Steve Jobs Acknowledges iPhone 4’s Problem With Lefties, Offers “Fix”

Have you been having trouble with your iPhone 4's reception? We told you about it yesterday, and even tried to replicate the problem ourselves. While we indeed saw bars drop when we held the iPhone 4 naturally in our left hand, we could still make calls. Steve Jobs has acknowledged the issue, and he's got a "fix" for you.

From Apple's head honcho himself (or, at least, from someone using his email account):

Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.

Jobs emailed in response to to blogger C.K. Sample of Sample the Web. Sample, a lefty himself, questions the note's veracity when, thirty minutes later, he received a double reply. "Form letter that he's broadcasting to all lefties in reply to emails similar to mine?" Sample wrote. "Also, Steve Jobs or Steve Jobs' assistant?"

Either way, it definitely seems to be Apple's official line for the moment. Like a doctor that tells you not to do something that hurts, Jobs responded to Engadget with a similar line, writing, "Just avoid holding it that way."

Well, hey, thanks, Jobs! Here we thought it was a problem with the phone, but the problem has been with our hands all along! I've asked it once and I'll ask it again: Does Apple really not have any left-handed engineers?

The jury's still out on just how widespread or inhibiting this left-handed business is. Have you had any dropped calls because of it? We found that in an area such as Wisconsin, where 3G isn't as overloaded as in New York or California, calls worked just fine. AT&T is already known for spotty service in metropolitan areas, though, so poor reception when holding an iPhone left-handed can't be helping that.