brave [little] meme

Apple’s iPhone 4 has gotten a lot of bad press lately over its ‘death grip’ issue. So much so you’d think the issue was unprecedented, right? Wrong. And to prove it, here is the essential Death Grip video collection for your enjoyment:

HTC EVO Death Grip

HTC Evo Signal Attenuation

Droid Incredible Death Grip

Nexus One Death Grip

Nexus One vs. iPhone Death Grip  (start at 1:29)

And even more Nexus One Death Grip (after Google’s update to correct)

And yes, even more Nexus One Death Grip: 

Android G1 Death Grip

Now, while the HTC Evo’s top-side antenna makes the issue less likely to occur in daily use, the same cannot be said for the Nexus One and G1, both of which suffer dramatic signal drops when held in a somewhat natural fashion. Do you remember the press outrage over those two?

No. Neither do I.

Google’s newly released Nexus One has received mixed reviews from the tech press, but one of the key questions for the so-called ‘iPhone Killer’ was the reason for its apparent lack of multitouch capabilities.

According to a source working on the handset’s innards, multitouch is indeed supported on the Nexus One’s Android API’s. The decision not to implement the feature in the handset’s core UI and applications was the result of a board-level ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ between Google and Apple.

Google in fact agreed to forego using multitouch in their core UI in exchange for Apple maintaining a high visibility for Google’s apps and services on their iPhone.

What this means in practice, is that there is nothing stopping third party developers from using multitouch in their own Nexus One applications. Whether this gentlemen’s agreement holds in the face of Apple’s ongoing move away from Google’s apps (on Mapping, for example) is anybody’s guess.