Loading ...The random spate of iPhone touchscreen problems continues, with Shannon McMahon experiencing some particularly erratic behaviour from his handset. Unlike previous issues - mainly taking the form of bands or patches of screen with reduced or no responsiveness - Shannon's iPhone decided to take a tour of its features by itself, activating its own virtual buttons and generally flying about the interface as if manipulated by an ADHD ghost-ferret.
Thankfully a trip to his nearest Apple store (unfortunately a two and a half hour drive away) saw the Genius Bar swap his crazy iPhone for a nice, relaxed, well-behaved one (despite his being over two weeks old, normally the cut-off at which point they insist on sending it in for repair).
It's good to hear that Shannon's experience of Apple aftercare was everything you'd hope it would be, but on a broader scale you have to wonder how closely this ongoing MultiTouch saga relates to the stability problems experienced by the technology's original developers. If you recall, they too had issues with the chemical-based heat-reactive touchscreen process, and it's this same technology that has been so-far blamed for the certain iPhones' patchy responsiveness.
We're still very interested in hearing from any iPhone user who has been having problems with their touchscreen, so do let us know in the comments.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I have had the same problem as Shannon. My phone started pressing buttons randomly, switching between apps and when on the home page, I was not able to press buttons except by luck. I even did complete restores via iTunes multiple times, which succeeded in temporarily curing the phone.
Fortunately, I took it to the Apple Store, and the Genius there told me that it was an issue with the digitizer on the screen. Interestingly, he told me that the digitizer was not reset every time you restart the phone and that short of restoring the phone, it would not reset (like how on a palm you can choose to recallibrate the stylus). If this were fixed, the digitizer skipping would probably be fixed.
On the other hand, he gave me a new iPhone, and I haven’t had any troubles since. I use it exactly the same way I used the first phone, and haven’t developed the problem again, so I suspect it doesn’t have anything to do with how you use the phone, but that some iPhones are just more subject to this problem.
Same problem happened to my wifes iPhone (not mine yet thankfully) two weeks ago. it would randomly open and close apps. Of course i thought she did something to cause this, but nope.. it just developed a mind of it’s own and one day decided to start it’s new behavior. I too visited my local (2 hours away) Apple Store… but had to have her iPhone shipped for repair, as we were just over 30 days into ownership. We also had to pay a $29.99 iPhone rental fee to have a phone in the time it took to repair her crazy phone. I tried to get out of this rental fee but could not. Though the process was quick and relatively painless, I must say that I am not really happy that first this ever happened, and second that I really believe that we got a Refurb iPhone in it’s place. Replacement, not repaired, iPhone came bcak to our house within 5 days from dropping it off at the store. it has a new Serial #, and to me… if you look at the info engraved on the back, it seems as if it is blurry… almost as though it was buffed off and put back on. I also notived what I think are two very small scuffs on the black plastic antenna cover piece on the back bottom part of the phone. Now… that being said… everything else is fine… it works fine, the restore of her backup was fine, new phone works fine… and heck.. i’ve even purposly bought Refurb Apple products in the past and have been thrilled with them… BUT… difference is I “purposely bought those.” Though i appreciate their warranty and service… I fell that I’ve spent enough money on our two iPhones to deserve “brand new” phones for thre length of our original warranties… even if they should require replacement. The ONLY advantage I see to getting a refurb at this point… is if Apple has identified these issues and their true cause, and we got a refurb unit that this will NOT happen to again… if this were the case then i’d be glad that we got what we did, but of course this is just me thinking here and is nothing i’ve heard from Apple.
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