Posted on 06/29/2010 8:07:03 PM PDT by for-q-clinton
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at mashable.com ...
Tech ping please
Sounds like Obama needs to appoint an iPhone4 czar.
!!!!!!!! / sarc
we need a windfall profit tax on apple to be honest. They make over 50-100% profit
we need a windfall profit tax on apple to be honest. They make over 50-100% profit
Eff Apple. I get so sick of Rush marvelling over Apple this and that. I loathe MSFT and Google. I give credit to Jobs for blocking porn but this Apple infatuation is a joke. Jobs has done an amazing job but idiots worship Apple like they worship Star Trek.
Just because the customer service people are giving a line out about the iphone 4 doesn’t mean it’s not a fantastic phone. I love it and have not noticed ANY difference in coverage or calling or reception from my previous iPhone.
Remember too that in these first weeks, you can return your iPhone for a full refund if you are not happy. A class action lawsuit is just stupid at this point (well, not for the attorneys).
HATER!! HATER!! HATER!! ;-)
It’s not the way the phone works, it’s the perception of how the phone works that matters. It’s more of the function follows form. Make it shiny and pretty and slick, and you can overlook the fact it has problems doing the basic functions of a phone.
I’ve read a few posts on tech forums that said the problem is the transmit functionality of the phone, not necessarily the receive. So the upcoming software patch that Jobs hinted at will be to crank the transmit power up to compensate. Of course, that will kill battery life, but they’ll figure out a way to PR-cover that as well, if it is the case.
But is he a VILE, GD EVIL LIAR who has sinned against Apple? ;)
Suckers. I never want to be the first one to own anything. You pay too much, and all that extra money goes to the R&D to fix all the problems. Big waste. But hey, vanity comes at a price.
I don’t get it. If they don’t work, just get your money back, and go buy a competing product that does work.
What I want to know is... how deeply involved in this is Dick Cheney?
I agree.
I might get one after Verizon has them (in January), and most of the kinks are worked out. Then again, Android will have further evolved by that point also.
Then again, I don’t really *need* either of them. ;-) My 4-year-old non-touchscreen decidedly uncool cell phone still makes phone calls quite well, thank you. And that’s all I really need it for.
From what I’ve read earlier, Nokia abandoned an external body-antenna fusion format precisely for these reasons. Apple didn’t want to purchase patents that Nokia had, for antenna designs, and decided to hoe their own “road”, so to speak, with obviously disastrous *performance* results. Sales however, isn’t going to be affected by much.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/26/iphone-4-antenna-problems-were-predicted-on-june-10-by-danish-pr/
Yeah, or get a case. I don't think I've seen five iPhones in the last two years that aren't already in one.
EXCERPT:
Well, this must be one of the most epic “I told you so” moments in the history of consumer electronics. Professor Gert Frølund Pedersen, an antenna expert over at Denmark’s Aalborg University, managed to get his concerns about the iPhone 4’s external antennae on the record a cool two weeks before the phone was even released. In an interview on June 10, the Danish brainbox explained that he wasn’t impressed by Steve Jobs’ promises of better reception, describing external antennas as “old news,” and suggested that contact with fleshlings could result in undesirable consequences to the handset’s reception:
“The human tissue will in any event have an inhibitory effect on the antenna. Touch means that a larger portion of antenna energy becomes heat and lost.”
Machine-translated that may be, but you get the point. Researchers at Gert’s university have already shown that over 90 percent of any phone’s antenna signal can be stifled by holding it in the right place, but he’s highlighting the specific exposure to skin contact as a separate issue to be mindful of. Good to know we’ve got sharp minds out there, and as to his suggested solution, Gert says phones should ideally have two antennae that act in a sort of redundant array, so that when one is blocked, the other can pick up the slack. So, what are we going to do now, Apple?
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