Jason S

I tried the in-store demo at the local Apple Store in an attempt to
reproduce the antenna issues. I did everything I could think of that
would cause the signal to degrade, and failed to make it do so. I
maintained 5 bars the whole time. I should add that it was in a
populated area of Upstate NY.

On the other hand, a customer at my workplace showed me his iPhone 4 and
was able to partially replicate the issue. However, my workplace is a
building that can barely get an indoor signal to begin with.

I just think the issue is getting blown out of proportion. Just like
Steve said, relax. Its just a phone. (although I will admit that in an
emergency situation, a reliable signal would be nice.)

--
Jason

Larry

Jason S <jasonsavlov@me.com> wrote in
news:162687957299713537.023482jasonsavlov-me.com@news.giganews.com:

> I tried the in-store demo at the local Apple Store in an attempt to
> reproduce the antenna issues. I did everything I could think of that
> would cause the signal to degrade, and failed to make it do so. I
> maintained 5 bars the whole time. I should add that it was in a
> populated area of Upstate NY.
>
> On the other hand, a customer at my workplace showed me his iPhone 4 and
> was able to partially replicate the issue. However, my workplace is a
> building that can barely get an indoor signal to begin with.
>
> I just think the issue is getting blown out of proportion. Just like
> Steve said, relax. Its just a phone. (although I will admit that in an
> emergency situation, a reliable signal would be nice.)
>

I bet the store phones are the FIRST to get the new bar meter higher
reading software changes.....

Too, Verizon used to put in-store REPEATERS in white plastic boxes right
over the sales floor so even the cheapest craphones had a full scale signal
no matter what you did. ATT/Apple would be fools not to make SURE the
signals in their stores was the strongest ever possible.

ATT's stores here are across the street from ATT's TOWERS.....no
coincidence, I'm sure. People concerned about personal RF radiation
hazards should stay out of sellphone stores....(c;]



--
Global Warming and Creationism are to science what storks are to
obstetrics...

Larry

DevilsPGD

In message <Xns9DA8BAEA04469noonehomecom@74.209.131.13> Larry
<noone@home.com> was claimed to have wrote:

>Jason S <jasonsavlov@me.com> wrote in
>news:162687957299713537.023482jasonsavlov-me.com@news.giganews.com:
>
>> I tried the in-store demo at the local Apple Store in an attempt to
>> reproduce the antenna issues. I did everything I could think of that
>> would cause the signal to degrade, and failed to make it do so. I
>> maintained 5 bars the whole time. I should add that it was in a
>> populated area of Upstate NY.
>>
>> On the other hand, a customer at my workplace showed me his iPhone 4 and
>> was able to partially replicate the issue. However, my workplace is a
>> building that can barely get an indoor signal to begin with.
>>
>> I just think the issue is getting blown out of proportion. Just like
>> Steve said, relax. Its just a phone. (although I will admit that in an
>> emergency situation, a reliable signal would be nice.)
>>
>
>I bet the store phones are the FIRST to get the new bar meter higher
>reading software changes.....

The software updates look like they'll cause lower bar readings to occur
in more cases rather than artificially causing higher bar readings.

This will neatly avoid the massive signal drop that show up when you
short the antennas, since in reality the drop might only be a few dB.
The steps to reproduce this on the iPhone 4 seem to include locating
yourself in an area of minimal reception.

This doesn't excuse the poor antenna placement, but it does explain how
gripping the phone causing a dramatic appearance of a drop was missed in
testing; in the RF engineering and testing phase they'd be looking at
actual dB readings and not "bars", once they got to the dogfooding (real
world testing) phase, cell service within Apple's labs is likely
excellent and anywhere outside the lab would require use of the "3G
look-alike" case which likely obscured the problem.

If you believe the news today (and I do, since it lines up with my own
experience) all iPhone 3G capable models of iPhone overestimate the
signal strength. However, I believe this was done intentionally and
that Apple's "surprise" to learn this is part of their PR disaster
recovery.

