Two new Apple Inc products hit speed bumps on Wednesday: iPhone 6 Plus buyers discovered their phones can bend when placed in back pockets, and the company pulled its latest mobile operating system after reports of dropped cellular service.
“Bendgate,” as the problem has already been dubbed on social media sites, is a reminder of “antennagate,” in 2010, when iPhone 4 users reported a design flaw that caused dropped calls.
Apple did not comment on the reports. However, it did announce that it was investigating reports of an issue with an update of its iOS 8 operating system and in the meantime had pulled the version designated 8.0.1.
The bendable phone situation might prove particularly troubling for those who wear skinny jeans, according to reports on Facebook and Twitter.
The phrase “Your pants are too tight for your phone” has begun circulating in such spheres.
Some say the device, which has a lightweight aluminum shell, is more malleable than expected, but that might fall short of a design flaw, according to analysts.
Both the iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus were given high ratings in a recent “breakability” test conducted by SquareTrade, a San Francisco firm that sells extended-protection plans for electronic devices.
The test did not include bending.
SquareTrade chief marketing officer Ty Shay said that after reports of bending circulated online, two staffers at his firm tried to bend a pair of 6 Plus phones.
The male staffer was able to duplicate the results from the video, while the female staffer could not.
He said the bent phone appeared to still function normally.
Shay said his firm then checked and found a small number of bent older-model iPhones had been reported in the past.
“It does happen,” said Shay, “but it seems like for the most part it is cosmetic damage.”
Reports on the quirk first surfaced on Unbox Therapy, a gadget-review show on YouTube.
After the release of the YouTube video, which had racked up over 6 million views by midday Wednesday, Twitter mentions of the “bend” had skyrocketed to 75,000.
Apple spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but at least one rival smartphone maker jumped at the chance to weigh in.
“I would challenge you guys to bend our Passport,” BlackBerry’s chief executive officer John Chen (程守宗) said on Wednesday at an event in Toronto to unveil its newest phone.
Meanwhile, late on Wednesday, Apple offered users a way to manually reverse the update provided earlier in the day.
It involves connecting the phone to a Mac or Windows computer and downloading a file to restore the older software. Apple offered a Web site with instructions.
Apple had begun distributing the update on Wednesday morning to fix several issues in last week’s iOS 8 operating system for iPhones and iPads. Hours later it pulled the update, dubbed iOS 8.0.1, after some people complained it rendered their phones unable to make calls and caused problems with a feature that lets people unlock their phones with their fingerprint.
Apple said it will release iOS 8.0.2 soon to address both last week’s glitches and the new ones.
Additional reporting by AP
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