Apple iPhone news

[jlb1705]

Apple telling reps to smooth over iPhone 4 reception complaints, not to offer free bumpers? -- Engadget

BGR appears to have nabbed a document being distributed by Apple corporate to AppleCare reps tasked with handling iPhone 4 customers miffed with the antenna performance fiasco -- and for the time being, the recommendations are focusing on managing expectations, not fixing the problem...

...If it's any consolation, Apple says that "the iPhone 4's wireless performance is the best [they] have ever shipped," but let's be honest: for those zapping their calls into the afterlife every time they brush their phone the wrong way, it's not much consolation at all.

 

[jwinslow]

Brilliant work, Apple. What did it cost to produce those bumper cases? A quarter? Plus another three to ship them?

Apple's Internal iPhone 4 Antenna Troubleshooting Guidelines Leak

Keep all of the positioning statements in the BN handy – your tone when delivering this information is important.

a. The iPhone 4's wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. Our testing shows that iPhone 4's overall antenna performance is better than iPhone 3GS.

b. Gripping almost any mobile phone in certain places will reduce its reception. This is true of the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, and many other phones we have tested. It is a fact of life in the wireless world.

c. If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 3GS, avoid covering the bottom-right side with your hand.

d. If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 4, avoid covering the black strip in the lower-left corner of the metal band.

e. The use of a case or Bumper that is made out of rubber or plastic may improve wireless performance by keeping your hand from directly covering these areas.

Do not perform warranty service. Use the positioning above for any customer questions or concerns.

Don't forget YOU STILL NEED to probe and troubleshoot. If a customer calls about their reception while the phone is sitting on a table (not being held) it is not the metal band.

ONLY escalate if the issue exists when the phone is not held AND you cannot resolve it.

We ARE NOT appeasing customers with free bumpers – DON'T promise a free bumper to customers.
​

 

[jwinslow]

Steve Jobs to Angry iPhone 4 User: "Relax, it's just a phone."

May or may not be real, but Steve has answered a lot of other peasants with similar replies in the past, as surprising as it is that he'd give them the time of day (or at least someone typing from his account).

 

[jwinslow]

Best Buy Wants to Fire Employee For His iPhone 4 vs. HTC EVO Video

The iPhone 4 vs. HTC EVO video making the rounds has gotten 1.7 million views, but when Best Buy found out it was their employee that made the video, they weren't so much amused as angry. Corporate asked them to take the video down, but the employee Brian Maupin declined, saying that it didn't mention Best Buy anywhere. (It also didn't mention Best Buy in the description either.) But Best Buy suspended him, and now might be fired, claims NBC Action News.
Hey Best Buy guy. Email us. You don't need to work at Best Buy when you can make funny stuff like this for the internet. [NBC Action News]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg]YouTube - iPhone4 vs HTC Evo[/ame]

 

[jwinslow]

Apple Engineers "Totally Wrong", Nintendo Misjudged Excitement and Other Great Corporate Excuses

This morning iPhone owners woke to a very unusual thing: An apology letter from Apple. Everything about the letter, from its opening line of "Dear iPhone 4 Users", to its unusual use of phrases like "totally wrong", is cringe-inducing, but Apple isn't the only company that doesn't know how to come clean when they screw up.

The claim
The iPhone 4''s new antenna design, which wraps around the phone, is faulty, causing a dramatic drop in the phone's reception if held wrong. The Official Response

Dear iPhone 4 Users,

The iPhone 4 has been the most successful product launch in Apple's history. It has been judged by reviewers around the world to be the best smartphone ever, and users have told us that they love it. So we were surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them. Here is what we have learned.

To start with, gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars. This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones. But some users have reported that iPhone 4 can drop 4 or 5 bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band. This is a far bigger drop than normal, and as a result some have accused the iPhone 4 of having a faulty antenna design.

At the same time, we continue to read articles and receive hundreds of emails from users saying that iPhone 4 reception is better than the iPhone 3GS. They are delighted. This matches our own experience and testing. What can explain all of this?

We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising.

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don't know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

To fix this, we are adopting AT&T's recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone's bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.
We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

We have gone back to our labs and retested everything, and the results are the same- the iPhone 4's wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. For the vast majority of users who have not been troubled by this issue, this software update will only make your bars more accurate. For those who have had concerns, we apologize for any anxiety we may have caused.

As a reminder, if you are not fully satisfied, you can return your undamaged iPhone to any Apple Retail Store or the online Apple Store within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.

We hope you love the iPhone 4 as much as we do.

Thank you for your patience and support.

Apple

Our Favorite Line

"Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong."

Reality Check

Sure, Apple accepts responsibility for a phone that lies about how strong your signal strength is, but that's not the issue, that's just a sign of the problem. When it comes to the real problem, the the bad reception, Apple continues to say it's an AT&T reception issue, not a design flaw.

Apple, that's a Fail. I think that's the first time I heard a company just basically say, "Umm.. sorry. We know there's a problem. We're not going to fix it. Thank you."

So, according to Apple, holding the phone "incorrectly" isn't causing lost reception. It's actually fixing their erroneous formula for reporting signal strength?

Now they're just insulting us. Unless I'm totally wrong about the way I interpreted this.

11:38 AM

Invite a friend to comment

No way. Best line is definitely, "Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place."

Hey guys, remember all those bars you had? Yeah, the reason why it's showing no bars is because that's really what you had all along! HAHA! Got 'em!!!

Does anyone else remember one of those 2.x updates a little over a year ago that "improved" the signal strength, but in reality just re-did how the bars were calculated? I bet that was when they switched from the recommended formula to the "we're Apple and we know best" formula. Now they're eating dirt for it.

