MacRumors

Several readers have pointed out that, as per Steve Jobs statement, other mobile phones also suffer from similar signal degradation while being held tightly. In fact, a support thread for Google's Nexus One described a very similar issue back in February:

If you go to Settings -> About Phone -> Status you will see a display for "Signal strength". When my phone is sitting on the desk, the signal stays consistent. However, the second I touch my phone, the signal drops up to as much as -20 dBm. I am able to replicate this test every single time, whether the signal is incredibly strong or weak.

Another user filmed this video of his Nokia 6230 showing the same phenomenon:

Apple's official response is that this is "normal" for any mobile phone:

Gripping any 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.

Obviously, depending on your natural hand position while using the iPhone this may or may not be easily avoidable. Also it seems the issue may be more severe on the iPhone 4 with dropped calls. Besides a case, another simple solution that has been said to work is placing some sort of tape on the bottom portion of the iPhone 4's antenna which should prevent the antenna bridging when holding the phone.

MacRumors forum user samcraig emailed Steve Jobs about the low signal issue while holding the new iPhone 4 in a specific way. The potential issue has been generating a lot of discussion. Samcraig emailed Steve Jobs:

Question - What's going to be done about the signal dropping issue. Is it software or hardware?

To which, Jobs replied with a typically short response:

Non issue. Just avoid holding it in that way.

In a followup email, Jobs then expanded with this explanation:

Gripping any 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.

Steve Jobs has been known to respond to emails and we were able to log into Samcraig's email account to verify the authenticity of the emails, so we believe these are real.

Update: This has been confirmed as an official statement from Apple.

Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Times reported on an update to Apple's privacy policy which indicates that Apple may collect "precise," "real-time geographic location" data for users of its products and share that data with unspecified "partners and licensees" in order to improve services and advertising.

The policy has apparently caught the attention of federal lawmakers, as The Washington Post reports that a pair of congressmen, Edward Markey and Joe Barton, have written a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs requesting additional information on the company's practices.

The lawmakers said they were concerned that users appeared to automatically be included in Apple's gathering of geographic data unless they actively opt out of having information collected about them.

"Given the limited ability of Apple users to opt out of the revised policy and still be able to take advantage of the features of their Apple products, we are concerned about the impact the collection of such data could have on the privacy of Apple's customers," the lawmakers wrote in the letter.

The report cites a series of nine questions being asked of Jobs by the lawmakers, who are seeking clarification of the rationale behind the policy and details on what products and which users are subject to the collection, as well as what partners Apple is sharing the data with, what it plans to do with the data, and how user anonymity is being preserved. The congressmen have requested a response from Jobs by July 12th.

Quite a few users have reported experiencing an issue with cellular signals appearing to degrade when holding the lower left portion of their iPhone 4s. While not all users have been able to reproduce the problem, it does seem to be fairly widespread, and can be easily visualized as users watch their bars indicating signal strength drop all the way down over a period of a few seconds while the lower left portion of the device is cupped in the hand.

In his iPhone 4 review for The Wall Street Journal, Walt Mossberg did note the device's tendency to show a lower number of signal strength bars than the iPhone 3GS, but that calls did continue to go through and Apple reported that the issue is simply a software issue with the display of the bars rather than an actual signal strength issue.

The cupping issue, however, may be more significant than just a software presentation issue, as several users have reported dropping calls as they place their hand over the lower left portion of the phone.

One user has posted a YouTube video demonstrating the issue and the use of a slide-on iPhone 3GS case to eliminate it.

We have confirmed that Apple's bumper case also appears to effectively prevent the issue from occurring. It remains to be seen, however, what Apple's official response to the issue will be.

Yesterday, we reported that a number of iPhone 4 users have noticed yellowish or brownish splotches on their device's screens, obviously causing a fair amount of concern for some of those users.

According to a forum post at AppleInsider, however, the issue should resolve itself over the next several days, as it is claimed to be caused by a bonding agent in the screen that has not yet fully dried following the manufacturing process.

Apple is using a bonding agent called Organofunctional Silane Z-6011 to bond the layers of glass. Apparently, Apple (or more likely Foxconn) is shipping these products so quickly that the evaporation process is not complete. However, after one or two days of use, especially with the screen on, will complete the evaporation process and the yellow "blotches" will disappear.

