Know iPhone | iPhone tips and advice

iPhone 4 - what will Apple do next? Bumper recall?

Apple's woes continue with the debate over the iPhone 4's antenna problem, or 'grip of death'. It has reached a pretty conclusive stage now that Consumer Reports has officially said that it cannot recommend the new iPhone following tests in its labs. 

The question is what will Apple do next? They have confirmed the issue to a degree but have tried to put it down to a software issue. Now that it seems to be real the clamour for action is rising, and some even talk of product recall.

It was first highlighted during the launch as a great innovation - integrating the antenna into the body of the phone. However as these problems seem to be real and it's a hardware rather than a software issue you do have to ask what could Apple do short of a redesign? There is, however, a ready made solution and Apple sells it. It comes in the shape of the iPhone bumper accessory.

You have to ask why Apple has produced a protective case product for this iPhone when they have not done so for previous models. Could it be that Apple have been aware of the problem all along and have produced this accessory precisely because of it? Certainly Steve Jobs made a big pitch for them at the launch. The plot thickens and we suspect this story has a way to go yet.

Next iPhone - iPhone HD?

There are rumours that the next iPhone will be called the iPhone HD. 

The Wall Street Journal is also speculating that the new phone will have double the screen resolution, a front camera (presumably for video calls) and multitasking.

Two months and counting...perhaps.

Apple sues HTC, real target is Google

Apple today launched a lawsuit against mobile phone manufacturer HTC for infringing its multitouch patents.

However it's plain to see that HTC is the proxy for the real target: Google. The fight for the future of computing has begun.

iPhone screen touches on perfection - well it's the best at least

 The iPhone has come out ahead of the competition when it comes to the quality of its touch screen. A simple yet effective test of drawing a straight line (more to it than that but that's it in essence) shows that the iPhone's screen is best. One caveat was that it lost out to the new Nexus One when it came to the edge of the screen - if you really want to be picky.

Rubber iPhone shock?

Confusion reigns today - perhaps the strangest rumour for a while states that in addition to various hardware tweaks (see yesterday's news) the next version of the iPhone will come in rubber.....

Perhaps it has something to do with the support article posted by Apple today on how to avoid static electric shocks from your iPod/iPhone ear buds. Or maybe not. Or maybe it's just a slow news day.

On a more interesting note, analyst firm Gartner reports that Apple has doubled its smartphone market share in a year, now boasting over 10% of global sales.