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I've used a phone with at least a few physical buttons every day for over 2 decades and never had one fail. You can't replicate the feedback and utility of a physical button with solid state.

This is Apple dangling a pointless upgrade carrot, or a cost saving drive that won't be passed onto the consumer - or both.
 
It is about reducing returns and repairs. Not the user experience.

There's no way that's the reason because Apple loveeee making money on repairs. It's strictly user experience. It will have a similar amount of screen time at the keynote as Dynamic Island did. This is yet another case of people thinking it's a mostly pointless aesthetic change because of the leaks but they will instantly go "oh wow that really is useful" when Apple demo it a la Dynamic Island.
 
I've used a phone with at least a few physical buttons every day for over 2 decades and never had one fail. You can't replicate the feedback and utility of a physical button with solid state.

This is Apple dangling a pointless upgrade carrot, or a cost saving drive that won't be passed onto the consumer - or both.

Apple already did with the MacBook trackpad and the solid state experience of those is BETTER than a mechanical trackpad (toggleable sensitivity, deep press functionality, etc.)
 
Never had a taptic engine fail, and it’s more about buttons becoming mushy than outright failing, but for the mute switch, that actually is pretty fragile compared to normal buttons too
Will be interesting to see data from repair shops on how often do those buttons actually fail. Considering there are people who still use iPhone 6 or older, seems like they’re quite durable.
 
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How do you "sensitivity toggle" through 1-2mm of rubber or silicone?

Does not sound legit.
 
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There's no way that's the reason because Apple loveeee making money on repairs. It's strictly user experience. It will have a similar amount of screen time at the keynote as Dynamic Island did. This is yet another case of people thinking it's a mostly pointless aesthetic change because of the leaks but they will instantly go "oh wow that really is useful" when Apple demo it a la Dynamic Island.
Just because Apple demoed it doesn’t mean it becomes useful, even for Apple. Case in point, 3D Touch. People actually found it useful, but Apple axed it. Meanwhile, dynamic island itself has become stale since it’s not as functional as the early demo made it feel like in practice.
 
How do you "sensitivity toggle" through 1-2mm of rubber or silicone?

Does not sound legit.
I believe it’s more about the Taptic Engine can be adjusted in intensity, aka the home button of the iPhone 7/8. The capacitive button itself probably can only recognize short/long press (aka Haptic Touch) and swipe.
 
Just because Apple demoed it doesn’t mean it becomes useful, even for Apple. Case in point, 3D Touch. People actually found it useful, but Apple axed it. Meanwhile, dynamic island itself has become stale since it’s not as functional as the early demo made it feel like in practice.

Dynamic Island has been surprisingly useful for me and I doubted it even at launch.

I believe the dynamic pressure buttons will be useful because of the following:

Now that I think about it this is a net POSITIVE for glove users because if the buttons are multi function depending on pressure applied then you can create a secondary 'deep press' (like 3D touch or the new trackpads) for each button:

The existing system:
Volume Up = Volume Up (glove compatible)
Volume Down = Volume Down button (glove compatible)
Vibrate toggle = Useless for music playback

Play / Pause / Next Track / Previous Track = You HAVE to use the touchscreen to toggle these or poke around your AirPods stem (not glove friendly)

New paradigm:
Volume Up = Volume Up (glove friendly)
Volume Down = Volume Down button (glove friendly)
Action button = Toggle play/pause (glove friendly)
Deep press volume up = Next track (glove friendly)
Deep press volume down = Previous track (glove friendly)


Glove users that were decrying this change will actually be the biggest beneficiaries of this new system 🤯 Holy smokes!!!!!! I've been wanting a way to toggle all of the above without touching the screen or fiddling around with my AirPods stem for YEARS!!!! Also if the haptics can be configured to be stronger than the feeling of a physical button press it will be even easier to confirm a button press than vs. the old buttons
 
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Now that I think about it this is a net POSITIVE for glove users because if the buttons are multi function depending on pressure applied then you can create a secondary 'deep press' (like 3D touch or the new trackpads) for each button:

The existing system:
Volume Up = Volume Up (glove compatible)
Volume Down = Volume Down button (glove compatible)
Vibrate toggle = Useless for music playback

Play / Pause / Next Track / Previous Track = You HAVE to use the touchscreen to toggle these or poke around your AirPods stem (not glove friendly)

New paradigm:
Volume Up = Volume Up (glove friendly)
Volume Down = Volume Down button (glove friendly)
Action button = Toggle play/pause (glove friendly)
Deep press volume up = Next track (glove friendly)
Deep press volume down = Previous track (glove friendly)


Glove users that were decrying this change will actually be the biggest beneficiaries of this new system 🤯 Holy smokes!!!!!! I've been wanting a way to toggle all of the above without touching the screen or fiddling around with my AirPods stem for YEARS!!!! Also if the haptics can be configured to be stronger than the feeling of a physical button press it will be even easier to confirm a button press than vs. the old buttons
With the iGlove, available at Apple stores. 😉
 
A new way to describe if then function.
Oh it’s AI! 😂

Precisely! If then statements are technically a method of a computer program making a decision. You know what else makes decisions? Humans 😎
 
With the iGlove, available at Apple stores. 😉

You jest but you could be half right, Apple's cases may be the only truly optimized cases for these new buttons. People won't want to take risks with cases that may or may not work with the Magic Buttons. The only choice is to go with an Apple case. Oh and because these new cases are "Compatible with Magic Buttons" the price goes up another 10 bucks.

Timmy always wins.

Pl68QCV.jpg
 
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Certainly looks like the new button will be one of Apple's main selling points for the iPhone 15 Pro. I hope they also integrate Touch ID into it.
 
This needs to work exactly the same as physical buttons in 'every' scenario (with no power, with thick gloves on, when the phone is wet, etc), otherwise it is an expensive downgrade.

Waterproofing already works, so the only reason I can see for this feature is if Apple are going to make a phone that is all screen. I think we are a few years away from that, so they seem to be doing this just to have something to talk about in the keynote.

P.S.
We are assuming Apple are detecting button presses with capacitive touch like the screen, but they could be using a different method... by detecting pressure or vibration some other way.
 
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You jest but you could be half right, Apple's cases may be the only truly optimized cases for these new buttons. People won't want to take risks with cases that may or may not work with the Magic Buttons. The only choice is to go with an Apple case. Oh and because these new cases are "Compatible with Magic Buttons" the price goes up another 10 bucks.

Timmy always wins.

Pl68QCV.jpg
The house always wins.
 
Whatever happened to the KISS principle?
KISS allows third party (or user) repairs... and that is difficult for Apple because

a) they are the ones that have to backstop the half-baked backstreet and user repair attempts;
b) it misses out on a repair revenue stream; and
c) it misses an opportunity to sell a new device when the repair cost is uneconomic.
 
People can be so tiring. You don’t have to like the changes but acting willfully ignorant isn’t needed either. These buttons will have new functionality and will be more durable with time and yet we always get all these comments going on about “change for change’s sake” and “solutions in search of problems” and it’s just so bizarre to me.
How do you know the buttons will have new functionality and be durable with time? Are you on Apple’s developement team? Have you done long term testing of solid state volume buttons? People who blindly trust new features are going to be great and presume functionality are so tiring.
 
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