It didn’t take long for folks to realize that Thursday’s iOS 4.0.1 update wasn’t a panacea for their iPhone 4 signal attenuation ills. Apple simply addressed the way that the signal display is shown on the device, but a new report claims that a deeper software update yet to come may actually be able to fix the real problem.
MacRumors is reporting that the heart of the iPhone 4’s signal attenuation problem is really “the result of an interaction between communication software with the device’s operating system and the antenna” -- and according to The New York Times, the issue could presumably be eradicated with a future software update.
“One person with direct knowledge of the phone's design said Thursday that the iPhone 4 exposed a longstanding weakness in the basic communications software inside Apple's phones and that the reception problems were not caused by an isolated hardware flaw,” the report claims. “Instead, the problems emerged in the complex interaction between specialized communications software and the antenna, said the person, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.”
Despite a Bloomberg report earlier on Thursday that claims Apple CEO Steve Jobs was aware of the problem a year before the iPhone 4’s release (which Apple has since flatly denied), the new report claims that the CEO did not find out about the signal issues until after the handset began shipping.
“The person said the problems were longstanding but had been exposed by the design of the iPhone 4,” the report states. “All cellphones can be affected by the way a hand grips the phone, but well-designed communications software compensates for a variety of external factors and prevents calls from dropping, the person said.”
No doubt that the swirling hysteria of disinformation on the subject is the motivation behind Apple’s press conference scheduled for 10am PST on Friday. It appears that a recall of the iPhone 4 is off the table, so we’ll be standing by to see what Jobs and Company have to say on the matter shortly.
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