iOS 4.0.1 hitting iPhones right this second (update: 3.2.1 for iPads, too)

Well it's not the full 4.1 we were expecting... but here's a little tidbit from Apple. One of the main features? The update "improves the formula to determine how many bars of signal strength to display." Interesting. We're updating some devices right now, and will report back with what we find.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: It looks like iOS 3.2.1 for iPad is coming down the tube, as well. We'll let you know what changes we're seeing!

Update 2: Here's a quick before-and-after shot of the signal meter. Clearly, Apple wasn't yanking any chains about changing the sizes of those leftmost bars.

[StickiestLizard Posted Jul 15th 2010 8:26PM]

I can't believe how large the file size is. 579mb!?

[DrumDude182 Posted Jul 15th 2010 8:30PM]

I would like to inform everyone that the 3.2.1 iPad update will remove your jailbreak and everything included. Whoopsie daisy!

[Espo41 Posted Jul 15th 2010 8:38PM]

It has officially Bricked my iPhone 4

[dhotiram Posted Jul 15th 2010 8:52PM]

they'll fix it tomorrow. all this is probably another marketing ploy. You'all must have figured out by now that apple like to stay in the new every 15 minits. look right here in this blog. gizmodo and BGR dont give a damn as much.

[SNip3D Posted Jul 15th 2010 9:00PM]

Just updated my ipad3G, no changes here good or bad as far as i can tell...

[JackrabbitRB Posted Jul 15th 2010 9:02PM]

For those that have iPhones bricked as a consequence of the update, keep trying to install the update. I just had a rather lengthy support call with Apple. During the update process, iTunes has to authenticate with Apples servers which are overloaded at this point.

[deepspacebar Posted Jul 15th 2010 9:07PM]

XD if all else fails ADD MORE BARS to confuse the shit out of your customers

M-CELL WTF is that and why is there a WiFi strength bar there for no reason if WiFi is fine on the iphone XD

[shmulik Posted Jul 15th 2010 9:35PM]

myn is stuck inmiddle of updating software what does this supposed to mean?

[skuDZ Posted Jul 15th 2010 9:39PM]

I have the iPhone 4 and with 4.0 and I had weak signal bars, but no dropped calls or poor call quality. I just updated to 4.0.1 and have had dropped calls like crazy. Also, the bars still drop to 1 with the "death grip."

[Vitaliy Posted Jul 15th 2010 9:45PM]

haha well, i hope that 500MB+ file has some good stuff in it... cuz 500MB is foking alot for just the bar calculation formula

[cbjensen Posted Jul 15th 2010 10:04PM]

4.0.1 BRICKED my 2-day old iPhone 4! I tried to update the phone to 4.0.1 and my (brand new) MacBook Pro came up with the 1004 error. I clicked the "More Information" button and it brought me to an apple webpage. I have tried using a different USB port, restarting my computer, using ethernet instead of Wi-Fi, unplug all other USB devices, and updating on different computer. I have the latest version of iTunes and I am using the USB cable that came with the new iPhone. No matter what I try, error "1004" pops up in the middle of updating/restoring. I called apple and made an appointment tomorrow to see what they can do. At this point, I am just pissed I can't play Doodle Jump!!! Also the fact that my new iPhone is BRICKED.

[Hunter109 Posted Jul 16th 2010 6:42AM]

@cbjensen if you have a mac you can download an app called RECBOOT. it will kick your iphone out of Recovery mode, which is what it is in after error 1004. and you will have sucessfully installed iOS4.1. Same thing happened to me. No need to go to a store :D

[brnsctt Posted Jul 21st 2010 12:24AM]

@Hunter109 thanks, man. this saved me!

[LOL247 Posted Jul 15th 2010 10:13PM]

What ever happend to more bars in more places now at home I'm getting 3 to 4 bars I used to get a full 5. I seriously can't believe that apple has been miscalculating signal strength for years cmon this all started with the whole iPhone 4 antenna issue.

[Shatektheprouducer Posted Jul 15th 2010 10:51PM]

THE UPDATE DEF KILLED MY PHONE TODAY I WAS STUCK WIT THE ITUNES AND PLUG ICON.. AND EVERYTIME I TRIED TO RESTORE IT IT WOULD IT STOP AT A CERTAIN POINT.. LUCKLY I HAD A RESERVATION FOR MY MACBOOK PRO. AND IT HAPPENED RIGHT BEFORE I HAD TO LEAVE.. THEY REPLACED IT GAVE ME A BRAND NEW UNIT..

[Bahumbug Posted Jul 16th 2010 12:18PM]

@Shatektheprouducer Yea ok. It also broke your fvcking capslock. Go demand a refund.

[southclark Posted Jul 15th 2010 11:10PM]

I'm not saying its a bad update.. but 10 minutes before i updated, i had full service.. after the update i cant even send a text message..if i turn off 3g and just use edge i get decent service.

