Apple Fixes the iPhone X 'Unresponsive When It's Cold' Bug (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes Ars Technica: Apple released iOS 11.1.2 for iPhones and iPads Thursday afternoon. It's a minor, bug-fix update that benefits iPhone X users who encountered issues after acquiring the new phone just under two weeks ago... The update fixes just two problems. The first is "an issue where the iPhone X screen becomes temporarily unresponsive to touch after a rapid temperature drop." Last week, some iPhone X owners began reporting on Reddit and elsewhere that their touchscreens became temporarily unresponsive when going outside into the cold... The update also "addresses an issue that could cause distortion in Live Photos and videos captured with iPhone X."
The article notes that the previous update "fixed a strange and widely mocked autocorrect bug that turned the letter 'i' into strange characters."

"To date, iOS 11's updates have largely been bug fixes."

Comments

To date, iOS 11's updates have largely been bugfix

[Pieroxy]

Isn't that what minor patches are supposed to be ?

Wondering what the root cause of that issue was

[Lisandro]

And how they managed to fix it via software.

Re:Wondering what the root cause of that issue was

[DontBeAMoran]

Sounds like calibration issues to me.

Re:Wondering what the root cause of that issue was

[Tablizer]

Sounds like calibration issues to me.

Sing it: Caaalibration time, come on!...

Re:Wondering what the root cause of that issue was

[guruevi]

The iPhone screen system includes a false touch detection system. That way, if your phone is in your pocket and you brush a body part against it, it doesn't detect it as a touch or swipe. The problem with a sudden temperature differential (please note, differential, the phone would probably do the same at really hot temperatures) is that it is a similar read to the hardware as "holding an entire body part on the screen".

Many people working in hardware development have had to deal with similar issues at one point. Temperature differentials are very hard to distinguish on these type of hardware from a touch, hence why a lot of 'extreme environment' tools (eg. GPS units etc) still use resistive or infrared touch detection even though it's more expensive and less precise.

With capacitive touch screens, especially multi-touch and pressure-sensitive ones we're talking about plates that are micrometers apart. Temperature still has a physical impact (contraction/expansion) which causes your touch screen to require temperature calibration in software.

Re:Wondering what the root cause of that issue was

[DontBeAMoran]

And I'm betting the iPhone now runs a temperature calibration routine when it detects a temperature differential bigger than X since the last calibration.

Re:Wondering what the root cause of that issue was

[hcs_$reboot]

Well, when the screen is cold oled doesn't like that. So they just added a `while (1);` loop in the background that makes the CPU gently warm the screen up.

Obligatory

[Tablizer]

Steve Jobs: "You are dethawing it wrong."

Re: Obligatory

[Tablizer]

"You are thawing it wrong" sounds like a lisp.

Re:Who can afford a $1100 phone?

[TimSSG]

I can barely pay my $600 rent at the roach motel. I honestly spend more on dog food than I do on my own food.

I suggest getting rid of the dog or stop feeding the roaches dog food. Tim S.

The iHeater

[Hognoxious]

The iHeater. Only $199!

(Ca residents add sales tax)

IOS 11 has slowed my phone down to a crawl

[magzteel]

Sure, I'm on an older Iphone 6. But it was fine before, and now it's dreadful. Is there some hidden "ps" command to show what the hell it's doing?

Re:IOS 11 has slowed my phone down to a crawl

[donstenk]

A full reset did the job for me. iCloud also slows it down.

Re:Who can afford a $1100 phone?

[Hal_Porter]

With gene doubling you could have a dog sized roach. You wouldn't need to buy food. It would feed itself from birds and small mammals.

I'd have achieved it if it weren't for those FOOLS AND LUDDITES at the University Ethics Board forcing me out of my lab and making me work in primitive conditions down in the sewers.

Re:Who can afford a $1100 phone?

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

I am the dog, you insensitive clod

(In the internet no one knows you are a dog)

Re:Who can afford a $1100 phone?

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Lots of people can afford it, including me.

But do I want to? That is a different issue.

'Unresponsive When It's Cold'

[SeaFox]

Maybe they're touching it wrong.
Owners should focus on foreplay a bit more and meeting the phone's emotional needs.

Re:To date, iOS 11's updates have largely been bug

[antdude]

Did Apple not test severe temperature scenarios?