4 More iPhone 4 Design Flaws
Oct 12th, 2010 | By James Lewin | Category: iPhone, iPods & Portable Media Players 
There’s been lots of discussion recently about “glassgate” – the ongoing problem with glass breaking on iPhones.
With the iPhone 4, Apple put glass on both sides of the phone. Presumably because it looks pretty cool.
But you’d expect a device with glass on two sides to end up with cracked glass about twice as much as a device with glass on one side, wouldn’t you?
Now Squaretrade (a company that sells iPhone extended warranties) says that iPhone 4 glass is breaking 82% more than iPhone 3gs. It’s about what you’d expect, but still a pretty major design problem that Apple has made worse instead of fixing.
But Glassgate and Antennagate aren’t the end of the iPhone 4’s design flaws. Here are three more.
The iPhone 4’s Flash Problem
No – not THAT Flash problem.
This flash problem:
The flash for the iPhone 4’s camera is useless, except for situations where you have to choose between no photo and a terrible flash photo.
Try, if you like, but the iPhone 4’s flash won’t let you take a good photo.
Apple Doesn’t Know The Meaning Of Free
Apple used to be known for its respect for usability – but they’ve been slipping.
Why does Apple now want you to “Buy” everything, even when it’s free?
Every time iTunes prompts you that you’ve got updates for your free iPhone apps, you go through the same thing.
You get the “Download All Free Updates” option……that’s followed by this:
Why does Apple always want you to log in and “Buy” free stuff?
Single User-Itis
The iPhone 4, along with Apple’s other iOS devices, also suffers from single user-itis.
Unlike other modern operating systems, which have supported multiple users for decades, iOS only supports one user. This wasn’t such a big deal when the iPhone was first released – because it only had a few apps on it.
But now, your iPhone probably has Facebook on it and Twitter, too, and a bunch of other apps that you’ve signed into.
Or maybe your child has signed into them, resulting in a constant stream of notifications from kids that want to chat with you.
If the iPhone is going to be a real mobile computer, it needs to support multiple users.
While these 4 design flaws are annoying – the iPhone is still the best mobile device for a lot of people. I’m glad that Apple’s got some competition, though.
What’s your biggest annoyance with the iPhone 4?
That flash looks no different than the flash on any other cell phone camera. Also, the login to download free updates is simply so they can track.
I get the feeling you’re grabbing at straws here man. Although those things are annoying, those aren’t antenna-gate issues.
With the glass issue I mean, cmon…you knew that was gonna be an issue. And with the itunes and flash issues, all ipods and iphones have always been like this.
With the antenna issue, its a completely different story and this post really comes off like a guy trying to generate buzz off of apples already huge antennagate buzz.
No hatred, I love this site, I read daily whenever there’s posts. I just feel like this one is a bit of a stretch.
If they make you to log in, though, why do they have to say “buy” for free apps?
The iTunes login has always been a problem for many people, especially non-Apple users without credit cards because one couldn’t create an account without either a credit card or at least buying a gift card. It keeps a lot of non-Apple podcasters from listing their shows on iTunes.
I guess Apple has gotten so use to it’s fans willing to blindly spend money supporting their cause. Apple’s never been a great choice for those trying to save money. The danger now is that they’ve become complacent about it.
it would be nice to be able to just purchase via a web based itunes site. I dont want to install anything more on my machine than I need to. I also dont understand why everyone wants to go the “apps” route. installing all of this stuff on your phone when most of it is content anyway. content that you can get for free off the web.
Biggest problem with iPhone 4 is AT&T. For those of us who travel a lot we know that signal coverage and availability is a huge problem. For example, I was in Des Moines, IA this week. In downtown, the phone was rotating between searching for a signal and a very weak one! This happens in many mid size markets.
I love the phone but wish it was on a carrier that had good small market/rural area coverage. AT&T does not.
You hold it wrong!