Apple’s Phil Schiller Explains The Lack Of An Ambient Light Sensor In The iPod Touch
by Brent Dirks
October 16, 2012
The mystery of the missing ambient light sensor in the fifth-generation iPod touch seems to be solved. A reader of iDownloadblog emailed Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller about the issue.
And Schiller apparently replied with an answer:
Thank you for purchasing a new iPod touch. It is a remarkable device! The 5th generation iPod touch does not have a built-in automatic light sensor (it’s just too thin!)The sensor runs the auto-brightness setting that automatically adjusts the screen depending on the amount of ambient light near the device. For what it’s worth, Apple says that the new iPod touch is 6.1mm thin, substantially slimmer than the fourth-generation model, which is 7.2mm. For comparison, the iPhone 5 is 7.6mm in depth. When we first mentioned the issue yesterday, commenters were decidedly split on the omission. Some said that they wouldn’t order an iPod touch without the feature while others recommended jailbreak solutions to help solve the issue. Others said it was a pointless feature that they never used or never worked properly anyway on other iOS devices. While I was disappointed that Apple couldn’t find a way to fit in the useful feature (even with the higher price tag), hopefully it will return in a later version of the device. Source: iDownloadblog
