The Consumer Reports website has had a rethink on the iPhone 4, and after further testing has decided it doesn’t recommend Apple’s new smartphone.

Initially, the site hadn’t viewed the antenna and reception matter as an issue, but after more testing in the labs with three different iPhone 4s, Consumer Reports has said that there is a problem with its reception.

If you’re not aware of this issue, it centres on the bottom left hand corner of the iPhone 4, where the antenna (that runs around the outside of the phone’s case) is sensitive to being touched.

The Consumer Reports blog states: “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.”

Testing other smartphones in the same environment, including the iPhone 3GS, no signal problems were found. The findings cast a doubtful light on Apple’s recent statement that the issue was a software problem, with the phone’s signal strength bars reporting erroneously.

Consumer Reports now recommends the iPhone 3GS, we quote, “if you want an iPhone that works well without a masking-tape fix”.

The masking tape fix refers to the fact that if you stick a bit of tape over the bottom left hand corner of the iPhone 4, avoiding contact with the hand, the antenna works without trouble.

This whole affair still looks like it has the potential to turn nastier for Apple, although strong sales of the iPhone 4 continue unabated by these sort of findings, and clearly not everyone is coming up against this technical hitch.

Continued here:
Consumer Reports site changes mind on recommending iPhone 4

More tablet talk has leaked out today, this time about the rumoured up and coming BlackBerry device from Rim.

CNet reports that Ashok Kumar, a research analyst at Rodman & Renshaw, has spoken out about the BlackBerry tablet, which according to him will boast a 7 inch display, a 1GHz processor, and twin cameras.

The dual cameras will be situated on the back and front for video conferencing duties, and Rim’s effort will be more aimed at the business market, as opposed to the consumer territory the iPad has already taken a large chunk out of sales-wise.

Kumar reckons that Rim has brought the launch date of the device forward, so that it may appear before the end of the year.

The usual concluding paragraph applies – all this is purely speculation. Rim has thus far refused to engage the rumour with any comment.

See the rest here:
BlackBerry tablet to include dual cameras?

Microsoft decided against producing the Courier, the dual screen tablet which was hinged like a book, and looked like a pretty cool piece of hardware.

But despite scrapping that idea, Steve Ballmer has just been talking up Windows 7 on tablets at this year’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington.

The conference is the annual gathering for Microsoft’s partners, where the company details its road map for the year ahead. And 2010’s road map appears to be littered with Windows slate PCs.

Ballmer said that Windows 7 slates were a big priority for MS, and to expect a range of them from many manufacturers, over twenty in fact, including the likes of Dell, Asus, Toshiba and Sony.

There will be big ones, small ones (although probably not ones as big as your head), high end and budget models, entirely touch-based affairs and tablets with keyboards; a large variety of different specs and price points, basically.

Ballmer described Microsoft as being “hardcore” about tablets. The company is also hoping to claw back share in the smartphone market, with the upcoming mobile OS Windows Phone 7. It was recently overtaken by Android in that department.

See original here:

Along with the recent speculation over Google Me, a potential fully fledged social networking arm of the search firm, it’s now rumoured that Google wants to sneak its tentacles into the online gaming pie.

According to TechCrunch, the firm has made a stealthy investment in Zynga (the outfit responsible for FarmVille) to the tune of $100 to $200 million, to form the basis of Google Games.

FarmVille is the online game which has proved a big hit on Facebook, where it has helped propel the site to its near half a billion users these days.

TechCrunch has said that multiple sources have confirmed the Google and Zynga deal, which was allegedly closed about a month ago.

The website also pointed to a Google advert for a “Project Management Leader, Games”.

This is still very much speculation, of course, but Google is trying to carve its way into many territories these days, so both the social networking and gaming projects sound like fairly reasonable possibilities to us.

The rest is here:
Google Games to launch with Zynga?

Apple has said that some of its Time Capsule back-up hard disks sold in a five month period in 2008 may be faulty.

The devices may not boot up, or may be temperamental and shut down randomly, Apple was reported as saying at Macworld.

The exact period, Apple states in a support document on its site, is between February 2008 and June 2008.

The affected Time Capsules will have serial numbers between the range: “XX807XXXXXX” and “XX814XXXXXX”.

Not all drives will be hit with this bugbear, as it’s just a potential issue. Affected users should contact an Apple store or authorized service provider to find out whether their drive is eligible for repair or replacement.

Read more:
Faulty Apple Time Capsules recalled