3 ms·

The fix to the iPhone Antennagate in 2010 was 20 bytes

53 points by todsacerdoti 1y ago

stephenlf 1y ago
I love that this whole thing was a non-fix to a non-issue. The fix didn’t change any signal strength issues. It just changed the UI a bit.
- 47282847 1y ago
  A cosmetic fix to a cosmetic issue. Still a fix and still an issue :) Some might even say UX is more important than the underlying tech!
  - philipallstar 1y ago
    Only if you define UX as including all the really hard stuff that goes into engineering the device, and not just the externalities. A car that looks nice but doesn't go isn't as important as a car that goes but doesn't look nice.
    - cut3 1y ago
      of course, why wouldnt you intclude all the experience
      - philipallstar 1y ago
        Because the people doing UX are generally just UI people who want to claim credit for all the hard stuff as well. So they have no ability to change any of the experience other than redesigning the cosmetics.
- jebarker 1y ago
  I remember this episode but not the details. Why was it a non-issue if holding the phone did cause the signal strength to drop? Is it just the case that the drop was too small to affect call quality/stability?
  - danhau 1y ago
    I don‘t remember it at all, but based on the post it sounds like it was just a UI quirk that made the signal loss look much worse than it really was. I‘m guessing gripping any phone will drop signal strength, but the iPhone made itself look worse.
    - lern_too_spel 1y ago
      That's exactly the opposite of what the post says. It says that holding the phone wrong caused the signal strength to drop precipitously, but the UI still showed that the signal was strong.
      - danhau 1y ago
        Ok, then I guess Apple changed the UI to more reflect reality?
- jml7c5 1y ago
  No, it was a real hardware issue, too. Applying a thin layer of kapton tape would reduce the drop by 8 dB. https://web.archive.org/web/20241210053556/https://www.anandtech.com/show/3821/iphone-4-redux-analyzing-apples-ios-41-signal-fix/3 https://web.archive.org/web/20241210053556/https://www.anand...
- addicted 1y ago
  This wasn't a non issue. You touched the phone in the wrong places and you would drop off an existing call. Most people solved this by indeed not "holding it wrong" or getting cases (I don't know if the cases worked, but there was a whole industry built around advertising cases that solved this problem).
  - jerlam 1y ago
    Apple's interim fix was to give all the owners a case.
  - pipe01 1y ago
    AFAIK the cases worked because they prevented the hand from making electrical contact with the metal parts
cainxinth 1y ago
Steve Jobs solves iPhone 4 reception problems: 'don't hold it that way' https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/jun/25/iphone-reception-problems-solved https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/jun/25/ipho...
- actionfromafar 1y ago
  That's weird, "don't hold it that way" is 22 bytes, not 20 bytes.
daveoc64 1y ago
Apple changed the antenna design in the iPhone 4 Verizon variant, and in the 4S to really resolve the issue. That fixed the actual problem in hardware - the software fix just made things look better.
- jerlam 1y ago
  It probably didn't help that AT&T service was poor during this time, as they were the only iPhone carrier in the US, their backend was quite unreliable as everyone was discovering streaming video. All my iPhones, not just the 4, regularly dropped calls with AT&T until I switched to Verizon.
- lapcat 1y ago
  > the software fix just made things look better The software fix made things look worse. The "bug" was that the number of bars was misleadingly high.
willidiots 1y ago
To TFA's point - "Bars" are relative and relatively meaningless - [SS]RSRP, RSRQ and SINR are your real numeric signal strength / quality measurements. Not sure about Apple, but on Android, individual carriers can set the number-to-bars thresholds. Two otherwise-identical signals could be represented as a different number of bars depending on your particular carrier: https://source.android.com/docs/core/connect/signal-strength https://source.android.com/docs/core/connect/signal-strength
addicted 1y ago
There are 2 problems to this. 1. I seriously doubt Apple was accidentally displaying more bars on the phone. If it was a "bars" issue then it was almost certainly done deliberately to make the iPhone reception look better than what it was. 2. It wasn't just bars. I had this phone and you would literally drop off calls by holding the phone differently when you hadn't done anything else. There was a genuine problem with the phone that I don't think was ever resolved other than people getting used to holding the phone differently like Steve Jobs told us to. I lost my iPhone and switched to a hand me down from my parents which was a generation older and the service was significantly better.
ghoulishly 1y ago
Author of this thread here, thanks for sharing! This was the first time I publicly went into assembly code so I was a little nervous about screwing up a detail but glad it’s getting a warm reception.

