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Doubtless trying to prove Steve Jobs right in his analysis that the iPhone’s antenna problems are a software rather than a hardware issue, Apple has today released a slightly updated version of its iOS operating system before the firm’s press conference tomorrow.
The iOS 4.0.1 update lists just one fix, with Apple engineers noting it purportedly “Improves the formula to determine how many bars of signal strength to display.”
This means users will see more signal bars appearing in the top left corner of the screen, making it easier to tell whether or not one has reception, without squinting and hopping around on one leg waving the phone above one’s head.
The update may, however prove to be nothing more than a band aid, as many still believe the so called “death grip” problem is caused by hardware rather than software, with the phone’s metal antenna wrapping around the thin edge of the phone, externally. Indeed, Independent testing by antenna consultants at AntennaSys claims to have proved the handset’s issues are hardware rather than software based.
According to Bloomberg, Steve Jobs himself had been made aware of the hardware problem before the phone was even launched, with sources claiming Apple’s senior antenna expert and chief engineer Ruben Cabalerro had even written to the CEO a report about it.
Apparently Jobs decided to ignore Cabalerro’s concerns in order to make the iPhone phone lighter and thinner than its main competition.
So, does the update work, and will tomorrow’s press conference turn into a self serving ceremony of backpatting and “we told you so” from the Jobs mob?
“Installed iOS 4.0.1 – antenna issues solved,” writes one iPhone user, adding “luckily I haven’t had any issues at all (using the bumper, though).”
Meanwhile RCR has also installed the 4.0.1 update on an iPhone 4 in our position and was unable to reproduce the antenna issues either before or after the update.
“Apple’s antennas have always been weak, so it’s just the same as always if you ask me,” confirms another user.
Reassuring!
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The author of this post is either a liar, an moron, or quite possibly both. Apple NEVER claimed this last update would fix the death grip issue. That’s a lie, and the users to this site, and especially everyone who has followed the link over from Reddit, should know this site is faux. The quoted Bloomberg piece has already been called out by Steve Jobs personally as being inaccurate. The update is also not a band aid to the issue, as Apple was very clear that they were correcting a mistake on how bars are shown on the screen. The author must go to the Sarah Palin school of facts and journalism. Move along, nothing to see here
“an moron” – hmmm…. at least I am “an moron” with some understanding of grammar, eh?
Mark… you apparently are the moron. Read the description to the update, it clearly states that the update is to provide “more accurate” signal bars” for this issue. I have updated and can confirm that 4.0.1 is not the answer.
I don’t claim to be a writer, but you obviously can’t claim to be a journalist. Your silence on the misleading headline speaks volumes.
Suggest a better headline then, and I’ll update it for you…. can’t get fairer than that, can I? And yes, actually, I can claim to be a journalist… and have claimed to be one for some 4 years now. What do you claim to be, other than an Apple Fanboy, obviously….?
also, incidentally, there appear to be hundreds of sites out there that fall below your bar of what it takes to be a journalist… take for example the headline in the Examiner today: “Is Apple Going to Address the “Death Grip” with iOS 4.0.1?”
or PC Magazine: “Firmware Update to Alleviate iPhone “Death Grip”
or IT PRO: “Apple firmware update expected to fix ‘death grip’ glitch”
or…. hundreds of others.
Sheesh…. I guess none of us hacks can consider ourselves journalists…. whatever will we do to console ourselves???
C’mon, You can’t be that obtuse. You know darn well that Apple didn’t promise this as a fix, that they made very clear what this update was, and that more information is expected tomorrow. Just because other sites on the internet get it wrong is no excuse. A more appropriate headline would have been “Apple releases fix for signal bar display.” That’s what this was all about. Except for some other nice fixes, like expanding the bluetooth protocol that will very welcome for many users. But I challenge you to find any quote from Apple that supports your headline. Link bait is not a business model.
who wrote “promise”? you’re just putting words in my mouth. Headlines are short. Every journalist knows that you have less than 8 words to convey meaning. The headline conveys the meaning, the article elaborates. I appreciate your feedback, but dude, you were rude and not entirely justified. The software update IS supposed to help fix the problem of dropped calls. Is that not a fact? If it’s not for that, what else is it for? Don’t hide behind fanboyism Mark, it looks silly.
But ok, I’ll humor you. Changed the headline
Now go get a beer, relax, let go of all that anger at the shoddiness and demise of journalism (a highly underpaid industry, FYI) and enjoy your bigger signal bars. I’m sorry you felt a headline merited such rage, but glad you engaged us about it. We’re only a small site, and are only starting to grow. Any feedback welcome, so please come back and call us out any time….
@Mark. Nope neither a liar nor a moron. Don’t like the quality of journalism? Do it yourself then…
Well changing the display of how the bars are displayed is relative. What I would wonder is did they change the level that each bar represents, because that would be a band aid. Was there more to the 4.0.1 release other than the display arangement? You can have the phone say it has 5 bars but that might be the same rx level as a phone that shows 2 bars. And on top of that this only represents half of it, there is the uplink side. You can have great alleged RX level, but if you can’t talk back to the system for what ever reason your going to drop calls. It would be nice if there was a standard for all phones, that 5 bars represents overall cumulitive quality of both uplink and downlink quality regaurding actual error rate. Because of diversity, 5 bars for rx might be 1 bar for tx and vice versa, then on top of it its a function of the inferstructure as much as the phone itself. But this is only in my wannabe perfect world….