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Apple to Eliminate Home Button in 2017 iPhone
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How lovely, meanwhile the iPhone 4.7" gets a mild overhaul and is named the iPhone 7 SSE -
This rumours forgotten about the other one claiming only a special edition 5.8" HD TV sized phone will be redesigned with all the fancy features. Unles that rumours wrong?
This rumours forgotten about the other one claiming only a special edition 5.8" HD TV sized phone will be redesigned with all the fancy features. Unles that rumours wrong?
I can live with all of that. Use lightning port if you want to use wired headphones.
By anyone you mean hundreds of millions of potential buyers who don't follow the rummer mill?
Yeah exactly. But it's certainly not like Apple to change from their current release plan of iPhones. If this current iPhone isn't the larger change, then I would be rather surprised.
Not sure whether it's worth even upgrading my contract, or whether I just stick to it (with my current phone) until the 2017 model.
Exactly, sounds like a lot of crap. Next year we will see that the 8 will be an 6SE+.
Dongles are annoying, a cheezy low tech solution to a problem Apple is creating. Anything to make additional profit for a poor company that's struggling...
Actually, your existing headphones are low tech. Analog ports are going bye-bye. This is basically the last hold out.
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A selfie camera in particular on the front of the phone wouldn't even need a high quality lens assembly, just to be able to "see" through the screen (or indeed along a narrow border above) - the speaker and microphone grilles would also work fine at the top and bottom edges because, in theory, a more "bezel-less" design would be quite a lot shorter so ear/mouth placement would still work when making calls in that configuration.
Sadly, what I'm picturing in my mind for this design I no longer have faith that Apple are up to designing based on the last few years... I expect another similar phone to the iPhone 6, thinner, bigger camera bump but with home button removed. Call me cynical. Apple haven't made a great design since the iPhone 4/5, that includes the watch.
here's what i know as fact: after 2 years my iPhone 5's battery lasted about 20 minutes on a full charge. my iPhone 6+ battery lasts nearly all day on a full charge.
apple's success in battery life means i can happily wait to see if iPhone 2017 is as they say it is.
apple's success in battery life means i can happily wait to see if iPhone 2017 is as they say it is.
Based on how we now have the Apple Watch, Apple Pencil, Apple TV, etc I personally think we're going to see next year's phone rebranded as the Apple Phone rather than the iPhone 8. Not sure what happens to the iPad, it would probably have to be the Apple Tablet or something...
[doublepost=1472195009][/doublepost]Curved edges? Hope they will make them useful...not only design
The radically redesigned iPhone coming in 2017 will not feature a Home button, Bloomberg today confirmed in a wider report focusing on new mobile payment features coming to Japan.According to past rumors, the 2017 iPhone, which may be called the iPhone 8, will feature a complete design overhaul with an edge-to-edge flexible OLED display that does away with the top and bottom bezels where features like the Touch ID fingerprint sensor and front-facing camera are housed.
Instead, the functionality of the Home button, including Touch ID, may be built directly into the display. Apple design chief Jony Ive is said to have wanted to build an iPhone that looks like a single sheet of glass for several years, and 2017, the year that marks the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, is when it will happen.
The iPhone display may also feature edges that are curved on both sides, similar to the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, and it is rumored to have a glass body, moving away from the aluminum that's been used for iPhones since the iPhone 5. Other features that may be built into the 2017 iPhone include wireless charging, an enhanced Taptic engine, and new biometric capabilities like iris scanning or facial recognition.
Article Link: Apple to Eliminate Home Button in 2017 iPhone
My phone is currently charging next to me, I have some very nice headphones connected to a headphone amp next to it, I can listen while it's charging via the 3.5mm jack (and I do this most mornings) - how does one do that with one lightning port?
Living in the present is such a drag... Why can't we have flying cars? /s
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What on earth is the point of bezel less, the bezel exists for a reason, not to have your hands on the content and protecting the side screen.
Easy to be flippant - I think the point shared by many (non-fanboy types) is that a lot of people will be due for an upgrade but rather than offering a truly new model this year, as those on this cycle are used to, Apple are releasing a "can't be bothered" model; more of an "S" version with the added "benefit" of removing the headphone jack.
