“First, Apple has issued an official statement, with which I completely agree,” Segan reports. “‘Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone,’ Apple said. ‘If you ever experience this on your Phone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.'”
“If I hold the phone in a slightly sweaty left hand, with my fingers covering the three black lines on the phone’s edge and the bottom left corner in my palm, signal strength is somewhat reduced. If I had to pick a number out of the air, I’d say it’s by 3 to 5 decibels per milliwatt (dBm). Feel free to correct me if you have the appropriate lab equipment. The hand involved has to be a little sweaty to encourage conductivity, or the trick might not work,” Segan reports. “This doesn’t have any effect on connecting voice calls in areas with a strong signal, but it can make the difference between connecting and not if you’re already in a fringe signal area.”
Read more in the full article here.
Arnold Kim reports for MacRumors, “Several readers have pointed out that, as per Steve Jobs statement, other mobile phones also suffer from similar signal degradation while being held tightly. In fact, a support thread for Google’s Nexus One described a very similar issue back in February:”
If you go to Settings -> About Phone -> Status you will see a display for “Signal strength”. When my phone is sitting on the desk, the signal stays consistent. However, the second I touch my phone, the signal drops up to as much as -20 dBm. I am able to replicate this test every single time, whether the signal is incredibly strong or weak.
Kim reports, “Another user filmed this video of his Nokia 6230 showing the same phenomenon:”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Joshua Topolsky reports on an email Engadget received from Steve Jobs in which Apple’s CEO rather ludicrously states, “Just avoid holding it in that way.”
Bzzzt! Wrong answer, Steve. Try again.
Check out how Apple employees from Steve Jobs on down held the iPhone 4 in demos and videos here. Funny, they didn’t “just avoid holding it in that way.” They all do seem rather entranced by something, though. Maybe it’s the disappearing bars?
iPhone 4. Not only does it disappear in bars when it’s put down, but its bars disappear when it’s picked up. Talk about “magical.”
So, it looks like our source was wrong (wouldn’t be the first time) about a software fix for this issue and this is the way the iPhone 4 will operate. Therefore, if the iPhone 4 requires a “case” or rubber “bumper” in order to operate properly, then Apple should provide one in every box free of charge.
And, no, a 29-cent (if that much) piece of colored rubber marked up 100 times to US$29, however nicely-packaged it may be, simply doesn’t cut it, Mr. Jobs. We’re willing to pay for quality, but we don’t appreciate being ripped off.
All that said, the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone/pocket computer we’ve ever used. We wouln’t give our units up even if they had to held with salad tongs.
Get serious MDN. This is no big deal. We’ve known tins for years.
@ Well that’s it
Come on… You don’t even have an iPhone to return.
Didn’t Steve say the frame/antenna was a engineering marvel, or something to that effect?
I have an iPhone 3G, but I will not buy version 4. I should be able to hold the phone any way I want, and Apple should make it work. And, I will not use a rubber cover that makes the super thin iPhone into a non-super thin iPhone. Isn’t it supposed to be the thinnest SmartPhone on the market.
I think AT&T;is somewhat at fault. If AT&T;had a better network, Apple would not have tried to solve the connection problem with a radical new design.
We can all go back to having a big antenna sticking out of a phone.
Guess now we expect the next iPhone to float in midair like the Monolith from 2001, then we wouldn’t have to hold it at all.
Leave it to MacDailyNews to rip Steve Jobs a new asshole exactly when it’s called for.
Bravo, MDN!
@ keV
Yes I do. I’m posting from it now. It doesn’t work as promised. Do you with your special fscking powers know that I don’t have one? I waited 5 fscking hours hours in line this morning you asshole. And it DOESN’T work as advertised you sad apologist.
I meant ken1. Holding this with my left hand, and guess what?! No bars.
Five bars now, if I hold it like a fscking teacup.
Historically Apple has been very slow to acknowledge a problem with any of its products.
The fact that Steve Jobs himself has admitted this incredible defect portends real problems.
How much will it cost to replace every one of them that has now been delivered, stop the manufacturing line in China until the problem is fixed, restart it, and recover from this biggest ever Apple blunder.
And, how long will all that take?
And, what’s AAPL going to sell for while all this is unfolding?
Something like this disaster was way overdue.
For those that say that they don’t have this problem, here are some more observations. If you have 5 bars, the signal may not drop. If the original signal is very strong, then I don’t get a drop even when holding with left hand. To get the signal to drop start in an area where the phone is showing less than 5 bars, place the lower left corner of the phone in your left hand and hold snugly. Over a period of about a minute, the signal will steadily drop to 1 bar or searching.
If the above method still doesn’t cause your signal to drop, please upload a video of this to youtube because this may indicate a manufacturing problem in the ones that do.
