French Knock iOS 4 Upgrade while Aussies Deny Antenna Troubles

We scan the globe for news about the iPhone 4. Today we visit Australia and France, two countries bringing Cupertino a mixed message about its latest handset. In the land down under, a large newspaper gives the iPhone 4 a big ‘thumbs-up’ while France’s carrier SFR warned iPhone 3GS owners the iOS4 update could slow them down.

“The iPhone 4 is not just a slight improvement over the iPhone 3GS, it is a massive jump,” writes Stephen French, a technology columnist for Australia’s The Daily Telegraph. Although French managed to lower his reception quality by employing the “death grip,” he wrote calls were still unaffected. “I even managed to watch a YouTube video over 3G while in the ‘death grip,’ he told readers.

French’s one-week experiment using the iPhone 4 on four national carriers – Telestra, Optus, Vodafone and 3 – without a case departed from a Wall Street Journal review by tech writer Walt Mossberg. In the WSJ review, Mossberg noted trouble connecting with the iPhone 4 in all but the strongest AT&T coverage areas. Does this latest review point to AT&T – the lone U.S. iPhone carrier – as the source of connection woes instead of the handset?

Meanwhile, French carrier SFR warned customers considering updating their older iPhones with iOS 4 “significantly” slows down their handsets. Today the iPhone 4 launches in a number of countries.

[9to5Mac and AppleInsider]

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