News - Apple offers solution to iPhone 4 reception problems

[HEXUS]

Apple cracks reception problem, explains signal miscalculations, fake emails for sale and make-shift reception boosters.

Read more.

[usxhe190]

Do you like being fobbed off AGAIN by Apple? hahaha

[Mossy]

I have heard it all now....

[kingpotnoodle]

The formula of calculation and what looks to me like an obvious fiddle to make it appear that iPhones always have amazing signal by displaying 5 bars for a huge dB range are well discussed in Anandtech's review, posted earlier this week.

[miniyazz]

Funnily enough, there's not really any way to easily test their explanation. Possibly using Speedtest to compare internet speed in an area with 4 bars where the signal drops off to nothing, with an area with 4 bars where the signal doesn't drop off to nothing? It'd be kindof amusing to discover their 'fix' actually just lowers the reported signal of areas with mediocre signal by a couple of bars, rather than genuinely correcting a signal misrepresentation

[kingpotnoodle]

It'd be kindof amusing to discover their 'fix' actually just lowers the reported signal of areas with mediocre signal by a couple of bars, rather than genuinely correcting a signal misrepresentation

Judging by Anandtech's data and their explanation I think that's exactly what they will do.

Before we dive in, let's talk about dynamic range for a second. For a while, I've talked about how iOS reports the quality metric with a compressed, optimistic dynamic range. On iOS, 4 bars begins at around -99 to -101 dBm. Three bars sits around -103 dBm, 2 bars extends down to -107 dBm, and 1 bar is -113 dBm. To give you perspective, for a UMTS "3G" plant, -51 dBm is the best reported signal you can get - it's quite literally standing next to, or under a block away from a tower. At the other extreme, -113 dBm is the worst possible signal you can have before disconnecting entirely. With a few exceptions, signal power as low as -107 dBm is actually perfectly fine for calls and data, and below that is where trouble usually starts. However, you can see just how little dynamic range iOS 4 has for reporting signal; over half of the range of possible signal levels in dBm (from -99 dBm to -51 dBm) is reported as 5 bars.

I'd guess they will just spread out the bar intervals a little more.

[Percy1983]

Great stuff, fudge the sum to get the answer you want.

The sheep will still buy it.

[jim]

That's brilliant.

"So, can my car do 200 mph now?"

"No, but I've moved the needle so that when you're doing 100, it'll say 200mph"

"Nice one! I'm so cool, I've got all the girls..."

[[GSV]Trig]

SO when someone said the other week that they'll fudge the OS so it read's signal even when it has none was right then...

[mycarsavw]

Aww, I thought they'd run with this;

[j.o.s.h.1408]

But wait, iphone is suppose to be the best phone EVER!!!!

[SiM]

it just works

[Rob_B]

Actually they're not fudging the signal to show more when it has less, it's just going to be more linear I'd imagine....

Doesn't mean it doesn't have a huge signal loss when holding the thing though!

[j.o.s.h.1408]

it just works - when you hold it properly

true