iPhone 4

What is wrong with me? I feel so inadequate. I have tried, really really tried. I just can’t do it. I can’t make my iPhone 4 drop a call. Sigh. What is wrong with me?

Now, before you start labeling me as a Mac Fanatic (a label which I admittedly own), my phone does drop calls or sometimes fails to connect in the first place. But it only happens as often as my 3G used to, or as I was used to on AT&T. And really, I have to admit, even with all my griping over AT&T I can’t say that I drop any more calls on their Network than I used to on Verizon. It is about the same. And while I am at it, I also had no problems ordering the new iPhone 4 online via AT&T. No glitches, no giving up of my personal information. Just a smooth order, smooth delivery and smooth hookup of my phone from my 3G. Even managed to easily give my old phone to my mother to use and she loves it.

But back to the phone. No, I don’t hold it weird, I hold it like I have always held a mobile phone. And frankly this whole Consumer Reports “death grip” thing smells fishy. Like someone wants to knock the current king of tech from its mile high perch. I think they tried it over the whole Gizmodo thing and I think they are trying again. It just seems to me lately that everyone has jumped on board trying to take Apple down. They can’t stop them any other way. iPhone, new MBP with super fast processors, iPad, the list goes on. It keeps rising, and therefore makes it a target. Now, even the fan boys are calling Apple “the man”. I think everyone loves to get on board-like sharks in a feeding frenzy. In NZ they call it the “tall poppy syndrome”. If you are the poppy that grows to high above the rest in the field, you become the target.

But you know what? I like Apple because they insist on a quality experience for its customers even if that means a very tight rein on the level of control it has over its products. I can also admit though that it has also on occasion crossed the line with tactics that appear heavy-handed or bullying, as with its efforts to purge the App Store of adult-themed software, or its response to the iPhone 4 prototype that disappeared from the bar it got left in. Yet, for all Apple’s fans, there seem to be a lot of people who’d love to see it stumble. To put it bluntly, Microsoft is no longer on top really to take pot shots at, so turn to the new rising son everyone.

Hence the flap over the iPhone 4′s reception, which has marred what has otherwise been, by any imaginable measurement, a spectacularly successful rollout. Apple sold 1.7 million phones in the first three days after it went on sale. By comparison, Google sold 135,000 of its much-hyped Nexus One phones in its first 2 months. I predict btw, in the future Google will be the next big boy to be called the man and taken down too.

And hey, I am not saying that this is the best phone/reception device ever. Like I said, I see no difference between it and my 3G. How much of that is the phone and how much of it is the AT&T network? Well, I guess that has to be answered when/if Verizon gets it next year. But, is this the best mobile device I have ever had the pleasure of really using? Yes, yes it is.  And no talking heads on daytime news shows will make me think differently. I know how to use this device and it is incredible. If I had problems on the device I would complain only because I have come to expect such a high bar to be set by Apple products and if they didn’t meet what I was used to, especially in a device I use constantly, I would scream about it. But I can’t get it to under-perform. I just can’t. No problems. Zilch.

But, I will keep trying to get it to be some sinister device cooked up by greedy capitalistic pigs who just want to make money. I will keep trying to make everything fail as everyone seems to want. But in the meantime, I am having a heck of a good time with an awesome device, and I admit I adore Face Time. Even if I hold it with a death grip.