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Traditional "burn in" is due to phosphor wear in CTR televisions. Obviously, LCD's do not have phosphor, so burn in as you're thinking about it is impossible.

In fringe cases, however, LCDs have been known to have some slight image retention. Image retention, as a rule, is not permanent. If your iPad is suffering from image retention, which I doubt, keeping it off for 24-48 hours should solve the problem.

That's not quite true. LCD displays also experience 'burn in' but this should only happen if you have the same image on your screen continuously and obviously with the screen on continuously. We have large LCD monitors at work which are on 24x7x365 at full brightness and 2 have experienced burn in. The others havent suffered the same problem so I guess it all comes down to the quality of the display panel. Turning off the monitor for any period of time doesn't fix the issue.

I can't imagine how this problem could occur on an iPad as no one just has the one app constantly running and the iPad goes into standby mode automatically thus there should be no possible way for this to happen.

It would be interesting, if possible, to find out what 'make' everyone's display panel is. For example it could be that the LG panels are an issue.
 
Same here, first gen iPad and sometimes after long time browsing, the safari address and search bars get stuck. A reboot always solves the issue though.

Lol it's the screen hardware. A reboot won't do anything productive towards removing the retention.
 
Lol it's the screen hardware. A reboot won't do anything productive towards removing the retention.

LOL I guess I'm completely making that up, then!

Seriously, if short term image retention affects my display, and turning the device and screen completely off and on again solves it for me (and others apparently) were you here with me to tell me it didn't happen?

edit: you know what? I wish you were here with me now, I would show it to you as it is happening right now, and I can tell that the retention is slowly vanishing in a couple of minutes (and it helps if I turn off and on the screen, even without rebooting).
 
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LOL I guess I'm completely making that up, then!

Seriously, if short term image retention affects my display, and turning the device and screen completely off and on again solves it for me (and others apparently) were you here with me to tell me it didn't happen?

edit: you know what? I wish you were here with me now, I would show it to you as it is happening right now, and I can tell that the retention is slowly vanishing in a couple of minutes (and it helps if I turn off and on the screen, even without rebooting).

A) You have to reboot to turn off the screen, eh? If only they developed a way to turn off the screen without rebooting. :rolleyes:
B) Image retention on LCDs usually goes away after a relatively short period of time. There's no difference between using the screen or turning it off. The only variable is how much time you give it.
C) You're misled by false cause. You believe that the rebooting is what is fixing the device, but it's actually the waiting that's fixing it. Obviously it seems to make sense to you based on perceived evidence but it's incorrect.

The turning the screen off thing applied maybe to really early generation LCDs. Not in 2010+. Retention simply goes away regardless of how the screen continues to be used (except, if course, remaining in same position from which retention was achieved. You get the idea.)
 
A) You have to reboot to turn off the screen, eh? If only they developed a way to turn off the screen without rebooting. :rolleyes:
B) Image retention on LCDs usually goes away after a relatively short period of time. There's no difference between using the screen or turning it off. The only variable is how much time you give it.
C) You're misled by false cause. You believe that the rebooting is what is fixing the device, but it's actually the waiting that's fixing it. Obviously it seems to make sense to you based on perceived evidence but it's incorrect.

The turning the screen off thing applied maybe to really early generation LCDs. Not in 2010+. Retention simply goes away regardless of how the screen continues to be used (except, if course, remaining in same position from which retention was achieved. You get the idea.)
You're right, but I never meant to say that the software process of rebooting is what is solving the persistence. I just said that the minute or so that the screen stays on and black is probably speeding up the vanishing.
Turning off the screen alone for the same period of time, doesn't get to the same result.
And assuming people are ignorant is not a great conversation starter ;)

Edit:reading again my post, I admit that it was partly misleading, what I meant with "turning the screen off and on" was doing that several times in a row, but you could get the impression that I did think that for this matter standby and rebooting did different things.
 
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I just bought an iPad 2 32nm this weekend from BB.

I hope mine doesn't do this crap, that would suck.

How high do you guys keep the brightness? I put mine on 100%. Is this bad?
 
Hi,

I just bought the latest Ipad 4 a couple of days ago and brought it back to the store today because of the burn-in problem. They gave me a new one and guess what? Same crap. They opened a third box - burn-in screen again. I experienced the same thing with the ipad 2.

It looks like this is a wide spread issue because, if I was lucky enough to catch 4 (!) iPads with a bad display, god knows how many people have the same problem (maybe didn't even notice it) and it sucks that we don't have an official statement from Apple about this.

