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Death Grip hysteria may end Monday with iOS 4.01 - Page 3

post #81 of 606
6/25/10 at 7:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dubiousutility View Post


Maybe/hopefully this can be fixed in software, but it's not just about measurement in the UI, nor is it a typical issue that affects all phones.

Nice post, good photos, well displayed. But it seems you are in a low RF area due to the speed you have when the phone is on the table. I'd expect speeds of around 3000 kbps but you are a little over 1000. I get similar results when I am in a low RF area. With strong RF, I can't show any difference in download speeds no matter how I hold the phone. My d/l speeds are around 3 mbps.

As we all know, low RF will increase the carrier to noise ratio and the data rate has to slow down. Just like Wi-Fi, the stronger the RF, the faster the download.

BTW, my iPhone is fantastic. Bought the video editing program. Great but needs a few minor improvements like letting you add titles to still photos.
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post #82 of 606
6/25/10 at 7:25pm
It DEFINITELY does happen with MicroCell... That's my configuration here at home and I still get the 5 bars to zero on my iPhone 4 when I hold it "wrong."
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post #83 of 606
6/25/10 at 7:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by g3pro View Post

Who wants to bet that Apple's fix will be to secretly change the way that signal strength is presented to the user?

In the end, people will probably still be blaming AT&T for poor network quality and Apple will escape from this horrendously idiotic engineering error by once again fooling its users.

why do you come and post on a apple fan site if all you do is bitch? no one is forcing to buy iphones i kinda wish more people didnt as i cant find one anywhere
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post #84 of 606
6/25/10 at 7:42pm
I hope they fix the broken bluetooth in 4.0.1 as well... Can't connect to my car any longer and it seems that there's a lot of people out there experiencing the same issue.
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post #85 of 606
6/25/10 at 7:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by g3pro View Post

Loss of reception while dialing out?
Avoid using the phone for phone calls.

Dropped calls in San Francisco?
Avoid going to San Francisco.

Playhouse Disney (or other flash site) doesn't work in the browser?
Avoid going to that site.

Screen gets smudged?
Avoid touching the screen.

Hate getting ripped off for expensive junk?
Stop buying Apple products.





Seriously, if the software fix doesn't do it, there will be multitudes of ripped off users who will be pissed off.


Have you actually seen a iPhone 4? Have you ever used a Mac? If so you would know it is not junk. The iPhone 4 is really an awesome piece of hardware. I'm really getting tired of all the bashing just for the sake of bashing. What kind of phone do you have? Please go to your own forums. I promise I won't visit your forums and bash your device.
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post #86 of 606
6/25/10 at 7:52pm
The good news is, this release might help reduce line sizes when iPhone 5 is released. I'm looking forward to it.
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post #87 of 606
6/25/10 at 7:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by alectheking View Post

It hasn't been any issue to *most* people except being cosmetically wrong, I can continue to make calls and use data even with the 0 bars. Apple will fix it, big deal.

I can't believe how crazy these forums get. I am almost thinking of just reading the real newspaper reviews, and waiting until I can actually buy one in Canada anyways. Forums are always slanted with the folks who are having issues too.

I have faith that the Apple engineers know what they're doing at that the phone works as it is supposed to, under normal conditions.
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post #88 of 606
6/25/10 at 7:56pm
So it wasn't the bloggers at WWDC that were the problem. Jobs was holding the phone wrong. All he had to do was demo it without holding it that way...
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post #89 of 606
6/25/10 at 8:05pm
All these iPhone bashers are getting lame. I'll watch for Monday's reports after users upgrade to iOS 4.0.1.

Enjoy your bickering. I'm bored and going to bed.
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post #90 of 606
6/25/10 at 8:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by g3pro View Post

Loss of reception while dialing out?
Avoid using the phone for phone calls.

Dropped calls in San Francisco?
Avoid going to San Francisco.

Playhouse Disney (or other flash site) doesn't work in the browser?
Avoid going to that site.

Screen gets smudged?
Avoid touching the screen.

Hate getting ripped off for expensive junk?
Stop buying Apple products.

Seriously, if the software fix doesn't do it, there will be multitudes of ripped off users who will be pissed off.

Shit like this happens EVERYTIME a brand new product is released.. I remember when 3G first came out it took nearly 20 minutes to download an app.. then when they tried to fix that, anytime you updated an app it would never register and the update would stay available in the app store!!!

lol, give it a month or two for them to work out all the bugs, your phone will work fine.
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post #91 of 606
6/25/10 at 8:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by freddych View Post

I replicated the effect on 12 different iPhone4's at the Apple store. Granted, they could have been all from the same bad batch, but if its a software problem, this is unlikely.

