At first I thought this was kind of "meh" but then I clicked over on the "components" list at the bottom. Dear god, I just spent the last 5 minutes giggling and adding absurd things to the phone. I absolutely love this.
We've been thinking hard about how we all navigate our expanding digital lives, and we at Apple think the greatest breakthroughs can only occur when we really take time to sit, consider and recharge. In 2017 we introduced Screen Time, a revolutionary way to track your digital usage, putting you in control. This year, we're going one step further and we're excited to announce Recharge Time, only for iPhone 15.
Tim, would you please make sure the right people approve my app? I just sent for approval a wicked cool app that makes old phones new. And, as we know every old phone is a new phone about to be purchased - wink, wink!
So, here is the app I am introducing for August 2022 - Down Time, only for new iPhones. Down Time monitors all phone inputs, sensors, and the like - all when the phone is "down". This allows the Powerful Apple Silicon inside the iPhone on your desk to generate ML heuristics that map how the phone is used when it is not being used - when it is turned off, charging, left in the car, etc. Of course, the next step is to create local SMS messages and notifications that illustrate which of my other apps in the store will make the phone function better. If none of my apps will run on a phone, I create a red, warning hazard of a notification that says a NEW iPhone must be purchased to continue using this family of apps. It's a WIN-WIN, Tim. Please get this approved right quick!
Sorry IncRnd, your app has been rejected on the grounds that it duplicates functionality of a core (about to be) included app. Apple's Relax Time does this, and will be out on the next release.
P.S. We cross-our-hearts-promise we didn't just start this after we read your submission, and have been working on this for months, if not years. Hell, I'm sure we can find some email or memo from the prior decade that seems relevant if you press us.
You still owe me a fn Macbook Pro because my "recharge time" included my machine bursting into flames on my bed, and the machine was under recall for bursting into flames, and you refused to replace the machine that burst into flames as stated by the recall, and nearly killed me, could have burned down a house, because of the "moisture sensor"
As someone who owns dozens of devices with both USB-C and Lightning ports, I find the Lightning port to be significantly superior to USB-C. It is much easier to plug in due to the curves on the sides, easier to plug out, holds in place more strongly, and the port lasts much longer. Why do you call it “godawful”?
The single factor that makes it awful is that no one else uses it aside from Apple, so I have to have multiple cords of two different types around the house. Annoying!
The port actually does support USB 3. If you look in an iPhones Lightning port you'll see that only one side of the port actually has contacts and that's why it's USB 2 only. Some Lightning iPads support USB 3 and they have contacts on both sides of the port.
At least they would improve the sync - why all my photos have to go to cloud first? The device is right here. Cherry picking and sending via airdrop doesn’t scale well.
Its a horrible thing to have to manage USB for everything and yet another cable just for apple devices. I have met actually 0 people who appreciate this on Apple, everybody hates it with passion and during usual office day there is always somebody hunting for iphone cable to charge his phone.
For me, this was the reason which swayed me for Samsung galaxy S22 Ultra instead of iphone 13 pro max. Plus that fugly-as-hell notch, I mean phones look like cheap chinese phones from 2015 with it. Literally everybody on the market has figured a better way to do this.
As with other Apple products (hi AirPods Max) Lightning works fine and well until you take it anywhere the humidity is above 80% for extended periods of time.
I have more Lightning cables with pin 5 (Vcc) charred than I'd like to admit. At one point in my life it took about 2 weeks per side of the connector until they became unusable.
That's a build-quality issue; I have zero doubt that if Apple put effort into it they could design a USB-C port and USB-C cable that was waterproof and robust to their standards.
They even allow you to add something called a "headphone jack"! Isn't that hilarious? What an antiquated absurdity! A rotary dial makes more sense on a phone these days.
I started being silly and just adding wheels and whatnot. Then at some point I decided to try to build exactly the phone I'd like. Turns out it's pretty close to the current iPhones, except:
* Replace the apple logo on the back with the touchId/home button. It can still be shaped like an apple, but please let it read my fingerprint.
* Move the power button to the top.
* Change the lightning port to USB-C (not designed here)
That's... it. It's really not that much, but it would make such an improvement.
Out of curiosity, why would you move the power button to the top? I remember this was the configuration for the old iPod Touch, but with the power button along the side, it's easier to press the power button with your thumb in one-handed use.
It's way too easy to press it by accident on the side. You can't use the volume buttons to take phots without twisting your hand into some special shape whilst the power button is on the side. It should return to the top.
What about making the power button recessed like on Sony Xperias? If you're really worried about camera ergonomics, you can even add a dedicated shutter button. The "focus on half press" feature might be overkill for the iPhone camera system though.
With the power/display button exactly opposite the volume buttons, it is difficult to just press the power/display button without also hitting the volume up button. Then you either change volume by mistake or do a screenshot by mistake. It was better when it was on the top. alternately, just move the volume buttons to the same side as the power/display button.
Power button on top was the old configuration for iPhones, too, for the first 7 generations. It went to the side from iPhone 6 onwards, as the phone got larger.
"the top button was renamed to "side button" and moved to the side of the phone instead of the top to improve its accessibility."
