Make and Mend your new iPhone4?

We're all for spreading the art of making and mending, but it's a bit much to shell out  £500-£600 for a state of the art iPhone4 and then find it only works if you follow Mr Jobs's advice to "hold it the right way".

According to Apple you can avoid the problem by avoiding "gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases".

As these "many available cases" cost upwards of £25 that's a bit rich after already forking out so much, so  people are resorting to nail varnish or duct tape to get round the problem !

I'm a big Apple fan (I have a Mac, an iPhone and an iPad) but I feel we're all cutting Apple so much slack these days. I had a Genius appointment booked for today to get the casing of my MacBook replaced (design fault that leads to the casing cracking at the front). As I have another unavoidable engagement this afternoon I called the White City store to rearrange the appointment. I was advised by the recorded message that my call was number 9 in the queue. After waiting 5 minutes I was still number 9 so hung up. I tried again 3 more times and each time I was and remained number 9 in the queue. Maybe Apple have figured out that 9 is the magic number that makes people automatically hang up? As they have no traceable email for White City  I've just had to be a no-show. Not very good for them - and whilst frustrating for me I suppose I can always book another appointment as you can do that online even though you can't cancel it.

And the iPhone4 has other problems - yellow spots on the screen, upside down volume buttons and jammed cameras, that are I fear the worst for Apple long term - pissing off your customers this way is never a good idea even if you do make highly desirable products. And when those highly desirable products have to be held together with a dab of vermillion nail polish or a bit of gaffer tape, the magic soon wears a bit thin!

What make and mend methods have you employed to get your Apple gadgets working?