Well, since the devices don;t all exhibit this behavior, and many of them can't even be made to ground out, I;d call it a failing of manufactruing the coating proerly as it is applied to the metal rim (which shouldbe non-conductive to begin with).

I happen to have a significant engineering backing, heavy in both electronics, magnetics, and RF. I'm not an antenna engineer, but I can do the calculus and understand the physics involved very well.

The release was from anandtech, and was a well done fairly scientific, repeated multiple times on multiple devices, and using fairly professional equipment and both lab and field testing methods. It's a preliminary study, but a very competent start to a larger scale analysis. They're a well trusted source.

19db is bad, top of the curve bad, but the average is over 12 and the previous generation iPhone, which no one noticed, dropped 13. More so, better IS better, since usability and reliability actually means something compared to number on paper.

As for the car, every car performs better or worse depending on how you drive it. Shit, just making more right turns and fewer left turns can have as much as a 10% impact on your driving. That's not a valid analogy anyway. Better is better if there's no drawback vs the current option. A new system might have it;s own limitations and quirks, but so long as those limits are at their worst still above the options otherwise available, and the limitations and quirks do not introduce new negatives, then that is the very technical definition of better (not perfect, which all you anti-apple people think you deserve nothing less than).

I'm not pro or ant any vendor. i take no allegiances. I'll drop one product to buy another anytime there's a good reason to, and I'll always recommend the best product for a person's needs regardless of any perceived personal preference. I'm a systems analyst and solutions engineer, I have to be open to options. To some I recommend apple, to others android, and to others to stay the fuck away from smartphone entirely. I recommend widows to some, mac to others, linux/unix. IBM to some, Apple to others, though I've not found a reason to recommend dell to anyone in many many years. My interest here is stopping FUD, propogandsa, and general bullshit and hate flowing here. Wether the data anandtech has meets your requirements of scientific enough or not, fact is, no one else has ANY data, and until they have contrary data, it;s conjecture, and is to be dismissed or studied, but not commented on, and certainly not sued over, until there IS such data.

I can't speak to sweaty hands, but if that's your situation, probably best you use bluetooth anyway (i know very few joggers who do any different, and fewer still who jog with a smartphone at all).

As for AT&T coverage, I don;t care about maps that cover places people don;t live. AT&T covers 97% of us with a voice/data concurrent network. As for our firm, we had verizon, we dropped them. We're in a big city, and have offices in 15 others across 5 states, 15K employees over half of which have a company phone. 20% were complaining about verizon coverage, and more that there smartphone didn't work when they were on a call.

On AT&T, we do very factually get more bars in more places, we only have 3% of people still complaining (small enough that we got the ones that mattered femtocells). We get 5 bars in every part of our corporate tower now, except 3 in the elevator and basement. We can SEE the Verizon tower from the building, the AT&T tower is a mile farther away, yet AT&T gets us better signal, fewer dropped calls (we actually track that btw), far superior 3G speed, and we can actually check e-mail while on a call, or use GPS and be on a call, which was not possible on Verizon (nor sprint).

Even in NY, signal stability is up 70% in a year with 40% more airtime available, thanks to a few hundred million AT&T spent, and some frequency trading in the 850MHz band the FCC helped them out with to get more airspace. SF is working better, and getting better weekly. I was in manhattan 4 weeks ago for several hours, and in NJ most of a weekend. 4 iPhones and an iPad, not a single dropped call. 2 verizon phones and 1 sprint, 16 dropped calls. On a 650 mile road trip, pandora didn't stop streaming on the 1 phone one time.

Also, 19db drop, that's still got more signal than a 3GS sitting on a table, or a nexus one. and at the same db, very weak -119db signal, the iPhone 4 did calls and data concurrency, where the 3GS could not even hit the tower, nor the nexus.

This issue is entirely a user perception one based on how the carriers want to see "more bars in more places" by dramatically lowering the threshold of 5 bars to where 2 bars used to live on the line...

