“Apple Maps may sometimes send clueless drivers off the beaten path and even onto active airstrips, but the company may be facing a far deeper problem with its new flagship iPhone 5S’ directional capabilities,” Nick Statt reports for CNET. “Widespread reports are claiming that the new device’s motion sensors are highly error-prone, and the problem could be on the software side or a calibration error built into the handset itself.”
“The staff over at Gizmodo took the iPhone 5S to task in multiple tests, finding the iPhone 5S’ motion sensors giving readouts that are wildly different than those of the iPhone 5,” Statt reports. “The app most affected is Apple’s native compass. In displaying direction, it shows discrepancies on average of 8 to 10 degrees compared with the iPhone 5 with both running iOS 7.”
“Gaming is also affected as the accelerometer is used to maneuver in many driving and physics-based games that rely on the tilting of the screen to achieve in-game motion,” Statt reports. “The iPhone 5S’ directional faults aren’t the only issues with the the compass app. The new inclinometer and gyroscope, available in iOS 7, are opened by swiping left on the compass’ first screen and are, again, showing faulty information when compared with the iPhone 5.”
Statt reports, “The problem could in fact be a hardware issue given the iPhone 5 and 5S running the same software display different readouts. Apple has not confirmed the issue nor has it publicly acknowledged it in any way. In the case that it is hardware, there’s little users could do to remedy the issue save for turning in their iPhone for a new one. However, some users have reported the same issues cropping up with replacement units, suggesting the motion sensor malfunctioning could be a widespread problem.”
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“It’s hard to believe that Apple would mess up so momentously, but it seems that the gyroscope, compass, and accelerometer are all faulty on the iPhone 5S,” Sebastian Anthony reports for ExtremeTech. “It isn’t clear if the sensors themselves are broken or poorly calibrated, but the result is the same: You should not use your iPhone 5S for anything that relies on these sensors, such as playing games, checking the level of your latest DIY efforts, or navigating dense woodland.”
“Apple, of course, will be desperately trying to avoid a product recall. It hasn’t yet issued an official response, but following the high-profile coverage from Gizmodo and other tech blogs, it’s probably only a matter of time,” Anthony reports. “Ultimately, it will probably come down to whether sensors being off by a few percent is actually a serious issue. For gaming, it might be irksome, but it probably isn’t a deal breaker. If someone gets lost in the wilderness and dies/breaks a leg/suffers from PTSD due to a faulty iPhone 5S compass, though, then Sensorgate could blow up in a big way.”
Read more in the full article here.