All Articles Tagged connection problems

UPDATE: Former Apple employee Chuq Von Rospach has just blogged about a meeting with an unnamed current Apple insider who let slip that:

90% of the disconnects are initiated inside the phone, which would exonerate AT&T. Most of the disconnects are being generated by crashes in the driver code for the 3G chip, which comes from the chip vendor, not something Apple written and outside of Apple’s direct control. Complicating this — even though Apple is handing over “here is the bug, here is the fix, update the driver”, the turnaround from the vendor on driver updates is on the order of 2-3 months. Said, um, lack of urgency not exactly making people inside the projects happy.

Understated much? If he’s not, as he says, being lied to, Chuq thinks this lack of responsiveness may be why Apple went ahead and bought PA Semi a few months back: to bring the chipset in house and more fully under their own control.

Remember that 3G network connection glitch we mentioned a few days back? The one that might be a hardware problem with a software fix? (Apple Insider weighs in today that this could, in fact, be likely). MacRumors is reporting that Steve Jobs, as he or someone acting on his behalf is sometimes want to do, has responded to an email inquiry about it, and provided the following:

We are working on some bugs which affect around 2% of the iPhones shipped, and hope to have a software update soon.

If this is authentic, and 2% is a solid number, given that the iPhone 3G sold 1 million units its first weekend, and may be over 3 million units now, that’s a staggering 60,000+ users potentially affected, — never mind 20 more countries set to launch later this week.

Unless Apple pushes out a 2.0.2 hotfix, firmware 2.1 has been in beta for a while already, and in general rumored to be heading towards a September-ish release (probably to coincide or follow up Apple’s tradition fall iPod and Mac product Special Event, which last year introduced both the iPod Touch and the WiFi Music Store).

Casey recently posted that the current 2.1 beta removed support for the Push Notification services (Apple’s conceptual replacement for multitasking functionality) to allow for more internal development, but perhaps also to fast-track the 3G fix?

That could leave the 2% in the slow lane for a while still…

Update: Daring Fireball points out that: “The 3G networking glitches may well be real, but it’s worth pointing out that Richard Windsor is the same jackass who issued a report a year ago about the supposedly faulty “film” on the iPhone touchscreen, when in fact there was no such film.”

So add that to the “grain of salt” heap…

Yesterday we asked you if you were having any iPhone 3G network connection problems, and while some of you were fine, many of you were suffering. Well, MacRumors has jumped on the story, providing an interesting perspective (via MSNBC — and yes, the MS stands for Microsoft) on what might be going wrong:

The report said the most likely cause of the 3G problems is defective adjustments between the antenna and an amplifier that captures very weak signals from the antenna.

Hardware would be bad news for Apple and for chipset supplier Infineon whose 3G chipset is now getting a real-world pounding beyond anything they could have given it in the lab. It’s also bad news, of course, for users who’ll be considerably more inconvenienced even if some type of fix is eventually offered. However, Business Week has others sources sticking with the software angle for now:

Apple programmed the Infineon chip to demand a more powerful 3G signal than the iPhone really requires. So if too many people try to make a call or go on the Internet in a given area, some of the devices will decide there’s insufficient power and switch to the slower network.

They go on to say Apple and Infineon are already testing a firmware fix that should be rolled up into a larger update sometime in September (sounds like 2.1 to us). But here’s the question, can 2.1 patches fix flaky chipsets? Can good software overcome bad hardware?

The day after I bought my iPhone 3G I went back to the local Rogers store to see how things were going, and a customer was there complaining that he couldn’t get on the 3G network. The customer service rep tried fiddling with his iPhone, but the settings all looked right. Yet there I was, less than 5 feet away, with full, fast 3G speed downloading TiPb’s homepage at that very moment. Later that night, I saw some chatter that others thought Rogers was down because they couldn’t connect either.

Things had quieted down some for a while, but now more and more reports are spreading of transient 3G connection errors. MacRumors quotes Mark Siegel of AT&T as saying there haven’t been an unusual amount of complaints about the iPhone 3G in specific:

How a device performs in individual situations depends on circumstances like where you are in the 3G coverage, how close you are to a cell site. Things like terrain and buildings all come into play. I’m not denying that people are having a less than satisfactory experience, but overall, the phone is doing great.

GigaOm, however, picks up some analyst rumors about potentially flakey 3G chipsets, while iLounge steps it up with T-Mobile and Vodafone laying blame on the same, with the Syndney Morning Herald claiming an unnamed source revealed that Apple only provided 3G test units to carriers the day before launch. Ouch. Any chip experts out there that could help identify what problem would cause reception problems for a fraction of users?

Mine, like I said, is rock-solid so far, only dropping to EDGE in areas where Rogers’ coverage is weak to begin with. How about you? Any 3G connection problems?