From Bendgate to Batterygate: The iPhone Falls Victim to Scrutiny (Again)

With great power comes great responsibility, to your fans and loyal customers. And, boy, are Apple's fans loyal. But with such popularity comes the negative stuff too, scrutiny and criticism. Apple has tackled this well - showing integrity with a timely and detailed(ish) response. It's quite unusual for Apple to comment at all.

About a year ago, Apple's iPhone 6 launched with the usual overwhelming levels of fanfare.

Days later some bright spark and his rear end sat on an iPhone 6 and worked out that, lo and behold, smartphones aren't infallible after all - this one curves under pressure. Shock horror. Naturally this was broadcasted to the world, such are the times in which we live.

This bloke echoes my thoughts on Bendgate perfectly:

You can't help but feel sympathy for Apple. Almost as soon as an iPhone launches, someone gruesomely pulls its components apart and sticks them gleefully on YouTube, or chucks one from a Boeing 747 at cruising altitude, gets upset when it smashes into a million pieces and demands a full refund. OK, the second one didn't happen, but you get my point.

The point is that the iPhone is subject to the kind of insane scrutiny that no other phone is.

Case in point: Batterygate (aka Chipgate). If you've been on desert island for the past couple of days, I'll fill you in.

If you were to buy an iPhone 6s, the much hyped A9 chip processor inside it will be made by one of two manufacturers, Samsung or TSMC. As far as I know, it's pot luck which one you get.

A couple of separate reports have emerged - one from Anandtech and one from a YouTuber - claiming that the iPhones with TSMC chips have longer battery life than those with Samsung chips.

Apple has hit back saying the way these tests have been conducted are "misleading" as they are "not representative of real-world usage". Take that haters!

With great power comes great responsibility, to your fans and loyal customers. And, boy, are Apple's fans loyal. But with such popularity comes the negative stuff too, scrutiny and criticism. Apple has tackled this well - showing integrity with a timely and detailed(ish) response. It's quite unusual for Apple to comment at all.

Perhaps I'm just biased because I've asked my wife to put a rose gold iPhone 6s on my Christmas list... but I think the fact that a few raised eyebrows and the power of social media has been enough to earn Apple two 'gates' proves the tech giant still has it after all this time. So hats off.

P.S. With the criticism comes parody. Out of sheer curiosity I scoured YouTube and spent a blissful morning skiving work in order to shortlist the most stomach-achingly funniest iPhone sketches I could find. These are gold. Rose gold.

So grab yourself a cup of tea and a custard cream and enjoy (don't watch these if you're offended by swearing)...

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