
Steve Jobs on iPhone 4 Signal Issue: 'There are no reception issues' - codeview
http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/27/steve-jobs-on-iphone-4-signal-issue-stay-tuned/
======
ajg1977
I'm 90% sure it's coincidence, but the fact that Apple decided to release
their first iPhone bumper/case, and in iOS4 removed the field test mode that
showed numeric signal strength, does make me wonder.

It's going to be interesting to see how this all turns out, but I'm
disappointed in many of the news sites who are now badging it as an issue with
displayed strength. I have an iPhone 4, live in an area with good signal
strength, and "bridging the gap" with my finger absolutely does decrease voice
quality and decimate data throughput.

~~~
zweben
I think the release of the bumper case is much more likely because the iPhone
now has twice as many glass surfaces, and those glass surfaces are not guarded
from direct impact by a metal bezel like on the previous iPhones. If Apple
expected reception problems before release they could've just bumped back the
release date.

~~~
moe
_those glass surfaces are not guarded from direct impact by a metal bezel_

Sure. Because the previous iPhones were built like tanks and... oh, wait. They
weren't either.

To me those two "coincidences" look more like exercises in damage control as
the RMA flood kicks in.

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karipatila
I find it extremely uncomfortable to partake in these discussions (outside HN,
of course). The Macrumors poll effectively claims over 50% of the units are
defective. It seems not that many people have a problem with this kind of
reasoning. I've also noticed Godwin's law in effect faster than usual.

What I do find interesting, however, is the need to utterly bash a product you
will never buy, and never intended to, possibly because you believe your own
brand of choice to benefit from that sort of commentary.

~~~
sprout
I do think that this is a somewhat pointless discussion, but it's less a
question of preferring another brand to believing that the Apple brand is
increasingly harmful to free speech, and not just in a GNU all-software-must-
be-free manner, but hewing to the American "I can say whatever I want so long
as it's reasonably not going to hurt anyone seriously" manner.

So, it's not just a question of brand, and I think there are some _rational_
reasons to dislike Apple, which may cause irrational outbursts of nonsense.

------
tlammens
Maybe there are iPhones that don't have an issue but the following movie
leaves little doubt: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03PQyWp0mWE>

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KirinDave
I've had and heavily used the phone since launch. I frequently hold it with my
left hand both for calls and for things like Foursquare checkins. I do not use
a case or tape.

I've yet to have the issue come up in a real world scenario. It's certainly
not a problem for calling unless you hold your phone like a coconut shell to
your head. It's more of a threat when you're using your thumb on the phone
while holding it in your left hand. Perhaps my wife, friends, and family all
have curiously shaped hands that find the required grip renders actual use of
the uncomfortable.

Of course, in every other way the iPhone 4 seems to be an incredible
smartphone; I suppose even if there is a problem requiring conscious thought
for some people, it's on balance with the kinds of problems other handsets
have. I mean, the battery life alone is something to drive upgrades:
<http://bit.ly/aeKf0n> And the iPhone's past reception issues has been
_dramatically improved_. I'm one of those unfortunates who has a home "sort
of" covered by AT&T, and the difference between the iPhone 4's dropped/missed
calls and the 3GS's dropped/missed calls is very noticeable.

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gojomo
On my 3gs in central SF, the 'bars' indicator is already almost useless... it
can show 4 or 5 bars, and I'm still unable to initiate calls, receive calls,
or hold a clear call. It's so untrustworthy that in my more paranoid moments I
wonder if some prior software update included a 'inflate the bar count'
change.

This talk of fixing iPhone4 issues with an OS update makes me wonder the same
thing. Maybe they'll just smooth/inflate the bars display.

~~~
tinotopia
A large part of AT&T's perception problem seems to have to do with their
congestion, not their RF performance, in a few places.

This might be one of those situations where more information would be useful.
The ideal solution would be to charge a higher price (e.g. a 'minute
multiplier' — show this next to the signal strength indicator) for traffic in
congested conditions — but this would present marketing problems, Mobile-phone
pricing is already opaque enough, and people would rightly be suspicious that
the introduction of such a congestion charge would soon result in interesting
re-defintions of 'congestion'.

You might be able to get much the same effect by simply _showing_ the user the
current local network condition, by turning the signal indicator into a
signal-and-congestion indicator. You'd see the signal strength as a measure of
the radio conditions, and some kind of indicator that reflected the ability of
the network to handle calls at that moment.

I'm assuming, with no particular knowledge of the matter, that the congestion
problems with mobile-phone networks are like nearly all other such problems:
extremely fleeting. You might be unable to make a call for about five minutes
out of an hour; but if that's the five minutes during which you want to make a
call, not only are you frustrated because you can only discover the situation
through what amounts to black-box analysis, but the phone company gets no
goodwill from you for the performance of the network during the other fifty-
five minutes.

~~~
gojomo
Definitely, AT&T's problem in SF has a large congestion-related dimension. I
know, because for the first ~2 years of AT&T service, it was annoying but not
totally useless in my home neighborhood. But in the last 6 months, it's
collapsed. _Long_ periods where call attempts and SMS-sends fail, and where
the signal meter oscillates between "no service" and 4 bars -- but even 4 bars
may not allow calls and SMSes to succeed.

Congestion means they have lots of paying customers in the area -- so even
without congestion pricing, they ought to be able to plan and maintain
capacity here. That they have not is evidence of the lack of proper
competition, aggravated by Apple's exclusive deal.

