Everything That’s Wrong with the iPhone4

On the radio this morning, I listened to a long winded story from one of the 107.5 personalities about long lines to the Apple store in Green Hills Mall yesterday. Out the door and through a main hallway of the mall was a line about six people wide and hundreds deep. Yesterday, June 24^th, was the first day for the iPhone 4 to be available in stores. If the long lines weren’t enough to make me feel bad for these people, the newly discovered iPhone 4 defects will definitely do it.

Like every other Apple product, a seemingly small mistake has turned into a huge annoyance. The arrangement of externalized antennae, which was supposed to be a huge advantage of the iPhone 4, has caused some major aggravation in the Apple following. Holding the iPhone in the natural way, and covering the bottom left corner, drains the network connection and will drop calls almost instantly.

It seems like Apple needs better product testing. Testing in the sheltered Apple office would maybe account for a user’s head, but not for the hand. For right-handed users, the problem may not be as obvious as media is making it out to be, but for left-handed user it is apparent. What’s even better than this inconvenience is Steve Jobs answer to so many people’s complaints… Users should either avoid holding the phone that way or buy a case for their iPhone 4. What? Hold is differently? That’s not a solution. Apple’s own iPhone 4 ads display the phone being held the wrong way! There are even a few pictures of Steve Jobs himself holding the iPhone 4 the wrong way at his WWDC demonstration! Maybe that was the reason behind the mysterious network problems at the conference.

Other mistakes being reported are starting to pile up and make Apple look incompetent. The volume buttons are backwards on many iPhone 4′s, the rear-facing camera refuses to work, and the screen displays yellow spots in corners. Apple has not recommended any solutions to these problems yet.