One of the lingering questions surrounding iPhone 4 and the whole “antennagate” saga is just how much, if any, of the problem could be blamed on the traditional network whipping boy, AT&T. Sure, you could reduce or kill iPhone 4 data and voice reception by gripping it firmly around the base to attenuate the signal or touching it at the bottom left corner to de-tune the antenna, but would that be a problem on carriers with stronger networks?

So, the moment I got my iPhone 4 up and running on Rogers Canada yesterday, I aimed to find out and the answer — is as complicated and confusing as always.

First test was right outside the Apple Store, inside the mall. I had 4 bars on both iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS running iOS 4.0.1. Holding either one in a death-grip, even lightly, dropped them a bar. Covering the lower-left spot of iPhone 4 also dropped it a bar. Neither had any real-world problems. 3 bars is fine.

Next test was to go out and find low signal areas. Interestingly, driving through areas where iPhone 3GS briefly drops to EDGE, iPhone 4 stayed on 3G longer and came back to it faster. When I stopped and stayed in an area with 1 to 2 bars of 3G signal, that’s where the fun began. And by fun I mean crazy.

My results, on both iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS were all over the place. Again, I could drop a bar, sometimes both bars, by death-gripping either phone or death-touching iPhone 4. Every so often, however, death-touching iPhone 4 got it to jump up to 3 bars. It happened enough that it wasn’t a fluke, but I couldn’t do it every time. Once I managed to cover enough antenna to get iPhone 4 to search for the network. I couldn’t get iPhone 3GS to do that — it stayed on 0 bars but on network — but unless I was trying to crush the phone with both hands I’d never hold it that way in real life.

In terms of data speeds, again the results were crazy. I could drop speeds by half with death-grip on both iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, and death-touch on iPhone 4. Starting from 1 or 2 bars, I could even stop network connectivity completely, again with death-grip on both or death-touch on iPhone 4.

But sometimes only HSDPA (download) would drop while HSUPA (upload) would go up or stay steady. Sometimes the opposite. The results were so crazy, so varied, I’m considering calling the whole thing black magic and just forgetting about it.

So, on Rogers in Canada, death-grip is real but certainly not limited to iPhone 4, while death-touch is also real and limited to iPhone 4 but presents much the same way. Areas of poor signal can be problematic in theory but in a way that’s utterly impossible to predict. In practice, dropping calls didn’t happen, dropping data was easy to work around, and dropping network had to be forced.

If you’ve done similar tests, or have similar real-world experience to share on other networks, let us know in comments below!

So does your international iPhone 4 have death-grip or death-touch? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Kaboom’s Paratrooper is simple in theory — tap the plane to drop the paratrooper, tilt your iPhone or iPod touch to direct them to the landing spot. And right there is where every casual gaming fan knows the addiction starts and the mayhem begins.

You want to hit the X. You need to hit that X. Things get more complicated quickly, of course. Obstacles build up. They’re paratroopers after all, not sky divers. So don’t be surprised when you start having to leap — and land — into the middle of a paper-art war zone. (Yeah, paper-art. Awesome.)

Kaboom’s Paratrooper originally gained its well-deserved fame on Palm webOS, and Palm has a great article up about the app and it’s transition beyond webOS. (Hard to imagine Apple doing likewise, so kudos there.) Hard hard was it to port?

“The process has been straightforward,” Rob Bredow says. “We were able to re-use most of the code and just wrapped our webOS sprite library in a sprite library designed for the iPhone. All the logic stayed the same.”

Games have historically been among the most platform friendly of fare, with many being ported from iPhone to webOS or Android, so nice to see it can go both ways.

If you check out Kaboom’s Paratroopers for iPhone, let us know what you think.

[webOS: behind the apps, iTunes link]

Kaboom’s Paratrooper lands on the iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

OpenAppMkt aims to be an App Store for HTML5 web apps. Apple considers HTML5 web apps to be the second major iOS platform, and the unregulated one where you can find everything from Google Voice to porn. OpenAppMkt lists them, features them, and includes ratings. Well, except for porn; they don’t include that. Google’s Voice web app currently has 4 stars though.

HTML5 apps can apps initially open in Safari but with a tap of the + button and a Add to Home Screen, they can cache locally and work, more or less, like native apps. They don’t perform quite as well and can’t do quite as much — yet — but they work surprisingly well for an ever increasing ranges of things.

Unlike Apple’s web app gallery, there’s even an iPhone version of OpenAppMkt you can add to your home screen. If you give it a try, let us know what you think.

[OpenAppMkt via Daring Fireball]

OpenAppMkt provides “App Store” for HTML5 apps is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog