My iPhone 4 signal does indeed drop from 5 bars to 1 bar if I hold it so the lower left corner is enclosed by my palm. If I switch hands, so I touch the lower right corner, it goes right back to 5 bars. The transition takes about 15 seconds, but I can do it every time.
Remedy #1: scotch tape. Does not help.
Remedy #2: putting leather slip case between hand and phone. Works but awkward.
Remedy #3: a 0.25" x 1.5" piece of gaffers tape on the lower left corner, from the speaker edge up, solves the problem. Ah, gaffers tape, you miracle of technology!
Update: I can't make the problem happen at work. Signal probably is much stronger than at home.
June 2010 Archives
Recently I bought a 'real' router, for a small medical practice. I've had a number of fancy consumer/small business routers, and they all are varying levels of crappy.
Most recently a Linksys/Cisco small business router totally died on me and I had to run into the office in the middle of the night to replace.
Also, Mac/iPhone/iPad now support Cisco ipsec VPN as a base feature, so OpenSSL, which is a pain to maintain and support (and impossible to do so on iPhone) has no real future.
So I picked up a Cisco 1811 integrated services router which I *think* has everything I need. But you really kind of have to get SMARTnet, which is Cisco's software maintenance, if you want to get upgrades and have someone to call for help.
The problem is that it's very hard to figure out how to buy SMARTnet. You have to find a VAR, there's no simple signup on Cisco's site. Which is bizarre, since it's purely a software item.
I finally found this site, which looks promising, because they've done little more than make a shopping cart do you can buy the right thing.
http://www.ciscohardwaremaintenance.com/catalog/smartnet.php
Urban Airship http://urbanairship.com/
I can never remember how to do this with bc
% cat file-with-numbers-on-each-line | xargs echo | sed "s/ / + /g" | bc
You should probably switch. They aren't perfect, but unless you are an insane bandwidth hog who never uses WiFi, you will end up saving money.
Regarding tethering: if you have light data usage needs while away from WiFi, you should pay the $20 extra for tethering. It's a lot cheaper than $60 for a MiFi.
Personally, I'm switching to the $25 'data pro' plan for my iPhone and my iPad 3G, and the same for my wife which will save me $20/month.
But I'm keeping my Verizon Mifi, because it gives me good coverage when AT&T doesn't. Plus I have a contract, so I sort of have to keep it for another year anyway.
