Apple on the supposed problems with the new iPhone: "Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place."

So it's not a flaw in the new iPhone, it's something that was phony in all the phones all along. Hmmm. How convenient! Just when I was trying to decide if I should buy the new iPhone or stick with the old one while the bugs are getting ironed out of the new one.

Apple... said it will fix its signal strength formula to conform to other AT&T phones through a free software update for iPhone models 3G, 3Gs and 4 within a few weeks.

''We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see,'' Apple said.

Massaging our perceptions. Who knows if the reception is really bad or not? People are fixated on the way their bars look. So make the bars bigger.