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Consumer Reports Can't Recommend iPhone 4
jbezorg was one among many readers to send word that Consumer Reports has concluded that they cannot recommend the iPhone 4. (They still enthusiastically recommend the 3G S.) "It's official. Consumer Reports' engineers have just completed testing the iPhone 4, and have confirmed that there is a problem with its reception. When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone's lower left side — an easy thing, especially for lefties — the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you're in an area with a weak signal. Due to this problem, we can't recommend the iPhone 4. ... Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4's signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software that 'mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.'" The comments on the article don't display any of the vitriol the Apple faithful have been known to unleash upon anyone daring to question the Cupertino way. Perhaps they are moderated.
So Apple has taken a play from Spinal Tap's playbook and use knobs that go to 11? The mind boggles.
Apple engineers found that if you lick the antenna and hold it against a radio tower you get a full four bars. Unfortunately the Apple marketing department has yet to figure out how to spin this fix into a trendy commercial.
...there will be plenty of vitriol here to make up for the lack of it on Consumer Reports website.
Apple really dropped the ball this time. All they had to do was say 'oops, our bad, we messed up but here is a free case' and the problem would have been effectively solved, and they would have saved face.
Such a cheap solution to a potential marketing disaster.. I just don't understand it. ( and ill be keeping my 3Gs and not upgrading, but that is beacuse i don't like cases... Perhaps the model 4Gs.. )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Shows how little you know...
Consumer reports tests EVERYTHING they can get ahold of.
And as for reviews... they seem to be one of the few you could actually trust to be even halfway honest about what they are testing.
From TFS "The comments on the article don't display any of the vitriol the Apple faithful have been known to unleash upon anyone daring to question the Cupertino way. Perhaps they are moderated."
Really? I didn't know the mods were flamebaiting these days.
- Okay, it's 500 dollars, you have no choice of carrier, the battery can't hold the charge and the reception isn't very
- Shut up and take my money!
"Does anyone really trust Consumer Report's opinion on technology?"
Yes, I certainly do. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to test the antenna problem. But it does take an impartial organization, that has nothing to gain or lose from the report. Who would you prefer to believe, Apple?
I don't respond to AC's.
They test everything and historically have been fairly reliable since they don't accept advertising dollars from the manufacturers of the products they test, unlike most magazines and websites.
Cars are probably their primary claim to fame, but appliances and consumer electronics would likely be #2 and #3. The most newsworthy part of this is that an independent source that is beyond reproach (to the extent that such a thing is possible) has confirmed that this is a legitimate problem that shows up in normal use.
They do testing on pretty much everything. They are non-profit, and have a reputation for accurate reporting. They were the ones who made the world realize that air ionizers are essentially useless (like Ionic Breeze from sharper image).
Generally they break stuff into categories, and the 'recommend' 'do not recommend' is not particularly useful, since it might still be good in the categories you care about. But one thing you can be sure about, if they say a product is not good in a certain category, they have the research to back it up (and from time to time have defended the evidence in court).
Qxe4
According to who?
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
And here we go with the Apple fanbois. Come on, pal. Everyone knows the iPhone 4 has a huge goddamned problem. Blaming the messengers is ludicrous. Apple screwed the pooch big time, and it's going to cost them money and reputation to fix it, so rather than dicking around bitching at consumer magazines and critics, Steve Jobs should be ordering the company to begin immediate recalls...
Unless of course, they don't have an easy fix. In which case Apple has a really big problem on their hands.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
This jives with the experiences of my co-workers who've bought the phone. Overall impression of the iPhone 4 is that it looks and feels great, has an amazing screen, so-so battery life, but reception problems that drive every one of them bonkers.
It's enough to make me want to stick with my iPhone original release -- aluminum case and all -- just a little longer. From where I sit, unless you really want the forward-facing & higher-res camera and higher-resolution screen, stick with the 3GS. It does everything else pretty well. The main things I need from my phone are the same things I needed ten years ago:
* Contact list
* Calendar
* Email
* Light web browsing
* Good phone service
After having Palm devices alongside a mobile phone for years and years to suit, and wading through several years of crap-tastic Windows Mobile phones, the iPhone original release fit the bill perfectly for me. The real compelling thing the 3GS has over the original for me is a real GPS so that I can geocache without using a dedicated GPS unit. And maybe the extra RAM so that I don't have to clear memory to start certain apps.
Nice to see Consumer Reports calling Apple on their crap this time. Just like when they blamed short battery life in the 3GS on over-usage and push settings... what a load of CYA corporate malarkey! They gotta get the lead out on this one, if the several people I know -- admittedly, all tech geeks so it's a very small sample size -- who own the phone are any indicator, they're really unhappy about this.
Matthew P. Barnson
I learn what I think when I read what I write
So you dont mind buying something that is broken? And then pay to fix it? You must be the wet dream for any manufacturer.
It is Never a good idea to buy anything new. The only reason to do it is to placate emotion. This applies to Furniture, cars, and for god's sake yes, electronics.
The iPhone 4 is awesome and I will likely have one someday. But problems like these, founded or not, are the kind of thing you sign up for if you want to be an early adopter. That, and spending way too much money.
The real crime here in my opinion is that Apple charges $30 for the "bumper case" which amounts to a glorified rubber band. There's no way the total cost on the part is more than $.50.
Sometimes they don't know what they're talking about, though.
I know digital photography pretty well, and a lot of the stuff they say in their digital camera reviews is just plain wrong.
Does anyone really trust Consumer Report's opinion on technology?
I trust them way more than Slashdot or Gizmodo.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Because as released, it's freaking broken.
TPJ - Founder, The Amazon Basin
What sort of amended review are you expecting?
"Apple still refuses to acknowledge publicly acknowledge that this is an issue, and yet still puts out exactly the right bit of $0.10 plastic for $30 which is necessary to fix it. This is not only obvious extortion, but is an outright lie to consumers.
However, that dishonest, overpriced extortion does actually fix the relatively simple and obvious design error they made when making the phone. Therefore, we have amended out previous statement and we now recommend not only this product, but we recommend you pay the protection m--I mean, extra money for the case so that your product actually works the way you thought it was going to work out of the box."
I'd like to see someone do a controlled experiment to find whether the iPhone 4 is any worse than others. So you get several phones of different models that use the same network and carrier. For each, try several calls in a given area at a given time and measure quality WITHOUT looking at the display, since the signal bars mean nothing. Measure voice quality, etc. Do this for all phone models. Do this for several locations and times of day/week. Compare measurements. Tell us whether any phones are noticeably worse. Stop giving these "phone loses connection if I do this, but I have no idea what another phone would do in the same situation" or "phone shows N bars" useless information.
...which is what my post SAID.
Congrats, you can read!
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
The earlier models already sucked when it comes to signal reception ... any worse and it becomes useless as a phone.
I recently turned in my EVO because the battery life on it was so poor (I can't bring cellphones into my workplace, so I can't keep it on charge during the day. I'd often walk out of work only to find it had died after about 10 hours of idle.) and picked up an iPhone instead. This was the first iPhone I've had, so I can't make comparisons to older models, but I personally haven't had trouble with the reception. One out of about thirty or so calls will drop, which is about the same that I got on my blackberry. Overall it's one of the best phones I've used, hardware wise. Now if I can just find a way to install android on it...
According to who?
Anyone who's not an Apple apologist.
