iPhone 14 Pro's Large Pill-Shaped Cutout Will Display Camera and Microphone Privacy Indicators

[Jamo12]

For all those people wondering about the “wasted” space above the cutout I have the following question. These are honest questions because I believe answering them will answer the question for the iPhone:

Why do almost all android phones with a hole-punch camera in the corner not just make the entire corner of the screen a black section instead of having those wasted pixels around it? Why not have every center hole punch be a tear-drop shape instead of just a hole with that wasted space above?

 

[sorgo †]

I don’t understand. Do people really use their phone with one hand only?

Yes, some of us made the more ergonomic choice (iPhone mini) and happily and easily go one-handed.

 

[cmChimera]

It’s hard to reach these controls on these big phones, top of screen is hardest spot to reach on any phone that isn’t sized as small as the mini.

That’s fair, guess we’ll see what they do.

 

[MrRom92]

Since it’s too long to physically resemble a pill anymore, I propose that we refer to it as “the unibrow”

 

[MrMacintoshIII]

I don’t understand. Do people really use their phone with one hand only?

With my mini, yes. Now switching to the damn 14 Pro, no, I won’t be able to. And it’s a travesty.

I wish the iPhone X form factor would come back. It was just thin (width) enough in hand to be comfortable one-handed…

 

[Tagbert]

It will be interesting to experience how movies look and feel with a pill shaped hole on the side. In full view that is. I’ve gotten used to part of the image being cut on the side on 12/13, but now some of the image will be on the thin edge beyond the punchout. Hmm…

It will likely be pretty much like with the notch. Default view does not put the movie into the notch/pill area. That area is blacked out. It is only if you zoom in that it pushes the movie into that area and also crops the top and bottom of the movie when it is forced to fit the wider space. Never understood why you would zoom in on a movie like that. It’s like the older TVs that would crop the sides of movies so that there were no black bars visible.

 

[Tagbert]

It’s hard to reach these controls on these big phones, top of screen is hardest spot to reach on any phone that isn’t sized as small as the mini.

Of course those controls are already at the top of the screen. This change would just move them up by about a quarter of an inch. Not much more of a reach.

 

[PowerButton]

This looks SO much better
I wasn’t a fan of the asymmetrical “i” design at all.

 

[Tagbert]

I don’t understand. Do people really use their phone with one hand only?

Well, you need to keep your other hand on the steering wheel. Taking your other hand off would be dangerous! 😳

 

[Tdude96]

I don’t understand. Do people really use their phone with one hand only?

How else is someone supposed to use the phone, put makeup on, and drive all at the same time?
I don't do that, obviously, but have seen it accomplished by others.

I use the Pro Max one-handed every day. It's very usable, just a little difficult to reach the top of the screen.

 

[torontotim]

Woah! these indicators look so cool. I hope Apple makes it bright enough that we can see it with the naked eye. It's these little details... that is why I love Apple and an iPhone.

What would you expect - that you'd need a microscope to see the indicators? Night vision goggles?

 

[deevey]

I'd just like to be able record / video call landscape video without rotating the phone. No reason that could not happen with the amount of pixels in the sensors nowadays.

 

[Tagbert]

How else is someone supposed to use the phone, put makeup on, and drive all at the same time?
I don't do that, obviously, but have seen it accomplished by others.

I use the Pro Max one-handed every day. It's very usable, just a little difficult to reach the top of the screen.

Looks like you just need one of these 😆.

 

[RRC]

Personally I think its a good use of the space as well as it's implemented properly... would be nice to have certain colours that you could allocate to app notifications etc.

 

[AppleFan1179]

This is not an improvement on the notch in any way. It's way more distracting in your field of vision, where the notch was the "top" of the display and just sorta disappeared. Surprised this got through the design phase. It's ugly.

 

[Miha_v]

So, a generic, low-budget Android?

Considering half of Android phones today have notch as well, who really cares about similarities here. Pill still looks less awkward of a shape then notch, but both solutions are design compromises (until they figure out a good way to eliminate them visually).

 

[Oscar_440]

That’s just called targeted ads and it’s not related to your conversation. There’s always been the conspiracy theory that Facebook or Instagram is listening in on your microphone but that’s just simply not the case. Part of it is if you talk about sunflowers and you see an ad for jeans you’re not going to think anything about it. Out of all the ads you see once you happen to see an ad for what you talked about it’s like oh my god they’re listening on me. If that was the case you would never see the ads about anything you don’t talk about. It’s kind of like how a broken clock is still correct twice a day.

