Ars was still impressed with the demos and particularly the new controller:

The new controller is an impressive thing to hold in your hands. It feels solid and comfortable, and nothing about it marks it as a weak link. The screen itself is bright and beautiful, much clearer than the screen on an iPad, and even small details of the games are able to be seen clearly.

Now that the iPhone 4 is in the hands of thousands of people, there has been one quickly discovered, and widely reported flaw. Holding the iPhone 4 improperly can cause signal degradation and dropped calls. The response from Steve Jobs himself when asked about any resolution to this issue has been "just avoid holding it that way." And while it has now been shown that the same antenna issue can be reproduced on many other cellphones, this should not be the response from Apple. The iPhone 4 has its antenna on the outer perimeter of the device, and people are going to continue to hold the phone in the wrong way, even Steve Jobs. Apple should be doing something proactive about the situation, rather than treating this as a non-issue.

Unlike most cellphones, the new iPhone 4 has a metal band that wraps around its side. This metal band acts as the iPhone's WiFi, and 3G antennas. By holding the iPhone 4 in your left hand, in such a way that your skin makes contact with both antennas (separated by a small notch), it can cause interference and signal loss. It's hard to judge the amount of people who experience this problem, whether it's a vocal minority, or a widespread problem that affects all new iPhones. But the fact that Apple is aware of it and acknowledges that the problem does exist, is enough. That they are unwilling to do anything about it, should be concerning.

Remember when the Nintendo Wii came out? Long lines and short availability for this revolutionary new console, which was aptly codenamed 'Revolution'. Shortly after, there were numerous reports and Youtube videos of people losing control of their Wii Remotes, and smashing their TVs. Rather than tell its customers "don't swing it that hard" or "get a better grip on it", Nintendo instead replaced the straps on all Wii Remotes for free and began packaging them with new Wii consoles within a month of its initial release. About a year later, Nintendo started offering a Wii Remote Jacket, a simple silicone case that offered a better grip and protection. Again, Nintendo offered these for free to its customers, and began packaging them with new Wii consoles.

One solution to the iPhone 4's antenna issue, has been the iPhone Bumpers which conveniently cover the metal band wrapping around the iPhone. Apple offers these for $29 to its customers, but I think they should be giving these to every iPhone 4 buyer for free. Any bad publicity that may have plagued the Wii Remote strap (during and after its replacement), is long gone, and the Wii continues to be the number one selling console, with Sony and Microsoft playing catch up. Apple could easily hand out their $29 Bumper for free, to the no doubt millions of people who will purchase an iPhone 4.

The metal band around the iPhone 4, was touted by Steve Jobs at WWDC, to provide improved reception, to much applause. A video was also shown, detailing the lengths that Apple went to manufacture this steel band. It's unfortunate to see that for some people, it will actually decrease cell reception on the already universally panned AT&T network, and that Apple sees this as a non-issue.