I rather expect this column won’t get near the attention if would receive had I titled it, “More Problems for Apple.” But a lot of that is just fake news, and I’m not interested. I strive to make genuine criticisms of Apple, and there are plenty of things to talk about.

This time, however, Samsung has a lot of explaining to do — once again.

First, there are those flawed security systems for the Galaxy S8 smartphone. It has three different biometric schemes to secure the handset, which is supposed to be a good thing. But that’s true only if they work properly.

So before the Galaxy S8 even went on sale, legitimate questions were raised about the placement of its fingerprint sensor, in the rear. It was so easy to accidentally touch the camera lens instead, you might want to have a tissue handy in case you want to clean it. I’m not at all sure how robust it is, but I’ll assume it otherwise functions properly.

There are two other security sensors, and there appear to be serious flaws with both. During the Galaxy S8 launch event, for example, someone was able to defeat facial recognition with a photo of the user’s face. Does anyone watch TV? Surely the people at Samsung understand the tricks law enforcement people and spies use to break into a locked device.

So much for facial recognition.

What’s left is the iris scanner, which had some known limitations. So it is less accurate in bright sunlight, or when it’s dark. Traditionally iris recognition is also less accurate for someone who wears glasses; I’m not sure about contact lenses.

Worse, it’s clearly worthless even under the best conditions. According to published reports, some hackers who work with Europe’s Chaos Computer Club managed to make easy work of defeating the Galaxy S8’s iris recognition feature. They used a digital camera, a Samsung color laser printer (to add insult to injury) and a contact lens. The process involved taking a picture of the user’s face, making a printout of it, and placing the contact lens over the iris shown in the photo.

Hold the picture and attached contact lens before the Galaxy S8, and it unlocks. Just like that!

It’s corporate spin time, and both Samsung and Princeton Identity, who builds the iris sensor, claim the feature provides “airtight security.” But not if you can unlock the phone with a photo and a contact lens evidently. I won’t bother with the rest of the statement, since these uncomfortable facts speak for themselves.

Let’s add this up now. The fingerprint sensor is awkward to use, the facial recognition feature and the iris recognition features are easily defeated with user photos, so what’s left? A passcode I suppose. To make matters worse, the techniques used to hack the Galaxy S8 don’t seem terribly difficult to do. Didn’t Samsung perform any testing to make sure the security features were — well — secure? Maybe the Q&A testing is being done by the same people who tested the batteries on the Galaxy Note 7.

Speaking of batteries, I’m beginning to wonder whether Samsung smartphones should be declared as dangerous to your health. There’s a published report over at AppleInsider from Daniel Eran Dilger that tells of a series of lawsuits against Samsung that claim battery failures, overheating and fires on a series of flagship smartphones, including the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, S6 Active, S7, S7 Edge, S7 Active and Note 5. There was no Note 6.

So far it appears that only a small number of lawsuits have been filed, so it’s not at all certain if these episodes are outliers, or indicate a trend. Obviously, it hasn’t been enough to convince the authorities in Washington, D.C. to order a recall. It’s also true that there is a small percentage of failures among all mobile gear equipped with lithium-ion batteries. But these lawsuits center on flagship — and thus the most expensive — Samsung smartphones. The problems run the usual range of overheating, smoking, and bursting into flame.

So did Samsung fix the Note 7 problem? Are later products safe? That’s not at all certain. Evidently there are also reports of battery overheating issues with the Galaxy S8. Again, it doesn’t seem as if there are enough to warrant special attention, and a fair amount of product is out there. According to Samsung, five million were sold during the first month. That’s supposed to be a good thing, although Apple manages to move far more iPhones in a launch single weekend.

And one more thing: It appears that the Galaxy S8’s highly-acclaimed AMOLED display has a flaw, involving a red tint that’s been observed on some units. The fix evidently requires some sort of self-calibration procedure to adjust the color balance. But Samsung is not admitting that there’s a quality control problem, even though requiring customers to manually adjust their displays seems a little much, don’t you think?

This is not a matter of someone favoring Android or iOS. It’s a matter of shipping products with serious defects. Samsung doesn’t seem to care, but I hope customers will care enough to choose a different brand.

Before two companies merge, promises are made. It’s often about “synergy,” being more efficient, being more competitive. Quite often, it’s more about eliminating competition, gaining more control over a market.