And while we're at it, I had to return my first iPad 2 as well. Not because of the screen thing but because it wouldn't turn on at all. So that makes 5 rotten iPads total. Thinking about giving Guinness a call right now.
 
I have an iPad 2 that I bought on release day. I just started having this burn in problem a few weeks ago. It only happens occasionally. And it ONLY happens with safari. No other app leaves burn in.

Problem with iOS 6?
 
Just bought a new ipad in a different store (so this is the sixth ipad I'm testing now) and - you guessed it - screen burn-in again. It's pretty obvious that EVERY ipad has this problem. Granted, it's kinda hard to see it on a new device since you have to leave the screen on for 5-10 minutes on maximum lightness with a picture of high contrast AND you have to have a wallpaper on your homescreen without much texture otherwise it's hard to spot. That's why most people don't notice this or only notice it when it gets worse.

And here's a little conspiracy theory for you all: Did you notice that Apple removed a couple of default wallpapers from the latest ios version? You could see the ghost screen pretty good on them. I'm quite sure they know about the issue. And a lot more people will also know about it soon because I'm going to send an e-mail to my IT-journalist buddies and every tech blog I can find. They're gonna love this.
 
My iPad 2 is doing this too

exactly like everyone else's, its worse with safari and its really just the search bar that stays behind for a few minutes. I am going to try a reset. Is there anyway this could be a software issue, because no other app does this on mine. I left a page of a book on the kindle app on the screen for 5 minutes and nothing, but safari for 30 seconds and i can kinda see the search bar still. Also, chrome does not seem to have the same problem. I also live about 2 hours from an Apple store and i don't want to drive all the way there just for them to say there is nothing they can do. I called today and the idiot on the phone said he had never heard of the problem, but it should be covered. He sounded like he had no clue though.
 
So does anyone know if the apple store will replace the ipad if its been under 12 months. I bought my ipad 2 in February so I only have a couple months, but the closest apple store is about 2 hours away and I will be super pissed if I drive all the way there and they say they can't do anything.
 
I've noticed this on my iPad 2 as well, particularly with the Safari URL field. When a darker colour appears after having used Safari, the URL bar is clearly visible. Frustrating, yes. End of world? No. If it were happening on my retina MacBook Pro, I'd be singing a different tune entirely.
 
yeah at the moment its not really that big of an issue but i worry it might get worse over time. i am going to take it to the apple store in a couple weeks unless it somehow stops occurring. Maybe its safari because if i use chrome i do not notice any retention.
 
I took mine in to the Apple store today and they replaced it after looking at it maybe 30 seconds. Was great walked in with my 10 month old iPad 2, with a very minor screen retention issue and walk out with a brand new iPad 2. For those past there warranty, the issue never really got any worse over the few months i had it happening and i really wasn't sure they were even going to replace it for a minor issue like that.
 
I took mine in to the Apple store today and they replaced it after looking at it maybe 30 seconds. Was great walked in with my 10 month old iPad 2, with a very minor screen retention issue and walk out with a brand new iPad 2. For those past there warranty, the issue never really got any worse over the few months i had it happening and i really wasn't sure they were even going to replace it for a minor issue like that.

How do replacements work? You're in the store with a device full of personal data, and you leave without it. Do they wipe the old device in front of you before you leave? I've got image persistence on my iPad 2 and just want to know what to expect should they offer me a replacement.
 
This has been happening to my iPad 2 as well. I'm thinking of trying to get a replacement.

Recently brought mine in. The guy took a look - saw the problem, but didn't offer me a replacement as the device was beyond its warranty.
 
My iPad 2 has had this since I got it a year and a half ago :( I got it as a hand me down which had no applecare unfortunately :(
 
My iPad 2 expieriences burn-in. Has only been happening for about a year. Doesn't bother me because it's nearly 2 and a half years old. If this is the only problem I'm having, and it is, then this is one hell of a device!
 
Yeah - while it's not ideal, it's hardly a big problem. For me, it's not a constant occurrence, and it fades after ~30 seconds.
 
I replaced it at Apple 2 times already, no luck. Third time is waiting, UPS is upcoming today, and if I have no luck with that one, they might offer an upgrade :)
 
I've actually noticed this occasionally on my iphone 5 and ipad 4 since moving to ios7.

I'm thinking it's a big relating to the layered transparency effects and transitions in the OS. At least what I'm seeing isn't image retention, if I shut off the display and turn it back on everything goes back to normal. Don't know if it's the same thing or not.
 
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