Don't miss out on the great Creative Jar articles; sign-up to the newsletter or come visit http://www.creative-jar.com/articles regularly.

Here is this months piece, just in case you haven't seen it.

Can Apple get their hardware problems sorted?

Beneath the polished and slick exterior the iPhone has had its fair share of hardware problems; with the advent of the iPhone 4.0 and the iPad will these problems still occur?

The Apple iPhone was originally introduced in 2007. Since then there have been a variety of problems. Complaints have ranged from connectivity issues, to the screen not being flush with the border and dead pixels. Owners whose phones have developed problems have been accused of damaging them and the company has refused to pay for repairs.

The BBC television programme Watchdog recently highlighted the problem of one such hardware problem; the 'liquid contact indicator'. Four are found within the iPhone, two are internal and two of the indicators are clear to see from the outside; one in the headphone jack and one in the charger port.

The indicator works like litmus paper and when the device comes into contact with water it will turn red - which immediately void's the warranty as Apple claim a user would need to immerse the device in water to turn the indicator red. Watchdog took a few of these 'damaged' iPhones and opened them up to discover there was no damage to the mainboard, and only the outside indicators were red.

These phones were taken to various Apple stores, where the staff did not open them up, and commented that the red indicator concluded the warranty was void.

Watchdog's experiment may suggest that Apple's staff are not technically-equipped to deal with hardware issues and, thanks to the disclaimers from Apple, the staff can dismiss most concerns without having to open up the phone.

Further investigation from Watchdog gave the following reasons why the indicators would turn red including, using the phone in the rain, near a shower, in a moist hand or due to condensation!

This is just one of the problems, and after a trawl of Apple Blogs we have found the following, reoccurring problems;

• Adhesive coming off between frame and glass screen
• Dead Pixels
• Dust under screen
• Cracked Housings
• Problems with acoustic-speaker/microphone/receiver
• Short Battery Life
• Will not power on
• Multi-Touch display not responding to touch
• Intermittent service in an area with good coverage
• Wi-Fi issues
• Camera not functioning

Apple has developed some pretty sophisticated pieces of equipment in its time; the Mac, iPod, iTouch, iPhone and iPad which have allowed customers to have the world at their finger tips.

Each iDevice comes in a neat package, with no fiddly bits and no doors that can fall off, but the problem with such a high-tech device is that it takes an expert to fix them.

The average user doesn't want to void their warrantee by getting a tiny screwdriver to find out why their device has mysteriously turned off or the screen doesn't work.

Of course the design makes for simple mass production, but having no removable battery and not being able to see the workings may be the reason why Apple store staff are so unwilling to investigate the real reason for problems.

Apple needs to become more responsible for its products, but without changing the way it builds its devices or training its staff, these issues are unlikely to go away and the question on everyone's lips is "will these issues still be prevalent in the iPhone 4.0, and the iPad?"

Only time will tell!