Geek News: Apple Address iPhone Signal Issue

Earlier today, Apple finally released an official, proper statement regarding the signal drops plaguing the new handset when gripped around the lower left black strip on the metal band.

The letter to the community states that holding pretty much any mobile-phone in “certain ways” will see a dip in reception, however they do confirm that the issue affecting their customers “is a far bigger drop than normal”, and go on to say that “as a result some have accused the iPhone 4 of having a faulty antenna.”

The iPhone 4’s antenna is so intrinsically designed around the handset, that the metal band joining the front and back components is the antenna.

Surprisingly to Apple, and to that end, us, is that on completion of their investigation, they found that the cause to be “the formula [we use] to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong.”

The askew code is said to, for example, “sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars”, and that users who “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.”

The fix? A software update to be made available “within a few weeks.”

So yes, what do we think, then? Personally I’d tuned out with that vagrant use of the word “totally”. I mean, I know Apple’s a hip company, but honestly.

You can read Apple’s full statement, here.

About Rob

Rob Kidman is an aspiring writer, have-a-go designer, avid tea drinker and geek from birth. Oh, and he’s British. What he doesn’t know about Doctor Who, isn’t worth knowing. Sends text messages in full, perfect grammar, no matter if it costs an extra 10p, as he believes txtspk to be an affront to the Queens’ English. Partial to cheese and pickle, random gherkins, and a fan of the miniature sombrero.

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