How do I know? I was involved in pitching Z-6011 to Apple.

The veracity of the poster's claim has not been verified, but it does offer some hope to those affected by the issue. Adding to those hopes are reports from users that their blotches are in fact fading with time and usage, indicating that affected users should probably take a wait-and-see attitude for a few days rather than rushing out to their local Apple Stores in hopes of exchanging for new units.

I had major yellow spots on the bottom corners of the iPhone 4 this morning when I received it (as shown in the other thread) and as of right now they have COMPLETELY faded away. I have no idea what caused this but it happened. So keep an eye on it over the next day or so if you have the issue. . . It just seemed like the more I used the phone today the more it faded. It's really odd but I'll take it.

Update: Gizmodo is reporting that Apple support staff are issuing conflicting recommendation to users with this issue, with at least one user reportedly receiving confirmatory word from Apple that the issue is "residue from manufacturing" that should clear on its own within a few days while others have been told to bring in their phones for replacement.

Despite early ordering problems and possible reception issues, the iPhone 4 has had a successful launch worldwide to large crowds. Japan was the first country to see the iPhone 4 go on sale and over 300 people lined up at the flagship store for Softbank, the iPhone 4's Japanese mobile carrier. Softbank sold out of the iPhone 4 by early afternoon.

France, Germany, and the UK were the next to launch the iPhone 4 and just followed by the U.S. East coast. The lines have been reported to be very long at many of the locations we've heard from. Our own local Apple Store (Richmond, VA) reports their longest lines for any iPhone launch.

Helpful iPhone 4 Resources

Join our iPhone forums to share your experiences or get help with your new device. We've started a few threads for people to get started:

- First Impressions to iPhone 4
- Examples of Photos Taken with iPhone 4
- Examples of Videos Taken with iPhone 4

There's a great example in the Photo thread of how powerful the iPhone 4's camera flash is.

AppShopper is a useful site to find new apps and price drops existing apps. Apple has let loose an enormous number of app updates have been released in the past 24 hours to offer support for iOS multitasking as well as support for the iPhone 4's retina display and gyroscope.

The are over 220,000 apps available, but here are a couple of guides to get you started:

- AppShopper: Essential Apps: Getting Started with iPhone 4
- TouchArcade: So You Just Got an iPhone 4 - An App Store Gaming Guide

Earlier this evening, iPhone 4 signal drops had been reported from individuals holding their new iPhones in their hand. The issue seems to have been isolated to a specific location on the device itself. It is demonstrated well in this video by Insanely Great Mac:

The video shows that calls were consistently dropped when the iPhone 4 was held in the left hand while touching the bottom left corner.

It's not clear if the bottom-left sensitivity is a problem with every iPhone 4 or if there is only a batch of iPhone 4s that are affected. Of course, the solution for now would be to avoid holding the iPhone in the manner demonstrated.

Note: the lower number of bars on the iPhone 4 as compared to the 3GS is a known software issue. Apple told Mossberg that it would be addressed in a future software update.

Update: A couple of commenters have said they have been unable to replicate on their iPhone 4, while others have, so it may not affect every device.

Apple has released their version of iMovie into the App Store. The new App is $4.99 and requires an iPhone 4.

Make beautiful HD movies anywhere with iMovie, the fun, feature-rich video editing app for iPhone 4. Create a video postcard of your day at the beach and publish it to the web -- without ever leaving your spot in the sand. Or make a movie of your childs birthday party and send it to your parents -- while the party is in full swing. With iMovie for iPhone, you can start several projects and finish them whenever you want and wherever you are.

Apple introduced the App during the WWDC keynote, and has since confirmed an iPhone 4 is required. We suspect the requirement is due to the faster processor and more RAM that the iPhone 4 uniquely offers.

Lines are starting to grow around the world for the iPhone 4 launch. Pictured above is the Michigan Ave Apple Store in Chicago where the weather isn't quite cooperating. Steve Wozniak was spotted in line and even signing a passerby's iPhone 4 box (he must have pre-ordered).

