SignalStrength
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Case study: Griping about signal quality can produce results
For most iPhone owners, it seems like AT&T is deaf to our complaints about signal quality. It appears, however, that griping loudly and repeatedly to the company does have an effect. I live in the suburbs south of Denver and my signal quality is pretty good. However, whenever my wife and I have gone to Colorado Rockies baseball games in the last few years (we're season ticket holders), we've had awful service at the ballpark. Although the signal strength indicator would show five bars, it was impossible to do much of anything with our iPhones or iPads. Even trying to send out text messages would fail, and attempts to use the MLB At-Bat app in the ballpark were laughable to the point that I didn't purchase the app for the 2010 season. What was even more frustrating is that AT&T is a ballpark advertiser at Coors Field, so you think they'd want their service to be excellent.
iOS 4.0.1 update: As expected, my iPhone 4 still can't place phone calls
I upgraded my iPhone 4 to iOS 4.0.1 and, big surprise (not), it still can't make phone calls if I'm holding the thing in my left hand using the kung fu grip of doom (i.e. the normal way I hold a phone). And, unsurprisingly, my 3GS still can make phone calls with the same grip in the same location. I ran the Strength App, which we've discussed in previous posts about the iPhone 4 antenna issue. It is now showing a more nuanced level of how bad my home reception really is, but the bottom line remains the same. If I put on the Bumper, the thing can just barely make calls. Without, it can't. The iPhone 4 just isn't a very good phone in low signal areas, which unfortunately is where my home seems to be. The difference is that my old phone never had a problem with those same signal conditions and my new iPhone 4 is crippled. I know that Apple intended its update to change expectations -- fewer bars indicating less reliability -- but my expectations are that I should be able to make and receive calls in an area where I have already been doing so for the last three years, with Apple-branded equipment.
Join us tomorrow: Apple's iPhone 4 Press Conference
Apple Press Event Please join us tomorrow at 10AM Pacific (1PM Eastern) for a live TUAW blogging event as Apple addresses the press over its controversial iPhone 4 device. CEO Steve Jobs is expected to lead the event. The question on everyone's mind is, of course, will Apple be holding the event in the right place? Your guess is as good as ours. As the reception from the press might turn out to be a little cheeky in the proximity of such a big announcement, expect a bumper crop of interest from Apple enthusiasts. You can signal your interest by signing up for an e-mail reminder of the event from CoverItLive. What: Apple iPhone 4 Press Event Where: Here on TUAW! Except in the bottom-left-hand corner of the site. When: 10AM Pacific, 1PM Eastern
iOS 4.0.1 Software Update is available for download
The update works with iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4. To install, simply sync your iPhone to iTunes and click the Update button on the Summary tab for your device. The download took about 7 minutes on my broadband connection, with further time required for the installation. TUAW will be posting further information about the efficacy of the update as soon as possible. Update - After installing 4.0.1 on my iPhone 4, this blogger saw his maximum signal strength at his location peak at 4 bars, as opposed to 5 bars previously. Applying the "grip of death," the signal strength dropped to 1 bar but a call to a fellow blogger never dropped. Further tests coming.
Consumer Reports confirms iPhone 4 antenna problems -- and so do we
Although there's never been any question that there's something going on with the iPhone 4's fancy new antenna system, we really haven't seen any rigorous testing confirming that the issue is real, severe, and affects every phone. That just changed: Consumer Reports tested three iPhone 4s and several other AT&T phones in their RF isolation chamber that simulates varying levels of signal from every carrier, and found that the iPhone 4 was the only handset to suffer signal-loss issues. What's more, CR directly says that its findings call Apple's explanation of a miscalculated signal meter into question since the tests "indicate that AT&T's network might not be the primary suspect." CR found that simply putting duct tape over the bottom-left corner is enough to alleviate the issue -- we're guessing that's Jony Ive's worst nightmare -- and says that while the iPhone 4 has the "sharpest display and best video camera" of any phone it's tested, it simply can't recommend the device until Apple comes up with a permanent and free fix to the antenna problem. Ouch.Of course, we couldn't sit around waiting for someone else to test the iPhone 4 in a more controlled way, so we actually asked our good friend Erica Sadun from TUAW to write us a bespoke signal strength app for iOS 4. Obviously we couldn't submit it to the App Store, but we've been running it on all of our phones here at Engadget and we can independently confirm Consumer Reports' finding that there's a serious signal attenuation issue with the iPhone 4's antenna -- every phone we've tested displays dropped signal when held with the bottom left corner covered. Now, what we don't know is whether that signal attenuation consistently affects call quality and data rates, which we suspect is more directly related to the network in the area; some of our iPhone 4s drop calls and experience low data rates with alarming frequency, while others -- like our review unit -- have almost never dropped a call and have had no data problems. However, now that we've confirmed and clarified that the antenna issue affects every iPhone 4, we can take on the next step, which is sorting out exactly when and where the issue is most severe. Either that, or Apple can do something to actually fix the issue -- we'll just have to wait and see. For now, check our app in action after the break.Update: To clarify, "here at Engadget" is a virtual location -- our iPhone 4s are actually located across the country in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York, and we saw the app respond that way regardless of location. Dropped calls and other effects weren't as consistent, however, and we're still testing to sort out when the effects of the antenna issue are the most severe.
