They are holding it wrong.

Apple's back, baby! I was worried for a moment with that "our map app sucks use someone else's till ours is better." But here is the perfect Apple response. Oh, don't like the purple flare in your pictures? Hey, bitch, that's what real life looks like. You should thank us for providing you with a way to see the world as it actually is. The only reason you don't see the purple flare normally is because you're a terrible person. Here at Apple we are very concerned with our customer. Noblesse oblige and all that.

Is it odd that I read that in Morbo's voice?

I guess I'm in the right place.

The purple flare in the image provided is considered normal behavior for our flawed iPhone 5 camera design.

Say what you want about poor quality of hardware, software, and customer service, there can be no doubt that Apple's marketing department is the best on the planet. Apple marketing people have truly identified their market and successfully targeted them like no one else in history.

The GOP should have hired a bunch of Apple marketing people to run the Romney campaign- they've proven they can sell flawed products over and over.

The iPhone 5 is the Walmart greeter of smartphones. It doesn't see very well and gives terrible directions.

It's just an analog, hardware-accelerated Instagram filter.

It's OK. I'm sure that someone will make an app for lessor phones to emulate this.

To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new sapphire lens camera last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make the camera better.

We launched an integrated camera initially with the first version of the iPhone. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with an even better camera including features such as a built-in flash and a sapphire lens. In order to do this, we had to create a new camera from the ground up.

There are already more than 5 million iPhones with the new camera, and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iPhone users with the new camera have already taken half a billion photos. The more our customers use the camera the more they will become accustomed to the new color balance. We greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.

While we can't really fix this, you can try alternatives by purchasing an additional camera from your local electronics store, Best Buy, Sony, Canon, Fuji, or use the front camera which doesn't have these issues.

Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.

Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO

When will there be a filter for my older iPhone? Surly Instagram or Hipstamatic would add "purple haze" to their lineup... My square pictures NEED this feature.

No.
They are clicking it wrong. Besides. It is a feature not a bug.

Are you suggesting that Apple have copied Canon's intellectual property?

I can explain this! The directive from Tim Cook to the development team was for "more flair!" but unfortunately, Tim's iPad autocorrected that to "more flare!"

This just proves how powerful the iPhone 5 is and that it's the best phone on the market! What other phone is capable of photographing Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field as he looks down on us from Heaven? None!

Major bugs have little bugs, which, being fixed, can cause 'em.
And little bugs from tiny bugs, and on it goes ad nauseam.
The bigger bugs themselves can be pernicious, tangled creatures;
So suck it up and ship the phone and we'll just call them "features".

It's almost like the GP was obliquely referencing exactly that.

HAHAHA!

I wonder if that's what happened with Maps:

"Dear Team, as we head into September, our landmarks are moving closer."

The Nokia Lumia 900 already had a purple hue bug! Is there nothing Apple won't retroactively innovate?

FTFY.

See, this is a feature, not a bug. You spent hundreds of dollars to modify your camera for IR shooting. iPhone 5 users get this for free!

Apple is so ahead of the curve.