Is anyone else a little bored?

[TH3D4RKKN1GH7]

I've been playing with iOS 10 for a few weeks now, and outside of a few glaring design choices, it's a pretty good update. 3D Touch has a much bigger role in the OS, Messages has some cool neat features, and notifications are better than ever.

But familiarity and maturation have zapped a little bit of the fun out product/software announcements for me. I find myself less and less excited as the years go on. The tweaks and small feature additions are greatly appreciated but the surprises aren't there anymore. How could they be? The smartphone seems to have reached something of a "final form." (Maybe this explains the mad dash to bots and A.I initiatives?)

Anyway, what do you guys think?

If you agree: What improvements or innovations would excite you about the platform? Is there still something you wish the iPhone (or smartphones in general) did better than they do now?

If you disagree: What are the things in iOS 10 and the rumors about the iPhone 7 that have you excited? Do you anticipate any of these new features significantly changing how you use the device?

https://the-optional.com/tomorrow-tech-ios-10-66614e7d44c9#.lxime1rdo

 

[willmtaylor]

I've been playing with iOS 10 for a few weeks now, and outside of a few glaring design choices, it's a pretty good update. 3D Touch has a much bigger role in the OS, Messages has some cool neat features, and notifications are better than ever.

But familiarity and maturation have zapped a little bit of the fun out product/software announcements for me. I find myself less and less excited as the years go on. The tweaks and small feature additions are greatly appreciated but the surprises aren't there anymore. How could they be? The smartphone seems to have reached something of a "final form." (Maybe this explains the mad dash to bots and A.I initiatives?)

Anyway, what do you guys think?

If you agree: What improvements or innovations would excite you about the platform? Is there still something you wish the iPhone (or smartphones in general) did better than they do now?

If you disagree: What are the things in iOS 10 and the rumors about the iPhone 7 that have you excited? Do you anticipate any of these new features significantly changing how you use the device?

https://the-optional.com/tomorrow-tech-ios-10-66614e7d44c9#.lxime1rdo

For me, it's a phone. It's a tool. I use it to accomplish tasks. I do get intrigued by new features, but I don't get bored in the same way that I don't get bored by my shop vacc or my Toyota.

 

[MacDawg]

I get bored with toys, not with tools
Toys entertain me, tools help me do a job
My iPhone is a tool, not a toy

 

[TheAppleFairy]

What the others have said, it's a tool...and to elaborate my POV, download some apps (toys) that will keep you entertained....have you tried Pokemon?

 

[Jimmy James]

In life I don't get bored. I have lots of interests both indoors and outdoors.

Speaking specifically of an iPhone, no. I'm not bored. Content is king and I can create or view more content than I have time to accommodate.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

I can somewhat relate to what you're saying. I've always made sure I had WWDC and iPhone event days open so I could watch the "next best thing" being introduced. Within the last couple of years it has seemed much less important to me because the changes have been largely incremental. My motivation for upgrading my phone on a yearly basis lately has been getting a fresh battery rather than some exciting new feature.

 

[TH3D4RKKN1GH7]

I can somewhat relate to what you're saying. I've always made sure I had WWDC and iPhone event days open so I could watch the "next best thing" being introduced. Within the last couple of years it has seemed much less important to me because the changes have been largely incremental. My motivation for upgrading my phone on a yearly basis lately has been getting a fresh battery rather than some exciting new feature.

And this is what I'm getting at. We've been excited because it seems like we were making rapid progress but the platform is mature now and your phone kind of is what it is. This isn't a bad thing, unless your business is predicated on people getting excited about hardware and features.

 

[eyoungren]

I'm just going to say this.

Had Apple allowed downgrading I'd still be sitting happy on my iPhone 5 with iOS 6.1. What makes me UNHAPPY is the inability to customize the UI the way I want it and to run the firmware I wish to run (with the exception of minimum firmware for the product).

But there is zero I ever do on my current iPhone that I did NOT do on my iPhone 5. Nothing has changed from 2012. All Apple did was make new iPhone models and create 'new' features. My habits, uses and workflow for the iPhone has remained the same.

 

[GrumpyMom]

Reliability is always exciting to me.

My husband is updating his Samsung Note tablet with S pen to Marshmallow for me to play on since I am thinking of getting a Note7, or maybe and S7 in trade for my 6S Plus.

