A settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit targeting the iPhone 4′s antenna and reception problems, reports CNET. U.S. residents who bought the handset will be offered either $15 or a free bumper case, however the offer is only valid for those individuals who did not take advantage of Apple’s previous offer. The settlement comes from 18 separate lawsuits that were consolidated into one, all claiming that Apple was “misrepresenting and concealing material information in the marketing, advertising, sale, and servicing of its iPhone 4–particularly as it relates to the quality of the mobile phone antenna and reception and related software.” Original buyers will be notified via email before April 30th, or they can visit www.iPhone4Settlement.com, although the site is not yet live. After the notifications are sent, the claims period will last for 120 days.

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T-Mobile intends to offer cellular signal boosters to customers looking to switch carriers due to poor reception at home, according to T-Mobile watcher TmoNews. The move appears to be part of a new program intended to slow service quality-related cancellations, which are apparently a significant problem for the nation’s No. 4 carrier. Beginning on September 7th, T-Mobile will seemingly begin offering in-home signal boosters “when a customer triggers for cancellation of service due to poor in-home coverage,” according to a purported leaked internal memo to T-Mobile staff. The memo also warns that signal boosters should never be offered to customers as an incentive when closing a sale. In order to take the signal booster, which will be free of charge, customers will need to sign a new 2-year service contract and it is unclear if they will be permitted to test the level of improvement afforded by the booster before signing.

[Via Gizmodo]

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It appears as though Apple will be holding a press conference this Friday, July 16th, at 10AM Pacific Time to finally — officially – address the iPhone 4 antenna circus issue. Invites were sent out this evening to media outlets around the country. What do you think Apple is going to say?

Rumors have started to fly around the internet about an iPhone 4 recall, and this got us thinking… while we think a mandatory recall is very unlikely (as the iPhone 4 isn’t much of a safety concern), this is now a no win-situation for Apple.

When accounts of the iPhone 4′s reception woes first began to surface — shortly after the device’s release — Apple instantly denied the problem. We heard things like, “There is no issue,” and “All phones have some signal degradation depending on how you hold them,” and so on. Apple’s initial strategy seemed to be to deny the existence of an issue.

After the initial wave of consumer complaints came some expert testimony. People with RF engineering backgrounds and fancy degrees began stating that due to the way the iPhone’s antenna is engineered, grasping the phone “incorrectly” could cause the RF emission from the antenna to convert into heat, thus losing or diminishing the signal. To this Apple’s response was the admission of a “shocking” software error that causes your iPhone 4 (and presumably all other iPhones) to display the wrong number of “bars” in your signal meter.

Now, onto the latest — and perhaps most damning — round of critiques. Consumer Reports, a highly respected company in the United States, has confirmed through laboratory tests that the root issue with the iPhone 4 is a design problem with the antenna. The findings have resulted in the iPhone 4 receiving a “not recommended” rating from Consumer Reports, even though it otherwise tested as one of the best smartphones on the market. This morning, a member of the Consumer Reports team was on CBS’ The Early Show, demonstrating to Harry Smith how to “fix” your iPhone with a piece of duct tape. Ouch.

So here Apple sits. The Cupertino company first denied the antenna problems then admitted to there being some sort of software problem that had to do with reception perception. Meanwhile, the rest of the iPhone universe – lovers and haters alike, as well as Consumer Reports – has come to the conclusion that the issue with the iPhone 4 is definitively hardware and design related. So what about some sort of voluntary recall?

Occasionally, if done properly, a voluntary recall can earn a company some good will with its customer base. However, for Apple, that ship has long since sailed. Apple is going to release some sort of software patch for the iPhone 4, and if that doesn’t remedy the issue, here are Apple’s options.

1. Do nothing. Stick with the stance that there is no antenna issue with the iPhone 4, remind users that holding all smartphones a certain way will cause signal degradation, and deal with the impending lawsuits. Refute the concrete evidence and try to ride out the public relations nightmare.
2. Do some sort of voluntary recall of the first wave of iPhone 4′s. By doing this it would be admitting that, at best, the company was wrong and did not fully understand its own product, or at worst, it lied to its customer base. Deal with the backlash, and still potential lawsuit, and move on.

These are the choices that Apple has left itself through its management (read: mismanagement) of this situation. Neither option is all that appealing, and it leaves Apple with a pretty unenviable decision.

Computerworld is reporting that Apple has temporarily suspend their standard 10% restocking fee for returns of the iPhone 4. Computerworld writes:

An AppleCare support representative who gave her name as “Erica” confirmed that the restocking fee had been ditched. The restocking fee is also central to at least one of several lawsuits that consumers have filed this week against Apple, alleging that the company shipped defective iPhone 4s to customers.

Comptuerworld’s report comes hours after Apple released a statement about the iPhone 4′s reception issue. The article writes: “iPhone owners can return their phones to any Apple retail store or to the company’s online store for a full refund within 30 days of their purchase. For online customers, the 30-day calendar starts flipping when the iPhone is shipped, not when they receive it.” And the hits keep on a comin’.

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Lost in all of the buzz surrounding the iPhone 4 antenna fiasco was the fact that Apple has three new job listings for antenna engineers. Well, that is until Engadget unearthed them after sitting unnoticed since June 23rd, or one day before the official launch of the iPhone 4 and the very same day that the now infamous reception issues came to light. Here’s a little snippet from the job description.

