Smartphone Makers Caught Lying About Apple!
July 20th, 2010As I speculated in yesterday’s column, the makers of competing smartphones are trying to mirror Adobe’s approach on the Flash controversy with smoke and mirrors responses to Antennagate.
Whether HTC, Motorola, Nokia or Samsung, the spin control reads the same, using near-identical talking points playbooks. They know all about antennas, and Apple doesn’t, and is thus responsible for the alleged faulty design of the iPhone 4.
However, I’ve yet to see any response that actually attempts to disprove Apple’s online demonstration showing how smartphones from RIM, HTC and Samsung react to various forms of death grips. In each case, Apple shows you exactly where the dead spot, or antenna, is located, and the physical position that will reliably cause signal attenuation.
More to the point, there are loads of YouTube videos out there showing how to induce this very common phenomenon on a fair number of popular smartphones.
Worse, the manuals for a number of these products, such as those from Nokia and HTC, specifically warn customers against death grips. If you touch them in the wrong place, signal quality will degrade. How can they possibly claim with a straight face that the problem is primarily Apple’s when their own documentation and numerous demonstrations show precisely the reverse?
The answer is, of course, that in this politically charged society, you really don’t have to produce evidence of anything. You just make the claim, such as the tragically pathetic and morbid one about so-called “Death Panels” during the debate on the health care bill in the U.S. Without getting into the endless emotional arguments about that topic, there were certainly legitimate criticisms to be offered without having to make things up.
The problem in the tech industry is that it appears many of these companies are not really run by visionaries or tech-savvy people. For the most part, the executive suites are peopled by professional managers rather than individuals who are really schooled in any particular industry. That explains the denial and deflect posture they assume.
Unfortunately, with only a few exceptions, the media has totally failed to report correctly and responsibly on the issue. I suppose they believe they are being fair and balanced when they simply report what company representatives say without asking the tough questions. That, however, is a total disservice to the public, which demands factual reporting. They might as well crib the company press releases and be done with it. It would take a whole lot less time, and maybe they should also take a pay cut if they want to emulate copying machines.
This is not to say that Apple is totally innocent of blame. Maybe they didn’t expect that everyone in creation would practice death grips on their new iPhones, but when the uproar erupted, they waited far too long to deliver a smart response. That snide email answer from Steve Jobs to just hold the phone differently didn’t help matters, and Apple’s proclamation that they displayed the bars incorrectly may have been true, but it didn’t go down too well. Few believed it, regardless of the truth of the matter.
Certainly, Apple and Steve Jobs in particular did some really positive damage control during that Friday press conference. Jobs outlined the problem clearly, with real evidence to back up what he said. If you didn’t believe him, all you had to do was take one of the phones Apple tested and see if you could duplicate the symptoms using the very same death grip.
I also continue to wonder why this became such an important issue. It’s not as if there aren’t more important things to report than whether you can affect a mobile phone’s reception by holding it the wrong way. I’d think the sad state of the economy, the oil spill in the Gulf, and a host of other issues that impact our planet would rate far higher on the priority scale.
On the other hand, maybe Apple’s marketing approach, calling the new iPhone “magical,” was sufficient to encourage people to see if the emperor had any clothes. In the end, it’s just a smartphone, folks, as imperfect as any, despite a few compelling features that make it more fun than most other gadgets of its type.
Besides, Apple has been on a roll, becoming the number one tech company on the planet via market cap. Their income may soon exceed that of Microsoft, which would only cement that position. Despite their ongoing success, Apple has been poised for a fall, and the media is just delighted to turn a winner into a loser with the slightest incentive.
But that ZDNet writer who is now suggesting that Steve Jobs retire as a result of Antennagate is little more than a clueless idiot!
On the long haul, Apple will overcome this problem, but I rather suspect you’ll see an iPhone 5 far sooner as a result, maybe even early in 2011. That, of course, depends on whether or not the current model remains on the back order list and if demand somehow nosedives.
Or maybe the death grip will be a perverse incentive for some to just buy it anyway and see if they can duplicate those symptoms too.
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Gene, I am sorry to have to say this, but you have been co-opted by Apple’s hyperbolic use of the term “death grip”.
It not only was foreseeable that the iPhone would be held “in the conventional manner”, but entirely logical. Apple, on the other hand, were illogical in not realizing this. Until such time as you accept this simple fact, your observations will continue to be as illogical as Apple’s disingenuous claims.
