To alleviate iPhone 4 antenna problems, Apple will give free bumper cases to everyone who bought or will buy the phone through September 30. For people who already bought a bumper case, Apple will refund the cost. Users who are still unsatisfied can return the phone, with or without a case, for a full refund within 30 days. Apple CEO Steve Jobs made the announcement at a hasily-called press conference this morning.
An online application will go live on Apple’s website next week, where iPhone 4 owners will be able to choose a free bumper case from a variety of vendors.
Jobs stressed that the iPhone 4 reception issues are common among smartphones. On the iPhone 4, occur when the phone is held over its lower left-hand corner, blocking the external antenna. Nonetheless, Jobs said, he wants to keep customers happy, hence the free cases and full refund.
If you listened to the press conference, it sounded like “take the case and quit bothering me”. If it were me, I would get a full refund, then wait till they have a fix, then buy an Android. For now you can view the news conference here.
Well, I tired of holding my iPhone 4 with salad tongs. I’m getting a refund, pay the termination and getting the Droid X at Verizon even though Motorola has botched that too.
Don’t get me wrong, I still like my iPad and Macs you Microsoft fucktards.
Any other suggestions for a phone?
I’m a Microsoft fucktard and I like my iPad too.
#18 – as the videos show, Apple seems to have gone through a lot of testing to figure out the exact place you’d have to grip a BlackBerry or Droid to make the signal drop.
In the case of the Droid, for example, since the antenna is at the top of the case, it appears you have to wrap your entire hand around the phone, with your finger at the top to affect the signal.
The iPhone4′s problem is that the position that many (it seems) people happen to hold the iPhone4 is the exactly the perfect place to affect the signal.
I’m not an engineer or antenna expert, but it seems logical to me that the antenna should go at the top, as high as possible.
#9 Why are macfans so stupidly blind?? They got a defective device out for sale! You’ve been screwed! Gosh!
#21 Stay with your oy!phone, macfan (I was also going to write pathetic, but that’s redundant)
A refund is way better than a recall. There are not many companies that would do that.
How many people that opt for the refund will tell you how many are actually dissatisfied with the phone.
This is the first time I have ever watched Jobs give a talk and the thing that struck me the most was his use of cadence, body language and that he moves from one end of the stage to the other. these techniques are similar to those employed by self help guru’s and evangelical preachers and produces an hypnotic effect.
Back and forth, back and forth, your getting sleepy. Back and forth, back and forth, your getting sleeper. Back and forth, back and forth, your getting sleepy. Back and forth, back and forth, your getting sleeper. Back and forth, back and forth, your getting sleepy. Back and forth, back and forth, your getting sleeper. Now at the count of G4 go out and consume.
[Now that's just ridiculouzzzzzzzzzzzzzz- ed.]
Mine works better than the Motorola flip phone I used before…
But I wonder how the old Motorola ‘bricks’ would work now with their high power and big antenna..
or, how about a ww2 walkie talkie?
I think it might be interesting to fashion a clipon antenna and have a contest like the wifi distance connect contest…
A urban legend is if you hit transmit on you CB radio (remember them?) while going across the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge you can talk to another planet on the other side of the galaxy…
Hey! amateur radio folks how about it?
#22 – Not you Hop!
#24 – Yeah, you fucktard!
#24@pedro – “#9 Why are macfans so stupidly blind?? They got a defective device out for sale! You’ve been screwed! Gosh!”
Why do you care? Let people spend money how they please. If they feel they got their bang for their buck that is their choice and not yours.
#29 Because they blindly defend and evangelize about their shiny iProducts all the damn time, despite the many many failings.
You should have heard those 2 shills Andy Whatshisname and Alex Lindsay on the last 2 macbreak Weekly podcasts.
The only way that should could have been worse is if they brought in Scott Bourne who’s unconditional love for sucking Steve off is legendary. He was almost in tears defending apple a couple of years back when they made a small booboo (can’t remember over what though)
The phone has several problems, but they made allowances/excuses and defended EVERY DAMN ONE.
If it was ANY other company’s product they’d have eviscerated it without mercy, but since its an apple they ignore th4e defects and defend EVERY serious issue with it.
Why do apple fans have such a sick emotional dependence on a corporation?
#4. That’s it. Just shove your wonderful trendy fucked- up applephone into a jumbo size condom. Hopefully, a fresh one.
Whatever! It’s simply fun to watch that arrogant shit sweat for his stupid company’s money and reputation.
That is orders of magnitude worse than Ballmer’s infamous monkey dance. At least Ballmer was HAPPY and PROUD of his company, not eating crow before an angry audience who saw their expectations literally vanish in the air.
Just noting a couple subtle points not made clear in all the media coverage (both mainstream and technical). Attenuation occurs when holding every smart phone because the hand (part of the body) blocks some of the signal from being received and transmitted. The effect unique to iPhone 4 is not just this component of attenuation, but the added effect of making conductive contact with the metal antenna. This action detunes the antenna directly, causing further loss than just the body blocking component, an effect caused by touching the gap in the lower left corner that bridges two segments meant to be electrically isolated. The hand acts like a dielectric, much like in a capacitor.
Both effects should be separately quantified. In normal mobile network design, body loss of 6-10dB is factored into the design to account for these losses from holding the phone. The losses reported in various lab experiments, including Anandtech and Consumer Reports, indicate the “grip” on iPhone 4 has up to a 20dB effect, based on knowledge of the former bar graph vs dBm scaling used on iPhones. It seems that touching the iPhone 4 antenna has an additional X dB loss added to basic body loss. This is borne out by results comparing iPhone 4 with iPhone 3GS in Anandtech’s results.