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
this is only a temporary problem. I'm sure apple will address the problem as soon as it's engineers have troubleshot the problem thouroghly. For myself in particular, I have not seen this issue and I'm laeft handed. In fact I'm composing this email on my iphone4 at the mom... +++ No Carrier
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
I have noticed that if I put my finger over the lower-left antenna the phone's signal, contrary to Apple's claim, does diminish greatly. Still we shouldn't think that Apple's letter to consumers, which claimed that the iPhone 4's signal woes stem from improper calculation, is a complete hoax. Even with my iPhone 4 snug in one of Apple's nifty "bumpers" I still notice that, from time to time, the signal gets weak or my phone calls are less swift than usual. (For those who are curious, I live in downtown Atlanta.) With AT&T's networks flooded with old and new iPhone users, along with other subscribers who choose to do without an Apple iDevice, it doesn't surprise me that from time to time my signal wanes. Furthermore, you can't expect a company that decides to imbed the antenna of its phone in the phone's frame to get it right the first time. If you did, silly you.
No yesterday, no tomorrow, and no today.
What about people who don't trust something just because it's in print?
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
They test everything and historically have been fairly reliable since they don't accept advertising dollars from the manufacturers of the products they test, unlike most magazines and websites.
Consumer Reports doesn't run "outside" adds of any kind. Consumer Reports (first published 1936) doesn't accept product samples. Its staff buys retail.
For that reason, the products it tests are solidly middle class choices - easily accessible and broadly affordable.
Well you felt the anger of the homogeneous mass of brainless apples.
anyway, this is serious bug that we are not used to experience from Apple. Although advantage of Apple products is very discussable, quality or basic product usability was not. I wonder how they managed to screw up so badly. Some internal testing had to show that iPhone 4 signal reception isn't as good as previous version were. Did middle management slide it under carpet like how it is done everywhere?
Crack the phone's cases and hook a spectrum analyzer up to the antenna out. Go in an RF anechoic chamber along with a signal generator, and measure the difference between holding it different ways.
We've got the equipment at work, save for the phones to tear apart and the reason to do so. I won't call it common, but any place that deals with RF research probably has it. Apple damn well ought to have it.
Yes, it is THE most trusted publication among people who don't trust publications.
They don't need to do a recall yet. All iphone 4s are still within the 30 day return period and Apple is reportedly waiving the restocking fee. iPhone 4 users whose problems are such they cannot live with them can return their phone immediately. I also think they can't handle a recall right now, the iPhone 4 is sold out everywhere (it's insane, here in Belgium people are selling 16Gb iPhone 4s for EUR 1000 and up) and still people are ordering. Maybe they'll do a stealth fix and do a recall of the early models later when things cool down.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
Unless of course, they don't have an easy fix.
There's always an easy fix: duct tape.
Actually, in this case, it'd be electrical tape. And since electrical tape is black, people wouldn't even notice!
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
...announcing mysterious manufacturing delays and raising the price.
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
M$ released vista = apple released the iphone 4.... DOH
iPhone vs HTC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg
Been using my iPhone 4 for about six days now with no rubber bumper, haven't had any problems. I played around with trying to diminish the signal but I've never naturally held my phone in a way that does. I work in a thick concrete building and it actually makes and receives calls in places that my 3GS couldn't, so as far as I'm concerned this thing about the antenna is way overblown.
God, remind me never to drink any milk at your house.
I got a used Verizon compatible Droid Incredible for about $300, and got a prepaid plan from Page Plus for $29 a month. It only comes with 50MB of data, but I'm usually under a WiFi umbrella. I still have used it when I needed directions or a phone number, and I think I've used 10MB in two weeks. (I got the idea from some blog, but can't find it for some reason.)
It hits everything on your list, costs less than just the data plan for AT&T (1200 min/1200 texts), and the coverage is great. Much faster than my iPhone 3G in general (e-mail, web, etc), though the intelligence of the touch keyboard was better on the iPhone. I do miss the ease of direct downloading podcasts, but I haven't really looked for a replacement yet.
Plus, it sends and receives phone calls like a champ. Which is, you know, a good feature for a phone to have.
If you were all about Open Source, you would post with some informative name like izpac47 instead of that Anonymous Coward crap.
Overall I have better reception, including data reception, from the iPhone 4 over the 3Gs. I have not had a dropped call due to how I was holding the phone, and fewer dropped calls overall at my house (where the signal is pretty weak).
I don't have a case or anything. I like the new antenna better overall, and I think a simple coating should solve the issue Consumer Reports cites (though again I've never had that happen in practice).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
CR has been wrong on so many things before when it comes to computers. Not to mention Apple knows there's a problem and they are trying to fix the issue. Like they have said get a case looks nicer then duck tape and protects the phone better. If you spent that much money on an Iphone you should have the few extra dollars buy the case. At least until Apple fixes the issue.
I'd actually agree with you here a bit, but: This is not the only problem. The proximity sensor on the 4 seems to work only randomly, with many people reporting dialing numbers or enabling the speakerphone with their ears while talking. No reaction from Apple. Nobody knows if this a hardware problem (they have put the sensor in a different place compared to the 3GS) or a calibration problem and if it is, if it can be corrected with a software update.
And then there is the fact that the fully exposed glass edges on both front and back are extremely fragile if they hit the ground when you drop the thing. The glass itself is tough, no doubt. The edges aren't, if they have to absorb the full impact the thing *will* shatter. Even without the antenna problem this means that this thing is actually very much unusable without a case. Drop it once or hit with it against a desk lamp or whatever when picking it up in a hurry and you don't have a nice mark in the bezel as with the 3GS, you have a shattered display or back cover.
Add to that the fact that you have no idea which side is front and which is back without looking at the thing and it gets more and more silly. Really, you feel so stupid when you pull the thing out of your pocket or out of a bag and have no idea which side the screen is on before you look at it.
Basically it's a really pretty but incredibly stupid design. It's something to lay on a soft cushion and to look at, not something to carry with you all day long and to actually use.
Yeah, I know, for some geeks this is all what Apple is about anyway. I don't think so, Apple has some really nice and usable hardware. But this design is overstretching it in plain sight.
Provided they get the sensor problem fixed, you can wrap a silly case around it and it's still a (then dull looking) great smartphone. The whole design is still a glaring mistake, though. Even more since it clearly says "Yes, all the Apple haters are right, we are just putting out beautiful but useless hardware to catch the money of clueless idiots".
No, until now I tended to hate Apple, but loved many of the products they sold. Now with that iPhone (and the stupidly expensive new Mac mini with its machined alu case and the iPad with only 256MB of RAM and no camera) there's not much left to love. They may manage to get it straight again with the next product cycle but until then they're dropping good will of their customers left and right every single day.
appliances and consumer electronics
This is an excellent item for them to test then. The iPhone is frequently considered to be both.
From the fine article
Anyone with a basic understanding of troubleshooting tech should be able to tell that the signal drop is not caused by software as it only happens when the aerial is touched. Anyone with a basic understanding of electrical engineering could tell you that this is because you are changing the length of the circuit (your hand becomes a conductor). This will cause the aerial to have a harder time picking up the correct frequencies. Apple ignored some basic EE design rules here and didn't test the design properly.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
This is a not a temporary problem. Apple has been passing the blame on AT&T all these months about drop calls. I have personally done this experiment numerous time now. I place my 3GS and a $20 phone side by side(both AT&T). Called my wife twice - 3GS says called failed, $20 phone works first time. Tried calling from $20 phone to my iphone which just next to it, can hear 5 rings than goes the my voice mail - 3GS doesn't ring at all. Ofcourse iphone 3GS can call out after couple of call failed msg. When we goto apple - same standard stupid questions Its AT&T bad reception, please change to edge from 3GS in the network settings. Did to recycle the phone? - when i hear this, reminds me you windoz 95 Did you upgraded to latest patch? Recently, apple took out the application which suggests number dropped calls on iphone from their genius bar :-)
Now, before you start talking about dropping calls - they are ready with a new iphone for you.
