Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Is Still Obsessed With the Idea of an All-Glass iPhone
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Sorry, this is my hand holding a regular 13 that way, it's pretty close.
My hands are average-big, I'm no André the Giant.
Glad to see Apple being transparent for once.
Apparently reality TV is to blame for this. An entire generation has now grown up seeing everyone on TV on speakerphone all the time for the benefit of the cameras.
Zack is going to be double fisting Jerry Rig Knives if this phone releases.
Apple is "obsessed" (there's that word again but actually used properly this time I think) with objects that look beautiful but are impractical to use.
I'm almost to the point where I'm just going to embrace the wabi-sabi of nicked up devices. The iPhone's screen is made of the most delicate, fragile glass-like substance that scratches if the slightest breeze blows across it. Everything they make is a fingerprint magnet.
It kind of just feels like more evidence that the top management at Apple is out of touch. None of them use cases. But they also don't use their own Macs or pay for their own AppleCare.
Samsung already tried this years ago with their Edge series and everyone hated it.
Also, Apple already has plenty of Springboard, orientation, drawing bugs, etc etc. They can barely handle the Home Screen as it is these days. They will never get it to jump all around like this without being an absolute unusable mess.
History is littered with attempts at a new product that didn't work and "everyone hated it", before someone came along and nailed it.
A few examples:
Touch screens before iPhone, tablets before iPad, e-readers before Kindle, streaming video before Netflix, to name a few.
Because something hasn't worked yet doesn't mean it can't work later when executed properly.
Alright fair enough but riddle me this. When all the edges are active screens, where do I hold it?
There are new and innovative approaches to old problems, but some things are limited by physics and anatomy.
Yeah, a lot of what is pictured in this patent falls under the “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” category.
Apple is still obsessed with things that make little difference to the user experience.
(think creepy eyes on the outside of Vision Pro)
(think creepy eyes on the outside of Vision Pro)
I don't pretend to be an expert, but perhaps there are things that can be done with software to recognize when it's been held and when something an action is being taken.
But that's just useless speculation. What I really want to say is that the nature of innovation is that many things fail, and some of the failures lead to happy, unintended accidents and breakthroughs elsewhere.
What I am suggesting is that R&D isn't a linear, but an exploration that can lead to unexpected places.
The origin story of Viagra comes to mind as a prime example.
Last edited:
Sounds like progress in the direction of an easily breakable device that will be almost impossible to use. Can you imagine all those hand positions affecting what happens on the phone? You'd be flipping it around in your hand, trying to make it come back from some inexplicable thing it did, until it flips out of your hand and breaks. You'd have to turn off all the hand positioning stuff and enclose it in a rubber case. I've already got that one.
If they’re out of ideas, so is everyone else, because whatever marginal new feature the iPhone has, everyone copies.
we need a redux of the jet black iPhone 7 with faceID and Dynamic Island. just imagine how slick that would be with the narrow bezels of today.