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Unless you’re living on the Moon, I think pretty much every internet user has heard about the debacle Apple is facing regarding the iPhone 4’s antenna.  Here’s the short version: Apple introduced the iPhone 4 (and highlighted its antenna), and pretty much the next day there was a YouTube video showing a user putting his hand on top of the little line on the left-hand side of the phone.  In other words, hold your hand in the wrong place and the phone loses signal.

Apple’s defense up until this point was:

1. Ignore the problem, ignore your users, and hope it goes away
2. Tell users to hold the phone differently
3. Attempt to wow consumers with some nifty looking foam pieces that I swear are from the scene in Armageddon where Bruce Willis is testing his space 4x4 before shooting off to the asteroid (Hint: maybe you shouldn’t publish the photos where the machine is holding the phone)
4. Inform users about how every other phone manufacturer has the same problem

Seriously?  Steve, you sold us on the iPhone in the first place because it was the smarter smartphone!  Do you really think your users, some of the smartest people on Earth, are going to go along with this half-assed reasoning?  In all honesty the only thing this has led us to believe is that you are disconnected from reality.

How did this happen?  From 2004-2008, Apple was innovating like no other, providing products that consumers needed and came to love.  Although there were the occasional failures, and some products that just didn’t seem to make sense or weren’t entirely developed, for the most part users came to feel that Apple understood their needs and PC manufacturers didn’t.  I mean hell, they survived the epic of all disasters when the iPhone started dropping calls everywhere.

Then came the unibody: the obsession with making products out of one piece of metal.

It is my firm belief that unibody theory has driven Apple away from its users.  After all, who really cares that their PC was made out of one piece of metal?  I could understand if every device worked perfectly and the only factor in peoples’ minds when they were buying a computer was industrial design, but come on!  You were successful because you made complex things like making movies easy.  You were successful because you run an operating system that isn’t the primary target of malware providers.  You were successful because people like having access to more than one artist at a time when they’re listing to music.  You were successful because we didn’t need both an MP3 player and a phone in our pockets.

YOU WERE NOT SUCCESSFUL BECAUSE YOU MADE A PRODUCT OUT OF ONE PIECE OF ALUMINUM.  You were successful because your laptops looked cool and were light and easy to use.  Over the past two years Apple has been obsessed with unibody theory, putting the unibody in every one of its laptops.  People don’t care that you paid millions to construct the housing around my keyboard with laser guided drills.  People care that their laptop looks cool, is light, and can stand up to a beating.  My favorite laptop of all time was my IBM ThinkPad, because it had steel hinges.  To this day that laptop still opens and closes securely.

I think that a lot of people think that the other shoe will drop when a memo gets leaked from the testers in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude that advised Steve that if you held the phone a certain way, it loses signal.  After you have worked in a large enterprise, one understands that it didn’t matter what any of the testers said.  Why?  Because the CEO is obsessed with design, and the iPhone 4 was designed from the start to use an antenna on the sides of the phone.  It is obvious to me that Apple no longer holds user experience as the first priority — instead, we’ve got a groupthink mentality where the company thinks what really matters is precision engineering.

Steve, it’s time to abandon your obsession with unibody theory.  People don’t care that the product is perfectly engineered.  They care that when they pick it up, they can place a call easily and quickly.  You designed a phone where people who are left handed interfere with the signal.  It’s time to admit you need to encase the antenna in plastic, and you’re going to give away bumper cases until you do.  If you’re obsessed with microns, shouldn’t you be obsessed about the 1% of calls being dropped on the 4 vs. 3GS?  Motorola, RIM and Nokia seem to be able to put antenna performance above exterior design.

And please stop complaining about the issue being blown out of proportion — you’re right, it has been, but when you claim you’re the best you have to face the fact that smaller problems are going to be your biggest issues.

I) The screen is 4.3”:  It looks like the iPhone 4’s athletic older brother when sitting side by side.  As a matter of fact, with a screen this big, I’m not sure you would need a tablet.

II) Swype native:  Put quite simply, this interface has redefined texting.  I can text one-handed, while navigating people towing luggage at the busiest airports.

III) Verizon:  If you live in or work in, or visit a major city, you already know that AT&T is not up to par in most places, and secretly wish you could ditch your iPhone, but you can’t because you met that special someone, and your love is based on your shared affinity for all-things-Apple.

IV) It’s slim.  At .4 inches thick, its only a hair thicker than the iPhone 4.  When you see everything else it contains, you will wonder why its not as thick as a brick (or my original Droid).

V) Expandable storage.  Wake up Apple, people want to be able to expand the memory on their phone.  As a matter of fact, Verizon is offering a whopping 32GB microSD card at a discount to early adopters of the Droid-X.

VI) 8-hours of talk time.  The original Droid has a pretty good battery, only defeated by running GPS when not on a charger.  It appears that the new Droid-X lives up to the standard set by its predecessor.

VII) 8 MP Camera.  Perfect for shooting HD video (720p).

VIII) Flash.  Well, not just yet, but Verizon swears its coming by end of summer.  Fingers crossed that that really means early fall, and not late winter.  Anyone who waited for Android 2.1 on an older phone knows what I’m talking about.

IX) Tethering.  While both the iPhone 4 and Droid-X offer native tethering for a surcharge of $20/month, only the Droid-X allows you to use your phone as a wireless hotspot.  (Read wireless router).

X) It’s not just a computer, it is also a phone.  Unlike the iPhone 4, which has faced much scrutiny about reception, due to poor antenna design, there are no early indications that the Droid-X may need to be recalled (unlike the iPhone 4).  Even Senator Chuck Schumer has joined in the iPhone 4 bashing.

Want to get one, but Verizon has you locked in to an old contract for a few more months?  As an incentive for early adoption, Verizon will let you upgrade, even if your contract is set to expire as late as 12/31/2010.

Could holding your iPhone, say to make a call, actually cause degredation of your signal causing you to drop a call?  I guess this could give a whole new meaning to hands-free calling.

The following report originally appeared on Cnet.com.

Reports are surfacing that some iPhone 4 users are unwittingly strangling reception via the metal antennas surrounding the phone’s body.

Some iPhone 4 owners in the U.S. are noticing that touching the seams—particularly when holding the iPhone 4 in their bare left hands—interrupts reception, slowly causing the phone to lose its signal.

Using an accessory, like the $29 Rubber Bumper Apple sells to protect the iPhone, would also break your skin’s conductivity and eliminate the problem. Apple has been pushing its bumper—essentially a $30 rubber band—pretty hard, which makes us wonder if the company’s marketing strategy is a cover-up for a known reception issue.