 

[jlb1705]

Best Buy Wants to Fire Employee For His iPhone 4 vs. HTC EVO Video


YouTube - iPhone4 vs HTC Evo

LMAO

Some kid is about to lose his $7/hr. job for being a fanboy. Who's the dip[censored] now?

I sold electronics for almost five years and I learned one very important thing: if you want to make money and not look like a dick, you don't belittle customers buying decisions - no mater how right you think you are. That's why he's gonna lose his job, not because Best Buy doesn't have a sense of humor.

 

[scooter1369]

iPhone4 has a great fix.

Duct Tape!!

Got an iPhone 4? You may need duct tape - CNN.com

 

[buckeyefool]

Consumer Reports said on Monday that it could not recommend the iPhone 4 because of lingering reception problems.

The testing firm also challenged Apple's official explanation that explained issues with the Phone 4's signal-strength as due to software that "mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength."

When reports of problems with Apple's new device first surfaced, Consumer Reports at first informally gave the all-clear sign. But after its engineers put the iPhone 4 through a battery of tests, Consumer Reports said that was unwilling to recommend the unit

Consumer Reports: Why We Can't Recommend the iPhone 4 - Tech Talk - CBS News

 

[jwinslow]

Apple to give away free cases to iPhone 4 users -- Engadget

​

Apple's not really ready to say it's sorry about the iPhone 4 antenna design, but it is willing to give all you darn squeaky wheels free cases for your trouble. Since Apple can't build its own Bumpers fast enough, it will give you a few options and let you decide, then send it your way for free as long as you purchased the phone before September 30th. Not good enough for you? Well, if you already bought a bumper from Apple you'll get a refund, and you can also return your phone for a full refund within 30 days as long as it's unharmed.

This solution comes at the end of 22 days of Apple engineers "working their butts off," according to Steve, with "physics" ultimately being pinned as the main culprit. Apple claims you can replicate the left-handed "death grip" bar-dropping problem on the BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris, and Samsung Omnia II, and that "phones aren't perfect."

Steve also claims that only 0.55% of people who bought the iPhone 4 have called into AppleCare to complain about the antenna, and the phone has a 1.7% return rate at AT&T, compared to 6% with the 3GS, though he would cop to a slight increase in dropped calls over the iPhone 3GS. For this Steve has what he confesses to be a pet theory: that 3GS users were using the case they had from the 3G, and therefore weren't met with the horrible reality of a naked, call dropping handset.

comments

yeah, the other 99.45% can't complete the call to CS to complain about the issue

 

[jwinslow]

Shit My Jobs Says

Above, a few of our favorite moments from the iPhone 4 presentation Steve Jobs gave this afternoon. Below, eleven much more candid Jobs quotes from the Q&A session that Apple didn't put on their site:

On all smartphones sharing this problem (except maybe large ones):

To our knowledge, it's not possible to make a phone that doesn't have weakspots. You could make a really big one! I mean, some of these guys are making Hummers at this point. But no one's going to buy that.​

On BlackBerry Bold, specifically, sharing this problem:

Q: I can't get my [BlackBerry] Bold to drop [a call] right now, maybe you can show me how to do it?
A: You may not see it in certain areas.​

​

On the reportage of the New York Times:

Q: NY Times says this might have a software fix, is this something that can be helped with software?
A: We just spent the last hour going through how the iPhone 4 drops only 1 more call per hundred than the 3GS. ? Go talk to the Times, because you guys talk to yourselves a lot, and they're just making this stuff up.​

​

​

 

[bkochmc]

Research in Motion has responded to Jobs' comments in regards to the Blackberry Bold 9700 (among other smart phones) also dropping calls. Expected, yes, but still amusing, especially the bolded part:

Official statement from Research In Motion in response to Apple's iPhone 4 Antennagate propaganda! | CrackBerry.com

"Apple's attempt to draw RIM into Apple's self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple's claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public's understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple's difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage. One thing is for certain, RIM's customers don't need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple."
- Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie
​

 

[CleveBucks]

ATT averaged .91% dropped calls overall on its 3G network in 2009.

If Apple is admitting that the iPhone 4 drops one more call per hundred than the 3GS, and assuming the 3GS averages the same .91% of dropped calls as ATT's average, then the iPhone 4 averages more than twice as many dropped calls as other ATT phones.

All this time we've been assuming that the iPhone's dropped calls are due to ATT's crappy network, when Apple's crappy engineering and design could be more at fault.

One thing is for sure - I don't feel sorry for the iPhone 4 owners that are now forced to cover their phone with a case to make a phone call. That's what you get for being the early adopter.

 

[Mac]

ATT averaged .91% dropped calls overall on its 3G network in 2009.

If Apple is admitting that the iPhone 4 drops one more call per hundred than the 3GS, and assuming the 3GS averages the same .91% of dropped calls as ATT's average, then the iPhone 4 averages more than twice as many dropped calls as other ATT phones.

All this time we've been assuming that the iPhone's dropped calls are due to ATT's crappy network, when Apple's crappy engineering and design could be more at fault.

One thing is for sure - I don't feel sorry for the iPhone 4 owners that are now forced to cover their phone with a case to make a phone call. That's what you get for being the early adopter.

So do you really think that Apple is going to "redesign" the iPhone 4 for the 2nd gen (I guess that's what you could call it) because obviously there's problems with the current on?

 

[Tonyank]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMl_71dqeR8]YouTube - Another Banned iPhone 4 Promo[/ame]

 

[Mac]

What's this iOS 4.1 update I downloaded and installed tonight?