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Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up
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Agree, and think it's worth emphasizing that FaceID appears to be extremely different from the Samsung retina ID technology, which was a concentrated blast directly at the retinas.
I’ve done some limited research, but unfortunately it would be impossible to find in-depth answers, because there IS no long-term safety testing of VCSEL technology. What studies have been done do show some cause for concern.
However, I don’t doubt that PWM is causing the more immediate issue. Frankly, both of these things combined are enough for me to stay away from the iPhone X until Apple sorts it out.
So I was able to get Iris running on my old iPhone 5, it works perfectly. I'm able to set the system brightness at 100%, then manipulate it to be darker with Iris, all without changing the iOS brightness. Unfortunately, it still just crashes on my X, but I've reached out to the dev to see if there is a fix. This could be huge for those of us who are affected, now we can just leave the brightness at 100% and manually control it with Iris. Not only that, but if this actually does work, we can all reach out to Apple with this proof and show that there IS a way to control it with software. Maybe we could even get some of Iris's features included in a software update, like how they did Night Shift with F.lux in mind.
Thank you, exactly. We don't know what we should actually be concerned about, because that doesn't help marketing efforts for these companies to SELL their product.
IR Radiation is on the Electro magnetic SPECTRUM. Key word being SPECTRUM.
There is a range of types or radiation from IR sources.
The IR energy coming from our bodies, isn't the same as the IR energy coming from the sun, or being emitted by the FaceID scanning module in the iPhone X or any smart device.
As I posted earlier, they can go ahead and make sure that 99% of their devices comply with the safe-use levels of these signals, since there are multiple coming off of an iphone.
Combined effects of these, and a batch of devices that exceed those safe levels could slip through the cracks.
Just like in the 1920s they used heroin as a cure for a bad cough, and not until decades later did BASIC science and Medical knowledge realize how dangerous that was.
But at the time, that wasn't basic knowledge.
So at this point in time, we may be experiencing something that in 20-30 years people will look back and say, "I wonder why nobody was more concerned about LTE/WIFI/BlueTooth/IR signals constantly flowing through their bodies?"
Because for all we know, these seemingly innocuous and friendly smart devices, that are supposed to improve and simplify our lives, could be looked at as problematic in the future.
To have a short-term, I-trust-corporations-implicitly, attitude is dangerous and not something I'm about to let slide.
There's another thread on here talking about the IR and laser technology in the phone, and how there is a potential to disrupt proteins in the eye which can lead to long term damage.
If issues like these only affect 0.05% of users, sometimes companies will get the full go ahead for production of their product.
But if you have 80 million users lets say, 0.05% of that is 40,000 people.
If a mere 10% of those folks (4,000) complained about an issue, they would surely be drowned out by millions of folks who didn't have issues, but that doesn't negate their issue.
To think that because a product came to market, that it couldn't possibly harm or be dangerous to consumers, is exactly what corporations want you to believe.
When it comes to electronics that deal with EM, RF, and other signals -- I will always be wary.
This would be amazing, and just like Apple took forever to add Nightshift (which was obviously already capable within iOS), they need to start taking more ideas from established Jailbreak tweaks.
I used BytaFont to change the font that I look at all day, because the stock iOS font is terrible.
For such a visually stunning phone, the capability they give advanced users is non-existent.
They almost want to play it so safe, that there isn't any drop off in performance amongst apps that were developed using native iOS fonts, but I would rather have an app look a little off because of the font of my choosing, rather than not have an option at all.
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This probably doesn't solve the PWM issue but it's actually been extremely useful for me and everyone I've shared it with. If you want to set the brightness lower than the factory settings, for night reading or video in the dark etc, follow these steps, it's not too difficult: https://9to5mac.com/2016/03/18/how-to-reduce-iphone-screen-brightness-without-jailbreak/
It works on iPhones, iPads, and even the iPhone X. You'll need to triple press the power button instead of the "home" button for the X. I tried it before returning mine.
It works on iPhones, iPads, and even the iPhone X. You'll need to triple press the power button instead of the "home" button for the X. I tried it before returning mine.
Unfortunately, the dimmer the brightness, the worse the PWM. That's why Iris is a potential solution, because it can dim the brightness independently of iOS, which should theoretically limit the PWM flicker.
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It's funny that pwm is considered unacceptable by flashlight enthusiasts (yes, that's right) for even a $20 light, yet here it is on a thousand dollar phone.
I ended up going with the iPhone 8. Several short sessions at the Apple store trying the X led to headaches so I gave up. Hopefully the 6.1” LCD iphone rumors are true and I’ll get that next year.
