back to article Southpaws up in arms over iPhone 4

Apple has brought down the wrath of the UK's lefthanders after Steve Jobs' insensitive advice on how to use the firm's brand new on-again-off-again iPhone 4. Jobs advised iPhone 4 buyers that the reason they were losing reception was down to the way they're holding the device - so, people just need to avoid gripping it in the …

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  1. Lewis Burgess
    Jobs Halo

    As a lefty

    Am I concerned as a lefty? No.

    I will either hold it so my fingers don't touch the antenna.

    Or like most sensible people, I'll be putting a case on it to protect it both physically and to prevent accidental touching of the aerials.

    That or I'll just not worry about it and live with it, like again, most normal people.

    1. Jim Coleman
      Thumb Down

      Actually...

      ...if you look at the stats, most normal people don't have an iPhone 4.

    2. Rob 30

      like normal people?

      most normal people don't get iphones in the first place.

    3. brimful
      FAIL

      Imagine if you used that same reasoning whilst buying a car

      Using your reasoning, imagine if you purchased a car and that everytime you touched a particular part of the stearing wheel the lights on the front of your car shorted out. Would you still be happy buying a cover for your steering wheel? I would assume most sensible people would call this a design flaw.

      But hey, if you need Jobsy to teach you how to hold a phone then who am I to tell you otherwise?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        RE: Imagine if you used that same reasoning whilst buying a car

        Well, being left-handed I can tell you this for nothing - I can't find a way to hold my phone and cover the lower left hand corner with my fingers. Not unless I deliberately cover the lower left hand corner with my fingers...

        So to take your analogy further:

        You hear a man in the pub complain about his car and how he touches the steering wheel in a certain way and the lights go out. Then you tell your mate and he tells his mate and soon the whole world is talking about it. Talking about it even though it sounds like a sack of shit to anyone who has ever driven a car because it involves touching the steering wheel with your genitals while facing backwards and having one foot in the back seats.

        1. brimful
          FAIL

          Ok then by your analogy

          I assume that placing a cover on the steering wheel and then "touching it with your genitals while facing backwards and having one foot in the back seats" would solve the issue of your lights not shorting out? If so, I think your lights shorting out will be the least of your problems whilst trying to drive.

          But in reply to your analogy, are you saying that you love rubbing your iphone against your genitals? A picture of jobsy as the wallpaper perhaps?

      2. No 3

        Very simple

        If you CONSIDERED a car where the lights shorted out every time you touched the steering wheel, wouldn't you choose a DIFFERENT car?

        There's LOTs of options out there other then the iCrapPhone, consider them.

    4. Gulfie
      FAIL

      No iPhone 4 for you then...

      ...as that shiny metal band between the screen and the rear of the phone is the antenna.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    Change

    Change your left-handedness. Not that big of a deal.

    1. Adam Salisbury
      Thumb Up

      Surely thats....

      Change your products hideaous design flaws, not that big of a deal

      There, sorted it for ya!

  3. Si 1

    Why is this a lefty issue?

    I'm right handed, so I hold my iPhone in my left hand and tap at the screen with my right. This means the bottom left hand corner is covered by my left hand. So why is this a lefty issue? It seems more likely to be a righty issue to me, or at least a problem for either if you like to operate the phone one-handed...

  4. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    As a righty

    I hold phones in my left hand.

    1. Number6

      As a lefty...

      I hold my phone (not an iPhone) in my right hand. It leaves my left hand free to write notes.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Thumb Up

        Lefty holding phone in right hand

        Yep, me too.

    2. nibs

      also as a righty....

      I too hold my phone in my left hand...

    3. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD
      Jobs Horns

      As a rightly

      As do I...

      It's very important to keep the right hand free for smacking iTards.

  5. Anonymous Cowherder
    FAIL

    Surely lefites would be ok?

    I'm right handed yet have always held my phone with my left hand, this frees up my right hand for doing useful things rather than just holding a phone.

    1. eezatehgeeza
      Joke

      I suppose...

      You have video on your phone!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      RE: Surely lefites would be ok?

