[mischiefse7en]

"Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place," the company said in a letter to users.

Apple `stunned' to find iPhones show too many bars - Yahoo! Finance

[TheScionicMan]

Apple `stunned' to find iPhones show too many bars - Yahoo! Finance

So they've been faking a good ATT signal for years... No surprise since they've claimed to have enterprise level security and aren't even close, again...

Good grief, I was looking for an older article about this and it turns out the problems are still alive and kicking...

iPhone security flaw will have companies thinking twice

[scorpiodsu]

Yeah I don't like the sound of that "fix". All it will do it "correctly" show signal strength. The thing is, this doesn't solve the problem of actually losing service and dropping calls because of it. I know at my desk at work, my data slows down a little so just fixing what it displays won't help that. And if you cover it long enough you can force the phone into edge or no service. Simply adjusting it so the correct bars shows doesn't address those problems. I do agree that the iPhone 4 does have way better signal and data speeds than my 3GS but because of the positioning of the antenna it's so much more susceptible to dropping signal and losing data speeds. Best thing to do, if you want to keep the phone in spite get a bumper. My wife loves it, it spite. Me, not so much because I am not loyal to anyone and will leave in a hearbeat.

[oran0007]

Apple `stunned' to find iPhones show too many bars - Yahoo! Finance

I thought this was hilarious and had to see if someone had already posted it. I love Yahoo! by the way.

It is extremely funny to me to think that Apple can admit that their phones have had a flaw for so long, and the sheep who buy the iPhone will still not even consider buying something else. I like RIM's devices personally, but I might have bought the Evo if the 9650 hadn't come out. I just don't understand how Apple has gotten so popular while selling horribly overpriced items, and now clearly the iPhone is part of the whole thing. You pay hundreds of dollars for a phone, overpay for the service even when compared to other phones on the same provider, and you can't even hold the phone comfortably and make phone calls. Now you find out that their software has been lying to users for years. I have been with AT&T before and will never go back. I'm not happy with Verizon, but I would consider them again if Sprint was no longer going to work for me. Both Verizon and Sprint now have phones which compete well with the iPhone and I personally think the Evo wins outright. So why stay with AT&T and pay over $130 per month for the iPhone?

[scorpiodsu]

I thought this was hilarious and had to see if someone had already posted it. I love Yahoo! by the way.

It is extremely funny to me to think that Apple can admit that their phones have had a flaw for so long, and the sheep who buy the iPhone will still not even consider buying something else. I like RIM's devices personally, but I might have bought the Evo if the 9650 hadn't come out. I just don't understand how Apple has gotten so popular while selling horribly overpriced items, and now clearly the iPhone is part of the whole thing. You pay hundreds of dollars for a phone, overpay for the service even when compared to other phones on the same provider, and you can't even hold the phone comfortably and make phone calls. Now you find out that their software has been lying to users for years. I have been with AT&T before and will never go back. I'm not happy with Verizon, but I would consider them again if Sprint was no longer going to work for me. Both Verizon and Sprint now have phones which compete well with the iPhone and I personally think the Evo wins outright. So why stay with AT&T and pay over $130 per month for the iPhone?

Just remember that everyone doesn't jump ship for phones. And the iPhone, even with it's issues is still the best phone offered on AT&T. So some people will suck it up and deal with it. And some don't really have a decrease in performance and other will just get a bumper and problem solved. Much like Storm users had to deal with all the issues with their phone because they wanted (at that time) the best touchscreen phone on VZW even with it's problem. So it's easier for people to just get a bumper and have no issues than to switch carriers for a phone they don't want. Sometimes for things you like, you are more tolerant of some things. Not saying it's right, just saying.

[Roo Zilla]

I thought this was hilarious and had to see if someone had already posted it. I love Yahoo! by the way.

It is extremely funny to me to think that Apple can admit that their phones have had a flaw for so long, and the sheep who buy the iPhone will still not even consider buying something else. I like RIM's devices personally, but I might have bought the Evo if the 9650 hadn't come out. I just don't understand how Apple has gotten so popular while selling horribly overpriced items, and now clearly the iPhone is part of the whole thing. You pay hundreds of dollars for a phone, overpay for the service even when compared to other phones on the same provider, and you can't even hold the phone comfortably and make phone calls. Now you find out that their software has been lying to users for years. I have been with AT&T before and will never go back. I'm not happy with Verizon, but I would consider them again if Sprint was no longer going to work for me. Both Verizon and Sprint now have phones which compete well with the iPhone and I personally think the Evo wins outright. So why stay with AT&T and pay over $130 per month for the iPhone?

I ended up with an iPhone 2 years ago because I got ticked off at T-Mobile for various reasons. I got so mad I even paid the ETF. Back then, I had a BB Curve. I never had any love for Apple stuff and the iPhone was the first Apple product I owned since a Mac Plus in college, not even an iPod. I never saw a reason to get one when cheaper alternatives were easily available. I got the iPhone on a lark and figured I can return it if I didn't like it.

