Video: Nike+ over air sync on iOS 4.1 beta

Nike+ over air syncing first appeared in iOS 4.0 beta, but was removed early on in the beta cycle. Even when it was still active, it never was able to send the data to Nike’s servers.  Over air syncing made its triumphant return in first iOS 4.1 beta and has stuck through yesterday’s beta 3. Also, as you can see from the video, on iOS 4.1 beta it actually works.

So the fact that it’s still in beta 3 and the Nike+ servers are now ready to accept the data, there is a strong chance this update will make it into the final iOS 4.1 release.

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Featured post, Nike+, iOS 4.1, iPhone

Charging the iPhone 4: USB vs Outlet

Almost 2 years ago I did this comparison for the iPhone 3G. As the 3GS was similar to the 3G and it’s a time consuming pain in the ass to do this test, I decided to skip it last year. To make up for my break, I tried to make this test a bigger pain by taking readings every 5 minutes. The extra work paid off, the iPhone 4 charging chart is much smoother and accurate!

Test Conditions

• Started with completely dead iPhone.
• Wall outlet charged on standard US 120 Volt / 60 Hz using Apple include plug adapter and USB cable
• USB charged on late 2008 13″ aluminum MacBook.
• iPhone was checked quickly (1-2 seconds of screen time) every 5 minutes for it’s current charge. This was done for both test so even if it had a minimal impact on charge time, the comparison would still be equal.
• iPhone screen was kept at very dim level to lessen the impact of checking charge.
• WI-FI was kept off.
• iPhone 4 was active on AT&T  3G during charge. I had some activity on the phone while charging, but it was very minimal and should not impact the results.
  • During outlet test I received 2 text, a phone call (canceled call), and 1 voice-mail from the canceled call.
  • During USB test I received 1 text.

Click to enlarge

Conclusions

Stating the obvious, the iPhone 4 takes longer to get a full charge on USB than an outlet. What you may not have realized is how big the difference was, an extra 30 minutes! That’s 23% longer to get a full charge on the USB. If you’ve ever had a completely drained iPhone, you know it takes a bit of time before it turns back on. Plugged into an outlet, it took 3 minutes 11 seconds to come back to life. On USB it took almost 2 minutes longer, 4 minutes 49 seconds.

Obviously the convenience of USB charging is great, but if you’re in a rush to get charged and get out of the house, always go for the outlet.

Compared to the 3G

The 3G took 90 minutes for a full charge on outlet, about 31% faster than a full charge for the iPhone 4′s 130 minutes. On USB the 3G took 140 minutes, about 13% faster than the iPhone 4′s 160 minutes. Keep in mind that the iPhone 4 has about a 20% larger battery, so it makes complete sense that it takes longer to charge.

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Featured post, Tips, iPhone 4

The answer to why some don’t see the iPhone 4 bars drop in their left hand

Image from Anandtech

The short answer…it does, you just don’t see it in “the bars”.

I first thought this could be the answer way back on the June 24th during my bumper testing:

I then tested in another room with less electronics. In this room I started with a strong signal of 5 bars. This time around, with or without the bumper, the signal held pretty much at 5 bars. This may explain why some people don’t seem to notice this issue. If you have really great AT&T service where you live, the in hand signal drop may not be as noticeable.

After reading John Gruber’s post backing up my idea, I did a more specific follow up post on the issue:

I think the problem is “the bars”. They serve their purpose for the most part, but when trying to do a test involving signal strength we need more detail. I would argue that 5 bars in one area is not necessarily equal to 5 bars in another. Start with a “weak 5 bars” and you can see the signal loss represented by the bars dropping.  Start with a “strong 5 bars” and the signal may be getting weaker, but never below the 5 bar threshold. In this case it appears to the user that they still have the same signal strength and it goes unnoticed.

Turns out the “not all 5 bars are created equal” was dead on. It was hard to prove this before because the old field test app that showed these numbers was removed from iOS 4. That didn’t stop Anandtech though, with a neat hack job they were able to get the numeric signal number back on iOS 4 instead of the bars:

However, you can see just how little dynamic range iOS 4 has for reporting signal; over 40% of the range of possible signal levels (from -99 dB to -51 dB) is reported as 5 bars.

They go on to test the drop in signal by how it’s held:

Tight grip in hand: 24.6 dB
Holding naturally in hand: 19.8 dB
Holding naturally with case: 7.2 dB
Open palm: 9.2 dB

Now let’s revisit my bars and bumper test with the dB numbers provided by Anandtech:

Strong 5 bars (Naturally held)

You start with the strong 5 bars at -60 dB (-51 dB would be strongest 5 bars), then you hold it in your left hand, lowering the signal to -79.8 dB (-51 dB – 19.8 dB). Even though you have a significant drop in signal, it’s still above the -99 dB threshold for 5 bars, so it goes unnoticed in the bars. If you did a speed test before and after, you would be able to see the difference…try it.

Weak 5 bars (Naturally held)

You start with the weak 5 bars at -90 dB (-99 dB would be weakest 5 bars), then you hold it in your left hand, lowering the signal to -109.8 dB (-90 dB – 19.8 dB). This now takes you past the 1 bar threshold of -107 dB. With 1 bar you can still make calls, but have a better chance of a drop. The bigger issue, at least for me, is the 3G data speeds drop dramatically.

