The next iPhone

[galactica]

"4G" is what the news sites are calling it, Apple aren't saying anything about the name. I think it'll be called the iPhone HD myself. It can't be tied to network nomenclature any more as, as you say, there is no 4G network in place.

[ThaFlash]

We barely have 3G. Since this will be an AT&T release again it should be 3G (but this time for real... maybe).

 

It's also the 4th generation iPhone and that's where the blogs are coming from with the 4G thing.

 

You guys that are debating a "he-said she-said" account is precisely why nobody has a case here.

[Stealthbomber]

I thought Apple's position was that "4G" meant "4th generation" rather than anything related to the network standards?

[mattmanic]

Apple can call it what ever they want and say it means what ever they want. The original is the 2G also the Gen1, the 3G is 3.5G and Gen2, the 3GS is 3.5G and the Gen3, the 4G will be 3.5G and Gen4. My guess is that if 4G networks take off over the next 2 years or so, Apple will do a 4GS and add a 4G chip.

[happy.al]

Hehe, this made me laugh....

 

[Stealthbomber]

Yeah, just saw that on the news.

Apparently touching the bottom-left of the iPhone 4G has a negative effect on the signal strength.

 

TBH, I'm certain that other phones suffer from similar problems but I'm sure some people will take great pleasure in acting like Apple have screwed up horrifically because of this.

Course, I guess when you advertise items with such an evangelical zeal I guess you're going heading for a harder fall when you do screw something up.

 

Just waiting for all the zealots to start saying "It's not a problem. You just don't hold the phone in the bottom left corner".

I mean, given that most people ARE right-handed, holding the phone in your left hand (and thus touching the bottom-left of the unit) is pretty-much unavoidable.

 

In reality it probably IS a bit of a downer but I doubt it'll really affect most people for most of the time.

If you barely have a signal I guess it might be worth moving your hand to improve things but, meh, no biggie.

[Chimpy]

I guess that's why Apple are now selling first party covers!

 

I've had other mobiles that had partially exposed antenna that did similar weird reception things.

 

The sharpness of the screen, RAM, processor, gyroscope etc. are of more interest to me though. The crappy call quality on my current iPhone doesn't bother me. This is enough of a hardware shift that developers are already putting out iPhone 4 specific games and specific versions of older games on the App Store.

[Xaccers]

Yeah, just saw that on the news.

Apparently touching the bottom-left of the iPhone 4G has a negative effect on the signal strength.

 

TBH, I'm certain that other phones suffer from similar problems but I'm sure some people will take great pleasure in acting like Apple have screwed up horrifically because of this.

Course, I guess when you advertise items with such an evangelical zeal I guess you're going heading for a harder fall when you do screw something up.

 

Just waiting for all the zealots to start saying "It's not a problem. You just don't hold the phone in the bottom left corner".

I mean, given that most people ARE right-handed, holding the phone in your left hand (and thus touching the bottom-left of the unit) is pretty-much unavoidable.

 

In reality it probably IS a bit of a downer but I doubt it'll really affect most people for most of the time.

If you barely have a signal I guess it might be worth moving your hand to improve things but, meh, no biggie.

 

It's not just that if you hold it in one place you lose a few bars of signal like on some other phones when held in the wrong place, it's that you lose all signal.

So you could be on a call, need to write a number down, switch hands and lose the call because you've inadvertantly shorted the gap between the GSM and WiFi aerials.

It's a design flaw which beggars belief that it got through testing. That and the easy to shatter back cover. Yes, they made the back cover out of glass!

[Stealthbomber]

It's not just that if you hold it in one place you lose a few bars of signal like on some other phones when held in the wrong place, it's that you lose all signal.

So you could be on a call, need to write a number down, switch hands and lose the call because you've inadvertantly shorted the gap between the GSM and WiFi aerials.

It's a design flaw which beggars belief that it got through testing. That and the easy to shatter back cover. Yes, they made the back cover out of glass!

I wasn't aware it was that bad.

 

Must admit, I can kinda see why they made the back out of glass.

Speaking as somebody who's owned PDAs and smartphones for ten years, scratched screens become a fact of life.

Since getting an iPhone I've realised that their glass screen seems to do a really good job of ensuring the screen stays free of scratches.

I guess somebody realised that one of the things that makes the iPhone start to look a bit scabby is after the back cover has started to collect up scratches and wear after a few months and it probably seemed like a good idea to make the rear cover out of something which won't wear like plastic does.

I assume a glass cover probably also helps improve the signal too, although I'm sure plastic would be just as good for that.

[Xaccers]

Trading standards are getting involved in the UK as you shouldn't have to buy extra equipment to make a product work as advertised, and there's talk of a class action against Apple in the US over it's iPhone 4 failings.

[ThaFlash]

It's just connecting the antenna that causes the problem, not necessarily the entire lower left region of the phone. It's a stupid thing to get through their QC though. A simple strip of vinyl should do the trick, one of those clear plastic sheets people use to protect their screens. It defeats the purpose of the stainless steel bezel, but if you want the phone anyways, it's probably the least obtrusive option. I never planned to purchase one in the summer, but I did plan to buy an iPhone4... I still probably will, but the antenna shortcoming is a downer because I hate extra ###### on my phone.

