I can see it now... the ships land at the UN and...

Alien: Greetings. We come in peace.

UN: Where do you come from?

Alien: A distant galaxy nearly 10 billion light years away.

UN: Why are you here?

Alien: To escape religious persecution! Most of our galaxy are ZYZYZYYZ-ists and we dont' feel safe to practice the Tarvu religion. We came to be baptized on the planet of our many-tentacled prophet. Praise Tarvu!

http://www.tarvu.com/

It's so easy to join!

i'm not a lawyer, but i've been told that you can't sign away your rights to sue for negligence or dangerous products and things like that. so even if someone convinces you to sign, that clause isn't enforceable in the US, or so I've been told. for example, if you rent a parachute and it turns out that they stuffed your parachute with old rags and not a parachute by acident, your survivors can still sue even if you've signed a thing waving your rights.

if someone else knows more about the details about how this is handled in different jurisdictions, please speak up...

I dunno what it would look like, but when they run the sound algorithm on it, it would sound like some awesome song from Guitar Hero.

Yet.

It is prophesied! Or prophesized! Or prophephizizzle! Or whatever that word is!

Someday I'll link back to this post and say we warned you all!!!!

Also...

Blackberry: http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/8108

What? Their technology is on multiple platforms and trivially confirmed with google in seconds with queries like: dragon speech mac

WINDOWS: http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/products/editions/default.asp

MAC: http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/products/macintosh/for-the-mac.asp

iPhone/iPad: time-limited note recording, but impressive accuracy : http://www.dragonmobileapps.com/

Phone via calling like, as a regular phone: http://jott.com/

I call shenanigans. Your numbers are even more suspicious than Apple's! So, you're saying that your prediction based on your data set is that all iPhone 4s have some deadline serious problem that destroys the ability for the phone to work? This is just implausible on the face of it. You're implying that 3 million out of 3 million phones have this issue?

How many of these people you know really had the "issue" of dropped calls, or did some of them just confirm that they can see bars go down when touching some parts? And for the record, that does NOT happen on my iPhone 4, and I've dared other people to try with my phone with their own hands.

I know several people with iPhone 4s, including myself, and NONE of them have *actually* reported more dropped calls in real life or dreadful data rates. My cell reception is surely better now than my iPhone 3G was in my area. And the times I had crappy coverage with the new phone it wasn't because of antenna touching -- i could put it on a table and see i had no reception no matter what! And one time it showed no coverage weirdly at home (while not touching it) and I had to restart the device. Lame, but probably fixable in a software update.

And I did the speedtest.net iPhone app tests and did it 3 or more times with each hand position and found no significant difference between holding the iphone in my left versus right hand (the AT&T network speed was very different each time, but the average was about the same).

Bottom line: the Anantech article seems basically right, and well researched, and matches my tests. YES, there is a loss in signal, but it starts at a higher point and the overall effect is that the iPhone does NOT have a big issue. And why all the fuss when you can get a bumper/case and it fixes even that mild issue in low signal areas if you really want to.

And because people keep posting falsehoods on Slashdot about this, WIRED did not rip them a new one over this. They mostly expounded on other people's complaints. What about their OWN tests at WIRED? Their summary of their own tests was "And in our own tests [...] the antenna problem is not especially serious .

The iPhone 4 song video that started the press conf... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKIcaejkpD4&feature=player_embedded

Moderators: I am not joking, the New York Times report from the press conference reported this...

I've tried many binaural beats CDs, including esoteric expensive ones I borrowed from a friend into them. Most of them suck because although they probably (?) have the right difference in frequency between left and right ear, the two frequencies were fairly high up in frequency, and I find it dissonant and irritating pretty quick. My guess is that most CDs do this because they can't assume that you have good headphones that can really do deep bass. If you have both L and R sides at low frequencies, it is **powerful** and it is less irritating, or at least it is for me. Also a bunch on the market have crappy new agey chimes or amateurish music that is lame the first time you hear it, and way more so the 20th time you've heard it.

In contrast, there are TWO CDS THAT ARE AWESOME, which I continue to use, with my big headphones that can do the low bass...

• Awakened Mind System 2.0 by Dr. Jeffrey Thompson.
• Gamma Meditation System by Dr. Jeffrey Thompson.

I listen to these two CD repeatedly and enjoy the meditative and sorta head-trippy effect. I find they tend to calm me and focus me. It feels like it is increasing cooperation between my brain hemispheres. Like, when I'm doing very left brain stuff like programming, I feel more creative. And sometimes I feel more grounded, and more social (less shy and less self-involved) afterward so it's easier to do other things in life.

