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iPod Touch Showing Severe Black Level Issues  (Source: Image via iLounge)
iPod Touch and Nano owners report serious issues with LCD displays

Few will argue that Apple has over the years had some issues with its first generation products. The latest item to fall victim to the first generation blues is the much-hyped iPod Touch. There are many accounts from iPod touch owners coming in citing some serious issues with the LCD display.

Several accounts and many pictures floating around online from various places such as iLounge and Apple’s own forums show issues with black levels on the iPod touch screen. Black levels are easily noticeably very poor and bleed onto other colors to the point of making images, movies and album art a mess at times.

There is no official word from Apple on the cause of this issue and it remains unclear at this point if the issue with black levels is wide spread or limited to only a few of the iPod touch’s in circulation. 

The Touch isn’t the only new iPod that has owners facing some serious issues. Several owners of the new iPod nano are having an issue with the alignment of the LCD screen. Reports are coming in that the new iPod nano’s have what appears to be a slight tilt to the left so the screen doesn’t align with the case of the iPod nano.

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While people will be quick to attack...
By JasonMick (blog) on 9/17/2007 1:02:54 PM , Rating: 2
I think that Apple deserves a chance to prove itself in this case by improving the hardware/etc and issuing an appropriate response.

Do not misunderstand my remark--I think a first gen problem such as RROD (XBox 360), or the various past iPod hardware glitches are definitely bad things. They are evidence of negligence, and indicate a rushed hw development cycle.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean the flawed product itself is on a whole bad or that the problem can't be fixed. The real test is whether the company addresses its mistake and makes moves to correct it.

Hopefully Apple will pleasantly suprise us on this one.




By ajira99 on 9/17/2007 1:11:19 PM , Rating: 2
Don't count on another iTunes store credit.


RE: While people will be quick to attack...
By helios220 on 9/17/2007 1:28:24 PM , Rating: 3
My question is where are people getting these units that are supposedly defective?

iPod isn't listed as coming out until September 30th, and the new iPod Nanos are not out yet either (that I am aware of).

I'm not trying to stand up for Apple and I'm well aware of the concept of review and dev versions of hardware and software, I'm just sort of curious how there could be droves of complaints coming in for products that aren’t even out yet.


By helios220 on 9/17/2007 1:30:27 PM , Rating: 3
d'oh, correction: I meant to say iPod Touch isn't listed as coming out until September 30th on any of the retail sites that I've checked.


By InsidiousAngel on 9/17/2007 1:34:01 PM , Rating: 2
While the touch isn’t slated till the 28th, the new classics and nano's are out everywhere. I just picked one up from Target last night (and seen them at wally world, best buy, CompUSA, etc.) and haven't had a chance to play with it. I'll look when I get off work and see if it suffers from what people are complaining about.


RE: While people will be quick to attack...
By The0ne on 9/17/2007 3:10:14 PM , Rating: 3
My co-worker (intern) just bought his this weekend at the mall. He purchased the 16gig model and the issue is there. He's trying to contact Apple, to no avail, and the store to see if they can do something about it. The articles and forums are correct about the issue.

Some stores are lucky to have inventory before the date I guess.


By encryptkeeper on 9/18/2007 12:04:21 PM , Rating: 2
He just bought it this weekend? Why not exchange it where it was bought from...


RE: While people will be quick to attack...
By TomZ on 9/17/2007 1:45:30 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
However, that doesn't necessarily mean the flawed product itself is on a whole bad or that the problem can't be fixed. The real test is whether the company addresses its mistake and makes moves to correct it.

Jason, how about this: let's hold Apple (and other companies) to a new standard. I call this standard fix your product before you ship it. That's what a "quality" company would do.

Consumers are becoming too accustomed to crap being released, with promises to fix it later.


RE: While people will be quick to attack...
By xsilver on 9/18/2007 7:21:44 AM , Rating: 2
From their point of view, its all about the numbers.

You're not going to test every product like a chronometre watch. Thats why those watches are $2k minimum.

