And on a different note, I do see the attenuation issue when the signal is already low. Actually, I'm sure we are all getting it all the time, but due to the scale used for the bar display being heavily biased toward 5 bars, when the signal is moderate to strong you see nothing, and when the signal is weak you see what appears to be a huge drop in signal. I.e. that skewing of the scale has come back to bite Apple in the ass! Now they are going to make the bar scale be much more evenly spread out, and that's good. That will show that there is a signal drop everywhere, but that it isn't nearly as bad as it appears right now in weak signal areas, and it will make it clearer what your actual signal strength is. On the other hand, the number of bars you get in all areas, on all iPhones, is going to be universally lower since what is currently displayed as 5 bars may actually only be a moderate signal and so with the update it will be, say, 3 bars. The signal is exactly the same, it's just the representation of its strength that will change. They are bound to get complaints from users that their signal is weaker after the update, and of course blogs everywhere will state that it's definitively true that the sky is falling. EDIT: to be clear, the firmware update is not out yet.
Warning! The iPhone 4 can catch fire and burn out! Responsible is the USB Port! http://bit.ly/bRcpkX I WON'T buy this device, will wait for the next gen!
1 out of 1.7 million or however many they've sold so far. It's hard to say if this is even Apple's fault, as crazy stuff happens when there are power surges or unexpected voltage irregularities. From the looks of it, the computer was delivering way too much power over the USB port to even get it to heat up hot enough to melt the plastic, much less catch on fire.
Exactly mate, a freak accident is probably what it was. Yet this stuff is always bait for Apple hating to continue.
No... I won't buy because of the other issues. I know that this was a freaking incident and I wrote it in a little sarcastic style. Well, let's see if that burn-out happens another time.
According to PR experts, iPhone 4 recall is "inevitable". http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/iPhone+4/news.asp?c=22154
Hmmm, hard to tell. These people are PR experts. They should to know their stuff. It does seem to be quite a big deal and I'm pretty sure Apple could possibly be sued - a couple in America decided to file a lawsuit against them which is still ongoing, I believe. On the other hand, you'd think if they were going to recall them, they'd have done so already. Personally I don't really care about the problem. I always use a case, so the problem won't matter. But anyway, I think I'll hold out for a while until all this mess is cleared up.
I don't blame you at all mate. I just see it as something unlikely as I'm sure around 2 Mill have been put in consumers hands by now. I personally would advise you to buy it and use a case (as you said)... But I can totally see why you want to wait. Just want to help you see the other side of the coin (from someone who has it and hasn't got any reason to complain).
Giz posted a rumour about a "silent recall" yesterday. It's only one single report from one person, so don't put too much stock in it, but there it is anyway. Also, that melting USB port thingy I'll almost guarantee you was either a rare one-off thing, or it wasn't the iPhone 4 that did it; probably a crap powered hub. I've seen reports of past models of iPhone either have the battery 'splode or whatever and it's always been a one or two-off thing and nothing ever comes of it, so don't read too much into an isolated incident, especially when we don't even know the circumstances surrounding the burnout.
I don't want to downplay the signal drop when held left handed issue, because that is there, but I do want to inject this fact: the iPhone 4 is, in practice, proving to work better and far more reliably then my iPhone 3GS ever did. This was most noticeably demonstrated to me yesterday and this morning during my daily commute to work via train and bus, especially in the train station as I waited to go home yesterday and to come to work today. For the first time ever, in this train station, I had a 100% reliable and fast 3G connection. I mean night and day difference here. With the 3GS I would see 5 bars, then 0, then 4, then 1, then 5, then 0, changing by the minute, and even when 5 bars it was dog slow. With the iPhone 4 I'm seeing 4 bars when held right handed, 1 bar when held left handed, but even at 1 bar the connection was rock solid and fast! I was streaming audio and browsing the web and it worked flawlessly. I am tending to think that Consumers Reports and others aren't seeing the forest for the trees. They are solely focusing on the signal strength meter, and failing to note that the phone is performing better anyway, even a lot better. The above example was the most pronounced for me, but I've seen essentially the same thing, though more subtly, everywhere else. Now maybe my experience is isolated, and I would still recommend a case because it does reduce the signal drop when held left handed. Just realize that signal strength isn't the whole story. anandtech.com covered that in detail - the iPhone 4 excels at signal to noise ratio, and that's what leads to more reliable connections, which they found to be the case in practice as well. It's a public relations disaster for Apple, and if in fact they could coat the antenna and reduce the signal strength drop then that would have saved them some grief so they should have done that, but I'm not qualified to say if that is even possible. Maybe with time people will just start using their iPhone 4 and stop staring at the gauge, and they'll find out that it works great. I don't know. I do know that I don't want them to go back to the old antenna design. The iPhone 4 is better, in spite of the negative press.
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/iPhone+4/news.asp?c=22159 It totally works too. I just ordered one, put in 'Deathgrip' into to Promotional Code and it reduced it to £2.50. Even if the case doesn't turn out to be that great it won't bother me as £2.50 is no big loss.
Yeah, I had that silicone see through case and it stopped it totally, I like the look of it too. Bargain for a good protection set up. Take home message, wrap your old boy up!