At the end of the day, however, these mergers may end up doing more harm than good. Consider all those airline mergers. Nowadays, flights are crowded, fares aren’t quite as cheap, and you have to pay extra for luggage, something that was once free. And bad food has become worse, if that’s possible.

Besides, it’s not as if you can just fly on a competing airline. In many cases, there isn’t one.

And don’t get me started about poor customer service, because that’s a given in a combined company.

So The Night Owl was offered a discount with AT&T Wireless in connection with one of my part-time gigs. So I went to AT&T’s partner site to apply as an existing customer.

Three months later, still no discount.

Now AT&T merged with the number one satellite provider, DirecTV in 2015. Since then, customer support, no great shakes, has nosedived. Problems that were usually resolved with a phone call or two might require hours and many reps before a resolution is found. On one occasion, I threatened to cancel my account, which sent me to a “Loyalty Department” person who managed to sort things out.

As you might imagine, AT&T appears to be especially clueless about handling special deals with third parties. When I phoned AT&T to check the status of the application for that partner discount, the rep promised to call me back. That was last week, and still no call. So today I managed to carve out some time to follow up.

One of the biggest problems is AT&T’s inability to connect you to the right department, now that there are more of them. Whether I try the voice recognition menu or just press the number of the department I want to reach, more often than not, I am sent to the wrong place. It’s a tad easier if I do it from my iPhone, since it usually, but not always, goes direct to wireless. When calling from my home phone, it’s a chore, even if I follow all the rules about connecting to the right place.

Now about that discount.

Over a period of nearly three hours, I talked to no less than 19 separate AT&T reps. I think I deserve a few plaudits for my patience. I was tempted to yell at their ignorance, but I just said my piece calmly and firmly.

Once again, the biggest problem was the same as before: getting connected to the right department. I went from AT&T’s home phone department to the U-verse ISP department and rarely got hooked up to wireless. Through it all, I twice connected to someone handling partnerships with third party companies. It was a start, but not a solution.

In both cases, the partnership person looked up my application and couldn’t find it. I was told to just reapply, but that wasn’t possible. When I originally applied, I accessed the partner link at AT&T’s Business Care Central site, and entered the requested information. I was informed with a prompt that a response would come within a few weeks. But having gone through this process once, it was impossible to do it again. The login sent me to the employer’s site instead, an employee earnings status page.

When asked, I carefully and slowly told them which URL I accessed. One rep asked me to wait for a moment, and she would send me to what she referred to as the “correct site,” but, after a few minutes, she couldn’t find it. So she said I need to go to the third-party company’s HR department and get their “foundation account number.”

Are you with me so far?

I contacted the employer and asked them to figure it out. But what about AT&T and all that misery and confusion?

I had enough! So I asked to speak to the Loyalty Department rep, where I invoked a cancellation threat once again. That’s what this department is for, to make special offers to keep a customer’s business. So you may get a credit or sometimes a lower price from a hidden service plan that is not mentioned on AT&T’s site.

Unfortunately, I was twice redirected to the wrong Loyalty Department. On one occasion, I was told my problem would be escalated to yet another in-house division to handle my problem, but I was referred to a phone number that no longer worked.

Take a deep breath!

It was nearly 1:30 PM Arizona time when I finally reached the right Loyalty Department rep. I went through my problem and told him he had “five minutes” to figure it out and properly express AT&T’s appreciation for ten years of business. I even specified the credit I required, which he granted. He promised that he would research the discount offer and find a way to make it active. I gave him a week, and maybe that was too generous.

I don’t know if this partner agreement was set up before the merger. Maybe that’s the problem, or maybe AT&T hopes that complaining customers will just grow tired of the bureaucracy and give it all up. I’m moving towards the latter.

It’s not that I’m necessarily locked into AT&T. Other carriers are only too happy to cover early termination fees to earn my business. But the lower cost companies, Sprint and T-Mobile, do not always have good coverage in rural areas. My wireless account includes a phone number for the co-host of The Paracast, who lives in an out-of-the-way area where even AT&T’s performance is barely acceptable. I don’t want to leave him stranded.

But I’m tempted! Customers shouldn’t have to put up with this level of abuse. Imagine what’s going to happen if AT&T’s plan to merge with Time Warner gets the green light.

Update: The day after I had all these annoying encounters with AT&T, I call back to confirm the status of my service credits, since they hadn’t shown up. After I pressed the rep on the matter, she found them, but said it would take two more days for them to appear. This after she repeated the phony mantra that it takes one or two billing cycles for credits to show up. Nothing changes.

