The iPhone 4 is great (but there's a giant asterisk)

A lot of the popular Android handsets out there have their share of problems too. When the N1 came out people were demanding recalls over the 3G switching problem and multi-touch problems. The EVO has that weird 30FPS cap and battery issues, the Droid still has a battery cover problem 8 months later, The Eris/Incredible have the "silent call bug" Seems like the pressures to produce new models every 6-12 months with major software updates over the same time period is starting to catch up with everyone these days. I think if we're going to keep demanding lower prices, more frequent releases and keep up the OMG I need it on launch day or I'll just die! attitudes we're going to keep getting shoddy products.

The MacBook Air is a brilliant bit of engineering. As you point out, it is a constrained device. It's not for everyone, it's for those who value weight and size over everything else. But remarkably, for actual use in front of the screen and keyboard, it doesn't feel like a laptop which has been squished to fit certain dimensions.

I tried using a netbook, but was such a horrendous experience that I found myself finding excuses not to use it. The MBA has no such problem.

I would really love for Apple to have a healthy, but small share of the market. Get too much, and you really run the risk of having to deal with their iron fisted handling of things. I wouldn't want to see them go away, though, they're great innovators and build beautiful things, even if I wouldn't buy them myself.

The flaws you site in the Macbook Air are not flaws. They are design compromises intentionally made by Apple. I have a Macbook Pro and a Macbook Air sitting right in front of me and I would say that even though I use the pro more often, the Air is the better laptop.

The Air is obviously not for you. Don't mistake it for an engineering flaw.

Pretty much. My hands reliably short out the antenna. I like the phone so much that I'm happy to change the way I hold the phone.

Marco is right, though: Apple's damage control strategy is backfiring. For the time being, though, it might not matter. It's a really, really, really nice phone.

Aside from the anecdotes of plenty of people with YouTube and Twitter accounts, the antenna problem has been thoroughly tested by Consumer Reports, according to a blog post that made the rounds yesterday: http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2010/07/apple-i...

Engadget is reporting that Apple has been deleting references to the Consumer Reports blog on their support forums.

The antenna problem affects actual people, who really do experience dropped calls when they're in an area with weaker coverage and they bridge the two antennae. I'm continually surprised at this notion amongst many iPhone4 users that if it doesn't happen to them, then it must not exist, despite plenty of evidence that it does exist.

Degraded call quality and dropped calls are a consequence of signal attenuation. If the antenna experiences abnormal (normal being defined by typical behavior of competing devices) attenuation, then you will experience call degradation issues under conditions where your signal strength is not optimal.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/06/putting-hard-numbe...

For what it's worth, Cingular (which became AT&T Wireless) was awful in most of the areas I used it, even when I had a phone that was just a phone. I then got a normal phone on Verizon, and it was a night and day difference. I can count the number of dropped calls with that phone on one hand.

That's not to say that the iPhone's antenna has ever been exemplary or even one of the top priorities for Apple, but it's not at all a stretch to think it's mostly AT&T's fault. Don't blame fanboys for what can be explained by AT&T just sucking.

Nope. I (a customer of Rogers Canada) have never experienced a single dropped call, or any static, or even anything less than three bars of service, in my last two years of iPhone ownership. I never hear any stories from anyone around here about such things, either; only read them online. I do believe it's your shitty cell infrastructure. :)