As part of the campaign to reverse the damaging discussions of iPhone 4 antenna problems, Apple took 11 journalists on a tour of the company's previously secret wireless-testing facilities. The tour was designed to show just how seriously Apple takes wireless design and testing, and Macworld's Jason Snell provided a fascinating description of the experience.

Consumer Reports has often taken flack for their coverage of the Macintosh, and that trend may be continuing into the iPhone world. On his blog, electromagnetic engineer Bob Egan claims that the RF testing that Consumer Reports did with regard to the iPhone 4 antenna issue was seriously flawed.

The redoubtable Consumer Reports says the iPhone 4 can drop connections in weak signal areas when you hold the phone with your skin covering the antenna gap on the lower left side. The non-profit organization tested three separately purchased iPhone 4s in a radio-frequency isolation chamber. The group says a little tape over the gap eliminates the problem (or you could, as Steve Jobs suggests, just not hold the phone like that). As a result of these tests, Consumer Reports does not recommend the purchase of an iPhone 4 at this time. Ouch.

The New York Times uses a discussion of the iPhone 4's supply chain as a springboard to discuss how rising labor, currency, and housing costs in China may result in increased prices for consumer electronics. Though the actual assembly of a product like the iPhone makes up only a fraction of its total cost, prices of commodity parts such as circuit boards and batteries also reflect fluctuations in labor costs. And while Apple's wide profit margins may provide some insulation from these pressures, other electronics companies that compete largely on price could be hard hit.

Ars Technica has received confirmation from the horse's mouth that AT&T is not capping data speeds for iPhone 4 users, as recent rumors have suggested. AT&T said that what some users are experiencing - a degradation in upload speeds to as low as 100 Kbps - is the result of a software defect in the Alcatel-Lucent equipment that AT&T uses in some of its cell towers. AT&T noted that the defect should affect only about 2 percent of users, and that Alcatel-Lucent is working on a fix.

Glenn Fleishman appears on this week's TechFlash podcast. Glenn talks about Apple's odd open letter on antennas, the potential for an iPhone that works with Verizon Wireless's network, and the place of the Kindle in the tablet future. TechFlash is a Seattle technology news site with a strong focus on original reporting.

Do you read faster or slower on a device like an iPad or Kindle, in comparison with a physical book? The overall answer, according to usability expert Jakob Nielsen, is about 5 to 10 percent slower (with the same comprehension of what was read). That's statistically significant, though not all that much slower. (We suspect it may have to do with years of familiarity with the form factor of the book.) More interesting was that on a 1 to 7 scale, users rated their satisfaction at 5.8 for the iPad, 5.7 for the Kindle, and 5.6 for the physical book, with the traditional PC trailing behind at only 3.6.

Apple has announced that it has sold over 1.7 million units of the iPhone 4 in the first three days. Describing it as "the most successful product launch in AppleΓÇÖs history," Steve Jobs also apologized to customers who were turned away because of Apple's inability to meet the unanticipated demand.