Update Two: As of June 1st, there has been no change. I have now talked to 25 different people at AT&T, and my latest encounter was one of denial and a haughty attitude. I’m awaiting a callback from that person, someone in their executive support office, one Joy Van Ek. After the excuses, she finally promised that she will get to the bottom of the problem. I’m not holding my breath.

Update Three: As of June 7th, it appears that the problems have been resolved. Ms. Van Ek gave me the promised credit, and I received an AARP discount on the account going forward. Nothing will compensate for all the time I wasted, but at least it’s over — for now.

As I write this column, we’re only days away from the WWDC keynote, which is scheduled for Monday June 5th. Tech pundits have been looking at Apple’s media invitation for the event, desperately seeking clues, but guesses about what’ll happen are only narrowly focused.

Obviously, Apple may surprise us in some ways, but these events tend to be very predictable in most respects. By the time the day of the keynote arrives, most of the expected announcements are fairly obvious. There will be a few surprises, no doubt, but not as many as there used to be.

This is particularly true of hardware. When new gear is due, dealer supplies will suddenly dry up. But that sometimes happens even when we’re between product cycles as inventories fluctuate. Besides, new hardware at a WWDC is not always a given. But this year, with a dearth of new iPads and Macs, things may change.

So I’ve culled a few of the most probable product intros.

Of course, there will be an iOS 11. Perhaps there will be more social networking features, but that doesn’t mean people will give up on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and WhatsApp. It will just provide yet another alternative; more likely Messages were do more things.

I would like to see more attention devoted to iPad users. While there are logical changes to allow for the larger screen real estate, and more robust multitasking, Apple can surely do more. I’d like to see sandboxing expansions to allow for more entitlements, so a wider range of apps can talk to one another. I’ve often mentioned the ability to capture mixed audio from one or more sources in a single app, such as from Skype and a connected mic. But I’m being self-serving here.

Without mimicking the Mac’s approach, perhaps Apple can expand multitasking capability to make the iPad more useful as a productive device. With sales falling, and Apple maintaining the commitment to its tablet platform, surely there are things that can be done in iOS to make iPads more attractive to potential buyers or upgraders.

I’m drawing a blank about macOS. Whether it’s called 10.13 or — just maybe — macOS 11, a greater focus on stability and reliability would be helpful. I have very few issues with Sierra, but I see others complaining that Apple is falling down on the job. Unfortunately, Apple isn’t allowing for macOS reviews in the App Store, though some issues do show up in their discussion forums.

And wouldn’t an iOS 11 and a macOS 11 make for more consistent branding? I’ll set watchOS 4 and tvOS 11 aside.

The most obvious WWDC hardware preview is the Mac Pro. Apple promised an all-new, more modular model, but not this year. But maybe there will be a brief demonstration of a work-in-progress, with the promise of release in the first part of 2018. The 2013 Mac Pro was launched at that year’s WWDC. All this obviously depends on whether a final form factor and feature set have been nailed down.

Recent rumors point to refreshes for the MacBook and MacBook Pro, using Intel Kaby Lake processors. They weren’t available last year in the configurations Apple uses. There’s also speculation about an update to the MacBook Air, which is supposedly in maintenance mode. But if sales are still good, perhaps something will be done. But I wouldn’t expect to see a Retina display. I thought the MacBook was its ultimate successor.

I did ask a few fellow tech writers whether Apple is ready to do a little price cutting for its notebooks, and the response was a big, broad “no” But the MacBook is overdue for a lower list price.

Nothing is being said about an iMac with pro features, or any iMac. But how about the Mac mini?

There are ongoing rumors about an Apple answer to the Amazon Echo. Would that mean a Siri smart speaker of some sort? But didn’t Apple marketing VP Philip Schiller denigrate the Echo because it lacked a display, days before it got one? So would a Siri system include a display? Do we really need such a device, when there is already an iPhone?

And what about the iPad?

Rumors about the arrival of a new form factor with a 10.5-inch edge-to-edge display came and went earlier this year. Apple ended up delivering a fifth generation model consisting of the original iPad Air case with faster parts and a cheaper price. But there’s talk about the new iPad form factor, and perhaps an update to the iPad Pro. Would that suit a WWDC? I suppose it could, if Apple is going to tout productivity features, and perhaps introduce an Apple Pencil 2.

I do not expect to see a new iPhone. One pundit suggested the iPhone 8 would be demonstrated, but that would do nothing but gut sales of existing models. In fact, ongoing rumors about what’s to come are, according to Apple, already hurting sales. So expect a rumor of this sort to be a big non-starter.

