@Justin: That would seem expected, considering how all of the other phones Apple demonstrated also have the problem even though they all have insulated, internal antennas.

@marine6680: I get you. They describe the point of contact (the black strip) only to obfuscate it by 1) implying it's the same issue everyone else without an external antenna has and 2) minimize the physical appearance of the problem. But in reality, if the effect is in practice the same whether it's de-tuning or…

@marine6680: Then the question remains, is the attenuation problem with a bumper any worse than on another phone? If not, I'd say it's an acceptable solution.

@evanminn01: His guess as to why this happens is reasonable: More than 80% of 3GS owners also bought cases with their phones. Plus, upgraders from 3G to 3GS can use their old case. Fewer than 20% of iPhone 4 users got a case with their phone. It's very possible that apples for apples, the 4 drops FEWER calls than…

@tvcity6455: I also bought the bumper to protect the phone, and haven't had any signal attenuation problems (maybe because of it, maybe not) so I'm quite happy with getting my $33 back.

I don't know how expensive this has to be. I worked at a 100-person office that had an internal AT&T cell to boost signal for the Blackberry calls/data we all needed. I don't think it means they need to have full-fledged 500ft-high towers set up, just multiple repeaters.

@talkingstove: By then everyone should know of the issue and be able to decide whether they want the phone or not. You still have a 30-day full-refund option if you don't like the phone.

@Kaiser-Machead v.2.1.1: I would watch the livecast for that.

@ericesque: I don't think it really matter how high the bars are at all. They could all be as high as the fifth bar, and it'd mean the same thing when you drop to 1 bar :)

No fix to the signal dropping problem of course. It does seem to fix the accuracy of the bar display though (before I was perpetually on 5 bars at home, now it goes between 3-5. I wonder what Friday has in store for us...

@PlasmaMachine: Nah, that icon is just a Safari desktop bookmark to the new YouTube mobile site (Google released it out after iOS4 came out and before iOS4.1beta).

@krilnon: I'd never for a second assume it was the real Woz...unless a Segway with a big red bow showed up by my front door tomorrow morning...

Old bars versus new. I guess I could have changed the background before taking the screenshot.

@stevewoz: Of course! Ever heard of RDF?

@tomsomething: That's the old one. The new one is taller (the orange plus the white) and is closer to exponential than linear.

Heh, funny enough for me.

@rudyfrederic: Watch your language, this is a family show.

@Tetsuooooooo: It looks like a poker table now. I don't recall it being that way before (though I only saw it cursorily, since I don't develop games).

Bars are lower on mine (4 instead of 5 while sitting on table) but not much other noticeable difference other than the game center.

Your move, Mr. Norris.