It may have more to do with the conductivity of your skin. If your skin is less conductive, its logical that you wouldn't experience the same effect.

QED you are a robot and your skin is made of silicone.

I wish I were a robot, would make my life sooooo much easier.


Sadly, all i have a anecdotal evidence, out of the 9 people I know who have iPhones, only 2 see any kind of signal strength change. They both saw about a 30% drop in DL/UL speed, this was alleviated with a bumper.

Hopefully, it is a software/firmware fixable issue. If not, I hope Apple does the right thing and gives out (and packages) bumpers for the effected phones.
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post #92 of 606
6/25/10 at 8:46pm
If Gizmodo had immediately returned the "lost" iPhone 4 prototype, Apple could have finished their field tests!
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post #93 of 606
6/25/10 at 8:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by technohermit View Post

So it wasn't the bloggers at WWDC that were the problem. Jobs was holding the phone wrong. All he had to do was demo it without holding it that way...

Good one!
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post #94 of 606
6/25/10 at 9:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ochyming View Post

I thought USA is a free country, where people do what they want!
Does this happens outside USA?

This problems happens here in Japan too, so unfortunately your ignorant anti-American rant is meaningless.
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post #95 of 606
6/25/10 at 9:05pm
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post #96 of 606
6/25/10 at 9:16pm
Making excuses for Apple again.

Ya... a software update is going to redesign the antenna to cover it with scotch tape...
Maybe a software update will give it a 4.3" screen too.
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post #97 of 606
6/25/10 at 9:38pm
I was just thinking something... if the issue is just the hand blocking the signal and the phone not being able to connect fast enough pr w/e, why is it fixed with a rubber bumper? I'm pretty sure that people are using the same hand positioning if they're stating it works with the rubber bumper. If the rubber bumper fixes it, I don't believe it is a software issue especially if the user's hand is covering the antenna in the same way.
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post #98 of 606
6/25/10 at 9:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Park Seward View Post

Nice post, good photos, well displayed. But it seems you are in a low RF area due to the speed you have when the phone is on the table. I'd expect speeds of around 3000 kbps but you are a little over 1000.

Thanks for the compliment! But I think you're misreading my results a little. I'm actually getting DL speeds of >2Mbps and I'm in the center of San Francisco with full bars. (It's the UL that's 1.2 Mbps... that's the last thing to be reported on speedtest's speedometer.) And this is above average for the nation according to PC World.

Throughput drops to 12% of its unheld potential when held in my hand for about a minute, even cutting out uploads entirely. This is just unacceptable. As an app developer, I would seriously fear for the disruption of functionality in my app for customers with iPhone 4s. I just pray that this can be fixed in software.

I have to say, the reporting on this from AI seems quite poor from an objectivity standpoint.
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post #99 of 606
6/25/10 at 10:05pm
I've yet to get my iPhone 4, but I've tried to replicate the problem on several phones in AT&T and Apple stores. I have lost bars on the ones I've tested (one or 2 at most), so I was wondering has it been ruled out that what causes the problem is actually cause by individual people who's body attributes somehow make them more conductive, therefore bridging the antennas?

It would make sense if this were so, as it would be odd that certain phones were manufactured defectively or it is a software bug that only effects certain people.
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post #100 of 606
6/25/10 at 10:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dubiousutility View Post

I have to say, the reporting on this from AI seems quite poor from an objectivity standpoint.

I fear you're confusing PR spin control with journalism.

I don't believe AI see themselves as a news site - rather it's a blog for Apple enthusiasts I think, with freelance contributors providing the 'news' leads. How those contributors are chosen is something only AI's owners and mods know for sure, but it seems clear that DED (including his other aliases) has a standing arrangement to feature his 'work' in the news space when he feels so motivated.

Which is often.

Mostly these are hatchet-job pieces on Apple's enemy of the moment, like Adobe, RIM, Google, Android, and so on. In fact I'm certain that nothing he provides is other than such attacks, or alternatively, rah-rah pieces praising Apple.

