Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Steve Jobs denies iP4 reception issues!
- Thread starter rfbandit
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
i wasn't even going to join in, but anyhow your demand is totally unscientific from an engineering perspective.
Since the signal strength will be so high that any problem with the cellphone antenna will be totally "invisible".
Touching an antenna will cause attenuation , but under a tower you could rip the entire antenna out of the cell phone and see no signal loss. So you have not eliminated the antenna what so ever. So your experiment is not scientific at all. It will however prove you wont fry your transceiver.
If anything it's the best way to satisfy your test.
A regular "cell tower" (I will use the term "cell site" from here onwards) does not necessarily radiate a signal in all directions (including downward), nor does it necessarily broadcast equal power in each direction.
Many cell sites are restricted for various reasons, and so while you might think "I'm right next to this cell site, so it must be giving my phone a signal" you may be completely wrong.
A Microcell is much simpler (only you can connect to it within a very limited range) and as such, it should be easier to get reliable results from it. As others have pointed out, you can ensure that the phone stays connected to it as it will always show on the screen.
And it is an admission there is a hardware issue that Apple isn't fixing. Bad news.
Didn't you know? Sticking a cell on a pole suddenly gives it scientific relevance?
from the htc pdf
To assure optimal phone performance and ensure human exposure to RF energy is within the guidelines set forth in the relevant standards, always use your device only in its normal-use position. Contact with the antenna area may impair call quality and cause your device to operate at a higher power level than needed. Avoiding contact with the antenna area when the phone is IN USE optimizes the antenna performance and the battery life.
Please stop quoting the incompetent "chillin". It allows me to read his uneducated nonsense He clearly has no intention of learning anything or helping anyone. He's a troll. Put him on your ignore list already so we can carry on an INTELLIGENT conversation. 
Zhe Wiz
Zhe Wiz
Double standards much? When it comes to the iPhone 4 and its alleged antenna problems you insist there's no credible evidence of any problem because the methods used don't meet your arbitrary "if a tree falls in the forest..." demands.
When it comes to the Incredible you just point to a paragraph in the manual, and all it says is that "Contact with the antenna area may impair call quality". Is that your idea of scientifically proving that the Incredible's signal can be killed in the same way that the iP4's can?
All it says is if you block the antenna you will attenuate the signal. ThAt is NOT what any of us is complaining about. We don't block the antenna. We don't prevent the signal from reaching the antenna. Have you even been paying attention to what the problem is?
This issue must depend on a certain set of circumstances before it becomes a problem. I have a 3GS with iOS4 and my Dad has an iPhone 4 and I cant re-create the problem on either phone - leading me to believe that the situation in which it happens is key.
Could be software, could be hardware, could be a bit of both actually.
After i upgraded the 3GS to 4.0 I did notice an improved signal in certain places where there was not a good one previously... but i'm pretty sure the baseband switching is worse (like when travelling on a train and the signal goes as you change cell tower).
Will be interesting to see what sort of update Apple come up with.
Could be software, could be hardware, could be a bit of both actually.
After i upgraded the 3GS to 4.0 I did notice an improved signal in certain places where there was not a good one previously... but i'm pretty sure the baseband switching is worse (like when travelling on a train and the signal goes as you change cell tower).
Will be interesting to see what sort of update Apple come up with.
Many people hold the phone, start a call or being called and the call drops, due to the design of the handset. I think that will do as an issue. It's a design fail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62M1NVrVtOI&feature=player_embedded
I'm gonna go to the grocery store and get some stuff,
its a software issue, and if it IS hardware, then get a bumper
/endthread
I've got a rubber case on mine, and I'm still having the same issues with dropped calls.
I WOULD like to argue in matters of degrees. Degrees that render a phone useless for voice & data transmission when held in the hand? That's a DEFECT.
Happy?
Who need any flaw to paint Apple as a Bad guy?
Isn't Apple against Liberty as they say?
Truth is No one knows what's going on, hope Apple knows.
But hyperbole is the lingua franca of the internet.
Facelessness leads to full-front ignorance.
* new IPhone
* dev team has an unlock for all basebands
* "stay tuned" for a baseband update that magically fixes the reception issue!
well that is business strategy at its best
* dev team has an unlock for all basebands
* "stay tuned" for a baseband update that magically fixes the reception issue!
well that is business strategy at its best
Attachments
let me copy and paste the area of interest from that PDF.
Contact with the antenna area may impair call quality and cause your device to operate at a higher power level than needed.
It also shows a Picture that shows where not to touch.
although not really a death touch from what it says, but it could disrupt the signal enough to drop a call depending on signal strength. It does seem as though that the phone compensates for the interference at a expense of battery life (from reading that page).
LMAO no i guess not, but if i was him i would RUN if it began to storm, or stick his head between his legs and consider him lightning fodder
Let me preface this by saying I don't know anything really about the relevant fields so the following question and statements aren't meant as snippy, I really am asking and offering my comments with the desire that someone who does know more explain things.
If it is a case of the phone not switching methods properly, then what is the difference performance wise between those signals? If the signal it's supposed to switch to is of worse quality than the one it defaults to, isn't that really just mitigating the effects of the problem but still leaving the problem there?
I would think that if a software update changes how it chooses to establish a connection by switching to a mode that uses more battery power or has a higher amount of interference that would translate to static or lower data rates, the complaint that touching the device in a particular spot causes worse or no service would still be valid.
as before, heres that picture I made for you of the perfect tower in the perfect world you want
That has to be one of the best replies I have ever seen. Nearly fell to the floor with laughing so much.
chill1n is right. there are no problems with the phones. the problem is that we don't know how to hold a phone.
Google fanboys just having a field day bashing Apple big time over something that seemingly needs time to be addressed and is being address as we speak.
QFT. Thank you sir or madam. I have been trying to explain this to people to no avail. While the iphone does have a problem, it can be fixed with firmware. The switching algorithim can be adjusted, or even the power through the antennae. Some hardware fails can be fixed with software.
Could the iphone have been designed better? Sure. The antennae should be behind the glass. Is the current problem unsolvable? No.