As a frequent "navigator" (read: passenger) on various trips in
mountainous area, and user of both an iPhone and Blackberry, I can
definitely attest to the fact that while both devices are on 3G, on my
Blackberry I can see as we approach the coverage limit and my signal
indicator goes down, whereas with iPhone it's basically "on" or "off",
rather than a gradual step down through the signal bars. I don't
believe I've ever seen 4 bars or even 3 bars, it often jumped from 5
bars to being completely out of service, and only occasionally did my
iPhone show 1-2 bars.

It was annoying enough that despite IMing and emailng on my iPhone for
most of our last trip, I was watching the BB's screen to know when I had
coverage and when I was about to lose it.

This wasn't always the case, IIRC it started around the OS 3 release,
although I can't pin an exact date on it.

>Too, Verizon used to put in-store REPEATERS in white plastic boxes right
>over the sales floor so even the cheapest craphones had a full scale signal
>no matter what you did.

I can't say I blame them at all, very little is more annoying than
trying to troubleshoot or provision phones and having no signal. In
other words, it's practical (beyond the customer impact)

>ATT/Apple would be fools not to make SURE the
>signals in their stores was the strongest ever possible.

Indeed. If they're smart (something I rarely attach to AT&T), they'd
negotiate cell towers within the mall to put in an Apple store. Failing
that, microcells within the Apple store would do the trick, although
having the signal drop 20' outside the store wouldn't look good either.

>ATT's stores here are across the street from ATT's TOWERS.....no
>coincidence, I'm sure. People concerned about personal RF radiation
>hazards should stay out of sellphone stores....(c;]

And civilization.

c_mulholland@nym.hush.com

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:22:19 +0000, Larry <noone@home.com> wrote:

>Jason S <jasonsavlov@me.com> wrote in
>news:162687957299713537.023482jasonsavlov-me.com@news.giganews.com:
>
>> I tried the in-store demo at the local Apple Store in an attempt to
>> reproduce the antenna issues. I did everything I could think of that
>> would cause the signal to degrade, and failed to make it do so. I
>> maintained 5 bars the whole time. I should add that it was in a
>> populated area of Upstate NY.
>>
>> On the other hand, a customer at my workplace showed me his iPhone 4 and
>> was able to partially replicate the issue. However, my workplace is a
>> building that can barely get an indoor signal to begin with.
>>
>> I just think the issue is getting blown out of proportion. Just like
>> Steve said, relax. Its just a phone. (although I will admit that in an
>> emergency situation, a reliable signal would be nice.)
>>
>
>I bet the store phones are the FIRST to get the new bar meter higher
>reading software changes.....
>
>Too, Verizon used to put in-store REPEATERS in white plastic boxes right
>over the sales floor so even the cheapest craphones had a full scale signal
>no matter what you did. ATT/Apple would be fools not to make SURE the
>signals in their stores was the strongest ever possible.
>
>ATT's stores here are across the street from ATT's TOWERS.....no
>coincidence, I'm sure. People concerned about personal RF radiation
>hazards should stay out of sellphone stores....(c;]

It's all a bunch of smoke & mirrors. Check out:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Apple-...83258.html?x=0

Larry

DevilsPGD <Still-Just-A-Rat-In-A-Cage@crazyhat.net> wrote in
news:rd2s2698s3mq188lufh7mpajcofjakl1qu@4ax.com:

> although
> having the signal drop 20' outside the store wouldn't look good either.
>

30 feet outside the Verizon store, in the food court area, Verizon's phones
were nearly unusable as the metal walls and roof of the building shielded
the signal quite effectively coming from the tower about a mile away from
the mall.

At one of the WalMarts, that was selling Verizon phones and prepaids, 10
feet inside the front door Verizon phones went from 2 bars and usable to NO
SIGNAL for many years as there was no Verizon tower near this intense
shopping district. Alltel tower was close, as was Sprint's little tower.



--
Global Warming and Creationism are to science what storks are to
obstetrics...

Larry

Mike

On 01/07/2010 10:52 PM, Jason S wrote:
> I tried the in-store demo at the local Apple Store in an attempt to
> reproduce the antenna issues. I did everything I could think of that
> would cause the signal to degrade, and failed to make it do so. I
> maintained 5 bars the whole time.

Pssst - dummy phones always show 5 bars. ;-)

Mike