iPhone 6 Plus

Thus far, Apple has launched the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in just under 30 nations, with the initial roll-out in the United States, United Kingdom and several others on September 19th followed closely by the addition of a further 20 countries only last Friday. Conspicuous by its absence, however, has been China, an emerging market with something of an affinity to Apple's product line-up. But with the news having trickled out to the blogosphere a short while ago that Chinese regulators has approved both of the Mac maker's new smartphones for retail, Apple has now confirmed that the larger handsets will be available throughout the world's most populous nation as of October 17th.

At a time when few of us are swimming in money, every little cost saving is very much appreciated. With bills tending to increase rather than decrease, energy bills are some of the most dreaded to land on our door step, and with good reason. As our lives include more and more technology, it needs an ever increasing amount of power to keep it all juiced up.

Try as it might, Apple just can't get a major new iPhone release out the door without some sort of controversy. The latest of those is of course Bendgate, and is all about whether or not the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are a little too flexible for their own good. The iPhone 6 Plus in particular has come in for quite a lot of criticism, mainly from YouTube videos showing handsets being bent under not inconsiderable force.

We're another 24 hours into the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus's lifecycle and it seems the absurdness surrounding 'Bendgate' just isn't going to go away. Following YouTube videos showing Apple's new smartphones being bent out of shape using not inconsiderable force, Apple has seen fit to lift the lid on its own internal testing in an attempt to try and put people's minds at ease.

Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have, as is typically the case with new iPhones, arrived to a great deal of fanfare. As well as the critical acclaim and record sales, social media was consumed by 'Bendgate', the idea that the new devices - particularly the iPhone 6 Plus - are prone to bending. Apple stepped out to dispel such a notion, adding that it only uses the highest standard of materials as well as running through extreme quality control measures to ensure the robustness of its handsets. Be that as it may, a new teardown has revealed that the material cost of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus remains decidedly low, despite the considerable increase in price at the consumer end, and with 10 million units sold and counting, the profit margin on these newer smartphones is considerably higher.

Unless you've been stuck under a rock for the past couple of days, you'll surely have caught the Bendgate coverage, in which it was claimed that Apple's new iPhones, particularly the iPhone 6 Plus, was susceptible to losing its shape. Given that it's largely comprised of aluminum, a soft, malleable metal, it was never going to be as robust as a handset laden in stainless steel, but while it did seem like the whole fiasco was merely a small number of incidents that had been blown way out of proportion, Apple has stepped out and confirmed that to date, only nine complaints have been registered.

Apple's initial iPhone 6 retail push got off to a flying start last week, with sales in excess of 10 million in the opening weekend breaking the record for a new smartphone. Having only launched in a handful of markets, though, the device is still yet to reach a number of key countries, and this week on Friday, 26th September, a further 20 nations will be added.