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Jesus, who gives AF how "Exciting" the design is? This is a device I use all day every day, I don't need the design to be "exciting" I need it to steadily improve and gain new functionality that is just as easy to use.

And yeah dude I think Apple is capable of working on more than button designs. Perhaps most of their work is going on in the INSIDE of the device?
Well if it’s not the most pro iPhone they’ve ever made I’m not buying it. So they’ve got their work cut out for them.
 
Getting harder and harder to get excited about any updates for years to be honest.
Yeah, no matter how “exciting” Tim and company will try to make the presentation look this September. I still hope there’s something up Apple’s sleeve when it comes to the 16 Pro design, but I guess that’s just wishful thinking on my part.
 
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These websites don’t know much about product development, do they? Most physical ideas for a chassis are set in stone years ahead of time. There is no way Apple are still experimenting with the iPhone 16 only months away from mass production. They’ll already have the CNC files to go and have TSMC pumping out A18 chipsets.

If they’re experimenting with anything at the minute it’s the design of the iPhone 18 and what that will include.
 
I've never understood the yearly upgrade cycle. I generally keep mine for 4-5 years.
I think three years has become the norm/average, but the number of people keeping their phones as long as you has definitely increased. For me it’s 2-3 years. I’m on the fence if I should upgrade my 14 Pro to a 16 Pro, but given that the only visual change on the 17 Pro might be a circular cutout for the front camera with the rest underneath the display, that iPhone may be a meh upgrade as well.
 
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IMG_0102.jpeg
lol. My goodness. Apple isn’t letting this design go.
 
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I'm not a fan of the current action button design/location.

The amount of times I've reached into my pocket to increase the volume on something and hit the action button by accident. The buttons are too close to each other and similar in shape.

Could they redesign the button? Move it to the other side? I dont know but the way it is now, doesnt work.

What about making it a switch that you can use to silence the phone so it doesn't make noise. I think that would be a great idea.

All sarcasm aside, I just don't care about anything the action button brings to the game. I'm cool with the switch that's been there since the beginning. But then I would only just leave it assigned to be the mute button just the same as before only now it can easily be confused with the other buttons just like you have discovered. There are just too many similar/multi-function interfaces that turn the phone into a UI trashcan. Bring back 3D touch and the ring silencer switch. The loss of a home button has also cause a UI mess. There's only so many different ways you can swipe and the phone gets confused all the time whether I'm trying to turn on the flashlight or unlock the phone. Never had that problem with a home button and/or 3D Touch.
 
I’m so excited to even be able to keep up with each release AND VP even. Can’t understand the jaded nature up in here.

Each new version of anything Apple puts out always has some fun new features that feel plain good.
 
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I’m not sure what’s up with the pessimism here.
The iPhone, believe it or not, is almost 20 years old.
Apples first laptop came out in 1991, 20 years later it was 2011 and the biggest thing that happened to the MacBook Pro that year was it got the first thunderbolt port and a slightly better WebCam.
The iPhone is just at the place where slight refinement is really all you can do.

It’s not just Apple, the competition looks equally boring
The galaxy S 24 is getting titanium edges like the iPhone… Cool!
It’s ditching the 10X lens for a dramatically improved main lens. Okay.
Its getting a new chip.

Slightly better here, slightly faster there, cost-cutting here, new colors there.
That’s what happens when you’re on your 17th year and counting of improving these things.

Even the market of foldables, which is barely 5 years the public consciousness, is settling into the routines of tiny spec bumps.
 
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I’m not sure what’s up with the pessimism here.
The iPhone, believe it or not, is almost 20 years old.
Apples first laptop came out in 1991, 20 years later it was 2011 and the biggest thing that happened to the MacBook Pro that year was it got the first thunderbolt port and a slightly better WebCam.
The iPhone is just at the place where slight refinement is really all you can do.

It’s not just Apple, the competition looks equally boring
The galaxy S 24 is getting titanium edges like the iPhone… Cool!
It’s ditching the 10X lens for a dramatically improved main lens.
There are still design updates for competitor phones. And since the iPhone 12 came out we have seen a completely redesigned: iMac, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro. All are mature products. Sure we got new processors, and what is possible with the iMac now wasn't possible with Intel chips. I can't speak for everyone, but I'm not expecting a revolution with an iPhone design update. Just a new design language every couple of years, that's all. So I'm not expecting a huge leap in functionality or some crazy wow feature. They do okay with those things still as far as I am concerned. I have no problem with iPhone engineering. I have a problem with the stagnation in design.
 
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I've never understood the yearly upgrade cycle. I generally keep mine for 4-5 years.
I doubt the yearly update cycle will persist much longer. In the early days there was a genuine benefit. But now theres a plateauing of features, performance improvements etc and the environmental aspect will become a huge pressure.

Moving to a two year cycle would mean more time to develop, test and optimise and the resulting updates would be more worthwhile.

I can see the update schedule getting longer and longer in the decades ahead.

In any case the numbering system they use is really starting to run its course. Id imagine they just revert to something like iPhone (2026) etc its cleaner and makes sense
 
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Move the "action button" 1 mm up, then 1 mm down. Make it a little bigger, then a little smaller.

The action button could be context aware. The iPhone could listen or sense what's going on and when you press the button you get what you need.
 
There are still design updates for competitor phones. And since the iPhone 12 came out we have seen a completely redesigned: iMac, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro. All are mature products. Sure we got new processors, and what is possible with the iMac now wasn't possible with Intel chips. I can't speak for everyone, but I'm not expecting a revolution with an iPhone design update. Just a new design language every couple of years, that's all. So I'm not expecting a huge leap in functionality or some crazy wow feature. They do okay with those things still as far as I am concerned. I have no problem with iPhone engineering. I have a problem with the stagnation in design.
Putting aside something like a totally new type of device (a foldable or something of that like) what exactly are you wanting them to change?
Really the only thing they can do is slightly change the shape in the materials, which they have done over and over and over again.
Rounded aluminum, rounded plastic, flat glass and stainless steel, flat glass and aluminum, rounded glass and rounded aluminum with plastic edges, curved aluminum glass, curved stainless steel and glass, oval camera bumps, square camera bumps, circle camera bumps, slightly curved titanium and glass…

I’m not sure what else you want them to do, there’s a limit to what can be done to a screen that fits in your pocket.
As for those other devices you mentioned…
iMac didn’t get a design update between 2012 and 2021. Eight years!
The MacBook Air didn’t get a design update between 2010 and 2018, another eight years.
Between 2010 and 2018, the iPhone went from the iPhone 4 to the XS and XR, it very much changed design quite a bit.
 
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