iPhone 4 Antenna Issue Part 4,328.7

So, today there is all sorts of iPhone Antenna news, but I’ll start with the big one: iOS 4.01 is out. Go grab it from iTunes. I’ll wait.

This update reworks the system used to calculate how many bars you phone shows in any given signal strength area using a much more rational formula. It includes only this one change. It appears that rumors were correct and the iOS 4.1 beta released earlier this week was just an initial beta release of a version that will be coming along later. Apple also released iOS 3.2.1 for iPad, which fixes some WiFi connectivity issues and a few other issues (and notably gives iPad users access to Bing in Safari like with iOS 4 on iPhone).

And that brings me to the second bit of iPhone 4 Antenna news… I said before that AnandTech had put out the “final word” on the iPhone 4 antenna issue. His page on the reception issue the comprehensive review article was the best description of the issue out there until today, when Anand and Brian released a new four-pager on the subject, including a look at the changes in the bar-meter iOS 4.1 beta (out today in the form of iOS 4.01).

This article is hands-down the best analysis on the issue out there. I’m not 100% sure that I agree completely with Anand’s conclusion on the final page, but I certainly “mostly agree”. I’m just not convinced that the choice Apple made in the “tradeoff” they describe was the wrong choice. The new design does, after all, work better at low signal strengths and gets better reception in general (except for in certain situations). Perhaps instead they should have just packed-in a free bumper case in the box with the phone, or something like that (and then they could have still sold other colors on the side). Either way, this is a minor quibble, and there is a lot of gray area on this point. Take the time to read it through if you care about this issue at all. They even have (from an AnandTech reader) an exact replica of the graph that I struggled to make for about two hours a while back, before surrendering and posting my pie chart graph in an older post.

Apple’s mappings have gone from having probably the most compressed dynamic range among handset vendors to less compressed than Android.

While the software update obviously does not and cannot address the design of the antenna itself – or make the drop from holding the phone any less – it does change the way the issue is perceived among users. The result is that most iPhone users will see fewer bars disappear when they hold the iPhone 4 in a bare hand. The side effect is that the iPhone now displays fewer bars in most places, and users that haven’t been reporting signal in dBm will time see the – perhaps a bit shocking – reality of locations previously denoted as having excellent signal.

In other iPhone 4 news, AppleInsider is reporting that orders for new iPhones have apparently slipped from 7-10 days out to as much as 8 weeks, and they have word from an analyst who is reporting that there is some sort of hardware fix in the works for future phones, but no full recall. I’m not sure how they’d pull that off without some way of fixing phones already shipped. Apparently the new hardware fix is something of a kludge, according to this analyst. No word on if this analyst knows what they hell he’s talking about, of course. He’s apparently said some dumb iPhone related stuff in the past.

Analyst Ashok Kumar with Rodman & Renshaw spoke with AppleInsider on Thursday and revealed that overseas suppliers have indicated to him that Apple has decided on a hardware fix for the iPhone 4. He said sources have told him that the “mechanical fix” is the equivalent of placing a rubber stopgap on the inside of the phone, leaving the outside of the device untouched.

“From a cosmetic purpose, it’s going to be completely transparent,” Kumar said. “But from an engineering perspective, it’s going to be more of a brute force than an elegant addition.”

The goal, he said, aims to offer a quick fix to address concerns for customers. Kumar said it doesn’t make sense for Apple to recall all iPhone 4 handsets and rebuild them from scratch with a “clean slate” design.

And, moving along swiftly, we have word from Bloomberg that one of Apple’s senior antenna experts apparently warned Jobs himself about the potential for conductivity issues with this antenna system early in the design phase, but was overruled.

Last year, Ruben Caballero, a senior engineer and antenna expert, informed Apple’s management the device’s design may hurt reception, said the person, who is not authorized to speak on Apple’s behalf and asked not to be identified. A carrier partner also raised concerns about the antenna before the device’s June 24 release, according to another person familiar with the situation.

The article goes on…

Apple’s industrial design team, led by Jonathan Ive, submitted several iPhone designs before Jobs and other executives settled on the bezel antenna, said the person familiar with the company’s design. Caballero, the antenna expert, voiced concern in early planning meetings that it might lead to dropped calls and presented a serious engineering challenge, the person said.

The metal bezel surrounding the handset would need to be separated in sections to create individual antennas capable of handling particular ranges of the radio frequencies for different wireless networks, the person said. If a user covered one of the seams between the sections, their finger would act as a conductive material, interfering with the signal, the person said.

Bloomberg didn’t name the source for these quotes, but you have to figure it was someone on the antenna team (if not Ruben Caballero himself) doing the old “I told you so” dance.

And lastly, it appears that Sen. Chuck Schumer is getting involved for some reason. He wrote an “open letter” to Apple to “express concern regarding the reception problem”. If you care for some reason, the full text of his letter is available in the press release his office sent out. As Engadget mentioned, doesn’t the Senator have better things to do?