Am I the only one that seems to be having a major issue with this? It comes up more with the added on screen keyboard in 1.5, it seems.
The corners of the G1 screen do not respond to touch at all, and I find myself always having trouble hitting the keys on the corners of the virtual keyboard. Applications that require you to touch any corner of the screen with precision (ie tic-tac-toe) are annoying as well because it's difficult to get it to work.
Is there any fix in sight or is it a hardware limitation?
definitely a hardware limitation.
hardware limitation means: normal hardware limitation or limited due failure????
I only experience this problem with the right edge of my phone. The top, left, and bottom don't have any problems.
Touch also seems to be less sensitive when the phone is rested flat.
My phone has the sensitivity problem on the edges too (mostly on the right and top sides).
For example, it's almost impossible to drag an icon to the left screen, because it doesn't seem to reach the threshold area.
The protective screen (boxwave anti-glare) made the problem even worse, but since it's much more comfortable than the glass, I won't be taking it off.
The easiest way to test all this is to use the whiteboard application.
So, I ask the developers: Please don't place the buttons on the edges of the screen!
The worst apps in this regard I've seen so far were the Video player (don't remember its exact name, its seek slider was unusable), and the sudoku with the number chooser in the bottom. OpenHome's app slider has the same problem.
I've got my HTC magic last week and order a stylus pen to use with it. The problem is that the phone only respond to finger tap, and I must be holding it. If it is, for example, on the car support and I tap it with my finger it does not respond to touch. Does anyone else have this problem?
Thank you!
The HTC Magic has a captive touch screen, these types of touchscreens only work to the touch of the finger and hence will not work with a stylus.
I also have this problem, not that with the stylus ( I know it can´t be used with stylus). When laying the phone on a tabele an using with only my fingers the respons is very bad. When holding the phone in my hand it´s perfect.
Anyone knows why???
Instead of tapping the screen try a light press, it does not respond to a tap or quick jab with the finger. Go Here and you can read how the Capacitive Touchscreen works.
Clinton
Best thing that i've found to do, is make a circuit with the phone:
When its flat or in car holder if you make your thumb touch the bottom of the phone (near the roller ball) then use your finger to do the action required this seems to work!
Don't know why, but it does!
If anyone noticed, if you hold your Magic in one hand and use the other hand to point etc, the sensitivity sort of goes down.
Using the fingers (or rather thumb) of the same hand in which you hold your Magic would produce an insanely much better result!
atan.ismail said:
If anyone noticed, if you hold your Magic in one hand and use the other hand to point etc, the sensitivity sort of goes down.
Using the fingers (or rather thumb) of the same hand in which you hold your Magic would produce an insanely much better result!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's due to the orientation of your fingers. Again, it's due to the capacitive screen. Using your thumb on the same hand that's holding the phone, you have more surface area touching on the screen where as if you "point" with the finger (I'm presuming your index) with the empty hand, the surface area is less. You can do a simple test. Press the screen like you were pointing at it then do the same but this time, press it like you were giving your finger print but not as wide.
is the screen heat or pressure sensitive, and how is the multitouch?
Neither. And so far I can't complain about the screen one bit. I do find myself simply tapping the screen to auto-size the browser, been easier than using two hands.
Its heat although the proper name is Capacitive meaning is only works with fingertips or a specialized " iphone " stylus, which i have and dont work very well tbh although mine was a cheapy off ebay (like 60cent for 2)
i just tried one at the store and noticed that it was not as sensitive as the iphone's. if my finger was on the hero light enough there was no response, but no matter how light i try to go on the iphone it always responds.
It is not heat.
Wiki:
"A capacitive touchscreen panel consists of an insulator such as glasshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass, coated with a transparent conductor such as indium tin oxidehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indium_tin_oxide (ITO). As the human body is also a conductor, touching the surface of the screen results in a distortion of the local electrostatic field, measurable as a change in capacitance."
And who cares if it's not as sensitive as the iphone? When would you ever try to press a button as lightly as possible in real life? I find it better that you actually need to touch the screen for a button press, leads to fewer mistakes with random light button brushing. I have yet to find a time when the screen doesn't respond when I want it to.
Feels just as sensitive to me. I very lightly ran my finger over the screen and it responded just as well.
sometimes my phones touchscreen becomes unresponsive when its flat on its back on a table for example. I unlock the screen with the trackpad or power button so that the screen comes on. Then when i try to slide the lockscreen it doesnt do anything. When i begin sliding the bar from the total edge of the screen it sometimes works.
