There are 3 of these phones in our office and non of them is subject to this apparent death grip. We just can't replicate it.All phones have the problem, it's baked into the physical design of the phone. But you won't see it if you have a strong signal, you can think of it as having "seven bars" only the first five of which are visible.
When a US Senator gets involved, it becomes slightly more than 'tired whining about Apple on Metafilter' in my opinion.These guys are the biggest media whores in the world.
"Over the last 10 to 15 years, Apple has done a remarkable job of creating cutting-edge devices that have won the hearts of their users. It forged a special bond with customers and investors that other companies want but don't have. It seemed to be bulletproof. Suddenly, Apple may have a chink in its armor."posted by ericb at 7:28 AM on July 16, 2010
"Apple's image for consumer friendliness took another hit today: Bloomberg reports that at least two experts warned CEO Steve Jobs about the iPhone 4's antenna problems long before it was released.posted by ericb at 7:37 AM on July 16, 2010
The news service, citing an unnamed source, says that Apple senior engineer and antenna expert Ruben Caballero told executives early in the planning process that the design might lead to dropped calls. The metal antenna needs to be divided into sections that can pick up different wireless radio frequencies. But the iPhone 4's design makes it possible for users holding the phone to form an electronic bridge between the sections.
Bloomberg cites another unnamed source who says that one of Apple's carrier partners, which it didn't identify, discovered the reception problem before June 24 when the phone was released. The phone is served by AT&T in the US, and overseas by Vodafone Group, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, and Softbank."
"In prepping for Apple's Friday press conference, CNET outlines what it knows about the antenna so far and what it expects to learn."posted by ericb at 9:01 AM on July 16, 2010
"This is life in the smartphone world. Phones aren't perfect. It's a challenge for the whole industry. Every phone has weak spots. ... Now we're not perfect. We made it very visible with a little help from our friends on websites. We put this little line here... 'here's where you touch it everybody!' ... We knew that you could see bars drop on the phone when you hold it in a certain way, it's a fact, phones aren't perfect. But people are reporting better reception with this antenna than they've ever seen before."posted by ericb at 10:20 AM on July 16, 2010
Apple announces voluntary recall program.
Users can go to any Apple Store Genius bar and have their hands physically altered to prevent reception problems.
Does not cosmetically alter iPhone.To understand Apple, one of our biggest insights came about 8 years ago. We didn't want to get into any business where we didn't own or control the primary technology. Because if someone else owns it, they're going to beat you in the end. And in the computer business, we thought software was the most important tech. And we made our own OS. Our big insight 8 years ago was that for most areas of consumer electronics, it was going to shift from big displays or optical pickup heads for DVDs being important, or radios in cell phones, to software being the most important component. And we realized, we were pretty good at software. And so the iPod really proved that to ourselves, that we could do that, and we brought that to the phone business.posted by new brand day at 11:22 AM on July 16, 2010
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posted by mullingitover at 11:55 PM on July 15, 2010