I'm in one of the 50 biggest cities in america, 70 miles from one of the top 20, and less than that from another, about 150 miles from a top 10 population center. Dell subcontracts here. I know, I've worked for 3 of them in the past, and even at our form of 15K employees, we dropped Dell for IBM last year because they continued to send subcontracted SERVER techs to us that couldn't reformat a RAID...

Love the sig... Got to see Voltaire live at SPWF 2010. Awesome.

In fact, in scientific testing released yesterday, even though when held "wrong" there is a 19db drop off in signal strenth, this was still a stronger signal than the 3GS was capable of, or the Nexus One. Further, at the same signal strength, the iPhone 4 can make and place calls, while maintaining a data connection, when the other two can't even associate to the tower. It IS a far superior anteanna, even when effected. This is entirely a user perception issue, relying on 5 bars on a screen that are completely arbitrary to actual signal strenth.

Now, what I'd Like to see, is fome FCC guidance on exactly how many bars should be shown at specific dB measurements, so this confusion can finally end, but that's no fault of Apple's (AT&T specifies the bar scores).

It should be noted, in the case of the MacBook motherboard replacement, the suit was settled before it entered the court. Apple essentially gave the machine a lifetime motherboard replacement warranty (actually I think they capped it at 5 years, still way more than generous), and apple already covers laptop and portable device waranty shipping both ways if you live more than 60 minutes from an apple store.

More so, if you used an upgrade option to get the phone for $200 instead of 600, that is ALSO returned to you as if you had not used it. This is backed by federal law. You can not get screwed signing up for a contract you didn't like, or buying a device you don;t want. In some cases, there will be a restocking fee for returning a fully functional device, but AT&T and Apple have confirmed if you demonstrate the issue, there will be no restocking fee.

If you return a phone, whether you opened a new contract, or simply extended a previous one, by federal law they must dissolve the changes (or creation) of the contract upon return, anytime within 30 days of purchase. You can at most be charged the prorated month's airtime you used, and in some cases (which do not apply if a device is returned defective) a restocking fee not to exceed 15% (which if you return it to apple directly, regardless of where you bought it, that is waived in any case).

Further, have you seen Anandtech's testing? This issue is irrelevent, and entirely based in eser perception of what the screen is telling them, not in RF frequency response, or the device's call quality or signal strength. Even when held, it gets better signal than other devices, and at the same signal, can make calls when others can't even connect to the tower. It;s better in every category, except that signal does drop more when held (to a value still better than older devices).

correction: when held NORMALLY it only dropped 19dB. the 3GS dropped 12 in the same conditions, and the Nexus one dropped 7. Even after the 19dB drop, it had stronger dB signal when held than the other two, and at the same db range the other two could not even connect to the tower while the iPhone 4 could make ands sustain both voice and data calls (and even concurrently).

The drop IS more pronounced, but the signal is STILL better. I call that irrelevant.

The FCC does it;s own testing, and Apple also has to have very specific scientific tests of the radio done as well, before they can even put the prototype in the hands of a field tester on the network. You know not of what you speak. Pleas stop spreading FUD. This was extensively tested, and even with a 19dB drop off, was found to be superior to the previous iPhone, hold calls at lower dB, and even when held, have more dB than the 3GS and several other tested phones.

Quit buying the bullshit and look at some (finally released yesterday) scientific data. Everything before yesterday was conjecture and perception, and had NO basis in reality or fact. This is not a problem, it's a perception of a problem.

Even "shorted" and after dropping 19db, the iPhone 4 still has more signal strength in the same conditions as the 3GS or Nexus one, so it's IRRELEVANT data (typically we call it propaganda), and the iPhone 4 even at the same strength hold signals much better and farther from the tower than any other tested phone, and can connect and maintain good call quality calls when the others can not even contact the tower at all.

This is a user perception issue, not a technical failing.

The iPhone 4 in fact is the best cell phone Apple has ever released. This is validated by scientific signal measurement. (even when it;s being held "wrong.")

