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 CEO Steve Jobs on Friday announced that his company will give iPhone 4 owners free cases to address reception problems caused by the phone's external antenna, which is a metal band around the edge of the phone," John D. Sutter reports for CNN. "Mike Gikas, senior editor for electronics and technology at Consumer Reports, said in an interview that such a patch is a good "first step." But it's still not enough for his group to recommend the phone to consumers. 'What we were hoping for was a concrete, this-is-it fix for the phone,' Gikas said."

MacDailyNews Take: Consumer Reports would do well get their staff on the same page before allowing them to spout off: Consumer Reports: Apple’s Bumper case fixes iPhone 4 signal-loss issue - July 15, 2010

Sutter continues, "Gikas said such a solution makes it difficult to review the phone, because everyone has a different case, and it's unclear if the solution is permanent; there's a chance the phone could still be recalled after September 30, or that a new version could be issued, he said."

"During the press event in Cupertino, California, Jobs tried to spread the blame about reception issues across the smartphone industry as a whole," Sutter continues. "Gikas said that was a bit unfair. 'The human hand -- the body -- attenuates signal on all phones,' he said. 'But we haven't seen it happen to the degree that it's happened with the iPhone 4.'"

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 (we're being exceedingly generous with that estimate even though it's certainly not warranted) and test the iPhone 4 running iOS 4.0.1 with and without Apple bumpers before they make any more of their conflicting and illogical non-recommendation recommendations. Again, anyone under the age of 115 who uses a Consumer Reports recommendation for any electronic device needs to seek immediate mental health counseling. The rest of you, enjoy your Aiwa boom boxes.

Sutter continues, "'The most important thing to remember is a problem was discovered with the phone and we can confirm it in a lab, and it was a significant problem,' Gikas said. 'And I don't think Apple fully admitted to it. They acknowledged it and they threw an interim solution at it. But everything spells fogginess about this thing.'"

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Fogginess?! Okay, let's talk fogginess:

In chronological order:

• "iPhone 4 reception is actually better than on the 3GS according to many to some highly respectable and thorough testers, including AnandTech... There's no reason, at least yet, to forgo buying an iPhone 4 over its reception concerns." - Mike Gilkas, Consumer Reports' Electronics Blog - July 2, 2010

• Apple iPhone 4 is the best smartphone on the market according to Consumer Reports' ratings. - July 12, 2010

• "Apple needs to come up with a permanent—and free—fix for the antenna problem before we can recommend the iPhone 4." - Mike Gilkas, Consumer reports' Electronics Blog - July 12, 2010

MacDailyNews Take: You already did recommend it, you moron.

• "But for those who prefer to keep their iPhone, we encourage Apple to step forward soon with a remedy that fixes the confirmed antenna issue, and not one that requires additional consumer expense." - Mike Gilkas, Consumer Reports' Electronics Blog - July 13, 2010

MacDailyNews Take: Milk the thing for all it's worth, Mike, why don't you?

• "With the Bumper fitted, we repeated the test procedure, placing a finger on the Bumper at the point at which it covers the gap below. The result was a negligible drop in signal strength—so slight that it would not have any effect, in our judgment... The Bumper solves the signal-strength problem... We're still calling on Apple to provide an acceptable free solution to the iPhone 4's signal-loss problem." - Paul Reynolds, Consumer reports' Electronics Blog - July 14, 2010

MacDailyNews Take: Apple did so today, but CR still won't recommend their top-rated smartphone, Apple's iPhone 4.

• "We look forward to a long-term fix from Apple. As things currently stand, the iPhone 4 is still not one of our Recommended models." - Consumer Reports' Electronics Blog - July 16, 2010

To recap the fogginess: Consumer Reports recommends the iPhone 4, then they don't recommend the iPhone 4 even as they say it is the top-rated smartphone on the market. Next, Consumer Reports calls three separate times for Apple to "step forward soon with a remedy that fixes the confirmed antenna issue" that does not requires "additional consumer expense." Consumer reports then tests Apple's Bumper case and find that it alleviates the issue. Apple then offers free Bumper cases to all iPhone owners. Consumer Reports then decides that what they asked for is not good enough (for then hits to their website from users who do not require bottled oxygen in order to click a mouse button would cease) and fails to recommed Apple iPhone to their geriatric readership which actually believe that Consumer Reports' opinions on electronic products and God-knows-what-else are worth more than a bucket of warm spit.

