I got this email from a friend tonight:
So I swapped my iPhone 4 for another at an Apple store due to a proximity sensor issue. New phone has a smooth matte-like coating around band and over antennas. Can no longer run finger over antennas and feel gaps. Looks like they have silently fixed this in the newer production runs can’t replicate signal loss any more.
During the press conference, Jobs said that they company would “revisit” the topic at the end of September. If Apple is handing out replacement phones with this “matte-like coating,” it may be that the company is testing this as a long-term solution they will announce in the fall.
This theory seems to line up with some reports* that have been floating around online saying that some customers are receiving these altered handsets while others aren’t.
Time will tell if a simple coating is enough to fix — or at least reduce — the issue.
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*I totally disagree with Gizmodo calling this a “silent recall.” At best, this is a silent hardware revision.