New issues reported by iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro customers

10/11 Update below. This post was originally published on October 8

The list of problems for iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro buyers keeps getting longer. Monitoring iMessage and FaceTime activation errors, CarPlay and data migration errors and random rebootowners are now reporting a number of new problems.

They came to light after popular YouTuber Marques Brownlee asked iPhone 14 owners on their experiences with the new line. Of the 5,000 or so responses, the vast majority complained about bugs – and three stood out in particular.

First, the lock screen. While there are many bugs in iOS 16 affecting all iPhone models, iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro customers seem to have been disproportionately affected by the new lock screen bugs. These include data errors and an auto-rotate bug when customizing the lock screen.

Second, Dynamic Island. Arguably the highlight of the iPhone 14 launch, Dynamic Island looks like a very poor launch with a wide range of graphical glitches. This includes a software bubble that moves to the wrong place, keeps the animation in the middle, and refuses to close. Some of them can have a significant impact on usability.

Third, battery drain. I already wrote about battery drain issues in iOS 16, but iPhone 14 owners are also far from it. Brownlee notes “an alarming number of people” suffering from it. Interestingly, Brownlee may have found one culprit on the iPhone 14 Pro models:

“I noticed I got better battery life on the iPhone 14 Pro after disabling the always-on display… I’ve had a few weeks to do it, and it makes a difference.”

Apple’s long-awaited implementation of an always-on display has proven controversial, with complaints that it’s too bright and colorful compared to competitors. Apart from the battery problems this causes, it gives the impression that the phone is unlocked. A dimming option or even a monochrome lock screen would go a long way to solving this problem.

Responses to Brownlee’s tweet include a host of other issues, such as Errors in the control center and autofocus problems, but they seem more isolated. Brownlee also said he suffered from CarPlay issues have been reported before.

Apple is expected to soon release iOS 16.0.3, its third dedicated bug fix in less than a month. iOS 16.1, also a major update adds new featuresshould arrive by the end of the month.

Update 10/10: Owners of Apple’s iPhone 14 range are reporting further issues, this time with Apple’s new ‘Crash Detection’ feature, which is exclusive to the new models.

The Wall Street Journal reports that some iPhone 14 models trigger a crash detection mode and automatically call emergency services when used on slides. The report claims that there have been at least six incidents of iPhone 14 models raising false alarms while driving.

Collision detection uses a combination of speed, pressure, G-Force, GPS and volume measurements to limit errors, and Apple claims to have tested the feature with more than a million hours of crash data and real-world driving analysis. Despite this, later tests revealed that this feature does different levels accuracy — something Apple defended.

Apple also responded to the WSJ’s finding, telling the publication that “the technology provides peace of mind and that Apple will continue to improve it over time.” Meanwhile, some toboggan owners are I’m already warning users to turn on airplane mode on their phones and smartwatches before driving.

Apple’s promise to improve fall detection is both welcome and urgent. As more and more iPhone 14 models are sold, this problem will only increase.

Update 10/11: Two significant updates for iPhone 14 owners have occurred in the last 24 hours. Apple executives spoke first TechCrunch on crash detection.

“There is no silver bullet in terms of activating collision detection,” Ron Huang admitted. Vice President of Sensing and Connectivity. “It’s hard to say how many of these things have to be triggered because it’s not a straight equation. Depending on what the travel speed was earlier determines what signals we need to see later. Your speed change, combined with the impact force, combined with the pressure change, combined with the sound level, it’s all a pretty dynamic algorithm.”

Huang explained that Apple tested crash detection by placing the iPhone “in many different places in the car — on mannequins and the car itself,” while collecting raw data from cameras and pressure sensors. He said the company has also worked with the Department of Transportation and NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) to understand what types of accidents are the leading causes of injuries.

Interestingly, Drance revealed that the collision detection didn’t activate for her during a minor fender bender because “we don’t want to make a lot of false 9-1-1 calls when they’re not needed.”

This is an interesting insight, given the current problems with roller coaster collision detection, and leads me to believe that we’ll see significantly fewer false positives as Apple improves the algorithm.

Second, Apple released iOS 16.0.3, which mostly contains fixes for the iPhone 14 models. Issues addressed included delayed calls and app notifications, low microphone volume during CarPlay calls, and slow camera performance.

This is just a fraction of the problems they present to customers iPhone 14 models have been reported so far, but the focus on its latest phones again in iOS 16.0.3 shows that Apple is aware of their flawed nature. Two of the three iOS 16 updates so far have focused on the iPhone 14 range, and this is unprecedented in my experience.

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