Re: [Fed-Talk] Consumer Reports Calling for Iphone 4 Restitution
Re: [Fed-Talk] Consumer Reports Calling for Iphone 4 Restitution
- Subject: Re: [Fed-Talk] Consumer Reports Calling for Iphone 4 Restitution
- From: David Mueller <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:03:43 -0700
- Thread-topic: [Fed-Talk] Consumer Reports Calling for Iphone 4 Restitution
On 7/15/10 8:31 AM, "Pike, Michael (IHS/HQ)" <email@hidden> wrote:
> You get people that say the signal meter means nothing.... here is what I
> know... whether I have a fictitious 5 bar display, or a true to life 1 bar,
> if I hold the phone on the bottom without a bumper, the call WILL drop...
>From everything I've been reading (and I don't have an iPhone 4 myself to do
any testing), it sounds like there are a couple of different factors at play
here that can cause the signal to fail.
1. It can vary by person. If your hands are moister, sweatier, etc., than
average, that makes them more conductive and thus makes the connection
between the antennas provided by your hand worse.
2. The inaccurate signal strength indicator leads people to think they have
a stronger signal than they do. So a weak 5 bar signal will cause the
connection to drop completely if the antennas are connected while a strong 5
bar signal might stay 5 bars or drop to, say, 3 bars. The scale isn't
linear. From what I can tell, the software fix that Apple is discussing
will make the bars more accurate, so people will see that when the
connection is dropped completely, that they had a weak signal to begin with.
There's no doubt in my mind that this issue has exposed a flaw in iPhone 4's
antenna design. Do I think Apple needs to recall the phones? No. It might
not be a bad idea for Apple to provide a store credit towards the purchase
of a bumper or case.
Macworld reported that iOS 4.1 beta went out to developers yesterday, and
Apple has an iPhone 4 press conference scheduled for tomorrow. So we should
know more about how Apple plans to deal with this issue soon enough.
Coverage issues are nothing new, and note unique to AT&T or the iPhone. At
my work, it used to be that only AT&T had usable coverage; I had Verizon
before I got my iPhone 3GS and it was questionable as to whether I'd be able
to make a call from the parking lot. At some point Verizon must have
installed a new tower somewhere nearby because the coverage got a lot
better. Of course, just because it's not a new issue doesn't mean its
wrong.
Anaheim is an interesting case. Disneyland makes it a very busy area. I
don't recall having significant issues there, but I'm usually paying more
attention to things other than my phone when I'm there. I do sometimes miss
calls, but that can be attributed to me not noticing the phone among all the
noise and crowds and not just connection problems. I do know one area (the
waiting area adjacent to the entrance to the Captain EO theater) that is an
AT&T dead spot; the fact that it's practically directly underneath Space
Mountain probably doesn't help.
- David
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