Consumer Reports: Apple’s free Bumper case does not earn iPhone 4 our recommendation

Mac Daily News ^ | Friday, July 16, 2010 - 07:09 PM EDT<

[Swordmaker]

Apple does what Consumers Reports wanted, but it's not enough to satisfy them—PING!

Please don't feed the anti-Apple Trolls,
it just encourages them!

Apple iPhone 4 Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[BunnySlippers]

Here’s today’s press conference:

http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/100716iab73asc/event/index.html

The trolls cannot watch it or they will have to backtrack. It is on Apple’s site.

[Psycho_Bunny]

lolololol

[aMorePerfectUnion]

WORST car I ever bought was after I read Consumer Report’s high rating of it.

I still have a dream of leaving it on the side of 635 in Dallas, on fire, taking the plates off...

I never believed them again.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

Here’s a quick question, perhaps someone can answer it?

Steve Jobs admitted the iPhone 4 has worse call connection than the iPhone 3 GS (it drops 1 out of 100 more calls than the iPhone 3GS).

How many calls did the iPhone 3 GS drop? If it drops - normally - 1 out of 100, then the iPhone 4 is twice as bad. If the iPhone 3GS drops one out of 500, then the iPhone 4 is 5 times as bad.

Basically, what is the actual rate of drops? That’s never been given, only an acknowledgment that the iPhone 4 drops more calls than the previous iPhone model.

[BunnySlippers]

Here is Apple's $100 million Testing Facility for iPhones:

State of the art testing facility with 17 anechoic chambers costing $100 millions dollars manned by 18 PhD scierntists.

Pretty cool, huh?

[BunnySlippers]

I thought it quite telling that the iPhone 3GS had 6% returns to the i
Phone 4’s 1.7% return rate.

Can we say “overblown”?

The people who have a problem with the iPhone 4 are people who don’t own one.

[Gone_Postal]

"The people who have a problem with the iPhone 4 are people who don’t own one."

Yep they are just waiting for obama to mandate that apple hand them out to the slackers

[PugetSoundSoldier]

So, you don’t know the answer? You don’t know how many calls a typical 3GS dropped? We know the iPhone 4 is worse, but how much worse?

[BunnySlippers]

We know Apple’s customer satisfaction blows everyone else out of the water. No way would that have that level of satisfaction if they were “inferior: to the competition.

I just had to laugh today.

Watched the live blogs on Ar Technica and Gizmodo. Then the whole video on Apple’s site today topped it off.

Oh, how funny!!

[Paradox]

MacDailyNews Take: Did Consumer reports test iPhone 4 with iOS 4.0.1 with its the revised signal display algorithm? No they did not. They should take an iPhone back into their crap booth of flawed testing that's likely worth 1/1000th of Apple's state-of-the-art testing facilities

This is quite a silly statement. You can still screw up a test with expensive equipment. You can still NOT do a test that you should have though of. That said, this whole thing is no big deal. I'm surprised so many Apple fans have such a problem with it this criticism though. They doth protest too much.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

So again - no answer? How much worse is the call drop rate of the iPhone 4 versus the 3GS? We know it’s worse (that is not in dispute), but how much worse?

[PugetSoundSoldier]

One of the things you learn in customer support is that for every person who complains, 10 more stay silent. I’d take a 0.5% call rate for dropped calls as meaning 5% actually have the problem.

And note that Apple was careful to mention calls to “AppleCare”, NOT to AT&T. Most people who have dropped calls tend to call the carrier, not the hardware manufacturer (when your call drops, do you immediately think of your carrier or the phone maker?).

If Apple’s getting 0.5% of all iPhone 4 owners calling THEM over dropped calls, that’s a pretty significant rate overall. How many called AT&T about the issue?

A more telling metric than what Jobs reported would be the total number of iPhone 4 users who reported a dropped call - not just to AppleCare, not just to AT&T, but worldwide (since the sales are reported worldwide). THAT would be a relevant statistic; calls to AppleCare is interesting, but I don’t think too relevant.

[HangnJudge]

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/07/16/1741212/Apple-Offers-Free-Cases-To-Solve-iPhone-4-Antenna-Problems?art_pos=10

Long and Civil discussion on the iPhone at SlashDot
Remarkably devoid of polarizing Diatribe

[BunnySlippers]

And note that Apple was careful to mention calls to “AppleCare”, NOT to AT&T

They mentioned the return rate to AT&T as being 1.7. The return rate on the 3GS as being 6%. With the 3GS having no howling from trolls.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

You're mixing your facts. I was talking about the number of calls to AppleCare, not returns. You cannot return an iPhone to AppleCare. But you bring up an interesting point! Jobs mentioned a 1.7% return to AT&T; how many were returned to Apple stores? That wasn't addressed.

[Wright Wing]

Jobs was clear to state that they used the Apple Care numbers because they had the metrics. AT&T did not give out the actual numbers because they.keep those numbers private because it might be telling as to their network capability.

Will Comsumer Reports investigate the signal loss of the BB phone and HTC phone demonstrated during the press conference? After all it was just a Gizmodo article that started this whole thing.

Consumer Reports actually shuould retest the phone after the latest software update. They should also compare the iPhone signal loss against other phones that exhibit similar signal drops.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

Jobs was clear to state that they used the Apple Care numbers because they had the metrics. AT&T did not give out the actual numbers because they.keep those numbers private because it might be telling as to their network capability.

Precisely! So to infer that only 0.5% of iPhone 4 users ever had a problem is quite incorrect; we don't know how many called AT&T about dropped calls, and that may in fact be a reflection on the phone, not the network.

The real number is undoubtedly higher than 0.5%; how high is anyone's guess, but 5% is not out of the question.

Will Comsumer Reports investigate the signal loss of the BB phone and HTC phone demonstrated during the press conference? After all it was just a Gizmodo article that started this whole thing.

I thought it was an Ars Technica article with the first measurements of signal loss?

Regardless, CR tests phones the same way, and to date they haven't had a problem with other phones. In fact, CR even said the iPhone 4 was very good except if you touched the antenna wrong. It's part of their standard test - measure actual signal strength for all phones.

The difference, of course, is that the iPhone 4's antenna is exposed and uncovered (bare metal). That explains the problem, and why other phones may have lost some signal, they did not lose it to the degree of the iPhone 4.

(note: Apple's pictures of other phones losing signal strength is interesting and all, but unless Apple knows how signal strength is mapped to displayed bars for all those other phones, it's really nothing more than pretty pictures used to distract from the real issue. After all, we already know that Apple was calculating their bars wrong, and can change the display in software; who's to say that BB, HTC, Samsung aren't wrong with their displays, too?)

Consumer Reports actually shuould retest the phone after the latest software update. They should also compare the iPhone signal loss against other phones that exhibit similar signal drops.

I'm pretty sure they will. We have to wait for Apple to finish the software update, first...

[Richard Kimball]

And note that Apple was careful to mention calls to “AppleCare”, NOT to AT&T.

AT&T routes calls about the iPhone to Applecare. A couple of weeks ago I called AT&T. First thing they did was ask me what phone I was using. I told them iPhone, they said "hold on" and about 30 seconds later a lady said, "Welcome to Applecare."