Update 23: Reader Joe called up Apple to ask about the reception issues, and they said...
Their answer? "Get a bumper" and "it's not their problem".
"I told the CSR that if their solution is to buy a bumper, why aren't they giving them out for free? Again, she said not her problem.
Quite an infuriating call - while I sympathize with the verbal beat-down that many of the Apple CSRs will be getting over this problem, they need a better solution than to recommend fixing the problem with their own rubber cases..." -Reader Joe
And I agree with this comment:
This is complete and utter bullshit on Apple's part. Everyone was "WTF?"-ing at the seemingly random showing of the bumper case near the end of the iPhone 4 debut, but now it makes perfect sense.
The bumper should be free - or built into the phone, since they clearly knew this was an issue beforehand. It won't be an issue for me, as I always use a headset, but they shouldn't expect the vast majority of their customers to do the same.
My current phone is on a family plan with my mother and father so I actually know very little on how much they pay and how it's divided up...but I assume I can get an iPhone without the voice plan changing right?
Can we talk about iOS 4 in this thread too? Are people finding their battery draining faster after upgrading? I have a 3GS and i can watch the battery drop several percent when doing light web browsing/twittering/reading. It's not as bad as some of the reports I'm reading of people seeing 80% drops in three hours on standby, but it's noticeably worse than it was pre-upgrade.
What phone are you using? The 4 apparently has a ridiculously long battery life.
Like I've said several times in this thread already, i have a 3gs and have been running the GM iOS 4 build (exactly the same as the release build) for around 2 weeks now. My battery life is noticeably worse than before. I went from getting around 6-7 hours of actual use, with only slight drop for long standby periods, to getting at max 4 hours of use.
Hey, sorry there, it was late and I didn't think to go digging through previous pages to look for your posts.
What the fuck, Esh. You haven't make a database of all the thread user's iPhone versions? Keep up, man.
Well it's in the post you quoted not only several pages back.
Sorry. I guess is should make more of a point of memorizing things of such great importance.
Look at what I bolded in my original quote. The original comment was "the battery life on my 3GS sucks", to which you responded "what phone are you using?"
Whoop! My bad. Sorry, boss is out of town and I've been doing opening (6am) shifts all week (8 in a row) which I'm not used to. My poor eyes musta glossed right over that.
My sister got hers yesterday, but mine was shipped separately, so I'll be getting mine today. I'm excited to finally be getting in on the smartphone bandwagon.
Well, my AT&T Order status still showing in-process. No shipping info, not backordered, just shows ordered and in-process. But, of course, they gots me money. Getting pretty impatient.
Try giving AT&T a call. 1-866-391-0749 option 1 or 2.
My phone was in the same status yesterday and I called them up to see what the deal was. The rep was pretty cool as I explained my situation but he seemed surprised when I told him other people had already received their shipping info and others even already had the phone. He checked my order and was able to tell me that it was just in the warehouse waiting to be picked up and that I should be getting it today. Checked my order status about an hour later and sure enough my status had flipped to shipped and I had a tracking number. Not sure if the call made the difference, but I’ve heard many people reporting similar stories.
On another note, I picked up mine during lunch and activated it with no issues. This thing screams. Coming from a 3G, the speed difference is incredibly apparent. No lines or splotches, thank you baby Jesus. However, I was able to immediately reproduce the reduced signal issue by putting the bottom left corner on the phone on my palm. I’m curious as to how Apple is going to handle this.
EDIT: Covering the bottom left corner most definitely interrupts voice and data communications and is not just a software/graphical error. Disappointing as I am a hold with the left hand, swipe with the right finger guy.
EDIT 2: Also seeing huge fluctuations in signal strength. With my 3G in my office, I would see 4-5 bars constantly. So far with the 4, I'm seeing it move between 2-4 bars and have only seen 5 bars once. Bleh.
I tried it with my 3GS - if you surround all of the sites with your hands the reception drops (2 bars) - seems to be common with other devices as well.
I am just curious what could cause the huge amount of reception loss in this one iphone 4 video. I don't think a human hand is that much of dampner. Maybe someone here @ the forums could try this.