Once again, if you can find it, look at Apple’s own commercial which shows every last person in it holding the iPhone with the “conventional grip”.
I am not sure just what you intend to convey with the invocation that Apple will overcome this problem, but it remains to be seen whether Apple actually does anything about the problem and the extent to which Steve’s reality distortion field has been permanently breached. In my view, this affair is much bigger than the story the press has portrayed because it provides a rare insight into a very flawed design and management team.
Apple needs to simply “take their lumps” and deal with the matter rather than to continue a policy of obfuscation and evasion. To do otherwise risks further damage to the company’s reputation.
@Richard, 99% have no problem in making phone calls and holding the “death grip” way. Including myself and all my family members. The only reason this issue is even an issue os because of people like you who have never own an iPhone 4 but love to get their 2 cents in. Sad.
@Richard, It seems that if the notches were towards the top of the phone, there would not have been this problem. Seems like a placement problem. To this day I still don’t understand why the headphone jack is on the bottom of an iPod touch.
@Eon2010,
Well it really doesn’t matter does it.
If you owned a iPod Touch or a iPhone you would be aware the screen “ROTATES” so you can have the image in any direction.
And to clearly understand that having your “Dock Connector and Headphone Jack” in the same place is due to the main design electronics of the iPod touch, It would have added more electronics and a higher price to design a modular jack opposite of the main control Electronics.
Engineering 101
P.S.” The iPhone 4 has NO design Flaw, IF You Don’t Like It TAKE IT BACK.”
@Richard,
Yea, You really believe that Nonsense you just throw out. Richard it’s your reality that is distorted and even with all the proof that there is NOT a problem with the design, you as just a few will not answer the simple question.
Prove that other Phones Don’t Have the Problem. You Can’t.
Also, Why did you change the subject on the Story??? Kind of Juvenile isn’t it.
Take your Hackintosh and your Android Phone and just let it go.. It’s Over Chief.
Richard,
Marketing (the commercials you allude to) and engineering (the real world) rarely match up. Do you know how many times I (or most people for that matter) hold their phones as outlined in the commercials? Almost never.
If you factor the math 0.55% of 3 Million is 16500. 16500 people have reported problem with regards to signal degradation. That’s it. Again, here in the real world, where I use my iPhone 4 everyday, there is no real issue.
Out of one side of your mouth, you accuse Gene of towing the Apple line, while at the same time YOU are towing the media line. As always, the truth lies somewhere in between. Do you own an iPhone 4? If not, I kindly invite you not to speak to things you do not own. If you DO own an iPhone 4, how often has this actually proven to an issue for you? For me, it’s only ever happened when I’ve tried to make it happen. In regular, everyday use, here in the real world, iPhone 4 is a fantastic phone and the best iPhone yet.
@Dan Decker,
@Dan,
You miss the point. The commercial illustrates how people hold the phone when simply told to hold the phone…human factors which are entirely forseeable and predictable. You will note that the illustration of another brand of phone shown somewhere or other has two fingers in an extremely unusual position on the back of the phone, an unlikely hand position in the real world.
As to the 0.55% bit, that is simply Steve twisting reports versus an actual problem. If there is a problem it does not matter how many people have reported it. As anyone with experience in such matters will explain to you, problems are always vastly underreported in a system such as Apple’s (or most other organizations for that matter).
I kindly invite you to speak from experience. I have tried 6 or 8 different iPhone 4 units at the same location and a few seconds apart. Several of them demonstrated a terrible loss of signal strength, progressing rapidly to no bars at all, whereas several of them seemed impervious to the matter. I am suspicious that there are variations based upon either component suppliers or production procedures which are, as yet, undetermined which aggravate the problem of the antenna design itself.
I invite you to be objective. I am not towing the media line at all. I am making independent observations and conclusions based upon as objective an evaluation as I can. I know that is difficult for many Apple fans, but an objective evaluation will eventually determine what is going on.
I doubt that you are in a position to make an objective conclusion that the iPhone 4 is the best iPhone yet.
If yours suits your needs and is not one of the units which is troublesome, count yourself fortunate and enjoy it.
@Richard,
No, Sir, you miss the point.
You decry me for a lack of objectivity while ignoring the data at hand? Laughable. Point is, people DO NOT HOLD PHONES like they show in the commercials. I’ve never observed anyone hold a phone a la a “hand model” in a phone commercial. I typically hold my phone at the tips of my fingers, not in the grip of my palm. I have held phones this way for years.