So I get the iPhone 2 years ago and there's a bit of a learning curve learning to type on the touch screen. A couple weeks time and I'm using it like I was using my BB. Slowly, as I got used to the iPhone, I realized just how easy it was to use. Sure there were tons of missing features, back then there was no copy/paste even. I managed to just deal with it. I started using the iPod app. I started downloading some stuff like Bloomberg, Flixter, Facebook, and some dopey games. There's trade offs in everything, and the things I was missing from the iPhone, I just managed to live without. The gains I got from iPhone over my BB, was more than enough to offset the losses.

A lot of people will say things like, "what can the iPhone do better besides a snazzy screen and some dumb apps." You know what, it doesn't do anything significantly better. Some guy posted you can just as easily use the BB browser to look up Wikipedia than use a Wiki app in the iPhone. That might be true, but it's no where near as elegant. What basically happens is that all the little things add up, and you end up thinking something like, "you know what, this thing sucks, but it sucks less than other phones and at the very least, it keeps me entertained."

There's also one other thing I should mention. One of my friends had an iPod a couple years ago and I checked it out. I thought it was the most ridiculous thing ever. You HAVE to use iTunes to manage your music, you can't move stuff around as you please, only basic access to the file system so you can use it as a flash drive. iTunes was also a huge resource hog and was slow as ****. I'm thinking to myself, the only reason iPods sell is because it looks real nice, no other reason.

Flash forward two years, I also have an iPod Nano and my kids each have an iPod Touch that I recommended they buy with their allowance money. What changed? I actually started used iTunes. It's still a resource hog and still slow. It is however, the easiest way to manage music I have seen. It's stupid easy. I didn't have to explain a thing to my kids, they figured everything out on their own. It's so easy, my wife, who still has trouble figuring out how to use a feature phone, can figure it out. Later today, I'm going to pick up an iPad and when the white iPhone 4 is available, I'll be getting one of those too.

Until I actually got an iPhone and started using it, I thought it was the most hyped and overrated piece of crap in the tech universe, nothing more than a glorified feature phone with a built in iPod. I'm glad to have been proven wrong. Yes, the iPhone line has had problems. I get dropped calls like crazy, typing on the thing takes a while to get used to, took forever to get basic features, it's not loud enough, and it just generally sucks. I wouldn't trade it for any other phone in the world though.

In reference to the antenna problem. I don't hold the phone that way, even though I use my left hand to hold it, so I'm thinking I won't have any problems when I do get an iPhone 4. Do I feel that Apple has insulted me or my intelligence with their recent announcements concerning the antenna? Not really, because since I don't hold the phone that way, it won't be an issue for me. It's all PR anyway and it certainly isn't any worse than what BP said after their nonsense. I can however, sympathize with people who do hold it that way being told, "hold it another way." To be honest though, I don't see that being a huge deal either. We iPhone users have put up with a lot of crap in the past, switching hand positions really doesn't seem to be a dealbreaker. The guy at Anandtech has even pretty much said that while it's true the iPhone 4 loses signal, it's still performs better than previous iPhones.

[dcgore]

I always knew there was an "issue" with the meter. I couldn't believe that my past iphones always had 5 full bars in places like my parent's house where i would normally get 2 to 3 with other phones like bberrys

I am able to send receive calls and texts with my iphone 4 when the bars are at their lowest, more of a reason to believe it was the meter.

Apple had issues with the battery meter with a version of their iphone OS, i think it was 3.0 if i am not mistaken, not surprised they have to revise the cell coverage one now.

[oran0007]

*snip*

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying the iPhone has no value, I just think that most people who buy it, especially those who leave their other provider to go to AT&T are only buying the phone because of the hype. I have played with the iPhone and just about every Droid based device there is and I owned a Storm(went to Sprint to save money). I don't like the Droid hardware but the OS is awesome. I do like the Evo, even though it weighs half a pound. I loved my Storm once I got OS 5.0 on it(of course it was mine so I am biased). For the person just casually playing with the iPhone, I think it does not compare. Maybe there is more beneath the surface, but I'm sure that is how it is with all devices.

A coworker recently bought an iPhone and for him it was a pretty good choice, although if he were willing to go to Sprint I would have told him to get the Evo. I haven't played with the Storm 2 much, so I can't suggest it to anyone based on anything other than the basic hardware upgrades I know it has over the original. Anyway, I basically just think that a lot of people end up buying that product and the service that comes with it because they refuse to think that anyone can make a device as cool as anything made by Apple.

[phonejunky]

Apple replied to the Ophir problems in this yahoo article I found Apple `stunned' to find iPhones show too many bars - Yahoo! Finance

[Roo Zilla]

He can return it but the restocking fee is the price of a case to alleviate the issue, and Apple isn't taking the blame for its antenna so you can't return it for free (return due to faulty hardware doesn't cost you anything).

I think they're forgiving the restocking fee. Today's press release seems to imply that returns will be fully refunded, with no mention of a restocking fee. Here's a quote of the relevant part.

"As a reminder, if you are not fully satisfied, you can return your undamaged iPhone to any Apple Retail Store or the online Apple Store within 30 days of purchase for a full refund."

[2000 Man]

Apple is also giving away free bumpers to help with the problem.