Yes, I know what targeted ads are and I totally understand (and in part agree) your point, but the thing is that is too much coincidence to talk about some specific things like a portable water filters and 4h later IG show you an ad of exactly that. In this particular case I never have seen any ad about that or similar, not even known that it exist.

Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but surely is very weird…

 

[bejib66000]

It will be interesting to experience how movies look and feel with a pill shaped hole on the side. In full view that is. I’ve gotten used to part of the image being cut on the side on 12/13, but now some of the image will be on the thin edge beyond the punchout. Hmm…

Still bad. That's why that was a bad idea to bring FaceID to a phone. It's good for tablets (iPads in particular), but not for phones. There is just nowhere to put it in.

 

[bejib66000]

For all those people wondering about the “wasted” space above the cutout I have the following question. These are honest questions because I believe answering them will answer the question for the iPhone:

Why do almost all android phones with a hole-punch camera in the corner not just make the entire corner of the screen a black section instead of having those wasted pixels around it? Why not have every center hole punch be a tear-drop shape instead of just a hole with that wasted space above?

for better immersion and better visual balance.

 

[Mousse]

Having the green dot front and center when the camera is active will make the experience of using an iPhone similar to using a Mac. On a Mac, when the webcam is in use, there is a green indicator light that cannot be disabled, with the light located right next to the camera.

So it's a front camera on light. Privacy indicator...phffbbttt... Apple is really milking the privacy angle.😏

Don't get me wrong. I love the idea; wish android manufacturers would follow suite. Just don't call it a "privacy indicator."

 

[__Chris__]

I think this looks ugly and distracting. Imagine scrolling up and having things disappearing under the cutout only to reappear in that tiny sliver of screen above it. It's going to have a strobing effect in your peripheral vision. Hopefully the execution ends up looking different from this.

 

[anonymous-A.S]

Woah! these indicators look so cool. I hope Apple makes it bright enough that we can see it with the naked eye. It's these little details... that is why I love Apple and an iPhone.

👍

 

[MrMacintoshIII]

So it's a front camera on light. Privacy indicator...phffbbttt... Apple is really milking the privacy angle.😏

Don't get me wrong. I love the idea; wish android manufacturers would follow suite. Just don't call it a "privacy indicator."

I think this looks ugly and distracting. Imagine scrolling up and having things disappearing under the cutout only to reappear in that tiny sliver of screen above it. It's going to have a strobing effect in your peripheral vision. Hopefully the execution ends up looking different from this.

I’m actually looking forward to this. But I have ADHD…

 

[Tdude96]

Yes, I know what targeted ads are and I totally understand (and in part agree) your point, but the thing is that is too much coincidence to talk about some specific things like a portable water filters and 4h later IG show you an ad of exactly that. In this particular case I never have seen any ad about that or similar, not even known that it exist.

Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but surely is very weird…

Coincidences happen every day, but it's more likely advertisers are very good at profiling. Associative profiles aren't uncommon.

Did you look up portable water filters?
Did you look up anything related to portable water filters? (bottle, camping, RV, backpacking, reverse osmosis, straw filter, any other related keywords)
Those are easy ones for advertisers without anything fancy.

Did your conversational partner recently purchase a portable water filter?
Did your conversational partner recently look up anything related to portable water filters?
A shared wi-fi network, geolocation, contact tracing, or other information that demonstrates you were together allows advertisers to make very good guesses as to what you talked about, as long as they have halfway-decent profiles on all participants.

Perhaps your conversational partner make it extra easy by messaging on one of Zuck's sites, "Oscar and I just had a really deep conversation about portable water filters."

With associative profiling, it's very easy to deliver conversationally-related ads without actually having to listen to the conversation.

 

[Tagbert]

I think this looks ugly and distracting. Imagine scrolling up and having things disappearing under the cutout only to reappear in that tiny sliver of screen above it. It's going to have a strobing effect in your peripheral vision. Hopefully the execution ends up looking different from this.

That's not how the notch works and not how this will work. The app's have a content area that is below the notch/pill. Your scrolling content will not be appearing in that header area.