I honestly think they should spend that R&D money on trying to eliminate the front camera cutout (notch, dynamic island). I appreciate that Apple is trying to improve the camera, but man those lens are very big. I hope they find ways to minimize the back camera cutout while still retaining the same quality. Of course, give people the option to still have the dynamic island (remember, it's just software). Getting rid of the physical buttons should be the last thing on the list.
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Project Bongo: An In-Depth Overview of the iPhone 15 Pro's Canceled Haptic Buttons
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I can see the benefit. You could provide varying haptic feedback based on the current context: a high volume setting would have more prominent feedback than low volumes; you could have a half press in the camera app for focus and exposure like on traditional cameras, with a full press to take the photo.
This is actually an interesting possibility that I hadn't considered until now. The could even emulate the two-stage shutter button like Windows Phones had.
'innovative features and ambitious undertakings' - erm...no. Over-engineering button presses does not = innovative / ambitious.
I don't understand the appeal in haptics buttons, and I have one main concern: if the buttons are software, how will we hard reboot an iPhone in case of a bug? I have a Magic Trackpad and sometimes the haptics don't work even though it's on. This seems like an over engineered solution in search of a problem.
Folks, don’t fall for this. It is nothing other than another tutti-fruitti, phoney baloney, plastic banana, good time rock-n-roll ”leak” from Apple PR, trying to hype how “innovative” Apple is because of some perception that the iPhone 15 wasn’t innovative enough. Think about this for a second. For this to be true, Apple would have had to design the device internals, to include the Bongo engine and wiring AND completely design the frame for non-physical buttons. When that didn’t work-out, Apple would have had to re-design the internals and frame, for the physical buttons. What likely really happened was Apple had two (or more) different options they took to EVT and when the Bongo option wasn’t reliable, stuck with the option with physical buttons.
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So, as far as I can see, the pros of the Bongo buttons are:
- Improved water resistance
- Fewer moving parts, hence lower mechanical failure and servicing need. (Only Apple really knows how bad the rate of failure on the current buttons is.)
- Different external appearance (which sells phones).
- A tweaked UX for volume change that might be more “delightful.” (I envision some kind of directly translated control of the sliding on screen volume pop up.)
- Perhaps an Action Button that doesn’t need to be held down for some time to operate.
- Increased software complexity, and hence, bugs abound.
- Questionable compatibility with cases.
- Questionable compatibility for important “edge cases” like gloved operation, or sweaty and wet fingers.
- Assuredly there comes a higher component and battery life cost to adding another Taptic Engine.
You could do everything you've listed with proper buttons.
Sorry. Way too long. More words don’t it better. If button change would be heading towards port less ( good and bad ) then what’s the point.
Reminds me of HTC in 2018.
If I recall users hated them as they would randomly not work, stop working all together, or randomly trigger when they were not intended to just because a hand was holding it and skin was resting on them.
No one's bothered trying since.
If I recall users hated them as they would randomly not work, stop working all together, or randomly trigger when they were not intended to just because a hand was holding it and skin was resting on them.
No one's bothered trying since.
that makes sense though. USB3.0 is part of the A17 Pro. A16 is a chip from last year.
To be truly innovative they should replace the up and down volume buttons with a single knurled crown like the one fitted to the Apple Watch Ultra, but bigger so it would work with gloves. Turning the crown would display a digital display of volume level, with the iPhone Pro Max Ultra going up to 11.
My only stab in the dark is that this would be very useful for an “ultra” phone. Anyone who treats their phone badly or is around lost of dust would likely enjoy knowing it can never destroy the buttons (I know most waterproof cases don’t exist much anymore).
This would also be useful for the same reason on the watch. But they’ll start with a bigger device first.
this is only tangently related, but when is Apple going to stop the yearly release cycle? this year‘s upgrade was very underwhelming. The product is very mature. It’s time to stop the yearly upgrades. they don’t do that with their computers why do it with the iPhones? It’s not Apple‘s fault, there’s just very little innovation to be done anymore on a smartphone.