53 points by todsacerdoti 1y ago

I love that this whole thing was a non-fix to a non-issue. The fix didn’t change any signal strength issues. It just changed the UI a bit.

47282847 1y ago
A cosmetic fix to a cosmetic issue. Still a fix and still an issue :) Some might even say UX is more important than the underlying tech!
- philipallstar 1y ago
  Only if you define UX as including all the really hard stuff that goes into engineering the device, and not just the externalities. A car that looks nice but doesn't go isn't as important as a car that goes but doesn't look nice.
  - cut3 1y ago
    of course, why wouldnt you intclude all the experience
    - philipallstar 1y ago
      Because the people doing UX are generally just UI people who want to claim credit for all the hard stuff as well. So they have no ability to change any of the experience other than redesigning the cosmetics.
jebarker 1y ago
I remember this episode but not the details. Why was it a non-issue if holding the phone did cause the signal strength to drop? Is it just the case that the drop was too small to affect call quality/stability?
- danhau 1y ago
  I don‘t remember it at all, but based on the post it sounds like it was just a UI quirk that made the signal loss look much worse than it really was. I‘m guessing gripping any phone will drop signal strength, but the iPhone made itself look worse.
  - lern_too_spel 1y ago
    That's exactly the opposite of what the post says. It says that holding the phone wrong caused the signal strength to drop precipitously, but the UI still showed that the signal was strong.
    - danhau 1y ago
      Ok, then I guess Apple changed the UI to more reflect reality?
jml7c5 1y ago
No, it was a real hardware issue, too. Applying a thin layer of kapton tape would reduce the drop by 8 dB. https://web.archive.org/web/20241210053556/https://www.anandtech.com/show/3821/iphone-4-redux-analyzing-apples-ios-41-signal-fix/3 https://web.archive.org/web/20241210053556/https://www.anand...
addicted 1y ago
This wasn't a non issue. You touched the phone in the wrong places and you would drop off an existing call. Most people solved this by indeed not "holding it wrong" or getting cases (I don't know if the cases worked, but there was a whole industry built around advertising cases that solved this problem).
- jerlam 1y ago
  Apple's interim fix was to give all the owners a case.
- pipe01 1y ago
  AFAIK the cases worked because they prevented the hand from making electrical contact with the metal parts

cainxinth 1y ago

Steve Jobs solves iPhone 4 reception problems: 'don't hold it that way' https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/jun/25/iphone-reception-problems-solved https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/jun/25/ipho...

actionfromafar 1y ago
That's weird, "don't hold it that way" is 22 bytes, not 20 bytes.

daveoc64 1y ago

Apple changed the antenna design in the iPhone 4 Verizon variant, and in the 4S to really resolve the issue. That fixed the actual problem in hardware - the software fix just made things look better.

jerlam 1y ago
It probably didn't help that AT&T service was poor during this time, as they were the only iPhone carrier in the US, their backend was quite unreliable as everyone was discovering streaming video. All my iPhones, not just the 4, regularly dropped calls with AT&T until I switched to Verizon.
lapcat 1y ago
> the software fix just made things look better The software fix made things look worse. The "bug" was that the number of bars was misleadingly high.

willidiots 1y ago

To TFA's point - "Bars" are relative and relatively meaningless - [SS]RSRP, RSRQ and SINR are your real numeric signal strength / quality measurements. Not sure about Apple, but on Android, individual carriers can set the number-to-bars thresholds. Two otherwise-identical signals could be represented as a different number of bars depending on your particular carrier: https://source.android.com/docs/core/connect/signal-strength https://source.android.com/docs/core/connect/signal-strength

addicted 1y ago

There are 2 problems to this. 1. I seriously doubt Apple was accidentally displaying more bars on the phone. If it was a "bars" issue then it was almost certainly done deliberately to make the iPhone reception look better than what it was. 2. It wasn't just bars. I had this phone and you would literally drop off calls by holding the phone differently when you hadn't done anything else. There was a genuine problem with the phone that I don't think was ever resolved other than people getting used to holding the phone differently like Steve Jobs told us to. I lost my iPhone and switched to a hand me down from my parents which was a generation older and the service was significantly better.

ghoulishly 1y ago

Author of this thread here, thanks for sharing! This was the first time I publicly went into assembly code so I was a little nervous about screwing up a detail but glad it’s getting a warm reception.