Isn't that a joke - apple accepting the fact that iphone are really screwed up if you are using it as a phone.
I cannot even imagine upgrading myself to 4GS now.
I can't recommend Consumer Reports. About the only thing they might have a clue about are small appliances, like if I want to buy a toaster, but then who cares? Not sure I'd trust their vacuum cleaner ratings because CU sucks so badly.
If you happen to have any bad opinions about Apple, their business practices or their products, they will march in. Apple stories are the only ones I need to read at -1 because of the modpoint abuse.
Yes, because that modpoint abuse only goes one way, after all. It's not like there's an army of people modding any positive comment into oblivion by people who rage and loathe all things Apple.
The amount of stupidity by Apple users (and their fellow applefags moderating them up) is outstanding.
Oh. Wait. It appears you're a card-carrying member of the Apple Hating Army (tm).
Seriously, there are few topics that bring out the worst in Slashdot like Apple... It's virtually impossible to read balanced opinions because people on both sides abuse their modpoints.
But you knew that already, didn't you.
My decision between waiting for the iPhone or taking a HTC Desire was a fairly hard decision. So glad I chose my HTC, nothing but sweet performance, reception and functionality!
http://www.gibby.net.au
Reality Distortion Field: Company sells defective product, then sells accessory to fix defect. On Slashdot this is okay as long as said company is Apple.
Seriously, for an Open Source community it's outstanding how many Apple fanatics here are, when they are obviously the largest abuser of OSS or open technology.
[Citation Needed]
I'd say that Apple actually is a pretty strong supporter of open source. Here's my citation on the subject:
Open source projects in which Apple is involved.
Sapere aude!
I'm an Apple fanboy.
I won't touch a iPhone 4 till they get this crap fixed. Jesus they blew the goat on this one.
If I know in advance that I need to buy a case, but I decide that I still want an iPhone at $230, I won't be pissed.
If I buy an iPhone and discover later that I need to shill out another $30 because it won't work right without a case, of course I'll be pissed.
It didn't have anything to do with software, it had to do with testing data, operational data and documentation.
"Specifying power levels over 100% may seem confusing, but there is a logic behind it. The 100% level does not mean the maximum physical power level attainable. Rather it is a specification, decided on early during SSME development, for the "normal" rated power level. Later studies indicated the engine could operate safely at levels above 100%, which is now the norm. Maintaining the original relationship of power level to physical thrust helps reduce confusion. It creates an unvarying fixed relationship, so that test data, or operational data from past or future missions can be easily compared. If each time the power level was increased, that value was made 100%, then all previous data and documentation would either require changing, or cross-checking against what physical thrust corresponded to 100% power level on that date."
104.5% is as high as they like to go, 106% and 109% is just for aborts.
I've been using cell phones heavily since the bricks of the early 90's. We used to have exposed antennas. Then retracted antennas that we could extend. Then the manufacturers decided phones would look cooler (and in some cases be cheaper) if the antennas were internal. I definitely noticed a decrease in signal quality when this move happened. As a heavy cell phone user, I also have always noticed that phones with internal antennas can have big changes in reception performance based on how you hold the phone. I've been re-learning the "optimal holding position" for every Nokia, Motorolla, and Samsung I've owned. It's just basic RF. Move your hands around your HDTV antenna and see how reception changes.
Apple did something really innovative by using a structural component of the case as an antenna. They went a step further by using that component for multiple antennas to allow for better reception and transmission of Wifi and GPS. So finally we have external antennas again, and ones that are much larger than other phone's internal antennas. The reception improvement in my experience is significant. I can walk around on a long call in areas where I would regularly get dropped calls due to AT&T's poor coverage; and not drop. Yes, I hold my iPhone 4 differently than my previous phone; but this is nothing new. When I talk to my friends and co-workers who also have an iPhone 4, they report the same. Every review I've seen has said the iPhone 4 has better reception than any iPhone before. My guess is that it has better reception than most other AT&T phones.
It's fun to have controversy to talk about, and I guess that's why everyone is spamming the internet with this issue. I'm certain the article on Consumers Reports is getting a lot of hits, and they are probably getting new subscribers. But why is this a huge deal? The whole thing just makes no sense to me. I think it's illogical to not buy a phone that takes such leaps forward in so many ways because of an issue that is a fact of life for every RF device ever made. The fact that so many of my fellow geeks are getting so revved up about this makes me wonder what they are thinking.
The amount of stupidity by Apple users (and their fellow applefags moderating them up)
Ye have spoken well.
Really?
The comments on the article don't display any of the vitriol the Apple faithful have been known to unleash upon anyone daring to question the Cupertino way. Perhaps they are moderated.
Oh if only they were here too. The amount of stupidity by Apple users (and their fellow applefags moderating them up) is outstanding.
If you happen to have any bad opinions about Apple, their business practices or their products, they will march in. Apple stories are the only ones I need to read at -1 because of the modpoint abuse.
Of course, the iPhone 4 signal-strength bug isn't really a bug. It's a feature and Steve Jobs was just thinking the users best. Sigh.
Seriously, for an Open Source community it's outstanding how many Apple fanatics here are, when they are obviously the largest abuser of OSS or open technology.
What's weird is some of the Apple bashers, the ones that make teh crazy generalizations and call it science, then make a general insult to anyone that disagrees with them, are often quite obviously Apple customers, too. Even the non-Apple customer Apple bashers are having a field day, not able to resist taking a cheap shot at either the company for revealing a chink in their in your face perfection, or at those that honestly do appreciate their products (for being so mind-numbingly stupid).
Once you realize you've taken a side and have an opinion based on years of personal prejudice and everything but your own hands-on experience, the comments made become more revealing than the commenter intended or can comprehend.
The Admin and the Engineer
O'Jobs: Winston, are there full bars on this phone?
Winston: No there are only 2!
O'Jobs: But if I say that 2 is 5 then do we still have reception problems?
Winston: N-No we have no reception problems!!!
It is a flawed product. As far as flaws go, "decreased reception only when holding the phone in a certain way that causes issues only in low signal strength areas that can be corrected by any inexpensive 3rd party case" seems overblown.
How can they recommend the older phone that has permanent, unfixable weak reception but not this one?
It seems like they are withholding the recommendation to punish Apple for insufficient disclosure, or not giving away free cases or something. Which I'm not really against, but its not about what phone would be more practical for the consumer or gives them the most value for the money. For something that you will use every day for years, the extra hassle of buying a 3rd party case and putting it on does not seem more important than all the other factors.
You have to admit it's some indication of the fervor of Apple fandom when Consumer Report withholds a recommendation on an iPhone for a well-documented problem and the discussion ends up centering on a criticism of Consumer Reports.\
I'm surprised that we're not hearing that the iPhones connectivity problems are due to a flaw in the laws of Physics. Maybe Ohm's Law has an inherent anti-Apple bias or something.
An even easier fix would just be to ostentatiously pretend to make calls and then exclaim "Wow, what excellent reception on my new iPhone 4!"
This way, the core function of the iPhone remains intact. Tape is tacky, after all.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Buying a competitor product in spite of another company product... yeah that is so much better than fanboyism.
