Apple support forum users claiming to be iOS 7 users complain of motion sickness

“Apple’s iPhone and iPad owners have been taking to the company’s forums over the past week to complain about iOS 7’s new parallax and zoom features,” Don Reisinger reports for CNET.

“Many of the folks in the forum said that they’ve experienced motion sickness, vertigo, nausea, and headaches due to the motion on-screen,'” Reisinger reports. “‘The zoom animations everywhere on the new iOS 7 are literally making me nauseous and giving me a headache,’ one forum poster wrote last week. ‘It’s exactly how I used to get car sick if I tried to read in the car.'”

MacDailyNews Take: Wow, “nauseous” spelled right and everything. Those automated Korean to English translators are getting better every day.

Reisinger reports, “Although zoom functions will likely remain in place with no ability to modify them, the parallax option can be mitigated from the Accessibility menu in iOS 7. Upon choosing ‘reduce motion,’ users should be able to turn off the parallax function.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Compare the accuracy of our headline to CNET’s: “iPhone, iPad owners complain of motion sickness due to iOS 7.” (The Verge‘s headline and article, from whence CNET based their article, suffers from the same problem.)

Prove it.

With Samsung known to pay off people to pose as Apple product users and post FUD online (example here and , forgive us if we’re skeptical.

Furthermore, what’s to stop a writer who needs an article posthaste from salting Apple’s support forums with whatever they want to write about? Answer: Nothing, except morals.

And besides, anything with a screen that has movement on it is capable of causing motion sickness in some segment of the population that is susceptible to or kinetosis.

In related news, an Apple forum user calling himself “Carpenter” and claiming to be an iPhone user last month wrote, “this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder” unless he issues Apple’s Siri the daily command, “Klaatu barada nikto!”

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “David M.” for the heads up.]

Related articles:
Prominent Weibo users, Samsung spokesman paid to bash Apple – March 17, 2013
Convicted patent infringer Samsung paying students for ‘fake Web reviews’ — did it attack Apple, too? – April 17, 2013\

102 Comments

        1. Turned off by default on the iPhone 4 due to the limited hardware. Transparency effects are also turned off. There is no option to turn these functions on, because the hardware simply can’t handle it.

  1. I wouldn’t put it past Samslug to trump up drama. Of course I wouldn’t put it past some class(less) action lawyer either.

    The dynamic wallpaper doesn’t seem to exhibit the parallax effect nearly the way a still image does. Although, I’m surprised Apple doesn’t let you speed up/slow down the animations.

  2. MDN, don’t be too quick to judge. I can vouch for the fact that one of my ipad games utilizes “walking motion” and I know that it will give me motion sickness. That said, I get NO motion sickness from ios 7, and I’m a HEAVY user. I am susceptible to motion sickness, but realize I may not be as prone to it as others. I DO know that one “feature” that will never be used in my home will be 3D TV. THAT is a proven motion sickness inducement in my case.

    1. Every xBox or PS3 game will do the same thing. It’s a problem for some no matter what the platform and isn’t exclusive to iOS devices.

      I used to get it the first hour I played Quake on a computer over 12 years ago, but it never came back.

    2. Yes, because in a game, you are constantly looking at the motion effect and even concentrating on it, as part of the game experience.

      The parallax and zoom effects in iOS 7 only occur in specific situations. So, unless the user is staring intently at the iDevice Home screen, for minutes at a time, while intentionally moving the device around to maximize the effect, it’s not going to cause “motion sickness.”

      1. I understand. I even agree with all you say. I just don’t feel confident that I can say “no one is going to be affected”. Honestly, this can’t affect many. Most people are not so deathly allergic that they need to be isolated in a bubble. Most are not subject to seizures just because a light is strobing within eyesight. That doesn’t mean those things don’t happen. All this commentary without any investigation is just plain ridiculous. If it is a possible, it will be confirmed. If not, that will also be confirmed. None of the sniping on this website will have an effect either way, except to generate a lot of static, and create a false sort of mass certainty.

        1. No, we DO need to ignore it. How many people are making this comment? A few dozen, at most? Let’s say it’s a few thousand, just for kicks… say 2000.

          Apple recently announced that 600 million iOS devices had been sold to date, and 93% of them were running iOS 6 (the latest version at that time). Adoption rate for iOS 7 has been record-breaking high, but let’s be conservative and say that there are 200 million iOS 7 users out there right now.

          2000 is 0.001 percent of 200,000,000. That’s one-thousandth of a percent. It’s essentially (and statistically) zero. And the number actually making this complaint is almost certainly closer to a few dozen than a few thousands.

