We know that something is going on with the reception on our iPhone 4 devices and some of us are jumping through hoops to avoid any troubles, but according to Steve Jobs' latest email: There are no reception issues.
Gizmodo reader Mark recently wrote an email to Apple CEO Steve Jobs regarding his new iPhone 4 and some of the troubles he's experienced:
Just wanted to drop you a line and let you know that this is the most amazing phone I've ever owned. FaceTime is incredible! Everything is fantastic except the reception issues I've been having.
My buddy has the same issue and he called AppleCare and was shipped a free bumper case. I called too, 2 hours and 3 dropped calls later, I was told that nobody is getting free bumpers. Which is strange because I saw my friends email confirmation showing he was getting a free one. I tried to get one on launch day but the store was sold out. Is there anything you or one of your executive escalations people can do? I love everything about the phone except my signal issues. I hope to hear back with good news.
Thanks for your time,
Mark
Steve replied:
There is no reception issue. Stay tuned.
This response contradicts both a statement by Apple and a prior email from Steve. Apple's statement confirmed that there are issues, but that it's due to how we hold our phones:
Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. 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.
And Steve's prior email referenced this statement when he told a reader to "just avoid holding [his phone a particular] way".
Such confusing messages. I guess there's little left to do except listen to Steve and "stay tuned" for more news.
For reference, as with any other Jobs email, this one could be spoofed. Mark was kind enough to allow me to log into his webmail account to view the email personally, but even that does not guarantee validity.