Official statement from Apple

[Fausty82]

So here's a question for you all (and remember, I have an iPhone and an iPod Touch and a Mac (mini) and an AppleTV)...

With all of this uproar over the antenna design and hardware issues, is it remotely possible that Apple has always been the cause of the problems and that AT&T has just been getting a bum rap?

* running and hiding in my bomb shelter to avoid the fallout *

 

[dmiller428]

So here's a question for you all (and remember, I have an iPhone and an iPod Touch and a Mac (mini) and an AppleTV)...

With all of this uproar over the antenna design and hardware issues, is it remotely possible that Apple has always been the cause of the problems and that AT&T has just been getting a bum rap?

* running and hiding in my bomb shelter to avoid the fallout *

LOL!!! Perhaps, it could be apple, but I think it depends on
where you live. I don't have issues with AT&T service in NYC or my IP4 performance. When I had TMobile, I drop calls like bad habits. Now, its only in the subway or on elevators that I drop calls...

 

[taylorh]

This was a comment post on a Yahoo new article:
Apple 'stunned' to find flaw in iPhone 4 - Yahoo! News

Wow. This is some pretty serious propaganda perpetrated upon the American psyche. It reminds me of those TV commercials for cigarettes from the seventies. Apple's iPhone is apparently NOT the signal-dropping hunk of glitzy $h!t that everybody knows it is; in fact, it is actually YOUR FAULT that the signal drops, because you're HOLDING IT WRONG!

So then a week goes by, which is enough time for at least ONE iPhone owner to begin to learn to think for himself, and he - still groggy from his Apple-hysteria induced drooling coma - asks, "But shouldn't you have designed a phone that doesn't DO that? And why do NO OTHER PHONE HARDWARE MANUFACTURERS AGREE WITH YOU that it's common on all phones?"

Apple scrambles for a moment, trying to, in their own panicky way, figure out how to come back from that question. Then some little college-boy suit gets a bright idea: "Hey! Steve, my master, my lover, my god, my one and only, how about this: How about we tell them that the little indicator that shows the iPhone users their signal is dropping be questioned? How about we suggest that a software glitch is responsible for the bars disappearing, and that their signal is just as good as it always was?"

At this point, AT&T stands up and says, "Uh, but your signal is NOT good, and never WAS good. It has always sucked, and 79% of all the signal-related complaints we get are from iPhone users."

Jobs takes a sip of his caramel macchiato and purrs, "Then we tell them the truth. We tell them that their signal does suck, and that the bars have, in fact, been telling them that the signal is higher than it actually is."

Now the room is silent. people are thinking, "How will that help us sell more iPhones?" So the college aged suit says, "Uh... okay, but... how is that good for us? In other words, how will we get people to restore their faith in our product?"

Jobs interlocks his fingers and grins. "Simple," he says, "we increase the size of the lower three bars so they look bigger. If they look bigger on the screen, psychologially, people will assume that the phone's signal is stronger. And it's like the seashell phenomenon: if enough folks tell you that they can hear the sound of the ocean when they listen to a seashell, the next time you pick one up, you might hear it, too."

And the table erupts in cheers and confetti.

 

[taylorh]

Here's a history lesson for everyone:
Two years ago I got the iPhone 3G. Promptly the internets filled with complains that "The iPhone 3G gets less bars than all of my other phones." People showed photos and youtube videos of the iPhone getting 2 bars where other phones see 4 or 5 bars. Pundits told them "relax, that means nothing, all phones calculate bars differently."
So Apple issued software update version 2.01 (I believe) and suddenly everyone was seeing 4-5 bars where they previously saw 2. "I see much better reception with the new update" people reported.
The "smart ones" turned on the field test app and quickly proved that Apple simply re-mapped the bars. The phone still got the same db of reception but now reported more bars for less db of reception.

It was a snow job, but it shut everyone up.

Flash forward to iPhone 4. Now people show how easy it is to go from 5 to 1 bar and Apple says "We were stunned to find out we were calculating bars incorrectly."
Stunned, I say? My you have a short memory. This is an intentional thing you did 2 years ago to fool us all. Now you want to reprogram the bars and make the little bars bigger to fool us again?
But I'm sure it'll work. They know the majority of iPhone customers are not very sophisticated and won't know the difference.

What kills me is that their PR actually said they were stunned in this dramatic fashion as to "act" all surprised. If your were this oblivious to the mapping of the bars to signal, then you must be completely oblivious to the actual testing and RF reception. You're admitting you know nothing, period.

I find it comical that their fix is to make the smallest bars taller.

I don't know whether to return the iPhone out of spite and anger, or hang on to it because I truly believe there really isn't much of a reception issue per-se, as long as you don't make physical contact with the antenna (with a bumper.)
I should rephrase that... I should say the reception isn't worse than the iPhone 3GS for which I've come accustom to dealing with. At least not in my limited use of the phone since I got it.

 

[theogt]

Here's a history lesson for everyone:
Two years ago I got the iPhone 3G. Promptly the internets filled with complains that "The iPhone 3G gets less bars than all of my other phones." People showed photos and youtube videos of the iPhone getting 2 bars where other phones see 4 or 5 bars. Pundits told them "relax, that means nothing, all phones calculate bars differently."
So Apple issued software update version 2.01 (I believe) and suddenly everyone was seeing 4-5 bars where they previously saw 2. "I see much better reception with the new update" people reported.
The "smart ones" turned on the field test app and quickly proved that Apple simply re-mapped the bars. The phone still got the same db of reception but now reported more bars for less db of reception.

It was a snow job, but it shut everyone up.

