Apple tells iPhone 4 owners to get a grip

[Boyiee]

People don't hold it that way he is just showing the least amount of touch to still duplicate the problem.

If you hold the phone in your left hand bottom left corner of phone sitting in palm fingers wrapping around right side it creates same contact points. It's also the common way to hold.

I can replicate it sometimes but I usually use both hands since i use both thumbs to type and I'm mostly texting.

[Kurokikaze]

do people seriously hold their Iphone that way though? I can understand people shorting the antenna while making a call but at least from my perspective and I haven't had a chance to hold an Iphone 4 in my hand personally but its been my experience that people don't hold the phone the same way using data then they do making a call. Unless of course you have freakishly long ring fingers.

While no one I know holds their phone as shown in the picture... The majority do tend to hold their phone in their left hand (with the flesh of their palm touching the lower left corner) and use their right index finger to make selections on the screen. I've been paying a lot more attention to this in light of the issue and have noticed that while I'm right handed I'd be able to replicate the problem through normal use. This is a normal way to hold a phone, it is also the way that Steve Jobs held it during the key note and it is the way they held it in those iPhone 4 commercials.

Of course no one holds the phone the way shown in the picture. Also... Do you know how hard it is to make touch gestures on web sites while using the same hand you're holding the phone with? It's near impossible. lol

Edit: What Boyiee said.

[jmc]

To people who are like, "I've had the phone and this doesn't happen to me!"... are you left-handed?

negative, right handed here....

Still no issue, and cannot replicate the issue.

Even been to multiple towns too, currently at girlfriends in the northeastern part of MA (about 45 mins out of boston) and still cannot replicate the issue. So my phone either doesn't have the problem, or I keep testing it in areas with awesome coverage towers?

[archibaldcrane]

Breaking news!

iPhone 4 has similar problem as iPhone 3! Noone particularly cared for the 3rd gen because noone holds their phone like that, right or left-handed, and people only point it out for 4th gen to find reasons to hate apple! More at 11!





It's 11! Still no right-click button on apple mice! More at 12!

[Chicomagiko]

People still hold the phone to their heads? Just use a BT headset. I'm sure Apple has their own branded one that they'll market as a solution to this at a certain "discounted" price.

[Khamsin]

Breaking news!

iPhone 4 has similar problem as iPhone 3! Noone particularly cared for the 3rd gen because noone holds their phone like that, right or left-handed, and people only point it out for 4th gen to find reasons to hate apple! More at 11!





It's 11! Still no right-click button on apple mice! More at 12!

I just tried holding my iphone 3G like that, and touching the lower left corner, and I didn't notice a drop in signal. So I wouldn't say they have the same problem.

[Tyche]

The antenna isn't in the lower left corner of the 3G. You can find YouTube vide of the oddity in others gens.

[archibaldcrane]

I just tried holding my iphone 3G like that, and touching the lower left corner, and I didn't notice a drop in signal. So I wouldn't say they have the same problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN6265QQwhU
It's not the exact same problem, but it's similar enough.

[Khamsin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN6265QQwhU
It's not the exact same problem, but it's similar enough.

I just tried holding my 3G like that, and in all sorts of ways, including basically smothering it with my hands with as much contact as possible and I couldn't replicate that. So whatever the correct way is, it certainly won't be the way you naturally hold it.

On the other hand, the iPhone 4 thing seems to happen when you just hold the phone naturally, you don't even have to try.

[Tempyst]

Breaking news!

iPhone 4 has similar problem as iPhone 3! Noone particularly cared for the 3rd gen because noone holds their phone like that, right or left-handed, and people only point it out for 4th gen to find reasons to hate apple! More at 11!

breaking news, rabid apple fanboys always go apeshit defensive when something isn't perfect about an apple product

[Tyche]

I just tried holding my 3G like that, and in all sorts of ways, including basically smothering it with my hands with as much contact as possible and I couldn't replicate that. So whatever the correct way is, it certainly won't be the way you naturally hold it.

On the other hand, the iPhone 4 thing seems to happen when you just hold the phone naturally, you don't even have to try.

It depends on where you are. You can't always replicate it for whatever reason. For instance, my phone can replicate it at home, but not at work.

[Rhinox]

breaking news, rabid apple fanboys always go apeshit defensive when something isn't perfect about an apple product

breaking news, rabid douche bags always complain about apple fanboys when they really don't know what the fuck a fanboy is.

[zoobernut]

It'd probably help if you weren't fucking horrible at sarcasm. That's Satire, at best, and even then the 2 situations don't compare at all (holding it properly and not cutting a hand off vs holding it properly and losing signal).

I am sorry your Royally Retarded Highness, I could have said facetious instead, would that have pleased your sophisticated palate? Though it could still be considered sarcastic as it was an ironic statement.

If you don't get that then you are beyond help.


So is there any truth to the rumors that a fix will be coming? Or is that just wishful thinking.

[Kurokikaze]

Nothing on Engadget yet and they're pretty fast when it comes to anything Apple.

