“Around the time the iPhone 4 was first released last week, users started flooding the Internet with complaints that holding the phone a certain way weakened or even cut off its reception, causing calls to drop,” Whitney reports. “Late Thursday, Apple acknowledged the issue but explained it as a fact of life for every wireless phone. The company suggested that iPhone 4 users either buy a case or hold the phone a different way, which of course further upset customers.”
Whitney reports, “Some debate has also centered on whether the signal loss is due more to hardware or software design. Users of the iPhone 3G ran into reception issues when that phone hit the market two years ago. And iPhone 3GS owners also reported signal loss after upgrading to iOS 4. As a result, the opinion seems to be that the trouble lies in both the hardware and software. If that’s the case, then an iOS 4.0.1 bug fix may not eliminate the problem but could certainly alleviate it.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: We just checked via iTunes’ “Check for Update” and iOS 4.0 is still the most current version available.
Opened a ticket for this issue with Apple on day one. The tech stated that it is a software issue and I should look for an update some time over “the next two weeks”.
I’m not really seeing it. I’m also not trying to recreate it.
Complaining is not really going to solve anything. If Apple wants me to hold the phone a certain way . . . I can do that. I’m easy.
Snappy out –
Had no problems with reception – just the appearance of dropped bars while holding it that “certain way”. Sound quality seems better on the iPhone 4, and the speakerphone is better than its ever been.
Oddly, I can reproduce this issue sometimes — but not all the time — even in the same location(s). I have also seen the signal bars creep down, then creep back up, even as my grip doesn’t change. And sometimes the bars creep down and stay down until I move my hand.
This seems like fodder for the software theory.
You assume that “Jumpman23” actually ever had an iPhone. Besides, who uses an iPhone for calling anyone
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I’ll believe it when I see it, hard to imagine that this could be solved via software fix.
@Ferf Muckmeyer
Very easy for me to replicate and drop calls due to the problem. Normally not a problem for me when using it up to my ear (I just don’t hold the phone that way in either hand)
However when using the speaker phone the natural tendency for me is phone in palm in left hand… dropped when calling from my house that I had 4-5 bars normally.
I can duplicate this on my Druid. If I squeeze him hard enough.
He’s always dropping those signals.
The iPhone 4 is the best phone out there and I refuse to go android. But I really am hoping the reception issue can be solved with software. Kills my productivity… I was thinking about an exchange but just waiting for more info on the issue. I’ve been hawking this site religiously.
I’d really like a patch to make iOS 4 work with the iPhone 3g. Kinda like how they said it would work.
I lost a truly great phone the day I ‘upgraded’.
Buy case or a bumper…not that big of a deal.
Ya I may have to cave to the bumper. I’ve always preferred the iPhone’s naked look with Invisible Shield. Ughhh bumper.
Can 4.0.1 also increase the speed of iOS 4 on my iPhone 3G? It’s now as slow as treacle, as are my friends 3G iOS 4 phones too; and we can’t get iPhone 4 as none are available.
Please please please make my 3G iPhone snappy again, not the opposite of snappy (which it is now).
The “Death Grip” works on both my 3GS and 4. However, for me, it has never affected a call. It’s just a parlor trick.
“OS 4.0.1 software fix for iPhone reception issue may arrive as early as today”
. . . or not.
An asteroid may kill us all, as soon as today.
I may win the lottery, as soon as today.
Monkeys may fly out of my butt.
See what you can do with the word “may?”
“See what you can do with the word “may?”
I thought we were nearly in July…
To “I CAN HAZ UPDATE”
I don’t really see any way for them to “fix” how slow iOS 4 is on a 3G. You have to understand that the iPhone 3G only has 128MB ram, compared to the 3GS’s 256 MB, and the iPhone 4’s 512MB. To be honest, Apple’s mistake here was allowing the 3G to run iOS 4 at all. It simply doesn’t have the RAM. If you want to do what I did, and downgrade to 3.1.3, here is a link: http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/downgrade_iphone_os_40_beta_back_iphone_os_313
unfungus has the same problem as me, sounds like you did too Cheule
iOS 4 simply makes the iPhone 3G too slow, I understand about the RAM (I am an iOS developer) but was disappointed at how much slower this new OS made my trusty phone.
Thanks for the link.