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iPhone 4 is here, and so are the early gripes
Ahh, early adopters. The tech-crazed guinea pigs that rush to be the first to get their hands on a new gadget and then endure the days and weeks of frustration as those products work-through the inevitable post-launch hiccups.
Today the first round of lab subjects got their shiny new iPhones and it didn't take long before a few interesting "quirks" in the iPhone 4 were noted in the hardware.
First off, there's some issues with the screen. That gorgeous high-def better-than-the-eye Retina display is showing an early tendency for discoloration. Users have reported that the bottom portions of the screen can sometimes show yellow or brown splotches about the size of a button. As TUAW notes, Apple's already having trouble meeting demand for the new handsets, so those who want to have their iPhones repaired by the company (read: replaced with a new handset) could have a bit of a wait.
Then there's the reception issue. Remember when Steve Jobs pointed out that all of the antenna hardware was inside of the steel band, which basically acted like a large antenna? Well, it turns out that when you hold the iPhone 4 in your hand with your fingers on the band, you essentially get the same effect as grabbing a TV antenna and blocking off the signal. Putting your grubby hands on the band can in some cases cause the quality of the signal to drop.
Hopefully these are just minor issues that only affect the first batches that are being sent off for early pre-orders, or at least minor manufacturing problems that have already been addressed, because so far the iPhone 4 roll-out has gone less than swimmingly, and a wide-spread hardware problem could push it into the realm of an outright mess.
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