Funniest announcement EVER about Apple products:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8761240.stm

Steve's "Golden" and very helpful advise is:

"Just avoid holding it in that way."

Let's back up a bit here ... hold it that way?

Sink a few hundred in to a new toy, to find out you can't hold it in a regular and accepted way. A phone that can only be handled in a certain way? Have we gone foward or backwards here?

The official advice from Apple is to:

"avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band".

Another insightful response from Apple:

"Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas."

Gripping stuff, my iPhone 3G isn't as fickle about being touched, so this is due to the new antenna being on the outside, oh yeah and being on the bottom left!

I was going to buy one of these puppies. If the queues were not so long yesterday I'd probably have one here right now. Kind of relieved that I didn't. Apple seem to have teething trouble every time they release something new. All companies do I guess.

I'll most likely wait for Apple to revise the hardware and engineer out this flawed antenna as I'm always going to hold it "that way" since I'm left handed. Guess Steve wants us lefties to disappear or not buy his phones! Maybe he should get some lefties to join his test group so this kind of sillyness doesn't happen again ... I bet someone in the Apple engineering department has known about this since day 1 :-) Impossible to imagine that they don't.

Good luck Apple :-)

Links:

http://gizmodo.com/5571171/iphone-4-loses-reception-when-you-hold-it-by-the-antenna-band <--- this ones worth following as it is getting updated a fair bit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYmVpoccPnc&feature=player_embedded#!

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/06/jobs-on-iphone-4-antenna-avoid-holding-it-in-this-way.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

Update 1: Looks like this could be an iPhone OS 4 issue and not hardware related - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84Lpt2YkF3Q&feature=player_embedded. I so hope so!

Update 2: I bought one!

It is a nice phone. I've not had any issues with discolouration of the screen or serious signal loss. Although when I find a weak cell signal and test I do see the bars drop but so far, and i've not used it too much, i've not had any dropped calls etc.

Dragon Warrior: Bruce Lee is an excellent game that shows off the speed of this device and its graphical capabilities, plus its fun to play :-)

Update 3: Some waffle on the current state of affairs:

apple.slashdot.org/.../iPhone-4-Reception-Recall-Ruckus-Roundup

And the latest, a possible product recall (never!) or a free bumper to uglyfy your nice new iPhone 4 with!

www.bbc.co.uk/.../technology-10641910

Update 4:

www.bloomberg.com/.../apple-engineer-said-to-have-told-jobs-last-year-about-iphone-antenna-flaw.html

Boom Steve! Your loss of % on your stock, just hold it a different way Steve, and it'll all come back LOL !

 Update 5:

Just to try and dispel some of this Apple BS that's been bugging me such as "Other phones have the same problem" Far from it, it would seem ...

“Consumer Reports tested the iPhone and other phones offered by Dallas-based AT&T in an isolation chamber with a device that simulates a carrier’s cell towers. None of those phones had the signal-loss problems of the iPhone 4,” the organization said. “The tests also indicate that AT&T’s network might not be the primary suspect in the iPhone 4’s much-reported signal woes.”

So, can't blame it on a known issue that affects all phones, can't blame the courier, partial blame is put on the user for "holding it" the "wrong way", can't wait for tomorrows (Friday) Apple press conference to see how they sort this out!

Update 6: And there it is ... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10665424 - Free bumper case for iPhone 4 users