iPhone 4 Antenna Issues May Cause Reception Problems (VIDEO)

Apple's new iPhone 4 hasn't even been officially out for 24 hours, and already users are reporting myriad problems with the smartphone.

One of the biggest complaints is that holding the iPhone 4's antenna band seems to negatively affect the phone's reception. More specifically, MacRumors notes, "calls were consistently dropped when the iPhone 4 was held in the left hand while touching the bottom left corner. "

A MacRumors commenter observed, "Holding the iPhone 4 in your hands with your fingers touching the antenna seems to immediately and consistently send the bars plummeting." (see video below)

However, it's possible that the dwindling bars, which appear when the iPhone 4's antenna are covered by a user's hand, may be the result of a bug in Apple's new iOS 4, the latest iPhone operating system. (see video at bottom of post)

Boy Genius Report writes,

As proof, a YouTube user has posted a video of his iPhone 3G, held in a similar fashion as the iPhone 4s in the YouTube videos we showed you yesterday, losing signal strength as soon as it is clutched. As this did not happen with iOS 3.0, this suggests a software bug which affects the signal meter the user sees. Even more interesting is the fact that despite displaying a weak signal -- and in some cases no signal at all -- many users report that the iPhone 4 is still able to make calls as if nothing were wrong.

Check out users' biggest complaints about the iPhone 4 so far.

WATCH: (H/T Gizmodo)

(H/T Boy Genius Report)

Comments

[pchrun]

03:02 AM on 06/28/2010

There are a variety of solutions out there for this problem from ugly tape to a $30 case. The fact that Apply can't get this right out of the box and then Jobs pushes the blame on the user is a prideful act that will damage Apple.

Here is a great article that lays out some of the problems and is worthy of a few laughs.

Steve Jobs Claims iPhone Works Great, Just Need Rubber Band, Tin Foil, Metal Coat Hanger and Coaxial Cable; Other CEOs Inspired by His Candor

Sorry, forgot the link:

http://www.dailygoat.com/2010/06/steve-jobs-claims-iphone-works-great-rubber-band-tin-foil-metal-coat-hanger-coaxial-cable-ceos-inspired-candor/

[pchrun]

02:57 AM on 06/28/2010

There are a variety of solutions out there for this problem from ugly tape to a $30 case. The fact that Apply can't get this right out of the box and then Jobs pushes the blame on the user is a prideful act that will damage Apple.

Here is a great article that lays out some of the problems and is worthy of a few laughs.

Steve Jobs Claims iPhone Works Great, Just Need Rubber Band, Tin Foil, Metal Coat Hanger and Coaxial Cable; Other CEOs Inspired by His Candor

[Cheesedog]

09:52 PM on 06/27/2010

And that constitutes a myriad?

[MARDAM66]

07:54 PM on 06/25/2010

Reception problems detected in the antenna of the new Apple iPhone 4? uyyyy

[MrVee]

11:33 PM on 06/24/2010

Apple customers are the most forgiving customers on the planet. That phone can almost not boot up half the time and they will still want one because they love status more than anything else. This proves it. Apple sold the public during into believing you can in effect cover the phones antenna with your hand and it not effect signal strength.

If you watched the presentation, you'll remember he could not get wifi to function just 5 minutes after claiming his engineers made some "magical" discovery to surround the phone with it's antenna.

But this isn't exactly new for Apple inc. The Magic Mouse had similar design issues. When mouse makers removed the rubber ball because it collected dirt and grease, Apple Inc decided the solution was to put the rubber ball in "direct contact" with your fingers on top the mouse. Nice mouse but it would lose a tracking axis forcing it to be cleaned with a damp cloth.

The iphone 4 a fail of the worse order IMO.

Lucky for Jobs, he simply has to tell them "they don't hold it correctly". That will satisfy 95 percent of their customers. Now that's big pimpin'.