What is the hype about sapphire lens covers?

I am a reasonably disgruntled iPhone 5 photographer.  I, like many others, will use the camera often.  But for me, its always with a tinge of regret that I didn't plan ahead and have one of my better cameras with me.  Even a 10 MP four year old Olympus Stylus 1030SW is better than my iPhone if only because the optics are not fixed.

So with that as a background, it really bothers me when one of the supposed benefits of the iPhone 5, its Sapphire lens cover is crap.  I don't care how high on the hardness scale this stuff is supposed to be, it scratches and leaves behind crappy artifacts, such as in the picture below.  There are no fewer than six visible problems currently.  It is particularly notable on a ski trip.

Perhaps this is a problem of not only knowing how to protect some part of your device, but being OK with the failure mode.  I'd say that this is a big fail for Apple.

iPhone 3.0: Finally right?

It used to be said that you should never buy a Microsoft product until it was in version 3.0. I think this held true for Windows, but I'm not sure it did for many of their other products (Bob, anyone?). Apple finally announced the feature set in their version 3.0 software today. Instead of going through features, I thought I'd opine on what sort of applications with accessories could now be useful. This article inspired me to write. Here are my thoughts:

Workout Monitoring: The combination of a bluetooth heartrate monitor (one is coming, see here), bluetooth accelerometers (preferably 6 axis of this size, for both wrists and ankles. All sensors should transmit to the iPhone and should be rechargeable. These sensors, along with some intuitive workout logging software would be killer. See my earlier ramblings on the topic.

Receipt Scanner: How cool would it be if you could clip a stubby little scanner and scan in store receipts directly to your iPhone? You would never lose a receipt and could manage/print out in on a web-based companion application.

Laser Measurement: Clip a simple laser measurement tool into the bottom of the iPhone and quickly take room measurements while you sketch a map of the room on the screen. Combine with the iPhone's accelerometers and have the software draw the full map for you.

Pool/Hottub Chemistry Testing: Yes, water is not a good friend of the iPhone. But, using the accessory port, make a tool that you dip into your pool or hot tub and it would tell you all of the relevant metrics: chlorine levels, pH, temperature, etc. The application should keep track of your measurements over time (and allow you to track pool and hot tub separately).

"My Life in Words": Track every conversation you have. Record (on a VOX basis), all day long. Recognize those with whom you are having the conversations with and combine with voice recognition software to capture in easily text-readable form. Sync everyday with your computer to limit the data requirements.

Whole-house Intercom: Put each iPhone in the house capable of contacting any computer/VoIP enable intercom and let loose (as in, talk to anybody in the defined network).

Bluetooth/WiFi Kitchen Scale: Totally unnecessary, but it would be pretty cool if you had a kitchen scale that connected to your iPhone that could walk through recipe and could let you know when you've put enough of each ingredient in the bowl.