      As a lefty, I'm sure I won't be the first to tell you that my fingers are closer to the bottom right of the phone (in fact they're on it. My thumb is at the middle left of the phone...

      I'm pretty sure that this (as usual) us much ado about nothing.

      Like the last Apple upgrade that supposedly failed. Yes, it did - for a total of less than 10 people worldwide...

  6. Ian Ferguson
    Thumb Down

    Right handed too

    I'm right handed but I hold my mobile with my left hand. Seems logical to me - it leaves my right hand free to take notes, type, use a mouse, pick my nose, whatever...

    I have an iPhone 3GS and want to upgrade to an iPhone 4. I was going to as soon as I could, but I'm glad I haven't yet. I've never liked putting a case on my iPhone - I buy a sleek, compact phone for a reason, and want it to fit discreetly in my pocket.

    I will wait for Apple to fix this problem before upgrading. Early adopters can put up it however they like.

    1. Elmer Phud

      Rights for Lefties?

      As a leftie I use my right hand for the mouse, I also use cutlery right-handed - it means the fork action is far superior to a righty.

      I'm also the one who gets to open jars and anything else which needs unscrewing as the grip needs to be left-handed.

      Can't see why any leftie would use thier left hand to hold a phone - too bloody cack-handed.

      1. Justabloke 1
        WTF?

        title here

        "it means the fork action is far superior to a righty"

        What?!?!?!

        Oh! How I wish my ability to scoop and stab food with my fork wasn't so impaired by my cursed right hand usage!!!

        Who will rid me of this foul left handed god who mocks my feeble right hand with his superior fork handling?!?!

        Honestly just fuck off... you are too stupid to be allwed the use of either a fork or knife

        1. Chris 35
          FAIL

          You've missed the point...

          Holding a knife and fork "the right-handed way" means holding your knife in your right hand. A left-handed person will have greater dexterity in their left hand hence the inclusion in his post.

          The rest seems to be less about you missing the point and more about you just wanting to shout.

          Good luck with that.

  7. jonathanb Silver badge
    Jobs Horns

    As a righty

    I hold my phone the same way that lefties apparently hold them, so I will get a phone I can hold any way I want rather than one I can only hold the Jobsian approved way.

  8. ByeLaw101
    FAIL

    As a lefty...

    I'd want the very expensive phone to work when I pick it up... not a big ask.

    I wouldn't put up with it, I wouldn't work around it, I'd demand a fix or money back.

  9. Chris Pearson
    Stop

    Not just south paws

    I am right handed and I am incapable of holding a phone to my head in my right hand for more than is absolutely necessary. It just feels wrong.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    hugging?

    what's their problem with hugging?

    aaanyway. Steve Jobs releases a product that puts style so far above function that it doesn't even work. oooh shocker.

    When was the last time you heard a serious phone company using cop outs like "don't hold it like that", "you have to wear a garlic necklace when you use it" and "you shouldn't have removed it from it's original packaging"

    No, they recognise that their phones will be used and abused, with or without a protective case - sometimes even to make phone calls - and they design them as such.

    There's a good reason your TV set doesn't use it's casing as an aerial - because that would be the kind of corner cutting you'd expect from a slack dumbass who's probably designed more coke-bottle bongs than he has PCBs. Time for Steve to get a grip himself I think.

    1. Ralphe Neill
      Jobs Horns

      Time for Steve to get a grip himself I think??

      I think the problem is that he's already doing that almost to the exclusion of anything else!

    2. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      Happy

      Holding phones

      Actually, last time I looked at a phone's supplied handbook (for a Nokia 6310i, I think, so a while ago) it had a big section on how to hold it so as not to interfere with the signal. Shame, 'cos I love a good Apple-lynching as much as the next man, especially if the next man is Steve Ballmer.

      GJC

    3. some vaguely opinionated bloke

      "what's their problem with hugging?"

      Inappropriate nose bumping in hugs between lefties and righties.

      Lefties have a tendency to move one way, righties the opposite way.

      (35 years as a lefty, plenty of inappropriate nose bumping)

  11. Jolyon Ralph

    Hang on a minute....

    So. if i'm left handed I hold the phone in the right hand and type with my left, I assume? (Because I'm right handed and hold the phone in my left hand and type with my right).

