River Run Tech Blog: Apple's Latest iPhone Woe
Posted by Eric Torres on Fri, Oct 08, 2010 @ 03:02 PM
Remember the thundering applause and all the excitement that accompanied the debut of Apple's iPhone 4? Then came the discovery of the design flaw involving the smartphone's antenna. There now seems to be quite literally a new chink in the iPhone armor, it has been dubbed "glassgate” and the tech world is buzzing about it.
By now most of you have heard about the design flaw of the antenna on iPhone 4, and Apple’s solution to the problem. Apple offered free “bumper” cases to end users (which recently ended), creating the space the phone needed between the antenna and the users palm. Now Apple faces another problem, those cases could potentially cause damage to the handset’s glass body.
According to Ryan Block of gdgt, apparently the non-bumper type iPhone 4 cases allow dust and dirt to get trapped between the case and the back of the phone and the resulting scratches can grow into big cracks in the glass. Specifically, we’re talking about the ones that slide on and off that can cause a scratch or two on the device and lead to bigger problems.
Apple has removed the damaging third-party phone cases from its store and is taking "Glassgate" seriously. It has created a lab and test program to investigate the problem of the cracking glass according to Ryan Block who first reported the story.
It's a pity that the smartphone that generated such excitement has been so plagued. Ho will Apple combat this latest issue? Users with cracked phones won't want new cases, they'll want new phones. Will Apple offer replacements?