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Why "a few weeks" for iPhone 4 software fix? Are other fixes coming?

zub3qin

zub3qin

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 10, 2007
1,315
4
It seems odd that it will take a "few weeks' just to issue a software fix that simply subtracts 1 or 2 bars from your currently displayed signal strength and make the icon a few pixels larger.

Can we hope that a bunch of other fixes are coming in that update including the proximity sensor problem? OR is that just wishful thinking?
 
The more cynical among us may say that the "fix" will come in 2 weeks, leaving just a few days for people to return the iPhone 4 within the 30 day window (which Apple was quick to point out in their announcement today).

If issued now, and people weren't happy, there could be a much larger number of returns.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

Apple updates are BIG, full OS updates.

A little more time gives them an opportunity to roll in more bug fixes.
 
TruckdriverSean said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

Apple updates are BIG, full OS updates.

A little more time gives them an opportunity to roll in more bug fixes.
Click to expand...

Except this is arguably the biggest PR disaster Apple has faced and I would think that they would want to put out the fire as soon as possible, and leave the smaller bug fixes for later.
 
zub3qin said:
The more cynical among us may say that the "fix" will come in 2 weeks, leaving just a few days for people to return the iPhone 4 within the 30 day window (which Apple was quick to point out in their announcement today).

If issued now, and people weren't happy, there could be a much larger number of returns.
Click to expand...

Of course people have the option of returning now and then buying back later once people report all is fixed. People have to weight their options. They have them. A fix may be quick but it has to be tested to make sure as best possible it doesn't break something else.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Of course people have the option of returning now and then buying back later once people report all is fixed. People have to weight their options. They have them. A fix may be quick but it has to be tested to make sure as best possible it doesn't break something else.
Click to expand...

This. Hopefully they are working on other bugs aswell.
 
I guess you should be working for Apple if you can roll out a huge update in a few days. Apply for a job?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

zub3qin said:
TruckdriverSean said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

Apple updates are BIG, full OS updates.

A little more time gives them an opportunity to roll in more bug fixes.
Click to expand...

Except this is arguably the biggest PR disaster Apple has faced and I would think that they would want to put out the fire as soon as possible, and leave the smaller bug fixes for later.
Click to expand...

If I were the head of Apple PR, I'd argue for release YESTERDAY!

But updates are kind of a PITA for regular Joe Bloe users and there are ALWAYS reports of problems (bricking, data loss, "now my xyz doesn't work right.." etc.)

I'd bet Apple doesn't want to hit millions of users with an OS update now, only to hit them with another in 3-4 weeks.

I'm not saying this is the "right" way to do it, just that it appears to be "the" way they're doing it.
 
TruckdriverSean said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

Apple updates are BIG, full OS updates.

A little more time gives them an opportunity to roll in more bug fixes.
Click to expand...

3.1.3 only fixed one issue, only one: a bad battery gauge, and it only affected the iPhone 3GS - no other iPhones required that update. That's the only fix it provided.

What else did 3.1.3 do? It broke the Jailbreaking capability for all iPhones at that time, if applied.

Other than that, 3.1.3 did absolutely nothing for any iPhone, no improvements, no other fixes, nothing at all.

Myth: BUSTED!
 
Ugh, this will only make it longer until we see a iPhone 4 jailbreak. UGHHHHHHHHHHH!
 
zub3qin said:
The more cynical among us may say that the "fix" will come in 2 weeks, leaving just a few days for people to return the iPhone 4 within the 30 day window (which Apple was quick to point out in their announcement today).

If issued now, and people weren't happy, there could be a much larger number of returns.
Click to expand...

All the fix is going to do is change the bars that are displayed. It won't change how your reception actually is.

If your phone isn't working for you now, it won't work for you after the update, so return it.

If your phone works for you now, it will still work after the update, so keep it.

Simple as that. 30 day return window is a non issue.

They will also more then likely be including a bunch of other fixes for other issues.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

br0adband said:
TruckdriverSean said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

Apple updates are BIG, full OS updates.

A little more time gives them an opportunity to roll in more bug fixes.
Click to expand...

3.1.3 only fixed one issue, only one: a bad battery gauge, and it only affected the iPhone 3GS - no other iPhones required that update. That's the only fix it provided.

What else did 3.1.3 do? It broke the Jailbreaking capability for all iPhones at that time, if applied.