How many more illogical, contradictory, flawed articles can the transparent hit whores at Consumer Reports concoct regarding this non-issue?

[Swordmaker]

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?).

You are misquoting what was reported:

The calls to AppleCare were referencing the attenuation issue, not "dropped calls." Per their contract, AT&T will refer all support issues with the iPhone itself to Apple. Dropped calls AT&T will handle and the stats about that were specified about them came from AT&T not AppleCare.

[Global2010]

Can’t get a Verizon signal out here on the rugged Oregon Central Coast.

But the buy minutes wal mart cell phone work wonderfully.

I just dropped my Verizon contract and the blackberry.

No signal at our place and being homebound for the most part it is a useless tool.

Went back to using calling card and landline.

But honestly I don’t need a cell phone/blackberry.

And the places we drive around to here on the coast are not cell phone signal friendly.
Radio signal is nill too out here.
When we do go to the Willamette Valley listening to Rush/Lars ect...is a real treat.

And those long late nite drives back to the coast Coast to Coast is fun entertainment.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

Really? I get pretty good reception all the way from Seaside down to Yachats. Not screaming fast, but enough to check e-mail and the like...

Love me some C2C as well; best part about being in China right now is that I don’t have to stay up late to listen; it’s on from 1 PM to 5 PM!

[Global2010]

You lucked out.

The cell phones drop in the area just after Yachets in areas all the way to Florence.

Then in areas from Newport over to Toledo and after Toledo over the Mtn. Range.

Also some areas from Newport up North to Lincoln City.

Allot of my vendors/contract guys drop off when calling to tell me their ETA’s.

Also if when I have them here at the house and they try to call out they get frustrated and I just point to the edge of the property (west) and tell them that is where the signal picks up.

China? Sounds like fun. : )

[Swordmaker]

Puget, I read a report last year that stated that the iPhone's dropped call rate on AT&T was actually about average among all phones on that network, showing that the fault most likely was inherent in the network's overloaded status than in any inherent weakness in the iphone's abilities to send or receive signals.

"...ChangeWave Research surveying 4,040 smartphone subscribers claims that AT&T's voice network metrics are actually getting worse.  From March 2009 to March 2010, the study claims AT&T dropped calls rose from 3.3 percent to 4.5 percent."

Combining these two data, along with the fact that the iPhone 3Gs was reported to have a better connectivity rate and a lower dropped call rate than did the previous iPhone 3 and 2G models, one must assume that the iPhone 3Gs had a dropped call rate somewhat less than 4.5%!

During this same period, Verizon's dropped call rate, according to then ChangeWave survey, was a mere 1.7%.

However, adding to the factors that should have been mentioned in considering why the iPhone 4 would have an increase of "less than one additional dropped call out of every 100 calls," on March 26th, when ChangeWave found the AT&T dropped call rates were highest, the Apple iPad 3G had yet to add 2 million new data consumers onto AT&T's already over loaded network... but by late April iPad 3G owners were swiftly becoming the largest mobile content consumers in the US, surpassing both the iPod touch and Android OS phones Web usage combined in just one month!

Then, on top of that, AT&T added 3 million iPhone 4s, most of them in urban areas, all demanding large amounts of bandwidth that is shared with the voice phone calls! AT&T literally is attempting to handle an influx of 7-8% more demand in just two short months on a network that was demonstrating it wasn't growing bandwidth fast enough to meet its needs as shown in the ChangeWave study. Yet you persist in blaming the iPhone?!?!?!

[BunnySlippers]

The iPhone 3GS was a resounding success! You, and others who have not used the iPhone are the ONLY ones complaining.

I posted a link to a vidro of the press conference which was not televised. You have Quicktime on your MacBook Pro.

Yes, I would say in your case, ignorance is bliss.

