Duct Tape to the Rescue

lol

The most talked-about phone in the U.S.—Apple’s iPhone 4—has a design flaw that’s best fixed with a sliver of duct tape, according to Consumer Reports.

“It may not be pretty, but it works,” writes Mike Gikas on that nonprofit consumer group’s electronics blog.

The patch—which sounds like it’d be more appropriate for kitchen plumbing than for a phone that retails for $200 to $300, plus an AT&T contract—is supposed to correct an apparent problem with the iPhone 4’s metal antenna.

In a controlled test, Consumer Reports found that people who hold the iPhone 4 in a way that covers up an antenna connector on the phone’s lower left side will experience poorer reception and possibly dropped calls.

But if you slap a piece of duct tape over that antenna connection, the reception problems go away, the group says.