iPhone News Updated

Consumer Reports won’t recommend the Verizon iPhone. Do consumers care?

The new Verizon iPhone may have antenna issues that are similar to its counterpart on AT&T, according to Consumer Reports.

In one respect, this isn’t a huge surprise, since the Verizon iPhone 4 appears to the same as the AT&T iPhone 4 — just, y’know, on Verizon. If the antenna design created minor reception issues on one network (at least if you held the phone in a certain way), those problems wouldn’t go away if you moved to another network.

On the other hand, Apple seemed to escape any mention of antenna problems in the early reviews of the Verizon device. The Wall Street Joural’s Walt Mossberg didn’t bring up any antenna issues, while TechCrunch’s MG Siegler said he tried and failed to replicate the antenna problem.

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Confessions of an Apple Store Employee

Apple is famous for its secrecy, with a code of silence that runs from top management all the way down to its retail employees. One Apple Store employee decided to throw protocol to the curb and tell us what it’s really like working at the vaunted retail outlets.

Product Launches

We are completely in the dark until they do a keynote speech. We have no idea what is coming and are not allowed to openly speculate. You can get into serious trouble if you speculate—especially to a customer. I am asked five times per day about the next iPad or iPhone, and I quite simply don’t know. But I would be in huge trouble if I said something like “The next iPad is going to have a camera.” I actually avoid the technology section of the newspaper so I have no points of view to accidentally comment with or drop into conversation. I’d rather just be dumb about it.

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