Apple quietly handling iPhone touchscreen issues?
It doesn't appear to be particularly widespread, but according to a couple threads on Apple's support forums and elsewhere, a small number of iPhones are suddenly getting "dead spots" on their touchscreens -- mostly along the bottom, but occasionally affecting the entire surface. Apple is apparently being extremely proactive in dealing with the issue, calling customers who've posted in their forums and arranging replacements -- the company can't let anything tarnish the image of The Most Important Device Ever, after all. All of our iPhones are still working great (even after some casual hacking) -- anyone else have this problem?
[Via AppleInsider]
[Via AppleInsider]



















Yep. Mine works fine, not one problem with the touch screen. Other than a few bubbles, but Apple replaced those phones so it's all good!
Apple Newton, v. 2?
if by "Newton v.2" you mean a device that is so ahead of it's time that consumers don't understand how (insanely) great it is, and therefore sales suffer...
... then yes. Newton v.2
Now flame me, for I am a fanboi.
So what are you saying TMIDE? That the iPhone is more like Newton, v. 3?
TMIDE, I'd be embarrassed to call myself a fanboi of anything. You must wear pink skirts.
lol like the numerous PDAs before the Newton I guess.
Newton was looking to be too much, and it couldn't live up to the hype.
The iPhone on the other hand is doing amazingly well, you have to agree with that even if you hate the damned thing.
lol like the numerous PDAs before the Newton I guess.
Newton was looking to be too much, and it couldn't live up to the hype.
The iPhone on the other hand is doing amazingly well, you have to agree with that even if you hate the damned thing.
Thats Apple service for ya~
My iPhone has been working flawlessly. Now lets get some software updates going!
Or, they want their customer's to be happy, therefore they replace defective units, and sidestep a class action suit.
Wow....you make it sound so much nicer when its Apple doing it, as opposed to what people say about Microsoft doing the exact same thing with one of their products.
It's interesting that you assume I represent those "people", whom you so strongly dislike.
I will say positive things about companies indiscriminately who back up their product with solid support and effective product replacement programs. To humor your unsubstantiated claims, I will go ahead and applaud Microsoft for their decision to support and replace defective Xbox 360s.
Is my now, unbiased opinion up to your, oh so righteous, standard(s), troll?
You, my friend, are a bit defensive. I had no words in my comment that "strongly" said anything, directed anything negative towards you, implied any "righteous"ness to myself, or even approached "troll"ing.
Calm down, man. It was merely an observation that anyone reading this forum should/could have made.
I love how Chadow, here, is trying to turn the tables on Brandon. Chadow jumped to conclusions, which he was in the wrong to do so, there was nothing in his comment to suggest he was bias toward anything, but was meerly stating the fact that he's a fan of proper customer support in this day and age. When he explains to you his view-point, you wont admit you're wrong, so instead attempt to make it seem like Brandon is the bad guy by saying he's "over-defensive" and so try to lure people into a mind-set where it seems that Brandon may actually be some heartless Apple fanboy, god forbid!
Jesus dude, your e-penis should be the size of a cocktail stick by now, just admit you're wrong and it may eventually grow back.
Dear god, ssuk. I think you are taking our posts a bit too seriously. I bet you would make a wonderful conspiracy theorist though, if your instigating skills never get you anywhere.
@ Brandon: I think we both agree manufacturers backing their faulty product to be a good thing, regardless of what money hungry corporation does it. That was my only point to begin with. Never meant any offense (never really thought I gave it either).
"@ Brandon: I think we both agree manufacturers backing their faulty product to be a good thing, regardless of what money hungry corporation does it. That was my only point to begin with. Never meant any offense (never really thought I gave it either)."
Agreed, and in hindsight notwithstanding the last line of my second post. Consider it sincerely redacted =).
Thanks, Brandon. You are as gentlemanly, as you are scholarly :)
get a room you two
I have had no issues at all with the touchscreen. The phone is great.
Recently all the apps would crash as soon as I'd open them. Email, SMS, Safari, voicemail, everything except the actual phone would crash a second after I opened it. It turned our that my security update didn't take the first time and after round 2 of updating, everything worked fine. Nothing else to report. Waiting for some good new software updates though...
Oops I meant to post that here
1-800-4MY-XBOX
Man, if only MS had called me when I bitched about my broken 360 and quietly taken care of it...
Did you try calling them? Cuz if you didn't.. how did you expect them to know. And if you did call them, what do you mean by, "if only ms called me?"
