Lead Opinion··3 min read
The fold crease was never fixed, and the iPhone Duo just proved it
Apple spent seven years trying to solve what Samsung couldn't fix. Owners started posting cracked screens within 48 hours of the iPhone Duo's launch.
Known Issue
In software, a known issue is the bug everyone has agreed to live with. This column is about the other kind: the things in your phone and apps that have been wrong long enough to count as a decision, not an oversight. The morning brief covers what happened today. This covers what has been true for months and still is.
17Columns so far
15 yearsLongest open, since 2011
Featured Column
Lead Opinion Piece01 / The trigger
Not today’s news
The brief is set off by something that happened this morning. A column is set off by something that has been true for months.
02 / The money
Plain about the money
Who benefits from the thing staying broken is usually the answer, and usually the part nobody prints.
03 / The read
The operator’s read
11+ years leading product inside large publishers, which is mostly an education in why obvious fixes do not ship.
04 / The ending
A verdict
Buy it, skip it, or wait. Not “it depends”.
Every column (17)
Newest first
Your phone's notification shade is somebody else's advertising space
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India's spam call problem is how the DND system was built
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The same money now buys less phone and laptop in India
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WhatsApp's Android backup used to be free. Since 2024 it eats your Google storage.
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Festive-sale discounts get a 30-day price check only from January
From 1 January 2027, platforms must show the lowest 30-day price beside a discount. This sale season's '% off' has no such check.
iPhones in India still have exactly one app store
Europe, Japan and Brazil can use other app stores on an iPhone. India can't, and the one open case against Apple here is about payments, not stores.
Starlink was six to nine months from launching in India. That was 17 months ago.
Starlink says it is ready for India. Musk says oligarchs are blocking it. Almost none of that fight is about whether you need a satellite dish.
A cracked iPhone 18 Pro screen costs 22% of the phone
Apple charges ₹36,900 to replace an iPhone 18 Pro screen, 22% of the phone. Samsung's part for the S26 Ultra is ₹14,760. Apple sells the plan too.
AI data centers and the climate: the middle ground is real, and the AI companies can't reach it alone
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iCloud's free tier is still 5GB, and the iPhone it backs up is 16 times bigger
iCloud has offered 5GB free since 2011. The base iPhone went from 16GB to 256GB. In India, the fix costs ₹75 a month.
Will Google still back the Googlebook in 2036?
Google says Googlebooks get updates for up to 10 years. Its record with laptops, tablets and Stadia says to read that promise closely before you pay $899.
Apple Pay is coming to India after twelve years, and only for Axis Bank credit cards
Apple Pay reportedly reaches India in October on Axis Bank credit cards only. No UPI, no RuPay, and the fee fight behind the delay isn't settled.
Is the iPhone 18 Pro's camera worth the upgrade?
The iPhone 18 Pro changes one camera lens. Here is what that means if you have a 17 Pro or a 16 Pro.
Six Tensor chips in, Google still hasn't closed the gap on Qualcomm, Apple and MediaTek Dimensity
The Tensor G6 was built to finally close the speed gap. It still trails Snapdragon, Apple and MediaTek Dimensity, all by double digits.
Meta's Ray-Ban privacy light isn't about protecting the person being filmed
The LED that's supposed to warn people they're being filmed only stops recording if it's covered before anything starts. Every real incident happened after.
The iPhone Duo's India price gap isn't about GST
The iPhone Duo costs ₹1.09 lakh more in India than a dollar conversion suggests. The usual India-tax story doesn't explain that gap. This does.
Know something that stays broken?
Something in a product you use that has been wrong for years and nobody will say so? That is the column. Send it, in confidence if you prefer, to builtbyswami@gmail.com.