The internet is abuzz with reports of new iPhone 6 Plus smartphones bending and warping in users' pockets.
Photos of bent iPhone 6 Plus handets have been circulating online, and web users have taken to Twitter to discuss the issue using the tag #bentgate.
A widely-circulated YouTube video meanwhile shows one of the smartphones being bent out of shape with an owner's bare hands. Interestingly, the regular iPhone 6 does not seem to share the issue.
Forbes has speculated that the design of the Apple logo in the aluminum shell of the larger model may be weakening the structure, contributing to the bending problem.
Bloomberg meanwhile reports a spokesperson for one device repair company has stating that a warped iPhone 6 Plus can be bent back into shape using the right tools. But other repair shops have yet to come up with a solution, and have hinted that replacing the entire frame may be the answer.
This is the second Apple-related controversy to attract the 'gate' suffix – it follows the Antennagate story of 2010, whereby the iPhone 4 was criticized for losing RF signal when held in a so-called 'death grip'.
Apple's new iOS 8 operating system has meanwhile fallen target to a new internet prank born from the notorious website 4chan. A fake ad is circulating trying to convince iPhone owners that iOS8 adds the ability to charge iPhones in a microwave, Fairfax Mediareported.
The hoax ad claims that a new iOS 8 feature, Wave, allows devices to be charged wirelessly using microwave frequencies.
The report includes a tweeted photo of an iPhone destroyed inside a microwave, but notes that this too is likely to be a prank.