We've continued to get reports all day of Best Buy and Wal-marts having anywhere from 0 to 5 units for sale on launch day. We have also heard unconfirmed reports that the shortages are due to Apple not meeting production numbers. It'll be interesting to see how much stock Apple retail stores have of the new iPhone.

Forum users are organizing meetups across the world in our forums. If you are standing in line, feel free to participate in this thread, your own regional thread (search here), and email any photos to tips@macrumors.com and we'll post the most interesting ones here.

Update:

Gizmodo has compiled a series of videos demonstrating that the iPhone 4s single bars seem to drop down significantly when being held in hand. The report actually began in our own forums with a video demonstrating the reproducibility of the problem:

The finding has generated many responses from people who have noticed similar behavior. While there has been some talk of this being a display error rather than an actual signal issue, several have reported that calls do drop when the bars decline. At least one user has posted a video demonstrating it not happening on his iPhone 4:

While this reader dismisses the claims as "trolling", there are plenty of videos from a variety of users demonstrating the reproducibility on many other people's iPhone 4s.

The question, though, remains -- is this a new issue or are people more acutely aware of it due to the attention drawn to the iPhone 4s exterior antennas. One expert had even predicted this might be a problem.

We're not so sure it's an iPhone 4 specific issue. We remember seeing videos demonstrating this same issue for prior iPhone devices. For whatever reason, those videos never drew that much attention. Here's a video showing the same phenomenon on an iPhone 3G. This video was posted in 2008:

A number of readers in our forum have discovered that their iPhone 4s arriving today are exhibiting areas of brown or yellow discoloration on the highly-touted Retina display. Users in Apple's own discussion forums are also beginning to notice the problem.

At least one user paid a visit to the Genius Bar at his local Apple retail store but was told that there are no replacement units available at the moment. Given the iPhone 4 shortages, it may be some time until affected users can obtain replacements.

The prevalence of the issue is unknown at this time, but there are a significant number of users reporting experiencing it on their phones.

Valve Software today issued an update to its popular Counter-Strike: Source game, bringing Mac OS X compatibility and a number of new features and fixes. To celebrate the release, Counter-Strike: Source is priced at $6.80, a 66% discount, until Friday.

Like other titles from Valve and third-party publishers on the company's Steam game distribution platform, Counter-Strike: Source is available under the Steam Play program, which allows users to play on multiple platforms while only being required to purchase the game once.

Valve has been releasing titles from its library at a regular rate over the past month or so, debuting Steam back in mid-May with Portal before releasing Half-Life 2 and its sequels in late May and Team Fortress 2 earlier this month.

While Mac users have been experiencing relatively stable releases through Steam, gameplay has been somewhat hampered by framerates below that of corresponding Windows releases. Valve has reported that it is working with Apple and graphics card companies NVIDIA and ATI to update drivers to improve performance. In addition, Valve has warned users that Mac OS X 10.6.4 has been causing performance issues for high-end games on Macs using NVIDIA graphics cards, and impacted users are encouraged to hold off from upgrading their operating system until the issues are addressed.

Apple has just issued a brief press release addressing availability of white iPhone 4 models, which are now set to launch in "the second half of July" due to manufacturing challenges.

White models of Apple's new iPhone 4 have proven more challenging to manufacture than expected, and as a result they will not be available until the second half of July. The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected.

For those people with a few hours to kill either waiting for a pre-ordered iPhone 4 to arrive or camping out to purchase one tomorrow, Apple has posted the user guide (PDF link) for iPhone 4 and iOS 4 for your reading pleasure. The 243-page guide, which is also available in an iPhone-formatted version accessible through Safari for iPhone, is broken down into 28 chapters and offers information on the features of iOS 4 as they relate to Apple's new iPhone 4 and 3GS devices.

The user guide covers a multitude of topics, from physical features of the iPhone to setup and on through the various software offerings included by default on the devices. Also included are sections on the iTunes Store and App Store, as well as Apple's free iBooks application available separately through the App Store and the iPhone's Nike + iPod capabilities.

