[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Bugs & Fixes: IPhone 3GS Signal Strength Oddities here

[justsayin]

Do you have call quality issues (this is what matters) with the G3S wrt the G3 or is this just a display quirk?

[patrickalexson]

I wouldnt be supprised by ATT telling Apple to make the iPhone 3GS slower on the network to handle the amount of stress thats now being applied data wise. Maybe they cant handle the constant wave of data usage and need to per say 'meter' it down a bit.

[smpaudio]

Is "less negative" the same as "greater"?

[speal]

You should set both phones up to download large files (>1GB) from the same server at the same time. Put them close together in your car and drive around for a while. Record the download times and see if the speed is really different. If there really is an EDGE vs 3G difference between the two, you could maximize the difference in download times by driving right along the edge of the 3G service areas. I'd be curious to hear how this goes...

[TheCodeWrangler]

"less negative" is somewhat confusing but it would be inaccurate to describe 2 negative numbers in terms of "greater" or "lesser".

Perhaps a better way to describe reading the "field test" reading would be "the closer to zero, the better"

[speal]

TheCodeWrangler said:

"less negative" is somewhat confusing but it would be inaccurate to describe 2 negative numbers in terms of "greater" or "lesser".

Perhaps a better way to describe reading the "field test" reading would be "the closer to zero, the better"

Not at all. Negative numbers can be compared just like positive numbers. -50 is greater than -100. The author probably used "less negative" because the meaning is clear and doesn't have quite the same risk of misunderstanding with the non-math-literate.

[04mePCee]

I am really surprised by this article, I have none of these issues.
- Washington DC

[TheCodeWrangler]

"less negative" is not clear. Both -50 and -100 are equally "negative" since thay are both negative (a number is negative or it is not - this is a binary decision). For the non-math-literate, there is the potential confusion over absolute values.

"closer to zero" should convey the author's point much more clearly in language that would be even easier for everyone to understand

[Tommy122]

I AM having these problems as well as a lot of other people in the Apple Discussion Groups. I think that Apples's explanation is BS. I had a 3G like you and was able to do the side by side comparisions also. Also, I have been to several places that I got 4 or 5 bars with the 3G and had "No Service". My guess is that Apple is being Apple and they don't want to fess up that there is something wrong with the phone. They will find out soon enough when people start returning them. If this issue is not resolved within the 30 day period, mine is one that's going back. All the new features are great, but after all, it is a phone and people need to be able to make calls.

[inq1784]

There is more to this than just a new way of measuring. You guys who are jumping to apple's defense need to chill out and consider that there may be a few bugs in the product. It's ok, high-tech stuff sometimes has bugs, nothing to be ashamed of.
I have had the 3gs since launch day and couldn't use 3g service, for which I pay for, because I would keep dropping to edge and/or No Service. I used to be able to drive down the highway to work and listen to pandora or iheart radio without a stutter on my 3g iPhone but not on my 3gs. It's also affecting the connection to my A2DP Bluetooth Stereo causing it to drop its connection! Not to mention when I drive away from my wifi hotspot the iPod app stutters (I never ever had the ipod app stutter on my iPhone or iPhone 3g). Turning off 3g seems to remedy it somewhat, but WiFi still makes iPod stutter somewhat when disconnecting.
I called Apple and they referred me to ATT to get a new SIM. I did that on Wednesday and it was still doing the same thing in the ATT store before I left. I was standing in an ATT store and couldn't get a reliable 3g connection! The man there said it had to be the phone so I called AppleCare and they said they didn't know what was wrong and to take it to a genius or ship it to them in a prepaid mailer. Since I am 2 hours away from an applestore I chose to ship it. It's on its way right now.
I love Apple as much as the next guy, owned 5 macs over the years and every ipod since the 3rd gen along with appletv and Airport. But when a product doesn't work properly, then it doesn't work properly, and hence needs to be fixed, not told it's a new feature.

[rohitjain101]

IPhone 4.0 coming after summer.
1)Flash player support
2)Quick back option without going to home screen while switching between apps.
3)File browsing and storing
4)Option to attach images, file etc from email app itself.
5)Multiple signature options
6)Manual rotate gesture option
7)Notes app should be more powerful word process (fonts, text size etc)
8)All Grouping of contacts for test message e.g. friend and family groups.
9)App for grouping key social networking sites(for posting universal photos, text to all social networking sites together.
10) Auto spell check in safari browser (like mozilla) when adding text in twitter, facebook leaving comments at blog etc.
11)Build in Flash in camera for night photo shot
12) Front facing camera for video Chat
13) Use cover flow for using multitasking third party apps (limit to 5 apps, not to drain the battery life)
14)Thin quick time player app to run video downloaded from web.
15)Group notification alert or not attended tasks(missed MMS, SMS, PHONE, Chat message, meeting, event etc)on single screen.
Roger Kent