Woo-hoo, I just updated my iPhone to the new 2.1 firmware that Apple released on Friday, and the great iPhone unhappiness I had when I got it two days ago seems to have been assuaged. In my home office, I now generally get four or five signal-strength bars, out of five.
Experience will tell whether there's actually a good signal, or it's just telling me that there is, but it bodes well.
One warning to those installing the new firmware: it takes quite a while. iTunes displayed an “updating firmware” for so long (5+ minutes), I figured that something had gone wrong, and I was in the process of starting a web search for “iPhone firmware upgrade crash” when it finally finished.
I’m glad to hear that it’s working for you now. I’m in Tokyo, and it’s amazing to me how many people I know who cannot get mobile phone signal in their apartment. I think they must use a wire mesh in the wall construction or something. In my apartment, I cannot even use my wireless LAN outside the room where the router is located. Come to think of it, I can’t use my cordless telephone outside the room with the base either.
Are you getting an EDGE or 3G signal over there? A lot of people have complained about the iPhone’s 3G capabilities.
We only have EDGE around here, and I was getting a horrible signal. Apple replaced my iPhone and reception is now acceptable, though not great. Maybe the update will do me some good too. I’ll find out tonight.
Since you now like your iPhone a little more, you might want to have a look at a handy iPhone app – PhotoCalc (http://www.adairsystems.com/photocalc/). It allows you to calculate flash exposures, hyperfocal distances, exposure reciprocation etc.