't. That doesn't make them any less upset about the defect.
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Oh, I understand the fact that people are upset about the issue, and I wasn't trying to make it seem like I was singling you out in any way (I'm sorry if it seemed that way). I was just addressing that point in general. I know people like this phone, and want it to work correctly. It just amazes me how worked up people can get over it, acting like it's their only option. There are several. For me, I decided that using the iPhone 4 with a case is fine, even though without a case mine has the same issue. But with a case, it works fine, and I always use a case with my phones anyway. I'm not going to use a glass $700 phone unprotected. I made that choice to work around the signal issue, since it's something I would have done anyway (using a case, that is). If I was a person that loathed cases, I would have taken the phone back like several of my friends have done, at least until the issue is resolved. And none of them (3 people in total) were hit with the restocking fee.
 
Puddinman said:
I appreciate what you are saying, I really do. But to say that "it's almost impossible to not touch it there," is too much. With your left hand, you could hold it between your thumb, index and middle finger in a "tripod" type of grip well above the area in question. You aren't forced to wrap your hand around it.
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As I pointed out, holding it that way, with the center of weight below or nearly below that point, means it is likely to slip out of my hand and drop. I always keep one finger on the bottom end, so it can't slip down, but doing that means the left side touches the web between my thumb and index finger.

Or you could just put a case on it and avoid the problem all together.
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I could. But two points. 1) i never had to do that with my iPhone, iPhone 3G, or iPhone 3GS. 2) when I pay $700 for something, I expect it to work as advertised without me having to pay more to get it to perform the way it is advertised to perform. I'll also add that I hate cases, and I would rather switch phones than use a case - unfortunately Apple refused to accept my return without charging me the full restocking fee, so I'm holding on for now.

To bring up the ads or the way Jobs holds it is also a bit much. Do you get mad at Burger King when the Whopper looks nothing like the pictures in the ads? Of course not, you just eat it anyway. The ads weren't created to demonstrate how to hold the phone, they were created to make people want the phone.
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There is a (ethical and legal) difference between puffery and what I am talking about. My point is simply that the way I hold the phone is the natural way to hold the phone. As evidence of this, I point out that nearly every time the phone is pictured being held, it is being held the way I hold it - in other words, the way that degrades signal reception by 24dB. If the way I was holding the phone was unusual, unnatural, or somehow wrong, I wouldn't expect to see Steve Jobs holding it that way every time he is pictured holding the phone.
 
oliversl said:
Wow, 28 pages of replies. I feel happy since MR will get more hits, on the other side, this is getting silly. A few points/facts:

1. Steve Jobs's emails are not official Apple statements, no way to verify them
2. The problem is related to the signal quality in your area
3. Apple will issue some official answer, but you will have wait a little longer, maybe in the 1 month aniversary of the launch.

Now, you all can continue to explain how insulted with this "issue". And how your life is now miserable because of this antenna problem.

And in the meantime, just don't touch that tiny black line, ok? Peace!
Click to expand...

Don't expect the cliffjumpers to listen to that sage advice but nice try. It is best just to sit back and watch the carnage. Sort of like taking a lawn chair to a boat ramp on 4th of July weekend. Just sit back and enjoy.
 
We'll know how serious Apple takes this issue when they come out with the Verizon Wireless version this fall. They will likely make a slight revision to the antenna so that the people with massive hands that like to hold their phones in a funny way (likely -3% of the population) will be happy :eek:
dp
 
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