

Critical iPhone 4 Issues and Complaints Are Mounting - MykalM
http://mashable.com/2010/06/23/iphone-yellow-screen-tint/

======
siglesias
What is perhaps most intriguing here, especially about the antenna problem is
that in the field tests they were probably using that iPhone 3G disguise case
that Gizmodo revealed Apple testers were using. What's interesting there is
that that case would impede discovery of this hand contact problem because the
hand wouldn't thus short the two side antenae together as a case would be over
it. I'm hoping that these were thoroughly tested on Apple's campus without
case because on the surface this looks like a deep flaw in what Jobs vaunted
as a revolutionary product design, signaling that Apple was it's own worst
enemy in providing inadequate testing conditions in pursuit of it's trademark
secrecy.

~~~
ubernostrum
I've tried every combination of fingers and hands on every part of the phone
in every configuration I'm physically capable of, and I can't make it lose
signal with a touch. Similarly, plenty of videos have been posted of people
who can't make it happen.

Which suggests that... wait for it... there's not some huge fundamental
design/manufacturing flaw in the iPhone's antennae that Apple didn't notice or
wants to cover up. Instead, it's just another cell phone that's picky about
signal strength, like pretty much every other cell phone ever manufactured.
Hell, Macrumors published video from _2008_ showing an old iPhone doing
exactly the same things people are now claiming to be a brand-new phenomenon
unique to the iPhone 4:

[http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/23/iphone-4-signal-
declines...](http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/23/iphone-4-signal-declines-
while-being-held-an-old-issue/)

Add to this the fact that the "story" started at an outlet which has a pretty
big and well-known axe to grind against Apple, and I feel like we need a whole
lot more than some youtube videos and a bunch of "me too" posts in a forum to
make a big issue out of this.

~~~
ahk
Just because a bug appears seemingly randomly does not mean it's not a bug.

When I was a kid watching tv with an indoor antenna, anytime there was poor
reception I'd go and hold the antenna and reception would improve or get a lot
worse.

So, I've no problems believing that this is an issue, that it affects
different people differently at different times, and that Apple knew about it
and made those shells as a fix (a trade-off in exchange for greater
compactness of the device) for those who want it.

~~~
ErrantX
From my time at university doing electronics we observed that some people do
cause this effect - one person in our department consistently shorted anything
he touched. We never figured out why but I know a couple of other people who
have the same problem.

~~~
lutorm
Maybe depending on how "sweaty" people are, which would affect the contact
resistance of their fingers?

~~~
anigbrowl
It's something different. I used to tune in radios by waving my hands around
the antenna like a theremin. Some people seem to throw off more of an
electrical field than others. Yes, I am available for bizarre scientific
experiments.

~~~
YuriNiyazov
This comment made me smile - this is exactly what I did as a kid when my radio
got static-y. Slightly changing _my_ position with relation to the radio,
without touching it, sometimes fixed it.

------
tumult
You only hear people complaining about something on the internet when it
doesn't work. So it always sounds like every product launch, ever, is a
complete failure. Apple's especially, since they're high-profile.

So here's an opposing anecdote for you: my iPhone 4 is completely fine. No
problems at all.

~~~
Kilimanjaro
Perhaps complains sponsored by the competition?

~~~
stcredzero
Companies have attempted positive astro-turfing. The negative counterpart
would seem to be easier, since people aften fear the worst, so FUD is an
easier sell. This is probably going on all the time. I think it's only
effective on marginal products, though. If something's going to succeed, then
it makes no difference.

EDIT: I am something of a marginal case, though. I have a 1st generation 8GB
iPhone. I keep wishing there was some way for me to have a carrier that's not
AT&T, to have pre-paid calls & data, to be on Verizon's excellent network, to
not have to deal with unlocking and jailbreaking and iTunes upgrade paranoia,
to be able to put in a different SIM when I travel overseas, etc... Right now,
I am figuring out a way to get my hands on a Canadian iPhone. The though
occurs to me: why don't I just get an Android phone? I already own two
perfectly good iOS test platforms.

