If you spend most of your day outside a cubicle, no where near a computer, or you are a hermit with a wicked long beard who lives inside a cave up in the mountains, you probably haven’t heard about the iPhone 4′s reception problems. In a nutshell, the issues are that holding the phone in a ‘normal’ way to quite a few consumers drops your reception considerably, all due to the fact that the users hand touching the aluminum band around the phone disrupts the antenna signal. Most of the tech news outlets have covered this and conducted their own tests and determined it’s a very real issue. Now, with such a large entity like the Consumer Reports agency doing their own tests, then later saying they “cannot recommend the iPhone 4 at this time with it’s reception problems”, Apple has decided to continue to ignore and disregard the claims. In a new tactic of douchebaggery, Apple has decided to selectively delete user posts on their support forums about the issue. Furthermore, Apple itself has admitted that the signal bars you see on the iPhone 4 are over exaggerated and incorrect, and Apple is working on a “fix” to accurately represent the signal strength again.

In related media, here is a picture of Steve Jobs laughing because he likes censorship.

The newest iteration of Apple’s cash cow was, without a doubt, the most hyped and anticipated piece of hardware for this year. As with all previous years, really. After a grueling Thursday morning and afternoon waiting to get our grubby little hands on one, we did. But the masses must be appeased, and while we try and touch on topics outside the limelight, the seemingly gravitational pull of the iPhone 4 is a necessity.

Skip to the bottom if you are wanting to know if you should buy this little hotcake or not, but don’t have the time to be bothered with such things as specifications and details.

What’s Hot:

The shape of the handset is different, but in a good way. It’s still got it’s rounded corners, but the abrupt cut off point of the front and back glass, along with a slightly protruding metal rim makes for a more testosterone fueled design. There is no doubt aesthetics was a huge factor for this redesign.

Holding the device, we initially thought it felt about as thick as it’s predecessor, the 3G/S. However, only when putting them side by side did we see how dramatically thinner the device is. It was a pleasant surprise that the device isn’t too thin, and that it still feels solid and fits well in your hand.

And thus brings us to the screen itself. It’s vibrant, colors appear to “pop” more compared to the previous generation, and fine lines (our best example was looking at the Notes icon with it’s red vertical lines and brown-ish horizontal lines) are better defined. Whether this is due to the (perhaps overly hyped) Retina display or simply the boost in screen resolution is left to be determined, but there is no doubt it looks much, much better than the 3G/S. Holding them side by side, the previous version screen looks like utter garbage.

FaceTime is neat and works as expected, but we have always been (with any handset) cautions on if the whole video conference thing will actually catch on for casual phone buyers.

The battery longevity is where the phone shines the most in our opinion. During normal usage, reports are already coming in that post up to a 38 hour battery life with normal use of phone calls, games, app usage, etc. That’s a pretty amazing number, and especially attractive to the corporate playing field, as long flights with no chargers can become common.

The camera and video recorder will be adequate to the needs of most people. While it may not replace a point and shoot, it certainly is up to par with some of the low to mid range “flip” style video recorders concerning motion blur and focus time. The pictures in optimal lighting are nice and crisp and display a surprising amount of detail.

The upgraded RAM and processor lend greatly to the snappiness of the phone OS. Moving between screens is quicker and more fluid than before. Apps open faster, close quicker, and generally run better in almost every aspect. The OS has always been a well oiled machine for it’s application of a phone/small media player, and the upgrades simply add more to that experience.

One last little thing we noticed, and it’s almost not mention-worthy, is the home button feels super duper snappy. It actually feels like a button, rather than a mushy feature. For something so small, we really noticed and appreciated it.

What’s Not:

One of the biggest gripes about the “phone” itself is that it still carries the burden of being on AT&T’s network. While we cannot fault the device itself, we’d be doing a disservice not to touch on the very root of the device, which after all, is a phone. Dropped calls, laggy dialing/connection, slow 3G speeds, and over all problems will forever be the bane of both Apple and AT&T. It comes down to what you can tolerate without pulling your hair out in frustration and if you still have high hopes of AT&T upgrading their service.

As it’s been reported by CNN, left-hand callers may experience dropped calls or horrible reception (if that’s even possible). On top of that, several reports are coming in saying that the iPhone 4 actually gets fewer bars (on occasion) of reception when holding it next to a 3GS. Calls to AT&T to attempt any sort of solution or reason why this may happen have been unfruitful.

While we like that Apple got some issues and features on this version, such as folder organization and multi-tasking, we’re disappointed that it has taken this long to get basic functionality that has been on Jailbroken phones for years now, let alone on Android. It simply seems to us that Apple may be running behind the competition on a lot of aspects of the OS functionality, which is uncommon with Apple’s reputed innovative stature in the computer market.

