Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone 5S users have been facing a glitch in the latest fingerprint sensor feature, which, as per a new report, may be due to the new accelerometer supplier Bosch Sensortech. A few days back, Gizmodo claimed that a switch in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s accelerometer supplier may be the primary reason for misreading experiences in the iOS 7 compass app.
APple’s iPhone 5S glitch is suppliers’ fault
Chipworks, during a teardown, came across the fact that the iPhone 5S uses an accelerometer made by Bosch Sensortech, in contrast to older models that used STMicroelectronics silicon. Though STM does not make accelerometers now for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), it still makes three-axis gyroscopes for the 5S.
The new part is different in its performance from the older ones because component specification is not same for all manufacturers. This implies that apps, which are fed with raw data, may give wrong or different outputs
“In our own anecdotal testing, we found the Compass app’s level to be off by some three to five percent against a physical tubular spirit measure, even after recalibrating multiple times,” says a report from AppleInsider.
RealityCap, a company specializing in sensor-based real-time 3D location software for iOS gave a clearer insight as CEO Eagle Jones explained in his blog post that the precision of an accelerometer depends upon variance, or the consistency in readings, and bias, or constant inaccuracy due to manufacturing glitches.
Apple still to comment on iPhone 5S issue
Jones feels that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will come out with a solution to this issue by designing a recalibrated firmware bias at the factory. Apart from that a manual calibration can be achieved on an app-by-app basis, a solution RealityCap is currently working on.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is still mum on the issue. The greatest disappointment comes from the company because it has employed an inferior part without compensating for it. The company can bring in some changes through additional calibration step for its apps and help developers with some sample codes. However, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has not taken any steps as of now, and there are no indications when a correctionwill happen.
As of now, there is no official solution to the issue, and in that case developers could fix the issue on their own by adding their own calibration logic to nullify the error, according to Gizmodo.