------
sounddust
The original iPhone had an aluminum backing, with a small black band that ran
horizontally along the bottom of the back of the phone. If you covered this
area while using the phone, you'd find that your EDGE speed would drop
dramatically, and you would lose signal strength. Once you knew this, you had
the choice between avoiding this area with your hands for maximum network
performance, or holding the phone exactly how you liked and having reduced
performance.

The iPhone 4 (mine, at least) has the exact same issue, and it's almost in the
exact same place, the only difference being the reasoning behind why it
happens (in this case, it seems to be about bridging two pieces of metal with
your hands), and how it can be avoided (buying a case might help with the
iPhone 4, whereas it didn't with the iPhone 2G).

I've owned many other phones that were sensitive to where you held them, in
fact I think every phone I've ever owned without an antenna that sticks out is
sensitive to this problem to some degree. I had to "train" myself not to cup
my hand behind the top-backing of the Nokia I had before my iPhone. And now
I'm already "trained" from holding my iPhone that I don't touch the bottom
left of the phone when I talk anyway.

It's not a big deal, just something to get used to (and it might turn out that
a case will resolve it, which can't be said about many other phones with this
issue). It is a legitimate "con" when determining whether to buy the phone,
but it doesn't deserve all the ridiculous comments about how the phone is
somehow flawed because of this.

(And just to give some more specific details of how this affects my phone: if
I put pressure on the bottom-left corner of the phone with my hand where the
seam is, the signal strength drops: by 1-2 bars if I hold it normally, or all
the way to 1 bar if I give it a death grip. In either case, the calls don't
seem to drop).

~~~
khafra
If you use their Apple-branded case, the little rubber band that goes around
the outside edge, does that fix the problem?

~~~
sounddust
I don't know because it doesn't seem to be in stock anywhere yet. (An odd
mistake on Apple's part, as you certainly want all the accessories to arrive
on the day that people buy their phone, otherwise they're much less likely to
buy them).

~~~
nerfhammer
What happens if you just insulate the phone from your hand with any other non-
conductive material?

~~~
sounddust
Then it stays at 5 bars no matter how I hold it.

I took a ziploc bag folded in half (therefore 4-ply) and wrapped it around the
metal, and no matter how hard I squeeze it or cover it, the signal doesn't
drop below 5 bars.

------
aschobel
Good video on Mac Rumors showing this issue:

<http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=948533>

Phone 4 Drops Calls when Left Corner is Touched

~~~
ubernostrum
Tried it, can't reproduce it. Or any of the other "sure-fire" configurations
people have claimed.

If it really is a hardware issue, it's probably due to a defect in some
batches of phones. But for now I'm sticking to the most likely explanation,
which is just that cell phones are finicky little beasties and people are
quick to spot patterns where none exist.

~~~
watty
I'm pretty sure large batches of phones that lose signal when held is a
defect. I'm glad you can't reproduce it, it means that not all phones are
defective. Many of the videos show the phones going from full bars to 1 or
zero. This is not finicky but a defect.

------
nullproc
from the folks who could not reproduce the reception issue, i would be curious
to know whether your body was grounded or not. for example, were you wearing
sneakers with a rubber sole. did you have your free hand in your pocket or not
touching something conductive? what would happen if you tried the same
activity barefoot, or while you were touching a faucet or anything else that
may be grounded. i'd be curious if individuals body's are, in-fact, changing
the impedance of the antenna and rendering it less effective, or if its a
combinaton of factors that contribute to the issue.

~~~
ubernostrum
I stood up on a carpet floor, barefoot, holding the phone in my left hand in
the "guaranteed to lose reception" position. And didn't lose reception.
Repeated on tile, didn't lose reception. Repeated touching various conductive
and non-conductive objects. Didn't lose reception.

As I've been saying since last night: if it's a defect, it's most likely a
defect in some batches of phones and not fundamental to the design/present in
all of them.

------
jonknee
And now we know why other phone manufacturers haven't put the antenna on the
outside.

------
cstross
As for a circular yellow tint appearing on a retina, maybe we should nick the
medical fraternity's term for that: retinitis pigmentosa!

