The word spread via social media (it was in my Facebook news feed) and was quickly picked up in mainstream media: the new iPhones can bend without much force. You can do it with your bare hands, a video posted to YouTube suggested.
That might not be true. Shortly after the video was posted, Consumer Reports responded by running durability tests on several recently-released smartphones, including the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The devices proved to be quite hardy. The testers at Consumer Reports placed the smartphones horizontally on blocks that supported them at the top and bottom, then applied downward force in the middle, measured in The conclusion: you have to exert a lot of force before those phones will bend or break. “While nothing is (evidently) indestructible, we expect that any of these phones should stand up to typical use,” says Consumer Reports.
Here's the Consumer Reports article about their durability tests.
But there’s a video on YouTube, already seen by 45 million people, showing a guy bend an iPhone 6 Plus with his bare hands. Consumer Reports says one thing, guy on YouTube says another.
There are suggestions that the video was, gasp, faked. You can catch glimpses of the time on the phone, and the march of time in the video doesn’t make sense, says a report at pocket-lint.com.
The iPhone bender has since posted another video where he defends himself, and bends another iPhone. Here it is on YouTube: The iPhone 6 Plus: The Bend Uncut.
Slate.com also delves into the issue: Apple Bendgate Truthers Smell a Media Plot
There’s a tradition of highlighting troubles when new Apple products are released, and the troubles have names, the latest being “bendgate” or, in the age of Twitter, “#bendgate”. See the roundup of “iPhonegates” at applespotlight.com.
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Emergent is a rumour tracker that makes declarations about whether rumours are confirmed false, unverified or confirmed true. Example of a story confirmed false: Florida woman got a third breast.
Story at nytimes.com: Why Rumors Outrace the Truth Online
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