iPhone news / rants

[cyberjones]

too funny

[MrGoutHimself]

Steve Jobs Demonstrates How to Get Full Bars With the iPhone 4

See? You are holding it wrong! There's no reception problem if you do it this way.

Apple has documentation detailing how to deny design flaws and place blame on user



According to documents leaked to Boy Genius Report today, AppleCare representatives are being given a strong company line to deliver to unhappy iPhone 4 owners who complain about reception issues.

Employees are told to say that the device's reception performance "is the best we have ever shipped" and that its critical antenna flaws are "a fact of life in the wireless world." They are told not to perform service on iPhones with these problems and instead to give customers a PR-driven recitative instead.

In a nutshell, Apple knows the phone has problems but will insist that users are simply "holding it wrong."

These statements are dead ringers for CEO Steve Jobs' own assertions that the iPhone 4 antenna and reception issues do not, in fact, exist. "There is no reception issue," he told one user. But the very fact that this document exists suggests that Apple execs know there is indeed a widespread hardware flaw, even if they're unwilling to address it publicly at this time.

Outside the reality distortion field, on the other hand, we and many others have been able to duplicate the issue being discussed: When held by its sides, which are composed of a metal antenna band, the phone's reception quality drops dramatically. iPhone owners in our newsroom have seen reception decrease from five to two bars simply from holding the phone with two points of contact between the owner's hand and the antenna band.

One law firm is even preparing for a class-action lawsuit against Apple and is soliciting iPhone 4 customers to contact them about reception issues.

Also, while some folks have reported that using a bumper case prevents contact with the antenna band and preserves reception quality, AppleCare reps are being told to not give bumper cases to disgruntled users.

Here's the full text of the document as reported:

1. Keep all of the positioning statements in the BN handy -- your tone when delivering this information is important.

a. The iPhone 4's wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. Our testing shows that iPhone 4's overall antenna performance is better than iPhone 3GS.

b. Gripping almost any mobile phone in certain places will reduce its reception. This is true of the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, and many other phones we have tested. It is a fact of life in the wireless world.

c. If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 3GS, avoid covering the bottom-right side with your hand.

d. If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 4, avoid covering the black strip in the lower-left corner of the metal band.

e. The use of a case or Bumper that is made out of rubber or plastic may improve wireless performance by keeping your hand from directly covering these areas.

2. Do not perform warranty service. Use the positioning above for any customer questions or concerns.

3. Don't forget YOU STILL NEED to probe and troubleshoot. If a customer calls about their reception while the phone is sitting on a table (not being held) it is not the metal band.

4. ONLY escalate if the issue exists when the phone is not held AND you cannot resolve it.

5. We ARE NOT appeasing customers with free bumpers -- DON'T promise a free bumper to customers.

[The Godfather]

[MrGoutHimself]

Content, Pictures  and Download links visible to registered users only. 

REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.

Content, Pictures  and Download links visible to registered users only. 

REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.

Yeah, what Georgia said. I've yet to find a way to "hold" my moto Droid to cause the signal to drop. There are places in my condo with less signal than others, but I've only had one call drop with this phone since I got it back in April.

[MrGoutHimself]

I think Pobsy's cousin wrote this or something, leave it to the Brits to have names like "Gaywood."

Wireless Expert On iPhone 4 Antenna: We Got a Problem



Richard Gaywood?Ph.D in wireless network planning from Cardiff University?has tested the iPhone 4 communications problem. Before, he thought there were no problems. Now, his conclusion is clear: "The iPhone 4 is a fantastic device but a lousy phone."

Gaywood performed various tests that analyzed the network throughput of the device. Basically, how fast the iPhone 4 could transfer data measured in megabits per second under different conditions:

? Flat on hand.

? Covered grip (using a piece of cloth between the hand and the phone).

? Care grip.

He first tested the iPhone 4 in a weak signal area, then in an area with a very strong signal, in direct line of sight with a cell tower.

The resulting data was clear under both situations: There is a performance penalty when you hold your iPhone with your bare hand, independently of the bars displayed. When the signal is very strong, the impact is less noticeable. When the signal is weaker (chart above), the problem could stop communications altogether, like have been demonstrated already for both internet access and voice calls.


Test under strong signal conditions

Gaywood argues that Apple's explanations and solutions are conflicting, and that everyone should be affected by the signal problem:

Content, Pictures  and Download links visible to registered users only. 

REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.

If you're in a strong signal area, you may not ever see the effect, because even with the attenuation from holding the phone you'll still have plenty of signal left over. But that doesn't mean you aren't going to be affected by the issue unless you are never, ever in a weaker signal area?and the second test above suggests that 3G data transfer rates are still going to be slower anyway.

He also claims that, from his experience, it doesn't feel like a software fault to him. He says that he is waiting for a formal response from Apple, thinking that "there's some deeper problem here". For now, however, Apple keeps denying the problem: While talking to iPhone 4 users, Apple Care support has orders to deny the problem, arguing that all cellphones experience this problem. While this is technically true but, as the empirical evidence from Gaywood and thousands of users shows, it affects the iPhone 4 much more than any other device. The obvious reason that Gaywood points out in his article: The user is, at all times, in contact with the antenna through metal.

Anandtech performed some signal attenuation tests as part of their in-depth analysis of the phone. This shows the differences between the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, and the HTC Nexus One:


They also weighed in the whole antenna issue:

Content, Pictures  and Download links visible to registered users only. 

REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.

The main downside to the iPhone 4 is the obvious lapse in Apple's engineering judgment. The fact that Apple didn't have the foresight to coat the stainless steel antenna band with even a fraction of an ounce worth of non-conductive material either tells us that Apple doesn't care or that it simply doesn't test thoroughly enough. The latter is a message we've seen a few times before with OS X issues, the iPhone 4 simply reinforces it. At the bare minimum Apple should give away its bumper case with every iPhone 4 sold. The best scenario is for Apple to coat the antenna and replace all existing phones with a revised model.The ideal situation is very costly for Apple but it is the right thing to do. Plus it's not like Apple doesn't have the resources to take care of its customers.
Both Anandtech and Gaywood argue that Apple's response to this situation is not good. Their expert testing shows what thousands of you have already denounced. The tests results show that the iPhone 4 suffers from a design problem that affects the core functionality of the phone: Make calls and receive data.

Content, Pictures  and Download links visible to registered users only. 

REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.

[Magnusrex]

[MrGoutHimself]

This is an interesting development. Now they're saying it's a software issue.

Whoa, Apple just admitted that there's an issue with the iPhone 4's reception, but it might not be what you think:

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don't know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

To fix this, we are adopting AT&T's recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone's bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.

We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

Sure, the odd way Apple calculates bars has been noted before, but what's troubling is that this is the second time Apple has blamed signal strengh / reception issues on software and it doesn't fully explain calls dropping and data degradation when the iPhone 4 is held in a very particular (but common) way. It's also worth noting that Apple in no way admits to an antenna design flaw. Read the full press release after #as# marks

Content, Pictures  and Download links visible to registered users only. 

REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.

[The Godfather]

Content, Pictures  and Download links visible to registered users only. 

REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.

Oh, so it was a perception problem, not a reception problem easily fixed with a software update.

[troup]

Anyone seen the new Futurama? Pretty much sums up the "eyephone" and its hordes of followers