Just as every new day is met with a rising sun, every Apple event elicits rumors of an iPhone carried by Verizon. Some believe that a Verizon-compatible iPhone already exists and is merely waiting for a deal to be finalized.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg suggested that Verizon would debut its iPhone offering in January of 2011. AT&T has been the exclusive iPhone carrier it the US since its introduction in 2007. January is another six months away. What would be keeping this deal from going through?
John Gruber of Daring Fireball believes it's not the hardware. You'll remember when Steve Jobs revealed that "...Mac OS X has been leading a secret, double life," and he announced the move to Intel chips. John believes that a Verizon-compatible iPhone has been quietly existing at Apple, receiving the same refinements and improvements as its brother on AT&T.
The Loop's Jim Dalrymple agrees with John, adding that ongoing negotiations are the current stalling point. "It's reasonable to assume," Jim writes, "that the two companies are in negotiations and the Bloomberg article is just another negotiating tactic, but I don't think a deal has been signed."
Of course, they're both right. It wouldn't make any sense for Apple to finalize a deal with Verizon and then run around like a bunch of headless chickens to get a piece of hardware out the door. Speaking of that deal, Apple is in a great position. The iPhone continues to sell phenomenally well, and since the beginning fans have expressed an interest in the iPhone on Verizon.
Steve Jobs is notorious for hard-line negotiations. It's reasonable to assume that's where the Verizon deal is currently mired.
[Another possibility is that the Verizon iPhone in the underground labs is an LTE/CDMA hybrid device, and Verizon would use it as the flagship 4G phone for the network in the same way that Sprint is currently promoting the EVO 4G Android phone.]
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Apple has said that users have to hold the iPhone 4 the right way to get the best reception. Now it also says it has a software fix for signal issues.
Apple now blames reception issues that many new iPhone 4 customers are experiencing on a software miscalculation rather than on hardware design. But will a software update really fix the problems that many customers are reporting? I'm not sure I am buying Apple's explanation. Since the iPhone 4 launched last week, thousands of consumers have complained that when gripping the phone around the lower left-hand corner of the device, the signal degrades or calls are dropped. Apple acknowledged the problem, and explained that customers were simply covering up the antenna with their hand. CEO Steve Jobs told consumers the best way to fix the issue is to hold the phone differently. His other piece of advice: Buy a $29 rubber bumper to put around the phone so you don't cover up the antenna. Now the company says its engineers have made a "stunning" discovery. People may be finding that their reception is poor and that calls are being dropped not only because they're holding the phone wrong, but also because they think they have a better signal than they actually do. In the statement, Apple says that it had made a mistake in the formula that calculates the number of bars that display the signal strength on all of its iPhones. "We were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong," it said in a statement. "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." Apple said that a fix, which will correct the issue not just for iPhone 4 phones, but also 3GS and 3G iPhones, will be available within a few weeks. But hold on a second. How exactly will this ensure that the new iPhone 4 doesn't drop a call? The answer is that it probably won't. "If the only thing that Apple is changing in this software fix is how the bars are calculated, then this is simply a pacifier for people who like to watch bars," said Spencer Webb, president of AntennaSys, an antenna design firm. "And signal 'bar watching' is a dangerous way to draw technical conclusions about a phone's reception." Indeed, the bars that one sees displayed on any cell phone can be misleading. This is not just an issue for the iPhone, but for all cell phones, Webb explains. Cell phones are usually within range of multiple cell sites. Cell towers in these areas are constantly pinging devices and handing off signals. So it's difficult to truly assess the strength of a signal simply from the bars displayed on the phone. There are also other issues to consider when talking about reception, such as how crowded the network is. Any of these factors can cause a call to be dropped. And when customers are talking about low signal strength and poor reception, dropped calls is what they are really talking about. If the signal is weak and the call stays connected, no one cares or notices (except that a weak signal will also run down the battery on the phone faster). Customers look to the bars on their phone to help them gauge the likelihood that they can make the call and keep the call going. So Apple's explanation--that it is changing the way it calculates the bars--is somewhat misleading. If calls are being dropped, then