Apple iPhone boss makes low-profile exit in the wake of antenna fiasco

Mark Papermaster, the senior vice president for devices hardware engineering at Apple has left his position. His exit follows in the wake of the widely reported antenna problems surrounding the iPhone 4.

The problems with the handset have not officially been confirmed or denied as the reason for Papermaster leaving his role, which he had been in since 2009 after joining Apple from IBM. His successor will be Bob Mansfield, who until now has been covering overseas engineering efforts for Apple Macintosh products.

Speculation surrounding the iPhone technical issues still rumbles on however. Although the US computer giant made moves to quell the rising tide of discontent by offering free cases to any iPhone 4 users to stop the reception problems, it failed to stem the flood of negative press that surrounded the handset. It also offered a refund to consumers not happy with the quick-fix case solution.

Meanwhile, owners of jailbroken iPhones and iPads can now get Adobe's Flash technology to run on their devices using software called Frash, no doubt much to the consternation of Apple. A jailbroken iOS device with Frash installed will allow users to enjoy Flash content via the mobile version of the Safari web browser.