More Bars My A#@!
Okay, I know we’re a mostly Disney-related website. However, since we do look at things from the grownup geeks’ point of view from time to time, we report on non-Disney areas of pop culture we feel are of interest to grown up geeks.
Apple, Inc., with its close ties to Disney and slew of “must-own" geeky gadgets, has always been near and dear to our hearts.
That could all be about to change.
You may recall last month that I endured one of the worst retail shopping experiences I’ve ever had (i (Phone) Caramba). Circumstances forced me to move up my planned purchase of a new Apple iPhone 3G to the very first weekend that the “must-have” gadget of the century went on sale.
As it turns out, my day-long marathon of Apple customer service incompetence was only the beginning of what’s turning out to be a very poor relationship between me, the Cupertino electronics giant, and a wireless telephone service provider with a death star for a logo.
As I sit at my desk typing this, my new iPhone 3G is perched almost on the windowsill across from me. The iPhone is as far away from me and as close to the window as the length of the cord for the headphones permits.
Why?
Because the freakin’ little phone can barely register one bar of AT&T wireless phone signal anywhere within my house! In fact, except for a few hot spots, my new iPhone 3G rarely, if ever, registers two or more bars of signal strength anywhere in the greater Los Angeles area.
The pin in the center of the map is my house and the dark orange area surrounding it is supposedly AT&T's best coverage.
Image from AT&T Wireless.
I’ve lost count of how many dropped calls I’ve had since switching from Sprint to AT&T.
One of the main advantages of waiting for a second generation iPhone was supposed to be the phone’s ability to access AT&T’s 3G network, which both Apple and AT&T claim is a much faster way to download data from the Internet than the first iPhone’s 2G or EDGE network capability.
In my case, not so much.
As with the bars in the upper left corner of the iPhone 3G screen, which represent signal strength, I only occasionally see the “3G” symbol, which indicates the phone’s ability to access the higher speed network.
More often than not, when I’m not near a WiFi connection point, I get the “E” symbol indicating the iPhone wants to use the EDGE network to connect to the Internet. Additionally, when I can access and use the 3G network, the battery in my iPhone begins discharging at disheartening rate.
Here’s the rub.
My partner has a first generation iPhone. He’s had it since the first month iPhones went on sale. He can use his phone anywhere in and around the house and has never complained of a dropped call anywhere in Southern California.
You can set his iPhone next to mine and see the difference in signal strength. His phone shows five bars, indicating full signal strength, while mine fluctuates between zero and two bars, and he gets a full days use—and believe me, he uses his iPhone!—out of a single charge.
You’re Not Alone
When I first started experiencing connection difficulties, I went to AT&T’s support website looking for solutions to my problems. Not surprisingly, AT&T refers most questions and problems with the iPhone 3G to Apple’s customer support website.
Apple’s support site offered iPhone users experiencing connection and signal strength problems a few things to try before returning to the Apple Store the phone came from; a fate I wanted to avoid at all cost.
Most of the solutions offered by Apple involved either rebooting and/or resetting the iPhone to its original settings. None of the actions recommended by Apple resulted in an increase in signal strength or 3G access.
One of the last suggestions was to check out Apple’s discussion forums to see if anyone else had reported a similar problem.
Jackpot!
The Apple Discussions, iPhone 3G forum, had tens of thousands of posts—so many in fact, that Apple had to close the original thread and begin two others—titled iPhone 3G Reception Problems? You’re Not Alone.
From all over the world, stories of dropped calls, few bars, and poor 3G access have poured into Apple’s discussion forum by the thousands. Apple has yet to respond.
There being no response from Apple, journalists and analysts from mainstream media to tech savvy websites have stepped in to fill the void.
Peter Burrows, in an article for BusinessWeek about the iPhone 3G, reported that unnamed sources said the connectivity issues were “affecting 2% to 3% of iPhone traffic....”
Many iPhone 3G owners hold AT&T responsible for connectivity problems. Apple, Inc. watchdog site AppleInsider reported,
In the US, AT&T has been fingered in the iPhone 3G's reception problems due to the telco's relatively new and limited service coverage of its 3G network. Even in urban areas where AT&T's service maps indicate there should be 3G service, the iPhone 3G frequently fails to find it or maintain a strong enough signal to complete a call.
According to this coverage map I should be swimming in 3G coverage. I'm not.
Image from AT&T Wireless.
Some analysts have accused Apple of faulty design for using Infineon chips, which they believe to be an “imature” piece of technology.
Pointing up the global nature of the connectivity issues, a Swedish tech site theorized the iPhone 3G’s problems might stem from the high production demands placed by Apple on its suppliers.
BusinessWeek’s Burrows, siding with the Infineon chip theorists, believes Apple will be able to resolve the iPhone 3G’s connectivity issues with a firmware update. Earlier this month, and less than a month after its introduction, Apple released version 2.0.1 of iPhone software. It’s widely believed they are working on version 2.1, expected for release in September.
This Just In!
While this story was being prepared, AppleInsider.com reported,
In a quick turnaround from 2.0.1, Apple on Monday evening released version 2.0.2 firmware for iPhone and iPod touch.
The 248.7MB update is available only through iTunes and comes just two weeks after version 2.0.1.
In traditional Apple form, no specific issues are identified in the current release notes, which only indicate "bug fixes" for the mobile operating system.
Past claims by alleged insiders and users have suggested that the update may fix connectivity problems causing dropped calls and unintended switches from 3G to the 2G EDGE network. AppleInsider will update if this or other new features are confirmed with the release.
I’ll let you know if this firmware update has any affect on the connectivity of my iPhone 3G.
In the meantime, I am very happy with the rest of my iPhone’s features. When connected to the Internet via a WiFi network, browsing the Internet is quick and easy, as is sending and receiving files and pictures. My e-mail is always at my fingertips—although with five e-mail accounts, I don’t know if that’s such a good thing or not.
One of my favorite features is visual voice mail, a feature available since the introduction of the iPhone. I can select any voice message I like and play messages back in any order I like. Additionally, I’ve begun checking out the iPhone App Store.
Have you seen PhoneSaber?
C’ya real soon!
Image copyright© Laptop Magazine. All rights reserved.