[Sixcolors Posted Jul 15th 2010 11:17PM]

So I wonder, since these are not analog phones, why do the bars still matter as much? Is it representative of the phone's signal to noise ratio or the amount of packet loss going on? There should just be an icon that's green or red. Green = connected, red=not connected.

[Bahumbug Posted Jul 16th 2010 4:14AM]

@Sixcolors Its a visualization of signal strength in [dBm]. It is normally expressed in a number but since that number is usually negative, it would just confuse people. So the solution is to either display an artificial number range or bars.

[Keanu Reeves Posted Jul 16th 2010 12:00AM]

im on iphone 3g and i live in hk. for 2 years i have never had a single drop call and i always have full signal bars at home. After updated my phone, i'm now on 4bar and sometimes 3bars........

[LL90 Posted Jul 16th 2010 12:17AM]

Quick....
Apple needs to get in touch with or take over this Swiss grower..What you see outside should be what you get inside!!!!

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/07/16/world-first-the-apple-that-s-red-all-way-through-115875-22416225/

[buttscratcher Posted Jul 16th 2010 12:18AM]

Call me crazy, but pre-update I would drop a call within 10 seconds of using the "death grip". Post-update I can't drop a call no matter what. Apparently I sound perfectly clear on the other end too...

[Bahumbug Posted Jul 16th 2010 4:10AM]

@buttscratcher Coincidence.
Read here for the answer why it is:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3821/iphone-4-redux-analyzing-apples-ios-41-signal-fix

They meassured it and its a cosmetic fix. It is now more honest (doesnt pretend the signal is strong when it isnt) but does NOTHING to fix a hardware design flaw. However, they also show why it is a design flaw by manually fixing it.

[GadgetFr3ak Posted Jul 16th 2010 12:34AM]

I highly doubt this update in any way changes the amount of data going in or out of the phone, or how the antenna affects that data, BUT I do like that the smallest 2 bars are now easier to see. I dont have great vision so it was a little difficult seeing the smallest one at times.

This update is fairly trivial, im more interested in what Apple has to say at the press conference tomorrow. Free bumper would be nice if that happens.

[gquiring Posted Jul 16th 2010 12:34AM]

The 4.01 bricked my iPhone 4. Lots of others complaining in the Apple forum with the same issue (error #9).

[ColoradoAl Posted Jul 16th 2010 1:02AM]

This update should have included a function that shocks you if you hold the phone wrong. Why else would they have that great conductive metal band around the phone?

[choity Posted Jul 16th 2010 1:21AM]

All my book on IBook complete gone!! God

[RastaD Posted Jul 16th 2010 2:01AM]

I don't care about the bar count... I'm sitting at 4 at the moment. But my 3G data throughput has been terrible since I installed 4.0.1. Maybe ATT is just slow today, grrr. Anyone else having issues?

[YamanNZ Posted Jul 16th 2010 2:34AM]

Ok guys guys guys… guess what I just noticed!!…
I live in Auckland, New Zealand and YES, I am also getting less bars than usual on my iPhone 3Gs. I’m getting as little as 1 bar in places I used to get 5 bars, but GUESS WHAT?? That is totally not the case when I make a call!…
Here’s how it goes: My phone is displaying 1 bar, or 2 at best here at my work place, where it used to display at least 4 bars. I made a free call just to test the quality of the sound, and it was just fine, but that’s not all!… I also looked at the bars and guess what happened? They went ALL the way up to 5 bars!… I thought ok maybe this is just a coincidence, but no! It happened every single time i tried it, and I even recorded that on video which I will be uploading to youtube once I go home as I can’t upload large files using my work internet… just being careful, but the video should be on Youtube by tomorrow morning (before the conference) and I will add the link on here as soon as I post it… or you could check my youtube channel anyway, not much there just personal videos lol… my username is Yaman_NZ.

Keen to hear what the new OS did for actual iPhone 4′s!

[Sparatan117 Posted Jul 16th 2010 2:38AM]

It's kinda sad seeing all the apple fans go nuts over this. Not trying to pull the android is better card, but I honestly don't seem to hear as much flack about android devices screwing up as I do Apple. Lets all face one thing, the iPhone 4 is a great piece of technology that has a bug. Apple is after all only human and we all make mistakes. Give them a little bit to remedy the situation. I'll stick to my N1 though, hasn't let me down yet; even if T-mo's service does suck a pretty big one.

