21–30 of 44 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a great little app for my Android G1 that shows your location on a google map (GPS) as well as the location of the cell tower you're connected to. I suspect Apple don't provide an API for this sort of stuff..
What is that app named? I want it!
Mine works fine. I don't know. People will look for problems in anything. I liked it better when we were complaining about actual problems, like Apple telling programmers what language they're allowed to 'originally write' in when developing for their platform.
Oh, your works fine? In that case, everyone else who has an anecdote about theirs not working fine doesn't really matter. Because if yours works fine, it must not be a problem. I'm not sure why everyone is complaining about this BP oil spill, I don't see any oil washing up on the beaches near me in the northeast, so it can't be THAT big of a problem, right?
I've also had no reception problems with my iPhone 4, despite trying everything I've read about or can think of to provoke them. Licking fingertips, grasping the phone in a position no human would ever use, sitting in my bathtub where I'd surrounded by several layers of metal lath, etc., etc.: I can get the indicated signal strength to drop somewhat (but not consistently), but I have never been unable to make a call during these experiments.
I am forced to conclude one of three things:
1. Message-board habitués are very loudly complaining about a tiny or nonexistent problem with an Apple product. This would be strange, because normally you can take all criticism of Apple and its products entirely at face value, and people never swarm out of the woodwork to complain about the performance of Apple products they don't own. Insert sarcasm punctuation mark here.
2. There is a design flaw, but it's a subtle one that results in a higher-than-expected rate of manufacturing defects, causing some people's phones to have more reception problems than one would normally expect.
3. The iPhone 4 performs about as well as every other mobile phone, which means: less than perfectly. Hype about the antenna means that this is resulting in an inordinate amount of public complaining.
Or, most likely: all three of those.
On my 3gs in central SF, the 'bars' indicator is already almost useless... it can show 4 or 5 bars, and I'm still unable to initiate calls, receive calls, or hold a clear call. It's so untrustworthy that in my more paranoid moments I wonder if some prior software update included a 'inflate the bar count' change. This talk of fixing iPhone4 issues with an OS update makes me wonder the same thing. Maybe they'll just sm…
This might be one of those situations where more information would be useful. The ideal solution would be to charge a higher price (e.g. a 'minute multiplier' — show this next to the signal strength indicator) for traffic in congested conditions — but this would present marketing problems, Mobile-phone pricing is already opaque enough, and people would rightly be suspicious that the introduction of such a congestion charge would soon result in interesting re-defintions of 'congestion'.
You might be able to get much the same effect by simply showing the user the current local network condition, by turning the signal indicator into a signal-and-congestion indicator. You'd see the signal strength as a measure of the radio conditions, and some kind of indicator that reflected the ability of the network to handle calls at that moment.
I'm assuming, with no particular knowledge of the matter, that the congestion problems with mobile-phone networks are like nearly all other such problems: extremely fleeting. You might be unable to make a call for about five minutes out of an hour; but if that's the five minutes during which you want to make a call, not only are you frustrated because you can only discover the situation through what amounts to black-box analysis, but the phone company gets no goodwill from you for the performance of the network during the other fifty-five minutes.
Mine works fine. I don't know. People will look for problems in anything. I liked it better when we were complaining about actual problems, like Apple telling programmers what language they're allowed to 'originally write' in when developing for their platform.
Oh, your works fine? In that case, everyone else who has an anecdote about theirs not working fine doesn't really matter. Because if yours works fine, it must not be a problem. I'm not sure why everyone is complaining about this BP oil spill, I don't see any oil washing up on the beaches near me in the northeast, so it can't be THAT big of a problem, right?
I've yet to have the issue come up in a real world scenario. It's certainly not a problem for calling unless you hold your phone like a coconut shell to your head. It's more of a threat when you're using your thumb on the phone while holding it in your left hand. Perhaps my wife, friends, and family all have curiously shaped hands that find the required grip renders actual use of the uncomfortable.
Of course, in every other way the iPhone 4 seems to be an incredible smartphone; I suppose even if there is a problem requiring conscious thought for some people, it's on balance with the kinds of problems other handsets have. I mean, the battery life alone is something to drive upgrades: http://bit.ly/aeKf0n And the iPhone's past reception issues has been dramatically improved. I'm one of those unfortunates who has a home "sort of" covered by AT&T, and the difference between the iPhone 4's dropped/missed calls and the 3GS's dropped/missed calls is very noticeable.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a great little app for my Android G1 that shows your location on a google map (GPS) as well as the location of the cell tower you're connected to. I suspect Apple don't provide an API for this sort of stuff..
What is that app named? I want it!
(pun not intended, but it's apropos)
I'm finding the external antenna's advantage may out-weigh its drawbacks. Hands mess with cell phone reception. Every phone has an optimal way to be held so as to minimize this effect. The difference with the iPhone 4 is that the optimal holding method is clear. If my signal is fine then I can cup the phone as normal but if I'm in a low signal situation I can give my phone the death grip to avoid touching the steel.
It's not a bug, it's a feature?
I have a hard time believing the shorting-the-antennas issue was unforeseen by Apple. I give a company that just pulled in a $63.5B year a little more credit.
I find it extremely uncomfortable to partake in these discussions (outside HN, of course). The Macrumors poll effectively claims over 50% of the units are defective. It seems not that many people have a problem with this kind of reasoning. I've also noticed Godwin's law in effect faster than usual. What I do find interesting, however, is the need to utterly bash a product you will never buy, and never intended to, po…
So, it's not just a question of brand, and I think there are some rational reasons to dislike Apple, which may cause irrational outbursts of nonsense.