Ironically this site is struggling due to traffic from HN
Wayback machine link: https://web.archive.org/web/20251103013626/https://nickvsnet...
Simple trick to increase coverage: Lying to users about signal strength
11–20 of 184 posts
Re: Simple trick to increase coverage: Lying to users about signal strength
#12IIRC this really took off with the antennagate fiasco on the iphone 4. I was working for Verizon at the time and this was also the first one we were able to sell. I forget who it was that did it but I believe it was Apple in response to people "holding their phone wrong" so they bumped everything up a bar so you couldn't tell. There was a lot of competition at the time but also all the androids had better margins so they wanted us to sell those instead.
Re: Simple trick to increase coverage: Lying to users about signal strength
#13You know, I don't recall ever seeing 1 bar of signal strength on a smartphone. And once it's down to 2 bars, it barely works, if at all. Human brains: wow, what a bunch of suckers. Damn. By the way, is it legal to be deceptive in this way?
Consider yourself blessed, the one place in my neighborhood where I get one bar on LTE is the same place I once was repairing my car. Awful experience but the rest of the subdivision is fine.
Re: Simple trick to increase coverage: Lying to users about signal strength
#14contrast with RF emissions which are regulated.
if we cared about signal strength, we'd make it part of the telecommunications regulated sphere: you must back your meter with a path which shows signal strength accurate to xDB in some yUnits of zQuality measured at one of A,B conforming labs
Re: Simple trick to increase coverage: Lying to users about signal strength
#15How can one hide from git blame?
You can't hide from the pickaxe
$ git log --oneline -SKEY_INFLATE_SIGNAL_STRENGTH_BOOL | tail
$ git log --oneline -Sconfig_inflateSignalStrength | tail
43c14d198479 Add config to artificially inflate number of bars
[1]: https://android.googlesource.com/platform//frameworks/base/+...
Re: Simple trick to increase coverage: Lying to users about signal strength
#16Ironically this site is struggling due to traffic from HN Wayback machine link: https://web.archive.org/web/20251103013626/https://nickvsnet...
Why is that ironic? Lots of sites struggle with traffic when they hit the front page here.
Re: Simple trick to increase coverage: Lying to users about signal strength
#17this is the difference between selling a technology and selling a product
This is the difference between a meaningful comparison and an unmeaningful one.
Re: Simple trick to increase coverage: Lying to users about signal strength
#18https://cs.android.com/android/_/android/platform/frameworks...
Is the commit that added it.
Re: Simple trick to increase coverage: Lying to users about signal strength
#19There's a part of me that thinks there's perhaps a logical and reasonable explanation, I just can't think of one.
> a logical and reasonable explanation
There is a logical and reasonable explanation. These companies are run by a bunch of sociopathic, unethical people who won't hesitate to lie and cheat if it gets them more money. It's as simple as that.
Re: Simple trick to increase coverage: Lying to users about signal strength
#20Crazy how they’d rather fake a stronger signal than actually make it stronger.