It was a kick azz press conference. Steve Jobs put everything in perspective very handily. I just wish the GOP{ would do the same.

[BunnySlippers]

Apple just put up a very nifty section about the antenna replete with circles and arrows for those who are still having problems with the iPhone 4 [even though they don’t own one].

No Quicktime required. Be sure and check out the area for the cool anechoic chambers!

http://www.apple.com/antenna/

[driftdiver]

ya know I’d like to see a “golly Houston there is a problem” and possibly an apology from the macbots who’ve attacked me on this issue.

I’d find that more interesting than some anechoic chamber.

[BunnySlippers]

Was your phone one of those whose video is on the antenna page? LOL! My favorite was the Droid.

Maybe if you watched the video I posted, you'd know the answer to your request.

Still loving my iPhone 4

SING IT!

If you don't want an iPhone 4,
Don't buy it!

If you have one and don't like it,
Bring it back.

[PreciousLiberty]

“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).”

That was WITHOUT the case. With the case, the iPhone 4 is better in just about every regard. Even CR rated it higher than the 3GS.

Much ado about nothing...

[NVDave]

Listen, AT&T has been dropping calls FOREVER. This ain’t a new problem.

10+ years ago, we had AT&T as our cellular carrier before Alltel had a cell site in central Nevada. AT&T purported to have US-50 and I-80 ‘covered’ with their cell sites throughout Nevada.

After that 2 year period when we had AT&T, we will never have AT&T as a carrier again. To say that AT&T “sucked” would require re-defining suck as “pulling large hoofed mammals through a bent drinking straw with negative air pressure.”

The #1 reason why I won’t get an iPhone is that it would require going back to doing business with AT&T. Been there, done that, won’t do it again. They’re a horrible carrier, and their response to customer issues is even worse.

We had dropped calls a-zillion in those days - with a Nokia analog/TDMA phone that had an extendable antenna. After the third call-back per month where we reported a dropped call for credit (which our contract specifically stated we could do), they’d fight us tooth and nail before giving us credit for a dropped call. After two years of this BS, when they upped the expense and changed the plan, we jumped on another carrier ASAP.

As far as the iPhone 4 goes - I think their antenna design is bleeding edge. Every now and then, mistakes are going to happen, but Apple clearly “has a better idea” on the type of antenna system they’re using. Remember, there’s much more than just the voice call going on for the antenna today: there’s the GPS reception, there’s WiFi, there’s Bluetooth.... they all have to have an antenna.

The old “pull out the whip” cell phones had it *easy* compared to today’s phones. Today, the regulatory environment is limiting any gain you could design into the antenna, they’re limiting field strength measured X so many centimeters from the handset (ie, where your brain would be), consumers no longer want pull-out whips anyway, yadda, yadda. A very challenging environment for any antenna designer. And the GSM frequency band is getting to the point in the spectrum where wet tissues (like flesh and brains) start absorbing quite a bit of the signal. From a radiation standpoint, we (the users and the phone designers) were better off on the old cellular frequencies in the 850 to 920Mhz range. Today’s freq’s up in the 1.8GHz range are getting closer to the “water hole” where wet tissue will absorb radiation quite nicely.

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I think now that AT&T is breathing down our necks here in Wyoming (AT&T got the rural areas of the Alltel network in MT, WY and CO), I think Verizon and a Droid are in our future.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

Hmmm... Seems when the iPhone 4 was introduced Steve Jobs waxed poetic about the elegance, the beauty, the magical nature of this antenna.

Of course now we find out you have to cover it to make it work...;)

[BunnySlippers]

Of course now we find out you have to cover it to make it work...;)

Except that is not that way and you know it. All of us have told you that the phone works ... not one of us has said we have to cover it.

You deal in lies and always have. You are utterly disgusting.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

Then why is Apple giving free bumpers away, if not to let people who have a problem actually use the phone?

You act like there is zero problem, which - per Steve Jobs himself - we know is NOT the case (or bumper...;).

[RachelFaith]

NO!

We do not “act” like there is “Zero” problem.

YOU... “ACT” like an “ASS” saying this TINY INSIGNIFICANT issue is a “FATAL FLAW”.

