Apple Inc. said Friday its formula to calculate signal strength is “totally wrong,” and that it will start using a new formula by AT&T to calculate how many bars to display to represent signal strength.
The announcement comes as customers continue to complain of a significant loss in signal when holding the iPhone G4 in a certain way that seems to interfere with the phone’s antenna. Unlike previous iPhones, the new phone’s antenna is a steel frame that wraps around the device.
Apple maintains the latest phone has the best wireless performance “we have ever shipped.” However, due to the number of complaints, the company said it tested the phone and found that its formula to read signal strength often displayed four bars in places where the strength was equivalent to just two bars. In general, the phone displayed two more bars than “it should for a given signal strength.”
Customers who experienced signal drops when gripping the phone were probably in a place with poor reception, Apple said, even though the phone displayed a strong signal. “Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place,” the company said in a statement.
Apple also said phones usually drop reception by one or more bars when held in a certain way and suggested users buy a case and avoid gripping the phone in the lower left corner “in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band.”
On Thursday, a California law office sued Apple, citing the antenna problems. The law firm claimed to be speaking on behalf of “hundreds of thousands” of iPhone G4 owners. The suit asks for monetary damages related to the alleged “diminished value of the phone” and for Apple to hand out free phone cases.
Apple said it will release a free software update “within a few weeks” with AT&T’s formula. It will also make the first three bars a bit taller, so that they are easier to see. The update will be available for the iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4G.
Tribune Newspapers reporter Don Reisinger contributed to this report.
Apple couldn’t fix the flawed antenna design of the phone so it came up with a band-aid for a bullet wound: changing the bars displayed.
This is nothing but smoke and mirrors.
R2D2 here,
Apple Inc. said Friday that it was “stunned” to find that its iPhones have for years been using a “totally wrong” formula to determine how many bars of signal strength they are getting. Since Job’s first fix “you’re holding it wrong” did not sell well he now has the solution: Use software to pretend that the hardware is working. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Oh, and that new software will also make you weigh ten pounds less and will add 10K to your bank account. Ahhhhhhahahahaha! Oops, help me Obi-Wan! I laughed so hard I fell over and can’t get up.
It’s July and hot on Earth. Better drink up that Kool-Aid.
No such problems with my Droids. The hardware is the best in the galaxy. You earthlings can expect another delivery very soon. The Millennium Falcon has just jumped to hyperspace to get my Droids there without delay.
The Force is with us! R2D2
Verizon. Period.
What a load of smoke and mirrors.
Summary: You phone signal strength is probably actually worse than it’s reporting.
This ‘fix’ does absolutely nothing about the actual hardware problem.
ROTFLMAO.. guess they can’t read ENGLISH in CHINA.. I got my first APPLE anything for Christmas the iPod.. I will never ask for, want, or buy anything from APPLE again.. this company are control freaks, from unchangeable batteries, to having to take over the music on your computer you already own from your CD’s.. Almost bought a Apple computer.. nexed that idea real quick after the iPod.. Don’t feel bad for the FOOLS who keep buying APPLE..
There have been tests that show the iPhone 4’s speed online being improved by 10 fold when left flat rather than held by it’s sides. Apple’s statements prove nothing in their case, other than they’d designed their phones to lie about signal strength.There really is an antenna problem, and the signal strength really is going down; while the strength is also being misreported as higher than it is.
Apple wants you to buy a case?????????They should supply it if it helps with this problem!
Maybe Apple will finally stop running those idiotic and annoying TV commercials where Apple Guy tells the world how trustworthy and reliable Apple products are, while PC looks crestfallen and embarrassed about not being able to make the same claim. How could ANY company send a product to market without putting it through system test, as Apple clearly didn’t?
It’s an iPhone 4. Not a 4G. Get it straight.
LMAO.
So instead of fixing the actual hardware problem, Apple has come up with a software patch to try to con people into thinking that the hardware problem doesn’t exist?
LMAO.
Typical Apple hubris. Instead of fixing the problem, just lower the customers’ expectations instead. Much like a guy I knew who wrote a computer app that had a spinner to show it was working. Clients complained the app was too slow, so instead of fixing it he just made the spinner twirl faster. Customers were pleased with “how much faster” the same old app was running. For the iPhone, “crappy” reception with 4 bars now becomes “pretty good” reception with 2 bars, even though nothing’s changed.