Two weeks ago, Apple has promised to release a new version of iOS to fix the reception issue of iPhone 4. Today, the company pushes out iOS 4.0.1 to all iPhone users including iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.
With the debut of iPhone 4, it is widely reported that the new iPhone shows a dramatic decrease in the signal strength when you hold the device in your hands while touching the external antenna. The issue is known as the “Death Grip”. In the earlier press release, Apple claimed the reception problem is due to a software bug in calculating the signal strength as indicated by the signal bars.
Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.
The iOS 4.0.1 release is intended to fix this issue. Anandtech has published an in-depth analysis to cover the signal fix.
This is the only fix for this iOS update. So, if you are not using iPhone 4 and already happy with iOS 4.0, there is no need to hurry for the upgrade.
For iPhone jailbreaker, I suggest you to stay with iOS 4.0 and do not upgrade to iOS 4.0.1.
To upgrade to iOS 4.0.1, you can simply connect your iPhone to your computer and upgrade it via iTunes automatically.
alright…so Apple finally releases the fix..
let’s hope Dev team will now release the jailbreak software for us
oh btw, Apple is going to give out free bumper cases.
Hi Simon,
I had my iphone 4 around 3 days back.. & i had the signal problem, it was easily replicated on my phone…..
I just updated the firmware to 4.0.1… & i dont know… the signal bars are little different with lowest bar little taller
Also now i am not experiencing the signal drop display problem… i tried it every way….
may be they have just fixed it how it is displayed.
yet to test for call drops…. will update you
-Abishek
Well who care what the display says. If it says full signal but drop the call is that okay????
Yup sw cannot fix a hardware problem.
Apple knows it’s hw cuz they giving you a free case.
Sw “fix” to fix your mind, not the phone.
Anyone blessed with the gift of thought knows that you cannot improve signal strength with a few lines of code (no matter how the code is!). Defo a hardware problem, metal case and too small an antenna. poor design…, too bothered about image and not bothered enough about performance. trendy fck’n w@nkers.
Apples explanation to the problem was that people were gripping the phone too tightly. I’m pretty sure that phones are meant to be handled, I mean how else are you supposed to hold a phone? foresight anyone? no? just me then?
If this was really the problem, why even issue this supposed software fix? I mean the problem is obviously my hand, right? and not the iphone?
so, apples fix is to modify the software to report higher signal strengths than the phone is actually receiving? Basically, Apple is to lying to us, and reprogramming the phone to lie to us a well. not cool!!!