Since so many of you are upset with such a flawed product, I know you’ll be returning your phones.
You will be, won’t you?
After all, that will teach Apple to release a poorly designed product! Speak with your pocketbook! Yeah!
And then? And then, you’ll buy… what?
Speaking for me, there is still nothing better than an iPhone. What’s the choice? So, you’ve had your moment to complain. Apple’s aware of the issue and is working on it. What else do you want? What else can Apple do?
Fixes take time. Either return the phone and get… a Droid? Or just live with what you’ve got and wait until Apple does the best they can to handle this. Maybe it will be fully fixed. Maybe not. Live with it. Or don’t. Life isn’t perfect.
Temper temper “well that’s it”. The new iPhone is still an amazing phone. Why do people expect it to be perfect? FYI people, nothings perfect!!!! And if you think that this phone doesn’t work as advertised “well that’s it” you’re about to be disappointed. I work in cell phone repair and have never come across a phone that comes close to being as advertised. Despite this small problem that people are blowing out of proportion the iPhone still does.
It’s not about whether it will be fixed or not. It’s Jobs shitty attitude that ruined it for me. And yes, returning tomorrow and getting a droid.
This is bad. Almost as bad as the complete NON-appearance of personal jet-cars that should have been here by now!
I am MAD. Just the other day, I was down a coal mine, digging some coal, and my damn iPhone 4 would NOT work!
People, I ASK you?@!
And why are we all still WORKING? Remember LABOUR saving devices?
WTF? I have saved a LOT of labour, so why am I still going to work?
Modern life sucks, you know?
I bought an iPad, but it didnt stop my girlfriend from dumping me. WHY NOT?
I am really sick of Apple.
Sg
No. I just want phone that works as a PHONE. Is that wrong. Don’t apologize.
Between AT&T;and this, I’m sorry, it’s just no longer acceptable to me. And that’s my RIGHT. Goodnight.
@ Well that’s it
LOL. Anyone who supposedly awaited five hours to get the new iPhone (this “sad apologist” didn’t) isn’t going to return in on the next day without seeing how things play out.
I was suspicious of the apple store employee’s rehearsed & over enthusiastic pitch to sell me the bumper the minute he escorted me into the store to pick up my iPhone. I’d like to see the pre-launch store employees script. The split in the metal frame must have a functional purpose otherwise apple would’ve designed without it. It’s pretty obvious when you hold the phone, your skin will bridge the gap and that probably shorts something, defeating the function. I agree with those that believe this is a design flaw. The fact that apple sold me the bumper to “mask” the problem and is now saying we have to hold the iphone in a particular way is an insult. I look forward to being reimbursed for the cost of the bumpers.
@ ken1.
Wanna bet? I’ve had shitty service since 1.0. I have a small business and the dropped calls with clients I’ve had since the beginning is ridiculous.
Att sucks.
And now this phone is NOT APPLE QUALITY.
I don’t have to justify myself to you. Tomorrow I’m returning it, tomorrow I’m switching to droid.
End of story. Tired of excuses.
@ Atomic88
> I was suspicious of the apple store employee’s rehearsed & over enthusiastic pitch to sell me the bumper…
So you think a salesperson being trained to offer a $29 accessory that probably costs $2.90 to make and package is unusual. More profit for the store… make sense?
@ well thats it And we’re tired of hearing you. If you wanna switch to another phone that’s just fine, that is your right. So just do it and shut the hell up.
Why am I seeing an ad by Apple that says: ” iPhone 3G S The fastest, most powerful iPhone yet?
@ Well that’s it
Heh heh…
> I don’t have to justify myself to you.
Then why are you? Probably because you’ve been caught being a “troll.”
(Don’t mind me… I’m just amusing myself
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Sg
Yep, I’m shutting the hell up.
But there will be alot more people bitching tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after.
Sweet dreams. Nite nite.
This hysteria comes under the heading of availability error. As pointed out this occurs with all phone and any other device you might place your hand around. Because the iPhone is new and has a new antenna design people assume the problem is unique and caused by the antenna. Covering any antenna with your hand will attenuate the signal and where your hand is placed will very that amount. The iPhone is properly designed to have the least attenuation in the most common hand held position.
Thing is if you have a strong signal a small amount of attenuation will do nothing and you’ll never notice. But if you have a week signal just a small amount of attenuation could drop you below the connection threshold.
@ Tim Rosencrans
I agree with you. This article also makes some common sense to me, from someone who actually sound knowledgable on the subject.
http://www.antennasys.com/antennasys-blog/2010/6/24/apple-iphone-4-antennas.html
It’s a real bummer. Who holds the phone without cradling the bottom? Now I’m forced to hold it awkwardly by the sides while avoiding the bottom left.