What? You mean I need to call them? Oh, I thought this article was about them trolling user groups and approaching their users directly. What's MS phone number? you jackass
Did you want the head office number or the xbox support line?
Head office is:
(800) MICROSOFT (642-7676)
Xbox division is:
(800) 4MY-XBOX (469-9269)
Wasn't that easy?
I also have their address and fax number and other contact information if you need it. Because legitimate companies have addresses and phone numbers. You can easily get your point across without insulting people. Why are you so hostile? Now I really wonder if you even owned an xbox. Because anyone who bought an expensive product and had it unreasonably break would contact the manufacturer to see if they could have the problem resolved.
http://service.xbox.com/servicesignin.aspx
This website is recommended by Microsoft as the best place to go if you have a defective Xbox 360 (as directly linked to from xbox.com index page)
I'd suggest that as the best place to start!
There is an issue but its software issue. Try Typing Misreb on the keybord in a SMS conversation. It wont allow you to press the b.
Hah.. NOT! Works perfectly for me, followed your instructions exactly.
no problem on mine either!
do you have a video camera? I wanna see this bug, record it and put it on youtube or something. If you have time.
Why does this even have to be construed as "quietly?" It's just business, and business only involving a small number of people. Every day, employess at Apple Stores probably 'quietly' point people to the bathrooms, too. I wonder if it's some sort of conspiracy?
If Appple sold them defective iBladders, then yes.
Defective bladders line up outside the Vatican.
Apple Stores have bathrooms?! And I've been using the one in Lord and Taylor's like a chump...
No problem, and absolutely brilliant beginning by Apple...like Fatima, cannot wait for the software updates, widgets, etc!!
What they need to do is hurry and release iChat on this bad boy.
My touchscreen went dead across the bottom. Took it back to the Apple Store where I bought it and they replaced it. That was my second one, so I'm now on my third iPhone. My first one had a dead pixel on the display.
On the bright side, that's two more Apple employees that have received their promised iPhones - sans warranty of any kind, natch.
Actually, Apple isn't refreshing returned open-box iPhones to inventory, so employees are only allowed to buy new-in-box iPhones, at the standard employee discount (which itself, is a relatively recent development)... or so I've been told.
Also, bear in mind that not everyone who was on Apple's payroll on June 28th got a free iPhone at the end of July.
Eat up Martha.
I had to bring my iPhone back because 1/4 of the screen went dead. they gave me a rental (for 30 bucks) and are ending me a replacement.
While I was in line at the 5th Ave G-Bar 2 other people had the same problem but in different areas of the screen.
I would hope they refund the rental for the defect!
Still a great PHONE!!!!!
What??? You still have to pay for the phone rent???
I suspect, Apple does this on purpose ... !
- Sell defective touchscreen
- Fanboy bought it
- Fanboy return it
- Fanboy paid the phone rent (PROFIT!!!)
- Fanboy got replacement
- Repack the old defective touchscreen ... and wait another fanboy !
Mine works great except that I just realized the screen is actually very susceptible to scratches. I saw a videoclip that does this so-called 'stress test' from PC World and I believed what they showed in the clip ("they hold up well against scratches..."). Well... You'd better take my advice: it is extremely easy to get scratches on the screen. You probably need a case or never put your iPhone in your pocket with ANYTHING else.
The top half of my touchscreen pooped out about a week ago. Very strange though, the home screen was completely unaffected, but EVERY app beyond that was unable to sense touches to the upper half to third of the screen. Naturally, Apple willingly replaced the unit.
i have had some problems with my end key when trying to hang up.. it wont let me end the call for 10-15 sec. after the screen comes back on.. nothing major though
Dont put these anywhere near brown Zune's. My friend learned the hard way. He set his iPhone on the counter about 17 inches from my Zune (brown ones only as far as I can tell), and when he picked it back up the screen was scratched all to hell, half his contacts were gone, and 70% of his touchscreen no longer worked.
When he brought it back to AT&T they said, and I quote, "...the Zune must have confused his iPhone with an iPod and made IT its bi*ch...". They promptly gave him a new one.
:)
Ive sold, personally, well over 100 IPhones and as a customer service follow up I called each one 2-3 days after they got the phones.
Not one had any screen problems. During that time, I offered up my company cell to contact me if they had questions, to this day I havent heard any calls regarding the screen. I have heard of issues with reception in concrete buildings (go figure), the battery life not lasting one movie (asked them to bring it in, gave them a blackjack for a day and tested the battery, could not repeat the issue), cell reception cutting in and out when other members of the family had perfect reception (skeptical, but Accepted it at face value).