Its not radiated RF waves that are being blocked. Thats what apple is trying to pass it off as (the whole all cell phones get their signal blocked by hands). That is NOT the issue here. The issue is the two antenna's on the device being shorted together. If you know anything about RF as you seem to claim you do, then you know that the length and shape of an antenna is extremely important to its function. Its why you can't plug a TV antenna into a wifi hotspot and expect it to work right, and thats essentially what your doing when you short the two antenna's.
We had a previous story here about how the strongest ATT coverage is right at the Apple campus. So, it worked nice there. The prototypes got used "out in the field" while in cases, so the antenna bridging problem never occurred.
They screwed up, plain and simple, just slap missed it.
Tape over the gap has nothing to do with altering the frequency response of the antenna or anything like that, but for providing an insulating layer so that your hand/clothes/other foreign object that may come into contact with the phone at that point does not.
for an Open Source community it's outstanding how many Apple fanatics here are, when they are obviously the largest abuser of OSS or open technology
exactly how is Apple an abuser of OSS?
despite your intense personal feelings about all things Apple, the iPhone and iPad devices happen to best fit the workflows and needs of many users that have in fact also tried competitors' products? Why is it so hard for people to imagine that some people actually use their iPhones rather a lot?
Mine is the central data manager in my personal and work lives, I don't just wear it on a necklace like Flava Flav. Frankly it's a bit insulting to hear this kind of bullshit all the time. I'm not a member of any Apple club, I don't own a Mac or an iPad or an iPod or any other apple device. In fact, I'm a Linux user with Thinkpads. But I'm a Linux user with Thinkpads and an iPhone, and this immediately requires fifty percent of posters on this and other technology boards to speak to my critical thinking skills.
Perhaps confront your own before you shatter glass with flying debris.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
The iPhone 4 signal is slightly better than the 3GS; I can keep talking in the deeper, more isolated parts of my house where people previously said "what was that, you're breaking up a little."
I'm using it with a case, but I have used every mobile I've ever owned with a case and I'm not about to stop now that mobile phones cost many hundreds of dollars.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
In reviewing digital SLR's, they had a column for "Maximum usable ISO" or similar. Fair enough, that's important. But they had large differences between models with the same sensor size.
With only a very few exceptions, FX/full-frame cameras (Nikon, Canon, Sony high-end) have a 2-stop advantage over Four Thirds (Olympus, Panasonic) and about a 1.5-stop advantage over APS-C (Nikon, Canon, Sony, Pentax), for any given definition of "usable". There are a few models that outperform cameras with similarly-sized sensors by 0.5 stop or so -- the Nikon D300, say -- and a few that underperform by a little bit, like some of the Sonys.
But the thing that struck my eye was the 1- or 2-stop difference (I forget which) between the Olympus E-30 and E-620. These two cameras have the *same sensor and processor*, and produce very, very similar output.
According to the video on Consumer Report's website touching the gap on the lower left side reduces the signal strength by around 20db. That's quite a big loss, the resulting signal strength being about 1/100 of the starting signal strength.. When I grip the base of my Motorola Droid phone around the base (where the antenna is located internally), I can only get about a 2-3db drop in signal strength.
This huge loss does not surprise me, since touching the gap is essentially changing the characteristics of the antenna significantly. I can only wonder whose bright idea it was to use this design or how they failed to catch this during their testing phase? It doesn't take rocket science to fix the problem either, I suspect just a clear insulating coating over the metal band would do wonders.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
Christ on a crutch, man, he obviously means they test everything they write about. Firearms don't fall in that category.
What I find most ironic is that despite their recommendation not to buy the iPhone 4, Consumer Reports ranks it highest in their latest smartphone ratings with a score of 76%, 2 points ahead of its nearest rivals, the iPhone 3GS and the HTC Evo 4G.
Gonna offer my friends adhesive backed decals with Android little green bots on them to patch their iphones :P
I have a Blackberry 9700, where does that put me?
So true. Not a photographer in the bunch it would seem. Only people over 58 use consumer reports. Some are nutty about it and cling to the thing like a bible. No offense to the slightly old but CR doesn't seem to know shit about what they test. Try to find the same shot (showing a large mix of surfaces) registered the same way with 100,200,400% view, at different ISO's. Brick wall shot for pincushion, video samples. You know, what a real camera review looks like. That would be work and they don't seem to do any on some products.
The problem is most likely that your hand creates electrical contact with the steel or bridges the 2 antenna parts on the lower left. Either way you just coat the steel with plastic resin or something transparent/matte and the problem is solved. I'll be the factory has already done this on new models.
He probably is talking about the closing down of the BSD kernel (even though it's permitted in its license agreement). Otherwise, don't know.
Microsoft and Linux have the same legions of fanboys. Come on.
Huh? Apple is the primary source of development behind WebKit, Clang, LLVM, launchd, C blocks, libdispatch, and the rest of Darwin. All of these things are open source, and most of them are being incorporated in other operating systems.
If people are "fanatics" for Apple, it's because they're constantly put on the defensive by Apple-haters like yourself who are taking this opportunity to, once again, bash Apple and their fans. Meanwhile, the huge story here is that Consumer Reports doesn't recommend something. Oh no, they didn't recommend it!
I'm an Apple fanboy.
I won't touch a iPhone 4
UNBELIEVER! BURN THE HERETIC!
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
It's a fuck-up. I have no idea why you fanbois just can't admit it. You guys are showing yourselves to be more idiotic and pathetic with each passing moment. I'm really beginning to the think the more trollish posts about you guys are true. How else could you explain the above post?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
not surprising. The old iPhones worked just fine as phones. The new one has a serious flaw that Apple missed. I wouldn't recommend it either. Let them fix the bug, then it'll be just fine. Of course, fixing the bug means they have to own up to it instead of chastising users for "holding it wrong".
blah blah blah
"Only people over 58 use consumer reports"
maybe. People who know about tech naturally wouldn't need CR for an iPhone. These are also the people who know how to, uh, hold it right. Now, imagine someone who doesn't understand the nature of the problem. They'd go out, get a new iPhone, and hate it. CR is saving them from that experience, and that's better for everyone.
CR is one of the more objective reviewers out there. If I had to shop for something about which I knew nothing (a new dryer, for example) I'd check out what CR has to say. It's better than reading reviews online. Where else are you gonna go? If you know of something better than CR for general consumer goods, I'd like to know.
blah blah blah
How this rates as 5 insightful and not outright troll just goes to show how bad Apple bashing has become on Slashdot lately. Tell me, exactly how do you justify your moral superiority by calling people you disagree with "fags"? Speaking of modpoint abuse.
"Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
uh... if you don't like apple, don't buy their products. if you don't think the iphone u/i, design and features rock, spend your money elsewhere. if you DO get one, though, are you saying you'd carry it around without a protective case (or skin)? you know, the kind that would put a layer between the metal antenna and sweaty palm that could potentially affect reception? like... making this a big non-issue?
I don't think ANYBODY is claiming that it's not a fuckup. I don't think ANYBODY is claiming that Jobs' ridiculous emails weren't...well, ridiculous. Apple over the last year has caused some really interesting cognitive dissonance in people. Who knew that Slashdot had legions of people who viewed Flash as a killer feature and couldn't wait to get it on their iphones? In any case...
GP has a point--it's a fuckup with a really easy solution--buy a case. If you don't want to buy a case, return the phone. You get 30 days, and I really doubt Apple/AT&T would refuse returns past 30 days right now. As he points out, almost everybody already does buy a case. If you read the really in depth reviews such as Anandtech's review, iphone4 actually does a better job than iphone 3gs at maintaining a call with low signal.
Again, nobody is denying that it was a stupid design and that bridging the gap drastically lowers the signal.
The question is, does it matter?
