Apple Not Going to Recall the iPhone 4

UPDATE: The Apple press conference is now over. Details on what was announced can be found in this article:

Apple iPhone 4 Owners Can Get a Free Case or a Full Refund

Apple is going to hold an unusual press conference today to discuss the connection problem plaguing the iPhone 4. CEO Steve Jobs reportedly isn't going to use this event to recall this smartphone, however.

Numerous people and organizations, including Consumer Reports, have established that if a user's finger or hand touches a spot on the iPhone 4's lower left side -- an easy thing to do, especially for lefties -- the signal can degrade enough to cause the device to lose its connection completely in areas with low signal strength.

The controversy surrounding this problem has reached the point where Apple is having a press conference to discuss it -- something just about unheard of for the company.

It's not known yet what Steve Job will say at this event, but according to a source inside the company it won't be a recall of Apple's latest smartphone. It has been suggested that the company will offer owners of this device a free case, as cases prevent the signal degradation problem.

A Hardware or a Software Problem?
The iPhone 4 has a new design in which the outer edge of the device is used as a collection of antennas. While in most cases this improves the phone's wireless performance, touching these antennas in a certain way can greatly reduce performance.

Most people are assuming the problem is hardware related, but a source inside Apple told the New York Times that it is a result of poorly written communications software. This raises the possibility that it could be fixed with a software update. The new version of the system software for the iPhone released yesterday doesn't fix it, however.

Overview of the Apple iPhone 4
Apple's fourth-generation smartphone is a significant upgrade from the previous one, starting with its 3.5-inch, 640 x 960 touchscreen, a much higher resolution than any iPhone has offered before.

It has a new slimmer design and runs iOS 4.0, the latest version of Apple's operating system, on a 1 GHz Apple A4 processor.

The iPhone 4 comes in two configurations: a version with 16 GB of storage costs $200 and one with 32 GB goes for $300. These prices are for new AT&T customers willing to sign up for a two-year contract, or current customers who qualify for a subsidy. Current customers who don't qualify will have to pay $200 more.

The iPhone 4 has a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera with a flash, as well as support for recording 720p video at 30 frames per second. In addition, it includes a small front-facing camera for video chatting with an app called FaceTime.

This smartphone has 3G wireless networking, as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a GPS receiver.

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