yes, it matters how you hold the phone

it's interesting to me not that the new iphone has reception issues if you put your fingers in the wrong spot, but that this is receiving attention in the mainstream media. maybe people are used to having flip phones with those little extendable antennas, but every nokia i have owned gets horrid reception if you put your fingers on the top 1/4 or so of the back. that's where the antenna is. this is a known issue, but it's only talked about on sites that exclusively cover cell phones, and relatively speaking, it's a tiny subset of the phone purchasing population that ever visits those.

so this has been clear already with previous iphone-related issues, but the massive level of attention given to apple on the stock market, in the media, etc totally cuts both ways. there are times people get mad because things they feel were not originated by apple are acclaimed as exciting new developments. however, performance problems that are far from new to the mobile phone world often are talked about as if iphones are the first products to suffer from these limitations. the reception issue is the latest example.

i actually was highly impressed to hear that while the antenna runs around the phone, there is apparently only one spot where there's a problem. it's so natural to hold a bar-style phone by the top, but my nokia experiences have taught me not to do this. it sounds like the iphone thing is easier to work around, which would be nice.

why i am not watching the nba playoffs

i walked into the living room, where my roommate and his breakfast burrito had congregated for the celtics-lakers game, and andrew bynum was being introduced. immediately, i announced 'this is just going to make me angry,' and left the room to watch something on the internet.
i am watching the a-team right now instead of the nba finals because the a-team is not going to result in me getting angry.