Steve Jobs on iPhone 4 Signal Issue: 'There are no reception issues'

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/27/steve-jobs-on-iphone-4-signal-issue-stay-tuned/

by codeview • 16 years ago

34 39 16 years ago

glhaynes• 16 years ago

"Stay Tuned" — Hah!

ajg1977• 16 years ago

I'm 90% sure it's coincidence, but the fact that Apple decided to release their first iPhone bumper/case, and in iOS4 removed the field test mode that showed numeric signal strength, does make me wonder.

It's going to be interesting to see how this all turns out, but I'm disappointed in many of the news sites who are now badging it as an issue with displayed strength. I have an iPhone 4, live in an area with good signal strength, and "bridging the gap" with my finger absolutely does decrease voice quality and decimate data throughput.

zweben• 16 years ago

I think the release of the bumper case is much more likely because the iPhone now has twice as many glass surfaces, and those glass surfaces are not guarded from direct impact by a metal bezel like on the previous iPhones. If Apple expected reception problems before release they could've just bumped back the release date.

moe2• 16 years ago

those glass surfaces are not guarded from direct impact by a metal bezel

Sure. Because the previous iPhones were built like tanks and... oh, wait. They weren't either.

To me those two "coincidences" look more like exercises in damage control as the RMA flood kicks in.

jsz0• 16 years ago

My guess is there are (at least) two different issues. The antenna shorting issue which is (apparently) very real and a display issue which could be something as simple as a faster polling interval that shows normal RF fluctuations that don't actually impact service. The later issue is pretty common and nothing too serious -- easily fixable by a software update. I don't see how the first issue is fixable via software but it also seems like too big of a design flaw to slip through. Reports are an insulator over the gap solves the problem so I'm wondering if the original design called for some adhesive insulator to be applied to the gap and some number of units (lots or all) don't have it? I think you're right about the bumper cases though. Maybe they weren't for this specific issue but it seems to me that dents & dings on the antenna are going to be a lot more serious in the long run than just a cosmetic issue.

philwelch• 16 years ago

<pedantic>So data throughput is still 90%? That's not too bad</pedantic>

carbocation3• 16 years ago

Explanation: "decimate" is to strike down one in ten. To decimate 100% signal strength would be to reduce it by 10%. Hence the lovely pedantic comment above. :-)

awolf3• 16 years ago

I'm finding the external antenna's advantage may out-weigh its drawbacks.

Hands mess with cell phone reception. Every phone has an optimal way to be held so as to minimize this effect.

The difference with the iPhone 4 is that the optimal holding method is clear. If my signal is fine then I can cup the phone as normal but if I'm in a low signal situation I can give my phone the death grip to avoid touching the steel.

steverb• 16 years ago

It's not a bug, it's a feature?

awolf3• 16 years ago

More like: it's a drawback.

I have a hard time believing the shorting-the-antennas issue was unforeseen by Apple. I give a company that just pulled in a $63.5B year a little more credit.

tumult• 16 years ago

Mine works fine. I don't know. People will look for problems in anything. I liked it better when we were complaining about actual problems, like Apple telling programmers what language they're allowed to 'originally write' in when developing for their platform.

leviathant• 16 years ago

Oh, your works fine? In that case, everyone else who has an anecdote about theirs not working fine doesn't really matter. Because if yours works fine, it must not be a problem.

I'm not sure why everyone is complaining about this BP oil spill, I don't see any oil washing up on the beaches near me in the northeast, so it can't be THAT big of a problem, right?

tinotopia2• 16 years ago

By observing the fluidity of Long Island Sound, though, you can be sure that no one has dumped ice-nine into the Gulf of Mexico. Similarly the existence of a single functioning production iPhone 4 proves that there's no fundamental design flaw in the frame-as-antenna idea.

I've also had no reception problems with my iPhone 4, despite trying everything I've read about or can think of to provoke them. Licking fingertips, grasping the phone in a position no human would ever use, sitting in my bathtub where I'd surrounded by several layers of metal lath, etc., etc.: I can get the indicated signal strength to drop somewhat (but not consistently), but I have never been unable to make a call during these experiments.

I am forced to conclude one of three things:

1. Message-board habitués are very loudly complaining about a tiny or nonexistent problem with an Apple product. This would be strange, because normally you can take all criticism of Apple and its products entirely at face value, and people never swarm out of the woodwork to complain about the performance of Apple products they don't own. Insert sarcasm punctuation mark here.

2. There is a design flaw, but it's a subtle one that results in a higher-than-expected rate of manufacturing defects, causing some people's phones to have more reception problems than one would normally expect.

3. The iPhone 4 performs about as well as every other mobile phone, which means: less than perfectly. Hype about the antenna means that this is resulting in an inordinate amount of public complaining.

Or, most likely: all three of those.

karipatila• 16 years ago

I find it extremely uncomfortable to partake in these discussions (outside HN, of course). The Macrumors poll effectively claims over 50% of the units are defective. It seems not that many people have a problem with this kind of reasoning. I've also noticed Godwin's law in effect faster than usual.

