News iPhone 4 Signal Problem Verified

dBm

 

Funny how the ones unable to defend start to quote things like "You haven't read the topic!"

I had already said this was a none event but the smug tone from Apple telling people how to hold a phone was just pathetic. It's obviously a design flaw but only a small one but hey, it only cost you a fortune!

 

I rather like apple gear, i dont really have an opinion on apple as a company. I went out and bought an iphone 4 to replace my aging iphone 3g on launch day. I've noticed my signal drop when i hold it but i can do the same on a friend's iphone 3GS. I've not experienced any dropped calls. I'm not saying this isn't an issue, but if this wasn't an apple phone i doubt allot of you would have an opinion on the matter.

Repeat this thread with a nokia, no one would care...

 

just put some hot glue on it and call it a day

 

I think its because so many people hold the iPhone as some kind of Jesus phone. Plus the premium and "design" are what you expect from Apple and people only tolerate the premium because the "design" is supposedly that much better. But if Apple are now failing at the "design" then all you're left with is premium, and no one wants to pay premium just for the sake of it, correction normal sensible people don't want to.

Apple is the new Microsoft, they're leading the way and getting flack for being successful and powerful. Unfortunately its not in tech but "design", and that is why they are drawing that extra bit of heat from the tech world.

I use "design" to describe how apple takes existing tech and packages in a way that makes it look stylish, and theoretically does some much QA and testing that it "just works".

 

Clearcoat or a clear lacquer (like transparent nail varnish) wouldn't even look unsightly. They should just fix the damn hardware design fault (insulate the antenna) rather than pushing some ******** software update and skirt the issue at hand.

 

To be fair most folks didn't bother reading what it said, just took a chance to jump on the "**** apple, you guys deserve it for buying their stuff" bandwagon.

No doubt there imo.

 

"an insulative coating atop the stainless steel"

This was the first and the most painfully obvious thought that came to my mind when I heard about this problem. Granted, an expensive gadget like an iPhone from a company that touts high standards such as Apple should not come with such a problem, but... just put some coating on it (Apple or the user) and stop the whining. Jeez.

 

Well according to the beeb apple are offering refunds of affected users, no article link yet. I returned mine the next day to o2 sadly

 

Indeed, the beeb article also says:

Article.

 

Apple admit software issue.

 

Huh, this inst a software issue, mien went from 2-3 bar to none and i couldn't make a call, how the hell is that software??? BS again from Mr Jobs

 

No-one said it was a software issue causing the problem, but the way the iPhone represents signal strength is a bit crap.

 

If the bars were never high in the first palce then why do they drop when you grab the phone?
So if you have two bars does that mean that you don't actually have a signal? *cough*marketing crap*/cough*
Too annoyed to even care right now. (note:annoyance is not related to apple/bit-tech or anything related to either one in any way shape or form)

 

Not to target you specifically, but why does everyone keep saying this is a left handed person's problem? I'm right handed and hold phones in my left hand. Holding a phone is a pretty simple operation, I don't feel the need to delegate my dominant hand to the [apparently quite difficult] task of holding a little device for a couple minutes.

But agreed with others. No one would care if this happened to Nokia because neither Nokia nor its fans so proudly (and obnoxiously?) brag about the high quality and thorough development of their products. Set yourself up too high and people are gonna laugh when you make even a little slip.

 

The phone loses signal if you hold it the natural way. That has been proven. It is an issue, and it is not software. These are facts.

The only issue Apple can fix is the ridiculous scaling of the signal bars, but that isn't going to help anyone who doesn't have enough of a signal "buffer" to hold the phone comfortably.

 

the fix for the most part is buy the bumper case or an case like it (as i would any way as i would not want an exploding screen if dropped) to prevent you from bridging the two antenna's

 

If 90% of your engineers are right-handed and test the devices, then this misconception of the antenna won't show up during testing. That's why the righthanded-lefthanded thingy is a considerable fact.

Actually all industrial standards apply only for righthanded people. Show me a mouse or a keyboard that's engineered for lefthanded people for example.
Allmost all devides have placed their switches and buttons for righthanded people. Cameras are a good example to show this.

