Apple [AAPL] held a press conference on Friday to discuss the iPhone 4 antenna problems that have been all over the internet since the launch last month. In the presentation Apple compared the iPhone 4 antenna to the likes of RIM [RIMM], HTC [TPE:2498] and Microsoft [MSFT] along with video demonstrations on how holding a smartphone from each of the above companies caused the signal to drop.

HTC hasn’t responded officially to the comments but did let the tech site Pocket-Lint know that the Droid Eris that was featured in the Apple presentation had a far lower return rate than the iPhone 4.

“Approximately .016% of customers,” Eric Lin, the company’s global PR and online community manager exclusively revealed to us before adding that “we have had very few complaints about signal or antenna problems on the Eris.”

[Read more…]

Mixed in with the iPhone 4 antenna details today at the Apple [AAPL] press conference was some information relating to the launch date of the iPhone 4 in 17 more countries.

The next launch date is July 30 where 17 more countries will be able to get their hands on the iPhone 4. These countries include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. [Read more…]

Apple [AAPL] held a press conference today to explain the problems of the iPhone 4 specifically relating to the antenna. The company has been running tests and comparisons for the last 22 days to get to the bottom of what’s actually happening. A few numbers were shown which included that the iPhone 4 drops slightly more calls than the iPhone 3GS (ie, less than 1 more call per 100) and that all smartphones have problems when holding them. When speaking about those who have called AppleCare the numbers were just 0.55% of iPhone 4 owners with AppleCare service. Returns wise the company has seen just 1.7% of iPhone 4’s returned which is lower than the 6% of the 3GS.

So what is Apple going to do about it? As the title suggests, Apple will be giving a free case to anybody who buys an iPhone 4 right up to September 30 where they will re-evaluate where they are at.

The problem here is that Apple can’t make enough bumper cases, so instead they will be offering the bumper case for free or another case if the bumper is not available. Starting late next week you’ll be able to visit the Apple store, choose which case you want and have it shipped to you. [Read more…]

We are just a few hours away from a special Apple [AAPL] press event where it is believed the iPhone 4 antenna issues will be discussed. At least that’s what we are hoping for as Apple needs to do something to be a little more open about what’s going on.

While you are waiting for the next few hours for the press event to start, check out the video below that sums up the problems in a song. It also gives you guidance on what you can do if you are suffering with signal loss. Enjoy! [Read more…]

Reports are showing today that the Motorola DROID could be killed off. The information comes from a capture of an end-of-life document over at Verizon.

If the leaked document (pictured below) is correct then we could soon see the DROID sales come to a halt and support eventually be ceased.

The DROID was a big hit when launched last year, but since then a number of big Android phones have been launched which makes the DROID look a tad old now. The DROID 2 has been rumoured to be coming out soon and the DROID X launched just yesterday which are all worthy replacements for the original DROID. [Read more…]

Microsoft [MSFT] is launching a new application for Android devices. The new Bing application will be able to do most of what the web application can do in that you can search images, maps, news, shopping or regular results from within the Bing App.

Bing is trailing behind Google by quite a lot in terms of market share. By pushing the Bing App out there on to a popular platform, it should give them a little boost although we suspect it wont go fixing any problems any time soon.

Part of the new Bing Android app will be based around mapping where location based search will play a big role. Search for a Zoo for example and it will load up the closest Zoo to you and show you where it is on the map along with contact details and other information. [Read more…]

Samsung is pushing the Galaxy S class of phones a lot. So far over 1 million of them have been sold globally. Samsung say that they will reach 10 million units which is some achievement.

When Samsung refer to the Galaxy S we assume they include all models such as the Samsung Captivate, Vibrant and the others that carriers sell in the US which all are classed as Galaxy S class phones.

The phone it’s self scored high in our Samsung Galaxy S review. It has a large 4 inch WVGA screen that uses Samsung’s Super AMOLED touchscreen that is very vibrant. [Read more…]

Nokia [NOK] has introduced a new C-series mobile phone to the Netherlands. It is called the C6 but has the C6-01 name which brings a few updates to the older model.

New features include a slight new re-design along with an 8 megapixel camera. This is up from the original C6 that had a 5 megapixel camera.

As well as getting a higher resolution camera on the back, a dual-LED flash has also been included to help provide better picture quality in darker light situations. [Read more…]

The HTC Aria looked like it was going to get the HTC sync app as it appeared on their website recently. However, the app has now been removed which now would prevent non-android market applications from being installed on the device.

When the app first appeared on HTC, people were thinking that AT&T [T] were relaxing the rules a little and letting 3rd party apps be installed on the handsets it offers as a carrier. However, now that the side-loading app has been removed this is not the case. [Read more…]

Mozilla has launched Firefox Home for iPhone. We have mentioned the Firefox Home application previously when it was waiting for approval in to the app store by Apple. That approval has now been granted and it is available for download.

What Firefox Home lets you do is sync up your tabs, bookmarks and history from other computers running Firefox. By installing a sync add-on on your desktop and setting up a new user account, you can then install Firefox Home on your iPhone and log in with the same username and password to sync up the features mentioned above.

For example, I have 10 tabs open on my desktop PC that I need to look over. I simply leave my desk, pick up my iPhone and load up Firefix Home. Those same 10 tabs are available on my iPhone to browse through whilst on the move. [Read more…]

The HTC Ace was first spotted on a roadmap leak of UK phone launched a few weeks back. We now hear that the HTC Ace could be called the HTC Desire HD and include some decent specifications. We also hear that the HTC Desire HD could launch in October this year.

The specs of the new HTC Desire HD (if true of course) show that it has a 4.3 inch WVGA touchscreen. An 8 megapixel camera, 1GHz Qualcomm (Snapdragon?) processor, Android 2.2 Froyo, HD 720p video capture and 4GB of internal memory. [Read more…]

The iPhone 4 antenna is expected to be discussed at today’s press event. What we and many others are expecting to hear is that Apple [AAPL] has found a problem with the antenna and that somehow they will keep the few million iPhone 4 users happy by offering a fix in terms of a case, or some sort of hardware recall.

The problem is that the iPhone 4 sold well and estimates indicate that a hardware recall could cost them in the region of $1.8 billion. The way that Apple decide to move ahead with this will hopefully be revealed later on today.

We are hearing from one analyst, Ashok Kumar, that Apple has created a design fix for the iPhone 4 that insulates the transceiver. According to the analyst (remember analysts are often way out, so take this with a pinch of salt), the iPhone 4 production process has been changed to include an internal component to insulate the antenna connection. This part has been described as an internal bumper. [Read more…]