[Ratatapa]

lol at people buying first gen electronics. It's always buggy at first, in 2-3 months they will surely release a software update that will change that

[zoobernut]

lol at people buying first gen electronics. It's always buggy at first, in 2-3 months they will surely release a software update that will change that

This isn't first gen... it is the Iphone 4 the key part being the 4. They should have figured this shit out by now. Simple engineering mistakes like this should not be made by a company that prides itself in its engineering and industrial design like apple.

How hard would it be to put a completely clear epoxy coating over the antenna metal so that it can't be shorted out?

[Tyche]

Not hard at all, people have used clear nail polish.

[zoobernut]

Not hard at all, people have used clear nail polish.

That is exactly why this while somewhat minor snafu is a stupid annoying one. Apple could have so easily fixed this issue if they had just listened to the one engineer who told them about this problem. (there is usually the one guy who says something but is ignored)

[Vuitton]

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs

http://www.fakesteve.net/2010/06/there-is-no-spoon.html

There is no spoon

It’s a pretty safe assumption that if you’re reading this blog, you’ve seen “The Matrix.” And you may or may not remember the scene where a kid explains to Neo that the trick to bending a spoon with your mind is simply to remember that, “There is no spoon.”

So it is with marketing. One thing I learned very early in life, thanks to intentional overuse of psychedelic drugs, is that there is no reality. As a guy at the commune once put it: “The reality is, there is no reality.”
So some guy says his iPhone 4 is having reception issues. I say there is no reception issue. Now it’s his reality against my reality. Which one of us is living in the real reality?

There’s a two-part answer: 1, there is no real reality, and 2, it doesn’t matter.
The only thing that matters is which reality our customers will choose to adopt as their own.

Of course most people would rather live in a reality where everything works and there are no problems. And now, thanks to me, that reality exists. Because I’ve created that reality for them.

Probably the biggest thing I’ve taught the team at Apple is that people never know what they’re supposed to think about anything. This is true in Hollywood, in the book business, in the art world, in politics. And especially in technology.

So we put out a new phone and everyone is sitting there wondering what they should think about it. What I realized many years ago — and honestly, it still amazes me — is that most people are so unsure of themselves that they will think whatever we tell them to think.

So we tell people that this new phone is not just an incremental upgrade, but rather is the biggest breakthrough since the original iPhone in 2007. We say it’s incredible, amazing, awesome, mind-blowing, overwhelming, magical, revolutionary. We use these words over and over.

It’s all patently ridiculous, of course. But people believe it.

We demo FaceTime, and we say that nobody in the world has ever seen anything like this before. Jonny and I act stunned and gob-smacked, as if we ourselves still can’t believe that we’ve just invented video chat.

Again, this is utterly untrue, a total and absolute lie. But people accept it. They hoot and cheer for us.

The other strategy we use comes from Zen Buddhism. You ever study Zen koans? Most of them make no sense at all. You read them and you go away feeling confused and stupid.

We do something similar. We call it “clouding.” Right now, for example, we’ve sent out the following messages about iPhone 4 and the antenna issues:

1. All mobile phones have this problem.
2. Our mobile phone does not have this problem.

You see how this works? These two statements cannot both be true.
Yet we’ve said both of them. And now you don’t know what to believe.

Ask any psychologist what happens to people when they get confused. Their heart rate goes up. Their skin temperature rises. Adrenaline starts to flow.

They feel desperate, and scared, as if they’ve fallen out of a boat and now they’re getting tossed by waves and they’re maybe going to drown.

Now all you have to do is reach out with some kind of certainty, and no matter how obviously untrue it might be, people will latch onto it.

Every religion in the world knows this, from the Catholics to the Scientologists. It’s the oldest trick in the book. You create some uncertainty, you put people at risk — you tell them they’re going to hell, or whatever — and then you hold out the answer.

No matter how ridiculous your answer may be — like, the one about the galactic ruler Xenu, or the one where God turns into a bird and flies down to earth and impregnates a virgin — people will accept it.

Not only that, they’ll actually thank you for feeding them this horseshit. Because any certainty, no matter how crazy, is better than uncertainty.

Which brings me back to iPhone 4 and the antenna issue. Right now you’re confused. You’re worried. You don’t know what to believe. You just wish someone would come along and tell you that everything is squared away and there’s nothing to worry about.

Well, stay tuned for that. And remember: There is no spoon.

[Ratatapa]

This isn't first gen... it is the Iphone 4 the key part being the 4. They should have figured this shit out by now. Simple engineering mistakes like this should not be made by a company that prides itself in its engineering and industrial design like apple.

How hard would it be to put a completely clear epoxy coating over the antenna metal so that it can't be shorted out?

Ok first gen of iphone4 if you can't think outside the box

First gen of Ps3 sucked (but they had PS1 and 2 before they can't FAIL!!!!!!!!!)

First gen of DS was meh (light was too weak and had alot of dead pixel) But nintendo did Gameboy, gameboy color and advance before!!!!!!!!


90% of Electronics are not ready until a while after they are out. And don't you dare telling me it's not the same thing