In 1997, a publicly televised episode of the Pokemon show sent hundreds of Japanese children to the hospital. No, it wasn't in shock over Pikachu winning yet another battle. It was due to a series of flashing lights that appeared in the episode. Ever since then, filmmakers have learned to avoid such scenes, and most video games we play begin with a warning about the possibility of epileptic seizures during some scenes.
So why is it that display and phone manufacturers thought it would be a good idea for the best phones to do exactly this on a daily basis? The phenomenon is called pulse width modulation — or PWM — and it's something I wrote about three months ago when I learned that, after 12 years of reviewing phones, I've become sensitive to flickering displays and lights. In a nutshell, that flickering makes me dizzy, confused, and nauseous if I don't stop using the phone.
