After reading many topics/forums and news in portals such as engadget or gizmodno regarding bad screen problem in iPod Touch, I've decided to summer up what I've found out so far.
What is a good side is that Apple adimtted there is a problem with screen, but they've announced it in a situation and time, the problem was so obvious it was impossible to say "everything's fine...". It came from "being forced" to admit it, rather than from Apple's good will... Anyways, it's always good Apple admitted the problem, it was a bit of late, but better late than never... Secondly, for a good point, Apple is not making too many problems with exchanging defective units, this is also good (though, it's a totally different story that many exchanged units being very often defective as well...). So that's for good points...
Now the bad ones....
- Apple in it's official statement said the problem affected a "smal amounts of units". This is really crappy. Company such as Apple stating that kind of lies is really bad... By "small amounts of units" we can understand 1% of total, but also 10% or 30% of total. It can be differently understood, and that's the Apple goal here... Normally, when this situations happen, most company saying how many units were affected, but Apple don't... And Apple not saying how many units are affected can mean only one thing - many units.... Sadly this is proven by so many ppl/forum/electronics portal reporting screen issues.
- Another Apple's "hiding something" in their statement is that they announced the problem is being "remedied". Again, sadly it's just making fun of every Apple cutomer in the world. What Apple understands by "being remedied" is not closing/curing bad factories or putting to trash bad screens and producing new ones - far from it! Instead, as it obiously turned out to be, Apple is "fixing" the problem by software updates only. This only fixes screens partly, becaouse hardware issues cannot be fixed by software. I'm one of those who bought this kind of unit - with a bad screen, but "fixed" by a soft update. Of course it is not fixed, rather than that it is "camouflaged", and while I admit the negative screen issues has been sort of resolved, it is still visible, but to a smaller degree, but the screen is still not good, suffers for weak blacks.
- What seems obvious is that Apple produced (or companies hired by Apple) really huge amounts of defective screens. What is crappy here is that they're not getting rid of defective screens. Instead, they're still putting it in iPod touch units, updating software which only partly handles with the problem, and saying "hurray we fixed the screen"...
- Here's even more sad part. It is not true that defective units were only those from 37 week. Apple is still puting defective screens in iPod touch. I'm one example - my iPod touch comes from 42th week and I have a bad screen. If you read topic on this forum and many others regarding screen issues, you immediately notice ppl complain a lot about their screens, and their iPod touch come from different batches/production weeks. I've read someone complaining for screen in iPod 45th week (the most recent production week)....
- It is not true that all 37 week iPods are affected. I've seen in a few Mediamarkt stores a few ipods from 37 week, and some of them were perfect (with screen quality same as iPhone with 5-series screen). The problem affects iPods on a random basis, in fact iPods from every production week are affected, and it's the matter of good luck if you happen to buy a good one or a bad one. So there's no such thing as "hey, the problem has been remedied, everythings now ok from this production week or another". Sadly the problem still exists....
Lastly, I want to say I'm really pissed about Apple, especially for what they seem to do with bad screens - instead of getting rid of them, they still put them to ipods and allowing them to appear on the market.... This is really sad and dissapointing. I'm in especially bad position here, becaouse I've bought my iPod Touch in USA, but now I'm in Poland, and I cannot pay a few houndreds of bucks for flight ticket (in fact it would be much more than iPod's worth!) just to get back to USA and exchange my unit. And I doubt polish Apple distributor would cover warranty....
If you are similar pissed for Apple then you are welcomed to write your own thoughts about it. Let's make this thread a coverage of bad screen problems.
The bad screen problem is perfectly illustrated here:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/tested-iphone-screen-better-than-the-ipod-touch-screen-299774.php
and here:
http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=205325
Actually, there is a much quicker way for you to find out if your unit is affected or not. Just plug your iPod to usb caple. Battery status icon should appear. Now examine it carefully. If you'll notice weird surroundings and distortions around battery icon, then unfortunetly your iPod have defective screen....
What is a good side is that Apple adimtted there is a problem with screen, but they've announced it in a situation and time, the problem was so obvious it was impossible to say "everything's fine...". It came from "being forced" to admit it, rather than from Apple's good will... Anyways, it's always good Apple admitted the problem, it was a bit of late, but better late than never... Secondly, for a good point, Apple is not making too many problems with exchanging defective units, this is also good (though, it's a totally different story that many exchanged units being very often defective as well...). So that's for good points...
Now the bad ones....
- Apple in it's official statement said the problem affected a "smal amounts of units". This is really crappy. Company such as Apple stating that kind of lies is really bad... By "small amounts of units" we can understand 1% of total, but also 10% or 30% of total. It can be differently understood, and that's the Apple goal here... Normally, when this situations happen, most company saying how many units were affected, but Apple don't... And Apple not saying how many units are affected can mean only one thing - many units.... Sadly this is proven by so many ppl/forum/electronics portal reporting screen issues.
- Another Apple's "hiding something" in their statement is that they announced the problem is being "remedied". Again, sadly it's just making fun of every Apple cutomer in the world. What Apple understands by "being remedied" is not closing/curing bad factories or putting to trash bad screens and producing new ones - far from it! Instead, as it obiously turned out to be, Apple is "fixing" the problem by software updates only. This only fixes screens partly, becaouse hardware issues cannot be fixed by software. I'm one of those who bought this kind of unit - with a bad screen, but "fixed" by a soft update. Of course it is not fixed, rather than that it is "camouflaged", and while I admit the negative screen issues has been sort of resolved, it is still visible, but to a smaller degree, but the screen is still not good, suffers for weak blacks.
- What seems obvious is that Apple produced (or companies hired by Apple) really huge amounts of defective screens. What is crappy here is that they're not getting rid of defective screens. Instead, they're still putting it in iPod touch units, updating software which only partly handles with the problem, and saying "hurray we fixed the screen"...
- Here's even more sad part. It is not true that defective units were only those from 37 week. Apple is still puting defective screens in iPod touch. I'm one example - my iPod touch comes from 42th week and I have a bad screen. If you read topic on this forum and many others regarding screen issues, you immediately notice ppl complain a lot about their screens, and their iPod touch come from different batches/production weeks. I've read someone complaining for screen in iPod 45th week (the most recent production week)....
- It is not true that all 37 week iPods are affected. I've seen in a few Mediamarkt stores a few ipods from 37 week, and some of them were perfect (with screen quality same as iPhone with 5-series screen). The problem affects iPods on a random basis, in fact iPods from every production week are affected, and it's the matter of good luck if you happen to buy a good one or a bad one. So there's no such thing as "hey, the problem has been remedied, everythings now ok from this production week or another". Sadly the problem still exists....
Lastly, I want to say I'm really pissed about Apple, especially for what they seem to do with bad screens - instead of getting rid of them, they still put them to ipods and allowing them to appear on the market.... This is really sad and dissapointing. I'm in especially bad position here, becaouse I've bought my iPod Touch in USA, but now I'm in Poland, and I cannot pay a few houndreds of bucks for flight ticket (in fact it would be much more than iPod's worth!) just to get back to USA and exchange my unit. And I doubt polish Apple distributor would cover warranty....
If you are similar pissed for Apple then you are welcomed to write your own thoughts about it. Let's make this thread a coverage of bad screen problems.
The bad screen problem is perfectly illustrated here:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/tested-iphone-screen-better-than-the-ipod-touch-screen-299774.php
and here:
http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=205325
Actually, there is a much quicker way for you to find out if your unit is affected or not. Just plug your iPod to usb caple. Battery status icon should appear. Now examine it carefully. If you'll notice weird surroundings and distortions around battery icon, then unfortunetly your iPod have defective screen....
