When I look at the above video, I think an answer could be a "don't touch me here"
Above is a video from Consumer Reports published today that they cannot recommend the iPhone 4.
Lab tests: Why Consumer Reports can't recommend the iPhone 4
Lab test: Apple iPhone 4 design defect confirmed
It's official. Consumer Reports' engineers have just completed testing the iPhone 4, and have confirmed that there is a problem with its reception. When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone's lower left side—an easy thing, especially for lefties—the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you're in an area with a weak signal. Due to this problem, we can't recommend the iPhone 4.
We reached this conclusion after testing all three of our iPhone 4s (purchased at three separate retailers in the New York area) in the controlled environment of CU's radio frequency (RF) isolation chamber. In this room, which is impervious to outside radio signals, our test engineers connected the phones to our base-station emulator, a device that simulates carrier cell towers (see video: IPhone 4 Design Defect Confirmed). We also tested several other AT&T phones the same way, including the iPhone 3G S and the Palm Pre. None of those phones had the signal-loss problems of the iPhone 4.
Consumer Reports does suggest a fix.
If you want an iPhone that works well without a masking-tape fix, we continue to recommend an older model, the 3G S.
ZDnet makes an interesting point now that Consumer Reports has joined the iPhone 4 antenna debate.
It’s one thing for a blogger like me to go on these rants about the shortcomings of the iPhone 4. But when Consumer Reports, which has the power to drive or halt buying decisions with its recommendations, announces that it cannot recommend the iPhone 4 because of the device’s antenna issues, it carries a lot of weight with mainstream consumers.
Hardcore iPhone fans can try as much as they’d like to discredit the Consumer Reports findings - and some are already doing just that - but they’ll have a hard time convincing mainstream consumers that CR is turning this into something more than it is. After all, this isn’t just some thumbs-down from a tech blogger who had a bad experience with the iPhone. This is Consumer Reports - and that matters.
If someone could come up with an iPhone 4 app that triggers "don't touch me" maybe that would help.
Even though all the noise is about dropped calls. I wonder how the data transmission rate is affected even if you don't drop a call. Lower signal strength would slow data transfer and put the iPhone 4 in a higher power consuming state for a longer period, resulting in lower battery life.
I don't have any plans to upgrade my iPhone 3GS.