Phil Schiller Says New iPod Touch 'Too Thin' for Ambient Light Sensor

PracticalMac · Oct 17, 2012

ALS sensor on several years and generations of products, and Apple suddenly decides its not needed??

Sometimes it does dim when I don't want to, but most of time it picks the right level.

-1 Apple.

Drunken Master · Oct 17, 2012

robeddie said:
I think you meant to write "...and _how_ the iPod touch feels ..."

No, not really.

robeddie said:
Note: pointing out grammatical errors in someone else's post just makes you sound like a pompous ******. Especially when you yourself make a grammitcal error in your response.

O rly?

g0odfr1end102 · Oct 17, 2012

robeddie said:
Ah dang, and I was just about to buy a new iPod touch to go along with my iPhone 4S. Thanks to your comment, I now realize that wouldn't make sense!

Glad it "helped" you lol, but why were you about to purchase an iTouch?

kerbero9 · Oct 17, 2012

g0odfr1end102 said:
Glad it "helped" you lol, but why were you about to purchase an iTouch?

WTH is an iTouch? Is that like an Airbook?

DJJAZZYJET · Oct 17, 2012

I find the ambient light sensor to be a useful feature. Maybe they could have built it into the camera or something.

jamesr19 · Oct 17, 2012

Aluminum213 said:
Classic example of making something thinner for no logical reason

iPhone 5 is thinner then the 4 but if they retained the thickness they could have dramatically improved battery life. I have never met or heard someone say the iPhone 4 was too thick or heavy.

They have dramatically improved battery life compared to the 4. I could get just over a day of use and standby (combined) on a good day on all 3 of my iPhone 4. iPhone 5 I get over 2days of use and standby (combined) on most occasions. Even with heavy use I get a good 1day 14hrs total.

Westside guy · Oct 17, 2012

I understand some people like the functionality of the ambient light sensor - but it's pretty much the first thing I disable on any device - whether phone, ipod, or laptop. The constant small shifts in brightness drive me nuts.

Aluminum213 · Oct 17, 2012

jamesr19 said:
They have dramatically improved battery life compared to the 4. I could get just over a day of use and standby (combined) on a good day on all 3 of my iPhone 4. iPhone 5 I get over 2days of use and standby (combined) on most occasions. Even with heavy use I get a good 1day 14hrs total.

good use? what does that mean? By all reports heavy LTE usage and general usage of the phone will not last more then one day.

again, it's been heavily reported battery performance is the SAME as the 4S, so unless you have super special edition you're just lying

Aspasia · Oct 17, 2012

I wonder how many criticizing the lack of the ALS on the iPod touch 5G actually own the device.

I do, and the absence of the light sensor is immaterial to me. The touch 5G is fast, has good battery life, and the camera is a hundred times better than the camera on my iPad 2 (3G).

JoEw · Oct 17, 2012

It's not about thinness people it's about weight. That is my favorite thing about the iPhone 5 it's freakin light! hold an iphone 5 with a 4 it feels like a brick..

sososowhat · Oct 17, 2012

Aluminum213 said:
Classic example of making something thinner for no logical reason

iPhone 5 is thinner then the 4 but if they retained the thickness they could have dramatically improved battery life. I have never met or heard someone say the iPhone 4 was too thick or heavy.

The iPhone 4 was too thick and heavy. Now you've heard it. Seriously, thickness and weight were among the biggest reasons I upgraded to the 5. So was my broken screen -- which was caused in part because the 4 is 25% heavier than the 5 & so falls with 25% more force when it hits the ground.

iSee · Oct 17, 2012

WordMasterRice said:
I don't understand how the thickness of the device is an excuse. Make it thicker then...

The problem of your logic is that it doesn't stop at the light sensor.
Why not:
* add a better camera and make it thicker (and more expensive)?
* add stereo speakers (and lounder) and make it thicker (and more expensive)?
* add an option for 128GB capacity and make it thicker (and more expensive)?
* add NFC and make it thicker (and more expensive)?
* add cell network capability and make it thicker (and more expensive)?
etc.

They have to make choices and balance tradeoffs or the thing would be the size of a brick and cost $1000.

You can argue any one or two features, but not the overall philosophy

jmpnop · Oct 17, 2012

Aspasia said:
I wonder how many criticizing the lack of the ALS on the iPod touch 5G actually own the device.

I do, and the absence of the light sensor is immaterial to me. The touch 5G is fast, has good battery life, and the camera is a hundred times better than the camera on my iPad 2 (3G).

Light sensor might not be a big deal but Apple's obsession with thinness to the level of form over functionality is crazy. They could put a bigger battery and some other stuff instead of making an already thin device thinner.

radio893fm · Oct 17, 2012

samcraig said:
Don't be ridiculous. Before they did that - they would create a new proprietary connector (like lightening) rendering every single wired headset useless so you had to buy their headphones. Now they might license the tech to a select few - but not for several months.