Despite receiving notifications from Apple earlier this week that their iPhone 4 pre-orders would be arriving today, one day ahead of the official launch, a number of U.S. customers have noticed that the tracking information for their shipments through FedEx are suggesting that they may not be receiving their orders today.

Those customers can still hold out hope, however, as FedEx has posted a service update reporting that deliveries are proceeding as scheduled but that updates to tracking information are being delayed.

Package deliveries are proceeding as normal, however tracking updates are temporarily being delayed. Please try back later.

While the notice does not specifically address iPhone 4, it seems reasonable to assume that the volume of shipments going out today is causing some issues with FedEx's tracking system.

A few customers were even lucky enough to receive their shipments yesterday, with many more already being delivered today.

Meanwhile, customers looking to score iPhone 4s at their local Apple Stores tomorrow are beginning to form lines at locations around the country.

One of Apple's key design features for iPhone 4 is its all-glass front and back, utilizing a material touted by Apple as being "more scratch resistant than ever". Apple has placed such faith in the strength and durability of iPhone 4's glass that it is featuring bumpers to offer protection for the device's edges while leaving the front and back fully exposed.

Several of the early iPhone 4 reviews noted that the glass seemed to be holding up well, with several reviewers reporting having dropped their devices with no ill effects observed. Engadget is now reporting, however, that several scratches have been discovered on the back of its review unit after only five days of use.

The photo you're seeing above is our leader Joshua's iPhone 4 review unit, snapped by Ryan Block just moments ago. Ryan pointed out that there are some nasty scratches on the back of the phone. While we don't have any better photos of it at the moment, Josh told us that they're hard to see unless in bright light, but they look pretty notable to us for a five day-old unit made of Gorilla Glass.

While few would expect iPhone 4's glass to reach an indestructible level of durability, the rather rapid accumulation of "nasty" scratches in just a few days of use may be a concern to some possible purchasers and bears watching as users consider their options for protecting the device during daily use.

Earlier this month, we pointed to a YouTube video of what appeared to be a Mac OS X version of Adobe Audition, the company's professional audio production application that has long been a Windows-only release.

As noted by both The Loop and Macworld today, Adobe has officially acknowledged that Audition will be coming to the Mac, with a public beta scheduled for release in "Winter 2010".

Adobe Audition for Mac, coming in a future release, will bring modern audio post-production to the platform of your choice. Familiar tools for audio editing, multitrack mixing and recording will meet expanded device support, greater workflow flexibility, and optimized performance. Plus, best-of-breed audio restoration tools make it easy to clean up production audio. With the essential tools you rely on for fast-turn projects, Audition for the Mac brings a fresh face to audio post-production.

Adobe has also posted a pair of preview videos showing what users can expect in Adobe Audition for Mac.

In January 2009, both MacRumors and Daring Fireball's John Gruber began hearing rumors that Apple was working on a project code-named "Marble" that was believed to be an overhaul of the Mac OS X interface set to appear with Snow Leopard later that year.

As time went by, however, Gruber noted that "Marble" was unlikely to appear in Mac OS X Snow Leopard, and indeed the new operating system did not carry the significant overhaul many had been hoping for, leading to speculation that it could still appear in Mac OS X 10.7 whenever that sees the light of day.

Yesterday, Gruber revealed that "Marble" actually appears not to be a Mac OS X interface revamp but an overhaul of Xcode, Apple's developer tools for Mac OS X and iOS. A beta version of Xcode 4 was previewed at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference earlier this month, but with the sessions covered by non-disclosure agreements, it was taken some time for details on the update to come out. One of the major changes in Xcode 4 is the integration of Interface Builder into the larger Xcode application, creating a unified interface that comprises the "Marble" project.

Xcode 4 is still in beta, Apple doesn't have screenshots available, and what was shown at WWDC 2010 is covered by NDA. But if you have a developer account, you can get a tour of the new interface by watching the Developer Tools State of the Union session. It is, to say the least, a major overhaul - primarily focused on doing more within a single window, even going so far as to bake Interface Builder into Xcode itself. According to several informed sources at WWDC, that's the "Marble" project.

It is unknown when Xcode 4 will make its official debut, but it appears to promise a significantly enhanced development environment for creating and testing applications.