My iPhone 4 is now in my hot little hands

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iphone 4

Well actually it’s sitting on my desk syncing. And my hands aren’t hot, they are freezing because I’m in the basement and the A/C is cranking because it’s 94 degrees outside. Regardless, it’s finally here after hours of refreshing the Fedex tracking page. My plan is to let it finish syncing and charging before I dive into the new hardware and software features. Of course, I will have a full review for you in a few days after I have some time to put it through its paces. Happy iPhone 4 day everyone! 🙂

21 thoughts on “My iPhone 4 is now in my hot little hands”




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  2. How funny! I’m staring at the SAME thing right now! (iPhone 4 syncing up to a Mac, white cables everywhere)

  3. Congrats!! People are saying they are having issues while touching the antenae. 4 bars while not holding the phone…then two bars once it’s in your hands. Seems like BS to me. Let us know if you notice anything.

    1. @Haroldncal & Joey I think there might be something to the antenna claims. I was getting quite 1 bar and No Service on the main level of my house. I typically would get at least 2 – 3 bars. If I set the phone on the coffee table it will go back to 2-3 bars. Not sure if it is a coincidence or not… I’ll see how it goes for the next few days.

      @Andy I’m on 850mhz.

  4. That’s great Julie, it must be exciting! I’m contemplating a iPhone 4 (since my 3G is showing it’s age, especially on iOS4) and looking forward to your thoughts on it.

  5. Let us know if you’re having the same problem with the antennas as reported on Gizmodo. They are linking to a ton of user submitted YouTube videos that’s showing signal degradation while holding the phone from both sides.

  6. I don’t have that problem. However, it may also depend if the phone is using the 1900 MHz frequency vs. 850 MHz.

  7. Janet Cloninger

    @Julie, do you think one of those little rubber band “cases” from Apple would improve the reception? Perhaps those cases protect your antenna from being affected by skin contact. There has to be some reason they came up with those strange little cases for only the metal part of the phone…

    1. @Janet Excellent question… I brought my the phone to work today in a case that I’ve been sent to review. I don’t see the fluctuation in bars this morning like I did last night when I was just holding it in my hand.

  8. I can’t think why silicone or rubber would help or hurt reception. Maybe someone can chime in on that and blind us with science?

    Beware of the sources reporting bugs. Seriously, who would trust Gizmodo on anything Apple-related at the present time? It’s all about context. 😉

    (Not to say there aren’t bugs.)

    I can’t wait until they finally release it here. Teliasonera is blogging about how awesome and fitting the iPhone 3gs still is and how we should all order one. Yeah um no.

  9. @cybergoose

    It could be because there are two diff types of antennae wrapped around the edge. When you hold the iphone in your hand you are grounding out them to each other.
    This is just my two cents.

    I wonder if the drop in reception occurs no matter how the phone is held?

  10. Janet Cloninger

    @Julie I’m not suggesting you do this where anyone can see you, but you could do a test with one of those wide, over-sized rubberbands. When you get home tonight, you could check to see if you still get the signal reductions like you saw last night. If you do, you could slip the rubberband around the metal part and see if that insulates the metal antenna to prevent the loss of signal.

    1. @Janet I actually have a rubber / silicone case on the iPhone right now and it “seems” to help. It’s really difficult to tell though due to AT&T’s usual craptastic signal fluctuations. One sec I can have 3 bars and then next 1. It’s potluck. That said, I was down in the cafeteria a little while ago with only 1 bar and talked to someone for 5 minutes or so and the call was perfectly clear. No usual clicking like I’m used to with the majority of my calls with my old iPhone.

  11. Congrats Julie!!!
    Still have to wait ANOTHER week or so for mine, as I never did get through on that “ugly” first day of pre-orders 🙁 I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about it though . . .

  12. Nice one Julie… looking forward to the review!

    Couple of people over tpday here reporting the signal loss however… not good! 🙁

    1. @James The current rumor is that the signal loss issue is a software bug. Mine is actually doing much better today than last night…

  13. OK I can confirm the signal bar issue too. I really hope it’s an easily correctable issue, because it’s triggering my OCD in a bad way!

    If I take a 3GS case and slip it over the phone, so my hands don’t touch the antennae at all, there is no loss of bars.

    I guess I’ll have to get myself a bumper case!

  14. I can duplicate it on my iPhone 4 as well.

    Only if I cover the left bezel separation when holding it. Not just covering it with a finger too.

  15. I have the signal issue as well. If I hold my phone above the two black lines on the sides the signal does not degrade. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

  16. Eric Strietelmeier

    I too am having the same antenna issue with my iPhone 4. It drops down to one bar, however i can still make/receive calls and use data without any problems. I went out this weekend and purchased a case for it, and it seems to help a little. I would like to see the field test statistics, however it doesn’t appear ios4 has a field test mode!

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