Edit:
Information regarding lines or splotches on the screen - unconfirmed rumor according to ilounge.com: these splotches are caused because some chemical, which is used / created during the production of the glass surface, didn't evaporate completely. (some models were assembled and shipped to fast in order to meet demand) After 2 day usage of the phone, the yellow marks should vanish.
Edit 2:
Some questions for you iphone 4 owners:
Is the screen so much better? Is the phone that much faster than the 3GS, to warrant upgrading? Is the battery life better?
Okay, so I went to plug my new phone into my Macbook and it's telling me that I need to buy a new version of OS X in order to connect my phone. Welllllllllllllllllll, i don't really wanna spend the money to do that, so what's the most efficient way to transfer my apps that were saved on there to my PC? They both have the same music so I really only care about the apps.
alivatna on
0
DVGNo. 1 Honor StudentNether Institute, Evil AcademyRegistered Userregular
edited June 2010
Copy the contents of ~/Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications to a thumb drive and move 'em over I expect.
EDIT 2: Also seeing huge fluctuations in signal strength. With my 3G in my office, I would see 4-5 bars constantly. So far with the 4, I'm seeing it move between 2-4 bars and have only seen 5 bars once. Bleh.
This is the "software glitch" that they are talking about releasing a patch for. The bars seem to fluctuate a lot with no movement or interaction with the device.
The problem people are noting with holding the device and shorting the antennas together is just that, a hardware issue where you are introducing a lot of interference from the second antenna (which is what you are connecting when you hold it down there) that causes it to be unable to communicate with the cell signals. As cool as it looks to have the antenna outside of the phone and say it would improve signal strength, it really should have been covered by something so conductive surfaces like SKIN wouldn't come in contact and mess it up.
Also, with a glass back they could have easily just put it on the back since there is no longer a metal back to get in the way and avoided this whole thing.
My phone is here.
She's sexy.
Still waiting on activation, so I'll be sure to let you know if I have any reception issues once that happens.
Already set up and using my home's wireless-n network to download apps and such.
This screen is really amazing. it's bizzare and welcome that when you focus in on some tiny aspect of the screen, and instead of being small and pixelated like I've come to expect from computer displays, it's just small, it makes my computer monitor look like a brutal club compared to the iphone being some kind of elegant ray gun that zaps images directly into my brain.
front facing camera is kinda weird, kinda cool, I'm excited to meet someone else irl who has one of these so we can get in on a little video call coolness.
edit:
Activation finished!
Try holding the phone every possible way I could imagine that you could actually talk on the phone, and the bars didn't even flinch.
I intentionally held pads of my fingers over every gap in the antennae band, and lost one bar, then I just wrapped the whole thing in my gigantic bear paw hands and managed to get to it too drop from 5 to 3 bars.
I have not been able to get it to drop below 3 bars no matter what I try.
So I loaded Plants versus Zombies on my new iPhone 4. It loaded in SECONDS as opposed to almost a minute, previously! CHRIST!
Load the New York Times website on your phone. See the small as shit text on there? You know, the one that looks like smaller than a grain of sand after going through CERN? On my screen, that is the letter 't' and I can read it without zooming in.
Also, I have used this phone a LOT and the battery is still above 50%. I love this freakin' phone.
Also, I notice my antenna problems when I touch the bottom part of the phone, that is where the connector and speaker are. If I am touching that and the side metal bands, that is when my call quality drops. Is this my imagination?
Machismo on
0
SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
So I loaded Plants versus Zombies on my new iPhone 4. It loaded in SECONDS as opposed to almost a minute, previously! CHRIST!
Load the New York Times website on your phone. See the small as shit text on there? You know, the one that looks like smaller than a grain of sand after going through CERN? On my screen, that is the letter 't' and I can read it without zooming in.
Also, I have used this phone a LOT and the battery is still above 50%. I love this freakin' phone.
Also, I notice my antenna problems when I touch the bottom part of the phone, that is where the connector and speaker are. If I am touching that and the side metal bands, that is when my call quality drops. Is this my imagination?
The ridiculous resolution makes web browsing so much better on the phone.
Six on
can you feel the struggle within?