Usually i just have to pick up the phone to get the touchscreen working again. actually, when i even lift up the phone the slightest bit, it works again.
Weird right?
anyone else experiences this issue ?
I assumed it was designed to work like this. Makes me move my phone rather than just slide to snooze the alarm then go back to sleep.
Same here. I think it has to do with the capacative toucscreen.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
wileykat said:
I assumed it was designed to work like this. Makes me move my phone rather than just slide to snooze the alarm then go back to sleep.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you're saying you move your phone to snooze the alarm? didnt know it could do that, gonna try that out tomorrow morning
forgot to mention the issue is not ROM specific. I have witnessed it on virtuous, CM, MIUI, stock
Ive had this problem as well. Slightly annoying!
I don't think its a design issue..
you don't have to lift your phone to get the screen to respond.
notice that it is enough just to touch the body of the phone to make the screen responsive again..
for me its very annoying, especially not being able to snooze the alarm in the morning
Let me point out that this happens with my G1 also so its not just the G2.
Yeah, there are a few discussions about this on the forums already. It's most likely a capacitance issue. When your phone is just sitting on a table and you touch the display, you may not create enough capacitance with the touchscreen for it to register as a touch (as opposed to resistive touchscreens which needed only physical contact but were less accurate as a result). Touching the body of the phone basically creates a common ground or voltage reference point for the phone, allowing your finger to create the needed amount of capacitance (in technical terms, no longer a floating ground). Whenever I touch the screen while the phone is lying on a table, I just always make sure to rest either my thumb or ring finger on one of the edges.
A lot of factors will also come into play---whether or not your phone is in a case, type of material the phone is resting on, the level of humidity in the air, even potentially the type of shoes you are wearing. This is why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
ianmcquinn said:
(...) Touching the body of the phone basically creates a common ground or voltage reference point for the phone, allowing your finger to create the needed amount of capacitance (in technical terms, no longer a floating ground). (...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes! I just figured this out myself. merely touching the body of the phone makes the screen respond to my fingers.
well in that case its not really a big problem. from now on i just touch teh body with my middle finger while sliding with my index finger =D
liory said:
notice that it is enough just to touch the body of the phone to make the screen responsive again..
for me its very annoying, especially not being able to snooze the alarm in the morning
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will give this a go tomorrow, I hope it doesn't work!!!.... I'm gonna be forever snoozing with 2 fingers now!!!
This seems to be temperature related (and it doesn't happen on a mytouch 3g)
I live in Minnesota and I deliver pizza. When I would need to call a customer to get into an apartment building, I would set the phone on top of the pizza bag and dial with one hand.
When I first got my G2 (early november) I had no problems doing this, then one day it wouldn't respond at all to touch. I still had my old mytouch 3g with me because the old number wasn't ported yet, and I was able to use that to make the call. It wasn't until later that I realized that the problem was caused by the cold and that I needed to touch the metal part to make it work, so I thought that the touchscreen on my 2 week old G2 had just died.
At room temperature the touch screen always works (I can silence the alarm while it's sitting on the table), but temperatures below 50F cause problems
I started noticing this as well. Sometimes I'll hit the power button to turn my phone on from idle-state and then I'll drag the unlock button with to no avail! But then again, I do use my thumb to do it so maybe the capacitance by using the thumb isn't good enough to unlock it.
I use my phone at work a lot so in order to text while being discreet, I usually have the phone in my right hand and text / unlock the phone using my thumb. I doubt it is a defect but it had me worried too. Guess I'm not the only one experiencing this. (Although I must say, dragging my thumb to swype and using the side of my thumb probably is the reason why it sometimes doesn't work)
Back when I had my g1 it did the same thing and experience this on my g2....if its laying down its like it thinks its just on in your pocket so the touch seems limited
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Elegy said:
sometimes my phones touchscreen becomes unresponsive when its flat on its back on a table for example. I unlock the screen with the trackpad or power button so that the screen comes on. Then when i try to slide the lockscreen it doesnt do anything. When i begin sliding the bar from the total edge of the screen it sometimes works.
Usually i just have to pick up the phone to get the touchscreen working again. actually, when i even lift up the phone the slightest bit, it works again.
Weird right?
anyone else experiences this issue ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not weird. TOTALLY normal and expected.
It is because it has a CAPACITIVE TOUCHSCREEN.
This means that when you touch the screen, your finger is actually COMPLETING AN ELECTRIC CIRCUIT.