rejiggering the calculations for the display will not change the outcome of that event. The crux of the matter This leads us to the real problem, which is that the iPhone 4 may be more sensitive to antenna disruption than other phones. Apple has acknowledged that covering the little line on the outside of the iPhone 4 can disrupt calls. Numerous tests have been done, and here at CNET we've replicated the results of these tests. In Apple's defense, covering up the antenna of any cellular device could degrade the quality of the signal and ultimately lead to dropped calls. In the olden days, when people walked around with big brick phones, the antennas stuck out of the top. Even early flip phones had antennas that could slide up. As aesthetic tastes have changed, antennas have disappeared from view. But cell phones are wireless devices, and all wireless devices need antennas. The problem with making the devices slick and cool-looking is that people don't know where the antenna is, and they inadvertently cover them up. Apple itself has tried to explain this fact. But it also acknowledged that some users are complaining that the iPhone is more sensitive to antenna's being blocked than other devices. "To start with, gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars. This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones. But some users have reported that iPhone 4 can drop 4 or 5 bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band," the company says in the statement. "This is a far bigger drop than normal, and as a result some have accused the iPhone 4 of having a faulty antenna design." Webb believes that Apple is right to inform customers that they should avoid holding their phones in such a way as to block the antenna. "This design appears to be more sensitive to the human hand contact than other designs," he said. "But I wouldn't necessarily call this a design flaw. Apple went for a cool design to get the phone as thin as possible. And they took a risk. But it's not something that can't be easily dealt with." Some testing of the iPhone 4 even suggests that the new antenna has actually improved reception of the device over previous versions of the device. The Web site AnandTech tested the iPhone 4 and the Google Android Nexus One as they were held in different positions: gripping it tightly, holding it with an open palm, resting it on a table, and so on. What the testers found is that each of the phones exhibited some attenuation when in different positions. But it appears the iPhone was more sensitive and signal strength varied more than other phones when held in different positions. What's interesting about the results of these tests is that the iPhone 4 actually performed better in low-signal situations than either the Nexus One or the iPhone 3GS. But connectivity is affected when the phone is held in different positions. "I can honestly say that I've never held onto so many calls and data simultaneously on 1 bar at -113 dBm as I have with the iPhone 4, so it's readily apparent that the new baseband hardware is much more sensitive compared to what was in the 3GS," AnandTech says in its blog. "The difference is that reception is massively better on the iPhone 4 in actual use." So what does this mean for iPhone 4 customers? Steve Jobs original advice still stands. Just hold the phone differently. The software upgrade won't likely fix the problem. But not covering up the antenna will.
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PCMag set out to compare the displays of popular smartphones to determine which performed the best.
They compared the Apple iPhone 4, Motorola Droid X, HTC Droid Incredible and HTC EVO in terms of brightness, contrast, color depth, and color accuracy. The Droid X and HTC EVO use a traditional TFT LCDs, the iPhone 4 uses an IPS LCD, and the Droid Incredible is AMOLED.
Brightness: The iPhone 4 won their tests with a brightness of 536 cd/m². It was followed by the Droid X, the HTC EVO, and lastly the Droid Incredible with only 236 cd/m².
Contrast: The Droid Incredible blows away the competition with contrast measured at 39,373. The iPhone comes second at 1097, followed by the Droid X and the Evo at 1071 and 649 respectively.
Color Depth: The iPhone wins in color depth with a 24bit(16,777,216 colors) display. The Droid X can also display 24bit colors but not in its photo application. The other devices are 16bit(65,536 colors).
Color Accuracy: The Droid X and the Evo performed best in terms of color accuracy being undersaturated by 6 and 10 percent respectively. The iPhone 4 is way undersaturated by 36 percent and the Droid Incredible is way oversaturated by 37 percent.
PCMag concludes that the iPhone 4 is the best display of the bunch.
It offers a completely 24-bit color experience, the brightest screen, and great contrast (for an LCD.) The iPhone 4 could be even better if didn't Apple didn't limit its color accuracy.
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This graphic shows why some people experience the iPhone 4 signal drop problems while others haven't been able to reproduce it. It also explains why Apple's incoming software update—which promises more accurate signal bars—won't fix the antenna problem.