Apple has not revealed the new formula used in iOS 4.0.1, but it is still logarithmic, and the dBm range allocation per bar is not equally weighted. This is done for a good reason. The signal strength a phone can process to make/receive a call varies from about -60 dBm down to about -110 dBm, about a 50 dB spread. Once the signal is say 10 dB or less above threshold (i.e. the minimum level the phone can receive), and assuming a good C/I (carrier to interference ratio) or S/N (signal to noise ratio), there is no significant difference in call quality, or in data throughput rate, other key test conditions remaining the same.
It is more important to know signal differences near the lowest than near the highest signal levels. That’s the reason the old formula unequally allocated 30dB to Bar 1, 10 dB to Bar 2, and 3-6 dB to Bars 3 to 5. So, if you are in a low signal area, holding any phone in a way that adversely affects its antenna has a more noticeable effect. Bars 1-4 may be only 20-25 dB apart, while Bar 5 is 30 dB in range alone. Adding to the confusion is the fact that bars are not updated instantaneously. Measurements are averaged over time and reported in time intervals. You may wait several seconds to see the bars change.
Hopefully, what comes out of this saga is more transparency from all operators in disclosing their “bar formulas”, locations and shapes of antennas in their phones, bar update periodicity, and separation of the effects of basic body attenuation (most common), and detuning from physical antenna contact (currently almost unique to iPhone 4).
It will now become standard to compare phone antenna performance like Apple tried to do today. Until all manufacturers calibrate equally, these comparisons have to be viewed with some caution. This is an opportunity for the FCC to set some standards for all to follow, enabling fairer comparisons for user choices/decisions in the future.
#28 said: “Yeah…”
Thanks for admitting you’re a pathetic macfan. Is your first step towards… nothing, I guess.
#29 I’m not telling them not to throw their money away, I’m asking why are they so stupid to do so (hence stupidly blind).
#30 Let’s just play the Devo Corporate Anthem for them.
As of today, zero cell phones will get away with signal loss due to handling techniques.
As of yesterday all fingers pointed AT Apple.
The world has moved on.
remember this iphone’s premiere ??? and how jobs couldnt get it to work right?? until everyone else turned off their transmitters?
hell they let everyone know from day one how id didnt really work.
)
Why did it take so long to notice the effects of embedded antennas in modern phones (smart of regular)? When antennas were telescopic or “stubbies”, they were actually more effective electrically. You had a very defined standard vertical dipole shape perhaps with 2-3 dBi gain. But, this was a moving part, liable to be bent or broken, and embedded designs are now standard for aesthetic reasons (form wins over function).
While this happened, more networks were built with more cell sites from more competitors in more populated areas. You were on average nearer to a cell site than before for more of your usage time. You got a stronger signal to receive a call, and your phone did not have to transmit with as much power to reach the tower, and antenna gain to extend the signal range was therefore compensated by greater density of cell sites in most places.
Embedded antennas can have a gain which is essentially less than 0dB. All they are trying to achieve is a matched load into the antenna for maximum transfer of transmit and receive power. So, we got used to holding our nice Blackberries and Droids and EVOs in our hands in any position, and having no problems, as long as we were in strong signal areas, where body losses do not drop signals down to receiver minimum thresholds. Bars were all 5 tall more of the time, and we thought of them as another reliable gauge of signal quality.
Well today, once the media force field of exaggeration, misinformation, and drama has subsided, and the real facts become more widely known and understood, perhaps we’ll see less blame on Apple as scapegoat and more scrutiny of other players toys.
I have an iPhone 4. I am not returning it. I have a bumper. I see it like the insulation that should have been over the metal antenna in the final embedded design. It does the job. Any other case has as much plastic to separate the antenna from the outer body which tends to equalize if no normalize performance with most embedded phones
It is nicely engineered with hardened plastic around the perimeter and softened rubber on the grasping edges. Cases may detract from the beauty of the product, but it would be foolish not to use some sort of case, whether a bumper style or full back cover or totally encased. The glass will shatter on impact on the right hard surface and the side could be indented from a fall. More people got cases for iPhone 3G/GS than original iPhone which had a mostly robust metal back. The same goes for your Blackberry or Droid of EVO. Durability gave some way to functionality, style and design.
Once the real, believable, and scientifically sound engineering comparisons are made, between Apple models and others, we’ll get a developing picture in coming weeks/months. Those who trashed the iPhone should beware, we are doing to look thorough your phones just as throughly. The days of advertising more bogus bars in more places by showing dubious coverage maps with no dBm signal level key are over.
Correction to last para of #37 post (sorry for the long posts today)
Those who trashed the iPhone should beware, we are going to look through your phones just as thoroughly. The days of advertising more bogus bars in more places by showing dubious coverage maps with no dBm signal level key are over.
Epilogue:
- bumpers/cases should be provided for as long as this design is cold.
- this issue does not reach the level of a recall (pundits are way off base)
- future antennas will be shielded by insulation that is part of the case.
- the bar/dBm mapping formula must be disclosed and standardized
- body loss “holding” factors should have a reasonable target not > 10 dB
I don’t own an iPhone but I guess it’s at least nice that Apple did a public press event about this situation. I have owned Blackberry’s for years and those always had outages and other issues but I don’t recall RIM ever coming out with a public apology. Sure, some of the Apple conference was covered in B.S. but at least they are trying to remedy the problems.
Nevertheless, I won’t be buying an iPhone because I won’t support the labor practices that their factories support.
In essence, when cellphone manufacturers stopped making phones with the slide-out antennas or external bump antennas, performance went to pot. The difference in this case being the fact the iPhone4′s antenna is sort-of external, a part of the case, and the design allows the use to actually touch this external antenna, impeding its performance. And the problem goes away when you use a case, something 99.999% of iPhone users do anyway. Nothing to see here, as there have NOT been hordes of angry users storming Apple stores demanding refunds or replacements. Moving on.