When the phone is lying on a table and you touch it, you are NOT completing the circuit since you are NOT touching the phone's body.
When the sensor is on, there is an electrical difference between the surface of the screen and the body of the phone. When you touch BOTH, you alter the electric field in that localized area of the screen. The sensor detects the change in voltage and determines the location of the contact.
dhkr123 said:
Not weird. TOTALLY normal and expected.
It is because it has a CAPACITIVE TOUCHSCREEN.
This means that when you touch the screen, your finger is actually COMPLETING AN ELECTRIC CIRCUIT.
When the phone is lying on a table and you touch it, you are NOT completing the circuit since you are NOT touching the phone's body.
When the sensor is on, there is an electrical difference between the surface of the screen and the body of the phone. When you touch BOTH, you alter the electric field in that localized area of the screen. The sensor detects the change in voltage and determines the location of the contact.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So how do I adjust the sensitivity? As I understand it I could increase the voltage to the screen making it easier to complete the circuit...such as through thin gloves.....
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
dhkr123 said:
Not weird. TOTALLY normal and expected.
It is because it has a CAPACITIVE TOUCHSCREEN.
This means that when you touch the screen, your finger is actually COMPLETING AN ELECTRIC CIRCUIT.
When the phone is lying on a table and you touch it, you are NOT completing the circuit since you are NOT touching the phone's body.
When the sensor is on, there is an electrical difference between the surface of the screen and the body of the phone. When you touch BOTH, you alter the electric field in that localized area of the screen. The sensor detects the change in voltage and determines the location of the contact.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is mostly true.
Put the phone on the table and dont touch it and try to swipe to unlock.
No touch a finger on the phone body and do it again, itll work.
Doesn't seem to always fit that behavior, but more often than not.
TheNewGuy said:
So how do I adjust the sensitivity? As I understand it I could increase the voltage to the screen making it easier to complete the circuit...such as through thin gloves.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't. You should NOT even if you could. It would not work as you expect since it is NOT a matter of sensitivity, but of CONDUCTIVITY.
klmsu19 said:
This is mostly true.
Put the phone on the table and dont touch it and try to swipe to unlock.
No touch a finger on the phone body and do it again, itll work.
Doesn't seem to always fit that behavior, but more often than not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not "mostly" true, it is PRECISELY true.
dhkr123 said:
It is not "mostly" true, it is PRECISELY true.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No reason for the condescending tone in every post (or if it's not your intention to be condescending, you may want to restrain your constant use of caps). You had stated:
dhkr123 said:
This means that when you touch the screen, your finger is actually COMPLETING AN ELECTRIC CIRCUIT.
When the phone is lying on a table and you touch it, you are NOT completing the circuit since you are NOT touching the phone's body.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Someone was just pointing out that if this was "precisely" true as you put it, then the screen should never be responsive if you aren't touching the phone's body (since the circuit is, based on your reasoning, still broken). This isn't the case though since it does work sometimes. How could your statement be precisely true if it's known to be false sometimes (hence the "mostly true" comment)?
And it's actually not true. You are not completing an electric circuit. No current flows from your finger into the screen and no components within the phone are electrically coupled because of your touch. As you stated, you are altering the electric field when you touch the screen. This results in a change in capacitance in that area. Note, this change occurs even when you are not touching the phone's body, just to a different degree. Touching the phone will typically increase the amount of capacitance as opposed to when you are not though (since you are basically "grounding" yourself to the phone). The more capacitance there is, the easier it is to measure. If there is too little capacitance, the touchscreen's microcontroller will not register the change at all. Even if it does register the change, there will be additional filtering that occurs to that raw data either in the microcontroller itself or in software (or both).
This is why the screen works sometimes when you touch it without touching the rest of the phone. You are still causing a change in capacitance. The amount of change depends on numerous factors (this is what I stated in an earlier post). These factors effect how grounded both you and the phone are relative to earth ground (in the electrical sense, not geographical). Typically speaking though, if you are relatively close to earth ground, then you will be able to use the screen without touching the body of the phone. For example, someone stated earlier that the screen doesn't work when it's cold. Cold weather results in lower humidity/drier air and you being less grounded (basically why people see an increase in static electricity as well). Chances are that the touchscreen would work again without the touching the phone's body if you had physically been touching a large piece of metal with your other hand (to help ground you).