 

I would like to say I think this is a very fair and well balanced opinion that covers both sides of Apple objectively, both giving credit and taking jabs as needed at the company. +rep

Side note: My right hand is my dominant hand, but I still hold my phone in it because I'm near deaf in my left ear. (I blew out an ear drum because of an infection when I was an infant.) The point of that incredibly dull story is this-- It's not just left-handed people that are affected, it's anyone who would happen to hold their phone in their left hand. Which, if you typically have people with dominant right hands, and they need to juggle say a frappacino, lunch, a brief case, their laptop, or any other of a billion items, they'll probably toss the phone to their left hand if they don't have blue tooth. This makes the problem a lot larger then it would first appear.

I can see how this kind of problem could come up, and indeed a few posts up someone explain exactly HOW it came to be. But, really, to have your *PR DEPARTMENT* come out and say "LOL NOOBS!" for how you hold your phone and then have the BALLS to charge you for a solution, well that's just low. That's a bit beyond just patronizing.

(BROAD SWEEPING GENERALIZATION COMING) The thing is, there are two types of Apple users it seems. And it has very little to do with sheeple, honestly. Apple really does sell stuff that JUST WORKS. My mother (67) had never seen an iPod and can barely use a PC. She can run my iPod just fine. Took me saying "use the circle to move, like a steering wheel" and that was it. Granted, I didn't teach her how to put music on it, but still. Same with the iPhones. They just work. You can have stability or you can mod-ability as far as commercial products go. Most companies try and strike a middle ground. (Android would be on the other end of this spectrum, Windows OS is somewhere in the middle.) Take a look at most people who have quasi-legit beefs with Apple. Most of them are techies, modders, or other geeks. People that like to tweak, customize, and modify their devices to get the most out of them. Apple curbstomps people like that. People like that are NOT WHO APPLE IS TARGETING. Get over it, find a different platform.

The second group are the hipster socialites. While they can have sheep/pack like mentalities, they care more about status symbols. They know their paying out the nose. AND THEY LIKE IT THAT WAY. They say "Look at my BMW, my Starbucks latte, and my Jesus Phone". (Compared to, oh let's say my Ford Taurus, McD's Mocha Frappe, and Blackberry Pearl.) They snub everyone and everything that isn't exactly like them. And they're used to receiving the SAME TREATMENT. So when Jobs comes out and basically says "I'm making these products not only to become filthy rich but to **** with all the socialite hipsters." no one blinks. They tend to laugh and AGREE with Jobs even when THEY ARE THE TARGET of his (somewhat seething) commentary. There's a comic SOMEWHERE about a new-gen iPhone that uses a plutonium battery but the radiation is fatal to the user. Jobs then markets it as "You'll only need one battery in your lifetime!" (and a billion others where he markets ****, bricks, and other mundane things.)

Sociology is indeed a fascinating and interesting thing. What people (myself included) need to learn is that, not every product that you don't like sucks. Some products just aren't meant for you. AND THAT'S OKAY. I describe the iPhone as "cute, quaint, and neat". But I just consider it a hipster toy. I mostly state my opinion of Apple by not buying the majority of their products, or any of their accessories. For me, the iPhone just isn't what I want. For MILLIONS of others, it's *exactly* what they want.

Um, so this became a wall of text. Crap. Um, well the only other thing to say is: I realize that this post, on a single message board, in the depths of the internet will change nothing. Penny-Arcades "****wit" comic still stands as being generally true, and people will always believe what they want to believe-- even (and almost always) in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

BUT--

At least I don't feel like I'm going to have a damn aneurysm now.

 

I think you missed what I'm saying, you don't have to be left handed to hold your phone in your left hand. If 90% of your engineers are right handed that's a pretty safe assumption to make, but saying that 100% of right handed people will always use their right hand to hold their phone isn't exactly correct. Surely even with right handed engineers eventually someone will hold it in their left and have it occur. Think about when you're trying to write down something you're being told. You move your phone to your left hand so you can write with your dominant one. Faulk_wulf has explained it quite well already.