TUAW presents: iPhone 3GS 'death grip' video, 3GS / 4 reception comparison
TUAW fans who watched Erica Sadun's proprietary "Strength" app in action yesterday saw proof that there is a degradation in signal quality on the iPhone 4 when it is handheld. The so-called iPhone 4 "death grip," which consists of cradling the phone in your left hand to manipulate the screen with the right hand, appears to be another example of regular cell phone signal loss caused by the proximity of a human hand to the antenna of a working cell phone. In the video above, we tested an iPhone 3GS with Erica's app, and found pretty much the same results -- the signal strength is lower when the 3GS is held in the hand, and recovers when it is not being held. The big difference between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS is that the 3GS doesn't tend to drop calls as often as the iPhone 4 does. Erica also provided the photo shown below, which shows an iPhone 4 (left) and an iPhone 3GS (right) both running the app. They're both on the AT&T network (the 3GS has an O2-rebranded SIM purchased at Circuit City) and they're both the same distance away from the cell towers. The iPhone 3GS is running on iPhone OS 3.1.2 rather than iOS 4.0, which should not affect signal strength readings in any way. It displays a different font than the iPhone 4 as the older OS does not support custom fonts. What the photo shows is that although both of the iPhones show 5 bars of signal strength, the actual signal strength is lower on the iPhone 4 (-95 dB vs. -85 dB on the 3GS), and the Apple Graded Signal Strength is also lower (29 vs. 45 on the 3GS). This is in line with Apple's PR statement of July 2nd that says "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." The iPhone 4 should be showing fewer bars than it is, since it's apparent that the reception of the vaunted stainless steel antenna is worse than advertised.
iPhone 4's antenna problem looks worse than it is, but it's still bad
The iPhone 4's antenna issues have sparked off a firestorm of debate as to the root cause -- Apple says holding the phone differently or buying a case are the best answers, while other are going down a more voodoo path -- but our friends at AnandTech have done some more scientific testing of the problem and come up with a few interesting results. Turns out the iPhone 4 actually performs slightly better inside a case than a phone like the Nexus One, which has had similar issues crop up, but it's slightly worse when held in the hand, reporting an average signal drop of 20dB. Here's where it gets a little wacky, though: the signal meter in iOS 4 is logarithmic, so that 20dB drop can either leave you looking steady at five bars or drop you all the way to zero, depending on what the actual signal level in the area is like. Take a look at the chart above and you'll get it: the range of values between one bar and four spans just 23dB, while the range for five bars is 40dB. That means holding the phone in an area with a strong five-bar signal will have no apparent effect -- you can lose 20dB at full signal and still see five bars -- but holding the phone in an area with weaker coverage will easily drop the meter to one bar, since the 20dB signal drop covers almost the entirety of the remaining 23dB scale. Oops. Of course, that's just the on-screen display, which Apple can and likely will tweak in a future iOS update. The real question is whether the reported signal has anything to do with performance, and Anandtech agrees with our general experience, saying that the iPhone 4's improved signal to noise ratio means it actually does a better job of hanging onto calls and using data when there's low signal than the iPhone 3GS. In their words, "this iPhone gets the best cellular reception yet, even though measured signal is lower than the 3GS." However, there's no getting around the fact that we've definitely dropped a couple calls with the iPhone 4 by holding it the wrong way, and Anandtech says the only real solution to the antenna issue will be for Apple to either subsidize free bumpers or add an insulative coating to the antenna band. We'll see what happens -- we've got a feeling an iOS update is on the way, but we'd definitely love to see Apple pursue a more aggressive solution to this problem.
TUAW Brain Trust: iPhone 4 phone calls
I have been having problems making calls on my iPhone 4. Whether at home or on the road, my signal strength is simply awful. The only place that I seem to get five bars is the Apple Store itself. I visited the Genius Bar there tonight after Mike urged me to report my signal issues. So, I did. I called 1-800-SOS-APPL, and I was repeatedly and strongly urged to purchase a Bumper. I declined, so the rep made me a Genius Bar appointment. The Genius hooked my phone into a laptop for diagnostics and told me that my calls were fine. The diagnostics showed no lost calls whatsoever -- in spite of what I experienced last night when I was repeatedly dropped from Talkshoe (see the image that accompanies this post). I ended up hopping over to a landline for the TUAW talkcast. Read on for the rest of the saga...
Cellphone towers beat radar at detecting rain, say researchers
Proving once again that wireless technology isn't all bad, researchers from the University of Tel Aviv have determined that cellphone towers are as good as, if not better than, traditional meteorological techniques at measuring rainfall patterns. The team took data already documented by the carriers about each tower's signal strength over time and compared it to information that had been collected by radar and rain gauges, and found that not only did the towers accurately detect the electromagnetic disturbances inherent to storms, but that the degree of change in signal strength was directly proportional to actual rainfall. While widespread utilization of this data could probably have an immediate effect on forecasting if combined with current methodology, the researchers have an even more ambitious goal of detecting signal variations from the end-user -- that is, on consumers' handsets -- for aggregation into even more precise and localized reports once weather-related changes can be teased out from among the many other signal strength variants.[Via Slashdot]
