The iPhone 4′s antenna situation truly is the story that just will not die. Now that the antenna gripes of the GSM iPhone has been exhausted, why not move on to the heir apparent… the CDMA iPhone. iLounge has published a seven minute YouTube video showcasing a karma sutra of death grips that can affect the signal quality of your Verizon iPiece. It’s not much of a secret that all cellular phones can be gripped, in one way or another, that will cause their signal to attenuate. And, to be fran...

Apple took aim at the Motorola DROID X in the latest video to hit Apple’s smartphone antenna performance webpage. In the video, Apple demonstrates that the DROID X, like the iPhone 4, will drop 3 bars when held death-grip style by someone with presumably gigantic hands. Though these videos are designed to show that the iPhone is not alone in exhibiting signal attenuation, they are causing a maelstrom of controversy amongst smartphone manufacturers and owners alike, with each entity defending its platfor...

Responding to an online poll conducted by website Tech-Ex, AT&T gave the world some indication of what their dropped-call rate actually is. Tech-Ex conducted a reader poll that indicated AT&T’s dropped-call — for its readers — was around 4.5% for March of 2010; conversely, Verizon Wireless’ rate came in at 1.5% for the same period. The poll obviously did not sit well with AT&T and a spokesperson responded with a statement and some percentages of their own.Statistically vali...

With Apple publicly stating specific handsets are susceptible to the same kind of antenna attenuation as the iPhone 4, and RIM and Nokia chiming in, we wanted to know what you guys are finding. Can you reproduce the same effect on your handset? Here is a handset that Apple didn’t specifically call out, the Verizon BlackBerry Bold 9650, and you can see it takes a nice hit when we hold it pretty firm in our hands. I’m pretty sure this has always happened, but I’m not sure I noticed until now...

The much anticipated Apple press conference has just concluded. Here is — in bullet form — what we just learned:The iPhone 4 death grip signal degradation thingy happens to a lot of smartphones. Apple demonstrated it on a BlackBerry 9700, Samsung Omnia 2, and HTC DROID Eris.The software update (4.0.1) released yesterday will take care of the error in the signal calculation algorithm that Apple discovered several weeks ago.Another software update to address other issues (like the proximity sen...

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?

Consumer Reports has just published a report on the iPhone 4 that refutes Apple, Inc.’s claim that the iPhone 4 signal issues are a “shocking” software error. Consumer Reports says:Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4′s signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software that “mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.”The tests also indicate that AT&T’s network ...

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 Ap...

Apple has released a statement regarding reception issues with the iPhone 4. The statement, which is in letter format, cites the “formula” Apple uses “to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display” being “totally wrong,” and the fact that “gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars.” We’ve got the full release for you after the break. Apple said a free software update will be coming in “a f...

The folks at AnandTech just published their review of the iPhone 4 and took a close look at the antenna issue that is plaguing the handset. In true geek style, they mapped the bar representation of the signal strength from -51dB (perfect signal strength) to -131dB (bare minimum to maintain a connection) and measured the iPhone 4 signal strength attenuation in terms of  decibels. The result of the mapping show that over 40% of the signal strength range is represented by 5 bars which means your signal h...

The iPhone 4 antenna issue has turned into a daytime drama and PR debacle worthy of Maury Povich. On one side, you have iPhone owners who are causing a bit of  a stir by documenting and discussing the signal attenuation issues observed when holding the left side of the iPhone 4. On the other side is Apple’s fearless leader who is trying to defuse the situation with calming words conveyed via email. The latest turn of events in this saga has Steve Jobs proclaiming via email that “There is no recep...

A growing number of iPhone 4 owners are reporting that holding the iPhone 4 has an effect on the signal strength of the handset. Multiple videos demonstrate this unusual behavior in which the iPhone, when held in the palm of one’s hand, will lose signal strength by going from 5 bars of coverage to no service in less than a minute. To reverse this loss, one only needs to put the phone down and the signal strength will be restored. Reports are also circulating in the forums with owners reporting this...

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...

Changeover day came and went this past Friday and while the vast majority of the country likely didn’t even notice, a handful of people were in for a rude awakening as analog broadcasts ended. Over the past week, the FCC’s official help line received about 700,000 calls — 347,450 on Friday alone — regarding issues leading up to and following the changeover. About a third of Friday’s calls were from people still looking for coupons to help pay for digital converter boxes and anoth...