Dear Richard, please join the rest of us in the real world, where this is a non-issue, picked up by the media, and blown out of proportion. I’m truly sorry it’s not as big a deal as you would like it to be. I’d wager i know more iPhone 4 owners than you. None of whom are upset with it. All of whom agree with my nonobjective claim of best iPhone ever. And all of whom have said attenuation only occurs when they TRY to make it happen. That’s the point sir. In REAL WORLD USE this is a NON ISSUE. Just cotton to that fact and move on.
@Dan Decker,
The point is that the iPhone 4 has an antenna flaw and Apple has put their spin on it to downplay the issue. It doesn’t matter whether or not someone owns one to talk about it or not, get over it. It does matter when making a decision about buying one however, not so much the flaw as it is how Apple has handled it. They fumbled big time on being transparent about it and that is what has ticked people off.
Sure there’s a cure, insulate the antenna from the hand, simple. Apple is even covering the cost of one. But that’s because they know there is a problem with the antenna. It would have been simpler for Apple to just admit there is a flaw, but that would have cost their stock value to drop. They have an image to maintain.
@Rooiabi, It’s been pretty well confirmed that all or most smartphones have similar “dead spots.”
Peace,
Gene
@Richard,
Yours is a reasoned response. I would guess that the incidence of problem underreporting is real, but would you suggest that Jobs added some additional numbers to the total in his presentation to account for this error? How can we validate that? What is the average rate of underreporting for this type of incident?
I would imagine, if they were honest with themselves, Apple are fully aware of the underreporting you mention, and at the same time, they appear to have done the best they could with the actual numbers they had. After the presentation if the numbers go up significantly, then we can talk about the real rate of underreporting, and this may be something a reporter can follow-up, but before that happens, this is an academic concern.
But I would also like to raise the point regarding the experience you describe of trying 4-6 different phones at the same location. This essentially amounts to N=1. Although you used different phones, you were at the same location, so this is hardly representative of user experiences in general. Can you answer whether the attenuation you induced would occur in other places? More importantly, did the attenuation you perceived actually disrupt call quality or loss of data? These are important points.
This is the problem with equating your personal experience (N=1) with the total user experience (N=1 million). And this is also the difficulty that Apple engineers must be confronting, many combinations and permutations of use must be taken into account to get at the real cause (or causes).
I am not dismissing your observations and I credit you with trying more than one phone, but if you are to be rigorous about your experiment, than by all means, be rigorous.
@Lazer Wolfe,
I may not have been entirely clear about the numbers Steve used. Without actually knowing (no one but Steve probably actually knows), I think he used the actual stats from their reporting system and likely did not adjust them in any way. His mission, I think, was to minimize the issue and marginalize those who think it a problem. It appears that he is in something of a state of denial about the whole affair. I think it illuminating that he used the “antennagate” expression. I believe that he used it as a pejorative, once again to minimize and marginalize the matter. Let’s face it, the press uses the “-gate” term ad nauseam. It is a trite, over worked term. Actually, I can sympathize with his reaction, but there is still the matter of “what did Steve know and when did he know it”, to paraphrase the the famous Watergate question.
The phones I tried were at two different locations. What I found troubling is that the units which exhibited the problem went to zero bars in very short order while the others were unfazed. I would have expected a more consistent result. I was literally holding two iPhone 4 units at the same time and then switching hands so that there should not have been a right hand – left hand position issue. As I was not able to simultaneously make phone calls from multiple handsets, I proceeded on these assumptions: zero bars meant that it was unlikely to have a trouble free connection, five bars (which could actually be as low as three “real” bars due to the software configuration) meant that a trouble free call was probable. I did make some calls with these units. Several were intentionally held so as to avoid bridging the gap between the GSM antenna and the Wi-Fi/GPS/Bluetooth antenna. Those calls (which displayed five bars when I entered the number) were trouble free. (These calls were to check out the voice quality at the other end and the volume at my end as much as anything. I will note that the recipient of the call was impressed with the effectiveness of the noise reduction microphone which cancelled out virtually all of the background noise in the store.) Of the people I have spoken to about their experience with the iPhone 4, the overwhelming majority have said that they had not experienced an unusual number of dropped calls so that has to mean something.
I have frequently reminded people on that cell phones are not phones at all, but are very small radios and, as such, have all of the complications of a radio.
