Thread: iPhone skin design issue

I think I've found a problem with the iPhone skin... The piece that goes over the earpiece seems to disable the proximity sensor. From my own experimentation, I think the proper design would have an open space above the ear-speaker hole. I was able to verify this by cutting out the area between the top of the ear speaker hole and the top of the piece, so it looks like this:

Code:

  _______         _______
 /       |       |       \
|        |_______|        |
|                         |
|_________________________| 

Nothing below the bottom of the ear-speaker hole was cut.

After I made the cuts, the proximity sensor began working, and the phone's display would turn off once again when the phone was next to my face.

This would only be a minor annoyance, if it weren't for the fact that, when the display is turned on, so are the touch sensors. This leaves you with a rather good chance that your cheek will press the mute button, or do something equally bothersome.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful.

--Dj

Thanks for the feedback and the suggestions. This issue is being looked into.

This issue has been corrected in the newer iPhone Skins. We have a small replacement piece for existing customers that should ship within the next week via standard mail.

I apologize for starting another thread about this, but the other one is locked and I couldn't reply there.

I think the other poster indicated that the proximity sensor on his phone was below the speaker slit, on mine it appears to be above. On the voicemail screen, bring my finger from the top of the iPhone down towards the horizontal speaker slit, as soon as my finger barely touches the black part of the iPhone face the screen blanks out, so it looks like my sensor is high above the slit.

I cut the skin so that it was two small rectangles for the top with the entire middle section cut out (as wide as the speaker slit). The problem was now the brightness sensor was covered up leaving the phone in dim mode. It appears to be on the right side of the speaker slit, as removing the right side part of the skin allowed it to work again.

While doing a search for the sensors on the Apple boards so I could mod my skin, some folks have indicated that the two sensors are in different locations on different phones. Hopefully Apple has or will make this type of info available to you and other skin/case makers.

Thanks much, I really like the digital camo skin, hope you do one with the Army digital ACO camouflage pattern!

-Sean

Thanks for the feedback. We're looking further into this matter.

Apple unfortunately does not give manufacturers special privileged information unless they're in the "Made for iPod" program, which does not apply to us as we do not make accessories that connect to the iPod electronically.

Originally Posted by hammer32

I apologize for starting another thread about this, but the other one is locked and I couldn't reply there.

I think the other poster indicated that the proximity sensor on his phone was below the speaker slit, on mine it appears to be above. On the voicemail screen, bring my finger from the top of the iPhone down towards the horizontal speaker slit, as soon as my finger barely touches the black part of the iPhone face the screen blanks out, so it looks like my sensor is high above the slit.

I cut the skin so that it was two small rectangles for the top with the entire middle section cut out (as wide as the speaker slit). The problem was now the brightness sensor was covered up leaving the phone in dim mode. It appears to be on the right side of the speaker slit, as removing the right side part of the skin allowed it to work again.

I'm not sure if the "other poster" was me, or somebody else, but, if you look at my first post, you'll see that I did exactly the same thing. Apologies if the wording wasn't clear.

I was unable to open the thread, but I did have another question, regarding the new iPhone skins/replacement pieces that are being sent out: I've also noticed that the skin covers the light sensor, which confuses the automatic display dimming feature on the iPhone, leaving it in an always-dim state. I haven't been able to locate the light sensor (my skin pieces are starting to get a bit stretched from the proximity sensor experiment), but I was wondering if the new skins will address that issue, too.

--Dj

The revised skin with the proximity sensor fix indeed has the cutting at the top, which is consistent with the findings from the both of you. The ambient light sensor issue is something that we're currently looking at.

Attached is a shape of the revised skin with the proximity sensor fix.

Thanks for that.

Just out of curiosity... Why not fix the light sensor issue, and then send out the fix along with the proximity sensor fix? Might save you a few cents in postage...

Thanks for all the great work!

--Dj

Oh yes, of course. The ambient light sensor issue is being looked at but the solution has not been worked out yet. The replacement top skin should contain that fix.

I'll post here as soon as I receive an update on the issue.

We're still trying to figure out the exact placement of the ambient light sensor but the issue is not as critical as the proximity sensor issue which has been fixed. The blockage of the proximity sensor will render the screen useless as soon as the phone is in a call but the ambient light sensor only results in a fixed screen luminosity.

The issue is still being looked at anyway and the replacements should contain this fix. I'll proceed to close this thread in the meantime.