To you, this is an ACT.

To you, this is a GAME.

Nothing you post has any meaning other than it is an established fact that a measurable event occurs.

Here are some links to EVERY OTHER PHONE SHOWING THE SAME TYPE OF EVENT.

Go over to those posts and tell THEM the sky is falling!

* Samsung I9000 Galaxy S: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LROTHrTR92k

* HTC Evo Signal Attenuation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pj2YBYTbag

* Samsung Galaxy 1:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

* Samsung Galaxy 2:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPCQdYtPihg

* Droid Incredible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaDE941PzQk

* Droid Incredible (With Network Extender in Room): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpEQH...eature=related

* Nexus One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEIA_lMwqJA

* Nexus One vs. iPhone (start at 1:29): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvMoV4_C4aA

* Nexus One: http://posterous.com/getfile/files.p...n_-_iPhone.m4v

* Nexus One (after Google’s update to correct): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2g5J4qPp54

* Nexus One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deCkjeHYT-g

* Android G1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CDaxhjUs9M

[stripes1776]

But, what if they bought a Droid Incredible ????

I'm glad for the link. It looks like many smart phones drop signal strength, depending on how they are held. After doing a search, I discovered that people have been complaining about some of the Android phones for many months, including the Nexus One. Why didn't those complaints make the front page of the New York Times months ago?

[RachelFaith]

Why?

Simple.

Apple is hated.

There are a number of reasons.

And an unholy alliance of haters.

Haters who may never agree on anything else, other than their hatred of Apple.

One such thing, is this thread.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2554108/posts

Apple took a very public stand that no Porn or Porn apps would be on the iphone, itouch or ipad.

Anytime you take even the slightest moral high ground, the prince of this world will bring you hell in spades for it.

There are other unrelated reasons, but all of them, in the end, share one thing in common: They are UNREASONABLE reasons.

[stripes1776]

There are other unrelated reasons, but all of them, in the end, share one thing in common: They are UNREASONABLE reasons.

Yes, I agree--they are unreasonable reasons. I can think of two other unreasonable reasons:
1. Success. Some people simply hate the success of Apple.
2. Unfamiliarity. Some people are afraid to look beyond a world full of PCs.

But I think the intensity of the hatred of Apple is the most unreasonable thing of all.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

Dear, dear misguided Rachel...

If it’s an tiny insignificant issue, then why the emergency PR meeting? Why the promise of free bumpers, and refunds, and new phones coming out?

There’s a reason zealots like you are called fanbois or fangurls!

Look, Steve Jobs said that the new phone drops MORE calls than the old phones. That’s a fact. And if that’s your concept of progress, well, you have a lot more to worry about than phones.

As far as those links go, no one EVER denied signal could be degraded by holding the phone. However, how many of those phones lose signal altogether when you hold them? None - the iPhone 4 has much more signal degradation by simply touching the phone. Drops calls, drops all signal strength.

You lack any context or mental ability to scale the issue; your logic skills are woefully lacking here!

[RachelFaith]

If it’s an tiny insignificant issue, then why the emergency PR meeting?

LOL

If other phones drop calls why the hand wringing over Apple?

Simple, because Apple has enemies. For all the reasons we have repeatedly expressed. Why do you spend your precious few minutes of life on this Earth bashing this one group of people? Why the hate? Why the rage? What is the motivation and gain? I am here to REFUTE the hate. If the hate stops, I will just share some fun comments with some friends on a mutual topic of interest. Coffee chat.

But you create threads, search out for any conceivable flaw, and then ride it to absurdity, with wild predictions of doom and "FATAL FLAWS" and predicting billions of dollars in losses. You are never right. It is always either NOTHING, or much ado ABOUT nothing, or the splinter in Apple's eye while you ignore the planks in your eye.

Why?

Only one thing makes sense. You gain personal emotional satisfaction on the alienation, harassment, intimidation, and general bullying of others. You found some kids on the play ground who will cry when you act out, so for the attention, you act out in this over the top, aggressive and relentlessly obsessive hatred.

Which is why I scorn you so and call you a sick dog. There is no other purpose for you heavy handed vitriol.