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"For the last week, Apple has been under fire over an antenna issue that negatively impacts reception if the phone is held a certain way.\nWhile Apple tried to address the firestorm by deploying a software fix to increase the accuracy of the bars that represent signal strength, it clearly wasn't going to be enough. Apple has consequently called for a press conference to deal with the issue head-on starting at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET today.\nWe're here live at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California for the event.  Is Apple about to drop a bombshell on us?  How will the company address the antenna issue?  What surprises does Apple have up its sleeve?\nHere are my live notes on today's press conference:\nLive Notes: Apple's iPhone 4 Press Conference\nAll times are in Pacific Standard Time\n\n\nApple iPhone 4 Press Conference \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n1 Infinite Loop\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSecurity is guarding 4 Infinite Loop, where the press conference will take place.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe media is here in full force\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nInside Apple Town Hall\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n1\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n3\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n4\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n5\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n6\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n7\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n8\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n9\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n10\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n11\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n12\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nQ&amp;A\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nQ&amp;A\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nQ&amp;A\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAudience \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nQ&amp;A\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNear the end \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n9:43 AM: We (the media) are patiently waiting outside 4 Infinite Loop to be ushered into the press conference. \n9:47 AM: Hey, Kevin McKean of Consumer Reports is here! They're gonna be popular here...\n9:58 AM: We're seated and waiting for the event to begin.\n10:05: HILARIOUS \u2014 they are playing a video called the \"iPhone Antenna Song.\"  I can't wait for this to be on YouTube!\n10:06: Here's the video they played:\n\n\n\n\n10:06: Steve Jobs: \"We're not perfect.  Phones aren't perfect.\"\n10:08: Steve Jobs: \"The iPhone 4 is the perhaps the best product we have ever made at Apple.\"  3 million sold in just three weeks.  Judged the #1 smartphone by many publications, including Consumer Reports.\n10:08: Jobs: This has since been dubbed \"Antennagate.\"  Apple is an engineer-driven company.  Some of the best in the world.  How we work: we want to find real solutions.  We now want to share what we've learned.\n10:09: Steve is discussing different phones and how different grips affect reception.  The first phone is the BlackBerry Bold 9700.  A drop from 5 bars to 1.\n10:11: Second phone: HTC Droid Eris.  It goes from 4 bars to 0 bars.\n10:12: The third phone is a Windows Mobile phone, the Samsung Omnia II, which dropped from 4 bars to 1.\n10:14: \"Phones aren't perfect.\"\n10:15: The bars were incorrect.  It showed you going from 5 bars to 1 bar, when it reality it was a 2 or 3 bar to 1 bar drop.\n10:16: We've invested over 100 million in our Antenna testing facilities in the last 5 years.  17 anochoic chambers, 18 PhD scientists and engineers.\n10:17: Smartphones have weak spots.  It's true of all smartphones.  \n10:18: Data from AppleCare: What percent of iPhone 4 users have called about the antenna or reception:  0.55%\n10:19: Jobs: \"This is not a large number.\"\n10:20: AT&amp;T has a buyer's remorse policy.  What's the AT&amp;T return rate?  They're going to compare it to the iPhone 3GS.  \n10:21: iPhone 3GS return rates: 6%.\n10:21: iPhone 4 return rate: 1.7%.  Less than 1/3 of the 3GS, Jobs says.\n10:22: AT&amp;T has provided the call drop rate data to Apple.  Now they're presenting the data, compared to the 3GS.\n10:23: WHOA.  Jobs: Even though the iPhone 4's antenna to that of the 3GS, I must report that the iPhone 4 drops per 100 calls compared to the iPhone 3GS.\n10:24: The iPhone 4 drops less than 1 call per 100 compared to the iPhone 3GS.\n10:25: Steve's theory: We did not change the 3GS design, and thus people could us their 3G cases with the 3GS.  iPhone 4 has radically different design.  We can't make enough of our bumper cases, and far less are walking out with a case.\n10:27: Jobs: \"We care about every user, and we're not going to stop until every one of them is happy.\"\n10:28: Jobs: This has been blown way out of proportion.  First: they released iOS 4.0.1.  It fixed bars and an Exchange bug.\n10:29: Second: The bumper solves the signal strength problem.  Why don't you just give everybody a case.  \"Every iPhone gets a free case.\"\n10:31: Details are coming, but essentially everyone gets a free case if you buy an iPhone 4 up to September 30th.  You get a choice as well \u2014 the bumper or other cases, since Apple can't make enough bumpers to match iPhone 4s.  Full refund if you've bought a bumper already.