"What about people who don't trust something just because it's in print?"
those people are clearly as stupid as people who trust everything just because it is in print. Pay them no mind.
blah blah blah
yeah, except since I might have paid some ungodly amount for an iPhone 4 after standing in line for hours. If that were me, I'd be extremely pissed off if I had to apply tape to it to make it work properly. Of course, I'd never stand in line and overpay for an iPhone 4. But I know many who have.
blah blah blah
The "friend zone" for life.
MSIE: The world's most standards-complaint web browser.
Sorry, that's BS.
The signal strength sucks even in urban areas, I've seen 'em here in Anchorage a couple hundred feet from an AT&T antenna with 1 bar.
Return them for what? Most people that have gotten one in good faith have dumped their old phone already.
As for me, I've been using Apple computers as my main computer since 1992, support them at an all Apple office and have an iPhone 3G.
Oh if only they were here too. The amount of stupidity by Apple users (and their fellow applefags moderating them up) is outstanding.
Yeah! Seriously!
*looks down at macbook pro*
*looks over at the itouch and ihome on dresser*
*looks at the apple sticker on the bulletin*
Aw... awww shit.
Shut up fag!
I think the question is "Just how can Apple supporters continue to make such weak, moronic arguments and try to shield Apple from its own folly?"
It's really come to the point where Apple's fans are earning their reputation from apologetics beyond the absurd. Of course you can return the phone, and yes you can buy a $30 case, but the point is that Apple screwed the pooch and it's a sign of some bizarre fixation to defend them.
The real problem here is Apple's undeserved reputation for rock-solid products, which has somehow survived despite a number of examples of shoddy design and production. We keep being told that you pay more for Apple products than for anyone else's because Apple's products are so great. Well guess what, they aren't. They're just as shitty as everyone else's, cheap crap made in Chinese sweatshops.
Oh, and Jobs is quite the ludicrous motherfucker. What a twisted freak of a man, it figures that he's built this cult of absurd apologetic nincompoops around him. He could put out a steaming pile of dog shit that exploded when you plugged it in, and idiots like the GP would be declaring that it's still not a bad piece of dog shit, you just need to put it in a fire-proof baggy, and if you don't like it, you can return your dog shit.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
HTC vs iPhone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAOtC9QfXac&feature=related
In other news - the world is round. About as newsworthy as your link. Perhaps you have some insightfulness on the wetness of water, or the brownness of dirt?
I have never had a mobile phone that I could use for a normal conversation in my own house. Through multiple phones, multiple houses, apartments and condos over the years, I could have five bars (or four with non-ATT carriers) at the start of a call, and have the conversation jitter and drop pretty reliably.
Ever since my first motorola brick, through a handful of flip phones and a treo, up to my current phone which is a Blackberry Pearl. They all drop; if I'm anywhere near a landline, the first thing I say on any call is, "Can I call you back?"
The hardest part is that it's been inexplicable. One place I lived, my office had windows on three sides, and I could see cell phone towers within 100 yards in two directions. Nothing to blame, so I used to joke that I have unusually iron-rich blood, and that interferes with the calls. I just got a bluetooth speaker phone for my car, and I can finally have a conversation. Even the old earpiece couldn't talk to the phone in my pocket.
So now, the iPhone 4 comes out, and it's got what seems to be the same problem I've had with every phone I've owned over the last 16 years, and the only difference I see is that there's an obvious cause, and thus a solution. Duct tape or no, when my BlackBerry contract runs out, I'm going to think seriously about this hardware.
That is, as long as they fix the proximity sensor thing. That seems like a real issue and to me, that makes the phone worthless.
The CB App. What's your 20?
No shit - this place has become fucking Digg.
Reread your post...are you serious? How mentally invested in tis are you?
What exactly is the weak argument? The phone has a flaw that affects some users. There is an easy solution. Make a decision -- worth it or not. I'm sticking sit my 3GS but some friends of mine love their 4s.
I think you really need to calm down in this situation...I cant fathom your loathing of that "ludicrous motherfucker."
Hey! I can say FAG too! Mod me insightful motherfuckers!
Kinda sorta. I don't like Apple. Why would I buy a phone that supports them? So I waited until a phone came out that had the features I wanted (and a little bit of the good ole' open source movement behind it, partially), and picked it up. At least I didn't buy a CECT SciPhone.
"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds"
No no, you've got it all wrong. You need to prefix is with whatever you're trolling about, like so: "applefag", "microsoftfag" or "linuxfag".
Now THAT is +5 insightful material!
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
He probably is talking about the closing down of the BSD kernel (even though it's permitted in its license agreement).
They don't use the BSD kernel, they use their own custom kernel called XNU which is based on Mach. Some elements of the BSD kernel are included in this kernel but it was never closed down. It's released under the Apple Public Source License (APSL) which qualifies as open source and the source code can be found here: XNU source
Sapere aude!
To criticize the mighty Jobs and his latest creation... henchmen come over here....
Heck the fix would be to send out Silicon Gel covers, Apple seems to be too stingy to even to do that.
Even Nintendo did it to fix their slipping problem.
Once they've made it, having spent soooo much money and effort on that, and now they are going to let it all down, by simply letting them tell the truth? and corruption involved? that doesn't sound sound to me)) anyway, the following link can help to increase a speed of your mac how to make your mac faster
The comments on the article don't display any of the vitriol the Apple faithful have been known to unleash upon anyone daring to question the Cupertino way. Perhaps they are moderated.
And perhaps the Apple fans are more moderate than you think. From what I've seen, it appears to be a very balanced report. While they end with the recommendation as it is, they also give the iPhone 4 excellent scores in most other areas.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
To use a car analogy...
You think the 40mpg-rated car is going at 10mpg when you switch AC on, a drop of efficiency by 400% but in fact it's an illusion, the drop is only by 10%, from 11mpg to 10mpg and the mistake is caused by faulty fuel guage that overheats without AC.
Yes, the drop seems drastic. Yes, it's minor. But yes, it's enough to lose coverage because the reception sucks in the first place, and in a location that any other phone gets honest 5 bars, iPhone gets "mistakenly 5 bars" while its reception is like 3 bars most.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
They do testing on pretty much everything. They are non-profit, and have a reputation for accurate reporting.
I remember them "reporting" that mountain bike brake levers pinch your fingers when you put fingers under the lever instead of over it.
Excuse me, but shut right the fuck up. As of 4:02 am EST he got modded 0: Insightful, which is more than he deserves for stereotyping people by, of all things, whether or not they've used products from a specific brand. "The amount of stupidity by Apple users [...] is outstanding" is a fucking TROLL; it's a baseless condemnation of tens of millions of people.
At this moment, you're modded +2: Informative for your post. What does that say about your idiot theory that apple fanbois abuse the moderation system? The post is a mixture of wacky conspiracy ("the fanboys seem to have some back-channel") and bizarre, anachronistic blather ("Ye have spoken well"? what the fuck?). It deserves a 1: Offtopic at best.
For the record, this post deserves offtopic or even troll as well, and I know it. I just needed to vent. Also for the record, I have a couple of apple products around the house, and I also have modpoints. If reality reflected your delusions, I'd have modded you down.
For the most part, those "open source projects" are self-serving and scarcely used by anybody else. The only project from Apple that has much use beyond Apple is WebKit, but they probably released that only because they were forced to by the license. You can see Jobs's attitude towards open source in the way he tried to weasel out of the GPL on gcc. And even to this day, Apple has not release an actually useful version of Objective-C.
If you weigh Apple's self-serving and useless contributions to open source against the harm they continue to do to open source, Linux, and programming freedom with their rhetoric, advertising, and outright lies, Apple is arguably a big net minus for open source.
