http://www.macrumors.com/2010/07/23/apple-takes-on-droid-x-with-latest-smartphone-video/

These videos are hilarious. Maybe next they'll stick the phones in a Faraday cage and say "See, they all lose signal in those!"

When Apple is able to post a video of any of these phones completely losing signal and dropping calls when touched in a spot with a single finger like any of the hundreds of youtube videos showing happening on the iPhone4 then I'll be impressed.

Interestingly, my coworkers iPhone4 doesn't seem to have the issue, nor can I reproduce that video Apple produced on my X. Plus the phone is able to make crystal clear calls in my basement where the signal meter reads -110db. (Why don't they show the signal strength readout, not just bars?) Then again, I'm not Andre the Giant with size 10X hands like the dude in that video!

Given that the whole complaint is the phone is supposed to lose signal when held "normally," I'd say these videos are at least as reasonable as the ones up on YouTube ... the single-finger thing is a neat trick but kind of moot, if you ask me ...

But, meh, it's all a molehill -- like your coworkers, I never had an issue with my iPhone 4 when I was using it without a case, and honestly I have yet to run into someone in the flesh that has had unusual signal problems at all with it ...

Seeing how I hold my phone with my fingertips and always have, so for me my pinky finger hitting the antenna on the iPhone4 is a real possibility. The issue with the iphone isn't blocking the cell signal, it's shorting out the antenna.

Well, my point about the finger thingy was that if you're holding a phone in anywhere near a "normal" manner, you're going to automatically have at least one finger on the thing to begin with -- so the whole "look! it happens with just a single finger!" is more showmanship than anything else ...

I understood the issue with the antennas is that your skin can bridge the two and alter their reception wavelength, which screws with the connection. I'm not sure if that's the same as "shorting out," which to me conjures up scenes of smoke and acrid smells and actually damaging components =)

I think what is pissing people off so much is that you can create the problem on the iphone holding it in such a way that cannot be reproduced on any other phone. Apple is posting videos acting like it's a problem with simply blocking the cell signal, which is not the case - otherwise putting a case on the iphone isn't going to change anything.

So, by trying to deflect criticism from themselves onto other vendors, Apple is only continuously pointing out the defect in their phone - which in turns adds to the hype of an already overblown issue.

What I'd really enjoy seeing is someone post a video with several phones side by side showing signal meters measured in -dB instead of silly bars. Then death grip 'em all and see the results. All android phones give you this information already.

Like you said, it's way overblown since it appears to only affect less than 1% of iPhone owners to start with.

I tend to disagree.

1 - That whole side of the iPhone, well nearly whole side is the antenna. So one finger is not going to block a signal unless you finger is 5 inches wide.

Big Six has a good point.
The death grip is when your over lapping the (slit) between two different antennas. Bridging the single so to speak. So yes a case would help that 1% of people

Anyway.
Apple did post those videos and did show that other phones have a death grip as well. Maybe you could watch the videos again.

It is when one finger touches the point where the two antennas are close to each other. All you have to do is put your finger so that it touches BOTH antenna at same time. This interferes with the signal by bridging them together.

The issue with the iphone is as you say bridging the antennas, which yes, can be done with a pinky.

Can't do that on any other phone, you're simply blocking some signal.

Quite a lot of other sources have come forth and stated they can't replicate some of Apple's videos or the Droid either, namely engadget, PC world and a few others. The Droid has two cellular antennas (one for transmit one for receive I think), and while some have been able to get a 4-5 dB drop in signal, it doesn't match the 20dB drop they can get with the iphone - which is why I stated I'd be more impressed if Apple showed the actual signal strength instead of the silly bar readout. If the other phones dropped 20 dB of signal holding it like that, then there is an issue. A few dB, well so what.

Of course you can't though.. because Apple doesn't make that possible on the iPhone as you can on a Blackberry or Android phone. Unless there is a signal meter app out there?