iphone 5 purple flareApple has released an explanation for the bizarre, frustrating “purple flare” problem associated with the iPhone 5's camera and flash, and once again, they’re blaming the problem on user error. If you ever buy a new iPhone and something doesn’t seem right about it, chances are it’s all your fault. Or at least that seems to be the prevailing explanation that Apple gives its customers whenever epidemic problems arise with its mobile devices. As far back as the iPhone 4, the “antennagate” problem was caused by the way users held the phone, the battery drain on the 4S was caused by silly-hearted, capricious users running too many apps at once, and now, with the iPhone 5, “purpleflaregate” (just made that up — not really an official “gate” yet) is, according to Cupertino, a byproduct of users just being really lousy at taking pictures. TGDaily explains that: “many users have been complaining that their photographs are marred by a purple flare near the edge. It shows up when there’s a light source just outside the image.” And the problem has been widespread enough for Apple to address the issue, which they did so in this statement. Here is the crux of what they had to say: “Most small cameras, including those in every generation of iPhone, may exhibit some form of flare at the edge of the frame when capturing an image with out-of-scene light sources,” says the company in the statement. This can happen when a light source is positioned at an angle (usually just outside the field of view) so that it causes a reflection off the surfaces inside the camera module and onto the camera sensor.” So, this problem, according to Apple, is not a hardware issue with the iPhone 5's new camera sensor, but rather the iPhone user’s lack of understanding in the craft of photography. Simply put, if you’re having this problem, you’re not enough of an artiste to understand how to manage light in your photos. Apple offers a lesson in iPhone 5 photography to correct the problem: “Moving the camera slightly to change the position at which the bright light is entering the lens, or shielding the lens with your hand, should minimize or eliminate the effect.” The thing is, users who are complaining about the problem on the iPhone 5 have not had this problem on the 4S — the 4S appears to deal with off-camera light sources. And you don’t have to use your hand to shield the light. One would think that the most advanced smartphone in the world wouldn’t need a fleshy appendage to adjust the light. What Apple’s little “best practice” on iPhone 5 photography amounts to is a workaround for a flaw in the iPhone 5's camera sensor. We know that Cupertino invested in a new lens, which Tim Cook boasted about in his iPhone 5 announcement on September 12th. I think we’ve learned that when Apple has an issue with hardware, they blame it on the users, and use that explanation to buy themselves time to fix the problem on future models. Antennagate is a perfect example: after the first few months, the problem appeared to go away. Is this because the millions of iPhone 4 users finally learned how to hold their device properly while making a call? I doubt it. The more likely explanation is that Apple fixed the hardware issue. Same goes with the battery issues on the 4S. Apple made some kind of adjustment to mitigate the problem (though I don’t think it was ever completely fixed). And for as much as they tried to blame the problem on apps running in the background of iOS 5, Apple appeared to have replaced quite a number of early adopters’ iPhone 4Ss (can I get a witness?). We will see tweaks to the iPhone 5 over the going months to iron out all of the bugs. But Apple will never admit to them. This is their strategy: when their hardware has flaws, blame the users. They do this because Apple prides itself on quality and reliability; while Android users expect their smartphones to crash ten times a day, take crappy photos, and fall apart over time, the iPhone is expected to perform steadfastly. Apple can admit software failures, since they are easier to fix. But hardware failures are big enough that they are worth denying. Finally, a postscript: even if a phenomenon like the purple flare is 100% the user’s fault, there’s something to be said for bad design if a plurality of the users are “doing it wrong.” If a teachers gives his class a test, and 90% of the students fail the test, doesn’t the teacher need to consider whether the test was faulty? Or that he did a lousy job teaching the lesson? The same is true for a situation like this: if widespread numbers of users are complaining, then maybe that points to a flaw in design, not in the average user.
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