Translation From Apple's PR-Speak to English of the Letter Regarding iPhone 4

I wish he had commented on the remark that Apple is going to make "bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see". Right, so they're easier to see. Not intending at all to play any Jedi mind tricks on you.<p>How stupid is it that Apple is going to increase the height of the first three bars? This sounds like the kind of design by committee that happens elsewhere. Not naming names, because it happens all over the place.<p>It's as if someone in engineering stood up and said:<p>"Hey, we knew our 'bar' algorithm was shit when we implemented it, and we in engineering said something about it, but no one listened. So fuck those guys in marketing, we need to implement a realistic algorithm, pronto."<p>Then the marketing team responds:<p>"Well, it might be good engineering, but users certainly aren't going to get the warm and fuzzies. Isn't there something else we can do?"<p>UX reluctantly speaks up:<p>"Well, we could make bars 1-3 <i>taller</i>, so they appear more like the old 4-5 bars."<p>Marketing and UX: &#60;HIGH FIVE&#62;<p>Engineering: &#60;cries in a corner&#62;

Seems like Apple put the algorithm in place via OS 2.1 update back in '08. <a href="http://www.newsoxy.com/technology/apple-iphone/article11156.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.newsoxy.com/technology/apple-iphone/article11156....</a><p>If you don't remember, back then every blogger was saying things like "my signal has improved drastically with this update!!11!!1one".<p>AT&#38;T's recommendation = more accuracy and less reality distortion. (Look at the graph Gruber linked to for what iPhone 4 currently uses for algorithm -- ~50% = 5 bars: <a href="http://fscked.co.uk/post/754590440/this-infographic-hopefully-shows-that-im-not" rel="nofollow">http://fscked.co.uk/post/754590440/this-infographic-hopefull...</a>)<p>Next update, you should see OS 2.1's 3g signal update reversed to what it used to be. Let's hope they fix the <i>bigger</i> (read: REAL) issue related to the proximity sensor that actually kills calls.

It's all gone a bit spinal tap hasn't it. Why not just add a sixth bar.

I keep wondering, If the iPhone 4 does indeed have better reception than previous models, doesn't that mean that previous model (3g, 3gs) antenna design is partly to blame for dropped calls and not just AT&#38;T?

That letter is a distraction. It's not about the bar display. The iPhone 4 drops signal by 19.8dB when held normally (compared to not being touched at all), while the previous one drops by 1.9 when held normally. <a href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2" rel="nofollow">http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2</a><p>No software update will be able to fix this. Externalizing the antenna was a fun idea in theory, but badly realized in practice.<p>I bet iPhone 5 will have a yet again redesigned antenna.

Corporations have reached the masterstroke of PR where they don't even have to lie about how they are lying to you.<p>They just tell you outright how they are going to fool you.<p>Next BP will issue a press release admitting how they are moving around sand to cover up oily sand to improve perception and how people should appreciate that.

One thing nobody is questioning: why does the <i>perceived</i> signal strength (what is displayed) affected by how users hold the phone? If the displayed signal strength doesn't correlate well with actual signal strength, I don't see how gripping it a certain way should make any difference??

Translation from Apple's PR-Speak to Mac-fanboy PR-Blog-Speak.

Guys, give up the conspiracy / corporate overlord theories please.<p>Conclusive data already out there from independent sources:<p><a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/07/iphone-4-anandtech/" rel="nofollow">http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/07/iphone-4-anandtech/</a><p>"the iPhone 4 did show a greater dropoff in signal strength in every holding position compared to the iPhone 3GS."<p>"However. . . the iPhone 4’s reception is definitely better in low-signal situations than the other two phones."<p>“Reception is absolutely definitely improved,” AnandTech wrote. "There’s no doubt in my mind this iPhone gets the best cellular reception yet, even though measured signal is lower than the 3GS."

Hilarious. I read bits of the letter to my wife this morning as she dashed about before work (she ordered her iPhone 4 a few days ago) and after the bit about bar display I said "the subtext here is that this is AT&#38;T's fault!"<p>The blame-shifting approaches subliminal. If you aren't looking for the hidden message, you probably won't see it.

If you are in favor of the capitalist system you have to respect Job's attitude of: "I think we have the best products. If you don't think so please return it for a full refund, and buy a competitor's. Thanks, bye"

I was thinking about buying an iPhone 4.0 when I qualify for an upgrade later this month, but given all of the issues with the antenna doesn't it seem like they're going to release an upgraded version of the hardware in a relatively short peroid of time?

<i>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.</i><p>"Oh, and we also disabled the Field Test mode so that you can no longer obtain a quantitative RSSI reading in dBm. Because if somebody were to, say, hack the phone to re-enable it, they might notice that holding the phone by the antenna could degrade its noise figure by as much as <i>24 dB</i> (<a href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2" rel="nofollow">http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2</a>), killing all but about 1/250th of the signal power seen by the front end. And we don't know about you, but that just wouldn't be magical enough for us.<p>"Not only that, but we've either fired the RF engineers who designed our 'magical' antenna, or we're just now getting around to hiring our first ones. Sure, we only release one or two new products a year, but we apparently <i>need</i> three full-time PhD-level antenna engineers ( <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/30/apple-hiring-iphone-antenna-engineers-for-some-reason/" rel="nofollow">http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/30/apple-hiring-iphone-anten...</a> ).<p>"You know, to put the magic in."<p>I now literally feel ill after reading that.

And once again, John Gruber has his lips firmly wedged into Apple's asscrack.

Enjoyable read, but this didn't seem like much of a translation to (plain) English:<p>"...wherein it can suffer from unintended attenuation when you bridge the lower-left antenna gap with your skin..."