iPhone 5 screen defect? Fast screen scrolling problem reported.

[Chocolate]

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/p...ng-issues.html
C/Net report here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-...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/p...ng-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.

[Teknikal]

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.

[Vovin]

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?

[chris1a]

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.

[Teknikal]

Originally Posted by Vovin

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?

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.

[amroc]

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.

[chris1a]

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.

[chris1a]

Originally Posted by amroc

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.

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.

[Vovin]

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

[amroc]

Originally Posted by Vovin

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

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.