Until it's ready this evening I don't really have any basis for for comparison but I think I would like to be able to use the Apple Pencil on an iPhone (not my SE, it's too little for that). I would love to be able to jot down notes with a pencil sometimes because that's quicker than typing on a tiny glass keyboard for me. Like when I'm at the doctors office or with friends and suddenly need to jot down plans for an appointment or a meeting

I think it would be cool to take the pencil and push down on the day on the calendar and have a screen pop up where I could write down the meeting place and time and have it either be recorded as that handwritten pop up or converted to a partial calendar entry to be filled in with more detail later.

I think they can always think of something new and helpful to incorporate into iPhones. Especially considering how huge the Plus variant is. We haven't even seen real split screen yet, have we? I haven't on any apps I have.

 

[eyoungren]

I think they can always think of something new and helpful to incorporate into iPhones.

Apple rips off borrows from the jailbreak community a lot. They can always go back to the well if they are out of ideas.

 

[timeconsumer]

I've been playing with iOS 10 for a few weeks now, and outside of a few glaring design choices, it's a pretty good update. 3D Touch has a much bigger role in the OS, Messages has some cool neat features, and notifications are better than ever.

But familiarity and maturation have zapped a little bit of the fun out product/software announcements for me. I find myself less and less excited as the years go on. The tweaks and small feature additions are greatly appreciated but the surprises aren't there anymore. How could they be? The smartphone seems to have reached something of a "final form." (Maybe this explains the mad dash to bots and A.I initiatives?)

Anyway, what do you guys think?

If you agree: What improvements or innovations would excite you about the platform? Is there still something you wish the iPhone (or smartphones in general) did better than they do now?

If you disagree: What are the things in iOS 10 and the rumors about the iPhone 7 that have you excited? Do you anticipate any of these new features significantly changing how you use the device?

https://the-optional.com/tomorrow-tech-ios-10-66614e7d44c9#.lxime1rdo

I'm not sure I am bored or not but I am feeling the limitations and lack of customization options provided by Apple.

Here are some things that bother me:
-To add ringtones you have to go through iTunes and convert them to m4r before they'll work. It's always been like this, but it's still annoying that there isn't an easier way.
-No option to display "New Text Message" or "New iMessage" instead it will show the person's name. If I have my screen locked, I don't want the person's name to show but rather to notify me that I have a new message.
-Have to use iTunes to get stuff onto the device, I would rather just plug my phone into my computer and then drag & drop to a folder on the phone.
-In iOS 10 you can hide the apps that you don't like, but you cannot make other apps the "default" apps.
-The dock as of iOS 7 is just absolutely an eye sore for me, why can't it be completely see through so you can still see your background image?
-The photos app has a "Camera Roll" which doesn't allow me to re-categorize from that to other folders for better organization. It should only keep photos in here that I haven't re-categorized.
-I would really like to see an App Drawer similar to Android, to get an alphabetized list of all of my Apps and only display the ones I want on the home screen for less clutter. The work around I have found for this is I put all apps I don't use frequently enough into a specific folder and then I manually alphabetize it. However, this doesn't show me all of my apps using this work around so I have to remember what folder I put the app in.
-I am limited to where I can display app icons on the screen.
-Can't just back up certain apps. In iCloud backups it gives you the option to choose which apps but it still backs up everything else as shown here: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH12519?locale=en_US I would like to be able to customize the back up more. However, I have noticed more apps are giving the option to backup data to iCloud/Dropbox, but not all of them do.

I don't think any of my above list will be resolved in iOS 10, so I'll probably test out iOS 10 and see if I can live with the limitations, if not I'll likely switch to Android as both platforms are pretty good at this point.

 

[MacRazySwe]

I was bored after having used the 4S for two years, and the 3GS for two years prior to that. iOS 6 was very boring at the time (IMO, of course) and I was sick and tired of the small 3.5" screen. I joined the dark side by getting a Samsung GS4. Quad-core this and that, x GBs of RAM, megapixels here and there, Full-HD Super Amoled display et.c.

After only a few months I had had enough. Android apps were awful compared to their iOS counterparts. The phone was unreliable. Couldn't get calendars for school/work to sync. Photos only looked good on the phone, as the phone applied some filter without you knowing, and last but not least, the Android-tinkering was only fun for a while. I started using my three year old iPhone 4S again and realised that those Android specs on paper made no difference in the real world, at all, as the old 4S actually felt quicker than the brand new flagship Samsung phone at the time.