Flash forward to iPhone 4. Now people show how easy it is to go from 5 to 1 bar and Apple says "We were stunned to find out we were calculating bars incorrectly."
Stunned, I say? My you have a short memory. This is an intentional thing you did 2 years ago to fool us all. Now you want to reprogram the bars and make the little bars bigger to fool us again?
But I'm sure it'll work. They know the majority of iPhone customers are not very sophisticated and won't know the difference.

What kills me is that their PR actually said they were stunned in this dramatic fashion as to "act" all surprised. If your were this oblivious to the mapping of the bars to signal, then you must be completely oblivious to the actual testing and RF reception. You're admitting you know nothing, period.

I find it comical that their fix is to make the smallest bars taller.

I don't know whether to return the iPhone out of spite and anger, or hang on to it because I truly believe there really isn't much of a reception issue per-se, as long as you don't make physical contact with the antenna (with a bumper.)
I should rephrase that... I should say the reception isn't worse than the iPhone 3GS for which I've come accustom to dealing with. At least not in my limited use of the phone since I got it.

Quoted for truth. I bought a 3G on launch and an iPhone 4 on launch. They're just reversing the "fix" that occurred two years ago. This company is scamming us. I love the product, but this fix is just a scam. The problem isn't signal attenuation. The problem is shorting the two antennas. Again, the problem occurs when you "short" the two antennas. That is a design flaw -- and it's a design flaw that is easily fixed.

Fortunately for me, this doesn't affect my signal that much. But it does when I already have low signal and that is a problem. Other than the issue of "shorting" the two antennas, the phone is the most amazing handheld device I've ever seen. But that's like saying, other than the occasional circumstance where my brakes don't work, my Ferrari is amazing!

 

[p8ntball8]

So here's a question for you all (and remember, I have an iPhone and an iPod Touch and a Mac (mini) and an AppleTV)...

With all of this uproar over the antenna design and hardware issues, is it remotely possible that Apple has always been the cause of the problems and that AT&T has just been getting a bum rap?

* running and hiding in my bomb shelter to avoid the fallout *

Possibly but I had other phones(Blk berry 9700, Blkberry 8310, Motorola V551) with some signal service problems. I feel AT&T needs to work on building a better signal for their users.

 

[Hack-My-i]

Here's a history lesson for everyone:
Two years ago I got the iPhone 3G. Promptly the internets filled with complains that "The iPhone 3G gets less bars than all of my other phones." People showed photos and youtube videos of the iPhone getting 2 bars where other phones see 4 or 5 bars. Pundits told them "relax, that means nothing, all phones calculate bars differently."
So Apple issued software update version 2.01 (I believe) and suddenly everyone was seeing 4-5 bars where they previously saw 2. "I see much better reception with the new update" people reported.
The "smart ones" turned on the field test app and quickly proved that Apple simply re-mapped the bars. The phone still got the same db of reception but now reported more bars for less db of reception.

It was a snow job, but it shut everyone up.

Flash forward to iPhone 4. Now people show how easy it is to go from 5 to 1 bar and Apple says "We were stunned to find out we were calculating bars incorrectly."
Stunned, I say? My you have a short memory. This is an intentional thing you did 2 years ago to fool us all. Now you want to reprogram the bars and make the little bars bigger to fool us again?
But I'm sure it'll work. They know the majority of iPhone customers are not very sophisticated and won't know the difference.

What kills me is that their PR actually said they were stunned in this dramatic fashion as to "act" all surprised. If your were this oblivious to the mapping of the bars to signal, then you must be completely oblivious to the actual testing and RF reception. You're admitting you know nothing, period.

I find it comical that their fix is to make the smallest bars taller.

I don't know whether to return the iPhone out of spite and anger, or hang on to it because I truly believe there really isn't much of a reception issue per-se, as long as you don't mke physical contact with the antenna (with a bumper.)
I should rephrase that... I should say the reception isn't worse than the iPhone 3GS for which I've come accustom to dealing with. At least not in my limited use of the phone since I got it.

AMEN! This is just one big scam... I smell an Apple Scandal...

Quoted for truth. I bought a 3G on launch and an iPhone 4 on launch. They're just reversing the "fix" that occurred two years ago. This company is scamming us. I love the product, but this fix is just a scam. The problem isn't signal attenuation. The problem is shorting the two antennas. Again, the problem occurs when you "short" the two antennas. That is a design flaw -- and it's a design flaw that is easily fixed.

Fortunately for me, this doesn't affect my signal that much. But it does when I already have low signal and that is a problem. Other than the issue of "shorting" the two antennas, the phone is the most amazing handheld device I've ever seen. But that's like saying, other than the occasional circumstance where my brakes don't work, my Ferrari is amazing!

Design flaw all the way...

Possibly but I had other phones(Blk berry 9700, Blkberry 8310, Motorola V551) with some signal service problems. I feel AT&T needs to work on building a better signal for their users.

Yea I agree and also Apple needs to work on better lines to tell us...

 

[Fausty82]

Possibly but I had other phones(Blk berry 9700, Blkberry 8310, Motorola V551) with some signal service problems. I feel AT&T needs to work on building a better signal for their users.

Seriously, I am sure that this issue is location based. I live in the metro Phoenix area, and AT&T's coverage is excellent - at least where I live, work and go. I have had Motorola phones, Nokia phones, BlackBerry devices and now the iPhone. I have never had an issue - and in the past several years (since 3G was rolled out here), I'd wager that I have not dropped 10 calls total...

And for the record, both the Moto 551 and the BlackBerry 8310 are 2G phones... so they aren't really germane to this conversation...