Do you think they have some kind of anti-Apple agenda? I can understand why people were skeptical when Gizmodo started posting reports they culled from the Macrumors forums, but this is Consumer Reports. Just because your phone works fine doesn't mean that the issue does not exist.

I do think they have a Pro-"Get everyone talking about Consumer Reports again" agenda though.

How do you make that happen? Make a splash with a polarizing article making the case for why the object everyone is in love with sucks.

It's sensational journalism 101.

They show their hand by recommending people buy the now mostly inferior 3GS instead of the 4. It's like their way of saying "We still love the iPhone!" Because duh.. it's obviously already a huge success.

Consumer Reports took the time and money to test three different iPhones in an RF isolation chamber, and presumably through scientific process, determined that indeed, the iPhone4 has signal attenuation issues that cause calls to be dropped.

I think that if one believes they are fudging the numbers, either duplicate their effort, or contact Consumer Reports and ask for more details on how the experiment is run.

I think it's good to question authority - and in fact that's what Consumer Reports often does, and is what they're doing here. The authority, Apple, is saying there's nothing wrong with one face, and with another face, they're hiring RF and antenna engineers. There are real people who paid at least $200 for this phone who are having real signal issues, but I shouldn't believe them because AT&T's coverage in Philadelphia is so widespread that I can use my iPhone underground in the subway?

That's zealous, and I'm glad to see an organization with the means to test these things put some weight behind the bloggers and everyday users who are having real trouble with these phones.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/12/consumer-reports-confirms...

That's how you refute -- or reinforce -- a published study. Not with rhetoric that a high school student would be embarrassed to get behind, but with independent study, publishing your methods and findings.

Thats what bothers me - where is the data? And furthermore, is CR testing signal attenuation, or an actual loss of functionality? Not having a phone myself (but knowing someone who is quite happy with hers) I remain unconvinced that there is a fundamental issue until I see data correlating hand position to actual dropped calls or reduced data throughput. Anything else has the feel of weather prediction.

From the article: "When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone's lower left side - an easy thing, especially for lefties - the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you're in an area with a weak signal"

They are testing both signal attenuation and an actual loss of functionality.

I agree, actual data would be nice. What gives me confidence in the report is that, to quote Wikipedia, "Consumer Reports does not print outside advertising, accept free product samples, or permit the commercial use of its reviews for selling products" and that they've been doing this since 1936.

Bose and Sharper Image have in the past attempted to sue Consumer Reports for showing some kind of bias or for presumably using inaccurate methods in their reviews - both lost their lawsuits. There are good reasons why CR has the reputation it has, and that's why I'm willing to take what they have to say at close to face value, even without raw data being published in the same blog entry.

Anyone who doesn't have this problem or thinks it is overblown is an Apple fanatic, obviously, and of course they're all yelling all the time.

> There's already someone in the HN comments on this story who says it can't possibly be true because he's never had the problem with his iPhone. Seriously.

I can't seem to find that. Weird.

> I think that if one believes they are fudging the numbers, either duplicate their effort, or contact Consumer Reports and ask for more details on how the experiment is run.

Nobody said they were fudging numbers, nobody even implied it.

> (...) and with another face, they're hiring RF and antenna engineers.

Ah right, that whole conspiracy theory.

> There are real people who paid at least $200 for this phone who are having real signal issues, but I shouldn't believe them because AT&T's coverage in Philadelphia is so widespread that I can use my iPhone underground in the subway?

I haven't seen any comments recently (here or on reddit) which suggest that the problem does not exist, only that the problem does not affect them.

Further down the page http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1508566

> The iPhone 4 antenna attenuation issue will be remembered as one of the biggest avoidable but unforeseen design errors of all time, I think.

The comment you're linking is a response to the above:

> iPhone 4 owner as of day 1 and I haven't had an issue. I can't imagine that this is true.

Seems obvious that the "I can't imagine that to be true" is a response to "remembered as one of the biggest avoidable but unforeseen design errors of all time"

1) Dither around like they're doing now. Blame AT & T, the software, etc.

2) Acknowledge the issue. Offer a free piece of plastic to all users who want one. Their cost no more than $5 per phone. Most people won't bother because they'll get their own case.

Which do you think in the long term will be more beneficial to the company? To their user's loyalty?

Two of my favourite things about the iPhone are that it's slim and looks nice. The suggested fixes (in my view) compromise those things.

Plus, in the bumper case, 'cheap' isn't really good enough -- you're still paying extra money to make the thing work as it should.

If a product doesn't perform its core function (making phone calls) without spending $29 more than the base price and the manufacture doesn't tell you that when you buy it, then it is a defective product and doesn't meet their standard for recommendation.

> But Apple needs to come up with a permanent—and free—fix for the antenna problem before we can recommend the iPhone 4.

If this was a piece of software wouldn't we all demand a patch?

This is why I am still considering the iPhone 4 despite being aware of this flaw, as for everything other than making calls, it is arguably the best device in its class.

I'd think suggesting they over reacted is quite a stretch, yes.