Something unpleasant about Apple is emerging:
If it is correct that there is definitely a hardware fault with the 4G then:
1. Applie lied when they told their customers that it was a software issue causing inaccurate display of signal strength.
2. Apple intends to release a software update that will inaccurately display good signal strength when it is poor.
Apple has gone from the forgiveable error of releasing a faulty product, to the unforgivable sin of lying to their customers with, apparently, the intention of lying to them again.
Good thing, too. If you touch it, it will drop your calls.
Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
So let me put this straight
The Iphone4 get the best smartphone score ever in consumer Reports testing.
Consumer reports concludes they cannot recommand buying an iPhone 4.
I conclude i cannot recommand Consumer reports.
--- Back to the trees, back to the trees !
Me too. I am baffled that this seems not to be the norm for right handed people. It is not as if holding a phone to your ear requires a lot of manual dexterity. The other things I might be doing whilst on the phone (taking notes, clicking a mouse, peeling a banana, cooking dinner) do so I always hold my phone in my left hand.
This is the reverse proportion from just about any other print product and makes them fairly independent and fearless to piss off corporations (yes, they do that too) and even governments.
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
a slimmer form factor
is that before or after the $7 phone case?
Actually, a few years ago, I bought a Mac Mini which showed grave problems with BlueTooth and Wifi-reception. After digging around a little, that too was a hardware-problem, present in a lot of Mac Minis. Owners were never reimbursed, and (AFAIR) apple.com forum-threads removed.
Also, for that Mac, in OSX 10.4.6, Apple broke all support for FullHD-TV-monitors. Basically, the analysis claimed that for some unknown reason, Apple introduced a change in resolution-detection, filtering out 1920x1080p, if the monitor somehow identified itself as a televison-set. The bug were, to my knowledge, never solved, and owners recommended to buy 10.5 instead.
So, in my experience, Apple is at least as guilty of quality and usability-problems as anyone else, and well-known to not really reimburse customers when these things happen.
Don't hold it in a shit way!
iShit.
Shit different.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
"The phone doesn't work."
That's really just not the case. There is a signal degredation problem. This will cause many people to experience worse reception or dropped calls when the spot is touched.
When I bought the device, this was already clearly a discussion, so the first thing I did is test this out by putting my finger on the spot, without first putting a case on it. I went from five bars to two. Oh noez! I made calls to several different friends and family members with my finger on the spot and asked if they could hear me okay, explaining that I'd just picked up an iPhone 4 on upgrade. All of the calls were fine. I then went into the center of my apartment where a Treo 680, a Centro, and an iPhone 3Gs have all dropped calls. They didn't drop on the iPhone 4 there, with my finger on the spot.
I put on the case and put my hand over that side of the phone. No signal loss shown. I covered as much of its back and sides as I could with two hands, walking to the center of my apartment. With the case on, still a full set of bars.
That's when I decided that the signal issue wasn't going to affect me, in my home/neighborhood, and when I decided to keep the phone.
YMMV, but a group of raging, testosterone-laden teenage Apple haters on Slashdot seems to have worked themselves into such a frenzy that iPhone 4 users have gone from "People who may experience signal issues in some locales and usage patterns" to "People so stupid they paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars for what is claimed to be a phone that is not capable, in fact, of making phone calls or connecting to the Internet under any circumstances!"
In fact, this latter statement is untrue and utterly ridiculous. I am a heavy voice and data user and am on my iPhone 4 for a significant portion of every day using both voice and data. At least here in Queens, NYC, my upgrade from a 3Gs to a 4 went smoothly and transparently. Judging by what we know of sales numbers and returns, it appears that most purchasers are having a similar experience, and I am seeing a significant number of iPhone 4 devices on the streets and subway here in NYC.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Just to clarify - that's with, not on.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
If two bars are displayed erroneously on the screen, this is not an optical illusion, but a calibration issue. I think someone got this wrong somewhere along the way...
And they will often give two identical cars completely different ratings (Such as the Golf & the Jetta - identical in every way except for the trunk vs hatch). I die a little bit whenever someone says they based a buying decision on what Consumer Reports says.
Kiteboarding Gear Mention slashdot and get 10% off!
Yes. However, when it comes to intangibles, I don't give CR any value at all. They don't claim to test the intangibles either, so nothing against them. If you want quantitative with very small doses of qualitative, then CR is your rag. This is why they always recommend boring cars that enthusiast magazines wouldn't spend five minutes talking about.
I think if five cents worth of tape, or a $10-30 cover that most people buy anyway fixes the reception, than CR should caveat their "cannot recommend" label. That is if the rest of the phone is a good as they say it is.
OK let's clear this up. Yes, some Apple fanboys will automatically hit out at any negative press against Apple. But a far greater number of Apple customers post only to respond to people making ridiculous and offensive statements about "stoopid Apple buyers" being "brain-washed sheep" and the like. These pathetic claims nearly always land before any fanboy/girl arrives on the scene.
So yes, you do often see bad-tempered pro-Apple posts in threads such as this; mainly from people fed up with being insulted by those who prefer a different brand.
So ask yourself: who is the more pathetic—those who respond to people repeatedly insulting their intelligence, or those so insecure that they feel the need to attack users of a competing phone brand?
normally there very good at supporting there stuff. better then most company's. if you have a issue with a apple product there normally on the ball. but with the iphone 4 they seem to wanna drop the ball acting like theirs no issue. and there buy a case or don't hold it that way answer wasn't what people wanted to hear. that's not handling the problem people are having with your product.
and at one or two other tech sites. Read through the posts here. Constant denigrating references to gay people, invective, four-letter words, endless hyperbole.
If you post anything moderate, you are immediately labeled a "fanboi" (again, a veiled homosexuality/gender joke in the misspelling of "fanboy").
It's all so sophomoric.
Absolutely I would have returned the phone. I almost didn't even bother to buy it because of all the buzz surrounding this issue, and was considering Android phones. But to avoid the hassle of a carrier switch, etc., I decided I'd at least give it a shot, and I was frankly stunned to find that while I had the "issue" it didn't actually affect my use of the phone at all, so far as I could tell.
My experience makes me that much more wary of stories like this at Slashdot. The iPhone 4 is the best phone I've ever owned and in the last two weeks I've been thrilled with it. If I had simply paid attention to what's floating around the geek sites right now, I'd have assumed it was an EPIC FAIL[tm] and completely incapable of functioning at all, a total swindle.
And now, to post on any of the geek sites with an experience like that is to invite a screenful of ad hominem replies that have little, if anything, to do with the device itself.
That's what gets me here: the collapse of the usefulness of the tech community as a collective reviewer of tech devices, and the general uncivility (beyond all justification -- they're just phones, which one can choose or not choose to buy, and which are almost all still within the warranty/exchange period) of everything going on here.
The device is simply amazing. So are the 3Gs, 3G, and 2G. So are the Android phones. These are brilliant, f'in amazing devices. That's why I suspect it's a lot of teenagers making these posts. If you've been around for any length of time at all, and certainly if you've been around since 110 baud accoustic coupler paper-roll (no screen) terminals the size of a suitcase being the apex of "portability" like I have, it's hard to argue that any of these devices is "broken," or that anyone who likes any one of them is irrational in any way.
They're all f'in great!
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
"Negative, we're already at 110 percent on the reactor." ~Engineer
"Then give me 115 percent." ~Ramius
I wouldn't recommend it either.
