An interesting thought. I just posted a complaint that as a camera button (I forgot to qualify that my complaint related to when the phone was held in in landscape orientation) the button was too far to the left for my comfort. But if Apple was to also allow it to be a scroll button as you suggest, presumably with pretty much everyone having their phone in portrait mode to use the sort of apps you mention, addressing my concern and moving the button would put it far too low down on the iPhone to be useful as a scroll/double-tap button so just maybe Apple has had similar thoughts to you and the current placement is a deliberate compromise between where I would want it as a landscape-oriented camera button and where you would want it as a portrait-oriented scroll button in anticipation of possibly doing what you suggest in future.
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Camera Control is the best evidence that Apple has finally lost its way
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That's the problem. They add ugly "design" and forces it on everyone.
Not me. I'm done with paying for bad design.
CD quality is an upgrade to tape quality. Bluetooth is not a quality upgrade to a direct wire connection. And if Apple didn't get rid of it, neither would have the competitors.
Chill, man. It is just a button, it is just another way to take pics. Use it if you want or don’t use it. I m actually using it quite a lot more then I thought I would .
I don't hate having the camera control button on my iPhone 6 Pro, but I'm more comfortable with the "traditional" way of taking photos (like on the iPhone 12, 13, 14, 15). So, I'm mostly not using it at this point. The bigger issue for me is the cases. I don't really want an Apple case (one of the only cases to actually cover the button) and the cases I have have a cutout. The cases aren't as comfortable to use and hold with the cutout on the right side. It's not likely to happen, but it would almost be a feature to have cases that cover the button. I don't use the button and would like a case that doesn't have the cutout so it's covered all around.
No, that’s not it. I always had the same issue with using the volume button to take photos, despite firmly supporting/pressing from the bottom as well. I had expected the camera button to be motivated by solving that problem, but it seems almost worse.
Many reviewers are criticizing this, including Hartley in the current MacRumors Show episode: https://www.macrumors.com/2024/09/27/the-macrumors-show-iphone-16-pro-first-impressions/
The new camera button is weirdly misdesigned in many ways. As Hartley says, the idea is a good one, but the implementation isn’t actually good at any of the things it’s supposed to do.
It’s concerning that Apple‘s internal decision processes lead to such half-baked hardware features being launched. The action button already wasn’t great, with having to long-press it, only supporting assignment of a single function, not having the best placement, and arguably being a downgrade for the silent-switch use case. I wonder if they’re actually doing adequate user testing, or if they have blinders with regard to the results.
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That’s only for the haptic “light” press, not for the physical button press.
This was for a good reason and why you have fully functional Google maps on the iPhone right now. Google was purposely sabotaging the iPhone version of Google maps because they didn’t want people buying iPhones instead of android phones. (the motive is my opinion, but they were sabotaging it) The iPhone version didn’t even give you turn by turn directions at that time. Even though Apple Maps was crappy back then it was still better than Google maps on the iPhone. Google finally gave in and updated the app because of this.
I love Apple. I was excited about a shutter button. I have a 16 PM. I really really do not like “camera control” (also how arrogant to not just call it a button- some real “dynamic island” nonsense here).
Not to mention the implications we’d be facing now of there being no privacy-conscious, viable and mature alternative to Google using maps and turn-by-turn functionality to add to their trove of data about us would be devastating today.
I’ve held since around the iOS 10 timeframe that Apple took a lot of flak for what was the right decision at the time. If anything, I’d argue that it was a great example of the Jobsian style to know what people needed before they knew they needed it.
I don't find the button hard to press at all and I have Osteoporosis so my hands do hurt, also you hold the phone like a camera and press the camera button like a point and shoot camera, you don't press it with no support from underneath, its designed to make the iPhone like a camera, I guess some people here have never held a point and shoot camera so are maybe not holding it the way I would. Its works fine for me, you mileage may of course may vary.
Was just stating a number of things people were complaining about back then. Looking back at it now it was a good decision, but not many thought so when it was taken. And that Apple made a public apology describes it even better how things were when it happened.
Maybe we'll look back at this camera button a few iOS versions and tweaks down the road and say the same thing...
Great post OP
We're reaching the "fruits" of a long time of no longer having product driven leadership, as your excellent post nicely articulates
We're reaching the "fruits" of a long time of no longer having product driven leadership, as your excellent post nicely articulates
You may know this but with regards to the default 24mm focal length in the iPhones 15 and 16 you can have the camera set to the 35mm lossless crop as the default when you open the camera app, so you do have that choice for a more ‘normal’ focal length
Yeah, another useless button that I didn't ask for and don't need. Another button that I can accidentally push while picking or handling my phone. If I had an option to completely disable it, I would.
I think it is the iPhone version of the Mac Touchbar.
The silent/ring button is a great example of that. Push it once and it tells you it’s on ring push it a second time and the screen will show a hint to hold it to go into silent.
Squeezing the phone to take a picture also shakes the phone a bit for me. An easy fix would be for Apple to allow tapping to take pictures.
Funny, you mention this.
I had forgotten about 3D Touch, but I have an old iPhone 6S that I use for something very specific and was using it the other day and thought it was kind of a cool feature!
Lol
^^^
3D Touch kicked ass
If you are an audiophile you weren’t using the headphone jack anyway; you had your own DAC and amp connected; the worst thing was taking the wired headphones out of the box in an attempt to force people to buy AirPods.
3D Touch kicked ass
Bluetooth is a quality of life upgrade over a wired connection. My grandparents first TV remote was connected to the TV by a wire; I honestly think people underestimate just how insane wired headphones will seem as a concept in the quite near future.
If you are an audiophile you weren’t using the headphone jack anyway; you had your own DAC and amp connected; the worst thing was taking the wired headphones out of the box in an attempt to force people to buy AirPods.
Unfortunately it is lossless only on paper, in fact still digital zoom just slightly fancier due to increased sensor size (so it doesn’t look as horrendous as with older iPhones). It is definitely a very welcome improvement but unfortunately not what I dream of
I have seen the examples of 15 and Pro digital zoom and gotta say I am quite impressed, tho I would really love them to bump the focal length since there is a huge gap between 1.0x and 5.0x. Ultrawide should then instead be somewhat like 18-21mm.I learned that the first iPhone that introduced somewhat less tragic digital zoom was iPhone 13. On my 11 Pro trying to crop or zoom digital (at least in default camera, RAW is more or less good) will result in truly awful picture.
Back in the days when I had iPhone 5 it was 33 mm which was truly a magical focal length imo, I made some of the best shots in my life with this exact focal length. The iPhone 4 was also nice cause it had 35mm, but back then 5 felt like a huge technological advancement over this one. Later on I could not understand why I cannot take better shots with newer models and only after some time I realized there was a huge framing difference, I mean I framed like with old phones but on newer ones
Just put an incompatible case on it, problem solved.
But I agree that it seems like one of those Touch Bar moments that won’t stick around for too long. Remember Touch Bar was developed under Ive’s leadership, who can say what era of Apple was actually 100% perfect.
But I agree that it seems like one of those Touch Bar moments that won’t stick around for too long. Remember Touch Bar was developed under Ive’s leadership, who can say what era of Apple was actually 100% perfect.
It is an odd addition. Went to try it out today. Usefulness almost zero. Scrolling through the options it brings up on the screen are much quicker and more intuitive on the actual screen - button sluggish, less useful and more narrow in scope when using to scroll.
A solution to a problem that didn’t exist.
A solution to a problem that didn’t exist.
Sigh. Is this another ChatGPT post or something? So you don't like the camera button. I do. 🤷🏻♂️