This makes no sense to me. Maybe I'm ignorant, but it sounds a lot like going to a mechanic because your car keeps turning off and they offer a new paint job to fix the issue.
Apple letter about iPhone 4
61–70 of 145 posts
Re: Apple letter about iPhone 4
#62Does anyone else feel this letter seems strangely/hastily/poorly written for corporate communication? It uses terms/expressions like "totally wrong", "Their big drop in bars", "the iPhone’s bars", pretty much anything that mentions "bars", etc. Or do you think this is just about keeping it colloquial, so it sounds like a real email from one of your friends?
Steve Jobs always writes colloquially. I can see that trickling down.
Re: Apple letter about iPhone 4
#63I could care less about the signal problem. The proximity sensor thing is insanely annoying. I am much much more likely to end the call or put it on mute than I am to drop the call due to reception issues. I've exchanged the phone once already and the replacement phone has the same issue. At first, I thought it was my face (shape? texture?), or the way I was holding it (am I suppose to push it with force against my e…
There are far more people and bloggers bitching about the Antenna issue, so it's become Apple's biggest priority. Just give it time, these issues have a way of getting solved.
i hear you. the part that irks me is that in the year since the time of 3GS release, this passed QA for call making. while we give them more time now, we suffer the affected calls. maybe Gary Powell was the guy in charge of making sure calls worked properly
Re: Apple letter about iPhone 4
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've had the exact same problem, but this is the first I've heard of someone else having it.
isn't it a relief to know it's not your face and not the way you're holding it? once i found out others were experiencing it, it was a great relief. you can now stop doing hand gymnastics with the phone and wait for some fix too.
Still have to do hand (and shoulder/ear/etc) gymnastics while waiting for the fix. Though, yes, it's a relief to know it's not my face nor just my particular phone that's broken.
Re: Apple letter about iPhone 4
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe that both Apple's letter and AnandTech's review show us that we shouldn't be measuring signal strength (either numerically or with bars). AnandTech said "That brings me to the way that signal quality should really be reported - Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)." [1] I found a good comment on MeFi that discusses the bars' uselessness for CDMA. [2] [1] http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2 [2] h…
Anand doesn't mention it explicitly, and neither do you, but I'm assuming that signal to noise ratio drops when you short the iPhone 4 antennae too otherwise his conclusion doesn't make sense: "At the end of the day, Apple should add an insulative coating to the stainless steel band, or subsidize bumper cases. It's that simple."
An insulative coating? We're talking about signals in the 850 to 2300 MHz range - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitive_coupling anyone?
Re: Apple letter about iPhone 4
#66Does anyone else feel this letter seems strangely/hastily/poorly written for corporate communication? It uses terms/expressions like "totally wrong", "Their big drop in bars", "the iPhone’s bars", pretty much anything that mentions "bars", etc. Or do you think this is just about keeping it colloquial, so it sounds like a real email from one of your friends?
Steve Jobs always writes colloquially. I can see that trickling down.
Sure. But, in my opinion at least, his "Thoughts on Flash" seemed much more carefully worded than this.
Everyone refers to signal strength as the quantity of "bars" they have, so I suppose this is the colloquial way to write this. But sentences like "Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place." just boggles my mind that it made it through Apple PR.
This is the same company that has the following boilerplate on the bottom of their press releases: "Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh. Apple continues to lead the industry with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, and iLife, iWork and professional applications. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices."
Re: Apple letter about iPhone 4
#67"We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see."
Translation: Don't worry about the signal, we have BARS!
Re: Apple letter about iPhone 4
#68From paragraph six, "We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see." It's a psychological thing. A few extra pixels do indeed give the illusion of better network reception, albeit the actual level doesn't change. Similar to designing progress bars, the actual progress is hidden from the user. Instead, the user is presented with the illusion that the process is progressing faster than i…
good observation. i'm wondering why bars are not equally the same height across. the quantity alone should be enough (1 vs 5) to convey strength. with the height being variable, it seems to make things seem worst in the worst possible way -- 5 will still be 5, but when its a 1, because the height is so much shorter, it seems worst than 1. what is the upside to variable height when you already have variable width in terms of number of bars? it's not as if there's an algorithm that determines the correct height for that particular signal, as there is a (faulty?) algorithm to determine the correct width (bars).
Re: Apple letter about iPhone 4
#69This could very well be the least anticipated mobile phone software update ever--now with less bars in more places.
Re: Apple letter about iPhone 4
#70My palm is pretty big, and when i fully cover my nokia 1100 cell phone, not a single bar of network is lost. Stop Covering up Apple, and admit that you guys committed a mistake.
Well then it must be using "the right algorithms", obviously.