Late last week, several nexus owners were greeted with an update to Jelly Bean build JSS15Q. This update was designed to fix several bugs in the Nexus 7’s GPS implementation as well as to correct several touch screen bugs that have been frustrating users since their purchase. The touch screen bug caused incorrect screen presses to be registered therefore making gaming on the 2013 Nexus 7 almost impossible. The GPS bugs also prevented the tablet from being used as a navigation device and often placed me on the wrong street.
Based on the Android Open Source Project’s changelog and comments, there are clear indications that the development teams were trying different approaches to resolving the problem by submitting over 10 commits to the source code relating to the touchscreen. The final commit happened a little over 2 weeks ago suggesting that it was finalized just in time for the August 22nd update. Although the 2013 Nexus 7 was the primary recipient of the upgrade, the upgrade was also pushed to the Nexus 4, 2012 Nexus 7 and the Nexus 10.
For most, including myself, the update worked like a charm and I was back to playing my normal rounds of Dungeon Hunters 4. The GPS bugs were also fixed. It seems like a small number of users are still continuing to report erratic touchscreen behavior on their devices. YouTube user “phazerorg” has taken the liberty of posting a video showing the chaotic behavior of his screen. From watching the video, you can see how two fingers are registering as three touches on the screen. Users on the Google Product Forums are reporting that the JSS15Q upgrade may have made things worse for them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mOSOn1xiQ0
Surprisingly these bugs seem limited to the 2013 Nexus 7 with no issues reported with the previous 2012 Nexus 7. It is possible that the problem is rooted in small hardware differences between Nexus 7 units as the raw parts to manufacture the tablet may be sourced from different factories to keep up with the demand for the tablet. It is possible that the issue may be down to the hardware calibration on the Nexus 7 so it may be fixed with another software upgrade in the future.
If you are a 2013 Nexus 7 owner, please comment below to tell us if the JSS15Q update helped or hurt your touchscreen?