"Daniel" is a "flack", a PR spin-meister whose fulltime job it seems is to both bolster the Apple corporate line and chew out their opposition under assumed names and at various sites across the blogosphere. Whatever "Death Grip hysteria may end Monday with iOS 4.01" is, it sure ain't journalism.
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post #101 of 606
6/25/10 at 10:47pm
No more than the phony stories about "death panels" ended. It doesn't end when being deliberately fed by a malicious website, Gizmodo, which has a good reason to pick up and exaggerate every single possible story: revenge. They want to show Apple that they can interfere with a spectacularly-selling product by spreading phony or exaggerated stories about it. I guess when you're looking at some jail time, you get desperate. Watch out, Steve, they're doing a drive-by.
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post #102 of 606
6/25/10 at 10:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Booga View Post

It DEFINITELY does happen with MicroCell... That's my configuration here at home and I still get the 5 bars to zero on my iPhone 4 when I hold it "wrong."

I can't seem to make it happen, myself. The Microcell keeps the thing at 5 bars.

My download speeds are about 9000 mbps. Whoopee!
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post #103 of 606
6/25/10 at 10:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RaduGrama View Post

I hope they fix the broken bluetooth in 4.0.1 as well... Can't connect to my car any longer and it seems that there's a lot of people out there experiencing the same issue.

Try it again. It recognizes my stereo headset perfectly.
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post #104 of 606
6/25/10 at 10:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ireland View Post

Why didn't Steve say that then, instead of the holding position crap? Something sounds fishy. Were relying on very shady information here, and why was it taken down?



Yeah fucking right. If the phone doesn't work as advertised, without a case - you blew it. I want an iPhone 4 like the next guy, but color me extremely cautious.

Wear rubber gloves when using your iPhone 4. That should solve your problem.
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post #105 of 606
6/25/10 at 11:05pm
To members in the UK, is your iPhone 4 suffering from any of these problems?

Mine's fine if not even better than my 3G. I read a lot about these issues but I can honestly say all my iPhones have worked beautifully. The 3G is on O2, the 4 is on Vodafone and seems even better. Maybe due to the new antenna?

All these connection issues seem to be isolated to the US, well at least from my reading. Any feedback on UK iPhones would be great.
A reputation is not built upon the restful domain of one's comfort zone; it is made out of stalwart exposition of your core beliefs, for all challenges to disprove them as irrelevant hubris.- Berp...
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A reputation is not built upon the restful domain of one's comfort zone; it is made out of stalwart exposition of your core beliefs, for all challenges to disprove them as irrelevant hubris.- Berp...
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post #106 of 606
6/25/10 at 11:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ireland View Post

Why didn't Steve say that then, instead of the holding position crap? Something sounds fishy. Were relying on very shady information here, and why was it taken down?



Yeah fucking right. If the phone doesn't work as advertised, without a case - you blew it. I want an iPhone 4 like the next guy, but color me extremely cautious.

Okay, but how is it crap? Those who've experienced the problem can rectify (albeit temporarily) with readjusting how they hold it, or by using a bumper. No, that's not a permanent fix, but it's completely workable until a fix or recall is released or announced.


Yes, Steve came off as abrasive, but why are you expecting a 55 year old man, set in his ways to suddenly be kind and cuddly. As to wanting the phone and being cautious, I'm not going to fault you at all for either. Fortunately, my phone hasn't expressed this issue, so that makes me curious to the claims that it's hardware exclusively.
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post #107 of 606
6/25/10 at 11:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post

Yesterday, my wry tweet, "Blocking iPhone 4 antenna kills reception. Blocking mic kills audio, and covering the screen makes it impossible to see Retina Display" made it to the front page of Twitter and was retweeted more than a hundred times by people following the hullabaloo.

Nice attempt at being clever. But, IF this call-dropping behavior is widespread, it is hardly comparable to blocking the mic or screen. A phone call should not depend on your grip any more than a car's engine should depend on the posture of the driver. It's not as if people are wrapping their iPhone 4s in aluminum foil - they're holding it in their left hand for goodness sake.

If there's a design flaw, there's a design flaw. If there's not, there's not. But your "wry" tweet is flawed logically, and this passage of your article comes off as obnoxious.
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post #108 of 606
6/25/10 at 11:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dm3 View Post

Making excuses for Apple again.

Ya... a software update is going to redesign the antenna to cover it with scotch tape...
Maybe a software update will give it a 4.3" screen too.

Oh, Another Andriod user trying convince people that a 10" netbook should be phone(try making call with it). and BTW, none of the phones out there are problem free otherwise you won't visiting apple fan sites to find whether it has problems or not.

Trolls are self-convinced morons who have made a decision based on some criteria of choice & trying to convince more people so that it will justify him that he has made a right decision.
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post #109 of 606
6/26/10 at 12:28am
Steve Jobs is becoming a bit of a twunt !!

