Antenna Issue Might Still Have a Software Fix.
By We should have a clear answer to this today, but the NYTimes seems to think that there might be a software fix for the antenna problem.
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. 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. The person said the problems were longstanding but had been exposed by the design of the iPhone 4. 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…and Steve Jobs didn’t learn of the problem until last month.
It seems then that an update could possibly fix the problem. If that was really possible though, why hasn’t Apple put that into the OS 4.1 release? I guess we will find out today.
