iPhone 4: this changes everything - for the worse?

The iPhone 4 went on sale yesterday to the usual scenes of long queues, proud and excited new owners, and suspicion that Apple has deliberately underestimated the required amount of handsets in order to fuel demand.

However, amongst those who have been lucky enough to get their hands on one, there have been some who have not had the ideal iPhone experience. Judging by early reports, there appear to be some issues with 'discoloured bands and blotches on the screen' - which are reported by Pocket Gamer to be connected with the manufacturing process, and the fact that the units are being shipped so quickly after they roll off the production line - effectively before the paint is dry. These marks will disappear in a few days, apparently.

More worrying, however, is the fact that new iPhone owners are reporting reception issues - which given that the device is all about the connectivity is going to be a pretty major issue. The problem seems to arise when users wrap their hands around the handset (that being what you do with a handset) - and inadvertently cover the unit's antenna, thereby making it difficult to connect to anything.

Not to worry, though, iPhone owners - Apple boss Steve Jobs has the solution:  'just don't hold it that way' . In an email to tech blog Engadget Jobs explained that all phones have some issues with antenna placement, and the fact that users can accidentally block their own signal. He then  goes on to explain that iPhone 4 owners should just adjust the way they hold the handset. So, a typically caring sharing Apple reaction, then, to what seems to be a pretty obvious design flaw in their new bit of kit.

So how did Apple manage to miss this fairly major problem in testing? Well, one theory is that they ran all their tests with the unit disguised as a 3GS, and so didn't come up against the hand/antenna issue in the iPhone 4 format.