That is a shitty remark in that email claiming that the person is holding it wrong. Apple fucked up with this design and does not have the decency to admit it.

To be honest, Apple are making too many mistakes with their products now since they have grown in size, quality cuntrol is failing.

What with Snow Leopard crashing, iMac screen smearing, iPad not connecting to wi-fi and now iPhone losing reception.
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post #110 of 606
6/26/10 at 12:43am
I am confused. How come none of the reviewers - David Pogue, Walt Mossberg, - weren't having these issues?

Untill iPhone 5 we'll have to make pinched phone calls. It's yet another way to distinguish ourselves from the "others" making grabbed phone calls.

(1) The Pinch = using your Thumb, Index and Middle Finger (very feminine & sophisticated)
(2) The Grab = using your Hand (very masculine and android)

(3) The Earplugs = handsfree phone calls
(4) The Bumper = if you can't help but to grab your phone (like a REAL man). Agree, Apple should give one for free, or 30$ for a six pack with different colors.
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post #111 of 606
6/26/10 at 1:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarenDino View Post

Steve Jobs is becoming a bit of a twunt !!

That is a shitty remark in that email claiming that the person is holding it wrong. Apple fucked up with this design and does not have the decency to admit it.

To be honest, Apple are making too many mistakes with their products now since they have grown in size, quality cuntrol is failing.

What with Snow Leopard crashing, iMac screen smearing, iPad not connecting to wi-fi and now iPhone losing reception.

yeah and now snow leopard is fine, the ipad issue gone and...

seriously, wait for the facts everyone. The fact that the EU based phones seem to have very few problems speaks volumes. We still have no idea what the sample size is of this fault, so lets wait and be a little scientific shall we? Of course there is a fault somewhere, but you judge a company with how they deal with it, and apple's record is good here. It would be reckless for apple to say they are aware of a generic fault without any idea of the true scale, or if there actually is one on all the phones, act WITH THE INFORMATION. This is basic crisis management stuff, really...
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post #112 of 606
6/26/10 at 1:42am
If this is a hardware problem the best a software fix will to is drop it to 2g and keep the bars.

I'm left-handed and using a friend's new iPhone I can replicate the problem with my normal usage. Easily.

It would be nice if Apple QA/Industrial Design tested obvious stuff like this.

Anyone remember when they totally hosed boot times on laptops around 2004 in a sw update?

The Apple QA team needs a revamp with fresh eyes.

I don't mean to be harsh. I've been an Apple user since the Apple ][, but the current QA situation is terrible.
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post #113 of 606
6/26/10 at 1:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by diamondgeeza View Post

yeah and now snow leopard is fine, the ipad issue gone and...

seriously, wait for the facts everyone. The fact that the EU based phones seem to have very few problems speaks volumes. We still have no idea what the sample size is of this fault, so lets wait and be a little scientific shall we? Of course there is a fault somewhere, but you judge a company with how they deal with it, and apple's record is good here. It would be reckless for apple to say they are aware of a generic fault without any idea of the true scale, or if there actually is one on all the phones, act WITH THE INFORMATION. This is basic crisis management stuff, really...

Sir, I beg to differ with you on basic crisis management. The first thing you do is admit there's a problem and be utterly honest about the solution (This is done in the first hours of the crisis). That hasn't happened here and as a result Apple is being pilloried on the National News Networks, the FRONT PAGE of the New York Times, most local station.

I mean, come on, an iPhone you can't hold. Hyperbole? Sadly no.

People just want to be assured they won't be stuck with a useless brick. Do you get that? Geez.
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post #114 of 606
6/26/10 at 1:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Underhill View Post

To members in the UK, is your iPhone 4 suffering from any of these problems?

Mine's fine if not even better than my 3G. I read a lot about these issues but I can honestly say all my iPhones have worked beautifully. The 3G is on O2, the 4 is on Vodafone and seems even better. Maybe due to the new antenna?

All these connection issues seem to be isolated to the US, well at least from my reading. Any feedback on UK iPhones would be great.

I'm in the UK and I can replicate the problem easily!

As I type this (holding the phone in my left hand and using my right hand to type with!) I have no reception at all. The same thing happens at work. Network is Vodafone.
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post #115 of 606
6/26/10 at 2:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by g3pro View Post

Loss of reception while dialing out?
Avoid using the phone for phone calls.

