Apple is on a never-ending roller coaster ride.  Before launching the new iPhone, people were excited with the thought of an iPhone 5, but those dreams were crushed.  The iPhone 4S received mixed reviews and not everyone was happy about the product launch, expecting more from Apple.  Then an unfortunate event happened: Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, passed away the day after the iPhone 4S was launched.  The whole world mourned and when partner cellphone companies, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon started taking pre-orders, the three companies including Apple were swamped with massive amounts of pre-orders.  After that, the iOS 5 became available so some Apple users with compatible devices upgraded to the new iOS. But unfortunately, they were met with a lot of problems, as some faced wiped data while others cannot even upgrade.  Apple said that their servers overloaded with the high demand, but it was soon fixed. Then the iPhone 4S officially went on sale and people flocked to Apple stores and just over the weekend, they’ve sold over 4 million units.  Everything seemed perfect, right?  Wrong.

Owners of the new iPhone 4S are still disappointed, as there appear to be a lot of glitches on the new device.  Those who bought a black iPhone 4S complained that their screens had a yellow discoloration, while others reported that aside from the yellow tinge, it had some red streaks on it too.  And the discoloration is so evident when the black iPhone 4S is placed side by side with the old iPhone 4, and the white iPhone 4S set on the same brightness setting.  Some customers already dubbed the discoloration “Yellowgate.”

Others are thinking that in about two weeks, the discoloration would eventually fade like the ‘glue’ issue with the iPhone 4 when it launched.  Apple explained that the glue was still wet and it caused the discoloration, but the discoloration would fade when the glue dries up, and it did.  But customers are very doubtful that this is another ‘glue’ incident, as it only affects the black versions and not the white ones.  Customers are already taking it out on Apple’s site to voice out their frustrations.  Most of them plan on waiting for two weeks to pass and if the discoloration doesn’t fade, they would have their units replaced.

Siri network failures

Though everyone is getting a kick out of the answers given by Siri like when asked “Will you marry me?” Siri answered, “My End User Licensing Agreement does not cover marriage.  My apologies.”  Some even deem Siri to be an intelligent and learning software, as you could tell Siri where you work, and name the members of your family, etc.  And it seems like Siri has a sense of humor as it could either respond in a serious or funny manner, like when asked “What is the meaning of life?”  But it has some glitches too, as it doesn’t work all the time as it cannot connect to the network most of the time.

And some are getting frustrated with the fact that Siri sometimes cannot understand what the user says.  Siri is supported in five languages, U.S. English, U.K. English, Australian English, French (France), and German.  To tap into Siri’s full potential, you’d have to set the language in U.S. English and speak American English.  The thing is, what does American English really mean?  Because there are some with regional accents, will Siri be able to understand them?  Of those with a foreign accent, will Siri be able to understand them?

Apple did promise that in 2012, they would add more languages to the current five available languages.  Hopefully, by then, Siri’s voice recognition capability would also be enhanced.  Apple hasn’t formally addressed the issues raised by customers.