Apple admits to the iPhone lying for years about signal reception

July 2, 2010 | By Surur

The iPhone has been sporting better than real reception since version 1.0

Apple has finally admitted there is something wrong with their phones, but its not what you expect.

Revealed in a press release today Apple admitted their phones, which has a reputation for constantly dropping phone calls, was in fact often showing a much stronger signal than the faulty devices could actually pick up.

“(The) high bars were never real in the first place.” they said. They claimed they were “stunned” to discover their formula used to display signal strength was “totally wrong”.

Admitting that the “mistake has been present since the original iPhone” and that the phones has been misreporting signal strength for years, the company promised a software fix to all iPhones that will make them more honest.

Unfortunately Apple did not address the “Grip of death” issue directly, claiming instead the issue of dropped calls when the phone was held in the left hand was common to all phones.

The software fix is promised in the next two weeks, which promises taller 2nd and 3rd bars, and appears directed at fixing perception rather than reception. I am sure it will be a great success.

Read Apple’s press release here.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged apple, dishonesty, lying

mbcls

this fix will fix the drop calls and you never have a drop call again!
the idiotPhone will just display "no service" to begin with, while all other phones showing 2-3 bars of signal! haha
NuShrike

How can they not know about it? No wireless engineer worth their salt would do field testing with just bars as their guides, nor would they not have an App to compare the real signal numbers to what the bars say.

FUD from Apple.

NuShrike

Well, this sounds like a two-part spin train.

First they get you to admit with them that the signal was "originally" lower because of this bug. Then because it's "originally" lower, there's no attenuation (big signal bar change) from "holding it wrong", because it was already low, and bingo, your bad signal explained.

Nah

HOLY FUCK. One. Big. EPIC FAIL.

This is seriously insane.

Problem: Phone drops calls, depending on how it's held.
Solution 1: It's not a problem. Hold it differently.
Fixed: No.
Solution 2: Buy our $30 "bumper."
Fixed: Yes, if you want something called a "bumper" on that brand new $200 phone you bought at least partially for the "stunning industrial design." Otherwise, no.
Solution 3: There really is no problem. You must be in a weak signal area.
Fixed: No. Unless the iPhone is specifically designed only for areas with maximum signal strength.
Solution 4: It's merely a software issue.
Fixed: No.
Solution 5: The bars display wrong! Gosh, they've done it since the original iPhone. Golly, how did we ever miss that! Don't worry guys, it will be fixed. We'll just… change how the lower bars display, making them bigger.
Fixed: Psychologically? Maybe. If you're retarded. Otherwise, hell no.

Real solution: Redesign, paying attention to the reception, even if it comes at the expense of your precious "stunning industrial design."

Joshua

You couldn't have explained it better my friend. I love the way you wrote this comment. It is so true about everything you have stated!

Jooz

I find their explanation very believable. You don't wanna know how many mistakes are made, well you know, you know, HTC,Samsung,WM etc.. I'm in the field of hardware engineering, firmware, app-development etc. I have an iPhone, for test-purposes, but don't use it, as you can't change the system wide font-size (how lame is that) Even Safari on iPhone doesn't do that. But you know, customer is king, if they want iPhone, we'll give it to them.
Anyway, it IS a fact that phones will loose signal in some cases, but using the "BARS" as scientific proof of lossing a LOT of signal is stupid, especially if some engineer messed up his/her formula's.
http://intensedebate.com/profiles/krekiere krekiere

That's just … wow
And I criticized HTC because they improved the quality of the ringtones on the HD mini, while it should have been at the best level since the beginning. sorry HTC.
BTW, Apple is just mind-blowing, I know their fixes comes later, but 3 years later is just crazy. The genius who found out that the antenna should be the shell of the phone, must be fired…
Asgard

"I find their explanation very believable. You don't wanna know how many mistakes are made, well you know, you know, HTC,Samsung,WM etc.. I'm in the field of hardware engineering, firmware, app-development etc."

It's not the point that the phone has some flaws. The point is how they are threating their customers and denying there is a problem at all because they are "perfect". How would you feel paying almost 800e for your phone and then cannot get the problems fixed? You just hold your phone "right" as long as you buy another one.

Btw, apple is hiring new antenna designers at the moment so try to quess where the problem is