What is Digg?181 Comments
- KamikazeeDriver, on 02/04/2008, -5/+380"Signal bars - what are they for?"
If I don't see any, it means I can't call anyone. - lukas88, on 02/04/2008, -2/+267Informative article. Here is what the bars really mean and how you should react:
No bars: Wave phone around in the air like you are testing for the presence of lethal radioactivity. Make sure you have a serious/troubled look on your face so that everyone around you knows how important it is that you receive a signal. For optimal douchebaggedness, stand on something slightly higher then ground level like a bench.
One bar: If the call goes through, talk very loudly to the person on the other end, repeatedly warning them that the call might be dropped at any time. Repeat everything 3 to 5 even if they heard you the first time.
Two bars: Complain to everyone around you about your phone company and how they do not provide adequate service in all areas that you happen to go to the extent that your blossoming social life requires.
Three to five bars: Brag to everyone with less bars about how great your phone and service are. Make sure that you take credit for it, like it is somehow because of your awesome qualities as a human being that your phone happens to be receiving such a strong signal.
I find these general guidelines to be most helpful. No matter how many bars, make sure you throw in the occasional "can you hear me now?" quip, as everyone still thinks that is original and funny. - jggube, on 02/04/2008, -3/+134Signal bars are purely for those super-mega-awesome AT&T "More bars in more places" commercials... nothing more.
- CobaltBlue, on 02/04/2008, -1/+111Here is what they mean on my T-Mobile phone:
1 Bars - Call likely to be dropped
2 Bars - Call likely to be dropped
3 Bars - Call likely to be dropped
4 Bars - Call likely to be dropped. - Gizza, on 02/04/2008, -0/+92This post was undoubtedly better than the article.
- 10001110101, on 02/04/2008, -8/+75I don't see why the author suggests 4 categories.. I think most people would just be happy with the boolean "Does it work?"
- Aroundtown27, on 02/04/2008, -0/+56this should have been the article
- GetUthunized, on 02/04/2008, -3/+45They're for reminding me that AT&T sucks ass...
- getoffmybridge, on 05/05/2009, -3/+36I always have all bars full thanks to my cellular signal booster decal. And it was a steal at only $38.50.
- DaMacGamer, on 02/04/2008, -2/+33I know I'm not the only one who says "oh good, 5 bars, time to make a call" and then the second I connect, it drops to 2. So very annoying.
- Error601, on 02/04/2008, -6/+28The problem is you simple can't get the information this person wants. The bars tell you the signal power which gives you a rough idea how well you're seeing the tower. You could have that all the way up but still have an unreliable connection if the noise level is high. The noise level jumps around wildly all the time so it wouldn't be useful as a user level display. You also don't want to be chewing up the battery monitoring the signal constantly when in standby.
- macslut, on 02/04/2008, -1/+20I hacked my iPhone, now the bars go up to 11!
- dvsbastard, on 02/04/2008, -4/+23Well here I was thinking that the signal bars were a perfectly simple and straightforward measurement of signal strength... Thanks to this mostly non informative article, I have seen the error of my ways...
- fsweep, on 02/04/2008, -2/+21Interesting? The article provided no information at all.
- getoffmybridge, on 05/05/2009, -0/+18What, are you from the future? Where'd you park your spaceship?
- inactive, on 02/04/2008, -0/+17Geesh...what about the battery icon, I wonder what is it for ?
- stilesja, on 02/04/2008, -2/+18I think its a legacy indicator left over from analog days. I had an old analog cell phone and it wasn't like today where the call quality is just as good with 1 bar as it is with 5. If you had 1 or 2 bars you might break up or be a little static-y or drop if you moved to a lower coverage area. If you had full signal everything was nice and clear. Now that phones have moved to digital networks its has less meaning. I can have a crystal clear call with 1 bar until I don't have enough signal to maintain the connection and then it drops. Its like how getting analog TV over the air it can get fuzzy if you are picking up a far away station but you can still make out whats going on, where as with digital TV you either have enough signal to see a perfect picture or you don't see anything at all. In short I agree with a boolean system. You can either make a call or not, like a green or red dot. Although, if you are moving, the bars do give you and indication that you are moving away from a service area if you start to see them going lower and lower. Can be useful.
- Hellman109, on 02/04/2008, -2/+17What he means is:
0 bar - no signal
1 bar - text quality only
2 bar - some quality issues
3 bar - no problems
So it would still have the signal bar, but each level means something you can compare across mobile. - ElectroBot, on 02/04/2008, -0/+15We could present it in, what do you call them... right, bars.
- Pixelpaws, on 02/04/2008, -0/+15... but does it go to 11?
- ryanonfire, on 02/04/2008, -3/+16*buys samsung blackjack* hey, wait a minute...
- Jenadae, on 02/04/2008, -0/+13Thank you for clarifying any doubt i had in my comment!
