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What do you think about having a convenience key on the next iPhone?

Solid.Snake

Solid.Snake

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 25, 2010
11
0
Almost every phone I had before (including some 6-7 years ago) had programmable convenience keys. You, those ones you press and they take you straight to an application. It would be really convinient, say when you are listening to music and don't have time to find the Camera app to snap an amazing moment. Or to take you straight to your texts. Customizing it would be the most important feature.

Just my two cents.
 
Doesn't quite sound like Apple's style.

I think the closest thing they could do is allow you to make some apps static in the Multitask menu (when double clicking the home button). For example, you could have the Text app and Camera app always visible as the first two there.
 
I wouldn't use a button I could program to do anything, but it does raise the question of why isn't there a dedicated camera button.
 
The simple home button in addition to the power and volume plus the switch was something that no manufacturer has done.

I'd prefer to keep it simple.
 
To be fair, by being so simple, it's also horrifically complicated, all those commands for the home button, long hold, double tap, single tap and probably more that I'm not clever enough to remember :L
 
Solid.Snake said:
Almost every phone I had before (including some 6-7 years ago) had programmable convenience keys. You, those ones you press and they take you straight to an application. It would be really convinient, say when you are listening to music and don't have time to find the Camera app to snap an amazing moment. Or to take you straight to your texts. Customizing it would be the most important feature.

Just my two cents.
Click to expand...

If ur in iPod and press the home button you have access to camera and messaging... once home is pressed the camera is in the top right (unless u moved it)

Defeats the purpose really :D
 
I thought you could "program" the home button as a convenience key. When you press it twice, it should go to the native app you want. I set mine to go to the camera function, because that's what I want to get to fast sometimes.

EDIT: This was on my 3GS. I cannot find similar options on my iPhone4 :(
The triple-home button can be sorta configured in Settings General Accessibility, but only for a very restricted set of offerings.
 
Graeme43 said:
Pressing it twice brings up multitasking dock
Click to expand...
Yes, hence my edit made moments after my initial post. I'd like to think I don't need to point out the obvious, but in this case just to prevent ruffled feathers, I will declare that when I had this feature enabled on my 3GS, I was NOT running iOS. I didn't run that (and the associated "Folders" feature) until I got the iPhone4 on launch day (US).
 
HXGuy said:
Doesn't quite sound like Apple's style.

I think the closest thing they could do is allow you to make some apps static in the Multitask menu (when double clicking the home button). For example, you could have the Text app and Camera app always visible as the first two there.
Click to expand...

static in the multi-tasking menu, or even ... *wait for it* ... the dock!

there's the 4 apps you always want to be able to reach within 1 click from unlocking, that's the whole point of the dock, really
 
Solid.Snake said:
Almost every phone I had before (including some 6-7 years ago) had programmable convenience keys. You, those ones you press and they take you straight to an application. It would be really convinient, say when you are listening to music and don't have time to find the Camera app to snap an amazing moment. Or to take you straight to your texts. Customizing it would be the most important feature.

Just my two cents.
Click to expand...

Apple Fanboys don't think outside the box. They are content with whatever Apple feeds them and are happy with little to no change.
 
Yes, I've always liked having spare buttons that I could program as I wish. It's silly to have to look at the screen, dock or not, to be able to do your most common or favorite tasks. Even just one on each side of the Home button would be useful.

On a similar topic, I think all phones should have zero-power digital ink status displays. Why should I have to turn on the main display just to check things?

Not quite that low-power, the new Galaxy Continuum has an interesting feature: a second status LCD below its buttons that turns on when you pick up the phone (it turns off when the main display goes on). See attachment below.
 

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kdarling said:
Yes, I've always liked having spare buttons that I could program as I wish. It's silly to have to look at the screen, dock or not, to be able to do your most common or favorite tasks. Even just one on each side of the Home button would be useful.

On a similar topic, I think all phones should have zero-power digital ink status displays. Why should I have to turn on the main display just to check things?

Not quite that low-power, the new Galaxy Continuum has an interesting feature: a second status LCD below its buttons that turns on when you pick up the phone (it turns off when the main display goes on). See attachment below.
Click to expand...

the iPhone sadly lacks any useful lockscreen information to begin with, so thats something we can only dream about being implemented any time soon :(
 
Fliesen said:
static in the multi-tasking menu, or even ... *wait for it* ... the dock!

there's the 4 apps you always want to be able to reach within 1 click from unlocking, that's the whole point of the dock, really
Click to expand...

my thoughts exactly. also, I have all of my most used apps on my home screen and then everything else are in folders on the 2nd screen. Easy to get to any app.
 
This is why I jailbreak. A single swipe or touch on a certain spot of the screen will bring up my phone settings, all my missed calls/messages, camera app, automatically play/pause music, turn off phone, etc... Things we wish apple would do in the future, jailbreak does for us now.
 
Fliesen said:
the iPhone sadly lacks any useful lockscreen information to begin with, so thats something we can only dream about being implemented any time soon :(
Click to expand...

Well, I frequently check the lock screen for the time. That alone is useful to me. And push notifications are available from the lock screen, too. So it's not completely devoid of useful information. But yeah, it would be great to see a lot more info available there, too.
 
correction: the last push notification you received.

I don't know if you've ever used Lockinfo for example, but seeing the most recent texts (+previews), the most recent emails, upcoming calendar entries and your missed calls just totally beats 'John Miller, Mike Cowbell, Seth Horsehumper commented on Dwight McDuck's photo album' that your facebook app loves to spam you with, just because you 'like'd that album

and i use a wristwatch ;)
 
Fliesen said:
correction: the last push notification you received.

I don't know if you've ever used Lockinfo for example, but seeing the most recent texts (+previews), the most recent emails, upcoming calendar entries and your missed calls just totally beats 'John Miller, Mike Cowbell, Seth Horsehumper commented on Dwight McDuck's photo album' that your facebook app loves to spam you with, just because you 'like'd that album

and i use a wristwatch ;)
Click to expand...

I don't use a Facebook app.

I'll check out Lockinfo, though — sounds interesting.
 
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