~~~
moe
Living in a civilized country (europe) I can only shake my head whenever I
read about the issues the supposed "last remaining Super Power" has with their
mobile networks.

Over here we get annoyed when we stumble into an area without HSDPA coverage
which makes our data-rate drop from 400 kB/s to around 30 kB/s...

But dropped calls and such are mostly an unknown. I can't remember having
_ever_ experienced one except when driving through a tunnel with the car. Our
main network (t-mo) is pretty much everywhere until you drive _really_ far out
into the woods. Even in rural areas my phone gets to choose between 2-3
networks most of the time. Smaller networks have roaming agreements with t-mo,
so phones just seamlessly switch as needed.

You americans have my pity.

------
awolf
I'm finding the external antenna's advantage may out-weigh its drawbacks.

Hands mess with cell phone reception. Every phone has an optimal way to be
held so as to minimize this effect.

The difference with the iPhone 4 is that the optimal holding method is clear.
If my signal is fine then I can cup the phone as normal but if I'm in a low
signal situation I can give my phone the death grip to avoid touching the
steel.

~~~
steverb
It's not a bug, it's a feature?

~~~
awolf
More like: it's a drawback.

I have a hard time believing the shorting-the-antennas issue was unforeseen by
Apple. I give a company that just pulled in a $63.5B year a little more
credit.

~~~
jonknee
Huge companies can still make huge mistakes. Ask BP and their $250B in
revenue.

~~~
awolf
BP's business model is based around taking calculated risks.

Apple's is based around creating beautiful products with innovative new
features. They have definitely done it again... but whether or not the
external antenna feature in particular will be seen as innovative.. I guess we
will have to "stay tuned".

------
glhaynes
"Stay _Tuned_ " — Hah!

------
mattparcher
I don’t want to get my hopes up, but:

 _One report[1] even claimed an iOS update as early as Monday might be able to
relieve the issue due to a lag in the iPhone 4's ability to switch between
frequencies causing the loss in signal._

(Even as most reports seem to indicate a complete disruption of service,
rather than a simple “lag”.)

[1]
[http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/06/25/death_grip_hys...](http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/06/25/death_grip_hysteria_may_end_monday_with_ios_4_01.html)
(To be a taken with a grain of salt, as should anything at AppleInsider that
is uncorroborated.)

------
buro9
Isn't there an app for that?

As in... has no-one created an app showing a real-time scrolling graph of
reception level and an accurate (or as accurate as possible) number of the
current reception level... perhaps with an overlay of the number of visible
towers and strength?

Because if they did, then not only could it be proved by the layman but if the
problem existed then the layman can visually see the effect and visually gain
feedback on their techniques to find a better way to hold the phone.

If this doesn't exist, it sounds like a great cash-in app for right now. I'll
take 2.5% of revenue for the idea.

~~~
Andys
I have a great little app for my Android G1 that shows your location on a
google map (GPS) as well as the location of the cell tower you're connected
to. I suspect Apple don't provide an API for this sort of stuff..

~~~
waterlesscloud
What is that app named? I want it!

~~~
biafra
CellFinder is one app that does this.

~~~
tjakab
There's also Antennas.

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cmelbye
The fact that he says "stay tuned" makes me think that Apple will be releasing
a grand solution soon.

------
olsonea
These aren't the droids you're looking for...

(pun not intended, but it's apropos)

------
tumult
Mine works fine. I don't know. People will look for problems in anything. I
liked it better when we were complaining about actual problems, like Apple
telling programmers what language they're allowed to 'originally write' in
when developing for their platform.

~~~
leviathant
Oh, your works fine? In that case, everyone else who has an anecdote about
theirs not working fine doesn't really matter. Because if yours works fine, it
must not be a problem.

I'm not sure why everyone is complaining about this BP oil spill, I don't see
any oil washing up on the beaches near me in the northeast, so it can't be
THAT big of a problem, right?

~~~
tinotopia
By observing the fluidity of Long Island Sound, though, you can be sure that
no one has dumped ice-nine into the Gulf of Mexico. Similarly the existence of
a single functioning production iPhone 4 proves that there's no fundamental
design flaw in the frame-as-antenna idea.

I've also had no reception problems with my iPhone 4, despite trying
everything I've read about or can think of to provoke them. Licking
fingertips, grasping the phone in a position no human would ever use, sitting
in my bathtub where I'd surrounded by several layers of metal lath, etc.,
etc.: I can get the indicated signal strength to drop somewhat (but not
consistently), but I have never been unable to make a call during these
experiments.

I am forced to conclude one of three things:

1\. Message-board habitués are very loudly complaining about a tiny or
nonexistent problem with an Apple product. This would be strange, because
normally you can take all criticism of Apple and its products entirely at face
value, and people _never_ swarm out of the woodwork to complain about the
performance of Apple products they don't own. Insert sarcasm punctuation mark
here.

2\. There _is_ a design flaw, but it's a subtle one that results in a higher-
than-expected rate of manufacturing defects, causing some people's phones to
have more reception problems than one would normally expect.

3\. The iPhone 4 performs about as well as every other mobile phone, which
means: less than perfectly. Hype about the antenna means that this is
resulting in an inordinate amount of public complaining.

Or, most likely: all three of those.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
If you can't even reproduce the problems that people have apparently found in
the Nexus One and iPhone 3GS and basically every other phone by holding their
phone (in)correctly and shielding the antennae, then why would you further
conclude that your failure to replicate an issue specific to the iPhone 4
means it doesn't exist?