\n10:32: White iPhones ship at the end of the month.\n10:32: July 30th: 17 more countries.  South Korea will take more time.\n10:33: We love our users.  We try very hard to surprise &amp; delight them.  We work our asses off for them.\n10:33: We make interesting products: Macs, iPods, iPhones, iPads, Apple TV, Final Cut, App Store, iWorks....10:34: We've built 300 Apple retail stores for them.  Genius Bar costs nothing.  We have 1-to-1 seminars to tech users how to use our products.  60 million people through our stores last quarter.10:35: When we succeed in delighting our users, they reward us by staying our users.  When people criticize us, we take it very personally.  Maybe we shouldn't, but we do.10:36: Core of the problem: Smartphones have weak spots.  Some people took advantage of that.  We screwed up on the bars, and make it more theatrical than it had to be.  For the small amount of users with problems, we're going to give them cases, and if they're still unhappy they get a full refund.10:37: Steve Jobs: There is no Antennagate.Press Conference\n10:37: Tim Cook,  COO, and Bob Mansfield, Senior hardware engineer, are on stage now.10:38: First question: How's your health?  Steve: I'm just great, thank you.10:39: Q: Will you change the design of the antenna in future iPhone models?A: We've been preoccupied with this.  The iPhone 4 is the best antenna in almost any way.  If anything, we put the red flag in front of the bull with the \"touch me here\" antenna.  I don't know what the next antenna design will be.10:40: If we could do this all over again, we probably would have come up with some type of mitigation.  We have strong cell coverage here.10:41: Q: Can you account for how exactly the antenna problem occurs?A: Mansfield: Your body is a pretty effective signal absorber.  The fact that you bridge the gap between the antennas is a way to entenuate the signal.10:43: Q: Did you have engineers tell you about the iPhone 4 antenna issue and ignore them?A: \"You're referring to the Bloomberg article, right?  It's a total crock.\"  \"It's total bullshit.\"  Oh, Steve Jobs.10:45: Q: Is Apple that makes users pick between form and function?A: Steve: No, we do both.  We strive to make our products a really great size.  iPod Touch is wonderfully thin \u2014 it costs us extra, but we work not to make it too much extra? 10:47: He dodged the apology question (someone asked Steve if he would issue an apology to users for the issues). I can't blame him...10:49: I don't know if there's anything else we could have said better.  We could have shipped with a better formula for calculating bars.10:51: Maybe people thought we were perfect and when they saw we weren't they tried to nail usWe can tell you that we're not perfect.10:53: Refunds apply to bumpers \u2014 not refunding 3rd party cases.  We don't share our specs on new products with manufacturers because people stop buying our current products.  So in general we don't tell people about new products until they're ready to go.10:56: Q: Do you all carry your phones with the bumper?A: Jobs and co showed off their phones \u2014 none of them have a bumper. 10:59: It's only been 22 days.  We wouldn't have had half the data we have now if we had addressed this last week.  One of the things I have learned though is that it's just human nature that when some person or organization gets really successful, people just want to tear it down.  He sees the same thing with Google11:00: Jobs: \"Google is a great company.\"11:01: I look at this antennagate thing and say \"Wow, haven't we earned the credibility and trust to give us a little benefit of the doubt to say we will address this problem and take care of our users?\"  This thing was blown so out of proportion.  We're not saying we didn't make mistakes: we didn't educate enough.11:04: Q: Is a hardware change possible for this iPhone?A: Nobody has solved this issue (the antenna reception/grip issue).  Our situation right now is that most customers aren't experiencing this problem.  People are holding it in a way that's exploiting its weakness.11:06: Q: Did you consider a recall?A: Nothing is off the table when you love your customers as much as we do.  Steve dispatched teams to Denver, Miami, Seattle, etc. to visit people who complained at their homes if they emailed him to figure out what's wrong, full test equipment in tow.11:09: Q: Report in the times about possible software fix to change the way it's looking for signals.  Is there a possible software fix?A: We just showed you for the last hour that the issue is inherent to all smartphones.  Data doesn't support your perception.  11:10: Engadget's Topolsky and Jobs are sparring over the antenna issue \u2014 Steve says that it's an issue inherent in all smartphones, and to find a software fix for it would be a leap ahead of all other manufacturers.  11:14: I just asked about the bottom line and what impact this will have. Tim Cook replied that they will provide that information next Tuesday when they report Q2 financials and provide Q3 guidance.11:17: Jobs is now talking about reception and cell towers.  The problem with SF is that it takes time to get approval for cell towers.  Nobody wants to have cell towers behind their homes, and that's one of the problems with the congestion.11:23: Jobs does reply to some customers, some post the emails up, and he says honestly that's kind of rude.  And some are fake, so don't believe every email exchange posted on the web."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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