    It seems to me that it's actually easier to keep the lower left-hand side of the phone clear if you hold it in your right hand (ie if you're a lefty freak) than for normal people who hold it in the left hand and control it with their right hand.

    I suspect there's a lot of deliberate whining going on rather than any serious problem. But then I don't have an iphone 4 yet.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Get a life

    It cites other problems such as "hugging", "taking neighbours drink/bread roll at dining table" and "organising files back to front".

    As a life long leftie (more than 50 years) I would suggest the above problems are due more to being a thicko than victimisation by society at large. (and no I don't own any Apple kit).

    1. Lamont Cranston

      Agreed.

      I've never felt particularly discriminated against, except when attempting to use a pen at the post office (oh no, I'd better sue). Hugging, eating/drinking and organising files have all been carried out with ease, not to mention operating a mobile phone.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Hugging???

      ewww...*shudder*.

      I'm a real man...I don't "hug". None of this metrosexual crap for me.

      1. Martin
        Joke

        A real man?

        Real men don't go "Eeeuw..."

        1. KrimZon
          Joke

          Hugging?

          We weren't hugging, we were... rugby tackling each other.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Confusing reports...

    Design flaw, or software fault? I read elsewhere that a software update is coming today, Monday, to 'fix' the issue. I'd post a link only I don't know if linking to other news sites is against the Register forum policy :)

    As for lefties being outraged, well, as this report indicates most right handed users will often want to hold a phone left handed. So 99.99% of the phone-using population could be affected.

    Anyway, if you're going to insist His Holyness should employ more lefties then you could just as argue that he should emply more people with hooks instead of hands. After all they might want to use a mobile phone too!

    1. Apocalypse Later

      The software update...

      ...will be a big flashing graphic saying "WRONG HAND!" when the tilt sensor figures out you are holding it left handed. Maybe it will make a "whoop whoop" noise too.

      Iphone tiring you out? There's a nap for that.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    FFS get a grip :D

    We have a new iPhone 4, hold anyway you like the signal is great - no worse than the 3GS or any other phone.

    what a load of media bollocks and hype.

    1. It wasnt me
      Badgers

      Thats because .....

      ..... I dont think it affects you so much if you have hairy palms.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      RE: FFS get a grip :D

      ...and the only person who has used one - in other words the only person who actually has a valid opinion on using one) has his post downvoted because he tells it how it is?

      Just goes to show the bias/low IQ (delete as applicable) of the readers here at El Reg!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Grenade

        @ Anonymous Coward

        >...and the only person who has used one - in other words the only person who actually has a valid opinion on using one)

        It is being reported that 1.7 million have sold since launch. You are not that special ma'am.

        >has his post downvoted because he tells it how it is?

        No, your post was down ranked because you are wrong. Wrong, just like touching children is wrong. The iPhone issue, unlike the Tooth Fairy, is real.

  15. Rusk
    FAIL

    a lefty

    When I heard the Jobs comment I was amazed he could forget about leftys. Also just a side comment my 3GS lives in a pouch sort of BlackBerry style case but I slide it out to use. I am a massive fan of iPhone but seems to me, as a lefty that don't use a case when using the phone, the iPhone 4 is completely flawed.

  16. Martin 37
    Thumb Down

    Confused

    I'm a lefty but I hold a phone in my right hand. I can then type or write with my left hand, or even push buttons on the phone with my left hand.

    So if I was a righty I would be MORE likely to hold the phone in my left hand and experience these signal problems?

    I have a ShinyPhone 3GS and have it in a leather case to protect it from scratches. This case often interferes with the phone's ability to tell when I am trying to use the touchscreen. This is an example of hardware that Is Not Perfect. Am I ranting about it? No.

    1. Anonymous John

      Re Confused

      "I'm a lefty but I hold a phone in my right hand"

      No "but" about it. You do it to free up your dominant hand for purposes that need it. Which don't include merely holding it to your ear.

  17. JDX Gold badge
    Badgers

    Or maybe...

    ...buy a phone which works without a special hand-position? Unless this is intentional, like a Apple Masonic handshake?

