Don’t get me wrong, I do like my iPhone 4 and I still think it’s an amazing piece of technology. However Apple has set the bar high for itself and thus here are my top iPhone 4 annoyances and some suggested workarounds:

1) iPhone 4 loses signal if you hold it like a phone

Yup, you’ve probably already heard about this one. Just cover the bottom left part of the metal band and you’ll lose signal. Cons: obvious. Pros: Now you don’t have to pretend you’re going through a tunnel when talking to someone, just cover the antenna.

Workaround: 1) Apply scotch tape to metal band, 2) Buy Apple’s Bumper Case (ironic how Apple has never sold a case until now), sign the Gizmodo Free-Apple-Case petition. 3) Get one of those cool Case-Mate iPhone4 Cases.

2) Vibrate is not strong enough

The vibrate ringer is now softer. I’ve already missed several calls because I didn’t feel the vibrate. Cons: miss your calls Pros: you no longer spaz out when someone calls.

Workaround: Instead of putting it in the inside pocket of your sports coat, put it on the outside pocket of your shirt so it’ll be closer to your skin.

3) Turn-off-display proximity sensor when on call too sensitive

You know that sensor that detects if the phone is up against your ear (ie. on a call) and turns off the screen so your ear doesn’t decide to hang up on the person? Well I’ve found the iPhone 4’s sensor is too sensitive. If I try to hold the phone with just my shoulder and head (ie. have my hands full), just the little tiniest spacing will re-activate the screen and my cheek always decides to try facetime or worse yet, hang up. Cons: you leave the other person talking to themselves. Pros: A good excuse for when someone asks why you hung up on them.

Workaround: when you’re hands are full doing something else, plug in the headphones and use those while on the call.

4) Poor YouTube 3G streaming quality

Around my part of town I get about 2-3mbps down on 3G but yet when I stream videos from YouTube on the iPhone I feel like I’m 10 years behind in the internet age. The video quality is terrible to the point of un-watchable. Cons: Makes the phone/screen seem crappy when it really isn’t. Pros: less time wasted on YouTube.

Workaround: Jailbreak your iPhone and switch it to be wifi aware when on 3G.

5) Low Quality Video/Photo compression on 3G

If I’m on 3G and send a photo or upload a video using the Twitter App, the end-product quality is below par. I know AT&T is trying to conserve bandwidth but they’re acting like everyone is on a 56K modem. I recorded a 14sec video the other day and posted it via Twitter App using twitvid.com. The phone compressed the video and uploaded very quickly… quality was terrible. I wouldn’t have mind waiting at least 20 seconds to get better quality. Cons: friends will think you’re full of it when you MMS them a photo or video from your iPhone’s spectacular camera. Pros: less time goofing off, more time working.

Workaround: Jailbreak your phone… or upload your photo using other service (twitgoo.com, flickr.com) and txt the link to your friends; not as convenient as MMS but it’s a workaround.

6) Paying extra (in price and lesser service) for tethering

Sure it bugs me that we have to pay twice for the bandwidth we’re already using. Why pay double for the same amount of data if all that changes is what device it originates from. But my biggest annoyance is that I probably still wouldn’t mind too much to the point of not paying the extra $20 if it wasn’t that I would have to lose my unlimited data. The only way for me to get tethering is to lose my unlimited data. Cons: Having to lose unlimited just to get tethering. Pros: I can finally put the laptop away when there’s no wifi available.

Workaround: Jailbreak your phone and get MyWi or PDAnet to convert your phone into a mobile wifi hotspot.

What are your iPhone 4 Annoyances?

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