Just got off the phone with Apple. They're sending me an overnight replacement. They're aware of this issue, and I was told that a batch of phones went out without some sort of protective coating (jives with the comment about clear nail polish).

A number of users are reporting problems with their iPhone 4.

Apple's latest device went on sale today, with hundreds of people queuing outside Apple's flagship store in central London for the launch.

The issue relates to the mobile phone signal, with users reporting a drop in signal strength when the phone is held.

The casing of Apple's latest phone is made of stainless steel, which also serves as its antenna.

Richard Warner, who bought his iPhone 4 this morning, contacted BBC News, saying that he thought the phone was "useless in its current state".

"Apple have created a phone that has an antenna on the bottom left-hand side of the phone.

"This means that when you hold it in your left hand, the signal bars slowly fade until there is no signal," he wrote.

A number of videos have been posted on video sharing site YouTube complaining about the reception issue.

One video had an American user running a speed test, with hands on and hands free.

In it, the user 'awington' says that, while holding the phone "it won't even run the test when I am holding the phone...once I let go, it makes a connection and runs the test.

"Hold it a second time, and the upload test will not start."

Social networking site Twitter was full of chatter, with numerous tweets on the reception problems.

The issue might stem from the way the integrated antenna is constructed. One section provides mobile reception, while another is for Wi-Fi.

Some users have speculated that touching the bottom of the phone bridges this gap, affecting signal strength.

However, it is not yet clear whether the problem affects all phones, or if the signal deteriorates when the phone is making a call or only when held in standby mode.

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone 4 at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, he described the integrated antenna as "really cool engineering".

Apple has yet to make a comment on the current controversy surrounding the latest version of its popular phone.

SOME PROPORTION OF Iphone 4 users who unbox their shiny expensive toys are finding that Apple shipped them with dodgy screens.

We know that touchscreen parts are in short supply in Asia at the moment so it appears that Apple could not be too choosy about the ones that ended up in the final product. However it appears that the quality level has slipped a bit.

According to Apple's Iphone support forum, some users are finding that there are colour flaws on their displays.

"On the bottom 10 per cent of the screen there were three blotches about the size of shirt buttons that discolour the screen a brown/yellow colour," one user complained. Another user spotted the problem in the upper left hand corner of the display. Yet others say that they are seeing lines across the screen.

One Iphone 4 bloke who asked others if they had problems had his post pulled, probably because of rules against polling users. Others insist that the problem may not be permanent, apparently hoping that Iphones are magical self-healing devices.

Others say that calls to their Apple Genius bar are backed up and no one is answering.

While there is no doubt that Apple will fix the dodgy displays, it might be tricky for it to do so with the displays in such short supply. It is also not clear what the extent of the problem will be at this point, as boxes are just starting to arrive on people's doorsteps.

No doubt Apple will tell us that the problem is only affecting a small number of users and there will be shedloads of comments below telling us that they had their Iphone 4 delivered and it works perfectly.

This will be cold comfort for those users who pre-ordered them and their screens are broken. The whole point about an Apple product is that you are supposed to spend a fortune on it so it "just works". µ