What a cracking phone
Back in June, the blogoshere got itself into a lather about Apple's new iPhone 4 having reception issues if it was held in a certain way. Of course the only reason this was a big deal was that it was the iPhone - possibly the single most successful technology product of recent times.
Such was the furore that Apple felt compelled to host an emergency press conference at which CEO Steve Jobs downplayed the matter but still announced Apple would offer free rubber rings to place around the edge of the phone (where the antenna is) to deal with the problem, that doesn't really exist.
But many people want more robust cases for their iPhone 4s, prompted in part, no doubt, by the fact that the rest of the outside of the phone is made of glass. Now, according to tech blog gdgt, there is a danger that cases which cover the whole phone may contribute to the glass scratching or even breaking if any particles wedge themselves between the case and the glass.
Pretty bloody obvious, you might think, and we'd have to agree. But apparently it's got Apple into a bit of a quiet panic. No doubt the tech giant is still emotionally scarred by the way the antenna issue snowballed into a major PR issue and is keen to nip this one in the bud.
The reason it might already be too late to keep this quiet is that gdgt is run by two of the most prominent tech bloggers of all time. Peter Rojas launched both Gizmodo and Engadget and Ryan Block is a former editor-in-chief of Engadget. It was Block who wrote this post, citing sources inside Apple and elsewhere for his information.
We'd be surprised if this matter exploded in the same way the antenna issue did as everyone knows the iPhone 4 has a glass back and concerns about its fragility have already been extensively aired. But this could be bad news for the extensive ecosystem of 3rd party operations that base their businesses around providing accessories for Apple products.