TBH, even if eye strain and headaches weren’t a problem I’m not sure I’d like the OLED displays. I read a lot of text and the text ghosting on the OLED really annoyed me.
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I agree mostly about the watch. If you make a slow motion video you can see that the brightest portions of the display are not flickering rapidly. However the smaller darker areas like gray text flicker quite a bit. That said I’ve had the watch since series 0 with no eye strain so it seems like certain flicker frequencies could be OK. I don’t look at the watch display as long however so it’s hard to know for sure.
TBH, even if eye strain and headaches weren’t a problem I’m not sure I’d like the OLED displays. I read a lot of text and the text ghosting on the OLED really annoyed me.
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I agree mostly about the watch. If you make a slow motion video you can see that the brightest portions of the display are not flickering rapidly. However the smaller darker areas like gray text flicker quite a bit. That said I’ve had the watch since series 0 with no eye strain so it seems like certain flicker frequencies could be OK. I don’t look at the watch display as long however so it’s hard to know for sure.
Been using my X for a while now and I also suffer from headaches and eye strain. Not much I can do about returning it as I am outside the 14 day return (had it since launch). Never really considered this issue until I searched for it and found this thread. I never suffered with my old 6s.
Get rid of it and sell it. It’s not worth the health risk if your body is telling you something. I went back to an 8 plus and my eyes feel so much better. It’s a night and day difference.
Amazingly it seems the eye strain issues, and headaches I have gotten have gone away after using the phone for about a month. But I may not be the best person to use as an example. As I’m not one of those ppl who are always on their phones.
What effects on battery life have you noticed (or is it too early to say)?
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The technology that I am concerned about is truly wireless, non-inductive charging, like the Energous initiative. The idea of filling the environment with enough radiation to charge a battery sounds like as healthy an idea as the GIs in WW2 who would get a "suntan" by lying in radar dishes.
After reading more in this thread. [strike]I am convinced people are suffering from Hypocondria from using an iPhone.[/strike]
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It is real and proven real. Why would someone make up that they are getting headaches?
I can't really say, my 5's battery is pretty horrible in general
. And I'm still unable to get it working on my X, it just crashes upon opening. I'm hoping the dev can update it for iOS11.
Here is the thing. OLED screens have been available for quite some time on the Samsung phone line and other manufacturers on their high end devices. Do you see any news reports on people having headaches? [strike]No[/strike]. People tend to have placebo-like effects when something seems to be wrong although there is nothing wrong.
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Yeah, actually, we do see reports of people having issues. Google "pwm headache" and you can see that this is a real issue that affects certain people.
I expect most people affected by PWM *wish* they had hypochrondria over this - then they could happily get on and enjoy the latest tech.
Meanwhile in the real-world, PWM sufferers continue to get irritated by those who claim they are imagining it.
By the way, PWM has nothing inherently to do with OLED technology, and is widespread across LED and LCDs - it is the frequency / intensity and consequent range of side affects which varies. (as you would know, if you actually did some research on the topic)
Yes it's definitely PWM. I'm on a Pixel 2 some of the time and it's got the same pwm settings and my eyes water a bit on it. It's a beautiful display and not nearly as harsh as the one on my X but the flicker is a factor.
I haven't been on this thread in a long time but I did end up sending my X back under the extended holiday return policy and bought myself a gorgeous iPhone 8 Plus. I'm going to buy Apple Care + on this beautiful phone and keep it running until it can't run anymore if Apple doesn't get the pwm issue sorted or fails to give us decent cameras and specs on the LCD version of future models.
Also (offering this completely non-confrontationally), what I've found that shows PWM implementation in the Note 8 is quite different from what Apple is doing with the X. I haven't looked for data on other Samsung OLED phones. Both the frequency and the amount (amplitude) of the pulse matter (or at least logically should matter; I'm not an eye or brain doc) to different users. TLDR; not all PWM is created equal.
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Not sure whether you think I was disagreeing with you - I wasn't. PWM can cause eye strain and headaches. AFAIK, whatever else may or may not be true about the FaceID system, it's totally different than the Samsung retina-melting technology
and there hasn't been any data connecting FaceID to eye or head discomfort or damage.
Seems the Note 8 and iPhone X have almost the same pulse time but I think this is only part of the equation.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/PWM-Ranking-Notebooks-Smartphones-and-Tablets-with-PWM.163979.0.html
https://www.notebookcheck.net/PWM-Ranking-Notebooks-Smartphones-and-Tablets-with-PWM.163979.0.html