The Verge: iPhone and iPadusers report severe motion sickness using iOS 7

[openwheel]

http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/25/4...ons-causing-reports-of-severe-motion-sickness

Apple's new design style in iOS 7 has had plenty of detractors, but some may have genuine cause for complaint: the zooming and parallax animations across the new operating system have been giving some users bad cases of motion sickness. "The zoom animations ... are literally making me nauseous and giving me a headache," Apple forum user Ensorceled writes. "It's exactly how I used to get car sick if I tried to read in the car." Other forum users are reporting feelings of illness, eye pain, and dizziness as well.

 

[lothar]

Motiongate?

 

[Crono]

Motiongate?

Pukegate

Describes both the new theme and the effect the animations produces. (I kid, I kid, I actually have mixed feelings towards the UI changes).
Leo Laporte said on some of the podcasts that the zooming effect made him feel sick, as in actually motion sick, but I thought maybe he was exaggerating a bit.

I guess not, though it's probably not a ton of users, unlike shaky cam effects for some people (like with Cloverfield) or from early versions of Oculus Rift.

 

[golem]

Pukegate

Describes both the new theme and the effect the animations produces. (I kid, I kid, I actually have mixed feelings towards the UI changes).
Leo Laporte said on some of the podcasts that the zooming effect made him feel sick, as in actually motion sick, but I thought maybe he was exaggerating a bit.

I guess not, though it's probably not a ton of users, unlike shaky cam effects for some people (like with Cloverfield) or from early versions of Oculus Rift.

Is it possible to turn the effects off?

 

[KeithP]

So a new user to the Apple Support forum claims this is happening, immediately followed by other new forum users claiming the same thing... I suppose there is no chance this is just a bunch of Apple haters playing a practical joke?

Until a trustworthy third party sheds some light on this, I calling BS

-KeithP

 

[WelshBloke]

Is it possible to turn the effects off?

You'd think thats what people would do if they disliked something rather than complaining to product support wouldn't you?

 

[deathBOB]

It certainly does feel more motiony? than iOS 6. I haven't experienced any motion sickness but I do find the animations to be a lot more noticeable and even distracting. My 4S also seems to have a slight delay in doing anything that's just barely perceptible. I miss the instantaneous responses of iOS6.

 

[Red Storm]

iPad I can maybe understand, but from that tiny iPhone screen? Are they holding it right up against their eyes?

I imagine there's a way to turn that stuff off? One of the first things I always do is disable animations whenever I can. Not because of motion sickness, I just don't like useless animations.

 

[openwheel]

It actually feels good to me, but I only played with it for a few minutes at the Verizon store. I guess it heavily depends on how you use it and how long you use the iPhone for.

This is why I always tone down animation on my Android devices. It feels faster and snappier that way. People tell me my Nexus 7 FHD feels so much faster than new iPad. Oh the power of illusions.

 

[MotionMan]

So a new user to the Apple Support forum claims this is happening, immediately followed by other new forum users claiming the same thing... I suppose there is no chance this is just a bunch of Apple haters playing a practical joke?

Until a trustworthy third party sheds some light on this, I calling BS

-KeithP

Pretty much this. Either that or that thread is made up of all the kids who "had" to have the window seat in the car or they claim they would projectile vomit once the car started moving.

MotionMan

 

[Joe1987]

I suspect it's true for some people, some people are very sensitive to visual triggers like the animation and the parallax screens. I don't particularly like the parallax effect or the animations. Apple's lucky no one is claiming they get seizures.

They'll put in an option to kill the animation with the next OS update.

 

[Eug]

Is it possible to turn the effects off?

You can turn off the parallax animation. However, it's not labelled as such. You have to turn ON "Reduce Motion".

You cannot turn off the zoom animation though. Mind you, iOS 6 also had some animation, but people didn't complain about that. I guess it's a matter of degree, or else type.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Is it possible to turn the effects off?

You'd think thats what people would do if they disliked something rather than complaining to product support wouldn't you?

iPad I can maybe understand, but from that tiny iPhone screen? Are they holding it right up against their eyes?

I imagine there's a way to turn that stuff off? One of the first things I always do is disable animations whenever I can. Not because of motion sickness, I just don't like useless animations.

You can turn off only the parallax effect. All the other annoying zooming animations can't be turned off. Which I think is a mistake on Apple's part and hopefully people allegedly getting sick makes them give us the option to turn off all the animations.

