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Fix for buggy iPhone 4 proximity sensor being tested (updated)

By | August 3, 2010, 10:12am PDT

Finally, some relief is in sight for iPhone 4 users bedeviled by the proximity sensor bug. I called it Apple’s second Vietnam on July 5 because the proximity bug is a worse problem than Antennagate. Simply put, the antenna problem is easily mitigated with a case (or a piece of tape) — but the proximity sensor bug is a deal breaker, especially when it causes you to hang up on/mute/Facetime calls with clients.

The proximity sensor in the iPhone 4 is what tells it how close the phone is to your face so that it can turn the touchscreen off while you’re making a phone call. This has the effect of a) saving battery power, and b) preventing inadvertent touches of the screen by your face.

The problem is that the proximity sensor in the iPhone 4 is on a hair trigger. It’s either not sensitive enough, miscalibrated or both. In over three years of using the iPhone 2G, 3G and 3GS I’ve never accidentally hung up on, muted or put a call on speakerphone while holding it up to my face — not once. Yet I’ve done it a half dozen times on my iPhone 4 over the past weekend.

There are conflicting reports about whether Apple fixed the widely-reported iPhone 4 proximity sensor issue in iOS 4.1 beta 2. MacRumors says the issue hasn’t been addressed, but Cult of Mac says that beta 2 fixes the bug. As an added bonus, Cult reports that beta 2 also includes a baseband update (AT&T 7.1), which apparently fixes HSUPA upload speed issues — which slowed video and photo uploads to a crawl.

The iOS 4.1 beta 2 update is only available to developers, but it could be released as soon as the end of August if testing goes well.

Update: I hate to be the bearer of bad news but iOS 4.1b2 didn’t fix the issue for my iPhone. I faceTimed a couple of callers today.

Tip: PowerPage via Cult Of Mac

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Apple Macintosh, Desktops, Hardware, Jason D. O'Grady

Jason O'Grady is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

Disclosure

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady is the creator and editor of O'Grady's PowerPage, which has been publishing mobile technology news since 1995. He maintains an advertising relationship with the following legacy advertisers on the PowerPage:

  • Amazon Associates
  • Google Adsense
  • Tekserve

    • Advertising on the PowerPage is brokered by a third-party agency (BackBeat Media) and he recuses himself from these negotiations.

Biography

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.

He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.

After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.

O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).

When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.

Talkback Most Recent of 38 Talkback(s)

  • RE: Fix for buggy iPhone 4 proximity sensor being tested
    Hey, it could be released by tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that, or the day after that. Reliable sources expect it to be released on Montueswedthursfriday.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    dogbreath1
    3rd Aug 2010
  • RE: Fix for buggy iPhone 4 proximity sensor being tested
    @dogbreath1

    Thank you for your highly informative and useful post.

    I shall be contacting you every one of these days to check if your info was in fact correct.

    It is useful to know that it may take up to 5 days by your estimate to investigate a problem, release beta code of an OS update to testing, perform more debugging and then more beta testing until the code can be expected to work for 30 million different combinations of users and phones and networks and environments.

    It is such a big job - good to see 5 days is enough to do all of this.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    richardw66
    4th Aug 2010
  • doesn't matter
    Word is that this is another hardware defect. Apple apparently moved the proximity sensor in the iPhone 4 so it fires INTO YOUR EAR CANAL. Duh, no wonder it doesn't work.

    Finally, not even the superficial "tech journalists" and head-in-the-sand Apple lemmings can suppress the news of Apple's lack of common sense and lack of real-world testing.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    dgurney
    8th Aug 2010
  • RE: Fix for buggy iPhone 4 proximity sensor being tested
    Considering the scope and complexity of issues like this I give Apple kudos for quickly responding to what appears to be a small percentage of customer's issues. That includes the antenna issue. Apple, in spite of the rabid geek squads who hate the idea that computers are being used by the unwashed masses with ease, remains top dog when it comes to customer service.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    dheady@...
    3rd Aug 2010
  • RE: Fix for buggy iPhone 4 proximity sensor being tested
    @dheady@... Drink the kool aid. Must be tasty!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Droid101
    3rd Aug 2010
  • RE: Fix for buggy iPhone 4 proximity sensor being tested
    @Droid101 Thanks for making my point.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    dheady@...
    3rd Aug 2010
  • RE: Fix for buggy iPhone 4 proximity sensor being tested
    @Droid101

    yep - does your android not dispense Kool-aid?

    If not then why are you spouting so much nonsense and bile?

    i suggest getting a new phone, one which is actually better equipped for your needs.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    richardw66
    4th Aug 2010
  • RE: Fix for buggy iPhone 4 proximity sensor being tested
    @dheady@...
    That may be but they already lost my account.
    2 idevices now switched to android.

    Apple blew it with the rabid denial and blaiming the user.

    btw: small percentage? mine and several peers all have varying degrees of prox sensor issues.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    rhonin
    3rd Aug 2010
  • RE: Fix for buggy iPhone 4 proximity sensor being tested
    @zenwalker First you say that they lost your account and then you say "mine and several peers all have varying degrees of prox sensor issues." So do you have one or not?? I am thinking you probably never did have one!!!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Jossef12
    3rd Aug 2010
  • RE: Fix for buggy iPhone 4 proximity sensor being tested
    @Jossef12
    Had a 3G, then a 3GS, then a 4.... took back the 4 and got an android device.

    Make sense?

    Have several peers that have the 4.
    2 have returned, rest still have 4.
    All have had issues of one type or another, some sticking it out.

    Make sense?

    Now, go stick your head back in the kool-aid.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    rhonin
    3rd Aug 2010
  • RE: Fix for buggy iPhone 4 proximity sensor being tested
    ya, it's always the ones who don't own the iPhone 4 that are returning it....

    fewer people have taken back the iPhone 4 than the iPhone 3Gs by double and triple, yet here they all are... all three...
    ZDNet Gravatar
    honkj
    30th Aug 2010
  • RE: Fix for buggy iPhone 4 proximity sensor being tested
    Um, how was point proved again? I'd love to see the rdf in action again.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Helio99000
    3rd Aug 2010
  • RE: Fix for buggy iPhone 4 proximity sensor being tested
    @zenwalker ...that's so weird! Here I thought when someone denies something, they don't hold a press conference and say "we're not perfect" 22 days from a device's launch. That would make them...GASP...responsible! When I had a Palm trio 3 years ago, the sh*t didn't even ring because the hardware was crappy at best and Windows mobile was unfathomably slow. This was an issue across the board for people with the phone, and did Palm do anything to fix it...Hmm...no. Even after years. And here you are complaining about a 22 day window. GET OVER YOURSELF. Facts are facts buddy, so time to wake up.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    bkbased
    3rd Aug 2010
  • RE: Fix for buggy iPhone 4 proximity sensor being tested
    @bkbased
    Which Palm?
    Had the Treo (600 and 650) - poor quality control.
    Good concept but known issues.
    They were breaking new ground with that genre. Never did get it right.

    iPhone? Get real. 4th gen and all they ever do is blame the user - so I voted with my wallet.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    rhonin
    3rd Aug 2010
  • RE: Fix for buggy iPhone 4 proximity sensor being tested
    @zenwalker

    Anybody silly enough to move to a Google spyphone is lost to the world and deserves what they get.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    jorjitop
    4th Aug 2010
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