We know both sides of the argument, but Flash still isn’t supported, and probably never will be. We could write an entire article about this, but most of you who follow it know where each side lies (Adobe vs. Apple), so we won’t go there. Needless to say, we are disappointed that they won’t include this functionality on the iPhone, even if they say the technology is on it’s way out.

In the same note as not supporting Flash (with regard to previous versions of the phone), you still are unable to remove and replace the battery. This may be a deal breaker for some who are accustomed to carrying a few spares around while on vacation or for work related things.

While we mentioned above that the FaceTime program is neat, it’s still only usable over WiFi, and only on other iPhone 4′s. Yes, the iPhone has a huge market share, but why limit this functionality to only the sole device, and only over a network that isn’t readily available? We know the data streaming over AT&T’s already crippled 3G network would be a cluster, it just seems like yet another thing Apple is hurried to release that isn’t quite as refined as it should be.

More glass, more cracks. We like how both sides of the device are the highly resistant glass we’ve come to love from Apple, but as the YouTube videos that float around will point out, you drop that $199 sucker once and you’re going to break something. We liked how the plastic (or even the aluminum of the 1st iPhone) was farily resistant to cracks. Chips and dings, sure, but that didn’t screw up the whole phone. It’s glossy, shiny, and we cringe for all those who casually remove the phone from their pocket, lose grip, and see it tumbling in slow motion down to the concrete.

Long Lines & The Summary:

Holy long lines, Batman. One of our editors reported standing in line for over 9 hours to get their hands on one, and many in other parts of the country who waited even longer. It wouldn’t have been that bad, but we fault the AT&T, who should have been more prepared on release and pre-order day with their web servers. The same editor here tried desperately to pre-order two weeks ago to no avail, only to have to stand in line in the warmer-than-necessary sun at the local outside Apple store. To all those who had to bare this unfortunate torture, we both salute you and roll our eyes. We don’t care how awesome a phone might be, it’s not worth 9 hours of sitting in line, twiddling your thumbs.

However, the summary is simple: It’s a great device, it’s respected familiar feel (both outside and in) is even better than previous versions, and if you’re a fanboy or just want to upgrade, go out and do it.. just don’t stand in line for 9 hours to get it, open the box, and smudge the hell out of the screen.

I don’t normally like to write articles about hot topics, but with the release of the iPad, plus yesterday’s Apple 4.0 OS keynote, am I the only one who still thinks the iPad is a complete failure? Am I really alone on this, and has all the awesome rumors that didn’t come to be fallen by the wayside? I remember when it was leaked that the iPad would run basically the iPhone OS, and people were PISSED. Reading over sources at Gizmodo, TechCrunch, dvice, etc., pretty much the only thing covered over the last week and a half has been Apple/iPad related, and they are all singing praise. Is it just me who has a sinking feeling in their stomach that thinks Apple contacted all these sites and said “Hey, give us a good review since we poured money into the R&D on this, and we’ll send you a bunch of free shit.” Maybe I am the only one. Maybe I’m the minority or just naieve (to be honest, I haven’t used the iPad, but I own an iPhone, so that’s pretty much the same thing, right? Just bigger?) in this. Maybe I’m missing something about the iPad that everyone else just “gets”. I remember months ago the rumor mill going around on how this was going to revolutionize the industry, and how it’s going to be this awesome little thing you can pack around and do everything on. What Apple did wrong, and what would have changed everything, is put the iPhone/iTouch OS on the iPad. It should have been Leopard, with all the functionality of the regular OS, just using your finger instead of a mouse. I suppose a lot of this talk is for the purpose of saturating the marketplace readers with discussion about it, which obviously, since I’m writing about it, has worked. Oh well. I still won’t be buying one. I’ll just keep my Macbook Pro and do everything the iPad can’t. Got an opinion? Discuss below.

I’m going to be honest with you, oh loyal Geekogle reader, in that I was really not wanting to do a post about the upcoming Motorola Droid smart phone. I like to post things here that aren’t already being over-saturated by everyone else. I’m just keeping it real, yo. But I had to post this one up. You’ve all probably seen the commercial Motorola has released. From a design perspective, I really do like the ad. I do own an iPhone, and I do enjoy it, however I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t anxious to see the Droid first hand and see how the Android 2.0 software works. I’ll probably write a mini-review when I’m able to get my hands on it. So this guy made a video rebuttal to the Droid ad, well done sir, well done. The first ad is the original Droid ad, the second is the user created ad.

Source: www.youtube.com