The UK Daily Mail under the headline "Apple iPhone 4 may be recalled, says Steve Jobs" ran a sorry based on a Twitter response apparently from Apple's CEO Steve Jobs.
The Tweet: "We may have to recall the new iPhone. This I did not expect," proved fake, and was clearly fake to many who first read it. The Twitter bio next to the Tweet actually reads: "I don't care what you think of me. You care what I think of you. Of course this is a parody account."
While the Daily Mail promptly removed the story from the internet, the issue of mediocre reception is a reality for many iPhone 4 users.
Not long after the iPhone 4 hit the market last week, some purchasers reported poor signal strength and limited reception, owed to two antennas being assembled into the banding that encloses the new iPhone. Apple reacted suggesting good reception is dependent on how you actually hold the iPhone 4.
The real Steve Jobs contacted Engadget to tell one irked customer: "Just avoid holding it that way."
Apple spokesperson Nat Harrison added: "Gripping any 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."
"The best solution," adds Positronic_Matrix. "Is to not touch the antennas at the gap (Steve is right) or to buy a phone cover that keeps your high-permittivity sausages away from the RF sensitive areas. Apple made the trade off for you and in my opinion it is a novel and good one, provided it can survive the bad PR generated by the griping gap grippers."
Apple is facing more than just a reception glitch on the new iPhone. Even the most ardent Macheads are growing impatient with Cupertino's refusal to admit that anything's wrong with its latest iPhone despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Experts are warning that Apple has nothing less than a PR disaster on its hands. Would a full-on recall help polish Apple's tarnished image?