It seems that the now well-known iPhone 4 antenna issues has been deemed worthy of a -gate suffix, joining the esteemed ranks of Grannygate (regarding rugby union team eligibility), Ketchupgate (regarding a Reagan initiative that would have classified ketchup as a vegetable) and Watergate (presumably some kind of scandal involving water).

And Sexy Photo Gate, which is especially hilarious for not even bothering to hyphenate. Oh, Hong Kong, how I loves ya.

So, “Antennagate”. If you don’t already know – and of course you do, but I’m probably going to describe it in some entertaining manner – the iPhone 4 loses signal when you hold it the wrong way (which is to say, the way you’ve always held every mobile phone you’ve ever used). The problem is not insoluble, if you’ve got some duct tape handy, but due to the impending threat of lawsuits and of people not liking him, Steve Jobs has announced the inevitable: free cases for everyone.

What I like about the whole thing is that the problem somehow didn’t come up in testing, and in my cartoonish imagination, that’s because no one testing the iPhone 4 thought to actually use it as a phone. “How’s the testing going?” “Just tried out an app that gives me live updates of the salinity of Wil Wheaton’s sweat: works fine.”

Anyway, this is all going to blow over soon enough. If that’s the biggest complaint about the iPhone 4, it sounds pretty damned sweet.  And these scandals never last. Remember Toallagate? Yeah, me neither.

We shall conclude with a song.