Apple iPhone 4 Dropping Calls
I’ve been on holiday for the past two weeks, but now I’m back.
iPhone Dropping Calls
There have been lots of buzz on the net about iPhone 4 — the hype, the anticipation, the delivery and the problem — dropped calls. At first blush, it looked like a problem with the hardware of the iPhone 4. But as users have reported in at the Apple Support site, the root of the problem is still not completely clear. It seems to be a combination of the iPhone 4 hardware and the iOS 4. If you palm the lower left corner of the iPhone 4, it ‘shorts’ out the antenna and your call becomes dropped.
Users with the iPhone 3GS experienced the same problem when they upgraded their phones to the new OS 4. So it seems that it’s definitely a software problem. But according to a CNET article
(http://bit.ly/9mzvDQ), some users of the iPhone 4 were successful in eliminating the dropped calls by removing and replacing or applying tape onto their sim card.
Possible Solution?
According to a Computerworld article – (http://bit.ly/bxn7i8) Apple did not address the dropped calls issue. Rather they talk about being ‘stunned’ at the algorithm that calculates how many signal bars to display on the iPhone. Currently, the algorithm
displays more bars than it should giving the user the wrong signal strength available. Apple said they would fix the algorithm issue in a few weeks, but said nothing further about fixing the dropped calls issue. Spencer Webb, an antenna design engineer, quoted in the article that he believed the dropped calls were a result of a design change in the iPhone 4 where the cellular and wi-fi antennas have been moved to the exterior of the case. He recommended holding the iPhone in what he called the ‘Vulcan iPhone pinch’ to minimize contact with the external antennas.
No Real Fix!
Users are not happy campers with Apple’s response. It seems that if Apple does not admit to a dropped calls problem, they are not obligated to come up with a fix – not immediately anyways.
If you enjoyed this article, you may also like: