Apple boycotts German newspaper after Bentgate Video – open letter to Tim Cook

For those who aren&#x27;t German and may not know Computerbild or it&#x27;s publisher. They have about as low a reputation as you can get, so low in fact that sometimes this seems to be the entire goal of what they are doing.<p>Everything they claim should be taken with a huge grain of salt, in fact one should probably assume their claims to be false until proven otherwise.

&gt; Just to prove that what happens is nothing but the truth.<p>No, it isn&#x27;t, except in the most myopic and unhelpful way possible. It would be the truth to measure how much force is required and compare it to other phones on the market. It would be the truth to show that almost all phones bend when exposed to that kind of force.<p>It is not &quot;the truth&quot; to show a selective amount of the truth that allows people to keep believing a lie in order to sell papers, and I find it hard to sympathise with fake journalists losing privileges only afforded to legitimate members of the press.

As an aside, the video that really demonstrates how easily iPhone 6+ can bend is this one: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ3Ds6uf0Yg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=gJ3Ds6uf0Yg</a><p>Seems to have been bent with considerably small effort, and very quickly.

So my wife and I went into an Apple store yesterday and tried to bend a 6+. Using a level of pressure no more than what I&#x27;d be willing to use for my own Nexus 5, I couldn&#x27;t even get it to flex. The bigger issue is that it seems designed to fly out of your hand, between the rounded sides and slick aluminum.

Am I only one who find these videos moronic ? I mean, ofcourse it bends under what appears to be lot of pressure. My take is you shouldn&#x27;t be affected if you don&#x27;t wear too tight a jeans to make it bend.

I like Apple products, and I own an iPhone 6 (I also own a 5s, 4, 3gs, 2 iPads, and a Mac). But the level of vitriol directed at anyone even mentioning the obvious problems with the 6 Plus by both Apple and its fanboys is appalling. It only makes the fanboys look even more crazy than they are, and Apple look like it doesn&#x27;t want to own up to its mistakes.<p>Apple produced an expensive, high profile product with some serious and obvious design flaws. Trying to convince others that the issues don&#x27;t exist (example - [1]) or vowing revenge against any media outlet that chooses to report on them is just absurd and wouldn&#x27;t be tolerated in any other PR department.<p>[1] - <a href="http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1792559" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;forums.macrumors.com&#x2F;showthread.php?t=1792559</a>

Business as usual as far as I am concerned.<p>Apple had super harsh responses to internal folks giving out bumpers to people during the iPhone 4 release, I know more than one guy who got fired for acknowledging the problem to a customer and helping them out before Apple corporate had an official policy.

While Apple is known to be less than open in its relationship with the media, this does seem like an overreaction. Probably on both sides.<p>I posit that the local German response of Apple was an overreaction, the magazine&#x27;s response has probably exacerbated the conflict. It will be interesting to see how this resolves itself.

This is the first bendgate video I&#x27;ve seen and am not surprised that when you bend something that is a long and thin piece of metal it deforms and doesn&#x27;t return to it&#x27;s original shape. Like a spoon.<p>What I&#x27;m more surprised at is the way Apple dealt with it (if phone call claim is true), for a company that is usually great with PR.

Apple, that just shows your insecurity.

Wow, they were shocked and dismayed? You&#x27;d think a newspaper would have had a little more worldly experience. Methinks they are a bit too sensitive.

This is a teachable moment for some managers at Apple in Germany; or as they might be saying to themselves, &quot;Today I Learned about the Streisand Effect.&quot;<p>No matter whether or not bendgate is or is not an issue, blacklisting and thumbing your nose at journalists is not a good PR move. I&#x27;m surprised people at major corporations keep screwing this up.