 

[Eug]

It's a pet peeve, but it's "I am nauseated" not "I am nauseous". The latter means "I cause nausea".

IOW, if you say "I am nauseous", you are saying you make other people sick.

You can turn off only the parallax effect. All the other annoying zooming animations can't be turned off. Which I think is a mistake on Apple's part and hopefully people allegedly getting sick makes them give us the option to turn off all the animations.

I like the animations but I'm hoping for two things:

1) They will speed up the animations. They've done this before in OS releases.

2) They give us the option to shut off the animations.

I'd leave the animations active on our iPad 2, but would turn them off on our iPhone 4. The reason though would be performance, not nausea.

 

[Red Storm]

Aren't animations there to hide any sort of potential performance lag or load times? I know that annoyed me to no end on Windows Phone, all these animations made everything look smooth, but in reality it felt like it was just trying to mask app load times and whatnot.

 

[Eug]

Aren't animations there to hide any sort of potential performance lag or load times? I know that annoyed me to no end on Windows Phone, all these animations made everything look smooth, but in reality it felt like it was just trying to mask app load times and whatnot.

Probably to a certain extent, but OS point updates can sometimes increase performance as well. If so, they can increase animation speed accordingly. I also suspect is not an issue on the new 5S.

BTW, maybe they should have added an animation for setting backgrounds from personal large MP photos on the iPhone 4. It's really slow, with a delay of a few seconds. However, since there is no cue, it just looks like it's hung as the phone tries to process the image to background size.

This is the biggest slow down I see on the iPhone 4. With transparency turned off (another poorly named option in the settings - called "Increase Contrast"), the iPhone 4's performance it's actually OK in OS 7.

 

[maevinj]

It certainly does feel more motiony? than iOS 6. I haven't experienced any motion sickness but I do find the animations to be a lot more noticeable and even distracting. My 4S also seems to have a slight delay in doing anything that's just barely perceptible. I miss the instantaneous responses of iOS6.

I'm having the exact same experience with my 4s

 

[ultimatebob]

You can turn off the parallax animation. However, it's not labelled as such. You have to turn ON "Reduce Motion".

You cannot turn off the zoom animation though. Mind you, iOS 6 also had some animation, but people didn't complain about that. I guess it's a matter of degree, or else type.

I'll have to try that. The home screen animations on the iPad are obnoxious.

It certainly isn't enough to make me nauseous, though. Something tells me that a day trader planted that story in the hopes that they can short Apple stock a few bucks. It could work, too... CNBC is stupid enough to share almost every lame Apple rumor that comes by their news desk.

 

[Crono]

I think the issue is real, as there are plenty of posts about it all over the internet from legitimate (as far as I can tell) users, but I doubt it's a huge percentage of users, or there would have been a bigger uproar earlier, or they would have caught it in beta testing.

If Apple adds an option to disable the zooming animation plus others, it should address most of the complaints. It should have been an option, anyway, as most operating systems - mobile and desktop - let you turn off animations, or at least most of the animations. Like others do, I also turn it off on Android. They don't really add anything, and simple, fast transitions like with swiping or physics for pulldowns/shades are really the only effects you need. Everything else can be annoying after a while, even if it looks pretty at first - like the Powerpoint transitions and animations that everyone seemed to put when they first learned how to use it.

Fade to black on all 40 slides. Windmill.

 

[openwheel]

for the Verge to have reported it, it's highly unlikely just a day trader trying to earn a few quick bucks.

 

[Eug]

People in the AnandTech forums already complained about it in the iOS 7 thread, so I definitely believe it. Not a lot of people mind you, but it exists nonetheless.

 

[Rakehellion]

This is what Steve would have wanted. It's the next best thing to tripping acid.

 

[TuxDave]

People in the AnandTech forums already complained about it in the iOS 7 thread, so I definitely believe it. Not a lot of people mind you, but it exists nonetheless.

The parallax affect on the icons vs wallpaper or something else? Unless it's different from iOS7 on iPhone 4S but it was barely visible. I had to really be looking for it to see it. I eventually turned it off since I didn't see any value it in (and in my mind save whatever miniscule battery life I would get from it)

 

[Eug]

I can't remember the details but I think it was mainly the zoom animation. Don't quote me on that though.

The animations don't make me or my wife nauseated at all.

 

[deathBOB]

This is what Steve would have wanted. It's the next best thing to tripping acid.

Only to the stupid.