0
Mr_Rose83 Blue Ridge Protects the HolyRegistered Userregular
Yeah; though I am not partaking in the iPhone 4 at this time (need a job first, really) I got a really good look at one in store; that screen is amazing.
I want such things on all my mobile devices now.
odd fact: the phone is here sitting on my desk, having been delivered by the fedex driver, yet the initial hold that was placed on my checking account has disappeared and no actual charge has yet appeared.
can anyone tell me how it sounds compared to a 3g? I just bought some new Earsonic SM3s which are sexy, but I want to make sure it can power them adequately. So if you have some good headphones, please chime in.
odd fact: the phone is here sitting on my desk, having been delivered by the fedex driver, yet the initial hold that was placed on my checking account has disappeared and no actual charge has yet appeared.
Same thing happened to me :P. I'm sure it won't last long.
Aside from the antenna issue, this phone is sick. Considered jumping to the Droid, but I get great AT&T service in my area and I love my apps. I will admit I'm missing some of my jailbroken stuff, but all in due time.
So, I'm preparing my jailbroken 3Gs to be suitable for sale. I need to keep it jailbroken, but I'd like to get all my personal stuff off of it (erased.) What is the best way to do this?
Gihgehls on
0
SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
So, I'm preparing my jailbroken 3Gs to be suitable for sale. I need to keep it jailbroken, but I'd like to get all my personal stuff off of it (erased.) What is the best way to do this?
Restore it back to new (using an old firmware, though I think you can JB 4 now?), then re-jailbreak it. That's what I did to make sure it was completely clean.
So, I'm preparing my jailbroken 3Gs to be suitable for sale. I need to keep it jailbroken, but I'd like to get all my personal stuff off of it (erased.) What is the best way to do this?
Restore it back to new (using an old firmware, though I think you can JB 4 now?), then re-jailbreak it. That's what I did to make sure it was completely clean.
Also, remove the SIM.
I would use the factory restore option within the iphone's settings menu, then use itunes to reactivate it, rejail break it if needed, then take it to be sold, and do the internal reset once more once the buyer is satisfied that it works, and yes, definitely remove the sim card.
One time I was sold a phone and the seller left the sim card in the phone, immediately after this I departed on a cruise, when I got the text from the seller that he wanted me to make sure the sim card was properly disposed of, I cast it into the murky depths of the pacific ocean... somehow it was retrieved and the retriever racked up a $4000 long distance bill.
Well, my AT&T Order status still showing in-process. No shipping info, not backordered, just shows ordered and in-process. But, of course, they gots me money. Getting pretty impatient.
Try giving AT&T a call. 1-866-391-0749 option 1 or 2.
My phone was in the same status yesterday and I called them up to see what the deal was. The rep was pretty cool as I explained my situation but he seemed surprised when I told him other people had already received their shipping info and others even already had the phone. He checked my order and was able to tell me that it was just in the warehouse waiting to be picked up and that I should be getting it today. Checked my order status about an hour later and sure enough my status had flipped to shipped and I had a tracking number. Not sure if the call made the difference, but I’ve heard many people reporting similar stories.
Thanks for the heads up. After a lengthy wait time (thanks speakerphone!) I got transferred to normal customer service (yay for having gone to a store since the online ordering sucked all day) and got told to go stand in line at the store to ask. Bleh.
I'm so stoked for more apps that take full advantage of the enhanced resolution, it's like reading a glossy print page off a magazine, except I can interact with it.
Wait no I mean I played with the phone for a couple hours and went over to a AT&T store and bought a microcell and gonna ride through another two years with the guys.
The screen is really fucking nice and I put Star Trek on there and OMG guys!
I want to scream "bullshit!" in every way possible at this response to the guy's concern. I mean... seriously, what the fuck?
Whenever bullshit like this comes to a head, it just reinforces my belief about how Apple operates. While most companies exist to make either their shareholders or their customers happy, Apple's target audience is Steve Jobs. He doesn't hold his phone like that, so they don't give a fuck.
Also, I'm increasingly convinced the iPhone 4 was basically designed around the assumption you're paying Apple $30 for the bumper case, since it solves most of the glaring problems the phone has.
