Apple iPhone flaw: The grievous design problem that makes us all look like lunatics.

OK, let’s stipulate that the lady in Utah who allegedly killed her husband and then wrote a children’s book about how to talk to kids about their father’s death sucks. No, no, I’m not searching for “luxury prisons for the rich.” But my Google searches, like hers, are lousy with periods. According to prosecutors’ filings this week as they urged the judge to deny bail, internet searches found on her phone included “what is a lethal.does.of.fetanayl” and “how to.permanently delete information from an iphone remotely.” I, too, somehow end up typing searches into my phone that are full of periods where I wanted there to be spaces, as if I’m William Shatner, emphasizing.each.word.I.type. In days of yore, when you wanted to search for something on Google, you opened your browser, typed “google.com” into the URL field, went to Google’s homepage, and then typed your search terms into its search bar. That little box you type in is still, as far as Apple is concerned, a URL field, and it’s thoughtfully given you the “URL keyboard”—the one with the period right there next to the space bar, so when you want to type “www.askjeeves.com/search” or whatever, it’s easy as pie.