I'll listen to both of these in quite varied settings. Not just meditation, but also cleaning the house, or programming code, or blocking out sounds at work, or running on a treadmill.

As I mentioned, these two CDs require headphones with GOOD BASS RESPONSE. For the record, I'm extremely fond of my Ultrasone 650 headphones, which btw do not need a headphone amp to have deep bass with iPod / iPhone, btw. Ultrasone is a brand not well known outside recording studio / pro audio worlds. Here's a link to more of their headphones.

I strongly recommend these two CDs to geeks and non-geeks alike, and to those who like traditional drugs and for those who are 'straight edge'! :-)

I hope you enjoy them!

I'm not affiliated with the guy who made them, I just like his work.

Moderators: parent post is insightful?

1) You haven't even activated it and so you can't even verify the claims yourself, so you are basing your views on self-admitted anger about previous products and other people's reports only. And all that despite the fact that you could choose to gather actual good data simply by activating it and being a good nerd and doing your own tests? To focus on the phrase "real-world tests" and then mock the possibility of you actually doing real-world tests seems to denigrate the scientific method, and the approach of geekiness in general. Unlike you, I actually activated my iPhone 4, have made tons of calls with BETTER reception than my iPhone 3G. And I even downloaded the speedtest.net app and tested with left hand, right hand, and not touching the phone, and didn't see much of a real world difference when holding it **naturally**. I am open to the possibility that there is more of a problem for some people, but everyone I know with an iPhone 4 does not have this problem when they hold the phone naturally. (my experience is consistent with the excellent anantech article based on a fairly thorough and nerdy testing process.

2) I have gotten crappy reception a few times, but as an experiment put the phone down on a non-conductive table and demonstrated that the AT&T crappy reception is independent of any antenna touching issue. I can still say that AT&T sucks ass, but that doesn't mean that it's some touching-the-phone issue.

3) And then you quote WIRED to back up your vitriol. WIRED, like most of the media, for the most part has been reporting about other people's reports, not their own testing, and in summarizing their experience WIRED says "And in our own tests, as well as the reports of many readers, the antenna problem is not especially serious.". That is hardly the indictment you make it out to be in your post. I'd go so far as to say your post is entirely misleading about Wired's assessment.

3) Showing low bars doesn't == more dropped calls. The excellent anantech article has demonstrated this using a fairly thorough testing process.

Your post almost seems like a Poe's Law post in the voice of a Mac Hater.

I don't get it. Why would they not just say "iPhone 4 is great. We recommend it only if you also get a bumper or a case too. And if so, it does quite well on all counts."

I don't see how this is much different from saying for a PC review.... "We really liked such and such cheap computer for Windows 7 Pro, but with the basic specs it doesn't have enough memory for real-world applications. Thus Consumer Reports recommends it only if you also buy the upgrade from 400Meg RAM to 1gig RAM, which changes the price to the less competitive cost of $____"

If anyone here wants to support journalism in the public interest (not Corporate controlled or all about supporting the status quo) donate to the organization Pro Publica and/or read their stories and forward them to your friends and colleagues.

Pro Publica is "an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. Our work focuses exclusively on truly important stories, stories with “moral force.” We do this by producing journalism that shines a light on exploitation of the weak by the strong and on the failures of those with power to vindicate the trust placed in them." See Pro Publica.

BTW, I just saw on their site a recent award...

[[ProPublica is pleased to be the recipient of the first Edward R. Murrow Award for Media Entrepreneurship from Washington State University’s Murrow College of Communication. ProPublica is being recognized for its work as a "nonprofit provider of hard-hitting online journalism," according to Lawrence Pintak, the founding dean of Murrow College, which is named for the legendary CBS News broadcaster and journalist.

And they are a 501c3 tax-deductible organization. Donate to them here.

(for the record, I'm not affiliated with them, I just think they are groovy.)

This is misleading. Ideally all butt tools have a FLARE (getting wider on the outside part). That's because objects are, ummmm, how do you say this, more likely to be sucked up and LOST back there.

That's the most important design difference with such equipment.

Stay safe and out of the emergency rooms, everyone!

Google returns different results for different people.

In fairness to the original poster, when I go to that link, the FIRST THREE links in the google results are in fact for Citigroup for me, as well as link #6. Seriously.

And none of the links are on the first page even mention "C is for cookie", despite my appreciation for tasty cookies of the edible variety.