If you’ve been an Apple user for a long time, you are probably remembering the antennagate -the drama about cellular reception on iPhone 4., as many users complained that the signal dropped significantly depending on how they had the phone, the Apple IOS 4.0.1 update to resolve part of this number.
Years later, designer and engineer Sam Henri Gold was converted constructed iOS 4.0.1 code to find out exactly what Apple did to change users’ perceptions of the iPhone 4’s antennagat problem. SPOILER ALERT: The entire patch required only a 20-byte update.
REMEMBER ANTENNAGAT
For those who do not know the situation, the iPhone 4 came with a drastic redesign compared to the 3s. Instead of a plastic unibody left, the iPhone 4 was almost exclusively made of glass with a steel frame that also served as wireless antennas for Wi-Fi and cellular.
Shortly after the phone hit stores, many consumers noticed that the cellular signal fell if the iPhone was held. It didn’t take long for the term antenna tackle to be caught and spread like a fireplace on social media. At one point, Steve Jobs was so tired of the discourse, he responded to a query from Ars Technica with a Curt Instruction: “Just avoid keeping it that way.”
IPhone 4’s antenna scandal involved the signal strength of the cellular compound.
Foundry
A few weeks after the launch of the iPhone 4, Apple published a letter to the press discussing the question in more detail. At that time, the company accused the formula used to calculate how many signal bars iOS shows to represent the strength of the signal received by the phone.
“Users observing a drop of several columns when they grab their iPhone in a certain way is probably in an area of ​​very weak signal strength, but they don’t know because we mistakenly show 4 or 5 pillars. Their large falls in columns are because their high bars were never real in the first place,” Apple wrote.
The company also said in the letter that it would adopt a new formula recommended by AT&T to calculate signal strength more accurately. The new formula was released as part of iOS 4.0.1.
How iOS 4.0.1 re -calibrated signal strength
Despite the letter and update detailed Apple never exactly what changed in this formula. But now, thanks to gold, we know exactly what Apple was doing at the time – and surprisingly, the development team only had to change a few code lines.
As gold showing in a post of X, the original formula used resulted in calculating and representing signal strength in columns, in four or five signal bars in most situations. This caused users to believe that they had a great signal reception when they did not.
When the signal was really weak, the number of pillars shown on iOS would suddenly fall to two or only one. Of course, this happened when users held the phone in their hands, which made people think there was some kind of malfunction with the phone.
With the updated formula, the fall from each bar had been much smoother and more accurate, so users would no longer think they had excellent signal reception when they didn’t actually do. And as such, the drop-off was in the signal when it was held a certain way, not almost as drastic.
iOS 4.0.1 adjusted signal strength formula for accuracy.
Foundry
You can see a comparison of the two formulas in the diagram above, where red represents the columns in iOS 4.0 and blue in iOS 4.0.1 with the new formula. The closer to zero dbm, the better the signal.
With iOS 4.0.1, Apple also changed the height of the signal beams shown in the iOS status line, a small touch that probably helped reduce alarmism about weaker signal reception on the iPhone.
Apple’s path to a hardware -fix
Still, Steve Jobs wanted to make sure most iPhone 4 consumers were happy with the product, not just the fix. A few days after the release of the letter, Apple held a small press conference where it shared more details of how the company performed laboratory studies on the iPhone 4 antenna.
To help reduce tension, Apple gave all iPhone 4 buyers a free bumper that prevented users from holding the phone near the antennas and blocking the cellular signal. Apple recently brought back its bumper bag to iPhone Air, but this time it is for protection and aesthetics.
A year later with the launch of the iPhone 4S a year later, the Apple relocated the antennas on the stainless steel frame, ending the antenna problem, which suggested the design was actually a problem. But for millions of iPhone 4 users made a little bit of code all the difference.