Getting the truth out of Apple in this matter may not be a simple task, but I, for one, hope that the company digs very deeply into the matter and presents not just their findings, but the methodology of their testing so that independent testers can duplicate the result of their testing. If it is either a design hardware problem or a production related problem, I believe the company would be well served to repair/replace the affected units. The company’s hard won reputation can suffer if this matter is not handled right.
Overall, Steve left me with the impression that he was parsing words during his presentation as certain portions of it were not fully consistent. I am waiting to see what happens next. If the company simply waits for the news cycle to move on to something else and appears to brush the matter off it would not be good.
P.S. As to the matter of underreporting, I will simply relate a personal experience with the local cable company. I recall one occasion when I called in to report an outage. It turned out that even though the entire city was out there were but four phone calls. During an experience with a large business I was told by a manager that for every complaint about something or other there were probably at least a thousand people who experienced a similar problem. It is one of those “you don’t know what you don’t know” problems. I suppose that the old story of the car deal who told a customer “they’re all that way” is some how fitting. Every once in a while it is true. I recall an entire lot of (brand intentionally omitted) new cars and every last one of the had the right front fender improperly installed so that there was a large tapered gap between it and the hood which stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. Unfortunately, anecdotal evidence is usually all there is in such matters.
@Richard,
THE “antennagate” expression was brought up due to Gawker Media using it 2 days before the Press Conference, Get your fact’s correct.
Also you have allot of time to spread your Anti Apple Fud, But the facts are you have nothing but a Pure Hate for Apple and Job’s,
This is clear in your Winded responses trying to convince others you have a Special Secret insight to anything iPhone or Apple.
It’s very interesting listening to your scripted “Android Forum” talking points, It is amazing that all that you have said and almost to the Direct Wording have been used on the “Android” Site.
Now it is clear that you have a “Tin Foil” hat mentality, And people like you with this dissociated mental disorder that have a direct Target to go after can not be reasonably talked with as an adult.
I will No longer Feed your Direct and Trolling Behavior, even though other users have also proven you wrong.
It is obvious due to the Anonymity of the internet brings out the worst of the worst in certain humans, and allows some with a clear intent to harm or spin real information to accommodate their own diluted way of thinking.
Get some help with all the hate.
Buy a Puppy…………. But don’t beat it to death for being what it is.
Good Day. 😉
@Scott B.,
Scott,
You are one sick excuse for a human being.
Not only are you completely wrong on each of your specious suppositions, but you compare criticism or analysis to animal abuse.
Go away, sicko.
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In all this… AT&T’s network (for me) is hit and miss no matter how I hold the phone, no matter what that phone is. Though it’s better than other carriers that I have had.
I agree with Dan and Gene that the media has picked this particular issue and is running with it. Why? because they know people will read it. For media outlets, It’s never been about the truth, it’s always what will get people to read. It could be the truth today but tomorrow it could be only hype.
Apple/AT&T has done the right thing here and offered a free case. If you don’t want that, return the phone and get out the contract and go buy another phone. But it looks like if you choose to do that, the other phone may still give you issues if you don’t hold it correctly.
Wait, Richard. Apple is not the one who coined the term “death grip”. That is the term created to demonstrate this supposed defect. That Apple should use it in the context to demonstrate other phones’ susceptibility to a “death grip” makes perfect sense. Why shouldn’t they?
Joe
AntennaGate (what a stupid name) will go away once the press realizes that people are pretty tired of hearing about it. Apple’s antenna design one way or another no matter how it’s spun is not very good and I agree that another iPhone will be out before the now legendary June/July timeframe. The real problem with the phone is the proximetry sensor. I have heard from several iPhone 4 owners that self-muted calls, the screen staying on instead of dimming as it should, and a host of other problems occur because of the sensor. Hopefully this can be fixed very soon and again hopefully through software. I won’t be buying an iPhone 4 myself (I have a perfecty fine 32GB 3GS) because this time around they didn’t increase the storage which is more important to me than a nicer screen and a front-facing camera.
@Guy,
As Reported by jobs, The fix will be in the next week, for the proximetry sensor, its software.
And again, there is NO Defect on the iPhone4. It’s Better then the 3G reception.
Don’t start buying into all the Anti Apple Fud also before you do some research.
You are absolutely correct about the media. However, I’m not sure the public demands factual reporting. The sad fact is that most apparently don’t. Critical thinking by pundits, journalists, faux journalists and the public is a rare thing.
