Apple has deleted several threads complaining about iPhone 4 antenna problems from its public Discussions forum. The cull followed a series of posts citing an unfavourable report by Consumer Reports, a US equivalent of Which?.
“When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side — an easy thing, especially for lefties — the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you’re in an area with a weak signal,” the report says. “Due to this problem, we can’t recommend the iPhone 4.”
Apple has acknowledged that there is a problem if you hold the phone in the “wrong place” and suggested that users either hold it differently or buy a case, though it has refused calls for it to provide its £25 Bumper for free to affected customers.
It has also promised a software update that will correct what it says are misleading signal strength readings indicated by the bars in the top left of the display. Consumer Reports’ study suggests software will not be enough.
Some of the deleted threads are still online via Bing’s cache.
