Luckier than I knew

I’d like to thank Apple’s overloaded web site and AT&T Premier for preventing me from ordering an iPhone 4 last week. I was initially pretty bummed out, especially when I learned how long I’d have to wait to get a phone if I ordered online any day after June 15 (and AT&T isn’t taking new orders until June 29), but now I’m feeling pretty okay about “missing out.”

A lot of iPhone 4 owners have experienced a loss of signal or dropped calls when they hold their phones in the left hands. I’m left-handed. This means that I generally hold things in my left hand. It seems that using this phone would not go well for me.

Steve Jobs is all over this one, promising that Apple will do everything they can to fix this problem ASAP. Just kidding. Actually, he’s telling people that it’s not an issue, or maybe it’s not much of an issue, or that they just shouldn’t hold the phone that way. Because now there’s an Apple-endorsed way to hold a cell phone? Madness! Real Steve Jobs is starting to sound more and more like Fake Steve Jobs.

If there was a Webby for best art accompanying blog posts, Engadget would have to win it:

Finally, here’s Apple’s official response:

Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.