  18. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Who cares?

    Buy a proper phone that has been designed properly, AND not locked in to Jobsian whims! There are so many decent smartphones around today, or due any time now, why bother with this shit?

    OK, I wouldn't purchase a Google phone either, for the same reason I don't use Google search - Google cannot be trusted and are clearly as evil as Jobs.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    to add to the crowd

    I also hold the phone cradled in my left hand to type away with the right, the 'natural' position for this quite happily recreates the reception problem position. Its been quite the joke in our house, no-one seems quite able to believe this wasnt picked up during testing.

  20. Q8GEEK
    FAIL

    Funny

    Does the reception drop whenever someone holds any given smart phone (excluding iPhones) when being held with the left hand in open space with good reception? No.

    When you buy a car which has a brake design flaw, you don't use your feet to stop the car as a solution. You go there and return the car and your money.

    Covering the iPhone 4 with a case or holding it with finger tips as if the surface was hot is a remedy, not a real solution.

  21. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. some vaguely opinionated bloke

      Not that mad a post...

      Aside from the serrations on most (serrated) knives favouring right handed use, many disposable knives have a thin blade which is reinforced when using the knife right-handed.

      However, turning the knife over to use it left handed results in the reinforcing box section becoming filled with whatever it is that is being spread.

      A little pot of jam for your toast or scone then only goes about 3/4 as far when spreading left handed than right handed, unless you use the corner of the toast/edge of the scone to scoop out the rest of the jam from the confines of the righty-only reinforcement.

      Not at all IT related, except that my preferred breakfast before coding is typically a scone with jam and short of bringing in my own knife (which I admit might be more environmentally friendly) this is a cross which I must bear.

      1. steogede

        @some vaguely opinionated bloke

        > However, turning the knife over to use it left handed results in the reinforcing box section becoming filled with whatever it is that is being spread.

        You wouldn't have that problem if you used a knife designed for spreading, such as a butter knife - superior spreading capability and ambidextrous. Just a shame that the places you are buying your toast and jam from don't supply them (I assume it is an eating out problem). I don't suppose any one would care if you carried a blunt, all plastic, butter knife with you - however technically you would be carrying a bladed instrument, and your reason may not be considered a "good reason".

  22. Chizo Ejindu
    Jobs Horns

    Also as a lefty

    @Lewis Burgess

    Lewis you are so wrong its frightening.

    I think this is utterly ridiculous that such an obvious design flaw was missed in testing. And then the stunning arrogance of his holiness to tell me that i need to hold it differently or buy some stupidly overpriced rubber band to make it work properly is truly astonishing. And the fact that you are sitting here apologising for and making excuses for a mutli-billion dollar global company is frankly even worse.

    I don't use phone cases, never needed one as i'm not a club-handed simpleton and i don't see why i should be required to buy one to use an iPhone 4. But hell if your happy holding the phone in the Apple proscribed fashion and buying a large variety of overpriced Apple endorsed peripherals to enable the product to work then you go right ahead. A fool and their money will always be parted.

    1. ThomH

      Actually, he said...

      ... once he started deviating from the official statement that "There are no reception issues. Stay Tuned." (which, if you believe Apple blogs, is Jobsian code for "a fix will be forthcoming"). If the problem really is bridging between two different antennas then it's not unimaginable that a software fix will solve things. The "we're not wrong, you are" attitude in the interim is hard to stomach though.

      @ the "why is this only a left handed issue?" gang, I think the point is just that the issue is prone to affect lefties more than righties during the critical usage scenario of making a phonecall and the group the report is about are an advocacy group for left handed people.

  23. Big Bear
    Stop

    RE: FFS get a grip :D (AC Monday 28/06 10:25)

    "the signal is great - no worse than the 3GS or any other phone"

    But the previous iPhones were notorious for having crap reception...

  24. Robert Ramsay
    Coat

    Why am I thinking of Hunter S. Thompson?

    "Just think about people who like to flip the bird while using their phone. Or smoke. And of course, drive."

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Ha Ha!

    I'm filthy rich. I have a man to hold my iPhone for me.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      the same man.....

      obviously has a penis. You clearly dont!