[topgun966 Posted Jul 16th 2010 3:02AM]

I LOVE fanboys defense sold 1.7 million iphones. Umm guess what guys....of that 1.7 million....about 1.4 of it was upgrades. And thats the light estimate. So in reality of what counts, they sold round 300k....Not quite as impressive. When a phone is sold as an upgrade you can't expand marketshare. Yes, I am an Android user but I am still a tech geek. I really hoped the iPhone would have been more than it is. When ANY company puts something great out there, it pushes the bar up and thats how we advance as a society. But, at launch both hardware and software wise the iPhone is just plain beat. With how fast Android is developing and with the coming of WinMO7...I highly doubt the iPhone has a long time status left. It will be just like Apple's desktop/laptop life...some small footnote in the history of technology.

[Bahumbug Posted Jul 16th 2010 3:51AM]

What I really want to know: does this fix the awful and inevitable slowdown of my 3G? Especially due to slow as fuck wifi re-connects everytime I unlock my phone when in range of my own WLAN or an open network?

[3DCinematographer Posted Jul 16th 2010 4:16AM]

Got a tip: when I updated to the 3.2.1 on the iPad I had to switch from the front USBs on my MAC to the back ones so it could update without any error. =)

[aeonjoey Posted Jul 16th 2010 5:16AM]

Does anyone know if this update does anything else? seriously iphone updates are a major huge pain in the ass, I'm tempted to just say screw it and not even do it, I don't have 4 hours to wait while the phone backs up and another 3 hours to wait while it installs...
(please tell me I'm wrong,)

[TheSeanWilson Posted Jul 16th 2010 8:35AM]

The height of those bars make my eyes bleed.

[Phoonster Posted Jul 16th 2010 8:39AM]

I work in the heart of Boston where I've always gotten full signal strength of 5 bars with not just the iPhone, but every phone I've owned in the past. This includes phones from Verizon. After updating to 4.0.1 yesterday evening, I only get 3 out of 5 bars EVERYWHERE I walk in Boston. What gives?? I know this update is suppose to be more accurate but it's definitely making AT&T look like a shitty carrier..not that it already is one to begin with. I've never had that issue with Verizon. If Apple played nice with Verizon, and I could get an iPhone 4 from them (despite the antenna nuisance which I can live with by slapping a crappy bumper case on it), I'd totally switch over to Verizon in a heartbeat!

[drfitgeoff Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:13AM]

My 'Amazing, so much better than Apple, Steve Jobs is such a noob, let's kill him' HTC Desire drops calls all the time. It also fails to ring when people ring me, all while having 5 bars of signal. Now clearly the iPhone has issues with being held the wrong way, but it is definitely not alone when it comes to dropping calls with alleged full signal. Perhaps all phone manufacturers are liars and Apple are actually doing something about it.

And RE: Whoopie destroying her iPhone. I would destroy my HTC in a second if I could afford to buy another phone to replace it.

[walvarezjr Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:14AM]

well it seems the opposite happened to me, my iPhone 4 was working just fine no problems with signal strength or the death grip but now I download this so called fix me up OS and now my signal is strength is no more than 4 bars every where I go. won't even go to 5 bars even if I was standing to our repeater at my work place.

[FattyMoBookyButt Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:28AM]

My iPhone 4 failed the update and now it's stuck in recovery mode. To which iTunes says "iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode. You must restore this iPhone before it can be used with iTunes." It then fails the restore. Again. And again. And again.

i

[woodshed Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:43AM]

hardware alternative to 4.01 update picture leak ;)

http://is.gd/du3tv

[Bahumbug Posted Jul 16th 2010 12:19PM]

Excellent!

[santifc Posted Jul 16th 2010 10:16AM]

On the 3G improves performance, but deletes thumbnails of photos made with iOS4

[ecruz217 Posted Jul 16th 2010 10:19AM]

ok this is what I dont get. maybe im not smart enough. the problem is hardware base. right! I mean how can a software fix the issue. it would be very stupid to really believe that a software can fix this issue. Apple just probably recalibrate the software to make us think we have more bars then what we really do, and thats really what the new update does. am i right???????????? I WANT A RECALL cause yes i have the iphone4 and i cant hold this thing how it was meant to!

[Tegdagne Posted Jul 16th 2010 10:37AM]

Does this un-jailbreak the unit?

[Amirz1000 Posted Jul 16th 2010 11:16AM]

Since updating I have had much better service. I really didn't have issues before but now I can make calls from places I always had issues with ATT even when using my blackberry. You people need to stop focussing on how many bars are showing. They are now more accurate. My blackberry 9700 rarely has 5 bars as well. I use a bumper though. Death grip is still present but only and issue if you use the phone without a case. Do yourself a favor and go far a bumper and enjoy your iPhone 4 until apple comes up with a long turn fix for death grip and they will.

[deepen03 Posted Jul 25th 2010 9:26PM]

so instead of getting 5 bars like I usually do and have gotten in my old 3G too.. I'll now get 4 bars with the first bar coming up bigger? You can't fool me Apple! I think i'll pass and i'll be keeping my phone on 4.0 for as long as I can.