Which is sad, because I was hoping for a real fix to the antenna problem itself, not just the signal display (I want this phone badly, but I want it to work well at all times). After talking with some wireless engineers, it seems that this is not going to be the case. Michael Anderson, who used to work at Motorola's FCC testing lab, points out that "it's a fundamental flaw that can only be fixed through a redesign. If that is redone, all the FCC will have to be completed again. This may be a long slow process to fix."
In his reply to Apple's letter, Richard Gaywood—PhD on wireless network design from Cardiff University—thinks the signal display fix is a good step to fix user perception, but it won't fix the antenna interference problem that exists in the iPhone 4:
But if there is no design issue at work here, why did Anandtech and I both show significantly different attenuation when holding an iPhone 4 in a bare hand compared to holding it in a case? And why did Apple themselves recommend "using a case" as a possible solution to the problem? The antenna interference problem According to wireless experts consulted by Gizmodo, the iPhone 4 antenna interference problem happens to everyone, and it's not a matter of signal bars displayed in the phone. However, some people are not noticing it. Why?
Scientific tests conducted by Anandtech, there's always up to a 19.8dB signal loss when you grab the iPhone naturally with your hand, with your skin touching the deadly spot. That's losing signal by a factor of almost 100.
This technical measuring has been demonstrated empirically in both voice calls and internet access by thousands of users around the world, independently of their network.
Experiencing this transmission/reception loss, however, depends on the strength of the signal itself:
• If your signal-to-noise ratio is perfect—like when you have a clear line of sight with a cell tower that is not overloaded—a typical 19.8dB attenuation will leave you with a healthy data transmission. In this case, the interference will not cause any problems to your normal usage of the iPhone 4. Your web pages will load normally and your calls will work just fine.
• However, you can experience the transmission and reception problems when you're working with a moderate quality signal. Since no wireless network provides us with optimal transmission absolutely everywhere, every iPhone 4 user is likely to encounter such problems at some point. In these cases, depending on the signal-to-noise ratio level, the attenuation caused by your hand may make your iPhone 4's signal health drop into dangerous areas, causing data loss and voice quality degradation.
• In the worst case, if the base signal is anywhere from moderate to bad, you will not be able to make calls or receive any data at all
The problem with the signal bars display Apple claims that this is all a problem with the way your iPhone 4 displays bars. Like wireless engineer and PhD from Cardiff University Richard Gaywood explains, there is indeed a disparity between the actual signal and the bars displayed in your iPhone 4.
Like Apple explains, the iPhone 4 doesn't display signal bars correctly. So you may have five bars and your signal may be excellent or your signal may be regular, while it probably should be displaying three bars.
This disparity explains why—when you touch the problematic antenna spot—some users can't get the display to drop from five bars. No matter how hard they try the death grip, the iPhone still shows five bars and the data will keep flowing. But then, other people with five bars will see the phone drop to one bar the moment they hold their iPhone in their hand, touching the bottom left corner dead spot.
As the graphic shows, in the best case scenario starting with five bars, a 19.8dB attenuation has no effect on the iPhone bar display or performance. In the worst case scenario starting with five bars, however, grabbing the iPhone will make both the signal bars and the quality of the signal to drop to bad levels.
Perception vs Reality LIke Gaywood says in his article commenting on Apple's statement, "making the bars more closely represent reality is a step forward, and I believe the perception of the size of the problem has certainly been exaggerated by the miscalibration."
Apple's position is that the reception strength is so much better on the iPhone 4 that, even with the attenuation factored in, it's still better than the 3GS. They, of course, would say that; they've just sold a couple of million of the things. Maybe they're right but I remain unconvinced. The problem isn't as big as some people are saying - but it's not the non-problem Apple are trying to paint it as either. By making the bars display the actual signal strength, Apple will avoid the bars going from five to zero. THey will fix a perception problem. But if you have experienced it already, the data loss will still happen when you hold the phone. The only difference is that, after the update, touching the dead spot will make you go from three bars to one or zero. The jump in bars won't be as dramatic, but the signal attenuation will still happen.
Fixing the real problem So yes, there is a problem with the way the iPhone 4 display bars. And yes, there is a problem with signal attenuation while grabbing the phone that results in data loss and voice degradation.
Apple says that they will fix the former in an incoming update. But their update will not affect the latter.