  26. Ben Cooper
    WTF?

    Hugging?!

    As a left-handed person, I'm glad they are sticking up for me - all my life, I have been unable to hug anyone because of this discrimination - it is truly horrible. And bread rolls? Right-handed bread rolls have made me the butt of dinner-party jokes for years.

  27. Jamie Kitson

    Driving

    Depends which side of the road you're driving on, and whether you need to change gear, and which hand you need to do it. I of course never use my phone while I'm driving, I need my spare hand to hold my beer.

  28. Lamont Cranston
    Joke

    You can

    make phone calls from an iPhone?

    1. Darryl

      You cannot

      No, you can't. Because there's no signal

  29. Peter Gordon
    Thumb Up

    Apple have a solution!

    http://www.b3ta.com/board/10104077

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Arrogant

    To be honest the whole issue seems to be cosmetic rather than actually causing dropped calls etc. but a response like that from Steve Jobs just comes across as supremely arrogant.

  31. eezatehgeeza
    Coat

    Perfect solution!

    Wear latex (or a synthetic alternative) gloves. This will stop you shorting the contacts and allow you to "safely" commit crimes to pay for your Jobs habit...

    Mines the one with someone else's wallet in the pocket...

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Nothing to do with being left handed...

    I'm right handed and hold my (non apple) phone in my left hand, so that my right hand is free to write, press keys etc. thus the bottom left hand corner is always in my left palm.

    It's just a stunning own goal by Apple, being handled with their usual grace.

    Incidentally, I can encase my cheapo LG Cookie in my hands so that only the top corner of the screen showing the signal is visible, and I get 5 bars on T-Mobile. Just making the well made point that not every phone suffers this way.

    But I am enjoying the schadenfreude of watching the Jesus phone get crucified!

  33. This post has been deleted by its author

  34. Andrew Moore
    Jobs Horns

    Hypocrite...

    So his Jobness is telling people to buy rubber "bumpers" to alleviate the design flaw. Wasn't this the same guy who demanded all iPhone screen protectors to be removed from the Apple stores because it gave the wrong impression about the "robustness" of the screen.

    1. RegisterThis
      Happy

      Essential now ...

      From other reports I have read that very-clever-oh-so-hard-but-oh-so-brittle-GLASS covering even the back of the new iPhone scratches and ships quite easily! I think he will be allowing them now ...

  35. itsallcrap
    FAIL

    This is way broader than 'handedness'

    They've made a phone that doesn't work properly if you put your hand over a particular part of it, and then have the cheek to tell us that doing so constitutes using it wrongly.

    I'm left handed, but can quite happily use a phone with either hand. The point is, every other phone in existence, you CAN use with either hand.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      RE: This is way broader than 'handedness'

      "I'm left handed, but can quite happily use a phone with either hand. The point is, every other phone in existence, you CAN use with either hand."

      I'm left handed too. I just checked and my fingers come nowhere near the lower left hand corner - PRECISELY BECAUSE I AM LEFT HANDED!

      I've had other phones which cut out signal when covered with my hand... so it's not limited to the iPhone.

      In other words, it's a big deal about SFA.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hugs

    I haven't hugged my father for years. I hadn't realized it's because he is left handed.

  37. Dave Murray
    Jobs Horns

    Design Flaw Not Just For The Sinister

    As someone born with impared hearing in my right ear (but super hearing in my left to compensate) I can't use a phone in my right hand, well not if I want to understand the person on the other end anyway. Since making calls is the reason for buying a phone this is a design flaw that would prevent me buying an iPhone 4.

    Hmmm wonder if I could sue Jobs for discriminating against my disability?

    1. some vaguely opinionated bloke

      me too

      ^ wot he said - exactly the same situation, and being a lefty it makes it difficult sometimes to write things down as the right hand needs then to hold the phone to my left ear.

      Although from what I can gather, this particular layout would not be an issue?

  38. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Personally

    I miss the old boingy rubber aerials you used to get on mobies...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      They were an affectation!

      Yes, but they never actually did anything!

      Aerials were only put on phones because no one would buy mobile phone without and aerial, only later on did they take them off when marketers found out people no longer minded using phones without aerials.