Dropped calls in San Francisco?
Avoid going to San Francisco.

Playhouse Disney (or other flash site) doesn't work in the browser?
Avoid going to that site.

Screen gets smudged?
Avoid touching the screen.

Hate getting ripped off for expensive junk?
Stop buying Apple products.





Seriously, if the software fix doesn't do it, there will be multitudes of ripped off users who will be pissed off.

Seriously, really it won't be that bad. I can get it to reproduce the problem and it's very hit and miss if it actually does it, sometimes nothing happens at all. And that's with a difference in location of a few metres.

This probably has a lot more to do with your surroundings affecting your ability to be an effective antenna. Curiously, the bar dropping happens mostly when I'm near a computer.

But my bumpers have sorted the problem anyway, and to be honest, if you haven't got your iPhone 4 in a case you are just insane!
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post #116 of 606
6/26/10 at 2:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by slocummedia View Post

Sir, I beg to differ with you on basic crisis management. The first thing you do is admit there's a problem and be utterly honest about the solution

Surely it's bad management to admit to ANYTHING without taking the time properly evaluate the situation. Blindly agreeing with some random people would arguably be a sign of very poor management and decision making skills. What COMPETENT manager would back themselves into a corner without the means of walking out of that corner?

It needs to be looked at carefully, not have totally flailing around with un-coordinated responses leading to no clear message being given.
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post #117 of 606
6/26/10 at 2:07am
While they're at it, maybe Apple will see fit to address the issues some are having with flaky/faulty proximity sensors that keep either muting, disconnecting, or placing calls on speakerphone for no apparent reason.

I guess we're not supposed to place the phone near our faces when making calls now... Geez!
"Why iPhone"... Hmmm?
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"Why iPhone"... Hmmm?
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post #118 of 606
6/26/10 at 2:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaHarder View Post

While they're at it, maybe Apple will see fit to address the issues some are having with flaky/faulty proximity sensors that keep either muting, disconnecting, or placing calls on speakerphone for no apparent reason.

I guess we're not supposed to place the phone near our faces when making calls now... Geez!

Actually there aren't any proximity sensors anymore. Instead it defers that functionality to the front-facing camera. The "proximity sensors" only deactivate the screen, they don't actually do the muting, disconnecting etc.

I think if you are absolutely bathed in light and move the phone more than about 1cm away from your face it deems that it is no longer in proximity to your face and so reactivates the touch screen.

I'm sure they'll just tweak the tolerance levels for that in software, as that is all that is at fault here.
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post #119 of 606
6/26/10 at 2:27am
Just think about it...

There are insulating seams between the external antennas on the iPhone 4. The antennas are clearly not meant to be connected electrically, otherwise Apple wouldn't have put the seams there.

Skin conducts. It doesn't even have to be "sweaty." The only reason the iPhone's capacitive touchscreen works is because your fingers conduct electricity, and they aren't always sweaty, right?

So, by holding the phone in the most natural, obvious way, you are circumventing the insulation that Apple's engineers put between the antennas.

It's no wonder this is a problem and I don't see how any amount of software patching is going to fix it.

More interesting is why only some people experience the problem, and why others experience it intermittently. Is it possible that Apple put an insulating laminant on some of the antennas and not others? Maybe the signal drop has to do with the interaction between both antennas, e.g., it will only happen if wifi or Bluetooth is enabled/active.

It's a shame that so many people are taking the time to make YouTube videos about the problem and post on message boards, but don't seem curious enough to take a multimeter and measure the conductivity of the steel band, or try bridging the seams with different RF features enabled/disabled, etc. etc.
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post #120 of 606
6/26/10 at 2:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Milford View Post

So I'm a righty, but whenever I'm doing anything besides calling with the phone, I hold it in my left hand (and operate with the right), in portrait mode, in the "death grip." Honest question: how else am I supposed to hold it? What righty doesn't hold it this way when browsing the internet or doing almost anything else in portrait mode? Holding it at the top not only feels unnatural and precarious, but clearly Apple didn't intend it that way since pinching it up there ends up pressing the volume buttons by accident.

So again, honest question: who doesn't hold the phone braced by their palm in the lower-left corner when in their left hand? I've probably seen 1000 people with iPhones in NYC over the years, and I can't recall a single one holding it any other way when holding it with one hand and operating the screen with the other.

have you always used both hands to operate your mobile phones? you know, in the past, before the iPhone?

I hold it in the right hand and operate it with the thumb. you know, just like in the past, with other phones before the iPhone.
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