Whether iOS 4.1 fixes the iPhone 4 antenna issues or not (it did the trick for me), it’s very interesting to read the opinions of well-known industry personalities about it.

But Steve Wozniak is more than a personality - heck, he’s the guy who co-founded Apple with Jobs. He must know something about Apple stuff, right? It turns out he experienced reception problems, too, and he learned about them the hard way. He touched the spot and everything froze.

Read an excerpt of his interview with Dutch journalist Henk Van Ess after the break.

“Henk van Ess: How did you find out about the antenna problems?

Steve Wozniak: The first time I tried I was able to duplicate the problem. My wife was driving me to the airport and as soon as I got a short distance from my home, and no longer on wifi, I tried it by accessing a web page (using Safari on my iPhone 4) and observing the progress bar.

As the bar started to proceed I lightly (‘lightly’) touched a couple of fingers to the trouble area and the progress bar froze. When I lifted my fingers the progress bar continued it’s (sic) rapid progress. Putting my finger[s] back down halted the progress bar again. Lifting my fingers another time allowed the web page to finish loading.

I tried it again with one more web page I was in a moving car in the hills near my home. Currently I maintain cell phone calls fine there with my iPhones and with other cell phones, although this exact area used to drop AT&T calls reliably, a few years ago.

I was in a moving car in the hills near my home. Currently I maintain cell phone calls fine there with my iPhones and with other cell phones, although this exact area used to drop AT&T calls reliably, a few years ago.

I tried to repeat this experiment somewhere else a second time, I think in a San Jose restaurant, and I only had partial success. That time I could only slow the progress bar a little and only if I squeezed my iPhone 4 tightly. I concluded that the effect only occurs in some places. It’s like the AT&T dead zone has been extended with this new phone.

If you can afford it, carry a second Verizon phone for backup. Another option is to carry a Verizon mifi and rely on Skype on your iPhone.”

So he’s basically saying that he’s sticking with his iPhone but will carry some backup devices just in case. He’s an awesome guy, I’d pay to get my hands on his tech arsenal.

Oh, if I could have a MiFi in Italy. No, not the Vodafone ones.