iPhone 5 screen defect? Fast screen scrolling problem reported.

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Lounge' started by Chocolate, Nov 10, 2012.

  1. Chocolate

    Chocolate Well-Known Member

    Jan 10, 2010
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    #1 Chocolate, Nov 10, 2012
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2012
    News broke about a possible defect with the new 5th gen iPhone and iPod Touch screen. Reports indicate that the screen will freeze up after some diagonal swiping, which could potentially affect gaming. A video was released showing this behavior, comparing 2 4S's with 2 iPhone 5's, and in both cases the 5's screen would freeze up. Reporters have contacted Apple, but Apple probably won't ever admit to such a problem for obvious reasons.

    Video here: http://www.pocketables.com/2012/11/poll-has-your-iphone-5-exhibited-quick-scrolling-issues.html
    C/Net report here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57548023-1/iphone-5-swipe-glitch-threatens-fruit-ninjas/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title

    A poll held at one site shows that as many as 70% of respondents noticed the problem on their new devices.

    Poll here: http://www.pocketables.com/2012/11/poll-has-your-iphone-5-exhibited-quick-scrolling-issues.html

    I have an iPod Touch 5 and have not noticed this problem, but I also haven't really played any games that it might affect, like maybe Fruit Ninja for example. I have noticed that my iPT5 screen is not quite as responsive as other devices I've owned, and I have used 2 iPT's and both were the same.

    Thoughts?

    I will consider returning my iPod Touch for a refund if this proved to be a hardware defect, because I paid way too much money for it to get defective hardware.
     
  2. Teknikal

    Teknikal Well-Known Member

    Oct 26, 2010
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    Not going to pretend I know anything about the problem mentioned but I do think this will crop up more in the future because Apples taking huge lengths to avoid Samsung components which are widely regarded as high quality and reliable. In future it's quite likely components will be coming from all over the place which will probably lead to strange problems with some devices while others of the same type are fine.

    Pretty much the same thing they have done with Google maps their causing their own problems with petty grudges, they should just take the best services and hardware whatever the source companies.
     
  3. Vovin

    Vovin 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Nov 28, 2009
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    I scrolled this page up and down like crazy for a minute but no freeze happened.

    Also, in the video it looks like the guy lifted the finger a tiny bit while scrolling on the iPhone 5's at some point. This smells like scam.

    And who is scrolling in this way anyway?
     
  4. chris1a

    chris1a Well-Known Member

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    #4 chris1a, Nov 10, 2012
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2012
    It's not s scam. I get this too. iPhone 5 iOS 6.01, it just freezes when scrolling fast like in the video.

    Edit: Tried both in safari (using TAs mobile site) and the mail inbox. Switching directions with your finger while scrolling also couses it to stop responding for a while.

    I've read user reviews on various shopping sites about people having issues with iPhone 5 not responding to regular inputs.
     
  5. Teknikal

    Teknikal Well-Known Member

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    Could well be a scam tech sites are very fast to print anything negative these days for the page views, another possibility is it might only be certain panels effected I think both LG and sharp were making them.

    I still think Apple will be a less reliable company in the future though for the reasons in my above post unless they do some backtracking or heavy investing.
     
  6. amroc

    amroc Well-Known Member

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    It's not a scam. I was the person that noticed it yesterday morning. It was whilst I was working on a control update for Spirit, so I was looking very closely at how the movement was working.

    We posted about the issue 'slide diagonally', as this was the easiest way to communicate how to reproduce the issue. However, there is a specific motion, if you swipe left and then up quickly, making an arc, that frequently causes the issue to occur. In a game such as Spirit this is quite a problem, as you are often performing motions like this. It took me a good while of debugging before I discovered it wasn't my code.
     
  7. chris1a

    chris1a Well-Known Member

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    Man I hope this is a software issue.

    Get a new map system that only works for 10% of the world and a touch screen that doesn't work properly, get iPhone 5.
     
  8. chris1a

    chris1a Well-Known Member

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    I just tried your game since I had it installed on the iPhone and yea it's definitely a problem. The phone just completely stops responding when things get hectic and you move around the "spirit" fast. Obviously not a problem specific to your game, but it does show that this certainly is a major problem that Apple needs to get on top of ASAP.
     
