Posted on 07/02/2010 11:54:40 AM PDT by for-q-clinton
For two weeks, Apple dismissed rumors of a faulty antenna in the new iPhone 4 as nothing more than scuttlebutt. Any phone has these problems, Apple officials said. Buy a case to fix it.
Friday, Apple came clean: The antenna works just fine. But the software that displays signal strenth doesn't. The company has been using a faulty formula to determine signal strength in its phones for years.
"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," Apple said in a letter from two executives posted on its website Friday morning.
The letter went on to explain that there are no problems with the iPhone's antenna -- the only problem is with software that calculates how many bars should be showing. And the software hasn't worked properly since the original iPhone was released three years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcbayarea.com ...
Tech ping please.
Looks like a new spin on the antenna issues.
Good news for ‘em, though. FAR easier to issue a software update than a firmware re-design.
I’m just amazed at the issues software can cause though. I will be very interested to know how this is a software issue.
I can see software causing dropped calls which the iPhone is notorious for. Which it appears Apple’s buggy software is giving ATT a bad name. Which many people with iPhones will attest that their iPhone drops way more calls then other cell phones. But most just blame ATT because it couldn’t possibly be ATT’s fault.
Josh Kleinbaum is a HATER!!!
PugetSoundSoldier has a pretty good response to this
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2545716/posts#34
It appears that what they’re admitting to is having accidentally created an erroneous perception that there is a problem.
In all cell phones, the bars you see are calculated approximations of signal strength over time. The iPhone 4 added quite a bit more complexity to the antenna system in order to get better reception, so probably the bar calculator routine wasn't modified accordingly.
HTC had a "problem" like this a while back. People complained about low bars, but the signal was still good. HTC changed the way the bars were calculated, and customers were happy even though they had the same exact signal they had before.
No, AT&T still sucks, I have a blackberry with AT&T and I get plenty of dropped calls.
I think what has happened is:
a) the iPhone 4 has a more erratic antenna design- better in some situations, worse in others, especially when being held, and
b) this did indeed expose the - always known - bogus signal strength display.
Whomever designed or approved an antenna that could be held or put in a configuration where two antennas could be bridged - OR NOT (i.e. the end antenna situation is highly variable) - should have their engineering degree taken away....
I guess the old “hoping that enough fans and sycophants at tech blogs to cover for us” strategy didn’t quite pan out this time?
Turn it around: AT&T is giving Apple a bad name. AT&T is the reason I have an HTC. I was NOT going to switch to AT&T even to get an iPhone. My whole family is quite happy on Verizon, where the coverage is great, the prices are decent, and I rarely get dropped calls.
I don't like anything about AT&T. You could try to credit them with the wisdom to take a chance and partner with Apple on a groundbreaking way to make a smart phone, one that led to far better smart phones across the board, but even that was Cingular before the AT&T purchase.
I remember that CD-ROM drive. I clipped the fan wires the day I got it.
I had very few drop calls with my iPhone going back to the first month the iPhone was released. this week however, I am dropping probably 80% of my calls, maybe even more than that. I cannot see any other possibility than the new G4 phones are bringing their network to it’s knees.
Do you remember the PowerBook G3? That laptop had an issue where the battery would disconnect itself from the laptop from time to time.
Apple’s fix was to ship the affected customers a foam strip & a tongue depressor to install the foam strip within the battery compartment. The foam would force the battery to stay in position & keep physical contact with the PowerBook G3’s motherboard.
Change how you display the bars all you want, you will not fix the much higher absorption you get when you hold an iPhone 4.
Additionally, this runs counter to the recommendation to hold it differently or use a case, both of which would point strictly at a hardware - not software - problem.
I had Verizon for the last 6 years and always had dropped calls.
I bought the iPhone 4 on opening day and moved to AT&T. I’m expecting dropped calls sometime although haven’t gotten them yet. I figured both companies have dropped calls.
But the phone is awesome. I’m sorry I waited so long to get one. I love everything about it.
Makes you wonder how much else is totally wrong doesn't it? I have to admit I thought the apple letter was a sick joke until I looked at my browser's address bar and it showed apple.com. Can anyone imagine the howls from the media if Microsoft issued a letter like this?
Only someone young enough to believe in Santa Claus would buy this apple tripe, which I've paraphrased here:
1. This happens to all mobile phones when held in the hand, even ours!
2. But we get letters from lots and lots and lots of people that say it doesn't happen to OUR phone.
3.We just discovered the bars have always been wrong for all of our phones all the time (we somehow missed that for years), and we're issuing a software patch that will show lots of bars all the time, no matter what. That will fix the no-bars problem.
Sounds like a lawyer trying out one lame argument after another until some gullible judge bites on one.
I have an iPhone 4. I suspect that Apple has a second problem with how their firmware selects the most appropriate AT&T tower & frequency band to place a call. I’ve had several cases where my iPhone is selecting the weakest AT&T site near my home to place a call. When this happens, the calls drop constantly. Simply restarting the iPhone will force another AT&T site to be used & the calls start working.
BTW, this is happening with the iPhone’s cell antenna facing 4 open windows while sitting on a piece of furniture.
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