Tech pundits hate Apple. They always have. Ballmer never gets the kind of ridicule Jobs gets. Never. Either they are shills or can’t stand Apple being successful. They refuse to drop it because they want to stick a fork in Apple and roast them. I thought Jobs was brilliant in his demo Friday. He said what needed to be said and proved it’s an issue with many popular phones. Are the tech pundits saying it isn’t? No. They just don’t want to talk about it. They would rather keep pointing a finger at Apple and turn a blind eye to the truth.
@Blad_Rnr,
Ballmer never gets the kind of ridicule…you bet he does not, he will send someone to break your legs. (Just kidding Mr. Ballmer.)
Since seeing the Apple conference I find myself asking people with smart phones to try the “death grip”, which is not Apples invented term. In the 2 cases thus far, HTC Hero and BB Storm, the signal dropped dramatically. More importantly, in both cases the user had issues occasionally in the past and assumed it was their movement which caused the drop out. Both admitted occasionally, though rarely, holding the phone that way and are now wondering if this was the cause of some of their less than stellar phone conversations. I suggested they call their carrier and log a complaint something like “Hey! I asked for an HTC Hero and you sold me an Apple iPhone 4!!! No really, it ONLY happens to the iPhone”
As the song goes: “If you don’t like it, don’t buy it”.
As I have said before, entering politics into a technical discussion is fraught with danger, Gene. It asks for a rebuttal which is off topic. This would happen even if you were speaking the truth.
Every country which implements Socialized Medicine has Death Panels which decide who qualifies for treatment. This is a necessary consequence of the government promising more than it can deliver. People with minor ailments flood the system demanding free services and this eats up the money necessary to treat people with more serious problems.
In other countries, the most common way for Death Panels to operate is to delay services until most of the patients die. Or to refuse treatment which would make life more comfortable for the elderly. Even Obama said that the elderly should take drugs rather than getting expensive surgery.
You are technically correct that the Death Panels were not implemented in the Health Care bill. That would have been too straight forward and honest for the Progressives. The enabling legislation was in Obama’s first Stimulus package. The Progressives were quite willing to enact this deadly program, piecemeal, inside a 2500 page bill which no one had read.
There were hundreds of poison pills inside the Stimulus Package, just like there has been in every law which the Democrats have passed. It takes months or years to learn how the administration intends to enforce them. The lies told to get the bills passed mean nothing. Remember the penalties for not providing health care for employees? The IRS calls them the taxes they always were. Bart Stupak sold his soul to Obama on the promise that abortion would not be federally funded, but that practice will start this year.
Officials in the Obama administration have declared that it is inevitable and proper that most of the money be reserved for the healthy. These Officials intend to restrict money spent on the very young and the old. Since the bulk of a person’s medical care is used up in the last six months of life, it is easy for the administration to cut off services before that money is spent. The wealthy and powerful among us can always fly to Mexico or the Caribbean for treatment when our private medical system is shut down. No longer will the US be a haven for people fleeing from Europe’s Socialist Medicine.
There is ample evidence of these facts in Canada’s and England’s Medical Systems, but a person needs to have an open mind to look at it. I seriously doubt that you would look at the evidence.
The only way a person can remain a Liberal is to restrict themselves to approved channels of information. Even honest inquiry must be discouraged. It was studying Keynesian Economics which caused me, after a couple of years, to leave the Democrat party. Keynes was so patently false and duplicitous that I could not remain.
Who intentionally stays around the deluded? The insanity of Socialized medicine will be coming home to even you, Gene. The question is, merely, how long you will lie to yourself about it.
@Louis Wheeler, You are taking this way beyond the scope of my comment and engaging in an area of discussion that’s simply not otherwise germane to our topic. I only have a few things to say, and please, Louis, no follow ups.
This is not socialized medicine. The U.S. health care law gives the private insurance companies up to 30 million more new customers. It has nothing to do with socialized medicine, except for Medicare and Madicaid, which we’ve already had for years.
Private health insurance companies already ration health care by picking and choosing which claims to pay, which claims to deny, and which customers to drop. There is no death panel in the bill. Never was.
As I said, we’re done with this subject and the silly fantasies that have surrounded it.
Have a nice day.
Peace,
Gene
@Gene Steinberg,
Gene, I know you did not want to go further on the “death panel” topic, but………………
the following link from the UK Telegraph newspaper basically confirms it. The term “Death Panel” is unfortunate, but that is the effect.