~~~
MrFoof
I'm trying to think of an Apple IPS display that _hasn't_ had this issue to
some extent. The iPhone4. The 27-inch iMac. The 24-inch LED display. My
2005-era 23" HD Cinema Display.

This is a manufacturing issue in which the multiple laminates which make up
the display weren't perfectly sealed together. So it's possible for the
display to pass initial quality control checks, but the reality is they're in
the process of separating a bit. Odds are it'll slowly continue to separate
over time, making the spot grow larger.

Apple has been hit or miss over replacing devices over the issue. On my Cinema
Display - which was $1800 at the time - I received multiple (refurbished)
replacements at the time, all of which exhibited the same issue. Eventually
they gave up. Now the spot is about 2 square inches in size after 5 1/2 years.
However there have been cases where replacement has been flatly denied and the
customer was told there wasn't a problem.

~~~
Gary_W_Longsine
The issue with iPhone 4's "yellow spots" may have a simple explanation. Users
at Apple's forums have reported that the issue just "went away". Perhaps this
post at the Apple Insider discussion forum sheds light on what's happening:

\-- quote -- by user: austingaijin The yellow blotches will disappear Apple is
using a bonding agent called Organofunctional Silane Z-6011 to bond the layers
of glass. Apparently, Apple (or more likely Foxconn) is shipping these
products so quickly that the evaporation process is not complete. However,
after one or two days of use, especially with the screen on, will complete the
evaporation process and the yellow "blotches" will disappear.

How do I know? I was involved in pitching Z-6011 to Apple. \-- end quote--

------
nooneelse
Another demo video, using a more stable, conductive test sample, a key:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvH-i7rKPJc>

------
jkahn
Wow. If this is a hardware issue, it will cost a bomb to fix and delay
production by weeks. Ouch.

~~~
ahk
No, Apple will make even more money by selling those overpriced plastic
shells.

------
jamesseda
RF Happens

------
geuis
So lots of reports of defective phones that haven't even been released to the
general public? Let's wait at least a week for a few tens of thousands of
people to have them in hand across the US and can report in.

~~~
matthew-wegner
There were 600,000 pre-orders. Apple confirmed early delivery of online orders
(July 23rd instead of 24th). I'd say there are a few number of iPhones in the
wild now:

[http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/22/walmart-receives-
iphone-...](http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/22/walmart-receives-
iphone-4s-apple-confirms-early-iphone-4-deliveries-on-june-23rd/)

Your logic is backwards, anyway; I'd be _more_ worried if there were lots of
reported problems with only a few iPhones in the market.

~~~
pyre
I'm assuming s/July/June/g ? Otherwise I'm confused. I'm not following the
iPhone 4 coverage too closely.

------
devin
I do not have this issue. In fact, I think it is a software problem. I made a
call with perfectly clarity with 0 bars.

It's fine, people. Quit making a huge deal about nothing.

I bet more than 50 percent of the people voting on these answers are people
without friggen iPhone 4s. Wanna know where the people with iPhone 4s are?
They're playing with their new toys.

~~~
watty
I have a blackberry - not a fanboy. I've watched multiple videos where data
transfer rates dropped significantly when the antennae are touched in the same
way making me think this is not just a software problem. Either way, software
problems are big too - this is what tech blogs do.

edit: go check out Apple fanboy blogs/forums... you'll see panic there as
well.

~~~
watty
Why did I get down voted? Even IGM is having problems with their new iPhone
and it does cause dropped calls:

<http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=11149>

~~~
MWinther
If I were to venture a guess, I'd say that the constant fanboy angle on
practically all Apple stories a) gets tiresome and b) takes away from the
discussion of the article at hand.