The real problem still remains: According to the wireless experts, there is an antenna design problem. And I hope they fix it soon without requiring a rubber band, because I want the iPhone 4 badly. Every time I see the amazing display, the speed, and the camera in action, I have cravings.
The graphic above uses Anandtech test numbers and was created by Richard Gaywood—PhD in wireless network planning from Cardiff University—as an update to his iPhone 4 antenna analysis article.
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Apple has dropped its 10% restocking fee for customers looking to return the iPhone 4.
The announcement came via a press release this morning. Apple stated that if you are not fully satisfied, you can return your undamaged iPhone to any Apple Retail Store or the online Apple Store within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.
ComputerWorld was able to confirm this with an AppleCare Support Representative.
Apple may have done this in part to quell lawsuits brewing against the company. For example, in a lawsuit filed Wednesday Kevin McCaffrey and Linda Wrinn accuse Apple of knowingly selling a defective product, adding that they "are unable to return the phone without incurring a substantial restocking fee.
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"There's no reason, at least yet, to forgo buying an iPhone 4 over its reception concerns," writes Consumer Reports
A new article in the research group's Electronics Blog notes that the "signal woes" of iPhone 4 are not a unique problem, and "may not be serious."
"Underplayed in the discussion is the fact that all phones are subject to interference from the human who is using them," writes Mike Gikas. "And even if the alleged signal loss is real, there's an absence of hard evidence that iPhone 4 reception is problematic compared to past iPhones; indeed, there's evidence of just the opposite."
The group adds, "most of the web sites reporting dropped signals and even dropped calls have demonstrated several techniques, or 'death grips' for recreating the problem (which we've yet been able to reproduce in a meaningful way). But those almost always require squeezing the phone hard, in an unnatural way. Those grips may also produce sweaty palms from exertion, with the sweat increasing conductivity—and possibly the degree of signal loss."
Gikas cites testing performed by Anandtech, which "determined that the iPhone 4 performs much better than the 3GS in situations where signal is very low, at -113 dBm (1 bar)."
That report further noted, "previously, dropping this low all but guaranteed that calls would drop, fail to be placed, and data would no longer be transacted at all. I can honestly say that I've never held onto so many calls and data simultaneously on 1 bar at -113 dBm as I have with the iPhone 4, so it's readily apparent that the new baseband hardware is much more sensitive compared to what was in the 3GS."
Using a cover, iPhone 4 performed even better. "With my bumper case on, I made it further into dead zones than ever before, and into marginal areas that would always drop calls without any problems at all," Anandtech wrote.
"It's amazing really to experience the difference in sensitivity the iPhone 4 brings compared to the 3GS, and issues from holding the phone aside, reception is absolutely definitely improved. I felt like I was going places no iPhone had ever gone before. There's no doubt in my mind this iPhone gets the best cellular reception yet, even though measured signal is lower than the 3GS."
Consumer Reports concluded that even if problems do materialize, "Apple's Steve Jobs helpfully reminds new iPhone buyers that 'you can return your undamaged iPhone to any Apple Retail Store or the online Apple Store within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.'"
iPhone jailbreaking community has released tools like PwnageTool, Redsn0w and Sn0wbreeze to jailbreak iOS 4 for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS users. But in case of iPhone 3GS, they only work if you’ve an iPhone 3GS with older bootrom, which essentially means that users who bought their iPhone 3GS after mid-October last year are out of luck.
This might soon change if you go by a new video, which shows iPhone 3GS (with new bootrom) on iOS 4 that’s jailbroken.
AKinGdom1 who has published the video claims:
As of today, Im one of only a handful of regular jailbreakers to be be pwned on 4.0 with a new bootrom 3Gs. That could always change tomorrow, who knows.
The only chance of being able to use a simliar tool to is to have 3.1.2 shsh blobs saved.
iH8sn0w, developer of Sn0wbreeze has confirmed that the video is indeed real:
and Please don’t ask for a release on this. I’m not planning on it.
Alright… If anyone has their 3.1.2 SHSH blobs, NOT 3.1.3. Then I’ll see if I can produce a tool that will do this job…
So it means that:
It will be a tethered jailbreak, which means that the jailbreak needs to be reapplied every time you power down your iPhone 3GS. If you let the battery run out or restart your iPhone 3GS then you will need to reapply the jailbreak by connecting to your computer (tethering).