I want to scream "bullshit!" in every way possible at this response to the guy's concern. I mean... seriously, what the fuck?
Whenever bullshit like this comes to a head, it just reinforces my belief about how Apple operates. While most companies exist to make either their shareholders or their customers happy, Apple's target audience is Steve Jobs. He doesn't hold his phone like that, so they don't give a fuck.
Also, I'm increasingly convinced the iPhone 4 was basically designed around the assumption you're paying Apple $30 for the bumper case, since it solves most of the glaring problems the phone has.
Seriously , how do you know this is even real? (the email)
Steve Jobs regularly responds to people. From how I took it, that was someone that worked for Engadget, and Engadget isn't going to fake that. That, and they said that they talked to Apple about it, and it's "Breaking" news.
That, and that's the sort of response one would expect... it fits.
Edit: Hah, more...
Steve told another reader that "It's not a big issue."
Posts
CNN. I'd link it but I'm not near a computer.
It'll be interesting to see how this plays out
http://gizmodo.com/5571171/iphone-4-loses-reception-when-you-hold-it-by-the-antenna-band is constantly being updated with more reports.
I particularly dislike this one:
And I agree with this comment:
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
I mean they don't even have purple!
Whoop! My bad. Sorry, boss is out of town and I've been doing opening (6am) shifts all week (8 in a row) which I'm not used to. My poor eyes musta glossed right over that.
Try giving AT&T a call. 1-866-391-0749 option 1 or 2.
My phone was in the same status yesterday and I called them up to see what the deal was. The rep was pretty cool as I explained my situation but he seemed surprised when I told him other people had already received their shipping info and others even already had the phone. He checked my order and was able to tell me that it was just in the warehouse waiting to be picked up and that I should be getting it today. Checked my order status about an hour later and sure enough my status had flipped to shipped and I had a tracking number. Not sure if the call made the difference, but I’ve heard many people reporting similar stories.
On another note, I picked up mine during lunch and activated it with no issues. This thing screams. Coming from a 3G, the speed difference is incredibly apparent. No lines or splotches, thank you baby Jesus. However, I was able to immediately reproduce the reduced signal issue by putting the bottom left corner on the phone on my palm. I’m curious as to how Apple is going to handle this.
EDIT: Covering the bottom left corner most definitely interrupts voice and data communications and is not just a software/graphical error. Disappointing as I am a hold with the left hand, swipe with the right finger guy.
EDIT 2: Also seeing huge fluctuations in signal strength. With my 3G in my office, I would see 4-5 bars constantly. So far with the 4, I'm seeing it move between 2-4 bars and have only seen 5 bars once. Bleh.
I am just curious what could cause the huge amount of reception loss in this one iphone 4 video. I don't think a human hand is that much of dampner. Maybe someone here @ the forums could try this.
Edit:
Information regarding lines or splotches on the screen - unconfirmed rumor according to ilounge.com: these splotches are caused because some chemical, which is used / created during the production of the glass surface, didn't evaporate completely. (some models were assembled and shipped to fast in order to meet demand) After 2 day usage of the phone, the yellow marks should vanish.
Edit 2:
Some questions for you iphone 4 owners:
Is the screen so much better? Is the phone that much faster than the 3GS, to warrant upgrading? Is the battery life better?
scheduled delivery time: 3pm
scheduled anticipation level: immense
That is all
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
This is the "software glitch" that they are talking about releasing a patch for. The bars seem to fluctuate a lot with no movement or interaction with the device.
The problem people are noting with holding the device and shorting the antennas together is just that, a hardware issue where you are introducing a lot of interference from the second antenna (which is what you are connecting when you hold it down there) that causes it to be unable to communicate with the cell signals. As cool as it looks to have the antenna outside of the phone and say it would improve signal strength, it really should have been covered by something so conductive surfaces like SKIN wouldn't come in contact and mess it up.
Also, with a glass back they could have easily just put it on the back since there is no longer a metal back to get in the way and avoided this whole thing.
My phone is here.
She's sexy.
Still waiting on activation, so I'll be sure to let you know if I have any reception issues once that happens.
Already set up and using my home's wireless-n network to download apps and such.
