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When Apple was writing the signal strength algorithm, they forgot to account for the reality distortion field.

Actually they put in the reality distortion field in. Currently, ~50% of the dBm = 5 bars. Now the fix is to take the reality distortion field out.

not sure why the downvote. backup source is: http://fscked.co.uk/post/754590440/this-infographic-hopefull...

the RDF was put in back in '08 via OS 2.1 update to "improve the accuracy of the 3G signal".

Agreed. They are really just punting the problem to AT&T at this point. At least we all expect/have gotten used to them sucking.

From Gruber's article, this sheds some light to what Apple currently uses to show 5 bars (graphic shows heavy bias towards top portion): http://fscked.co.uk/post/754590440/this-infographic-hopefull...

The fix coming must be more evenly distributed aka more accurate.

If the "mistaken" network reporting really was an attempt to make the reception look better than it is, I wonder whether AT&T was involved in or informed of the decision.