I did get one phone back that bricked on signup and one that returned because every time they tried to make a call, the phone shut off. Both phones exchanged immedately and the customers havent had issues since.
Mine had this issue about two weeks after I bought it (two days after launch). A line across the top of the screen where the 4,5,6 are on the phone pad stopped working. No matter what fell on this spot the screen wouldn't respond. I called Apple and they had me do a full restore which did nothing. I then made an appointment to come into an Apple store. I showed up, explained my issue in 10 words, and they swapped it out with a new phone without even touching mine. I asked the guy if they are seeing this often and the answer was no. Good soldier. Did I mention he didn't even lay a finger on mine before handing me my new one........... first time my a**.
I have to say they did a fantastic job of resolving the issue. I only hope if it craps out in a 8 months they will be so kind :)
ps - I love my iPhone
I had this problem a few weeks ago while I was out of town, I brought it to the closest Apple store at the Century City shopping center in California and they touched it and immediately replaced it. The problem I ran into was the AT&T web site was off line for most of the weekend. I could not reactivate the telephone for two days, good thing I still had my Treo.
Had this problem when I was demoing a unit at the local Apple store. Middle of the keyboard was completely dead in landscape mode.
Yep, I've got that problem right now. It started about two weeks ago. It's a horizontal line near the top and it effects all of my applications. More specifically, using safari, the google search bar is unusable.
I actually brought it to the Apple store at Oakbrook mall near Chicago and waited for an hour for my appointment with a genius. I showed him what was happening and he agreed that it was a problem he couldn't fix and offered to send my phone away for a week. Unfortunately that just won't work for me because I use my phone heavily for work. Needless to say I was disappointed that I drove an hour and a half out there and left with my still not completely functional phone. As a loyal Apple buyer that is always first to promote their products I feel a little used. Dirty even. Maybe smudged is a better word. :)
So where's my help Apple? $29.99 is a bit much for a phone I'm just "borrowing" for a week which after I have to drive back to return. I'll spend that much in gas.
Don't worry, I'm telling all of my friends and strangers who ask how it's working that I love it. I'm too embarrassed to admit I bought a $600 phone that doesn't completely work.
Yes. A Coworker recently bought an iphone and brought it back to Taiwan. The bottom row of the touchscreen was dead, making the ipod, safari, and other important functions unusable. What's worse is that we couldn't even connect to the company's wireless because we couldn't input numbers for the network key, again because the numbers button on the keyboard is on the bottom row. Hugely disappointing that she's going to have to send it back across the Pacific and wait for a replacement.
I thought that I was the only one. My iPhone is having serious problems. Almost half the letters on the keyboard almost refuse to work. I have to press so hard that the screen starts changing colors.
I have two clients who bought their iPhones the first day. Each of them have had to replace their phones at least once now (one bricked, the other had the screen crack within a week). I don't know what kind of kool-aid Apple are giving these guys, but so far I've seen a 1-to-1 failure rate on these. They also say they still love you. I guarantee if these were products from any other company, they'd throw them away. I'll just take a phone that'll make calls, thank you.
Wow, I wonder how my iPhone will be in a few months
Yeah, I had the third row die on me (where the clock and settings are). Apple replaced the phone quickly - within 2 days.
iphone rumors. blah blah. Hey I have a monitor with a known problem and I can't seem to get anyone at Dell to take responsibility and I hear about how it must be a scandal because Apple is taking care of it's issues?.....please someone go out and buy an editor. And by the way, adding a question mark at the end of a headline is a hideous practice.
I had the same issue as mentioned above. The area of screen where the 4, 5, 6 was dead. This happen on the 4th day after purchase. A quick trip to the closest Apple store and the iPhone was replaced without question.
I have had this problem twice now, and what was weird was that it seemed to come on gradually where unlocking the phone first became intermittent and ultimately impossible. The Apple store reloaded my phone the first time (fixing the problem) and then just rebooting the iPhone fixed it the second time. If it happens again, I will be expecting a replacement.
Mine has dead spots. I used an online dead spot checker and I get several spots. The weird thing is that they come and go.
I hope to go to the apple store this weekend and take care it.
I also had this problem. I went to the apple store and they took it and I got a new one via Applecare 2 days later. Mine was with the upper-left portion of the screen.