This screen is really amazing. it's bizzare and welcome that when you focus in on some tiny aspect of the screen, and instead of being small and pixelated like I've come to expect from computer displays, it's just small, it makes my computer monitor look like a brutal club compared to the iphone being some kind of elegant ray gun that zaps images directly into my brain.
front facing camera is kinda weird, kinda cool, I'm excited to meet someone else irl who has one of these so we can get in on a little video call coolness.
edit:
Activation finished!
Try holding the phone every possible way I could imagine that you could actually talk on the phone, and the bars didn't even flinch.
I intentionally held pads of my fingers over every gap in the antennae band, and lost one bar, then I just wrapped the whole thing in my gigantic bear paw hands and managed to get to it too drop from 5 to 3 bars.
I have not been able to get it to drop below 3 bars no matter what I try.
Load the New York Times website on your phone. See the small as shit text on there? You know, the one that looks like smaller than a grain of sand after going through CERN? On my screen, that is the letter 't' and I can read it without zooming in.
Also, I have used this phone a LOT and the battery is still above 50%. I love this freakin' phone.
Also, I notice my antenna problems when I touch the bottom part of the phone, that is where the connector and speaker are. If I am touching that and the side metal bands, that is when my call quality drops. Is this my imagination?
The ridiculous resolution makes web browsing so much better on the phone.
Yeah; though I am not partaking in the iPhone 4 at this time (need a job first, really) I got a really good look at one in store; that screen is amazing.
I want such things on all my mobile devices now.
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
Same thing happened to me :P. I'm sure it won't last long.
Aside from the antenna issue, this phone is sick. Considered jumping to the Droid, but I get great AT&T service in my area and I love my apps. I will admit I'm missing some of my jailbroken stuff, but all in due time.
Restore it back to new (using an old firmware, though I think you can JB 4 now?), then re-jailbreak it. That's what I did to make sure it was completely clean.
Also, remove the SIM.
I would use the factory restore option within the iphone's settings menu, then use itunes to reactivate it, rejail break it if needed, then take it to be sold, and do the internal reset once more once the buyer is satisfied that it works, and yes, definitely remove the sim card.
One time I was sold a phone and the seller left the sim card in the phone, immediately after this I departed on a cruise, when I got the text from the seller that he wanted me to make sure the sim card was properly disposed of, I cast it into the murky depths of the pacific ocean... somehow it was retrieved and the retriever racked up a $4000 long distance bill.
Thanks for the heads up. After a lengthy wait time (thanks speakerphone!) I got transferred to normal customer service (yay for having gone to a store since the online ordering sucked all day) and got told to go stand in line at the store to ask. Bleh.
If your 3.1.2 SHSH files are on file in Cydia, you should be able to revert to 3.1.2, jailbreak that, and then go to jailbroken 4.0.
Or you could just wait around for a new 4.0 jailbreak, hopefully it won't take too long.
Wait no I mean I played with the phone for a couple hours and went over to a AT&T store and bought a microcell and gonna ride through another two years with the guys.
The screen is really fucking nice and I put Star Trek on there and OMG guys!
http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/24/apple-responds-over-iphone-4-reception-issues-youre-holding-th/
Quote from Steve Jobs:
"Just avoid holding it in that way"
I want to scream "bullshit!" in every way possible at this response to the guy's concern. I mean... seriously, what the fuck?
Whenever bullshit like this comes to a head, it just reinforces my belief about how Apple operates. While most companies exist to make either their shareholders or their customers happy, Apple's target audience is Steve Jobs. He doesn't hold his phone like that, so they don't give a fuck.
Also, I'm increasingly convinced the iPhone 4 was basically designed around the assumption you're paying Apple $30 for the bumper case, since it solves most of the glaring problems the phone has.
Seriously , how do you know this is even real? (the email)
That, and that's the sort of response one would expect... it fits.
Edit: Hah, more...
Steve told another reader that "It's not a big issue."
http://gizmodo.com/5572279/apples-acknowledges-iphone-4-reception-issues-says-dont-hold-it-like-that
They're going to deny this as long as they can, because it's a game-breaking flaw... and expensive as hell to resolve, I'd guess.