Links for Wednesday July 14^th, 2010

• Yes, the iPhone 4 is broken / No, the iPhone 4 is not broken: Pretty good survey of real iPhone 4 users and their experiences with the antenna. Harry McCracken is spot on:

  "My conclusion: The antenna design helps in many situations, but it can be a major real-world problem if you're in an area with iffy AT&T reception and aren't careful about how you hold the phone."

  And Ryan Block goes a bit further, and discusses something that I've been feeling:

  "I'd say one of the worst aspects is how the issue undermines your confidence in the device, leading to a kind of idle paranoia that at any moment a call may drop or an email won't go through if I'm not holding the phone in just the right way."

  To put it another way, with my old iPhone, whenever a call failed, I just blamed AT&T. Now when a call fails, I have to make sure I'm holding my phone the right way. Not the end of the world, but clearly not optimal.

• Nintendo 3DS Idea Man Pulls Back Curtain on Handheld’s Capabilities: Interesting interview with Hideki Konno. I thought this tidbit on downloadable games was interesting:

  "This is my own personal opinion, but although I sometimes download music, when it’s game software I prefer to actually go to a store and get the product in my hands. However, I don’t think we can stop the era of downloadable purchases from coming."

  This explains why Nintendo's downloadable gaming efforts are lagging behind their competitors — their mindset is totally wrong.

• ASCAP's attack on Creative Commons: Clear and reasonable response from Larry Lessig. I really like cut of his jib.