Fact: even when held, and the iPhone 4 signal drops by approximately 19dB, it still has a stronger signal than the Nexus One or iPhone 3GS (both of which also drop off when held as well).
Fact: At -113db, neither the 3GS nor Nexus can connect a call, let alone maintain one, and the iPhone 4 can do both, and can maintain that signal strength significantly farther from the signal source, even when held.

Yes it has drop off. Yes, you may see 5 bars become 1 (out of a 140dB scale, 5 bars to 1 bar is only 43dB on most phones, so that more than half of the time, when you have better signal, you always see 5 bars, this is an insistence from multiple carriers, not just Apple and AT&T). On average, and in testing, the iPhone 4 does have superior signal strength either way, hold calls better and farther, and is in fact correct in Steve Jobs saying "far superior to any phone we have released."

The Nexus 1 looses 8db when held. The 3GS looses 12. The iPhone looses 19. However, when it looses 19, it's still higher than the 3GS... This is an issue of user perception, not scientific fact or manufacturing defect. MANY phones drop more than 20DB when held in certain ways, and on almost all new devices, due to FCC regulations, the antenna is at the bottom.

I've had 3 Macs repaired out of warranty, and had an iPhone 2G replaced 4 months outside of its. I've also gotten phone support on a mac as old as 7 years, and software support for software that did not even come with the machine. I've even gotten WINDOWS support on Mac hardware, something you can't get Dell to give you on their own machines (support basically ends at "re-install it.") and you have to PAY Microsoft for support on their OS unless you have a token (some editions get a single incident call within the first year after purchase).

And yes, I've see Dell refuse to come out to service a machine. Many times. They got sued for doing that too often in NY state (and lost) but the practice continues elsewhere. They "offer" to ship you the part so you can put it in yourself. They also insist on you going through exhaustive diagnostics, and re-image the machine, as part of hardware diagnostics (which certainly are not required to find a hard disk faulty, or bad RAM).

Yea, except in Dell's retail machine support contract (differs from contract for business systems), it;s at "dell's option" to send a representative onsite, and entirely within their option to ship you a component and ask you to install it for them. When they do need to send someone, its some local crackpot sub-contracted, who's company (not even him) is paid somewhere between $60 and 80 for the job, regardless of how long it takes, and they only get paid that one time, even if they have to make several trips. Dell also tries pretty hard to make the time as inconvenient as possible, with a big window. For business, yea, not too bad service. They have to be good or companies won;t buy the stuff to begin with.

I've both dealt with, and have been a contractor. Dells policies have always been close to the bottom of the barrel for both us and the customers. They do the absolute minimum needed in order to either claim the issue is not theirs (software, outside issue, lightning not covered, etc), or they do the legal minimum to meet the claims required by state law. (NY won a huge settlement, but others still suffer under the policies that won those NYers money). Bait and switch is still VERY common when ordering Dell systems as well, and some replacement parts are not the originals, and are sub-par (a newer video card may not have the same specs as an older one, or may have compatibility issues, a replacement drive may not be as fast, this is common).

Dell's retail support contract is almost worthless, and their support staff generally are. Buy a nice high end system, and a low end system. Try calling support and see the difference in how you;re handled first hand.

1 correction: iPad app developers have ACCESS to only 1/2 the RAM of the iPhone 4. They use the "exact same A4 processor" which just happens to have 2 layers of RAM. The iPad's RAM specs have never been publicly released. Apple has a history of unlocking latent hardware with new OS versions (WiFi N in macbook Pros a few years ago, video capabilities of the iPhone, etc).

The iPad also has some additional considerations to take in mind, and also remember Jobs's hand was pushed with the leak, and they're releasing the iPhone 4 sooner than expected. The iPad OS 4 update will be forthcoming soon enough, and I'm sure with a slew of additional features, and probably a new iTunes (expecting MUCH better file handling and syncing, cloud based services from their new NC data-center, and more).