Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced during the iPhone 4 press conference that Apple will be giving away the protective cases to buyers of its latest iPhone to alleviate the so-called “death grip” problem in which holding the phone with a bare hand can muffle the wireless signal. This will be eligible to the more than 3 million people who have already bought the iPhone 4 as well as new buyers through Sept. 30. People who have already purchased the $29 “Bumper” cases on their own will also be refunded. In addition to that, if purchasers are still unhappy with the iPhone 4(before or after they have got the free cases), Apple will offer a full refund if the iPhone 4 is returned undamaged within 30 days. So, the message that Steve Jobs is sending out is quite loud and clear and that Apple loves their users and try very hard to delight and surprise them.

Below is the live coverage on how he communicated this message during the iPhone 4 press conference call:-

So, apart from this key message that Apple CEO Steve Jobs would like to convey to the new purchasers of the iPhone 4, what else did he cover during the iPhone 4 press conference? Below are the summary:-

• Steve Jobs apologized to the purchasers of iPhone 4 and admits that Apple is not perfect
• iOS4.0.1 software update is out which fixes the wrong formula that Apple uses to calculate how many bars to put up for a given signal strength as well the Exchange bug
• Next iOS update will fix the proximity sensor issue
• Apple sold 3 million iPhone 4 in 3 weeks
• The iPhone 4 has the highest customer satisfaction rating of any smartphone
• The iPhone 4 to be available for sale on 30th July in 17 countries i.e. Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. ~Damn~ Malaysia is not in there….  :-(
• Antennagate issue does not only happen on iPhone 4. Other smartphones like Blackberry, Nokia, Motorola and HTC also drop bars if held in a certain way.
• The iPhone 4 drops one more call per hundred than the iPhone 3GS
• Only 0.55% of all iPhone 4 owners called Apple to complain about the antenna
• Apple invested $100 Million in antenna test facilities
• The White iPhone 4 will start shipping at the end of July
• Steve Jobs was on vacation in Hawaii and came back for the conference
• Someone has made a cool song out of this iPhone 4 antenna issue

Before we sign off, below is the cool song about the iPhone 4 antenna issue. This is a cool way to get free publicity….  :-)

iPhone 4 is finally launched in the US, UK, Germany, France and Japan. The pre-orders for iPhone 4 has exceeded 600,000 and is giving AT&T servers some problems last week. The iPhone 4 launch is probably going to be another big hit and may yet set another record for the Apple launches.

In June 2010, apart from the “Waka Waka” style World Cup Kickoff in South Africa which is gaining a huge following, i suppose the iPhone 4 launch is also not to be left out.

Below are some of the pictures captured before the launches at various places above. The below pictures are courtesy of Engadget.com and Wired.com.

Well, the champion among all of these is still a guy in Dallas who has has waited patiently despite the hot summer heat for 1 week just to get to be the first to get his hands on the iPhone 4 in Dallas. Below is the picture of Justin Wagoner who camped outside the Apple Retail Store 1 week before the launch of Apple iPhone 4.

Below is the explanation of why he did it as found in the MacRumour forum:-

Let’s see what the actual sales figures will come out to be in the first week of launch. i am sure there are a lot of Malaysians out there who are eagerly awaiting for the launch of iPhone 4 in Malaysia as well. Let’s see if there will be a queue of this sort in Malaysia…..

With many people still wondering what is really new with the new iPhone 4. Let’s listen to what was presented by Steve Jobs himself at the WWDC conference in San Francisco recently. Enjoy the video. i particularly like the way he was joking about some of you might have already seen this……but believe me. You ain’t seen it.  :-)   This is how a genius turns something that is negative into positive. Instead of reacting negatively to the iPhone leak incident, he has responded positively and make a joke out of it. Steve, you really deserve to be the man of the decade! Enjoy the video.

One of the most anticipated news at the WWDC today has to be the announcement about the 4th generation iPhone. Without much surprise, Steve Jobs has finally officially announced the new 4th Generation iPhone which is called the iPhone 4. Thanks to Gizmodo for unveiling lost iPhone prototype which has now turned into somewhat of a legal battle(between Apple and them), we have more or less anticipated how the new iPhone looks like a few months ago. Anyway, we now have confirmation on what the “real” thing looks like and what specifications and features it comes with.

So what is new with the iPhone 4:-

• Retina Display: 960 by 640 backlit LCD with a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch. This is 4 times the previous iPhone’s pixel density giving much better resolution
• Engineered glass, chemically strengthened to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic. More scratch resistent than the previous models
• Stainless steel band – 5 times stronger than standard steel provides rigidity to the phone and acts as an antenna
• Powered by the A4 chip (same chip used in iPads)
• Gyro plus Accelerometer – built in 3 axis gyroscope paired with accelerometer producing great motion sensing which translate to greater gaming experience on the iPhone 4
• Larger battery means 7 hours of talk time, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music and 300 hours of standby
• Video calling via Facetime app – currently only works with other iPhone 4 and within Wifi networks only.
• 5Megapixels Primary (back) camera giving better resolution photo shoots
• Dual microphone system – one for voice and video calls located at the bottom of the iPhone 4 and the other at the top for noise cancellation giving better voice call quality

Below is a comparison table of the specification/features in the iPhone 4 vs the iPhone 3GS:-

Below are some pictures from the WWDC:-

The iPhone 4 will be on sale in 5 countries(US, UK, Germany, France and Japan) on the 24th June. 24 more countries will get it in July and 88 more countries in September. Not too sure when this will be launched in Malaysia…..

Below is the Youtube video on iPhone 4 posted by Geekwood…..