“Define and implement antenna system architecture to optimize the radiation performance for wireless portable devices [...] The The candidate should be able to design antennas suitable for wireless handheld devices with excellent radiation performance [...] Work closely with other RF and antenna design engineers, mechanical and industrial designers, and EMC engineers to integrate the antenna design in our products.”

Irony, we love you so!

Thanks, Zachary!

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The antenna issues plaguing the iPhone 4 have infuriated many iPhone users (and rightfully so), but have you ever wondered how Apple is training its employees to deal with the fiasco? Well thanks to one of our Apple connects, we now know the exact procedures AppleCare reps must follow when dealing with any reception complaints regarding the iPhone 4. Hit the jump to check them out.

1. Keep all of the positioning statements in the BN handy – your tone when delivering this information is important.

a. The iPhone 4′s wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. Our testing shows that iPhone 4′s overall antenna performance is better than iPhone 3GS.

b. Gripping almost any mobile phone in certain places will reduce its reception. This is true of the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, and many other phones we have tested. It is a fact of life in the wireless world.

c. If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 3GS, avoid covering the bottom-right side with your hand.

d. If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 4, avoid covering the black strip in the lower-left corner of the metal band.

e. The use of a case or Bumper that is made out of rubber or plastic may improve wireless performance by keeping your hand from directly covering these areas.

2. Do not perform warranty service. Use the positioning above for any customer questions or concerns.

3. Don’t forget YOU STILL NEED to probe and troubleshoot. If a customer calls about their reception while the phone is sitting on a table (not being held) it is not the metal band.

4. ONLY escalate if the issue exists when the phone is not held AND you cannot resolve it.

5. We ARE NOT appeasing customers with free bumpers – DON’T promise a free bumper to customers.

Clearly Apple is taking the position that nothing is wrong with the antenna, although that’s not surprising since most companies will never willingly admit their flagship product is potentially suffering from an unfixable flaw. But does anyone else find it interesting, if not troubling, that there is no mention of an impending software fix?

Recently, California law firm Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff, LLP placed an ad on their website looking for users who “recently purchased the new iPhone and have experienced poor reception quality, dropped calls and weak signals.” The firm, who as Gawker points out, “sued Facebook and Zynga over scammy gaming ads” looks to be sizing up the Cupertino company for a class action suit. We’re sure there will be more on this one as it develops.

[Via Gawker]

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Ah yes, we love when companies throw PR digs at each other. Today, Nokia has taken the opportunity to throw a proverbial chair at Apple by reminding Nokia users of all the different ways there are to hold a Nokia cell phone. Nokia Conversations — the official Nokia blog — has posted an illustrated guide that recommends several grips you can use to grasp your Nokia device. It is in the last few sentences of the post where Nokia ditches the subtlety and cuts to the chase: “…feel free to ignore all of the above because realistically, you’re free to hold your Nokia device any way you like. And you won’t suffer any signal loss. Cool, huh?” Well-played Nokia, although, in light of recent events, it might not be wise to throw stones from a glass house.

[Via MobileBurn]

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Much fuss has been made about the iPhone 4′s reception woes, but the evidence continues to mount that suggests the problem is purely the result of a bug in the current build of iOS 4. As proof, a YouTube user has posted a video of his iPhone 3G, held in a similar fashion as the iPhone 4s in the YouTube videos we showed you yesterday, losing signal strength as soon as it is clutched. As this did not happen with iOS 3.0, this suggests a software bug which affects the signal meter the user sees. Even more interesting is the fact that despite displaying a weak signal — and in some cases no signal at all — many users report that the iPhone 4 is still able to make calls as if nothing were wrong. Hit the jump to check out the video then give us your thoughts!

It certainly seems that way. All across the interwebz, proud new EVO owners are saying they’re having a horrible time when it comes to Wi-Fi signal strength. Some users claim to only have 1 bar of signal regardless of their proximity to a router, while others say that you need only be a few feet from a router to have the signal bottom out. It is not clear whether or not the issue is hardware or software related, although it appears that transmission speeds via Wi-Fi are relatively good when in range of a router. We’ve reached out to Sprint for comment, but so far all we’ve been told is that they’ll have their team investigate the matter and get back to us. In the meantime, how has your EVO been fairing in the Wi-Fi department?

Thanks, TJ!

Read [HTC] Read [Android Central]

There’s word on the big bad Internets that the E71-2 is having a bit of reception problems. If you’re a Nokia fan, you know that’s pretty hard to believe. But, we can tell you that the E71 does in fact suffer from a horrible reception problem. While our Bold and iPhone 3G are constantly on 3G, our E71 has never even picked up a 3G signal. Additionally, we’re only getting 1 bar on EDGE sometimes! What’s the quick fix? Well, as dumb as this may seem (though the out of place bright red power button is pretty damn dumb), the only place to integate the cellular radio antenna was on the bottom back. It’s pretty much the only roomy place on the device where there is no metal. If you’re suffering from reception issues with the E71, try this… first, completely cover the bottom back plastic piece with your hand, and check out the number of bars you have. Then, grab the phone just at the very top by the ear piece, and hold it for a couple seconds. Did your reception just skyrocket? Yeah, ours too. There’s only one issue with this… most people, you know, hold the phone in their hand because they want to… uh… use it. Anyone out there finding the same thing? Hit us up!