That Apple letter in full...
in [UK Mac]
|
Prev: Dummy mail accounts.
Next: iPhone spellchecker
From: Bruce Horrocks on 7 Jul 2010 08:50 On 07/07/2010 10:45, Peter Ceresole wrote: > Ben Shimmin<bas(a)llamaselector.com> wrote: > >>> Idle thought, but I wonder how much of this signal snafu is due to Apple >>> field testing units my putting them in fake 3GS cases, and thereby >>> (unknowingly) avoiding the problem? >>> >>> Seems very unlikely but stranger things have happened. >> >> It's a possible explanation, but don't you think it's a ridiculous one? > > It doesn't seem to me to be ridiculous in the slightest. Whether ridiculous or not I think it virtually impossible that the prototyping in a different case obscured the issue. The RF engineers would have been fully involved with the case designers - from an antenna placement and construction point of view - from the very beginning. Presumably they are vaguely competent and are aware of both attenuation and detuning so I can only assume that they thought they had solved the problem in some way. Just as there were prototype iPhone 4s in 3GS cases the I would have thought it extremely likely that there were 3GSs in iPhone 4 cases to test the real antenna design. Eventually we'll find out what really went wrong and no doubt it will be something really stupid. -- Bruce Horrocks Surrey England (bruce at scorecrow dot com)
From: Ian McCall on 7 Jul 2010 09:46 zoara <me18(a)privacy.net> wrote: > > I'm still curious as to whether this is a design issue or a > manufacturing issue. ...some people are reporting that they don't see > the issue; it's > not clear whether they mean they don't trigger it in normal use, or > they > can't trigger it when they deliberately try. If it's the latter, then > this gives me hope that they've just rattled off some substandard > batches and once they've made their way through the supply chain we'll > see some newer (and better-manufactured) ones that don't have the > issue. That's my hope too, but to be honest it's quite a distant one. Just tried again in our low-signal office: my 3GS showing three bars and Edge. Less than a minute of me holding the 4 reduced it to searching for a connection. That's not algorithm, that's physical. Would love to think it's manufacturing, but I'll need to hear of an actual change identified before I consider a change. To me, it looks like another year of 3GS ownership so far. No problem with that, is a good phone and I'll be out of contract in December so can go for cheaper deals instead. > > I wonder whether the iPhone 4 will end up being viewed by history as a > mistake, like the third-gen iPod with the touch-sensitive buttons > above > the wheel. I had one of those, and it wasn't a great design... Yep, I seem to remember coming out against those on this group too. Must say the physical look of the 4 doesn't appeal to me as much either: I prefer the literal shininess of the 3GS over the matt of the 4, and I prefer the curve over the slab. Ah well, we'll see. Cheers, Ian
From: zoara on 7 Jul 2010 11:07 zoara <me18(a)privacy.net> wrote: > For > example, some people are reporting that they don't see the issue; it's > not clear whether they mean they don't trigger it in normal use, or > they > can't trigger it when they deliberately try. A friend on Facebook has just told me he doesn't get the issue. Unfortunately he's halfway across the country so I can't get my known-to-cause-the-issue hands on it, but I've asked him to try a few things. I'll report back if he has anything interesting to say. -z- -- email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm
From: zoara on 7 Jul 2010 11:31 Ian McCall <ian(a)eruvia.org> wrote: > zoara <me18(a)privacy.net> wrote: >> >> I'm still curious as to whether this is a design issue or a >> manufacturing issue. ...some people are reporting that they don't see >> the issue; it's >> not clear whether they mean they don't trigger it in normal use, or >> they >> can't trigger it when they deliberately try. If it's the latter, then >> this gives me hope that they've just rattled off some substandard >> batches and once they've made their way through the supply chain > > we'll >> see some newer (and better-manufactured) ones that don't have the >> issue. > > That's my hope too, but to be honest it's quite a distant one. Just > tried again in our low-signal office: my 3GS showing three bars and > Edge. Less than a minute of me holding the 4 reduced it to searching > for > a connection. That's not algorithm, that's physical. It could still be software. Not the algorithm that displays the bars, but the driver being unable to adapt to a change in signal. The iPhone 4 has some whiz-bang new software (in the baseband, or something?) which allows it to better select the best signal available - I think it more deeply monitors the strength of nearby frequencies. Perhaps there's a nasty bug in this, and it's simply not doing what it should. I have my doubts on this, though; if it was a software fix I'd expect Apple to have announced that rather than fobbing people off with a change to the way the bars are displayed. > Would love to think it's manufacturing, but I'll need to hear of an > actual change identified before I consider a change. Me too. > To me, it looks > like another year of 3GS ownership so far. No problem with that, is a > good phone and I'll be out of contract in December so can go for > cheaper > deals instead. My 3G is feeling a lot older and creakier now; I would like a bit more speed. I'll probably go for a 3GS off eBay unless I hear of a believable fix. >> >> I wonder whether the iPhone 4 will end up being viewed by history as > > a >> mistake, like the third-gen iPod with the touch-sensitive buttons >> above >> the wheel. I had one of those, and it wasn't a great design... > > Yep, I seem to remember coming out against those on this group too. > Must > say the physical look of the 4 doesn't appeal to me as much either: I > prefer the literal shininess of the 3GS over the matt of the 4, and I > prefer the curve over the slab. To me, both designs have decent aesthetics. The retina display is a huge draw for me, though - I've always thought the iPhone screen was a bit poor with small text. And the speed and camera are also draws over the 3GS. -z- -- email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm
From: zoara on 7 Jul 2010 11:31
Bruce Horrocks <07.013(a)scorecrow.com> wrote: > On 07/07/2010 10:45, Peter Ceresole wrote: >> Ben Shimmin<bas(a)llamaselector.com> wrote: >> >>>> Idle thought, but I wonder how much of this signal snafu is due to > > > > Apple >>>> field testing units my putting them in fake 3GS cases, and thereby >>>> (unknowingly) avoiding the problem? >>>> >>>> Seems very unlikely but stranger things have happened. >>> >>> It's a possible explanation, but don't you think it's a ridiculous > > > one? >> >> It doesn't seem to me to be ridiculous in the slightest. > > Whether ridiculous or not I think it virtually impossible that the > prototyping in a different case obscured the issue. > > The RF engineers would have been fully involved with the case > designers - from an antenna placement and construction point of view - > from the very beginning. Presumably they are vaguely competent and are > aware of both attenuation and detuning so I can only assume that they > thought they had solved the problem in some way. Which implies to me that this is a manufacturing issue rather than a design issue. I guess it just depends on exactly how morbidly obsessed Apple is with secrecy. > Just as there were prototype iPhone 4s in 3GS cases the I would have > thought it extremely likely that there were 3GSs in iPhone 4 cases to > test the real antenna design. 3GS internals take more space than 4 internals. The "fake" 3GS case was just dummy plastic to pad the 4 out to 3GS size and shape. Retrofitting a 4-style antenna onto 3GS guts would be a lot more work (I'm not saying they didn't do it, mind). > Eventually we'll find out what really went wrong and no doubt it will > be something really stupid. No doubt. -z- -- email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm |