Camera Control is the best evidence that Apple has finally lost its way

[Ctrlos]

So I'll preface this by first stating two things:

1. I am a software nerd, there is a bunch of ticky tacky bugs in iOS that've been present for some years that drive me nuts.

2. I am physically disabled and largely only have full use of my left arm/hand. My right side is just there to support the things I do with my left hand.

In saying that though my experience is that yes, Camera Control software is finicky at best, especially with light presses and swipes etc. But my issues with it as a disabled person, are 95% hardware i.e. button placement, grip needed, etc.

When using CC, it is very cumbersome for me personally. I basically have to grasp the phone's frame in between the side and CC buttons while taking a picture, thus blocking the viewfinder. If I want to use it, a solution I've found for now is to invert the phone where the CC is on the bottom instead of the top. However, this causes more shakiness which no one wants in their pictures.

Overall, I like the premise and I do believe the software will get better, but for me the button placement and the amount of force needed to actually take a picture is it's biggest albatross right now.

Whilst you're here I'd love to get your opinion on the ergonomics of iOS in general.

I am of the opinion that they just stretched iOS and called it a day, not once considering a redesign to accomodate modern screen sizes with one handed use. I have two functional hands and find it a pain to use. I can't imagine how inconvenient it must be for people with only one.

 

[lolski]

I completely agree with this post. I still buy Apple's product because they're still the best, but I've given up on having high expectations for a new product that would be transformative as the first iPhone and MacBook.

I think Apple's had its day but without the founder it'll never have the same identity. Just like how Braun is never the same Braun after Dieter Rams left.

Now the question is who would be its spiritual successor? Which young and nimble company has a clear vision about what the post-internet boom generations want and need?

 

[seggy]

i can make the original post redundant with two words.

Magic Mouse.

Apple has done many stupid things. It's a matter of whether it gets fixed down the line when they see it imnpacting the bottom line in some significant manner.

 

[I7guy]

I completely agree with this post. I still buy Apple's product because they're still the best, but I've given up on having high expectations for a new product that would be transformative as the first iPhone and MacBook.

I agree and other than the iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, M1 chip and AVP your statement is correct.

I think Apple's had its day but without the founder it'll never have the same identity. Just like how Braun is never the same Braun after Dieter Rams left.

That seems to be a positive.

Now the question is who would be its spiritual successor? Which young and nimble company has a clear vision about what the post-internet boom generations want and need?

Yeah, I’m waiting as well to see who it is.

 

[kiv.atso]

I’m still using iPhone Pro 14, and my main camera is Fujifilm x-t30. So I rarely use iPhone as a camera, and if I had 16 Pro I would be really upset if I couldn’t reprogram the new button for something other than camera.

 

[msackey]

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.

I think I posted something similar. Maybe we're born of a certain generation and are used to both SLRs and/or compact cameras?

I tried out Camera Control in the Apple Store and actually love it!

By the looks of it, Hartley (who strongly criticised the Camera Control) was probably born in the 2000s, several decades after I (and probably you!) were born. LOL. There is a certain way to hold dedicated cameras and it is almost decidedly not one hand (most of the time).

 

[mox358]

I think camera control will end up being great, but they shipped it in a weird, unfinished state. It makes WAY more sense when it has the two step functionality like traditional cameras. If you're holding the phone landscape, that makes total sense. Likewise holding the phone vertically, you hold down camera control to access Siri's visual intelligence. So holding the top (sleep/wake) is for voice, bottom (camera) for visual AI. That makes a lot of sense to my brain, but right now the button does neither of those things, it's just a slightly awkward interface for other camera controls.

 

[ILoveCalvinCool]

You guys are complaining too much.

In the old days, people on Apple forums never complained. Everything was perfect and joyful and no one argued or insulted each other. Then Steve Jobs died and Apple forums became full of people arguing and complaining.

 

[CMoore515]

Whilst you're here I'd love to get your opinion on the ergonomics of iOS in general.

I am of the opinion that they just stretched iOS and called it a day, not once considering a redesign to accomodate modern screen sizes with one handed use. I have two functional hands and find it a pain to use. I can't imagine how inconvenient it must be for people with only one.

Oddly enough, I can use the Pro Max as a phone one-handed just fine. Only thing I find hard is using the phone while driving my electric wheelchair... But even then I can do it.

Prior to the 16PM I had the 15PM, before that the 14 Pro, etc and honestly the weight difference between the Stainless Steel of the X-14 Pro was the biggest thing to overcome especially as screens got bigger. Once they went to Titanium, it was a night and day difference as far as ergonomically holding the phone because of the weight.

After Preorders went up on the 13th, I did switch my eSIM to a 13 mini because I sold the 15PM and for probably 4 days after I got the 16 I was contemplating just using the mini for the year. That thing is amazing as far as size. If they ever did a mini Pro, I'd be all over it.

 

[monstermash]

In the old days, people on Apple forums never complained. Everything was perfect and joyful and no one argued or insulted each other. Then Steve Jobs died and Apple forums became full of people arguing and complaining.

90% of posts seem to fall into one of these categories:

1). Everything is awesome.

2). Everything sucks.

3). Your opinion is wrong because it differs from mine.

4). Your experience is a lie because it differs from my experience.

5). Mocking someone, reason varies.

6). Berating someone and/or calling them a troll, for having the unmitigated gall to post something with which they disagree.

 

[frost_horizon]

So lighten the sensitivity of the button.

You can only lighten the sensitivity of the light press.

 

[leifp]

Camera Control is presently the driving force behind my next phone upgrade

 

[monstermash]

Camera Control is presently the driving force behind my next phone upgrade

I only upgraded for a USB-C port.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

This is where the shift in Apple’s philosophy since the Jobs era starts to show its cracks. It’s depressing, because the old Apple got right on things that no other companies were able to get right. I guess not even the Apple today.

They got things right for that generation. The reason why they’re so successful is, unlike many companies, they adjust with the times. They dump old tech/adopt new tech to the chagrin of those that LOVED that old tech. They’re never making products/services for everyone, they’re always focused on the most profitable chunk.

People that feel Apple have lost their way can take solace in the fact that those enjoying their products today will be singing the same tune in 10-15 years or so.

 

[monstermash]

They got things right for that generation. The reason why they’re so successful is, unlike many companies, they adjust with the times. They dump old tech/adopt new tech to the chagrin of those that LOVED that old tech. They’re never making products/services for everyone, they’re always focused on the most profitable chunk.

People that feel Apple have lost their way can take solace in the fact that those enjoying their products today will be singing the same tune in 10-15 years or so.

I'd like to see Apple continue "losing its way" right up to $300/share, $400/share and beyond.

 

[xpxp2002]

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

It was, and it's remarkable how many people still complain about it. Not only was it a feature that many found immensely useful. (For myself, precision text selection was the most useful function it helped with.) But it could be completely disabled if you didn't want to use it.

 

[stocklen]

I will say this. I stopped by my local Apple Store to check out the phone. I was super frustrated by the camera button. Other than launching the camera app and functioning as a shutter button, it was completely unintuitive to use. A core principal of Apple design, especially with the iPhone, has always been that you learn how to use something just by using it. How to do anything with the button was not apparent. No feedback or indication of what you're adjusting until you adjust it. I needed to lookup how to use it. A disappointing execution, but I am sure they will refine it in software.

Exactly this for me.

I usually automatically upgrade every year and for the first time this year, as a 15 Pro Max user I really felt the differences for me at least were not worth the upgrade.

however, I was intrigued by the camera control button and I too went to an Apple Store to have a look at it.

I was very very surprised how unintuitive it was, and try as I might I could only get it to take photos (more times than I intended) or a clumsy zoom in and out (much worse than using the screen controls). I couldn't work out how to get it to do anything else at all and I did try.

It is a huge fail and a big surprise for me that it wasn't totally intuitive.

Im sure with software it will improve but for now even if I had a 16 I wouldn't be using this button.

 

[Razorpit]

Puck mouse on the iMac, no copy/paste for two years on iPhone, antenna bands, Apple Maps v1, the Cube. Let’s not pretend Apple was always this infallible company, they’ve released a lot of rubbish too.

Agreed Apple isn't perfect, no company is but some of those aren't as bad as what "journalists" made them out to be.

Mouse - Absolute garbage. Nothing more need be said about that. 😄
Copy/Paste - Ironic "journalists" didn't dog Microsoft years later when they launched Windows Phone 7. (Looking at you Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott.) 🙄
Antenna Bands - Terrible Apple didn't catch this sooner. Steve tried to get away with one there. Have to admire the used car salesman approach. 😄
Maps - Wasn't as bad as "journalists" made it out to be. People chose to ignore the issues Google Maps had. Neither were perfect.
Cube - Although there were some miscues, it was awesome for the time. Recently saw requests in the Mac mini redesign thread asking for it to be brought back.

 

[Mac mini power user]

Arguably, it is not the immediately most intuitive interface. I'll reserve judgment about the UX until I've tested it out myself. If anything, it really points to how there is little left that Apple can still add to the iPhone, while making a tremendous difference in terms of software capabilities and functionality. All hardware improvements that we are wishing for (longer battery duration, faster wireless and wired charging, under-display Face ID) will be perceived as iterative. The last revolutionary iPhone, in many ways, was the X in 2017. Foldables may be a route to take, but it remains to be seen if it will ever dominate the smartphone market the way the current slab form does.

 

[daanodinot]

What's happening to the iPhone right now is called feature creep:

Feature creep may arise from the desire to provide the consumer with a more useful or desirable product in order to increase sales or distribution. Once a product does everything that it is designed to do, the manufacturer may add functions some users might consider unneeded (sometimes at the cost of efficiency) or continue with the original version (at the cost of a perceived lack of improvement).

 

[Diorama]

What's happening to the iPhone right now is called feature creep:

Not sure that adding a camera button to a $1000 camera is feature creep

 

[Razorpit]

What's happening to the iPhone right now is called feature creep:

I was thinking more Innovator's Dilemma than feature creep.

 

[maxoakland]

OK but didn't Vision show all that?

 

[monstermash]

I dunno, but I wish horrible and unpleasant things upon the evil genius who decided that clicking on a word should highlight the whole word and clicking on a sentence should highlight the whole sentence, instead of just the space between the characters you clicked on.

Horrible, evil, painful things.

 

[MacUser09]

I'm surprised they haven't put a shutter button on an Airpod.