I noticed about 10 stuck pixels on my phone this week, called apple, they said i would have to send in to for repair guess i wasn't as fortunate as some others were with this problem
You Apple fanboys are hilarious you will say anything to make Microsoft and everyone else look bad and make Apple look like heaven! Now lets see which fanboy yells at em first for this.
My iPhone is running great. No problems at all.
What might I ask is this iPhone being discussed?
I'm on my third iPhone. The first one had the top third go unresponsive. The second one had the bottom 8th go unresponsive. The second exchange didn't go as smoothly as the first. The first one was a quick at-the-Apple-store swap. The second, though, offered to ship it away and return it "sometime". In the meantime, so I wouldn't have to be without a phone, they offered me a $29 loaner. After making my... ummm... displeasure known, they swapped the second, as well, on the spot. Here's to hoping that the third time is a charm!!! >knocks on wood
My iPhone worked fine when I first got it but then the bottom row on the keyboard started to intermittantly select the characters above what I was trying to hit within a day or so. For examle, the space bar would activate the x, c, v, b or n keys instead and the problem was happening on the entire bottom row of keys. It got worse over the next 2 days until it never would work correctly anymore and Apple exchanged it for a new unit...
I had a few issues with safari quitting and going back to the home screen. I also experienced similar issues with itunes and youtube applications. It was frustrating for about 2 weeks and then just disappeared. I'm still not sure what it was all about. Maybe I was carrying an unusual static charge for a period of time.
My iPhone suffered this very problem. A quick trip to the Genius Bar and I walked out with a brand new, straight out the sealed box iPhone. And the genius even let me keep the stickers from the new phone.
This is the Apple we've known for many years. Make it right and keep 'em happy.
the top of my keyboard just stopped working today :( so lame
my iPhone just developed a dead spot. I'm going tontke it into an apple store today and see what happens. Wish me luck!
I have had some similar issues. I got my iPhone the day after its initial release and almost immediately had touchscreen problems. It seemed to only affect the bottom portion of the screen, which was very annoying since I couldn't answer calls or unlock the phone. However, soft resets seemed to fix the problem each time...leading me to believe that its more of a software issue.
In addition, I haven't had a single problem with the screen since Apple's first update (v 1.0.1). Anyone else notice this or is it all in my head...
i had this problem. the dead spot went horizontally across the screen and was about in the middle. the top row of the qwerty keyboard wouldn't work; neither would the top row of the passcode entry keypad - but if you went to dial a number, the whole thing worked.
it was also weird when you scrolled anything. you'd get your finger halfway through the screen and it would stop scrolling, and then it would pick up again as your finger passed the dead spot.
needless to say, apple sent me a replacement at no cost to me.
I had the same problem with the top part of the screen after about a month with my iphone. A reset did not fix it. I took it to the Apple store in Tulsa and they gave me a brand new one on the spot.
IT WAS ONLY A COUPLE OF FLIPPER BABIES!!!
yeah mine is dead. the top row of keys and anything in that spot do NOT respond at all. i am dreading taking it to apple since the people in my apple store tend to be ass holes about this kind of stuff :( i payed allot of money for this phone. i hope they replace it.
I recently sent my iPhone in after the top portion of my touchscreen developed a dead zone. Trying to select any of the numbers on the second row of the phone keypad was impossible. Hopefully I'll be getting a replacement shortly.
MY FRIEND GOT A IPHONE FRM THE US FOR ME THERE IS A PORTION OF THE SCREEN WHICH DOESNT FUNCTION . SOME ONE HERE IS OFFERING ME A SCREEN AS A REPLACEMENT WHICH WOULD COST LESS THEN SENDING THE PEIECE FRM CHILE TO THE US. THINK IF APPLE COULD CHANGE IT HERE IN CHILE IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER.
My iPhone worked for a couple of months and now I have the upper line of the keyboard dead! Apple really suck! Can't use SMS, can't type Notes... Someone claims they fix it with a restore? Is a software or hardware problem? I'm now in Italy, do I have to trash it?
ohmygod! i thought this was jsut me, so I googled to see it others were having this prob. My screen is dead along the bottom where I try to get change from voicemail to favorites to contacts to keypad. sometimes after pressing for a full 30 seconds it'll work, but it usualy doesn't...
I'm usu in sf, but now i'm in new orleans with not an Apple store in sight...and I'd been contacted to be in an documentary about iphone users...this definitely changes the positive light in which I'll be casting the iphone...