Other than that, 3.1.3 did absolutely nothing for any iPhone, no improvements, no other fixes, nothing at all.

Myth: BUSTED!
Click to expand...

But there is quite a difference here.

First off, there's more that needs to be fixed. (reception, proximity, camera white balance, music volume, and other bugs that 4.0 brought)

At the time that 3.1.3 came out, there was very little left to "fix" in 3.X, as we were already looking towards the next big overhaul.

Secondly, by "big" I'm actually referring to size and the fact the fact that iOS updates are full reinstalls that can for a predictable percentage of people, be problematic.
 
While Apple hasn't given me any reason at all to give them the benefit of the doubt, it is possible that the software update will fix more than just display of bars, but they aren't getting in to that in the press release for PR reasons. They want to keep selling phones and convince most people to blow this off as just a visual glitch.

I imagine there are software tweaks they can apply to help this, such as reducing interference between the wifi antenna and the cell antenna when they are bridged by the user. But a tweak like that needs to be thoroughly tested before release, hence the two weeks.

Or then again, it might just be a bars fix and they are slow as hell about getting it implemented.
 
zub3qin said:
The more cynical among us may say that the "fix" will come in 2 weeks, leaving just a few days for people to return the iPhone 4 within the 30 day window (which Apple was quick to point out in their announcement today).

If issued now, and people weren't happy, there could be a much larger number of returns.
Click to expand...

that was my first thought
 
The worst thing Apple could do now is rush out an update that's not fully tested that introduces some unforeseen problems.:eek:;)
 
yup....

redman042 said:
While Apple hasn't given me any reason at all to give them the benefit of the doubt, it is possible that the software update will fix more than just display of bars, but they aren't getting in to that in the press release for PR reasons. They want to keep selling phones and convince most people to blow this off as just a visual glitch.

I imagine there are software tweaks they can apply to help this, such as reducing interference between the wifi antenna and the cell antenna when they are bridged by the user. But a tweak like that needs to be thoroughly tested before release, hence the two weeks.

Or then again, it might just be a bars fix and they are slow as hell about getting it implemented.
Click to expand...

I suspect you are correct. They don't want to say it. Alternatively they are still looking at it and not sure if they can remedy the problem and need to buy time.

But I suspect there will be some decision on their side to make some sort of adjustment.

The problem with the "finger of death" as I've experienced it, it's unclear that any adjustment will be sufficient to undo skin joining the electrical separation in the antenna.

Until I got a case on there was nothing but phone misery with dropped calls, fade outs during calls, etc.
 
zub3qin said:
It seems odd that it will take a "few weeks' just to issue a software fix that simply subtracts 1 or 2 bars from your currently displayed signal strength and make the icon a few pixels larger.

Can we hope that a bunch of other fixes are coming in that update including the proximity sensor problem? OR is that just wishful thinking?
Click to expand...

Of course there will be more fixes. There always are disclosed and "hidden" fixes/features in their updates.
 
I would hope that they are fixing other things, the OS 4.0.0 release is buggy as hell; not quite as buggy as the original 2.0.0 release, but still obviously rushed. Moreover, despite Apple's PR stupidity in (1) denying the existence of any reception issues whatsoever, then (2) claiming that the "fix" is to simply reduce the number of signal bars rendered, I would bet that baseband firmware fixes will help mitigate the issue somewhat. Look at release 2.0.0 as an example--it caused dropped calls all over the place, but this was gradually improved with newer releases and firmware versions.
 
To be honest I think they are also going to fix some other potential issues with the "signal issue". Maybe there is some frequency calibration issues that they will address. Maybe there are other things they see that they could change to improve the issue.
 
Right now it's only a vocal minority experiencing a problem.. If they rush a "fix" out too quickly, it could make things worse?
 
I would imagine OS updates need to be tested exhaustively by apple, and approved by AT&T, especially if the update may involve how the phone portrays and/or interacts with AT&T's network.
 
zub3qin said:
It seems odd that it will take a "few weeks' just to issue a software fix that simply subtracts 1 or 2 bars from your currently displayed signal strength and make the icon a few pixels larger.
Click to expand...

They said 2 things:
Long Time
Small Fix


You're right. That makes no sense.

You attacked the 1st part of that. I prefer to focus on the 2nd part as the lie.

So that's my answer. I think there will be a lot more to this than we know right now.
 
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