I revisited iOS with a completely new perspective. Never again will I feel bored with a phone. If your phone feels boring, it's probably just a sign that it does everything all too well, without fault. Nowadays I just like how everything simply works. As others have said, it's a tool for getting things done, and for me, the iPhone is the best. Oh, and I got my big screen with the iPhone 6, so that's nice!

Needless to say I haven't tried Android since 2013. If you feel bored, maybe you could give it a try and report back. If you're anything like me, I'm sure you will come back to the iPhone sooner rather than later though.

Good luck!

 

[ABC5S]

Every few months or less we get some poster that remarks that they are getting bored. This will be just another one. I use my phone as a phone, and a tool. Its not suppose to make me giggle or fondle it to enjoy it. As I use my car to get to point B from A as well. The phone does what I want and need it for.

 

[C DM]

Every few months or less we get some poster that remarks that they are getting bored. This will be just another one. I use my phone as a phone, and a tool. Its not suppose to make me giggle or fondle it to enjoy it. As I use my car to get to point B from A as well. The phone does what I want and need it for.

Are people bored of cars and talk about being bored of them? After all, for the most part, they have had 4 wheels, a steering wheel, and a gas and a brake pedal for a long time now, with the basics of driving them being mostly the same for decades.

Those microwaves and toasters are pretty boring too. And let's not talk about knives that haven't changed as far as what they can do and how they are used for centuries upon centuries!

 

[M. Gustave]

Are people bored of cars and talk about being bored of them?

Yep. And watches, knives, barbecue grills, televisions, selvedge jeans made in Japan on vintage looms...

Consumerism takes any form you can imagine.

 

[ABC5S]

Are people bored of cars and talk about being bored of them? After all, for the most part, they have had 4 wheels, a steering wheel, and a gas and a break pedal for a long time now, with the basics of driving them being mostly the same for decades.

Those microwaves and toasters are pretty boring too. And let's not talk about knives that haven't changed as far as what they can do and how they are used for centuries upon centuries!

Board of talking about them to strangers or just talking about them I guess. I don't talk about my car either, nor my iPad, nor my TV, nor my Home, etc, but I'm not bored of them either.

 

[Alexrat1996]

I'm bored of going to the Genius Bar for issue sometimes they fix and sometimes they don't and Genius Bar tech are tired of seeing me there

 

[GrumpyMom]

Are people bored of cars and talk about being bored of them? After all, for the most part, they have had 4 wheels, a steering wheel, and a gas and a brake pedal for a long time now, with the basics of driving them being mostly the same for decades.

Those microwaves and toasters are pretty boring too. And let's not talk about knives that haven't changed as far as what they can do and how they are used for centuries upon centuries!

Actually you may be onto something. The Kuerig had to have been invented by somebody who was bored with coffee makers. And Dyson must have gotten really bored with his vacuum cleaner so he invented the bagless cyclone vac. You just never know how ordinary appliances could be reimagined by bored engineers. Even I got bored one day and came up with a design for a bathroom sink that can accommodate people in wheelchairs and people who can stand regularly at the sink. I have no clue what to do with it, but I designed it. And have you seen what bored Japanese people have done with toilets?

Necessity may be the mother of invention but boredom may very well be the mother of innovation.

 

[Savor]

A new iPhone announcement hasn't got me excited since 2010.

While I like my current phones which are a cheap and a scrappy bunch, phone news lost its luster for me since 2014. I do like my current phones. Just accidentally dropped my $30 Lumia 640 an hour ago for the first time by the charging plug pulling it and having it fall on its screen. Not a single blemish. Screen protector installed but Nokia phones are built like Tanka toy trucks..

Most of the excitement for me comes in the budget range like that $99 ZTE Zmax Pro. Really pointless paying more than $100-$200 for ANY phone unlocked these days when most phones in any platform generally does the same tasks most people need. You pay premium for the SoC wetting your pants over benchmark scores, better camera optics without OPTICAL ZOOM, and display when most people don't need any resolution over 720p/1080p.

Smartphones are probably the greatest thing invented next to the Internet. But paying for these phones at over $200 continues to be the biggest scams in the history of tech.

 

[TH3D4RKKN1GH7]

Every few months or less we get some poster that remarks that they are getting bored. This will be just another one. I use my phone as a phone, and a tool. Its not suppose to make me giggle or fondle it to enjoy it. As I use my car to get to point B from A as well. The phone does what I want and need it for.

