Jim Dalrymple reporting for The Loop:
Apple on Wednesday invited select press to a special press conference to be held this Friday in California.
Apple would only say that the press conference would be regarding the iPhone 4. No other information was available when I spoke with them tonight.
This antenna issue has been gaining an incredible amount of momentum ever since Consumer Reports decided that they couldn’t recommend the handset. Apple needed to respond before things got too out of hand and they’ve made the right decision to hold this press conference before their quarterly conference call on Tuesday.
What exactly will happen at the press conference remains to be seen. And, there is no lack of speculation about it either. The speculation ranges from Apple issuing a full recall of iPhone 4 to simply offering free bumpers to iPhone 4 owners.
Gizmodo’s Jesus Diaz has heard reports from readers that Apple has already started building the iPhone 4 slightly differently, increasing the size of the proximity sensor and applying some sort of coating to the metal band around the device. Jesus Diaz is now maintaining a continually updating piece on Gizmodo with reports from readers who have had their iPhone 4’s replaced.
Ananiadis Vasilis writing for iPhoneHellas cites a “reliable” source who told them that Apple will be releasing iOS 4.0.1 today that will include the new signal strength indicator for the iPhone.
I think tomorrow’s press conference will bring a sigh of relief to the majority of iPhone 4 owners. There will still be plenty of complainers, but I think Apple will do what they need to do — admit that their antenna wasn’t up to snuff and give away free bumpers in the form of $29 Apple Store credits to all current iPhone 4 owners. I suspect Apple will announce that they have made changes to iPhone 4 that will alleviate this problem for future buyers. I also expect Apple to point out that they have released a software fix that will not only change the way signal is indicated but will also optimize the radio hardware in hopes of making the antenna issue happen on much rarer occasions.
