The Sprint Peel is kind of a brilliant idea for Sprint if it works out. A 3G accessory for the iPod Touch could essentially turn it into an iPhone that works with Sprint.

Safari 5.0.1 is out (check for updates on your Mac to get it) and it comes with official and overt support for extensions. So far, what I’ve installed is the Twitter extension, which is a bar that runs across the screen with a search field, something called “Related Tweets” and a button to Tweet, which takes you to the Twitter home page and prefills it with the URL you were looking at. One of the biggest features is a list of trending topics, which you might otherwise not look at. It doesn’t seem to notify you of new tweets on your timeline, though.

NY Times has another bar-style extension which lists the main headlines with small images.

These are both neat, though there’s a limit to how much you could easily pile on without dramatically shrinking the useful area of your browsers.

I’m using ScribeFire to write this – a blog client extension that basically opens up a page for you to write a post. Not bad so far, though it’s fairly simplistic.

Edit: ScribeFire did weird things to formatting. Had to fix in MarsEdit.

I’ve got to say, the product that seems to most appealing today is the battery charger. Compact, more efficient, and a relatively good deal given that you get 6 batteries. It’s also white and shiny.

The Magic Trackpad also looks pretty cool, but I’m not sure if I’d prefer it to the already quite good Magic Mouse. If there’s enough software support for gestures, it could get interesting, though. I still don’t use many of the gestures on my MacBook Pro, though that might change if I got used to using them at the desk.

What I would have liked to see was a trackpad integrated into a Bluetooth keyboard. You could put this in your lap and have a complete input solution – would be great for a Mac Mini hooked up to a TV.

Okay, I didn’t, but I thought the free case thing was a nice way to deal with Antennagate. Of course, it doesn’t really help people like me who don’t have a problem with the antenna. In my experience, the iPhone 4 reception has been vastly better than my 3GS’. I could still get a free ride at Apple’s expense, but I just don’t see the bumpers as enhancing the black iPhone – I have yet to see a picture of a black iPhone with a bumper where I thought it looked better, or even as good, as the uncased phone.

I’m generally not a fan of cases on iPhones. What’s the point of having a phone with really nice design if you’re going to cover it up with a less-well designed case. It’s not like the phone is a long-term investment that you want to protect forever. The only way to enjoy something beautiful is to look at it.

However, I will say that the white iPhone looks pretty good with some of the bumpers – especially the white bumper. If I had a problem with the antenna, I would seriously consider returning my phone and getting the white one with the white bumper.

And by this I mean the growing buzz about the iPhone 4 “reception problem”. I personally have not experienced any issues from the antenna design of the iPhone 4, perhaps because of how I hold the phone, but it’s clear that some people have. I’m not sure how “real” of an issue this is, but it doesn’t matter. It is becoming the focal point of the iPhone 4 conversation, and Apple risks a serious dent to their perceived quality. The handling of this issue has been terrible and Apple needs a serious response.

It could be something simple:

“Apple has discovered that the antenna design of the iPhone 4 can lead to compromised reception when the phone is held in a particular way in areas of low signal strength. This issue can be avoided by using a case or holding the iPhone in a manner that does not cover the lower left corner. However, for some iPhone 4 owners may not be comfortable with adjusting their grip or using a case. A solution that will completely address this issue for users is currently in development and will be available free of charge to all iPhone owners by the end of the summer.”

This buys them some time to come up with a solution which could be as simple as a protective coating or covering for the antenna band.

I think this is more of a perceived issue than a real one. But perceived issues are issues nonetheless.

Apple, perhaps intentionally, has turned the once clear problem of the iPhone 4 displaying dramatically worse reception when the bottom left band is covered to a muddle of “facts” about bars and antennae.

Here’s what we know:

Many, perhaps all, phones have worsening performance when they are held in a certain way. Specifically, covering up the internal antenna with your hand is generally thought of as poor form. I remember an old Nokia I had specifically instructing me how the phone should be held and that I should be vigilant lest my thumb drift over the Nokia logo, which served double duty as an antenna.

Many people gauge “reception” by the bar meter displayed by basically all phones, but there is in fact no standard as to what these bars mean. They’re basically only useful for comparing relative signal strength between the same make/model of phone, and even a strong showing on the meter doesn’t guarantee good performance, though there is some correlation.

According to Apple, they had calibrated their meter such that only when the signal was relatively weak did the bars start dropping. They are attributing this to human error, but the more cynical could argue that it served their purposes in the past (more bars in more places), but not now (dramatic fall of in “bars” when held the wrong way).

The general consensus is that covering the black band on the left side of the phone is a bad idea because it “shorts” the two antennae together. This is a hardware issue because of the exposed antennae, though that same hardware feature probably improves the signal a bit when you’re not covering up the black band.

Why doesn’t this affect WiFi reception? Why doesn’t covering the black band on the top of the phone (another junction between the two antennae) have the same effect? I haven’t gotten good answers to this yet, but there probably is some explanation, since using a case (so you can’t touch the antenna metal) seems to alleviate the problem.

Apple’s fix is to recalibrate the reception meter to what it says is AT&T’s recommendation. But the iPhone is sold in more countries than the US, on other carriers. Does Apple calibrate the signal strength separately for each carrier? Probably not…my guess is that AT&T’s formula will just lessen the severity of the perceived signal drop and highlight areas with poor reception, which will be seen as the carrier’s fault (which it probably is, to a large degree).

Apple has promised a fix for the meter in “a few weeks”. If they’re just changing the formula, why wait a few weeks? This is my guess: Apple got caught off guard by this issue, probably because they test their phone in disguise, protecting the metal band. They want some time to figure out if there’s anything else they can do via software to remedy this problem, but they needed to put out some statement now because otherwise it makes them look clueless and distracts from all the features of the new iPhone.

The backup plan is likely not to offer free bumpers, since this will hurt case manufacturers, but to give an Apple Store credit for the value of a bumper. They should probably just do that and be done with it.

Apple’s iPhone 4 bumpers take away from the beauty of the unprotected device, but one company has managed to come up with a really slick protector:

ElementCase’s Vapor 4 looks quite slick. It’s made of anodized aluminum, protecting the iPhone and insulating the antenna to avoid the signal drop some people observe when they hold the bottom left corner of the phone.

One caveat – does protecting a beautiful device with another beautiful device leave you better off…or now will you just start worrying about damaging the case?