The IT Nerd

Americans are going gaga over the fact that iPhones are now available unlocked (meaning that they’re not tied to AT&T) as of today. Of course, Canadians have had unlocked iPhones for some time now. But this is a huge deal for Americans. Why. Simple, if you travel you can buy a local SIM card and avoid roaming charges. Or you can have your choice of domestic carrier, meaning if you know think that AT&T sucks isn’t your best choice, you can go to T-Mobile (even though AT&T wants to buy them).

The price to enter the unlocked universe is steep, but it might be worth it.

You gotta wonder what’s up with Apple? After their last go round with antenna issues on the original GSM iPhone 4, you’d think they’d make the Verizon iPhone bullet proof. But they they didn’t. They video brought to you by iLounge below shows the fact that the Verizon iPhone has the same antenna issues as the original GSM iPhone 4:

It actually gets worse. It’s not just the cellular antenna. It’s also the WiFi antenna that’s affected as well according to the article:

The problem with Wi-Fi reception appears when the device is held snugly in landscape orientation with two hands, a position common when playing games or using the widescreen keyboard. Prior to the Verizon iPhone 4’s launch, sources told iLounge to be on the lookout for the issue, which was being referred to as the “death hug.”

Apparently iLounge saw this coming and they have some observations:

It should be noted that although early Apple-sanctioned reviews of the Verizon iPhone 4 claimed that the antenna problems had been fixed in the CDMA model, the same reviewers failed to notice the antenna problems in their original coverage of the GSM model. iLounge’s testing so far has found that the Verizon iPhone 4’s issues appear in the same geographic location as the AT&T iPhone 4’s, indoors with an average of three bars of signal strength. Once again, use of a protective case appears to fix the antenna issue, and antenuation may not be noticeable in areas with stronger signal strength.

Steve, you have some explaining to do.

This was posted to Apple’s website today in an attempt to brush aside any notion that Apple has any antenna issue. Two tidbits appear in this posting. First, the free case program is ending at the end of the month. Second is this:

We now know that the iPhone 4 antenna attenuation issue is even smaller than we originally thought. A small percentage of iPhone 4 users need a case, and we want to continue providing them a Bumper case for free.

Oh really? How about some proof Apple? After all you really can’t go around making claims like that without backing them up? Right?

The Globe And Mail is reporting that Mark Papermaster who is, or rather was the senior vice-president of iPhone and iPod hardware engineering is leaving the company. An Apple spokesperson won’t say if he was fired or he left voluntarily which leaves more questions than answers at this point. Either way, speculation is that he’s likely the first public casualty of the “Antennagate” circus that has plagued the iPhone 4 since it was released.

By the way if the name sounds familiar, it should. Apple hired him away from IBM and then got into a very messy legal spat that I documented on this blog. Bob Mansfield, Apple’s senior vice-president of Macintosh hardware engineering, will assuming Mr. Papermaster’s responsibilities.

In any case, it looks like the fit has hit the shan internally and you might even see some more heads roll over “Antennagate.”

UPDATE: Daring Fireball is reporting that inside Apple, Papermaster was known as the guy behind the antenna. I guess we now know that he was likely “asked to leave.”

If you want an iPhone in Canada, don’t bother trying to go to your local Rogers, Bell, and Telus dealer. The only way to get your hands on one seems to be to go the the Apple Store. Which in most cases requires you to wait in line for up to 4 hours or more. There’s a thread on the Canadian Apple Fanboi site EhMac.ca where these sort of sentiments are being posted:

It seems like the rest of Canada is being ignored so they can supply the Apple stores. Kind of sucky.
I’m sure the supplies will be at normal levels in a couple weeks. As in, anyone can get one anywhere.

And:

I was just at the Rogers store in Upper Canada mall and they told me that they weren’t getting any more until next month? What the heck?

And:

That was fast. Rogers didn’t get any. It seems all is going to Apple.
Still looking for the 32GB gold!

Charming. I took the liberty of speaking with a few Telus, Bell, and Rogers dealers and they said variants of the following: They got a few on launch day (July 30th) and haven’t seen any since. They also don’t know when they’re getting any more, but they feel screwed over by Apple as the Apple stores seem to be able to get stock at will. If I were Rogers, Bell, and Telus, I’d be beyond upset by Apple at this point.

Frankly, I’m not surprised by this behavior. Many moons ago I worked for a series of Apple resellers and there was always uneven (at best) product distribution that was heavily slanted towards their retail stores and away from their resellers. I didn’t find it fair at the time and many customers didn’t either.

So I guess the take home message from Apple Canada is that if you’re Canadian and you want an iPhone 4, the only place to get it is the Apple Store until Apple feels like sending them to Rogers, Bell, and Telus. Oh yeah, bring comfy shoes as the wait to get one is likely to be long…. If you get one at all.