It’s funny that there are people complaining about the potential for physical push buttons to be eliminated, on a device where 99% of the interactions you have with the phone are done on a touch screen.
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Will the iPhone 16 Feature Taptic Buttons?
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Some people seem to be assuming this wouldn’t work with gloves. I don’t think apple would do that (pretty obviously). Likely some from on strain sensor would be used. I’m all for it if it makes the buttons more reliable. I’ve had more than one phone where a button broke or got full to dust and became unresponsive. The Digital Crown on the Apple Watch can also fail from the ingress of dust behind the crown.
So I guess you won’t be using the volume “buttons” on your iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max.
Not happening. In fact, I see Europeans and others joining the eSIM only party next year. Maybe Apple will make some noticeable visual differences with the 16 Pro to entice them to upgrade despite the loss of the sim tray.
Well, it's supposed to be less prone to breaking. However, I'd like some stats to back up that that's been a genuine concern. The home button on my iPod Touch 5 for one, is still working fine 11 years later.
”Europeans and others”, unlike the gadget color-obsessed Americans, travel at a significantly higher rate per capita. Including places where esims are just as likely as lunch at Walmart in Gabon. It may in fact be Europe that will either mandate the non-removal of the tray or simply go elsewhere for a device. And just how do you know what is and what is not „happening”?
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The existing buttons are already software based. When you press and hold the buttons to reset, you are simply operating a transistor - you aren’t physically disconnecting any important circuity within the device. Software is listening to the the signal and performing the appropriate action.
Also, do you really think the engineers wouldn’t consider this scenario? If you’re able to dream it up sitting in your armchair 2 seconds after you peruse a blog post, then it’s pretty safe to assume one of the thousands of people this feature has to go through would have noted it down.
Don’t see why this would be the case. I can operate the click action of the touchpad on my macbook with a layer of anything between my finger and the pad.
Force touch detects force, not capacitance. These two concepts are conflated a lot on these forums but they are very different technologies. Force touch operates almost identically to a physical button but without moving parts. It can absolutely work through a phone case.
I am not saying it lad less then a physical button (that would be silly) but is a system crash, a spectate button might not respond to software input….
I am no smarter nor dumber than anyone, but you put too much of faith in a company.
Company cut corners ( butterfly keyboard was an issue a guy on a forum could come up in 2 minutes and engineers did not) sometimes they don’t even expect some issue and don’t even test ( a quick test in everyday co n would have told those expert that suck keyboard was prone to failure.
Apple doesn’t change hardware without intent. They make changes to the product to make it more convenient/desirable which eSIM technology represents (eventually on a global basis) and/or to reduce costs. So as far as Apple is concerned, it is happening. Europe won’t mandate the non-removal of the SIM tray if every carrier within EU borders comes onboard with eSIM technology and they are coming onboard because they’ve been most likely told by Apple what’s coming. It’s not the responsibility of the EU regulatory agencies to base their decisions on the slow adoption of technology outside EU borders which affects a very small number of EU citizens. A cheap Android phone would be a easy option for those who travel to countries where the widespread adoption of eSIM is still a few years away in addition to their eSIM iPhone which they’ll be able to use in Europe, the US, Australia, Asia, etc.
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I guess they don’t fully trust their improvements to prevent increased warranty costs.
Would be neat, however, bringing back, 3D Touch would be far more effective. Especially if Apple bothered to educate users that the future existed, and provided some customization to it.
Nonsense. The positive thing about the EU commission is to look after the consumers interest among other things. Hence we have USB-c and end user battery replacement could be on the horizon. Apple has a carefully calculated model to benefit from added revenues. Now, if you in fact travel globally it is no news how inconvenient esims can be including unavailability in certain countries. Parting with the physicsl sims in the US has little to with convenience as esims are available regardless for customers wanting to go this route. An often more costly solution. Besides, the EU market is too significant for Apple to ignore it. Europe is a much more sophisticated, telecom-deregulated market than the U.S. Here, in Europe we pay equivalent of $10-$20 per month for a full subscription for services of much better quality. The criteria for operators in the EU to be able to operate are unseen in the „monopolized” US segment. For Your own benefit, I would now embrace the EU system rather than fight it.
If Apple was going to make the iPhone screen larger than 3.5", they would have done it back in 2007. If they were going to redesign the macOS UI, they would have done it back with Puma.
I don't know what you are expecting here. That's how technology works. It gets less exciting over time because the issues get addressed, the features get added, the products mature. They become tools like anything else.
And this also assumes most people are even interested in smartphones the way we are. The vast majority of people are not. They probably couldn't even tell you what version of what operating system they're running. They buy hardware that looks good and works well. Essential failed with their smartphone because they thought most people buying phones did so based on whether or not it ran stock Android or not.
There is probably a dedicated hardware controller. If the phone is so dead the button won’t work, it’s too dead to do anything else with and needs to be connected to power anyway.
I agree there’s not a whole lot of tangible benefit but they can make it work. It would prevent buttons wearing out, and they did a good job with the touchpad. I didn’t even know for a while that it wasn’t actually moving. I found out by reading about it, if you’d asked me I would swear it really was clicking when I pressed it.
If they do that good a job or better I’d be ok with it.
Solid state buttons can be cool… if implemented right. I could see the iPhone moving to solid state buttons for the volume and “action” buttons while the “power” button remains mechanical.
And big bonus for third party accessory makers since moving to solid state buttons would render every single case for the device useless without a major redesign.
And big bonus for third party accessory makers since moving to solid state buttons would render every single case for the device useless without a major redesign.
That is how Steve Jobs envisioned the Macintosh. With Apple's custom silicon, the product line is now the closest to that vision it's ever been.
I’d probably choose the iPhone as the most appliance like product, but yeah, the Mac in its current form is pretty darn close too. The Studio in particular.
I’m not denying that new EU regulations haven’t been to beneficial to those living outside EU borders. USB-C is a good example and long overdue. However the SIM tray has also been superseded by a more convenient technology just as most people now use wireless earphones rather than plugging into the old audio jack. Do you use wireless earphones or headphones? Do you use 5G? Maybe Apple will wait until 2025 or 2026, but eventually the SIM tray will get tossed permanently into the bin of obsolete tech, along with USB-A, optical drives, the audio jack, etc.