That's why people are pissy about it. Most want something new, not something less. We've had our phones 2 years and we'd like something better. Yeah yeah "first world problems", "so entitled", "you should be grateful Apple allow you to spend your $800 on their device" etc. Fact is we bought into Apple and many have invested quite a lot really - we don't want to move to Android but we also don't want to be treated as a cash cow which just buys any old crap regardless of effort on Apple's part, we could wait another year but we've gotten used to 2 year cycles, have "old" potentially degrading phones and were expecting better.
We bought into Apple because we wanted the best, it's ok to expect the best for the prices charged, we want Apple with their endless wealth to try harder and do better - that doesn't seem to be the case this year, whereas the competition have caught up and surpassed Apple in many ways. That's all.
It was grippier due to the comparably sharper edges.
With a thin phone, lovers of a thicker, more robust phone can add a suitable case to reach that goal. If a phone is already thick out of the box, you can't simply take away slices if you prefer a thinner phone.
The backside is _not_ where the TouchID button should be. That placement is a makeshift solution, as it makes the use unintuitive by hiding the button from the user during normal operation.
Lots of options: Integrate sensors into the display (TFT display as camera has already been demonstrated in 2004 - sorry for non-English page, have no access to a translation website here), use the screen itself as speaker membrane as posted already in this thread). Get rid of thinking in _existing_ technologies: A few years ago, only very few people could probably imagine to feel a click without actually pressing a mechanic button. But it works very well in current trackpads.
Much like a virtual keyboard: When you need it, it occupies screen real estate. Otherwise, the space is available for other uses.
Would you prefer to stick with unwieldy bricks until technology is ready to make it credit card thin over night?
- Because you can (afford it or have a respective contract with each-year hardware update).
- Because your iP6 shattered or suffers from the touch screen problems that recently surfaced.
- Because it'll be a pretty refined device with the toothing problems gone - opposed to a radical redesign with lots of chances for new problems.
- Because you'll soon know what you'll get with the iP7 - but you won't know for a long time with next year's iPhone.
- Because you want that improved camera.
- Because you want that improved Ram.
- Because you want that improved 256GB storage.
- Because there could be other interesting features (like noise cancelling, faster CPU, faster Ram, USB3-speed syncing via Lightning, longer battery time ...).
Exactly because they'll have more than enough areas of renewal next year, it makes sense to not combine them all in one device, but better stretch them over more than one device generation where possible.
I would expect an additional feature: Raise-to-wake combined with AppleWatch-to-unlock at the same time. They'll have this functionality for Macs soon - why not also for the iPhone? I could imagine this to be a very comfortable feature.
Tech is not yet advanced enough to display content on pure plastic displays. If you refer to the cover glass: The surface friction on glass is significantly better than on plastic, thus giving a better user experience. Not to forget the higher scratch susceptibility of a plastic surface: Okay for pure body casing, but a bad idea for clear surfaces that are intended for display content.
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Odd then, that so many other brands manage to create elegant designs with much less bezel (and as a result offer more screen real-estate in a more compact form) seemingly without issue. No? That's the benefit - more screen, less size. Functionality and durability doesn't seem to be a problem for any other company.
I'm not one of the bezel freaks - I was discussing the point raised about the design. I do still think it's an area Apple could do better in.
One "issue" I'd see is that it is difficult to recognize exactly what smartphone brand the person next to you is actually using. An iPhone can be immediately recognized as an iPhone. Brand recognition is important for every serious company. For Apple it's a necessity.
Besides: Elegance lies in the eye of the beholder. To me, those (nearly) bezel-less Android smartphones look less elegant, for whatever reason. No idea whether I'd like an Apple approach to bezel-less design better.
Not sure about that: Even if you have a good algorithm in place to recognize "unwanted" screen touches properly, by holding a smartphone with a safe grip, your fingertips will cover some of the display content. One could argue whether that's relevant, but in my opinion that's a functionality impairment, which the customer might be more willing to accept on a price-driven platform than on a premium-positioned platform.
Bezels and home button of the iPhone have become pretty iconic. Apple needs to be very careful that they don't give up on that silhouette without a proper substitution available (-> brand recognition).
All the more reason to skip this year and wait for the 2017's iPhone. =)
I thought brand recognition was the Apple?
I thought brand recognition was the Apple?