It will only work if you had saved your iPhone 3GS’s SHSH blobs (or ECID files) for iPhone OS 3.1.2. It looks like it won’t work with iPhone OS 3.1.3.
It should probably also work for iPod Touch 2G (MC models) and iPod Touch 3G.
You can use F0recast to find out if your iPhone 3GS has newer or older bootrom.
Comex, developer of popular jailbreaking tool, Spirit jailbreak for iPhone OS 3.1.3, iPhone OS 3.1.2 has discovered another userland jailbreak in iOS 4 similar to the one used in Spirit jailbreak that has helped in jailbreaking iPhone 4. It might help also in jailbreaking iPhone 3GS with new bootrom without the need to tether it.
iPhone 2G and iPod touch 1G do not officially support iOS 4. However there is a project called WhiteD00r that aims to bring iOS 4 functionality to iPhone 2G users with a custom firmware bundle.
This bundle is created by Matteo Morando and is based on firmware 3.1.3. It is built with PwnageTool. It incorporates several utilities to adds iOS 4 features such as multitasking, wallpaper, tethering, sms count, and more.
There are 3 different versions -- Lite and Full for iPhone 2G and one for iPod touch 1G. Here is the complete feature list:
Unofficial iOS 4 for iPhone 2G is ready (feature list)
Take a look at video demo:
You can download custom bundle on the official whited00r project site here.
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I gonna try this out now! lol. Thank God i gots a hackintosh to make it. I'll try to upload the IPSW if i am successful
Im trying to restore my iphone(to any firmware) I tried 3.1.2 and was getting an error 6. Reinstalled itunes, different computer etc etc but no avail. So i tried 4.0 using the guide from iclarified. But that only reachs the "reinstalling firmware(halfway on the bar on the phone) and stops.
I get an error 14 and nothing after that.
Whats going on? I cant dfu my phone cause its not responding to anything except when itunes is on and it goes into recovery mode not dfu.
u can try yo, remember DFU is before the OS is loaded. so plug her in and hold power and home then after 10 secs release power and hope itunes sees her as a DFU device. GL
I'm currently trying out the whited00r hack. I hope it is compatible with openiboot lol. I wanna get froyo on my 2G too lol
I now booted it, TBH it was the fastest restore i ever did. It is using backgrounder and circuitous as the multitasking and the Voice control App addon. It's basically a modded 3.1.3 IPSW.
Thankfully tonight flow is rocking a faster 1mbit upload, up from 256kbit lol so this is the time frame:
Does it suffer from a significant enough speed loss?
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Actually from the YouTube vid it doesn't seem any different than the iPhone would normally run. This'll have to do until (hopefully) when the iPhone 4 debuts on Apple.com/CA
so far for the past 2 minutes of Cydia and randomness, it works like a normal iPhone 2G. Usual behaviour if not a lil faster as it hardly has any subs running.
I wish there was a way to check but i feel some daemons are disabled.
EDIT: things i noticed not there from video -no wallpaper option for home screen -no "compass" app to restart SB -came with cycorder named as video recorder -no reflective dock toggle
everything else is there.
60% uploaded btw. and i need to do over openiboot exploit. Well i guess it's time to get Froyo in the dance.
Ohhh sheit bro. I now came back on my phone now. About to sleep n want to warn you. SMS is not sending. Messages app is crashing. Sigh. Let me know If that happen to u too pls. It annoying. That's the major screw up. I'll check that out tmrw. Other issue is that activator settings can't be changed. Sbsettings can't be activated. I resprung n saw the reflective dock toggle.
Edit: I restored activator settings to defaults and sbsettings works now.
You could give me a quick (re) rundown of how to make sure Push Notis work with the nimble, inject, etc setup? Want to be sure I get it right (& hopefully it will work this time)
Hope you did. It's basically doing similar in reverse. You are pasting your 4 cert files into the /private/var/Keychains location, getting inject from cydia (well cmdshft repo) and issuing similar commands.
su
[enter your root password]
cd /private/var/Keychains
./inject
in red is the only change.
understand?
If you dont have your old certs, you are lucky! cmdshft and anethema app, push doctor can still grab you a cert. there are over 2000 certs available according to the blog
