After yesterday's calls for a recall of the Apple iPhone 4 due to antenna problems, it seems that Apple is finally going to address the issue with a press conference.

According to several sources the company has invited a select number of US journalists to attend an Apple event at 10am PST Friday.

It's likely that this is Apple's attempt to address the uproar over the iPhone's signal loss problems. It's been reported by some customers since the day the iPhone 4 was made available that when the phone is gripped in a certain way, it can cause reception and bandwidth to drop.

Apple at first addressed the reports by telling users to hold the phone in a different way or to buy a rubber bumper case to prevent fingers from coming in contact with the phone's exterior antenna. Later, Apple said the problem lay in the way the phone displays signal bars and said a software update to fix the issues would be forthcoming.

Apple has already released an initial version of a software update to iOS 4. iOS 4.1 was made available to developers on Wednesday.

It's not clear, however, that the signal bar display has anything to do with the antenna "death grip" issue. The antenna problem appears to be hardware related (the antenna is integrated into the metal strip running around the exterior of the phone), and whether the signal bars are displaying incorrectly wouldn't affect whether a call is actually dropped or a signal is lost.

ZDNet Australia's sister site CNET did an initial trial of the new software. With the new software, the phone still had dropped calls. But this time, the calls were dropping with two signal bars still showing. Previously, they would drop with zero signal bars showing. The antenna issue seems to vary from phone to phone and in different locations.

The iPhone 4 is expected to launch any day in Australia, but the announcement could mean Australians might have to wait a bit longer until the current issue is resolved.

Via CNET