Ideological divide
While you have to assume the world's biggest technology company has few socialist tendencies, it's left-handed people as opposed to pinkos that seem to be being discriminated against by Apple's latest product.
There are widespread reports around the web that left-handed people are getting no mobile reception when using the new phone. The first of these was demonstrated in a video posted on the MacRumors.com forum (embedded below), and clearly shows an iPhone 4 losing its AT&T connection when picked up and held in a left hand.
A blogger encountered this and, as people are increasingly inclined to do since Steve Jobs started (apparently) answering emails himself, emailed Jobs to ask him what the deal was. Jobs duly replied with a comment that seems to have now become Apple's official statement on the matter.
"Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas," said Jobs. "This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases."
Now far be it from us to question the mighty Apple, but we assumed that the design and testing of any phone would include seeing if it works when you hold it. As responses go, this is far from ideal. The whole point of Apple products is supposed to be that they are more easy and intuitive to use than their competitors. Imposing a specific holding technique is not consistent with that philosophy.
The irony is that one of the cool innovations in the new iPhone was supposed to be the antenna. We were told that the entire steel band around the side of the device is the antenna. To us, if this served any purpose at all apart from just showing-off, it meant that mobile reception should be guaranteed unless you cover all sides of the phone.
As Jobs himself has admitted, this isn't the case. There are some theories that this is a problem that can be solved at the software level, but if this an enduring issue with the iPhone, Apple might find the buzz around its latest device dies down rather quicker than it had hoped.
