Apple introduces iOS4 & iPhone 4

[bankside]

The official line from apple is: "You're holding it wrong. This is common to all phones or indeed anything with an antenna."

Yes, I agree. Technically correct. Indeed if I held this phone or any phone between my butt cheeks and then sat down, I would expect performance to suffer. (Performance of the phone, that is... )

However holding it in a fairly typical hand position - a position that apple could reasonably anticipate - makes this a questionable design choice.

Yes, I say choice. This was deliberate and foreseeable in order to get the cool metal ring antennas. They even knew there could be an interference conflict because they knew of course to separate the two antennas with a plastic gap. They must have known, or should have known, that a sweaty hand could bridge that gap and de-isolate the two antennas.

Maybe their advice should be "iPhone is not for users with sweaty palms."

As it happens, I don't hold my iPhone that way, and I don't think this would be an issue for me. My palms are as dry as a cool mountain breeze. Still, though I love the efficiency of the design in using the body as the antenna, it seems a strange design choice given this limitation, and an initial PR strategy of "Let's hope they don't notice," stranger still.

 

[Irish Queer]

My only gripe so far with my I Phone is that I cannot save my f***king picture to my PC! Seriously they say you can mail it and as I'm on Pay as You Go it cost me an arm and a leg to go on line on my phone. Seriously I have great pictures I wanna back up on my external hard drive and CD yet I cannot why Apple oh why???

 

[MercuryJones]

My only gripe so far with my I Phone is that I cannot save my f***king picture to my PC!

Do they not transfer when you sync to your PC?

 

[Corny]

maybe it's a strategy

http://www.baekdal.com/publishing/apple-pay-full-price-for-an-ebook-you-already-bought/

 

[3nipples]

maybe it's a strategy

http://www.baekdal.com/publishing/apple-pay-full-price-for-an-ebook-you-already-bought/

In the industry, we call it a bug, except sometimes, when we call it a feature.

A nice new feature in the latest iBook, is that you can also store pdf documents.

 

[DonQuixote]

Makes me want to run right out and get "happily involved" with Apple. Oh, yeah, and their exclusive US carrier is that one I swore I would never use again, if I had ANY choice in it.

 

[Irish Queer]

Do they not transfer when you sync to your PC?

No tried that those Apple ppl are sneeky SOBs.

 

[Cyanlaser]

How is Facetime? I'm just curious how it's worked for those who've tried it so far.

I want an iPhone 4 sooooo bad but there's no AT&T for miles around where I live :/ sooooo upset

 

[DonQuixote]

It may be better to be sad because you can't have it, than to shell out all the cash and find out it isn't what you thought it was going to be.

 

[JB3]

No tried that those Apple ppl are sneeky SOBs.

You're not doing it right. On PCs you have to set the iPhone up as a camera, like you would with a digital camera. When you do that, you can download all the pictures you took on the device.

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2548/iphone_transfer_pictures_from_iphone_to_xp/

 

[JB3]

The official line from apple is: "You're holding it wrong. This is common to all phones or indeed anything with an antenna."

Yes, I agree. Technically correct. Indeed if I held this phone or any phone between my butt cheeks and then sat down, I would expect performance to suffer. (Performance of the phone, that is... )

However holding it in a fairly typical hand position - a position that apple could reasonably anticipate - makes this a questionable design choice.

Yes, I say choice. This was deliberate and foreseeable in order to get the cool metal ring antennas. They even knew there could be an interference conflict because they knew of course to separate the two antennas with a plastic gap. They must have known, or should have known, that a sweaty hand could bridge that gap and de-isolate the two antennas.

Maybe their advice should be "iPhone is not for users with sweaty palms."

As it happens, I don't hold my iPhone that way, and I don't think this would be an issue for me. My palms are as dry as a cool mountain breeze. Still, though I love the efficiency of the design in using the body as the antenna, it seems a strange design choice given this limitation, and an initial PR strategy of "Let's hope they don't notice," stranger still.

So I got mine, and it exhibits the issue. But here's the thing; I would NEVER hold my phone the way that actually does it. When I bridge the gap with a finger or something else, it doesn't do it. I have noticed that, even though I might be at one bar some of the time, I still pull down data at the same rate as when I have more.

