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iPhone 15 Pro Low-Energy Chip to Allow Solid-State Buttons to Work When Device is Off or Out of Battery
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The hardware is complete. The software is now being tested to decide what works best for users.
Will the new action button be customizable, act like the old home button, or just replicate mute?
All three options are possible with finished hardware, and could be added in subsequent software updates.
So this goes back to Edward Snowden's theory of your smartphone never being turned off even though you powered it down 🤔
Sounds good, but it seems like a workaround rather than adressing the true problem, and at some point I hope Apple opts for bigger, better batteries even if the thickness increases, so that I can get through a full day even after the battery degrades over routine use.
Smartphones (probably all) for the longest time have never really powered off, because there is no physical on and off switch that actually cuts power to the battery. This iteration to me increases water-proofing and maybe allows for different uses of the buttons in different scenarios.
I’m sure there will be solutions for that, just like screen protectors work on your phone’s capacitive screen. Moving to software powered buttons is potentially a very powerful idea: different functionality for different applications! How about zooming during filming? Just slide your finger. I like it!
The good thing is all these new buttons will be unbreakable.
Also, could probably enable Apple Pay when device is turned off ?
I honestly don’t even want buttons anymore, Siri can be my buttons. It will be so great, trust me 😈
The original article made it clear that the section you quoted is entirely powered by software, so… Not really.
Apple kept messing around with the always on display settings months after the 14 pro came out, adding options and changing designs, and allowing it to be used in more circumstances.
So yes, they’re still probably working on exactly how it’s going to work in software, and I guarantee you that we’ll see minor changes in 17.1 and 17.2 and 17.3 to address day one concerns.
I assume this is motivated at least in part by the desire to have a more waterproof/resistant device? If it's part of a more ambitious, longer term effort to due away with protective cases entirely....that makes a lot more sense. Having to keep a pretty phone in an ugly case is one of the number one issues with cell phones in general.
I can't imagine they believe this to be a highly coveted feature in isolation.
I can't imagine they believe this to be a highly coveted feature in isolation.
If your iPhone buttons get stuck from grime, I would hate to see the inside of your primary domicile.
Fully agree! Plus tapping on those buttons don't even work. Amazing how their QA dept. missed that. For years and years.
Because like every revolutionary (at the time) product, what was once new and amazing (smart phones) eventually becomes a commodity.
I can remember when my IIGS was something sorta special. When pushing computers to their performance limits was really cool because few people had done it, it was amazing to make it do more, and you were excited about what came next. It was worth paying thousands of dollars for something you would have for 5 plus years. With the drives, the monitor and the printer, the darn thing cost more than a used car at the time.
I bought a new MBP last June. It' has a lot of cool new features over my 2019 MBP and I like the unit. But I bought it primarily because the keyboard on the old one was crap and I type a lot of reports. It's a great computer and it's worth every penny I paid for it.
But computers are basically everywhere now. Including in your pocket. There's nothing special about them anymore.
So when your iPhone is basically commoditized on the level of being a toaster or a fridge, you end up making toaster ovens, multi slice toasters, and fridges with computer screens and WiFi in them. Or in this case, changing the buttons around on a phone to try and do something "new".
It's not that they're making it "better". That's subjective. But they're not going to sit there and put out the same phone two years in a row when they've been putting out new ones for 14 years now.
If you're gonna do that, you may as well go off and make dorm refrigerators.
Curious how the new mute button will work then. Now I can (especially in a meeting) look at the side of my phone and know I am on mute or not. Will the new version have a clear symbol in the Always On Display I suppose? What if I do not use the always on display feature? Could they keep the very top of the screen on only if I am on mute so it clearly shows on the screen perhaps?
I was wondering the same. What has been problematic about physical push or toggle buttons? I haven't seen problems with them, but are there ones I don't know about or haven't experienced?
That said, perhaps the design is to test out a concept or see how a concept plays out in the field. I can get that.
I'm sure the goal is to make the iPhone more and more waterproof. Buttons and charging ports are all that's left to get rid of.
I get the low energy chip but besides power how do you do self recovery if iOS is frozen and unable to process the button functions?
This sure sounds a lot to me like the engineering team got permission from the top to leak this out, and let the public battle out which they’d prefer so they can go with that choice. 😂
I too simply look at the switch. I guess we'll just have to wait 3 or 4 years for them to reintroduce the buttons. Bit like the TouchBar, butterfly keyboard, HomePod...
Same way you do now.
Again as stated several times in this thread, even when you "shut down" or restart your phone, it never entirely shuts off.