Good for you?

You can ignore the hype and excitement around mobile if you want, but it was here. The rise of the smartphone was a big moment in tech and they rapidly changed how people communicated and conducted business. The moment seems to be over.

Cars are about to go through a major evolution, a smartphone style revolution thanks to automation, and the excitement is building.

 

[Savor]

In anything in life we can buy or collect that is tangible, eventually many people will stop buying and buying them. I remember being a CD and DVD collector. The digital download era pretty much killed physical media for me.

So eventually people will also stop upgrading their mobile devices as often where updates have become incremental. Yes, there will finally be a time when Apple may NO longer be tops at mobile profits since nobody stays on top forever. Experience some lean years again. Fanatics, even the loyalists, will clutter their homes with Apple products and will refuse to keep buying. I was into video games before smartphones and it no longer holds my interest.

By the time I reach 70-years old if I get there, I don't see myself rotating between several phones. Perhaps tone it down by the 2020's. Hobbies come and go. Luster fades. Nothing last forever. Do you any of us believe we will be addicted to our smartphones when we reach senior citizen age? Nah. I hope we have robots and vacation trips to the moon. Teleportation probably won't happen in our lifetimes. I thought cloning would be the next big thing...

Smartphones have reached their limit in this decade. Yet, fanatics still want to argue about incremental differences in platforms, upgraded specs, and usage when they all generally act and do the same thing for most people. The only lifetime hobbies for me? Movies and women. The latter I get alot. Hot, young Filipinas. Damn. So giving! ;-) Wasn't any different back in Cali either. The former I started getting back into like watching my favorite films again after a five-month hiatus. Love getting back Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) and Some Like It Hot (1959). Movies and coitus never gets me bored....

 

[M. Gustave]

Actually you may be onto something. The Kuerig had to have been invented by somebody who was bored with coffee makers. And Dyson must have gotten really bored with his vacuum cleaner so he invented the bagless cyclone vac. You just never know how ordinary appliances could be reimagined by bored engineers. Even I got bored one day and came up with a design for a bathroom sink that can accommodate people in wheelchairs and people who can stand regularly at the sink. I have no clue what to do with it, but I designed it. And have you seen what bored Japanese people have done with toilets?

Necessity may be the mother of invention but boredom may very well be the mother of innovation.

You're confusing problem solving with consumerism, i.e. chasing after the next shiny gadget in the vain hope that it will stave off your existential crisis for just a little longer.
[doublepost=1469006994][/doublepost]

I'm bored of going to the Genius Bar for issue sometimes they fix and sometimes they don't and Genius Bar tech are tired of seeing me there

I know how they feel.

 

[Loco Emperor]

I find the OS boring TBH. It lacks any visual appeal and it is frustrating that it does seem a bit restrictive in many ways as well as I find somethings unnecessarily complicated. That being said...coming from android which not only bored me but pisssed me off, ios is excellent. Great software matching great hardware that is fully supported. That being said I find myself slow becoming an IOS Fanboythese days.

 

[I7guy]

Actually you may be onto something. The Kuerig had to have been invented by somebody who was bored with coffee makers. And Dyson must have gotten really bored with his vacuum cleaner so he invented the bagless cyclone vac. You just never know how ordinary appliances could be reimagined by bored engineers. Even I got bored one day and came up with a design for a bathroom sink that can accommodate people in wheelchairs and people who can stand regularly at the sink. I have no clue what to do with it, but I designed it. And have you seen what bored Japanese people have done with toilets?

Necessity may be the mother of invention but boredom may very well be the mother of innovation.

It's like asking am I bored with Windows?

Well not really, it's a tool to get stuff done on my computer. It's a great thing that we have all of these choices on how to accomplish things in our digital
Life.

I am excited about the iPhone 7 however. All of the hubris in these forums has gotten my interest up. Even though my 6s is not even a year old, I think I'm going for it as I'm sure it's not going to be a standard update as the naysayers you know who you are) have been portraying it.

 

[dewski]

Are people bored of cars and talk about being bored of them? After all, for the most part, they have had 4 wheels, a steering wheel, and a gas and a brake pedal for a long time now, with the basics of driving them being mostly the same for decades.

Those microwaves and toasters are pretty boring too. And let's not talk about knives that haven't changed as far as what they can do and how they are used for centuries upon centuries!

I'm bored of my car fairly quickly. I havent made it year without switching it out.