News

Apple releases iOS 4.0.1 with new iPhone signal formula

By David Chartier

July 15, 2010 03:18 PM ET

Macworld - On the eve of Apple's surprise iPhone 4 press conference on Friday, that it announced less than 24 hours ago, the company has released iOS 4.0.1. The update brings one single change to the iPhone 4, 3GS, and 3G.

iOS 4.0.1 "improves the formula to determine how many bars of signal strength to display." According to a letter Apple published earlier this month, the company has been using a "totally wrong" formula for calculating signal strength. "For example," Apple wrote in its letter, "we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars."

This update also brings some minor changes to the signal bars themselves, making a few of the lower bars slightly taller in an effort to provide a more accurate representation of the iPhone's signal strength at lower levels.

Whether the formula alteration in iOS 4.0.1, as well as any other changes in the iOS 4.1 beta SDK just released to developers, will have any effect on the iPhone 4's much-publicized signal attenuation issue, however, remains to be seen.

Apple blamed part of the signal attenuation problem on inaccurate signal representation--in some cases, the company claimed, users see a dramatic drop in the iPhone 4's signal strength when bridging the antenna gap on the lower left side because there was never a decent signal to begin with.

Like most iOS software updates, version 4.0.1 includes a full copy of the entire OS (Apple likes to make sure you get a clean system software slate with each update, no matter how minor). For the iPhone 4, for example, it is a whopping 579MB download.

It is a safe bet that Apple will include this update in its iPhone 4 press conference on Friday, which Macworld will report from. iOS 4.0.1 is available now in iTunes. To download and update to it, connect your iPhone to your Mac or PC, and click "Check for Updates" in the device summary screen in iTunes.

Updated at 11:57am PT to mention the visual signal bar change and how to get the update from iTunes.

Continuing coverage: iPhone

Comments ()

Originally published on www.macworld.com. Click here to read the original story.

What is Tech Briefcase?

TechBriefcase is a new, free service where IT Professionals can Search, Store and Share IT white papers and content like this. Learn more

Bookmark content

Speed up your research efforts with content across the web.

Search and Store

Find the white papers you need. Create folders for any topic.

View Anywhere

Open your briefcase on your iPhone, tablet or desktop. Share with colleagues.

Don't have an account yet?

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER

Enter the Security KnowledgeVault

Security is not an option. This KnowledgeVault Series offers professional advice how to be proactive in the fight against cybercrimes and multi-layered security threats; how to adopt a holistic approach to protecting and managing data; and how to hire a qualified security assessor. Make security your Number 1 priority.

Read now.

WHITE PAPER

Cut Communications Costs Once and for All

New IP-based communications systems are being deployed by small and midsized businesses at a rapid rate. Learn how these organizations are enabling faster responsiveness, creating better customer experiences, speeding office or mobile interactions, and dramatically reducing existing communications costs.

Read now.

Top Stories

Free Insider Guide

Excel 2010 Cheat Sheet: Register for this Computerworld Insider Cheat Sheet and gain access to hundreds of premium content articles, guides, product reviews and more.

Applications White Papers

Establishing a Strategy for Database Security is No Longer Optional: The options for securing increasingly valuable databases are very broad and deep, and can be confusing. This research provides an overview of three...
Driving Secure Enterprise File Sharing and Syncing in the Enterprise: GroupLogic's new activEcho is the industry's only secure Enterprise File Sharing and Synching solution that balances the need for simplicity for the end...
The Enterprise File Sharing Option: Enterprises and IT departments need to address several critical security issues when considering file sharing and syncing products. Many of today's solutions do...
Activities Streams Base An Integrated Social Layer: The enterprise social software market is exploding thanks to converging trends of consumerization, cloud, and mobile. In this must-read report, "The Forrester Wave:...
Converged Infrastructure for Dummies: As you know, everything is mobile, connected, interactive, and immediate. This is exactly why organizations need a highly agile IT infrastructure in order...

Applications Webcasts

Delivery Management -- Extending Lifecycle Management: Date: Wednesday, June 20, 2012, 1:00 PM EDT

Siloed organizations continue doing the wrong things and doing things wrong, leading to increased costs,...
Leverage automation today to reduce IT complexity: Date: Tuesday, June 5, 2012, 2:00 PM EDT

Whether your B2B complexity is caused by multiple technologies due to M&A, business or application specific...
BMC Control-M - Single Point of Control Demo: With BMC Control-M, you schedule and manage everything - down to the very last platform and application - from one simple interface. It's...
Operational Analytics - Changing the Competitive Dynamics of the Business: Date/Time: June 5, 2012, 11:00 a.m., EDT, 4:00 p.m. BST / 3:00 p.m. UTC

Please join us for this webcast, as Dr. Barry...
Oracle Database Appliance Best Practices: Business users increasingly demand 24x7 availability of their data while IT departments face the challenge of ensuring maximum availability while operating with limited...