iPod Touch: 'Negative Black' Screen Issue

[ddubbo]

I am worries my friends. Something definitely is not right with Apple nowadays.

The answer is arrogance.
I am switched to Mac from Win 98 and started to use again Win Xp a year ago. Guess what? Despite all insinuations it works. No viruses, nothing collapses, nothing jams. I didn't restart for 2 month already.After it when I compared specs I saw that usually all comes from Apple is overpriced. Lets remember the Mac Mini. Probably there is no any PC at the market today using such ancient hardware. Of course, Apple products are user-friendly, but should I pay twice only for elegance?
Last years Apple spends a lot of efforts trying to persuade people how their competitors are bad, and how Apple good and innovative. They'd better put more on a quality control an lower the price

 

[freebooter]

This extremely narrow viewing angle with reversed/negative black problem is precisely the problem I've had with my C2D Macbook 1.83 glossy screen since day one.
What the hell is Apple thinking? Don't they test these things?
I'd replace the Macbook with a MacBook Pro but, oh yeah, yellowing screens.
I'm glad my iMac 24" 2.16 works well. I guess I'll be keeping it for a while.
I certainly won't be getting an iTouch Myself. $400 for 16 GB?? Ha! A big step backward for Apple, unless you are into 'slick for slickness sake.'
It'll be about a year at least before this loaf is fully baked.

 

[Markleshark]

Shame. Apple will hopefully sort it though.

 

[aidanpendragon]

The Washington Post's first look at the iPod touch describes the issue in more detail:

Eds/mods, please note that this is a PC World review reprinted by Wash. Post, and not a first look by any Post staff writers.

 

[whatever]

How Quickly They Forget

I just here more and more about quality problems with new Apple products.
It's seems to me that times of G4,G5, power macs and power books are gone

How quickly they forget. There were problems with all of those products that you mention (G5 loud fans, PowerBooks and iBooks with there pre-MagSafe connectors, to name a few).

Let's not rewrite history here.

In fact most mass produced products have problems. The number of people that actually encounter these problems are loud minority, but just that a minority!

 

[MattG]

Dont forget the battery recalls.

Or the 1st Gen aluminum Powerbooks with the dreaded white spots...wanna talk about screen issues!

 

[BornAgainMac]

The iPod Touch was crippled anyways. They should have had it open to developers, email app, editable calendar, side volume control and speaker, etc. It was crippled by design and should have had those PDA type features to take advantage of the OS and be the iPod that people wanted. It was a train wreck from the start.

 

[RCGMac]

The iPod Touch was crippled anyways. They should have had it open to developers, email app, editable calendar, side volume control and speaker, etc. It was crippled by design and should have had those PDA type features to take advantage of the OS and be the iPod that people wanted. It was a train wreck from the start.

I think Apple will add those apps to the iPod eventually. Apple had to do something to distinguish the iPhone from the iPod Touch. If Apple doesn't add these apps, I am sure a hacker will.

 

[sam10685]

Perhaps because they made sure the ones on display are good ones? It has already been documented that this issue is not affecting all ipod touches

Why would Apple make sure "good" ipods are on display and not just not care what the customer gets? Seems like that would be really bad business practices to me.

 

[razorme]

I just cancelled my order for a Touch. I was already less than impressed about the crippling of features (Mail, Notes, Calender, Widgets). I was fine with the lack of Bluetooth and Camera.

If looks like Apple really only included Safari so that you could log onto website-authenticated networks - I bet they would have stripped that out too if they could have. For those of us who already have iPods, not including PDA capabilities really reduces the desirability to upgrade.

These screen quality issues were the tipping point - why take a chance.

PS: The Canadian Exchange rates are also awful - 12.5% higher on 16 GB model.. should be no more than 5% (current exchange rates are ~3%).

 

[LaMerVipere]

Man people are picky. I went to the Apple Store last week and didn't notice a thing when I played with them.

All the iPod touch models on display at the Apple Store I was at were the 8GB model, which seems to be generating less reports of display issues than the 16GB. Something to keep in mind.

 

[superted666]

I have had apple products since the ibook g4 first appearance.

Ive owned maybe 3-4 products a year up to now and never had a problem, then i got a macbook

Wonderful machine but 4 repairs one of which was a whole new macbook (free upgrade granted). thats quite some going on a single laptop and all of the problems have been QC related.

its a shame because one of the reasons i used macs are because they were bullet proof.

Jobs values customers so hopefully he will take this into account and re-visit the QC process that apple puts into play.

 

[Westside guy]

People on that YouTube discussion are saying they're canceling their Touch orders.

When reading forums and such, generally it's not wise to assume everyone is telling the truth. Perhaps they should include a scan of their original invoice to prove they actually place an order in the first place.

But having said that, this makes me glad I decided to wait. I went through the Powerbook "white spot" problem - Apple was great about fixing it, but they ended up replacing the display three times! People don't really want even a great warranty if they keep having to use it...

Buying Rev. A stuff often requires an amount of patience I don't really have. But it is hard to hold out when the next really new and cool thing comes out...

 

[MattG]

Originally Posted by sam10685
Man people are picky. I went to the Apple Store last week and didn't notice a thing when I played with them.

For $400 I think they have every right to be.

 

[kidzdoc]

No problems with my 16GB iPod Touch

After reading all the comments, I went and transferred Black Hawk Down onto my iPod Touch since this movie has many dark scenes along with explosions at night to see whether mine had the Negative Black screen issues. Fortunately, I did not see any of the described problems. Maybe I was lucky in my purchase.

Loving the iPod Touch so far.

