20th Anniversary iPhone Could Blend Haptic Buttons Into Curved Edges

[ayephoner]

I just can’t see an advantage to this at all. Even if they make it work with gloves, it sounds like you would have a hard time locating them without eyes on the device, so reaching in your pocket and tweaking something (like alert sound mute) seems impossible. Solid state or touch sensitive buttons have already been used in the automotive industry and customers have overwhelmingly rejected them. Some manufacturers have announced they are going back to mechanical buttons.

I just wish Apple would prioritize function over form once in a blue moon.

Sigh.

What if you could swipe up or down on the edge for volume? Long press for this, double tap for that, triple tap for the other?

The device comes out in 18 months. maybe wait a bit to judge something that we only have vague rumors for so far?

 

[groove-agent]

Makes sense to have software buttons on the side. Most objects on the side will be out of view so I'm not so sure if software buttons will be ideal. When you can't see things, you need to feel them (just like grabbing controls while driving). I guess the haptic system can create a response when you reach the button but it still might not be deal.

 

[Mr_Ed]

Sigh.

What if you could swipe up or down on the edge for volume? Long press for this, double tap for that, triple tap for the other?

False positives are always a problem with solid state buttons of any kind, which is why auto manufacturers are backing away from it. Mechanical buttons make questionable software solutions to that problem irrelevant.

The device comes out in 18 months. maybe wait a bit to judge something that we only have vague rumors for so far?

We’ve discussed this already in another thread. We comment and opine on whatever is presented here, which may or may not be the final form if it even comes to fruition at all. It’s a discussion forum after all.

Maybe stop pretending these are anything other than comments about the rumor? Better yet, figure out why comments about a rumor even bother you enough to try to discourage them.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Every day that goes by and every new rumor I hear I'm more and more glad I went ahead and got this 17 Pro Max.

Gonna be a weird few years in Apple phone land.

 

[CarAnalogy]

"in extreme temperatures"*

*tested in pre-production units running the latest iOS and in California weather (45F to 85F)

"Try to avoid being out of the Bay Area"

 

[ayephoner]

False positives are always a problem with solid state buttons of any kind, which is why auto manufacturers are backing away from it. Mechanical buttons make questionable software solutions to that problem irrelevant.


We’ve discussed this already in another thread. We comment and opine on whatever is presented here, which may or may not be the final form if it even comes to fruition at all. It’s a discussion forum after all.

Maybe stop pretending these are anything other than comments about the rumor? Better yet, figure out why comments about a rumor even bother you enough to try to discourage them.

Always? You don't think at any point in the future of humanity that we will ever be able to figure that out?

The part that bothers me, as I mentioned before, is the endless negativity. And so much of it is trite. "Android tried this a decade ago!" (or the car industry gave up on that...). Do we really need to do that every third post in every rumor thread for every new feature of every new iphone (and other products) until the end of time? Do none of you think (or trust?) that Apple could possibly do a better job with this sort of thing in 2028 than random android/car manufacturers could in the past decade or so? I'm not sure how much you all pay attention to technology, but things tend to improve over time.

 

[FoxyKaye]

I'm... Sort of looking forward to this? It feels like these rumors haven't really nailed the form factor in so much as they've identified the experimental direction. I suppose if it's truly awesome next year when I'm planning to upgrade, and there's a wallet folio case that would work with it, I'll buy it. If not, the 18 Pro will be discounted. So it's a win either way.

 

[Cuesca]

No using your phone with gloves, or when it's cold outside, or with dirty hands.

The disconnect between large tech company management and real life is not a gap, it's becoming an ocean.

Did you like read the first sentence of this article? Or did you just look at the pretty picture then started posted?

 

[mansplains]

I wouldn’t mind this but I dislike the current button layout, as someone with big hands. It’s too easy to accidentally capture screenshots, and the action button is so far, could be by the side button. It would also be lame if case manufacturers applied the same treatment to these new haptic buttons as camera control, by making holes instead of a capacitive layer.

 

[anthony131]

No using your phone with gloves, or when it's cold outside, or with dirty hands.

The disconnect between large tech company management and real life is not a gap, it's becoming an ocean.

… says the person / bot who didn’t read the second sentence.

 

[numberfive]

Oh that display really makes me cringe.

Though just announced by Samsung at
SID Display Week today, the latest OLED smartphone technology called Flex Chroma Pixel, has up to 3000 nits and 96% BT.2020 color coverage.

It also unveiled a 6.8-inch 500ppi OLED panel with built-in Organic Photodiodes (OPD) for measuring heart rate and blood pressure when the user touches the display…

Interesting.

I wish samsung would instead come up with a display that is not causing headaches and eye discomfort after 5 minutes of usage.

samsung and apple are the top2 companies with the worst pwm dimming on the market and not even acknowledging the problem.

 

[maxoakland]

In my experience haptic/solid state buttons are awful.

 

[maxoakland]

What if you could swipe up or down on the edge for volume?

I can’t wait to try to take my phone out of my pocket to change a song and accidentally blast the audio up to 100%

 

[ayephoner]

I can’t wait to try to take my phone out of my pocket to change a song and accidentally blast the audio up to 100%

Okay. You guys win.

This phone that doesn't come out for a year and half is clearly already garbage and I'm personally offended and outraged that Apple had the gall to let such a god awful, terrible device make it to the stage of public rumors. I am going to write my congressman and tell him to stop whatever he is doing and start drafting legislation to ban anything other than a flat screen and physical buttons for the rest of time!!!

 

[PBG4 Dude]

"Try to avoid being out of the Bay Area"

What if your Bay Area privileges have been revoked?

 

[Mr_Ed]

Always? You don't think at any point in the future of humanity that we will ever be able to figure that out?