  39. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    The solution

    The solution has been around for several years:

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bwD8iEhOwUk/R06uFg1GbOI/AAAAAAAAAIk/Yilx7hrkd-U/s400/handsfree.jpg

  40. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "discrimination designed as a design flaw"

    Bollocks. It is a design flaw used by neurotic nincompoops as a nitpick for nagging about their personal issues.

    I fully recognize that a vast majority of utensils are made for use with the right hand. Few exist for the left hand, and fewer even exist that are usable by both.

    Nonetheless, this situation is gradually evolving, and many tools are now ergonomically tested to see whether or not it is equally usable by either hand. Scissors have spearheaded this movement, and many other implements are following.

    But a phone is just a phone, and there is nothing in the Iphone or much any other phone that forces a user, by design, to use a given hand.

    So whipping up a frenzy about left-handed discrimination is pure hogwash, especially since left-handers are apparently used to holding their phone in their right hand, just like right-handers hold it in the left. As stated above several times, you use your less dextrous hand to do the simple job of holding, freeing your more dextrous hand to do the usual chores.

    Shame on that organization for clearly knee-jerking off and bandwagon jumping for no good reason.

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Southpaws, where do you think the word "sinister" comes from?! Down to the square and burn 'em!

    I am right-handed but my mum was a "southpaw' and I can't sit and eat without first having to flip the cutlery over between hands as I can't eat "the right handed way"!

  42. JamieL
    Alert

    But have they patented it yet?

    If previous form is anything to go by, you'd expect them to lodge a patent for "a means for using the Human Hand to modify radio wave propagation" or some such like.

    Then, when another manufacturer's handset suffers the same problem (sorry, "copies their technology") they can sue for all it's worth.

  43. RayDio

    maybe it's metal cased phones

    Because my Nokia E66 does exactly same thing.

  44. HaplessPoet
    WTF?

    What I don't quite understand...

    Why has no newspaper or Which? or the Beeb, or El Reg or someone not actually got hold of one and tested it under laboratory conditions?

    Surely that would prove it once and for all?

    I went into a couple of phone shops on Saturday to try it out and no matter how I held it it just would not play ball. This was unfortunate as I was trying to convince my wife that she really would be better of without one.

    Best Regards

    David

    1. Ed 12

      able to replicate

      I tried it with 3 different iphones in the apple store in Belfast and all of them had the same problem. I was just holding it in my left hand as I normally would to make phone calls or use the phone onehanded. The signal would either drop to zero or one bar (from a full signal) after a few seconds of usage. The signal would crank back up again once I changed hands. I decided not to point it out to the staff :)

  45. Kevin 43
    WTF?

    Unexplained...

    What exactly is a left or right handed hug?

    I have been using both arms all this time, am I normal?

    1. JCL

      headbutt, no but

      I think it's to do with which way your head goes and which shoulder you end up on. If you both go the same way you'll end up head-butting each other.

      Personally, I've no problem hugging, but do momentarily worry about holding out the wrong hand when I'm about to shake hands with someone.

  46. Jason Sheldon
    FAIL

    Remember when Jobs had network issues during his demo?

    Job's had the audacity to blame the audience hogging wi-fi bandwidth for him not being able to demonstrate net stuff.. perhaps he was just holding it wrong?

  47. Jeff 11
    Jobs Halo

    Wrong way round

    The iPhone as an extension of you? Don't be ludicrous. We are Apple - you are an extension of *us*. As such any of our customers with the tiniest modicum of common sense would simply have metal antennae implanted in their skeleton, to negate their own ineptitude in holding our precious devices. Now be off with you, foolish peasants...

  48. Byles
    Pint

    Sorry, I can't hear you - I'm deaf in my right ear and my phone doesn't work in my left hand!

    Hmm... And if you're hard of hearing in one ear, swapping hands is really going to be an option isn't it?

    How retarded. I use both hands, and to be perfectly honest for the price of that phone I'd want to keep a strong grip on it. But okay Jobs, let's just hold it with one finger instead...

    Thank god I'd never buy an Apple product.

