I am VERY disappointed in Fusion of Ideas in making these claims. There are multiple vendors that are making these claims and they are just flat out lying. I’m starting to get a little annoyed.

For more, see http://bosonquest.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/iphone-4-versus-duct-tape/ (shameless plug, but it’s a freely hosted hobby blog – I don’t benefit from hits). Disclaimer: I am not a professional antenna engineer; I may be talking nonsense. That said, I did test my iPhone 4 by holding it between the plastic sheets that covered the front and back of the phone in the box. I was able to hold the phone with no part of the antenna directly in contact with my skin, and saw little or no difference in behaviour versus going “commando”.

I’m starting to regret the use of the word “commando” though.

In page 2 of the the comments for that article, user auhim notes:

“That armor stuff doesn’t cover the entire width of the antenna. When holding it the way Jobs wishes you wouldn’t, your skin can still bridge the gap between left and bottom antennas along the face and back side edges.

You just have to make sure enough of the thing is covered that you’re not bridging the very narrow black gap Apple put on the phone. If the two closest points at which your skin contacts the two separate antennas are far enough away (on your hand), the problem should be largely (if not entirely) mitigated. (Signal will still decrease in the same manner that every single mobile phone with an internal antenna in existence decreases signal when held, but it will no longer have the drastic decrease unique to the iPhone 4.)”