Apple Acknowledges Flaw in iPhone Signal Meter
By MIGUEL HELFT July 2, 2010
Apple customers love to complain about the reception on their iPhones. And the problem may be worse than it looks.
Apple said on Friday that for years its phones had been exaggerating signal strength by displaying too many bars - indicating stronger reception than there ever was. The problem, Apple said, is a bug in the software, which it promised to fix soon.
Once it does, it seems, customers will be able to see just how bad reception really is.
The company said it discovered the problem while trying to explain the mystery of the disappearing bars on its new iPhone 4, a week after some users began complaining that when they held the phone a certain way, the bars indicating signal strength dropped off sharply. But Apple said the flaw, which it promised to fix shortly, existed with older versions of the iPhone, too.
For a company that obsesses over every detail of its products, the failure to detect this longstanding problem earlier is astonishing.
Some customers say they are skeptical of Apple's explanation of the vanishing bars. "I don't buy it that it is just a simple matter of the meter not showing the right amount of signal strength," said Bryan Hurst, of Hackettstown, N.J., who upgraded last week to an iPhone 4 from an iPhone 3GS. Mr. Hurst said he had had more problems with dropped calls with the new handset than the old one. "It doesn't make any sense," he said.
But Apple disagrees and says there is plenty to like about the iPhone
- The much-vaunted antenna - designed specially for the new phone - works just fine, the company said. In fact, Apple said, the iPhone 4 is the best ever on several fronts, including wireless reception.
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Is it just me, or does this sound like championship corporate crab walking?
Bill Horne Moderator