What I do find interesting, however, is the need to utterly bash a product you will never buy, and never intended to, possibly because you believe your own brand of choice to benefit from that sort of commentary.

sprout• 16 years ago

I do think that this is a somewhat pointless discussion, but it's less a question of preferring another brand to believing that the Apple brand is increasingly harmful to free speech, and not just in a GNU all-software-must-be-free manner, but hewing to the American "I can say whatever I want so long as it's reasonably not going to hurt anyone seriously" manner.

So, it's not just a question of brand, and I think there are some rational reasons to dislike Apple, which may cause irrational outbursts of nonsense.

mattparcher• 16 years ago

I don’t want to get my hopes up, but:

One report[1] even claimed an iOS update as early as Monday might be able to relieve the issue due to a lag in the iPhone 4's ability to switch between frequencies causing the loss in signal.

(Even as most reports seem to indicate a complete disruption of service, rather than a simple “lag”.)

[1] http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/06/25/death_grip_hys... (To be a taken with a grain of salt, as should anything at AppleInsider that is uncorroborated.)

buro9• 16 years ago

Isn't there an app for that?

As in... has no-one created an app showing a real-time scrolling graph of reception level and an accurate (or as accurate as possible) number of the current reception level... perhaps with an overlay of the number of visible towers and strength?

Because if they did, then not only could it be proved by the layman but if the problem existed then the layman can visually see the effect and visually gain feedback on their techniques to find a better way to hold the phone.

If this doesn't exist, it sounds like a great cash-in app for right now. I'll take 2.5% of revenue for the idea.

Andys• 16 years ago

I have a great little app for my Android G1 that shows your location on a google map (GPS) as well as the location of the cell tower you're connected to. I suspect Apple don't provide an API for this sort of stuff..

waterlesscloud• 16 years ago

What is that app named? I want it!

gojomo2• 16 years ago

On my 3gs in central SF, the 'bars' indicator is already almost useless... it can show 4 or 5 bars, and I'm still unable to initiate calls, receive calls, or hold a clear call. It's so untrustworthy that in my more paranoid moments I wonder if some prior software update included a 'inflate the bar count' change.

This talk of fixing iPhone4 issues with an OS update makes me wonder the same thing. Maybe they'll just smooth/inflate the bars display.

tinotopia2• 16 years ago

A large part of AT&T's perception problem seems to have to do with their congestion, not their RF performance, in a few places.

This might be one of those situations where more information would be useful. The ideal solution would be to charge a higher price (e.g. a 'minute multiplier' — show this next to the signal strength indicator) for traffic in congested conditions — but this would present marketing problems, Mobile-phone pricing is already opaque enough, and people would rightly be suspicious that the introduction of such a congestion charge would soon result in interesting re-defintions of 'congestion'.

You might be able to get much the same effect by simply showing the user the current local network condition, by turning the signal indicator into a signal-and-congestion indicator. You'd see the signal strength as a measure of the radio conditions, and some kind of indicator that reflected the ability of the network to handle calls at that moment.

I'm assuming, with no particular knowledge of the matter, that the congestion problems with mobile-phone networks are like nearly all other such problems: extremely fleeting. You might be unable to make a call for about five minutes out of an hour; but if that's the five minutes during which you want to make a call, not only are you frustrated because you can only discover the situation through what amounts to black-box analysis, but the phone company gets no goodwill from you for the performance of the network during the other fifty-five minutes.

gojomo2• 16 years ago

Definitely, AT&T's problem in SF has a large congestion-related dimension. I know, because for the first ~2 years of AT&T service, it was annoying but not totally useless in my home neighborhood. But in the last 6 months, it's collapsed. Long periods where call attempts and SMS-sends fail, and where the signal meter oscillates between "no service" and 4 bars -- but even 4 bars may not allow calls and SMSes to succeed.

Congestion means they have lots of paying customers in the area -- so even without congestion pricing, they ought to be able to plan and maintain capacity here. That they have not is evidence of the lack of proper competition, aggravated by Apple's exclusive deal.

tlammens• 16 years ago

Maybe there are iPhones that don't have an issue but the following movie leaves little doubt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03PQyWp0mWE

KirinDave• 16 years ago

I've had and heavily used the phone since launch. I frequently hold it with my left hand both for calls and for things like Foursquare checkins. I do not use a case or tape.

I've yet to have the issue come up in a real world scenario. It's certainly not a problem for calling unless you hold your phone like a coconut shell to your head. It's more of a threat when you're using your thumb on the phone while holding it in your left hand. Perhaps my wife, friends, and family all have curiously shaped hands that find the required grip renders actual use of the uncomfortable.

Of course, in every other way the iPhone 4 seems to be an incredible smartphone; I suppose even if there is a problem requiring conscious thought for some people, it's on balance with the kinds of problems other handsets have. I mean, the battery life alone is something to drive upgrades: http://bit.ly/aeKf0n And the iPhone's past reception issues has been dramatically improved. I'm one of those unfortunates who has a home "sort of" covered by AT&T, and the difference between the iPhone 4's dropped/missed calls and the 3GS's dropped/missed calls is very noticeable.

olsonea• 16 years ago

These aren't the droids you're looking for...

(pun not intended, but it's apropos)

cmelbye• 16 years ago

The fact that he says "stay tuned" makes me think that Apple will be releasing a grand solution soon.

Steve Jobs on iPhone 4 Signal Issue: 'There are no reception issues'

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