The part that bothers me, as I mentioned before, is the endless negativity. And so much of it is trite. "Android tried this a decade ago!" (or the car industry gave up on that...). Do we really need to do that every third post in every rumor thread for every new feature of every new iphone (and other products) until the end of time? Do none of you think (or trust?) that Apple could possibly do a better job with this sort of thing in 2028 than random android/car manufacturers could in the past decade or so? I'm not sure how much you all pay attention to technology, but things tend to improve over time.

My point is that we comment on the rumor using what we know today as context, but you seem to want us to comment based on some imagined, unspecified future as context. Or at the very least, that we should withhold opinions on the present context because “something might be possible in the future.” If some opinions or takes on the rumor are not favorable, so what? Apple sure doesn’t care. Why should you?

iPhones are supposed to be handheld, and our hands and fingers are the physical interface to the device. As of today, a physical button is far simpler, provides additional tactile positional feedback you can’t have with a flush touch-sensitive surface, and can easily be made to work with a case. Loading multiple functions on button via gestures won’t necessarily make it better either, as evidenced by the decidedly mixed reactions in this very forum to the camera control button. The responses to some of the complaints was often that they should turn off additional functionality, essentially turning it into . . . just a button.

I love tech, just not “tech for the sake of tech.” I love it when a feature solves a problem for the end-user. I worked in software development for 35 years, not including the time I spent learning electronics and programming on my own from age 14, and I can confidently tell you LOTS of things are already possible in software. Something else I know is that just because you can doesn’t necessarily mean you should.

 

[subjonas]

The use aluminium for heat management combined with titanium for rigidity.

I believe the frame is used for both structural integrity and heat dispersement simultaneously, so it can't be two different metals.

 

[NCPine]

This isn't anything ever wanted or asked for.

 

[ayephoner]

My point is that we comment on the rumor using what we know today as context, but you seem to want us to comment based on some imagined, unspecified future as context. Or at the very least, that we should withhold opinions on the present context because “something might be possible in the future.” If some opinions or takes on the rumor are not favorable, so what? Apple sure doesn’t care. Why should you?

Because all of the complaints are based on past experience (often with old products from inferior companies), but we are talking about a future product. How hard is it to envision that a future product will be better than a past product?

I care because this board is inundated with similar, cry baby posts about how the latest rumor is awful. Why be on this forum if all you do is cry about mac rumors?

new ios? cry
new smart glasses? cry
new folding iphone? cry
new bezel-less iphone? cry
new ai wearable? cry

just look at the other posts in this thread since we started our latest exchange:

Every day that goes by and every new rumor I hear I'm more and more glad I went ahead and got this 17 Pro Max.

Gonna be a weird few years in Apple phone land.

In my experience haptic/solid state buttons are awful.

I can’t wait to try to take my phone out of my pocket to change a song and accidentally blast the audio up to 100%

This isn't anything ever wanted or asked for.

 

[Mr_Ed]

Because all of the complaints are based on past experience (often with old products from inferior companies), but we are talking about a future product. How hard is it to envision that a future product will be better than a past product?

I care because this board is inundated with similar, cry baby posts about how the latest rumor is awful. Why be on this forum if all you do is cry about mac rumors?

new ios? cry
new smart glasses? cry
new folding iphone? cry
new bezel-less iphone? cry
new ai wearable? cry

just look at the other posts in this thread since we started our latest exchange:

So.
What.

At this point it is clear you just want this forum to be a “safe space” or echo chamber where only opinions agreeable to you are expressed. You haven’t contributed a single description of this “future vision’ you keep harping about. All you’ve done is complain that you don’t like some of the opinions here.

Enjoy the rest of us with critical opinions living rent free in your head, I guess. Have a nice day.

 

[Gotword]

Bro jus get rid of the bezels we dont need the screen on the side imo

 

[johnsawyercjs]

Bro jus get rid of the bezels we dont need the screen on the side imo

Underrated comment of the millennium

 

[Riot Nrrrd]

I love tech, just not “tech for the sake of tech.” I love it when a feature solves a problem for the end-user. I worked in software development for 35 years, not including the time I spent learning electronics and programming on my own from age 14, and I can confidently tell you LOTS of things are already possible in software. Something else I know is that just because you can doesn’t necessarily mean you should.

Prime example of this: Tesla removed the shift and turn signal (including windshield washer button) levers on their cars, and moved the functions into the steering wheel. Yeah, let’s change the ergonomics of these functions when no one else has. Let’s make it such that you might need to need one of these functions while the wheel is turning. Just incredible stupidity on their part.

They finally acknowledged their idiocy by putting the turn signal lever back on their 2026 models (but not the shift lever, that function is still on the screen) and, if you can believe the arrogance, offering customers a “Model 3 Turn Signal Stalk Retrofit” of the steering wheel with a newer one (that has the turn signal lever) for a mere US $595 to fix their design mistake!

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”

 

[CarAnalogy]

Because all of the complaints are based on past experience (often with old products from inferior companies), but we are talking about a future product. How hard is it to envision that a future product will be better than a past product?

I care because this board is inundated with similar, cry baby posts about how the latest rumor is awful. Why be on this forum if all you do is cry about mac rumors?

new ios? cry
new smart glasses? cry
new folding iphone? cry
new bezel-less iphone? cry
new ai wearable? cry

just look at the other posts in this thread since we started our latest exchange:

Hey I thought my post had a fairly positive to neutral tone. I’m happy with my purchase but I also think things are going to be very different the next few years for a lot of reasons.

 

[jimscard]

So you’re saying that Apple is going to shut out people with varying abilities and come out with a device that only the coolest kids can use?