Do you even have one? My iPhone4 works fine, at least as good as my Blackberry and at least as good as the old KRZR it replaced. I have to work pretty hard to replicate the drop in "bars." But then, I don't have sweaty palms.
Even when I try to hold it with my hand at covering the bottom corners, I see a drop in bars and still I get working service everywhere except in the same dead spots where my old phone dropped calls. I think the haters without iPhones are making more of this than its practical effect warrants.
your gravity fails and negativity don't pull you through
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I can't recommend Consumer Reports so there you go, nothing of value lost here.
Users on 4chan use the suffix "-fag" to mean "obsessive fan". It may be related to them all being about twelve years old.
To someone who has seen the subculture before, it's unintentional bigotry rather than an intentional insult. If they were actually trying to call someone gay, they'd say "fagfag".
Does my bum look big in this?
Actually, a few years ago, I bought a Mac Mini which showed grave problems with BlueTooth and Wifi-reception. After digging around a little, that too was a hardware-problem, present in a lot of Mac Minis. Owners were never reimbursed, and (AFAIR) apple.com forum-threads removed.
Also, for that Mac, in OSX 10.4.6, Apple broke all support for FullHD-TV-monitors. Basically, the analysis claimed that for some unknown reason, Apple introduced a change in resolution-detection, filtering out 1920x1080p, if the monitor somehow identified itself as a televison-set. The bug were, to my knowledge, never solved, and owners recommended to buy 10.5 instead.
It's not a bug, it's a feature! And it sounds like it served its purpose. :)
Bow-ties are cool.
So wait, are we still talking about Harley riders or not?
With the first link, the chain is forged.
This isn't a bug. It's a new feature that makes it even easier to put your iPhone into airplane mode.
http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/jacket/jacketrequest.jsp
Nintendo is now including the Wii Remote Jacket for the Wii Remotes in all new hardware being shipped. For Wii owners who purchased their systems prior to this addition, we are offering to send free Wii Remote Jackets for their existing Wii Remotes.
* If your Wii did not come with a Wii Remote Jacket, you may be eligible to receive free Wii Remote Jackets for your existing Wii Remotes. Please complete the form below.
With the first link, the chain is forged.
Tape over the gap makes a large capacitor. Capacitors are effectively negligible barriers to radio frequency oscillations.
Tape over the gap does not help. I have personally tested this to be sure - no difference.
That is quite possibly the most obtuse post I have ever seen on slashdot. The iPhone has been shown to be testably broken. Not requires raw materials to print, power to function or new devices to do new tasks. Broken, as in does not work as can be reasonably expected.
So ask yourself: who is the more pathetic--those who respond to people repeatedly insulting their intelligence, or those so insecure that they feel the need to attack users of a competing phone brand?
The latter. It's just that I see that far more from Iphone users putting down people because they use Symbian or Android, or perhaps (heaven forbid) a "feature" phone.
They could get themselves a whole new class of subscribers :)
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
They do make some pretty ignorant observations about things they're not experts in, but to be honest, the average person who needs consumer reports to choose a mountain bike may not realize that fact :)
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
Sure, but those aren't the products that are loved here. It's the Iphone and Ipad, which is the most closed (both in terms of source, and also control over who can develop for it) mobile platform.
Given the past focus of Linux, it's worth noting that Linux has a good presence on mobile devices, in the form of Android and Maemo, not to mention that the market leader, Symbian, is also open source. Rare to see stories about them here, though.
Your house doesn't keep the rain out, it needs a tarp for that ... is it broken? Hell yeah.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
+1
Really? My observation is very much otherwise; perhaps we are each simply perceiving personal slights more keenly. But I don't think I'd be out of place suggesting that this particular thread had the anti-apple flag planted right from the get-go.
That said, I would condemn such an attitude no matter what product was being slated; the notion that choosing a product obliges you to take every opportunity to attack "the other" brand is downright childish. Personally I chose the iPhone long enough ago that it was arguably the best-in-class; I have stuck with it as I know the product, and have invested sufficiently in apps for it that migrating now didn't make sense. Perhaps next time my contract is up I may change my mind.
Dumb patents plus Apple cheapness -- that "innovation" of having the antenna on the outside is where it all started....bah.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
Well you felt the anger of the homogeneous mass of brainless apples.
anyway, this is serious bug that we are not used to experience from Apple.
Is it?
There at least three ways to completely avoid the problem while using an iPhone 4:
Use a case. I do with my iPhones, preferring the thin neoprene type. Good idea regardless.
CR mentions they haven't yet tested cases.
As long as the antenna isn't being interfered with, reception is at least as good as with the earlier iPhones, most likely better.
Since the iPhone 4 is in many ways the best smart phone available today except for this tempest in a teapot, I'd suggest getting one along with your case of preference. Good stuff!
Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
Score: -1 100% Flamebait
and at one or two other tech sites. Read through the posts here. Constant denigrating references to gay people, invective, four-letter words, endless hyperbole.
If you post anything moderate, you are immediately labeled a "fanboi" (again, a veiled homosexuality/gender joke in the misspelling of "fanboy").
But your post was not much better. We cant stop morons posing shite to these sorts of discussions, all we can do is try and keep the stuff we post free from insults and moderate like adults. I have better things to do with my time than read most of that drivel, I only started reading your post as you left the insults out of the first paragraph.
If I was not locked into a contract for the next 9 months I would be very grateful for the heads up about iPhone4 signal strength issues, since I live in an area where there are a lot of nimbys who object to mobile phone masts.
BTW - Thanks for the info on fanboi, I have never thought about where the word came from.
I dont read
...I wonder how they managed to screw up so badly. Some internal testing had to show that iPhone 4 signal reception isn't as good as previous version were...
Easy. All of their testers are right handed. ;)
a slimmer form factor
is that before or after the $7 phone case?
Both. The case is a thin layer of flexible rubberlike, plasticlike material that adds grip and prevents scratches on the sides and back.
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
Steve?
"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
nah, I have a 3G and it's an awesome device. Several people I work with have 4G iPhones and there are mixed reviews whether or not it is a problem. The fact that some people are, though, means that there is some kind of flaw. If there were no flaw, groups of people wouldn't be having a problem.
I can understand how this happened. It's the same reason why, as a software developer, writing code with a test dataset can lead to problems when you throw a live dataset at your code. The rumor is that Apple has really good reception on their campus, and when employees left with the 4G they were instructed to put it into a 3G case. If this is true, they inadvertently failed to test the device in a real world scenario. Any way you slice it, that's an oversight. I don't think the real story here is that there is a small flaw with the phone, though; overall it seems to be a solid device. The real story is the attempted denial. Apple should just shut up and fix it or offer free bumpers to customers.
blah blah blah
Consumer Reports have had suspect opinions (IMO) for at least 15 years.
It is no longer clear what their business is, or where they get their funding.
I would no more trust their ratings/rankings of anything, than I would take Apple's word that my iPhone is not working b/c I'm holding it wrong.
(Oh I see . . . I should hold it with the prehensile tail, that's better; can you hear me now?)
And it sounds like it served its purpose.
Yup, I zapped my harddrive, ritually burned my MacOS CD, and installed Linux instead. It detected the screens native resolution without questioning.
Bonus feature; the system gained ~20% performance, enabling HD playback without framedrop, and Samba started behaving sane.
I know digital photography pretty well, and a lot of the stuff they say in their digital camera reviews is just plain wrong.