So in response to the other question posed, yes, technically by raising the voltage level to the touchscreen, it may result in a more sensitive screen since there will be a larger increase in capacitance when you touch it. It may also reduce the life of the touchscreen though, if not damage it completely, so not a good idea. It would be better to figure out the filtering mechanism if possible and adjust that in software. Not sure if any devs have looked into it (though my guess is that if it was simple, it would have been done already).
I am so happy I found this thread..
Lately I thought my touchscreen was broken because I was unable to snooze my alarm in the morning (just as some of you seem to have been trying to do).
I think it's temperature related as suggested by the person who mentioned pizza delivery.. and I think this because it only happens on mornings where I've left the bedroom window open and it's very cool. My phone is often on a cold wooden surface. however even picking up the phone doesn't seem to help (I'll have to pay more attention next time) but after a few moments of struggling it eventually works (probably warms up in my hand and gets a better circuit).
I can also vouch that the screen works great with just a single finger on a flat surface, provided it's room temperature. I don't need to touch the body at all, and I do this a lot without issues (aside from cold mornings waking up to my alarm).
Very strange: when I put my MyTouch 4G in my car cradle (it's a generic one: http://www.officedepot.ca/a/products/494874/Gilsson-Universal-Windshield-Mount-Black/) the screen generally will not respond to touch making it essentially impossible to use.
I did notice that if I cover the back camera with my finger, the screen does respond to touch, even after I remove my finger. But then other strangeness occurs like it never times out to sleep mode and if I force it to sleep by pressing the top button, when I press the button again there is no lock screen and I need to cover the camera again to make it recognize touches.
I actually had a similar issue with my last phone (an Acer Liquid E) although using a hack to increase the touch sensitivity seemed to fix it on that phone.
I don't understand what is it about being put on a cradle that makes the phone behave this way. I have checked that the arms of the cradle aren't pressing any of the buttons and, in fact, just resting the phone in the cradle with the arms extended beyond the width of the phone does the same thing.
Anyone know what's going on?
Thanks!
probably time to return the cradle haha. but seriously speaking that just sounds super weird. especially the part where you say if you cover the camera the touch screen works. haha.
Does your cradle provide power ti the phone through use port? Generally this happens when there is voltage going to the phone that is interfering with the touch screeb, like using a generic charger.
I've seen this. It was caused by the cradle pressing in on the volume control. Adjust your phone on the cradle so the volume isn't touched and see if that solves it for you.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
No the cradle doesn't supply power it's just a generic holder. I did check that the arms aren't pressing any buttons as that's the first thing I suspected. Even with the arms open so that there is a space between them and the sides of the phone, so long as the phone is resting on the cradle (just by gravity) this happens.
The fact that covering the camera temporarily seems to fix it is also really strange. I almost started believing the phone can detect the dash of the car through the camera and shuts itself off so you don't play with it while driving. But that seems a little far fetched.
I've had the same behavior with my generic car dock as well. It's very sporadic (maybe once a week), and I can't figure out the cause. But for my $10 it's good enough until there's an official dock that's custom fit.
tmagritte said:
Very strange: when I put my MyTouch 4G in my car cradle (it's a generic one) the screen generally will not respond to touch making it essentially impossible to use.
I did notice that if I cover the back camera with my finger, the screen does respond to touch, even after I remove my finger. But then other strangeness occurs like it never times out to sleep mode and if I force it to sleep by pressing the top button, when I press the button again there is no lock screen and I need to cover the camera again to make it recognize touches.
I actually had a similar issue with my last phone (an Acer Liquid E) although using a hack to increase the touch sensitivity seemed to fix it on that phone.
I don't understand what is it about being put on a cradle that makes the phone behave this way. I have checked that the arms of the cradle aren't pressing any of the buttons and, in fact, just resting the phone in the cradle with the arms extended beyond the width of the phone does the same thing.
Anyone know what's going on?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it's even weirder than I thought. Turns out this doesn't only happen with the car cradle, but also sometimes when the phone is lying on its back. Tends to be more likely on a soft surface like my couch or a carpet, but it's also happened on my work desk. In these cases slightly repositioning the phone seems to fix it. Also, it doesn't seem to happen if a charging cable is plugged in, so at least that should be a workaround for car use. It happens when waking from sleep. Once the touch input is responsive, it remains so regardless of what position the phone is put in until the phone goes to sleep.
I put up a video to demonstrate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NX_3uds_Ek
The other thing I noticed is a purple light that comes on underneath the touchpad when its pressed. It's not really visible by eye but for some reason the camera really picks it up... Is that the pad's touch sensor?