- Doc

 

[BWhaler]

I cancelled my order for a 16GB iPod touch from the UK Apple Store yesterday. I think I will wait it out a little longer and see what happens.

All the cancelled orders should be getting Apple's attention by now as there seem to be quite a few people doing the same thing.

I do hope this is a software issue, BUT I suspect it is not and a bad batch of screens have been used by the manufacturer.

Ian

I spoke with 3 people today who said the same thing.

Also, I have heard that the iPhone screen has been switched too. (Now that the initial reviews are done, this change was made to help offset the new lower price.)

Apple really needs to get their act together.

 

[observer]

The iPod Touch was crippled anyways.

This is witty, but bogus.

I finally got around to watching a video of the iTouch operation. About halfway through I realized that the cool features were all **iPod** activities – flipping through albums, selecting songs, buying from iTunes. The iTouch is very good indeed as an iPod. The screen problem seems to be a manufacturing issue – I’ll bet the factory changed a process to save some money and tried to sneak it through, hoping that nobody at Apple would notice. It’ll get fixed.

The complaints about “crippling” are all with respect to non-iPod functions. Apple has, openly and explicitly, not provided the stuff people have come to expect in PDAs. Maybe they feel they can’t do it well yet? Perhaps not in this form? Perhaps they feel it’s not worth doing? It’s clear that both the iPhone and the iTouch can be used for things that Apple has not planned for, yet. I’ve been tempted to get one and use it as a laptop replacement. But, I’ve decided that this size screen just can’t do what I need, no matter how good the user interface is. I’ll wait for the next larger version.

If you want a video iPod, both the iTouch and the iPhone look great. If you want to use the iTouch as a PDA, either live with web apps or wait for the hackers to come through. Or be a hacker and make it do what you want. But don’t bitch because Apple didn’t make the gadget you would have made if you were them.

 

[nubero]

This seems pretty lame. Apple really needs to work on their display quality control.

quality control in general you mean.

i've never seen so many apple products that were of such low quality as these days. i would gladly pay more money for better quality...

i saw this coming a few years back when everybody demanded cheaper - excuse me - more affordable products from apple.

i'm not saying that we should go back to that ridiculously high pricing of the old days but 100$ more for the cinema displays and the imacs each and 50$ more for the iPod touch and iPhone should buy a lot of headroom for quality control and better components.

what do you guys think? would you pay more for better quality? maybe we should have a poll

www.nubero.ch

 

[aidanpendragon]

This is witty, but bogus.

I finally got around to watching a video of the iTouch operation. About halfway through I realized that the cool features were all **iPod** activities – flipping through albums, selecting songs, buying from iTunes. The iTouch is very good indeed as an iPod. The screen problem seems to be a manufacturing issue – I’ll bet the factory changed a process to save some money and tried to sneak it through, hoping that nobody at Apple would notice. It’ll get fixed.

The complaints about “crippling” are all with respect to non-iPod functions. Apple has, openly and explicitly, not provided the stuff people have come to expect in PDAs. Maybe they feel they can’t do it well yet? Perhaps not in this form? Perhaps they feel it’s not worth doing? It’s clear that both the iPhone and the iTouch can be used for things that Apple has not planned for, yet. I’ve been tempted to get one and use it as a laptop replacement. But, I’ve decided that this size screen just can’t do what I need, no matter how good the user interface is. I’ll wait for the next larger version.

If you want a video iPod, both the iTouch and the iPhone look great. If you want to use the iTouch as a PDA, either live with web apps or wait for the hackers to come through. Or be a hacker and make it do what you want. But don’t bitch because Apple didn’t make the gadget you would have made if you were them.

This is well said. Having wanted a video player, I'm very happy with my Touch (and its non-bad screen, lucky!). So far, it seems to excel for this purpose, which is clearly its intended use.

Now that there's no longer a price difference, if you want a swiss army web widget (more than a video player), get an iPhone and either register or unlock it. If you want video primarily, get a Touch. If you want music, get a Classic. If you want to not spend a lot, get a Nano. Seems to be fairly good market segmentation.

...If the iPhone was still $599, I could see complaining that the Touch isn't "everything but the Phone." But at $399, there are options.

 

[jhsfosho]

Well, I'm glad I waited until they were released until getting an ipod touch. I suppose I've waited this long, what does a little bit more waiting matter now. Please Apple, get this sorted out quickly.

 

[celavato]

iPhone Too

For what it's worth, when I look at my iPhone straight on, the black areas look "shimmery" too. Tilting it slightly makes the picture look fine. I was slightly annoyed by this at first, but decided it's really not that big of a deal to just tilt the thing a little.

Yes, later model iPhones have the same "negative black" problem -- I have one. Here is a good test video -- watch the last 30 seconds and you'll know if your iPod touch or iPhone has this problem. If you click this link on your iPod touch or iPhone, the YouTube application will open and play the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuBoAPFRlDA

 

[queshy]

Alright, I've heard enough - my order has been cancelled. Until I can come to this forum and see that people are happy with the QC on the touch, I'm not going to buy it. I also don't want to buy it from the apple store because of their ridiculous return policies. I'll wait for it to come to future shop...they have a great return policy.

 

[lorien]

So much for watching Lord of the Rings on a touchpod

 

[Mudo]

And this is why I rarely am an early adopter. Cutting edge is ok, bleeding edge is expensive.

 

[celavato]

What amazes me is Microsoft/Dell/Sony hasn't figured this out yet. It's Apple's achieles heal. If I were working at one of those companies, I would position Apple as the "Ferrari" of the IT world. Beautiful, sure, but expensive and so riddled with quality issues, that the car is in the shop most of the time.

I think you mean Jaguar. Ferraris are actually quite reliable.