Even if the iPhone4 doesn't work properly, it's still nice to look at.

NEW YORK TIMES media columnist David Carr had an interesting piece in last Sunday’s paper looking at the role Consumer Reports played in the iPhone4-reception debacle.

The magazine said it can’t recommend the phone because of issues with the antenna, which wraps around the outside of the device. If the phone is held a certain way, dropped calls can result.

In an effort to manage this mess – Antennagate – Apple is offering to send iPhone4 buyers free “bumpers,” cases that wrap around the edge of the phone and appear to mitigate the problem. (Consumer Reports had suggested using duct tape.)

Apple CEO Steve Jobs at first denied there was an issue, and blamed the media for blowing the whole thing “so out of proportion that it’s incredible.” But he was forced into addressing the criticism, Carr notes, largely due to the editorial authority of Consumer Reports:

“The iPhone’s antenna problems might have remained a dust-up between Apple fanboys and skeptical bloggers except that Consumer Reports — that stolid, old-media tester of everything from flooring to steam mops for the last 74 years — came out with a report detailing the issue and concluding that ‘due to this problem, we can’t recommend the iPhone 4.’

“The article in Consumer Reports was devastating precisely because the magazine (and its Web site) are not part of the hotheaded digital press. Although Gizmodo and other techie blogs had reached the same conclusions earlier, Consumer Reports made a noise that was heard beyond the Valley because it has a widely respected protocol of testing and old-world credibility.”

Jobs acknowledged the impact of being dissed by the venerable mag: “We were stunned and upset and embarrassed by the Consumer Reports stuff,” he said, “and the reason we didn’t say more is because we didn’t know enough.”

Carr thinks the matter “is a reminder that media that are unsupported by advertising can often have an impact that more traditional publishing, or even the most tech-savvy, enterprises don’t.”

It was a coup for Consumer Reports, to be sure, even though they were simply doing what they always do. But I doubt the wacky-antenna hullabaloo will have much of an impact on this phone phenom’s sales. Apple has already sold more than three million iPhone 4s in the U.S., and on July 30 will begin peddling them in 17 other countries, including Canada.

Even if Apple doesn’t completely solve the reception problem, they can rest assured that Canadians, no strangers to crappy wireless service, likely won’t notice a difference.

ryan@roadtostarrdom.com

Related: Jobs is both a genius and a jerk

Conan and Jay: Pitted against one another by NBC.

THE MEDIA has been abuzz this week with news that NBC will bump Conan O’Brien and The Tonight Show up to midnight and move Jay Leno back to his 11:35 slot.

I think they’re making a big mistake.

I understand that the ratings for both men have been weak, and that Jay performed better than Conan against David Letterman as host of the Tonight Show. And Leno has been languishing with his new 10 p.m. show (and not delivering enough viewers to the local news that follows).

Still, booting Conan is a short-sighted move that could end up driving him and his talent into the arms of another network (Fox appears to be the likely suitor). Nothing against Leno here – he’s a funny guy – but far as I’m concerned, Conan is the future of late night; my generation’s Johnny Carson.

Not at NBC, apparently.

As David Carr noted in the New York Times: “The message to the younger talent is one thing — wait for a turn that may never come or may be taken back at any second — but the message to younger audiences is even clearer: a legacy industry will default to legacy assets and ride them down to the bitter end.”

I think viewers just needed a bit of time to get used to Conan in his new capacity. The poor guy has had less than a year to prove himself as Tonight Show host – he only started June 1, and already NBC is going to shuffle him along? He deserves better than that.

>>UPDATE (Jan. 12): Conan O’Brien says he won’t host ‘Tonight Show’ following Leno

It took Conan a while to catch on when he became host of Late Night back in the 90s. I remember when I first started watching his show; I felt I had made this incredible discovery because it seemed like nobody else was tuning in.

I marveled at how funny and original Conan was – and wacky, of course; he could be so out there sometimes (take the ‘Clive Clemmons Inappropriate Response Channel,’ for example… who comes up with this stuff?)

Conan wrote 'Marge v Monorail.' Nuff said.

Incidentally, the Simpsons episodes he wrote and/or produced were some of the best ever, including “Marge vs. the Monorail” and “Homer Goes to College”

Mr. Short Term Memory

Before that, Conan also created memorable sketches while working as a staff writer for Saturday Night Live in the late 80s. Some notable ones include “Mr. Short-Term Memory” (“He shouldn’t have stood under that pear tree…“) and” “The Girl Watchers,” memorably performed by Tom Hanks and Jon Lovitz: “He-llo… aaaand goodbye.”

Late Night with Conan O’Brien was great, too, obviously. Given the crappy time slot, Conan didn’t take himself too seriously; not seriously at all, in fact. This made for great television.

When he got the Tonight Show gig, though, I suppose he had to tone it down a bit. I admit, I didn’t watch him that much in his new new role (am I partly to blame for this whole poor ratings mess? Do they even count Canadian viewers?)

It seems like Conan has become a bit more debonair/less wacky to suit the Tonight Show. That maturing might have been inevitable. But it’s also what might have gone wrong for him. He messed with his formula for success; alienated his base.  It’s just not the same.

On Twitter the other day, someone said, “If I were Conan O’Brien, I would have the Masturbating Bear as my only guest for an hour every night until NBC fired me.” He’s referring, of course, to one of Conan’s many, and might I add brilliant/ridiculous, recurring characters:

I’m with this guy. Forget NBC, Conan – you’re too good for them. Move to Fox, return to your roots, and take on Letterman and Leno directly. In addition to Masturbating Bear, I suggest you toss in a few more throwbacks:

•If They Mated:

Mercifully, Suri turned out not to be the scariest looking baby ever.

•Horny Manatee:

A momentary cultural phenomenon.

•More “lip” interviews with the likes of Mike Tyson, Arnold Schwarzenegger – and definitely Bill Clinton (Conan: Is it true that you asked Monica Lewinsky to lie in her deposition? Clinton: No, I told her to lie there in dat position.)

Here’s another good one:

•Last but not least, of course, bring back Pimp Bot 5000 (who combines “the classic stylings of a 1950s robot with the dynamic flair of a 1970s street pimp.”)

It was better when Pimpbot 5000 was around.

Let’s see who wins the ratings war then.

ryan@roadtostarrdom.com