And oh yeah - the new headsets wouldn't come with the iDevice - it would be sold separately. Also available would be an adapter IF you wanted to use regular headphones

Wasn't the first iPhone not fully compatible with all the headphones? I remember having to buy an extender or something like that.

Tiger8 · Oct 17, 2012

MasterHowl said:
I hate it how these days, the high profile Apple employees try to persuade you how good things are (I'm mainly talking about Schiller, Forstall and Cook here).

"It is a remarkable device!"

"Maps are SO beautiful"

"It's just gorgeous"

"We absolutely love this at Apple, absolutely LOVE it"

It just looks desperate?

Steve would have just gone "here it is, it's so cool", end of. Then of course, we would have opened our lovely new Apple gadgets and thought "yeah, this is pretty cool!".

But now it seems that the recent decline in quality of some Apple products (Maps, lack of light sensor on new Touches, no groundbreaking new features in iOS 6 that work properly) has resulted in the top dogs getting desperate, and trying to persuade us that Apple products are really cool rather than just showing us how cool they are. I just think it comes across desperate, and isn't smooth like Steve was.

Just my thoughts...

I think you're reading too much into it.

Steve has always said something like that... hello! how about 'it is magical!'

And companies, especially Apple, seem to draw so much passion for their products, even blinding them to their flaws (such as maps).

george-brooks · Oct 17, 2012

Aluminum213 said:
Classic example of making something thinner for no logical reason

iPhone 5 is thinner then the 4 but if they retained the thickness they could have dramatically improved battery life. I have never met or heard someone say the iPhone 4 was too thick or heavy.

One of those problems you realize you don't even have until there is a solution to it. I didn't think the 4S was too heavy either until I held the iPhone 5, and I was blown away by how light it was. It almost felt cheap. But after using it for a while I'm actually really glad its so much lighter. Thinner, I don't really care. And as an added bonus, my iPhone 5 actually does get more than twice the battery life than my 4S did.

tevion5 · Oct 17, 2012

MasterHowl said:
I hate it how these days, the high profile Apple employees try to persuade you how good things are (I'm mainly talking about Schiller, Forstall and Cook here).

"It is a remarkable device!"

"Maps are SO beautiful"

"It's just gorgeous"

"We absolutely love this at Apple, absolutely LOVE it"

It just looks desperate?

Steve would have just gone "here it is, it's so cool", end of. Then of course, we would have opened our lovely new Apple gadgets and thought "yeah, this is pretty cool!".

But now it seems that the recent decline in quality of some Apple products (Maps, lack of light sensor on new Touches, no groundbreaking new features in iOS 6 that work properly) has resulted in the top dogs getting desperate, and trying to persuade us that Apple products are really cool rather than just showing us how cool they are. I just think it comes across desperate, and isn't smooth like Steve was.

Just my thoughts...

I totally agree with you to some extent, jobs was great. But what can they say?

"Yeah that sucks dosent it? Better stick with the 4g, or hey get a Samsung! I hear they're pretty cool nowadays!" Love Tim.

They're just giving a standard PR infused response to a customer, they have to sell it a little.

uknowimright · Oct 17, 2012

radio893fm said:
Wasn't the first iPhone not fully compatible with all the headphones? I remember having to buy an extender or something like that.

yes, the headphone port was recessed

PracticalMac · Oct 17, 2012

Come to think of it, I will call BULL **** to this "too thin" excuse.

AzN1337c0d3r · Oct 17, 2012

This is the size of the typical ambient light sensor. Note that this is the planar view of the device. The thickness profile of this particular ALS is 1.05mm.

There is no way the iPod Touch is too thin for this.

michelepri · Oct 18, 2012

Nobody uses the light sensor, people turn it off anyway. It was a nice thing to show of in 1998, people would clap their hands in amazement, it was an achievement in AI technology coupled with expensive light sensors. Now it's a feature as desirable as those car alarms that used to go off with video game noises.

It was a good thing to remove this useless feature.

0098386 · Oct 18, 2012

princigalli said:
Nobody uses the light sensor, people turn it off anyway. It was a nice thing to show of in 1998, people would clap their hands in amazement, it was an achievement in AI technology coupled with expensive light sensors. Now it's a feature as desirable as those car alarms that used to go off with video game noises.

It was a good thing to remove this useless feature.

Huh, I've always used it. I've never touched the brightness dial of my iPhone or iPod and I use it in the morning in a pitch black room and in the midday sun. Works perfectly.

burtx · Oct 18, 2012

The guy already has an iPhone. What's he doing with a touch anyway? hmm

michelepri · Oct 18, 2012

Dagless said:
Huh, I've always used it. I've never touched the brightness dial of my iPhone or iPod and I use it in the morning in a pitch black room and in the midday sun. Works perfectly.

OK in this case I was wrong. I find that it changes brightness too quickly sometimes, that's why I like to have manual control

Truffy · Oct 18, 2012

iPod Touch != iPhone

The OP refers to the Touch 5, so I'm not sure what's the relevance of the references to the iPhone 5.

Phil Schiller Says New iPod Touch 'Too Thin' for Ambient Light Sensor

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