The incident of the iPhone 15 experiencing overheating will potentially benefit Apple in increasing their iPhone sales.
Macworld
Join us for our weekly Apple Breakfast feature, where we bring you a convenient roundup of all the Apple updates and announcements you may have missed last week. We chose the name Apple Breakfast because we believe it’s the perfect way to start your Monday with a cup of coffee or tea, but feel free to read it during any mealtime.
The initial step is acknowledging that you have an issue.
Once again, Apple’s release of the new iPhone has been met with a number of prominent issues. While it is understandable that the media, including myself as the writer of this article, enjoys discussing Apple’s shortcomings, the company often fuels this attention by being overly cooperative.
This year, there were three contenders for a “–gate” suffix: the FineWoven cases for the new models that easily scuff and stain, reports of alarming overheating in the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max models, and a viral video of someone attempting to break one of the new phones, which was largely successful. While none of these incidents inspire confidence, the overheating problem is receiving the most attention due to the potential danger of high temperatures.
I am not here to debate the relevance of the current attention surrounding #hotphoneouchgate. This is not a fabricated scandal: the term “piping hot” should only describe soup, not phones. Even Apple recognizes that this issue goes beyond the expected slight temperature increase when setting up a new device. It is concerning that this significant problem was not discovered during internal testing, and it appears that no one at Cupertino thought to put a FineWoven case in a pocket with keys. This suggests that Apple’s meticulous attention to detail may have been compromised somewhere along the way.
However, there has been another shift in the company’s strategy that is much more encouraging. The initial and most notable controversy surrounding the launch of the iPhone was Antennagate in 2010, where the new design of the iPhone 4 caused reception to drop when held in a specific manner. It must be noted that this is a comically fundamental and disqualifying flaw for a phone. However, when a customer raised concerns about it, Steve Jobs, who was leading the company at the time, responded dismissively, suggesting to simply avoid holding the phone in that way. His tone and demeanor while typing gave the impression that he was laughing and rolling his eyes.
Interestingly, it was revealed years later that Jobs’ reaction was not as dismissive as it initially seemed. In fact, he was reportedly deeply affected by it and even shed tears. However, the official response from the company was to downplay the issue and hope it would resolve itself…which, as we now know, did not happen.
Perhaps this is the reason for the change. Although the #toohottohandlegate may indicate concerns about quality control at Cupertino, it is difficult to deny that the company’s response has been commendable. They acknowledged the issue and provided information on the hardware and software components involved, as well as warning users to avoid using certain third-party apps until updates were available (which likely pushed those app developers to release them). Ultimately, Apple released an update for iOS 17 that completely resolved the problem.
Sure, there was a degree of self-protection in the public statements, including an atomic smackdown on one pundit claiming the phones would need to be slowed down in order to fix the problem. But on the whole, this was a case study of the way we want companies to handle situations like this. And there’s nothing hotter than that.
Foundry
Trending: Top stories
The switch to USB-C has not gone as smoothly as anticipated. Was the iPhone ultimately better with the Lightning port?
The fantastic features of the iPhone 15 Pro could be enhanced on the Mac.
Apologies to Pixel 8 enthusiasts, but I personally prefer the assurance of having an iPhone 15 in 2030.
The presence of the Action button has caused difficulties for manufacturers of iPhone 15 Pro cases.
The Apple Watch priced at $17,000 has now become a paperweight made of solid gold.
Podcast of the week
The release of the iPhone 15 did not go as smoothly as expected, with numerous reports of setup difficulties, overheating, and malfunctioning devices flooding the internet. Additionally, there has been discussion surrounding FineWoven. In this episode of the Macworld Podcast, we address all the problems that have arisen with the iPhone 15.
You can listen to all the episodes of the Macworld Podcast on Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our website.
Reviews corner
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Review of the iPhone 15 Pro: Improved, yet lacking in excitement.
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Apple Watch Ultra 1 compared to Ultra 2: Enhanced speed and advanced gestures.
The rumor mill
Has Apple accidentally revealed the Dynamic Island feature for Mac?
According to reports, the M3 version of the MacBook Pro will receive a display enhancement in order to improve battery performance.
Updates for software, software glitches, and issues.
Apple has rolled out the iOS 17.0.3 update in order to resolve the problem of iPhone 15 devices overheating. Additionally, thermal tests have been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the solution.
Are you saying that the iPhone 15 is experiencing overheating issues? There is no cause for concern with TSMC involved.
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