Again, sorry, but…………this is what we too will have.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/7908742/Axe-falls-on-NHS-services.html
@Ken Heins, I am not, of course, discussing health care in the UK. There was never a death panel in the U.S. It was always a fabrication created by opponents of the health care bill to frighten people.
Peace,
Gene
@Gene Steinberg,
You are missing the point about Sarah Palin’s remarks. It was never about what happened the past, but what the future will bring.
Hope and Change was Obama’s agenda; what kind of hope and change is important. This is especially so because Obama was vague about his intentions. The less specific he is, the more we must speculate about his goals. His intentions are all the more ominous, because he does not seem to pay attention to the American public. On a host of issues, the public opinion polls are overwhelmingly against him. He counters their will and does not care that a huge political backlash is headed his way. He is betting on the idea that his legislation will not be overturned during his term of office and it will be too late to change America back when he is replaced.
The Death Panels, which have occurred in every socialized medical scheme, are the tiniest part of Obama’s agenda. He intends an upheaval in our economy, society and politics. Neither he, nor his advisors, were reticent about his intentions. Every time one of his, or his advisors, videos surface he must deny them, because it makes enacting his legislation more difficult.
Obama is intentionally placing America’a back against the wall. His acts confirm a belief that America will embrace the Social Democratic State he is erecting. I believe that this belief is untrue. America will be utterly transformed by his actions, but in ways that he would disapprove of.
Obama is no FDR and America is neither trusting, nor complacent. The vast majority of Americas hold conservative values, although many of them have been voting democrat or not voting at all. That will change. It must change or the American Republic is dead.
@Louis Wheeler, Why am I bored by this nonsense?
Peace,
Gene
According to studies a large percentage of US population is obese!!! It must be the fat in their hands that is shielding the signal and the fat in body that is absorbing the signal!!!
I’m not sure that the argument “few people would hold it that way” means “there is no design flaw.” On my car the Traction Control on-off is mounted on the end of my gearshift (which is attached the steering column) . The way that normal people use gearshifts would leave this unaffected, but I bet there are a few people who shift gears by cupping the end of the stick in the palm of their hand, thereby inadvertently turning off the Traction Control and exposing themselves to an increased risk of having an accident. Even though this would be an uncommon, maybe even a rare, occurrence, I still regard it as a significant design flaw, since “what could a stupid person do to screw this thing up?” is a question ergonomic engineers need to ask.
They should learn to “hold it the right way!”
This is meant seriously.
I drive a stick shift. If I get into a car with an automatic I ADAPT!
etc. etc. for any number of imagined scenarios.
Unless it required unreasonable contortions (I don’t know. I don’t have one.) learning to move your grip slightly is no big deal.
That doesn’t change the fact that there may be a design flaw and that Apple handled the issue poorly. It’s the magnitude of the response and the mindless reporting of much of the media, bloggers and respondents that bother me much more than the actual iPhone problem.
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I would invite the author and the others on this post who claimed that Apple was slow to respond and handled this poorly suggest how Apple should have done better. Mr Job and Apple as a corporation have had a lot of experience over the years handling issues like this. Perhaps he should not have taken the time to:
1. discover the extent of the problem
2. the root cause of the problem
3. what will fix the problem
The impatiences of the media with an axe to grind can deafening to the truth that they really do not seek and that the public at large who they claim to service.
Within a few days of the initial reports regarding the issue of the death grip, Apple put out a press release that the algorithm used to display the signal strength bars was incorrect. It may have escaped most people harping on the signal drop issue that the root cause had been discovered. Of course that report went largely ignored and only served to be spun as more Apple’s arrogance that they were not addressing the real issue. A week later a software fix to cure the incorrect signal display was released and no reports of retesting was ever followed up by the media because they were convinced that this was not the real issue, Apple was stonewalling and being so arrogant in displaying the real issue they all were convinced would require a recall. I liken the issue to a speedometer in a car displaying an inaccurate speed. If you are in a low signal area the death gripe effect is quite reproducible. In strong signal areas not so much. But under most circumstances despite what is displayed the IPhone 4 operates with little fail. That has been my experience.
I hold my iPhone any way I like. It’s been great! An incredible device. I would not for a moment consider any other phone except, if budget is tight, the $99 iPhone 3GS. But with FaceTime just taking off, that would be hard to sacrifice.
Most iPhone 4 owners will say the same. Even the ones who don’t yet have the free case!