iPhone 4 owner sues Apple over cracked glass case

iPhone 4 owner Donald LeBuhn filed a class action lawsuit against Apple early this week, claiming the company is misleading customers about the strength of the glass casing on the iPhone 4. LeBuhn is asking that Apple reimburse the plaintiffs in the case for the cost of the phone and any repairs.

LeBuhn said that his main problem with Apple is that it markets the glass as being super-durable and scratch-resistant -- a claim he says his personal experience disproves.

Apple has not yet commented on the lawsuit; we'll let you know if it does.

The lawsuit, reported by the LAWeekly, focuses on how the iPhone's glass housing handles when the phone is dropped without a case. LeBuhn said his iPhone shattered when his daughter dropped it from a height of about three feet while sending a text message.

"Months after selling millions of iPhone 4s, Apple has failed to warn and continues to sell this product with no warning to customers that the glass housing is defective," LeBuhn wrote in the lawsuit.

This is the second big stink raised about shattered glass on the iPhone 4. In October, complaints surfaced that small pieces of matter that got trapped in iPhone 4 sliding cases made the iPhone 4 more prone to cracking. Reports of the problem became so widespread that the tech press dubbed it "Glassgate," and a research firm called SquareTech released figures that the latest model of the iPhone broke 82 percent more often than the iPhone 3GS.

Apple reporter Johnny Evans called those claims into question when they surfaced in October, saying that the numbers were reported in a way that made them seem more significant than they were.

"Described as '82 percent' of course this sounds like a big deal, but in reality it means 3.9 percent of 20,000 iPhone 4 owners reported a cracked screen rather than 2.1 percent of 20,000 iPhone 3GS owners," he wrote.

Glassgate, unlike its predecessor Antennagate, never came to very much, as the problem was not nearly as widespread. With this lawsuit, however, more people may come forward with casing issues.

Sound off: Have you had trouble with the casing on your iPhone 4?

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$20 a month for Verizon iPhone hotspot

Those who want to use their iPhone as a hotspot will have to pay $20 a month, according to Verizon.

In an interview with Macworld, Brenda Raney, executive director of corporate communications, said that the hotspot feature will come with a $20-a-month-fee, the same as current Verizon smartphone owners pay for tethering.

The iPhone will be able to connect to up to five devices and the hotspot will have its own monthly allotment of 2GB of data.

For every addition gigabyte over the limit, Raney said the company will charge an additional $20.

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'Talking' cars may someday warn of crashes and save lives

A new crash warning system that allows vehicles to "talk" to each other more than 900 feet away was demonstrated for federal officials Tuesday, marking a significant step in efforts by the government and automakers to put advanced communications technology in cars.

Using specialized WiFi signals that are emitted 10 times every second, the technology senses when a collision is imminent and alerts a driver through flashing red lights and beeps.

In the demonstration in the parking lot near RFK Stadium, the system notified a driver when it detected another car speeding through a red light in an upcoming intersection, of several cars blocking the highway ahead, and of a car zooming up from behind.

A report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in October reported that such "vehicle-to-vehicle" warning systems could address nearly 80 percent of reported crashes that do not involve drunk drivers.

"This technology has the potential to save a lot of lives," said Peter Appel, administrator of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration at the Department of Transportation, after riding along for the demo.

The technology, if successfully developed, could become mandatory in 2013 when federal officials are scheduled to decide whether to require such systems.

In the absence of such a requirement, the first challenge may be overcoming a basic chicken-and-egg problem. If other people don't buy the systems, they will be nearly useless. In that case, persuading the first consumers to purchase the technology may be difficult.

Implementation of the system would require the nation's automakers, normally competitive, to agree on how such systems should work and what kind of information they should share. So far, nearly all the major automakers have joined a consortium to set standards.

Ford, which conducted Tuesday's demonstration for federal officials and the media, is expected to announce during this week's Washington Auto Show that it will invest more in the technology. The Department of Transportation has already spent more than $40 million on the technology, with an additional $36 million slated for more research, officials said. Research by the government and automakers is supposed to be finished within two years.

The warning systems, however, face technical challenges.
The WiFi signals between cars are sent via a channel allocated by the Federal Communications Commission. Engineers are trying to cope with "channel loading" when there are more than 100 cars within the 300-meter radius, officials said.

Moreover, there is some fear that hackers could fool the systems into thinking that others cars are in the area - setting off alarms and snarling traffic. The automakers must ensure that the signals vehicles are receiving are actually from other cars. Setting up electronic certifications also has to be done in a way that addresses the concerns of privacy advocates and does not identify specific drivers.

"We don't want people to feel there is some tracking device on the car," said Michael Shulman, a technical leader for the project at Ford. "But we have to make sure the other car you're sensing is not some guy on an overpass with a laptop. So there are obstacles, but we think we have ways of overcoming them."

Some cars already have limited radar devices that can detect obstacles in the front, as well as those in the blind spots missed by mirrors. Such systems can cost $1,000 or more.

The advantage of the WiFi technology is not only that it is far cheaper - possibly adding as little as $100 to the cost of the car - but also that it can detect other vehicles much farther away and in all directions, officials said.

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