          If even one-tenth of a percent of iOS 7 users really experience motion sickness from using iOS 7, that’s 200,000 users. There would be lines at Genius Bars around the world, of people wanting to downgrade. And THAT would get A LOT more attention from the media than a few unverified comments on Apple’s user support forum.

        2. You’re absolutely right! We do need to ignore it, NOT COMMENT ON IT! And not pass ignorant judgement on it! I work in a hospital environment, so am perhaps more sensitive and knowledgeable about the strange reactions that people can have to stimuli. The ignorant comments judging people in this forum are what prompted my first response and my followups. Follow you’re own advise and just ignore it. I don’t care if only one person is affected. Don’t crucify that one out of ignorance.

  3. “Wow, “nauseous” spelled right and everything.”

    True, but used wrong. Something that causes nausea is nauseous. Rotten fish is nauseous – it makes a person feel nauseated. Paraphrasing Strunk, “use nauseated, unless you are sure you have that effect on others.”

    As for the wallpapers, the moving ones are a bit freaky to stare at, so I just use a still one.

    1. spot on. I was going to point that out.

      It is disgusting how little empathy MDN offers. Some people are indeed very sensitive and prone to nausea. It shows poor form to accuse, with no facts, a person of lying, as MDN and others are doing here. If you want to bring forth some valid facts to show the severity or frequency of the issue, then do so. But don’t be the condescending blowhard who, with no investigation whatsoever, declares there is no issue. MDN and many fanboys here do that all too often. Good companies make mistakes, and great companies fix them. We can only hope that Apple fixes them.

      Sure, we all know that many “reviews” and “blogs” are corrupt. But sensitivity to parallax isn’t a new phenomenon, and Apple obviously underestimated the effects. As I said above, it serves no one to dismiss claims.

      Like much “3D” television content, Ive’s flat picture-box look is simply not an improvement over 2D screen presentation with color gradient and textures that mimic what we experience in real life. Quite simply, iOS7 looks like a cheap stencil instead of a picture that flowers.

      Prior iOS versions, while indeed having inadequate interface controls, at least looked like a relatively decent representation of a physical device, with far less motion gimmicks and better straightforward intuitive GUI. Apple needs to bring back life into the washed-out iOS7.

      1. I am EXTREMELY sensitive to motion sickness — so much so I can’t even go on a simple kiddy Merry-Go-Round without serious effects. But I don’t see how the TINY parallax effect of the home screen could affect anyone — unless you were staring at it for hours (in which case, motion sickness is the LEAST of your worries).

        Seriously now, is this the best that the Apple-haters can come up with?

        1. Ever heard of the expression “your mileage may vary”? Well, the fact that someone experiences something different than you does not make them a “hater”. Grow up.

        2. So many people in this forum have their head up their asses. The zoom effect makes me feel slightly nauseated at times. I have no doubt others who are sensitive to motion sickness have issues with iOS 7 as well. Those in this forum who are blaming this issue on “mass hysteria” do not have a good grasp of reality.

    1. So many people in this forum have their head up their asses. The zoom effect makes me feel slightly nauseated at times. I have no doubt others who are sensitive to motion sickness have issues with iOS 7 as well. Those in this forum who are blaming this issue on “mass hysteria” do not have a good grasp of reality.

  4. Hey MDN: Your comments suggest you think this complaint has been trumped up, but I assure you that it hasn’t. I noticed it the first time I used my iPhone after upgrading to iOS 7 and I still feel it today when my iPhone zooms into the Home screen after entering my passcode. It’s a real issue, many people are complaining about it on the Apple forums, and don’t make yourself look foolish by denying the existence of something you evidently know nothing about.

    1. One split second of the apps descending in and immediately stopping gives you motion sickness? Really? Usually the visual has to be prolonged for more than a second to have that effect.
      I can’t read in a car or do spinny rides at fairs, so I would think I’m somewhat susceptible, so I find this phone issue an extreme also. I find the effects rather subtle.

  5. I barely notice the parallax effect on my wallpapers, and the zoom effect certainly doesn’t give me any kind of nausea, or any other motion induced ill-feelings.
    I’m just disappointed that the landscape scroll function has been removed from the OS on anything other than the 5c/5s.

        1. breeze, you have never displayed a sense of humor. the vast majority of what you write is incendiary personal attacks.

          If you hear laughter, it is directed AT you, likely a polite response to the civil amongst us who are appalled at your public immaturity..

  6. Just how close do they have their phones to their faces? Wouldn’t the display have to take up a certain percentage of your field of view in order to affect your equilibrium?

    I can see it possibly happening on an iPad, but a screen the size of an iPhone? Really?

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