I also do not expect to see a third-generation Apple Watch or an updated Apple TV. The WWDC is definitely the wrong place for such products.

Just the other day, I read an article from a somewhat confused pundit that started with some accurate statements. But it then went off the rails.

So it correctly pointed out that Mac sales were up in the March quarter, whereas Microsoft Surface declined. This despite the arrival of the $2,999.99 Surface Studio all-in-one, a touchscreen-based PC that the critics claimed that Apple should emulate.

Things start to go astray in this article when the reader was informed that PCs with touchscreens are the only success stories on the Windows platform. This is the sort of claim that’s difficult to pin down, because PC makers don’t routinely break down sales by model or model configuration. The percentage of machines with touchscreens may indeed be higher as a product mix, so therefore you’d think they are more popular. But most people buy the cheaper models that don’t offer such extras.

Besides, I’ve read other reports claiming that 2-in-1 PCs aren’t doing so well, perhaps because they are more expensive, and that’s not where the market has moved.

The trip down the rabbit hole continues as the blogger suggests that people prefer touchscreens, based on a survey of — well, no survey at all. That a PC has a touchscreen doesn’t mean its user routinely takes advantage of the feature. Some may try it and confront the reality that it’s not a terribly comfortable use of a traditional notebook or computer display.

All, right, I didn’t take a survey either. But I have a 27-inch iMac, which would be very close to the 28-inch Surface Studio. Now my computer doesn’t have a touchscreen, obviously, but when I raise my hand to touch the display, the movement is not very comfortable. I imagine the impact of doing it hundreds of times a day and wonder whether I’ll get used to it, or whether it’ll just put stress on my aging limbs.

I suspect the latter.

Now Apple has claimed that putting a touchscreen on a Mac is akin to combining a refrigerator with a toaster oven. In other words, it’s a bad mix. The critics will allege that Apple doesn’t know what it’s doing, or has adopted a political posture that doesn’t recognize real market conditions.

To muddy the waters, an iPad that uses a keyboard case can be set up as a notebook with a — touchscreen. So is Apple just playing games with us? Personally, I’d prefer a keyboard case that offers a more familiar trackpad, so you can indeed skip the need to use trackpad mode on the iPad’s touchscreen. Indeed, I found a discussion thread at Apple where some iPad users suggested that Apple produce a Smart Keyboard with a trackpad

You can certainly buy them from third parties, though I can’t attest to how well they work. But if Apple expects us to take their objections to touchscreen-based notebooks seriously, this is a move they should consider. Of course, it would mean that the Smart Keyboard would have to be redesigned to accommodate this additional feature, maybe with a slide-out piece to provide the additional depth required.

None of this means that Apple wouldn’t find a way to deliver a 2-in-1 Mac, and make the excuse that they’ve somehow solved the problems that presently afflict such designs. For now, the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar may be the closest we’ll get. But the main point is whether reaching up to execute an input command makes more sense — or as much sense — as a Touch Bar and a trackpad.

Although I use a trackpad on my MacBook Pro, I still prefer a mouse. All right, I did work with the original Kensington Turbo Mouse trackball for a few months. I approached it with dedication and took it to the office during that period. I remember, once, visiting Kensington’s former New York City headquarters for replacement of a broken switch.

I continued using the Turbo Mouse until one day I woke up and decided it wasn’t, to me, as comfortable as a regular mouse. It appeared to place more stress on my busy fingers. So I returned to the mouse and never looked back. Well, except for those original PowerBooks, which also had trackballs. But Apple also decided it had a better idea, so, in 1994, they introduced a trackpad on the PowerBook 500.

That said, I notice that Kensington is still selling a version of the Turbo Mouse, known as Expert Mouse, plus a few other trackballs bearing the SlimBlade and Orbit brands.

In any case, I suppose you could cite Apple’s arguments that the 4-inch iPhone was a better fit than a smartphone with a larger display as an example of the company’s ability to change. The smaller-is-better approach worked until it didn’t. The iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus were hugely successful. Sure, maybe they are somewhat more awkward to handle, but that didn’t stop Apple from recognizing reality. But Apple also built the iPhone SE because there is a segment of customers that didn’t want larger handsets.

So even if Apple went with a 2-in-1 Mac — and I doubt it’ll happen — that move wouldn’t force you to ever use its touchscreen feature.