  9. Vovin

    Vovin 👮 Spam Police 🚓

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    I tried reproducing it now for several minutes, without success.
    I tried different apps and different web sites.
     
  10. amroc

    amroc Well-Known Member

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    #10 amroc, Nov 10, 2012
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2012
    Interesting, it may not affect all iPhone 5s, that's good to know. I've only tested three different iPhone 5s since noticing it, but they all had the issue.

    *Edit* I'm not sure if it's clear from some of the reports out there, but it only happens if you keep your finger on the screen, a single swipe and release seems to always work fine. So yes for general UI usage it's a non issue, as you don't really do continuous motions without lifting your finger. On some games though, particularly mine, you will. I can frequently replicate the issue within just a few seconds, on any part of the iPhone OS, not just games (the home screen too for example), so that the touch completely stops responding, and continues to do so indefinitely until I take my finger off the screen.
     
  11. Chocolate

    Chocolate Well-Known Member

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    Oh wow, so Spirit has this trouble eh? I wonder if it would have that problem on my iPod Touch 5. Will try it later, but I'm not good at the game. :p
     
  12. Vovin

    Vovin 👮 Spam Police 🚓

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    I got the free Spirits from the Appstore and tested it. And no, I never took my finger of the screen while swiping up and down fast and constantly, not on the web sites and not in your game. Still no issue.
     
  13. chris1a

    chris1a Well-Known Member

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    It´s not up and down in a straight line that´s the issue tho, if that´s what you´re doing(?). Also are you on 6.0 or 6.01?
     
  14. amroc

    amroc Well-Known Member

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    Chocolate, yes Spirit has this problem, but as it's an input issue that happens lower than the level programmers have access to (well, at least non apple programmers), every game will respond in the same way.

    Vovin, I never asserted that all 5s have this issue, so it may well be a hardware issue that was discovered and silently corrected after many affected handsets had already been made. Who knows. But if you don't have an affected handset that's good news :) As chris1a mentioned though you need to swipe diagonally, not vertically. And quickly too. Also my game is Spirit, not Spirits ;)
     
  15. Vovin

    Vovin 👮 Spam Police 🚓

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    #15 Vovin, Nov 10, 2012
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2012

    Oh, yeah, sorry Marco - mind the avatar! :D

    I bought Spirit long ago and love it of course :)

    I installed it and tried - and everything seems ok.
    Swiping up and down fast without lifting a finger or left and right, moving in arcs and circles. Vertically and diagonally, everything is ok.
    Funny thing, got my iPhone 5 from the first charge delivered to Germany, so I think it vould be an early device - but I can also be wrong.
    Tried the first ten levels now again, still everything ok.

    Strange, really strange.
     
  16. chris1a

    chris1a Well-Known Member

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    Yea I got the phone from the first batch in Sweden too. Anyway doing a fast continous circular motion will also stop it from responding (tried on the iOS dashboard).
     
  17. sampdx

    sampdx Well-Known Member

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    #17 sampdx, Nov 11, 2012
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2012
    I notice it on my ipod touch 5 in mail, but as soon as I click to read an email and then do it it seems fine. Also i tried Spirit and it seems fine too. So probably software related.
     
  18. #18 Connector, Nov 11, 2012
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2012
    Yeah, I started seeing a lot of articles about this yesterday, swipegate seems to be the new thing since scratchgate. The press always likes to harp on something it seems.

    Does it affect you when using the phone normally? Or mostly just in games? And how does fruit ninja respond if doing the same motions?
     
  19. amroc

    amroc Well-Known Member

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    #19 amroc, Nov 11, 2012
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2012
    Did a bit more research and found fruit ninja isn't affected, nor are other parts of the OS that respond to multiple touch. The bug only occurs in UIViews that have specified they want single touch only. (A UIView is just a rectangular region of an iOS app's window, it could be the entire screen, or subsections of it). So that includes core OS windows like the home screen, and list views like the mail app, but not of course UIViews that accept the two finger pinch to zoom.
     
  20. nadavnaz

    nadavnaz New Member

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    Hi amroc, so can it be understood from what you're saying that this is a software problem?
     

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