 

The glass back and complaints of it cracking are pretty silly IMO. If you knew it was glass... and then you treat it like plastic then you get what you deserve. If you're the type of person that drops things a lot, then it's probably best that you don't have a glass phone. But the silver lining is that we're already seeing really nice replacement backings made of wood and other materials.

[fiddlesticks4220]

Got mine, and love it

[Xaccers]

The glass back and complaints of it cracking are pretty silly IMO. If you knew it was glass... and then you treat it like plastic then you get what you deserve. If you're the type of person that drops things a lot, then it's probably best that you don't have a glass phone. But the silver lining is that we're already seeing really nice replacement backings made of wood and other materials.

 

 

Apple claimed that their glass was specially treated to make it extremely tough and difficult to scratch/break.

What if you're not prone to dropping things but someone knocks into you so your phone drops from a height of more than 3 feet?

 

Now apple are saying the signal problem isn't hardware related, but its in the code which tells it how many bars of signal to show, claiming it adds 2 bars more than you've actually got.

So how come a rubber case or even scotch tape over the gap fixes the problem?

[Stealthbomber]

So how come a rubber case or even scotch tape over the gap fixes the problem?

I think they mean that, basically, when you really have a signal strength of 1 it'll give you 3 bars on the screen.

 

That means that when you touch the wrong bit of the case the signal strength appears to drop from 3 to 0.

 

Colour me cynical but I can't help wondering if they previously programmed their signal strength meter to read a bit "optimistically" because of all the fuss with iPhone 3GS's dropping calls so often.

[Moriquende]

Apple claimed that their glass was specially treated to make it extremely tough and difficult to scratch/break.

What if you're not prone to dropping things but someone knocks into you so your phone drops from a height of more than 3 feet?

 

IIRC, the glsss is made of synthetic sapphire crystals, i.e. sapphire glass(It's used for watches among other things).

 

It's pretty damn hard to scratch and is very hard.

[hitmanNo2]

I read Apple have used a different type of glass for the back thats not nearly as tough as the screen glass.

[ThaFlash]

Apple claimed that their glass was specially treated to make it extremely tough and difficult to scratch/break.

What if you're not prone to dropping things but someone knocks into you so your phone drops from a height of more than 3 feet?

 

They claimed it was harder and more scratch resistant. That means the glass is going to be less elastic and more brittle. They can make all sorts of claims about the glass that they want, but people still need to realize that glass isn't going to all of a sudden take impacts as well as rubber just because it's being sold by Apple.

 

I had someone knock into me and break my Roberto Cavalli sunglasses once. It sucked, it cost more than an iPhone with the AT&T upgrade, and I couldn't even buy a replacement as the style was discontinued. But that's what happens when you go outside of the house. I also run the risk of my laptop dropping and my expensive clothes being permanently ruined. It happens, I blame the clumsy people not the manufacturers.

 

Now apple are saying the signal problem isn't hardware related, but its in the code which tells it how many bars of signal to show, claiming it adds 2 bars more than you've actually got.

So how come a rubber case or even scotch tape over the gap fixes the problem?

 

Apple is known for misleading when it comes to hardware problems. Right now they claim that the signal issues are caused by software problems. I'm sure that they are banking on the idea that if they keep rolling out "fixes" in their software that the cries will die down and normalize in a few months. They just want to say that they rolled out the fix because most of the mainstream negative press they get comes from the massive amount of backlash coming from the blogs; by rolling out their "fix" they can counter some of that bad press even if it's not genuine.

 

I'd just get clear protective film over the spots, or maybe an aluminum or CF bumper to also protect the glass.

[amateurstuntman]

You all know my personal stance on Apple products:

It is a function of my personality, when apple were the underdogs I had a sneaky desire for their products but now that they are ubiquitous I'm not interested.

 

That said I saw a MK4 iphone last night and I couldn't get the signal strength to drop by handing the corner.

Dry hands, wet hands, sweaty hands, none of those things would make it drop it's signal.

 

Is this problem a problem with every MK4 iphone or just some?

[happy.al]

According to the tech blogs, that Steve tells you to ignore, the problem is with every iPhone, it's just the way the bars are displayed.

 

http://gizmodo.com/5577812/why-apples-iphone-4-update-wont-fix-your-reception-problem?skyline=true&s=i

[Triggerhappychappy]

Indeed- heres brilliant quote that sums up the issues nicely:

 

Apple have come up with a way of fixing signal loss, they are correcting thier formula which apparently resulted in the iphone saying it had "too many" bars.

 

Yes, u just read that correctly apple tweeked their iphones reception stats to indicate that it had more reception that it does, and now they have to fix it.

 

The stupid thing is, IT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING u will still be unable to get signal while holding your phone naturaly.

 

[Stealthbomber]

Is this problem a problem with every MK4 iphone or just some?

I suspect it'll really only show itself if you're in a place where you already had a poor signal to begin with.

If you're in a location where you have a genuinely strong signal then this problem won't manifest itself.

 

I guess if you wanted to replicate the issue you'd need to find somewhere that you have no signal and then slowly move into a place where you do have a signal.

At that point the dodgy iPhone display would jump from 0 to 3 bars when, in fact, you still have a pretty weak signal in reality.

 

At that point if you touch the wrong part of the phone you'll probably see the signal reduce back to zero again.

 

 

Must admit, I'm no expert but, from my experience with the iPhone 3GS, I don't think I've ever seen it display only one or two bars on the screen.

Seems to jump from no signal to roughly 50% signal strength right away.