I have a Nokia and if I don't hold it the right way the reception drops by several bars and it tells you this in the manual.
I really think a few here need to get a life as it gets very boring all this anti-Apple crap.

I can't believe my Eyes
You took Steve jobs word to heart. "Hold the phone Differently"
How the hell are you gonna get laid if you have to put a wrapper around your phone.

Get a life A$$ole

Droid to you too

(ever considered working on the inq writing staff, you'd fit right in)

It's not a case of being unable to use it if you hold it in your hand. You get a reduced signal if you don't use a case, hold it in your left hand and press the bottom left corner of the phone hard against the pad of your palm. It helps to have sweaty palm if you want to achieve this.

It's like complaing to your doctor that it hurts if you poke your finger in your eye. Remove any one of the three or more required factors and the problem goes away. At worst it's an irritation.

If you want to complain about anything complain about the WiFi. I've tried it side by side with a 3GS, and in a busy radio environment it's significantly slower at web browsing.

'a minor design flaw'

I love it! A phone that only works when you don't hold it is a minor design flaw? Seriously? That's like saying a car where the engine can only run when in neutral has a minor design flaw...

*Any telephone* should have one function that it performs perfectly. The ability to make and receive phone calls whilst being held as a telephone. If it fails in this regard it is shoddy. My Nokia N73 was shoddy - it failed at that basic function (as well as all of the others). My iPhone 3G on the other hand works fine - but it won't be upgraded to a iPhone 4...

This is a great opportunity for Steve to sell the next iGimmick.

Made from the finest yellow latex, the iGlove is the next must have accessory for the iFoney 4

Agree with some of the previous posters. A little sly-and-subversive interest in a news story is fine, but the Inq is very close to getting removed from my bookmarks list nowadays - this is only the latest in a string of articles which are blatantly biased both in language and in facts. Not all big corps are evil, not all open source projects are good or useful.

News reporting first, interesting writing second, please.

The study you are referring to that 1/4 iphones break within the first 2 years is actually saying that iPhone's are amongst the best quality smartphones on the market. Just over 7% malfunction due to manufacturing flaws and the rest break due to accidents resulting in broken screens etc.
yeah, this antenna thing doesn't look good, but don't go misrepresenting studies when you're supposed to be writing news.

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/android/thread?tid=34ae2c179184c33e&hl=en

except that you can't solve the problem with the Nexus by putting it in a case, holding it slightly differently or using your other hand.

BTW, am I the only one who thinks that Lawrence should be forbidden from using words that he demonstrably doesn't understand, shoddy being a case in point. Firstly he uses it citing a report that said the iPhone was one of the most reliable smart-phones on the market, then he uses it in regard what may be a minor design flaw, but has nothing to do with quality of manufacture.

...and there we have it, the Apple Fanboy speaking its native language. Some may say it seems nothing more than baseless insults levied against anyone who threatens their fragile ego - and they would be right. My co-presenter here, Michael, appears to have antagonised it with a dose of "truth", which is highly toxic to the Apple Fanboy.

You are a bunch of Mac hating - band wagon jumping - lie telling tossers and should piss off and hide under a stone somewhere.

People don't carry an iPhone for the signal strength. You could prize off the lid, replace the insides with crème anglaise and the device would still fulfil its primary function.

Wait, no, it's a crap product. You're telling the truth. Never mind.

"From a technical aspect, external antennae will beat internal ones every time"

What's on the iP4 hardly qualifies as an "external antenna". It's probably much worse if the user is able to come into direct contact with the radiative surface. Internal antennas can still be reasonably predictable because there are physical limits to how much you can influence them based on your head/hands/butt.

When you touch an antenna you radically change it's characteristics; from the radiation pattern to the frequency response. What would work fine in free space could be totally broken when you get near it; let alone come into direct electrical contact.

Adding a bulky-ish case around it so your sweaty, oily hands, that you smudge your iPads with, can't touch the metal would help.

From the tests many sites (even the Apple fanboi sites like Wired) have done, it's basically halving the reception that the GS has. So in otherwords, it's utterly crap considering how bad the GS is compared to other phones.

So this amazing new wizz bang phone which is a bigger step forward has worse reception than it's predecessors, has only copied features found on other brands smart phones for the last 6-12 months, oh and slaps on a new screen under a fluffy marketing name but is actually very little different than the screens found on competitor phones. In other words if your stupid enough to get one, then you truely are a utter idiot with more money than sense who don't need a phone, and only buy one as a fashion item (which is it's only real use).

I'm not an iFan but have to say this is rather shoddy journalism akin to the Fox Network standards of "truth." The report stated that they fail usually due to fanbois dropping them but that overall they were one of the most reliable out there.

As to the antennae issue? Yep - it's for real as I've seen it first hand. Now we know why they sell the bumper ;)

I'm sorry, but you shouldn't have to make up excuses for Apple. My cell phone may lose reception, but not enough to go down even a bar. Apple touted this antenna as new technology, so if its that dodgy it is worse then current. I have no doubt they will fix this though, and the screens. Yet any other company, other then Apple, has this problem them would get blasted and go into damage control mode... Apple has yet to even recognize its faithfuls problems.

The report is from Squaretrade, not from the journalists. Don't blame them for finding it.

These are what's happening, all over mac's own site. This is yet another case of early adapters paying more inconvenience and money to adopt new technology earlier.

From a technical aspect, external antennae will beat internal ones every time; it just doesn't look quite as slick so fell out of fashion. Integrating it into the metal edge of the phone is therefore (in theory at least) a good idea. I am curious to know though, how one is supposed to use a phone without holding it (other than speaker-phone mode or bluetooth)?

Again, the INQ's knee-jerk anti-Apple stance actually gets in the way of the more important truths.

It may be that the external antennae causes reception problems - and this should be explored. More measured commentary in the Ars fora suggests that there is a reduction in reception on ANY handset when held in the hand, but we don't know as yet whether the iPhone 4 is worse in that regard.

However, repeating the blatant lie that the Squaretrade report says 25% of iPhones are defective (the report actually says that lots of people drop them accidentally, and that the iPhone is one of the most reliable phones available) makes it almost impossible to discern the journalism amongst the crap...

Has anyone contacted the ASA regarding Apple claiming the iPad is "magical"?

Please can someone demonstrate the magical qualities other then how it makes cash dissapear?

They really are getting away with premium bullshit these days.

Lawrence! what have you done?

Quick! run before the iLynch mob gets you!

I though divine apples do not fall from the magical tree of joy?

What will the poor consumer that has been transfixed by the shininess of the phone say to such things?!
"It's all a big conspiracy! everyone is out to get apple because they are so great, anyone with criticism is jealous & anyone with some data is lying. And I'm never reading this site again, again. OH! my iFeelings!"

i thought the great wrap around antenna was suppose to fix their shoddy reception....it raised the radiation levels high enough that the phone was almost banned..........