Bumper (Naturally held with case)

I know I was starting with a signal that was on the lower end of 5 bars because every once in a while it would drop down to 4 bars. For this example let’s assume it was -95 dB. Holding naturally with the bumper it would drop down to -102.2 dB (-95 dB – 7.2 dB) putting it in the 3 bar range, exactly what I got during my test.

Another way to think about it in terms of bars would be to add 5 more bars on top of the 5 that already exist. Not as an average, but just adding more detail to the high end. The user that claim they don’t have an issue are really starting out with 9-10 bars in this 10 bar and dropping to 5-6, but those that start with 5 are dropping to 1.

So those of you that were counting yourself lucky are just starting off better, but when you aren’t holding your phone you still have a stronger signal.

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Antenna Issue, Featured post, iPhone 4

Can’t link your Nike+ sensor to your new iPhone 4? No voice updates? Stops recording run? Here’s the fix

I started having some issue with Nike+ on my iPhone 3GS running the iOS 4 betas and even still on the GM. They weren’t show stoppers, but pretty annoying:

- Not getting verbal updates most of the time when pressing the home button
- After stopping to refill my water bottles on long runs, Nike+ clock kept running but would stop counting miles. This would happen if I paused the workout or just left it running

I just accepted the loss of verbal updates and would just end / begin a new workout well it stopped tracking miles. I was excited to try my luck with the iPhone 4 yesterday, but  I couldn’t even get it to find my shoe sensor. No matter what the Nike+ app wouldn’t detect my sensor and had to fall back to using my old 3GS.

UPDATE The fix below may also resolve the other issue I mentioned above in addition to just syncing the sensor.

The Fix

After contacting @NikePlus I was told to do a general iPhone settings reset, reset the phone, and try again.

1) Settings > General > Reset (all the way at bottom) > Reset All Settings. This will not remove any data or mess up any stored passwords for apps and such.

2) After the iPhone boots back up, restart it again. To do this press and hold the lock button on the top of the phone and then press and hold the home button…do not let go until you see the black screen with the Apple logo.

3) Once the iPhone boots back, go to Settings > Nike + iPod and click on Sensor to try syncing it again.  You may also need to give the little button on the bottom of the sensor a series of quick presses.

The first time I tried the above I still couldn’t connect. So I left the Nike+ settings and returned the home screen. I then pressed the little button a few more times, went back into Nike+ settings, threw the sensor back in my shoe and gave the sync another try. This time around it worked! Hopefully this get’s it going for you as well.

Also, according to reply I received from @NikePlus, Nike and Apple are aware of ALL the issues I’ve highlighted here (included the 3GS ones):

Thanks for the feedback. We and Apple are aware that some users are having both problems. Hoping for a quick fix!

Please keep in mind that Apple is control of creating the app for Nike+, as it requires more access than a standard third party app. So don’t blame Nike, there is nothing they can do directly. They can only work with Apple to get it resolved.

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Featured post, Nike+, Tips, iOS 4, iPhone, iPhone 4

Further investigation into the iPhone in hand signal issues

iPhone 4 antenna diagram

I looked into how the bumper case affected the signal loss problem earlier. It helped lessen the signal loss, but still lost a couple bars. I’ve been thinking about this issue all day and decided to dig a bit deeper to see what I could find.

UPDATE For those of you that don’t have this issue, my best guess…I wrote earlier today in my bumper case post:

I then tested in another room with less electronics. In this room I started with a strong signal of 5 bars. This time around, with or without the bumper, the signal held pretty much at 5 bars. This may explain why some people don’t seem to notice this issue. If you have really great AT&T service where you live, the in hand signal drop may not be as noticeable.

Watch the video of this phenomena.

Gruber agrees with this and here is my post explaining it in more detail.

Read the rest of this awesome article

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Antenna Issue, Featured post, Speculation, iPhone 4

Bumpers help prevent iPhone 4 signal drop

UPDATE The final answer on how the signal is affected in hand vs in case.

After some tests this morning, it looks like the bumper case helps with the antenna issue we reported on yesterday. Keep in mind that I used the main 5 bar signal indicator as a reference, not sure how to get into field test mode on the iPhone 4. Also, as the signal can change anytime, for any reason, the results were not always the same. I just kept repeating (many times) the test and this was what I got on average.

No Bumper
Hands off: 4-5 bars
In hand: 1 bar

With Bumper
Hands off: 4-5 bars
In hand: 3 bars

So the bumper did keep the signal at 3 bars compared to it plummeting to 1 bar shortly after picking up the naked iPhone.

I then tested in another room with less electronics. In this room I started with a strong signal of 5 bars. This time around, with or without the bumper, the signal held pretty much at 5 bars. This may explain why some people don’t seem to notice this issue. If you have really great AT&T service where you live, the in hand signal drop may not be as noticeable.

Check out this video of this strong signal room.

The fact that the signal still dropped down to 3 bars even with the bumper on and that I saw no drop in the “strong signal room”, leads me to believe that a software update to boost the output power (like we got in the 3.x days) may help resolve the issue. Apple said a software patch was coming, so I guess we won’t have to wait long to find out…when will iOS 4.0.1 be released?

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Antenna Issue, Featured post, iPhone 4