They accept that they'res a chance that 0.01% or whatever are defective when coming out of the factory. It would cost them X dollars to replace these under warranty, and its cheaper than the Y dollars that it would cost to have more stringent QC.

When the X dollars is less than the Y dollars, thats when they ship the product, otherwise you'd never get it.


By TomZ on 9/18/2007 8:59:33 AM , Rating: 2
The problem "taking a chance" is that it's also a good way to get to a 10% defect rate.


RE: While people will be quick to attack...
By walk2k on 9/17/2007 1:49:07 PM , Rating: 4
Well... I was about to say "cue the Applepologists" but jeez you beat me to it.

Apple ships millions of defective products but we should "give them a break" ... why exactly?

You know if this was Sony or even Microsoft people would be calling for heads to roll but OH no not Apple they can do NO wrong.


By Anh Huynh on 9/17/2007 3:50:28 PM , Rating: 2
We'll give them a break because they'll issue rebates for everything :p.

I'm not being serious by the way.


RE: While people will be quick to attack...
By nace186 on 9/17/2007 2:00:16 PM , Rating: 2
I don't know if you can call this a first gen. In my opinion, I would think the iphone is the first gen, and the Touch is the derivative of it. Therefore it should have been thoroughly tested for this kind of problems.


By afkrotch on 9/17/2007 6:41:45 PM , Rating: 2
I don't care if it's a 1st gen or 8th gen, all products should be thoroughly test for this kind of problem. Quality Assurance office. Every company should have one.


By Polynikes on 9/17/2007 3:49:05 PM , Rating: 2
This and the problems with the iPhone's screen are perfect examples of why I won't touch 1st-gen Apple products. Don't get me wrong, I think the innovation is great, but why on earth would you be a first adopter unless you were filthy stinking rich?


black level
By adam92682 on 9/17/2007 1:31:44 PM , Rating: 2
cant you adjust the brightness/contrast on these?




RE: black level
By walk2k on 9/17/2007 2:06:38 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah I have to say, it looks like someone just cranked the contrast on it and took a picture. That doesn't mean its defective, it just means the picture turns to crap if you crank the contrast/whatever all the way - that's very common with LCD screens.

Now if it looks like that all the time, no matter what you set the brightness to, then ... nevermind.


RE: black level
By Stan11003 on 9/17/2007 2:22:44 PM , Rating: 4
Silly goose, apple doesn't allow us poor slobs to adjust contrast or colors on their hardware.


RE: black level
By plewis00 on 9/17/2007 2:32:25 PM , Rating: 2
You don't normally get contrast adjustment on digitally-controlled TFT panels. Back in the day of passive-matrix displays you did need this setting. Also with analog-linked TFT displays (i.e. PC monitors). But there are very few active-matrix based pieces of kit (which are digitally linked, i.e. laptops, desktops over DVI, phones, MP3 players) with contrast adjustment. There is a brightness adjustment which controls the LED brightness in the LCD for iPods though. That photo does look a bit extreme...

I got an iPod Classic and Nano Video when they came out, they've both been returned now. I found the Classic rebooting extremely frequently and horribly sluggish (especially when using that new UI where the album covers and videos float past). The Nano Video I found was far too quiet. I've gone back to the old Nano 2G until they iron out the issues. I have to say I was quite fond of the Nano 2G's all aluminium casing, it's a lot more robust than that thin polishing steel casing on it now.


Problem
By gramboh on 9/17/2007 3:00:59 PM , Rating: 2
The 'problem' is likely that they used low quality LCD panels in the device.

My roommate has an iPhone and it doesn't seem to suffer from excessive bleeding. They must have used a different/cheaper screen in the new iPods?




RE: Problem
By otispunkmeyer on 9/17/2007 3:29:51 PM , Rating: 2
arent these touches smaller than the iphone? would mean they have to use a different screen

anyway i dont think apple limits itself to 1st gens either, they seem to never get anything just right. the last mac book pro update for example. there were tons of complaints about the LED back lit screens having nasty yellowing on the bottom 3rd of the screen. it seemed to be mainly with the samsung panels.

but there were so many with this bad panel that even a simple exchange couldnt guarantee you an acceptable one.