I trust CR's motives. I think they're a good group of people who truly meant to do the best job they can, but I had too many experiences like yours to trust their conclusions. When I quit subscribing, they were on a huge "green" kick, to the point that they'd change their rankings based on a product's packaging or minimal energy consumption differences. Brand A might have a better widget than Brand B, and CR would report that, but B's product would have a higher final score than A's because A dissipated 23W when in use and B dissipated 20W. Readers who went solely by CR's bottom line score would end up with an inferior product just because it used an extra $0.15 of electricity for ever 300 hours of actual use.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
First of all, if the phone doesn't work for you, for any reason, get a different phone. This is a universal law and I'm surprised at the legs the bars story has. Second, the inescapable conclusion is that the antenna is poorly designed on this phone. "Bad design" is the harshest cut for Apple, hence it's ridiculously bad behavior which to me is the real story. Finally, the editorializing over Apple faithful vitriol is not welcome. You can find zealots for almost anything, and a troll is a troll. Indeed the editorializing is flame-bait, which is ironic, in that the flame-bait is calling others out on their flame-baiting.
How do I edit my sig.
I don't recall ever seeing anything like these posts about Microsoft or even SCO.
Step out of the Reality Distortion Field.
Dude, RTFA! They clearly state that the iPhone 4 excels in several areas. It just sucks in its primary function as a cellphone and thus they can't recommend it. I don't think Consumer Reports has any vested interest in seeing the iPhone fail or succeed.
I don't get it. Why would they not just say "iPhone 4 is great. We recommend it only if you also get a bumper or a case too. And if so, it does quite well on all counts."
I don't see how this is much different from saying for a PC review.... "We really liked such and such cheap computer for Windows 7 Pro, but with the basic specs it doesn't have enough memory for real-world applications. Thus Consumer Reports recommends it only if you also buy the upgrade from 400Meg RAM to 1gig RAM, which changes the price to the less competitive cost of $____"
Well, by all means lets make sure our level of discourse is on par with that of 4chan!
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
...has a patent on an internal antenna design that works fairly well
I'm sure there are lots of internal antennas that work "fairly well", as internal antennas have been the norm. Apple was going for an improvement over that. Isn't it a good idea to try to innovate? The iPhone 4 has much better reception than previous iPhones.
Dumb patents plus Apple cheapness --
Apple cheapness? Now there's two words I haven't seen together often :-) I can see Apple not buying the alternate antenna due to "not made here" syndrome, but unlikely cheapness.
Yes, they're trying to sell subscriptions. So how does that make them not impartial? Impartiality is what they're SELLING.
Sure, but those aren't the products that are loved here. It's the Iphone and Ipad, which is the most closed (both in terms of source, and also control over who can develop for it) mobile platform.
Both of which run on Darwin, Apple's open-source operating system. In fact, a good chunk of iOS (the operating system that both the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad run on) is open source with really only the GUI proprietary. Also, development for iOS is completely open. You can develop and distribute source code completely for free.
Yes, to deploy binaries to an iPhone you need to be a registered developer but if you jailbreak your iPhone that restriction disappears. It also doesn't stop you from distributing your source code and allowing other people to register as developers and install your software on their phone. Apple's proprietary elements are, in most cases, a speed bump.
The other thing is ease of development for a platform. Many people have said that iOS is great to develop for. The SDKs are well organized and well thought-out, there is lots of documentation, the tools are great to work with, and Objective-C is a great language for getting stuff done. I've heard horror stories of developing on Symbian and Windows Mobile and Android currently has a problem with how diverse its platform is, it's tough to code for all the varying feature sets that might be out there. Not to mention that you can make a ton more money per development hour by targeting iOS over any other mobile platform.
Sapere aude!
Can't recall the exact quote, but it was to the effect that the iPhone excelled in almost every area... except actually making, you know, phone calls. On that basis, it's not hard to understand why they couldn't recommend it, being as how they were reviewing a telephone. It's hard to imagine how anyone would conclude that a particular model of phone is right for them if the making calls function works poorly. If you didn't care about making calls, you'd buy an iPod touch.
Dude, most people are not depending on Apple to find out about problems with Apple's products. The illusion is already shattered (or in the process of shattering). Continuing to deny the problem at this point makes them look both clueless and evil, and is going to cause more problems than it solves.
For some things (not including cut & paste from the get-go, say), they can get away with this tactic. But stonewalling in the face of an issue this big is likely to blow up in their faces.
Oh, so that explains perfectly why their market share is increasing. Thanks for that incisive explanation.
According to Consumer reports, didn't you see the article where the reviewed all the magazines that review products? They were the only ones with all the little circles filled in.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
The two cameras have the same processing, too -- including NR. They both have user control over in-camera NR (off/low/normal/high), but if you pick the same setting you get the same results.
Olympus literally took the guts of an E-620, put them in a nicer body with more features, and sold it as the E-30. (And this is a good thing, as they take good images.)
Thanks for the headsup, I'll check it out. Hard to keep track of all the news and updates lately.
> Even Duct Tape was involves in the testing,
Use clear nail polish. Invisible, free (always some around, your gf's, your Mom's, sister's, coworker's), reversible, svelte, lean.
It IS a good idea to TRY to innovate, but also a better idea to realize it when your innovation failed and to put something that does work well in there instead, in that case. Anything else is hubris. Their reaction to this indicates that this may be a good call on where they are coming from on the issue.
If the iPhone 4 has better reception -- what's all this about? Many say otherwise -- so many there may be just a germ of truth in that. As someone who knows antennas (I designed and built my own cell phone repeater for use here where coverage is lousy -- and it works great), it seems obvious to me that at these wavelengths touching one is not usually going to help it work. Your AM radio, maybe....not up in the GHz range, though. And certainly not when you short yourself across a dipole. Humans make one of the better electrically damping (resistive) loads there is.
Yeah, Apple and cheapness are rarely used together, because if you're a customer, they aren't cheap at all. However, if you build things for them, they are as cheap as it gets.
Many Apple products have been torn down to see what they really cost to make, and they seem to have about the highest hardware profit margin there is in the business, and on just about everything they "make". Or more accurately, have made for them in places where the labor is cheaper.
Sure, the old NIH thing might have had a part too. Didn't stop them from using BSD as a base, though, in other products, did it?
But see above. I'm not dissing them for trying to cut costs -- I've run a business or two -- but there is a point where that becomes self-defeating, and I think they crossed that line.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
It's pretty obvious they didn't [improve] to almost everyone...
I respectfully disagree here. Most reviews put out before this "blew up" were rating reception better on the iPhone 4 than on previous iPhones and also several competitors. I have the same experience (much better reception). I think Apple showed some of their reception testing labs in the press conference. They put a lot of testing into this phone.
..it seems obvious to me that at these wavelengths touching one is not usually going to help it work
I agree. Don't touch the line. I get exceptional reception, and I don't touch the line. It's kind of a simple solution. I guess a case also helps, but I like my phone the way it is. There are places I don't touch on many of the RF devices I use. I don't put my hand on the antenna of my cordless phone either.
Yeah, Apple and cheapness are rarely used together, because if you're a customer, they aren't cheap at all. However, if you build things for them, they are as cheap as it gets.
Many Apple products have been torn down to see what they really cost to make, and they seem to have about the highest hardware profit margin there is in the business, and on just about everything they "make". Or more accurately, have made for them in places where the labor is cheaper.
This has me completely baffled. The CPU, RAM, screen, cameras, and pretty much everything on the iPhone 4 are cutting edge. Apple bill of goods on production is low because they are a company known for cutting good deals on large scale parts purchases. That's a good thing for them, and for consumers. Yes, they build where the labor is cheap; as does every other phone manufacturer. None of this has anything to do with an antenna they spent a great deal of money designing, and seems to work really well for the vast majority of their customers.