 

[JB3]

Droid and HotTimeKidd, looking forward to reading your impressions.

I went by the Apple store and saw the huge lines - both reserved and walk up. We were told the walk up line would be at least 3 hours.

Ah well. I want the white version anyway.

Got mine today. My Apple store got their first shipment in today since last Thursday, and my reserved phone was in it. Overall, its pretty damn awesome. The screen is gorgeous, and the ID is badass. The antenna issue is curious, and i'm deathly afraid of dropping it, but I'm a big fan of this.

My biggest issue so far is that half the apps I have are still in the old 320x480 resolution which makes them sort of fugly. They're not terrible, but they're not great either.

 

[Irish Queer]

You're not doing it right. On PCs you have to set the iPhone up as a camera, like you would with a digital camera. When you do that, you can download all the pictures you took on the device.

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2548/iphone_transfer_pictures_from_iphone_to_xp/

Could I jsut say I love you, I'll try that thanks very much.

 

[T-Rexx]

Seems Apple is now blaming the antenna problem on software, and is offering an update.

Letter from Apple Regarding iPhone 4

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.

We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

I have difficulty accepting this explanation. They have been using the wrong algorithm for calculating the signal bars since the first iPhone, and no one noticed this until now? And Apple decided to calculate its own algorithm rather than use the already-established standard from its carrier? And it just happens to display two more bars than AT&T says it should have?

Sorry, the cynic in me says this is deliberate. Apple has wanted their iPhones to appear to have better reception than their competitors. Even the "fix" is a deception. They're raising the height of bars 1,2, and 3 to make the signal appear stronger to a casual glance, still.

 

[Corny]

guess into the blue. but shouldn't reception be on a logarithmic scale? otherwise "two wrong bars" would be quite horrible you never would have full reception, lol.

 

[andysayshi]

The letter sounds like a crock to me. Apple have fucked up royally by failing to be upfront about this from release. They obviously knew about it - why else would they make such a song and dance about rubber "bumper" covers at the official announcement.

The smart thing to do would have been to clearly explain the issue on release day, and to include a bumper with every phone "for those who are concerned their hand position may cross antenna bands".

Instead, they're now scrambling to save face with stupid announcements like this. It just makes them sound incompetent.

VERY badly managed.

 

[JB3]

The letter sounds like a crock to me. Apple have fucked up royally by failing to be upfront about this from release. They obviously knew about it - why else would they make such a song and dance about rubber "bumper" covers at the official announcement.

The smart thing to do would have been to clearly explain the issue on release day, and to include a bumper with every phone "for those who are concerned their hand position may cross antenna bands".

Instead, they're now scrambling to save face with stupid announcements like this. It just makes them sound incompetent.

VERY badly managed.

Maybe because they didn't know about it? Not all phones exhibit this issue, and no one has been able to prove the cause of it. You should also note that some 3GS models exhibit the issue as well.

What all of this points to is software issues, and some of the anecdotal evidence supports that. Specifically, how the software interprets antenna interference and its behavior in relation to the hardware. Where the phones should be increasing antenna power to compensate, they're not.

One issue also brought up is that iOS4 utilizes new software to choose the best frequency, which some that are familiar with say is to buggy at this point to be useful.

 

[JB3]

Seems Apple is now blaming the antenna problem on software, and is offering an update.

Letter from Apple Regarding iPhone 4




I have difficulty accepting this explanation. They have been using the wrong algorithm for calculating the signal bars since the first iPhone, and no one noticed this until now? And Apple decided to calculate its own algorithm rather than use the already-established standard from its carrier? And it just happens to display two more bars than AT&T says it should have?

Sorry, the cynic in me says this is deliberate. Apple has wanted their iPhones to appear to have better reception than their competitors. Even the "fix" is a deception. They're raising the height of bars 1,2, and 3 to make the signal appear stronger to a casual glance, still.

I think its a lame excuse to push out a real fix for the reception issues.

If you think about it too, a precipitous drop in apparent signal might not be indicative of anything except that signal being displayed incorrectly.

 

[MercuryJones]

Instead, they're now scrambling to save face with stupid announcements like this. It just makes them sound incompetent.

I must agree!

 

[braex27]

That is a moronic response from Apple. Do these companies NOT have PR departments? Who authorised that kind of a letter to issue?!