    Beer... Because Jobs must be pissed when he comes up with this shit.

  49. Gulfie
    Unhappy

    I'm almost a lefty...

    ... or would have been but for parental interference.

    So I do most things right handed by default, and some things left handed without realising I'm doing them that way.

    The only irritating aspect of this is that I use my right hand to hold my phone when I'm using it, and as writing is just about the only 'handed' activity I can't do with my left hand, I'm screwed when I'm on the phone. Curiously I find it very difficult to hold a phone conversation with the phone on my left (held in the left hand, against the left ear).

  50. 46Bit

    Uhh

    Why quite so much iHate? Can understand why people dislike iPhones, but this is actually pretty extreme,,,

  51. skellious
    FAIL

    Lefty giving my two cents

    The Left-handed society and other such organisations are, apart from anything else, making things worse. I personally do many things right handed (play guitar, hold knife and fork, use a mouse, play hockey [not that i play hockey], play piano [if you can even call the piano a left/right-able instrument...], turn keys, control ovens and stoves and so on) and the rest I do left handed. It really does not affect my life that much, but organisations such as this cause a percieved split, much like I think organisations such as those set up for one religion, ethnicity or gender cause a split. We are ALL HUMANS, why try and group us?

    @AC

    I too struggle to find a way to hold my smartphone at an angle where I am touching the lower left corner with my fingers. I touch the lower RIGHT corner with my fingers and the lower left with my palm. If I hold it so my fingers are not on the bottom right, my palm is not on the bottom left. I fail to see how this is a left/right handed issue, it's a handling issue for all of us.

  52. Joey
    Jobs Halo

    What would I change about my iPhone 4?

    I'm very happy with mine - but then I actually have one. The teleport function could be better and the backward facing camera could show a more handsome fellow - but it will do until something better turns up.

  53. heyrick Silver badge

    Dear Left Handed Club

    Could you please concentrate your efforts on things that are USEFUL, such as those sweet moulded-handle scissors that are a real pain (in both senses of the word) to use... and WTF is with tin-openers?

    FWIW, I usually hold the phone (any phone) in my right hand. Leaves the left free for typing, writing, or absentmindedly doodling.

  54. Jimbo in Thailand
    Paris Hilton

    LOL!!!!!!!! You guys are killing me!!!

    My side is aching something fierce I've been laughing so hard at these comments. This has to be one of the all time best ramblings the Reg has ever hosted. I've never UP voted so many comments before.

    And BTW, the only way I'd ever consider buying an Ifone is after his sAtanic hOliness adopts a new wardrobe of fluorescent-rainbow-colored Hawaiian shirts and zig-zag striped khaki slacks. OK, the gold pointy-toe Aladdin slippers are optional!

    Now excuse me while I go change my shorts.

    Paris because she's crying alligator tears for his hOliness.

  55. Peter York 1

    Nokias have the same problem... so what???

    See:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&feature=player_embedded&v=amPG52DVQuk

  56. Ian Stephenson
    Coat

    Somebody beat me to the first use of sinister in this thread...

    As a fourth generation cackhander I'd like to point out that which hand I hold the phone in depends on what else I'm doing.

    If im writing, typing,cooking or anything else that needs a degree of coordination the phone will be in my right hand. Unless it's a spreadsheet in which case my right hand is on the numeric keypad (my mouse is on the left, configured for right hand buttons). If it's a long conversation (for example trying to get sense out of a Calcutta call centre) I'll swap hands occasionally.

    I notice it's still only right handed thumb icons available.....

    At least the iphone doesnt risk taking your eye out if you use it left handed, unlike the SA80.

    1. Kevin 43
      Grenade

      The ambidextrous...

      P90 FTW!

  57. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    Monkey paws

    Still can't figure out how these people are holding their phone. If I try to make a call on mine with my left hand covering the bottom left, I get cramp and almost drop the thing.

    Hold it mid way up the side.

  58. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm left handed and have an amazingly simple but elegant solution to this.....

    I don't get caught up im Apples hype, and have an oldish Samsung that suits my needs fine.

  59. Paul Woodhouse

    I'm ambidextrous

    will no one think of me???.....

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