Is iOS 7 making you feel sick? Here's why
Apple's new iOS 7 software is apparently making some people seasick on solid ground. Experts on motion sickness say the sharpness of the screen and the motion of the icons may be partly to blame.
Users who have upgraded to iOS 7 are reporting nausea, headaches and vertigo in a message thread that started Sept. 18 on Apple's support website.
"I just used my phone for about 20 minutes, and now I feel like I'm going to vomit," one user wrote in a comment on the site. Another said, "It's exactly how I used to get car sick if I tried to read in the car."
iOS 7 has animations and a dynamic background that were not in previous versions of the software, which is used on iPhones and iPads.
"We haven't done any experiments with this phone, but this is what I think is happening — it's definitely linked to the motion of the screen," said psychologist Frederick Bonato, of Montclair State University in New Jersey, who has studied cybersickness. "Also, the resolution is very high, so you've got a very sharp, clear image — moving."
The icons on the phone constantly move slightly, and with the background, this produces a 3D impression, or a parallax effect, making it look as though the icons are floating above the background.
"Seeing a three-dimensional space, on a phone you know is flat," can trigger queasy feelings, Bonato said.
The new software also produces the impression of zooming in and out when a user switches between applications, which may confuse the brain into thinking that the person is moving.
"Visually, the input is indicating that the person is moving, but all the other senses indicate the person is not moving — or, even worse, with these phones, is moving in a different way," Bonato said.
Such conflicting information can cause dizziness, headaches and nausea — effects that can also sometimes be caused by IMAX movie theaters and flight simulators. Although phone screens are much smaller than movie-theater screens, phone screens are placed closer to the eyes, which means the visual input dominates the brain, experts said.