Apple today began taking requests for free bumpers or cases for iPhone 4 owners who have had reception problems.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the giveaway last week at a news conference called after Consumer Reports said it couldn’t recommend the iPhone 4 because of an antenna problem.

The magazine said its tests confirmed signal strength could drop when the iPhone 4 was held in a way that covered a gap in its wraparound stainless-steel antenna. However, Consumer Reports said using a bumper or case remedies the problem.

Customers who want to order a bumper or case for their iPhone 4 must download the iPhone 4 Case Program app from Apple’s App Store. The Cupertino company is refunding the cost of already purchased Apple bumpers. More information can be found at: www.apple.com/iphone/case-program/

-Hopefully, this will in fact remedy the reported signal problems that many iPhone 4 users are experiencing. This has been the biggest reported problem with the phone so far, and it sounds like it may not be an issue for much longer.   I wonder if Apple believes this is a big enough problem to actually re-design the entire phone or just try to accommodate the problem with aesthetic fixes?  What’s your take?

-Lazy Idiot-

We still don’t know when AT&T’s exclusive contract with Apple will expire, but that doesn’t stop the continued rumors of the iPhone expanding to new carriers in the United States.

Usually it’s Verizon Wireless that we hear is close to signing up to service the iPhone, but a report in Cult of Mac on Wednesday says it’s actually T-Mobile that “is very close to getting the iPhone in the fall.”

The report quotes an anonymous “highly placed” source at T-Mobile, who says the negotiations between Apple and the carrier are in an “advanced stage” and that it’s “80 percent likely” the phone will arrive on T-Mobile’s network in the third quarter.

It’s unclear from where the 80 percent figure is derived. We do know that at one point, Apple and AT&T had a five-year exclusive service agreement. USA Today originally reported the contract length in 2007, which would keep the iPhone away from other U.S. carriers until 2012 at the earliest. Whether that has changed is not clear, but “this fall” or “third quarter” seems a little early. AT&T did, however, suddenly allow current customers whose contracts expire anytime this year to get an early upgrade for the iPhone 4, which could be a sign that AT&T is anticipating the end of its exclusive contract.

It’s pretty clear that Apple is interested in expanding its device to other carriers–it’s already done so in several countries and has seen an uptick in new subscribers, according to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook. If Apple were to pursue that strategy in the States, T-Mobile is a much more natural fit for the iPhone than Verizon, when put in proper perspective.

Both AT&T and T-Mobile use SIM cards and operate GSM networks. Verizon, on the other hand, does not use SIM cards, and it is a CDMA operator. Apple has been rumored on several occasions to be building a CDMA version of the iPhone. But on Monday, Wired reported that Apple had even spoken to Qualcomm about using its chips for such a phone–a move that would have required overhauling the design and manufacturing of the iPhone–and ultimately dropped the idea.

Besides being more realistic for the iPhone, the two companies already have a relationship: T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom offers the iPhone through T-Mobile and Orange in Europe and the United Kingdom.

It’s also clear that Apple and AT&T aren’t trying to pretend that they have a great relationship anymore. During Apple’s earnings call on Tuesday, when pressed about adding carriers, Cook had even less to say on the topic than ever.

“We are very happy to be partnering with AT&T, and they’ve been a first-class partner and really pioneered the smartphone growth from a network point of view in the U.S.,” Cook said. “And that’s all I have to say about that.”

His comment on the matter was, on the whole, complimentary. But it was definitely a bit more clipped than usual. Of course, if Apple does go with another carrier, it’s extremely unlikely that it would leave AT&T, so bad-mouthing the company outright doesn’t make a lot of sense. Rather, Apple would likely use another carrier to augment the iPhone’s current availability. T-Mobile definitely doesn’t have as large a network as AT&T, specifically in rural areas of the U.S., so it would function well as a complement to the iPhone’s availability on AT&T more than anything.

A new carrier, however, does not signal an automatically better experience for iPhone users in places like San Francisco and New York. It’s not clear that T-Mobile (or any other carrier) wouldn’t experience problems with its network similar to what AT&T has dealt with, should it start offering the iPhone. It’s likely that the amount of data users Apple generates for any carrier would be overwhelming.

CNET’s Kent German contributed to this report.

“I really hope this does in fact happen, and it seems as if it may actually be a reality.  The main reasons I look forward to this happening are 1: It gives T-Mobile customers (like myself) more options on phones than primarily Windows mobile, or Android phones.  Now, I have no huge problems with Android phones (I own one currently and am relatively happy with it), but I don’t favor the Windows phones much at all, from previous ownership experience.  It might just be nice to have another option (and the iPhone isn’t a bad option at that).  Number 2:  It gives all of us long time T-Mobile users a crack at the iPhone and all it has to offer, especially since we thought it wouldn’t be until at least 2012 that we got a chance to experience the phone.  I personally would like to compare it to the Android platform and see just how well it compares.  Now, I am aware that Apple has more apps in it’s respective market that Android, but the problem is this, about 90% of both markets’ apps are useless to most people.  So weather you have 50,000 or 200,000 apps in your market, it really makes no difference because most of them are worthless to the everyday user.  Anyone with an app based phone knows what I’m talking about too.  With the improvements made to the new iPhone 4 from the previous 3Gs, I may now consider purchasing one if they do in fact come available to T-Mobile, because they have finally revised some of the limitations that I personally dis-liked.  I guess it all just comes down to Apple and AT&T’s exclusivity deal, and weather it’s coming to an end sooner that originally planned.  It should be interesting to see in the next few months if this really does happen.  And besides all that, the simple fact that the iPhone may be coming this fall (September or October-ish) means that perhaps they will have time to work out some of the reported bugs before release?  Hopefully! ”.

-Lazy Idiot-

Apple has acknowledged that its new iPhone 4 will lose signal if one corner of it is held in the hand.

The glitch, and a yellow discoloration on the screen, has kept internet boards buzzing in the past 24 hours since the phone went on sale in the US, Japan and western Europe.

New owners of the device found that the network signal bars “inexplicably disappeared when they cradled the phone in their hands a particular way,” said the New York Times. “Sometimes, but not always, the cradling resulted in dropped calls.”

In a response to Engadget, Apple said: “Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas.

“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.”

Separately, Apple said a discoloration on the screen was “residue from the manufacturing process.”

Customers queued up in New York, San Francisco and Japan for the well-reviewed new smartphone on the 24th. Japanese operator Softbank ran out of stock late in the afternoon, AP reported.

You have to expect certain bugs in any new product, which is exactly why I refuse to buy something in it’s 1st generation.  Give them a year or so to work out the bugs and drop the price, and I’ll most likely have one of these, unless HTC releases a comparable Android phone that I like better.

-Lazy idiot-