- dvsbastard, on 02/04/2008, -0/+12Abstract ASCII Art?!
No seriously, what the ***** is that supposed to be?! - georgemason01, on 02/04/2008, -0/+12Signal bars have always been accurate gauges of relative signal strength for any phone I have had. I'd much rather see signal strength being measured relative to that phone than word categories.
- HenkPoley, on 02/04/2008, -0/+11No
- Error601, on 02/04/2008, -1/+12Sorry, you don't know what you're talking about.
- Jenadae, on 02/04/2008, -1/+11Your comment shows your true ignorance.
- Kier, on 02/04/2008, -0/+10But his go up to 11.
- Verdanic, on 02/04/2008, -0/+10... So, no bars = no talk.
- wingo123, on 02/04/2008, -2/+12Basically,these days, you have a signal or you don't. Especially with digital. It's there, or it's not. Bars are arbitrary. Anyone who thinks there was ever some 'standard' for bars on a phone is funny.
- Chirp08, on 02/04/2008, -0/+9I had to digg you down because I rarely if ever get dropped calls on my phone. On Verizon the phone itself is the determining factor, some phones just flat out suck, others have no issues. The razor is one of the worst btw.
- onefix, on 02/04/2008, -1/+10Funny thing is, this is actually how it works. I know Alltel doesn't do this with their phones (I think it's because it's defined in the standard...it may also be because they are a relatively small company), but AT&T like all providers get to "tweak" their firmware before they release a new phone.
It's why at 2 bars, my Alltel phone is perfectly fine and those that I know with AT&T are pretty much gone at 3 bars. - bamafun, on 02/04/2008, -22/+31interesting post! I never realized there were no standards for signal strength bars. I do know that the samsung blackjack, which is the windows based version of a blackberry, gets the best reception of any cell I've ever had. =)
- milliamp, on 02/04/2008, -1/+10I don't agree. Having a green or red button for "works" and "does not work" kinds of dumbs the situation down a bit. Where do you draw the line between green and red? What if you have green and the call quality sucks, do you call the carrier and they need to diagnose the problem with only "it was green"?
You could raise the standard for what constitutes "green" but what if you have an emergency, you have what would normally be 2 bars, and the phone says "no signal/red".
Cell phone networks are fairly complex, and unfortunately, the status of your connectivity at a given time is infinitely more complex than simply on or off.
I think the status bar should stay, and I am not sure about you, but I don't see it as some highly technical hurdle that is just too complicated for "your average consumer/user"
Maybe you should go replace the speedometer in your car with lights that mean stop, slow, and fast. - grumpyrain, on 02/04/2008, -1/+9You are awesome.
- Chirp08, on 02/04/2008, -0/+8Why not just have Bar 10 be a little stronger?
- zephc, on 02/04/2008, -3/+11Am I the only one who read that as "Singles bars - what are they for?" at which point I was about to facepalm (until I read the description)
- merwin, on 02/04/2008, -0/+8Some of the older Nokia phones had like 10 bars for signal and battery going up both sides of the phone.
- Myztry, on 02/04/2008, -1/+9Low bars on analogue meant you would hear a static with the voice which the human brain could decipher with ease.
Low bars on digital means you hears periods of silence because 'advanced' phones can't handle something as trivial as static. - Annix, on 02/04/2008, -1/+8Wow. So as a digg user you've never seen sarcasm?
- stilesja, on 02/04/2008, -0/+6Yeah we could call it the "Bars" scale and it would be from 1 to 5 and the more you had the better the signal. Great idea....
- m00nmaster, on 02/04/2008, -0/+6I think "douchebaggery" works good too. Kudos to the post.
- ivantalboys, on 02/04/2008, -0/+6My N82 goes upto 7. Guess I'm douchebagedness +1.
- adooga, on 02/04/2008, -0/+6Please don't bury the weird picture or the artist won't come back and tell us what the ***** it is.
- po43292, on 02/04/2008, -2/+8It's to make people think a little bit, and not just be told factual or inaccurate information.
- thejokell, on 02/04/2008, -0/+6It's not elitism if he's saying it sucks. If he's never seen the bars that means he never has a signal. Which means Vodafone sucks. It's the opposite of elitism. It's poorism.
- grumpyrain, on 02/04/2008, -0/+5I think you two may be onto something there.
- kidendless, on 02/04/2008, -0/+5i was all for more bars in more places, until i realized they were talking about cell phones
- KevinJim, on 02/04/2008, -3/+8"There's an icon in the corner of every mobile phone's screen that we are all familiar with." . I ensure you, I've been with Vodafone all those years and I haven't see these things. I don't know what you're talking about.
- vibrokatana, on 02/04/2008, -0/+4Pfft, we can't tell you that, then we would have to pay for parking.
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