You could have the home button that was placed on the back of the phone wake it up. I still enjoy my S9+ because of it's well-positioned fingerprint sensor on the back that wakes the phone and bypasses the lock screen.
I suppose when you're turning the phone off, you can easily shift your grip to hit the top. I still wouldn't think to put the power button there, though.
This tool has a lot of retro concepts but not a lot which got popular in the non-Apple world. For example, there is no hardware keyboard or foldable or something as simple/basic as a microUSB or USB-C port. With the recent MBPs (ARM-based) what did we get compared to previous MBPs and current competition? A non-broken keyboard (non-butterfly), not a touchbar, very long battery life, magsafe, and more commonly used ports. Most of these were fixing regressions, only the very long battery life is innovative and due to 5 nm ARM processor (not visual appearance on the device).
Heh, I guess. My last two phones had the jack at the top, so it's instinctively where I put it. I do like being able to rest it on a surface while holding it vertically with an audio cable connected. But charging it at the same time from the other end is a little weird. I guess in an ideal world I'd put both ports at the top, but I don't think that's what you were going for :)
I wish you could hold the iPhone upside down, at least when charging. It is so prickly when laying down and having the charging cable jamming into your belly (like when reading a book).
I put my phone into my pocket with the same orientation that it's in my hand, while using it. Hold phone, rotate arm down, stick in pocket. The phone is now upside down in my pocket. If the headphone jack were on the top, you would have to flip your phone first, when putting it in or pulling it out.
but the network antennae are usually located at or near the top of the front of the phone. for this reason I place mine upright, screen facing outwards. headphone socket orientation comes secondary to this
The antenna is trying to reach something in the distance, nearly horizontal. The 5 inches of height gained by placing it upright will be absolutely negligible. This is easily proven with a signal meter.
I disagree. from ground level it could be 15-20% higher, which would make a real difference. facing outwards also means not having to transmit and receive through your leg or butt
The power button on top only works if your phone is going to be as small as the iPhone 4. Even with the iPhone 5 I found the button slightly too annoying to reach one-handed.
I hate that even Android phones have gone with the under screen fingerprint sensors. If they want to have one under screen, please just add another one behind the phone. It probably costs few pennies extra.
Unfortunately this does not have the option that I would like to see.
The perfect new Apple phone would be one that serves the cheap-ass bastard market or the market for people who aren't interested in carrying a computer in their pocket.
I present to you all the concept for a simple Apple flip phone (iFlipper). It does all the basic communications functions - text, HD single front and rear camera, voice calls and recording - has a long-life replaceable battery, basic keyboard, and a 2"x3" (50mm x 76 mm) HD screen. With this phone they could own the market for cheap, durable phones that can serve as company-issued phones for employees who need to stay connected but don't need to dink around with computing anything on their phones. Basic apps would allow time tracking, location tracking, text and pdf document reading and editing, simple spreadsheet creation and updating for customer invoicing, and note-taking and appointment management apps.
Some of that ends up sounding like a computer but compared to all the things you can do with a normal smart phone, we can dumb things down and still have great phones with broad market appeal.
The fact that Apple is the only FAANG (MAANG?) company that primarily makes it’s money by producing cool products for people to buy is a terrible indictment on the state of our industry.
I just bought my first iPhone since my Windows phone (Nokia 900? series) battery finally hit the 6 hours on a full charge point and my carrier is obsoleting all 3G by December.
This is both just really impressive and futuristic feeling from a tech perspective. Works perfectly in Firefox! Can't believe that has to be said these days.
And from a FUN and creative perspective the possibilities are endless. I'm reminded of the Simpsons where Homer designs a car and it's an impracticable monstrosity. I just added a full HDMI port to the iPhone, so I feel like I'm halfway there!
There's no "download video" button on Firefox, but there is one on Chrome. Looks like the minified source is checking the userAgent in a few spots. I don't know if that's genuinely an issue with Firefox's canvas to mp4 support or something, but it's not completely one to one unfortunately.
I agree though, it is creative and entertaining regardless.
There is one part that does exist on real iPhones but isn't in the parts palette: a speaker grille. Even with Pro Wheels and a Pro Handle, your breakthrough iPhone will be silent! (Unless you send audio out one of the broad selection of ports available.)
> My guess is that they will remove all ports by then and completely switch to MagSafe
I've heard this repeated a lot and just don't get it. It doesn't make any sense to me from a product perspective- removing the port doesn't seem to get them anything. It's already pretty waterproof, it's already pretty slim (and I don't think the port is the limiting factor there anyway). I just don't get the upside. One could argue that they'll sell a _lot_ of magsafe accessories, but pucks don't don't provide the same flexibility as cords and they must know that.
Anyway, I've got a $100 bet with a friend going (placed Nov 2020): I think _a_ port will stay, and he thinks it'll be portless by the 2023. We'll see who's right!
They may also find another loophole: like make iPhone thinner than USB C, or certify it as a health tracker, or increase charging rate to 101 W. That technically moves iPhone into the laptop territory, and different regulations apply.
"Included devices: a larger range of small and medium-sized devices with power delivery up to 100 watts would be included under the scope of the directive, including e-readers, low-powered laptops, keyboards, mice, earbuds, screens, printers, portable navigations, smart watches, personal care devices and electronic toys (annex Ia Part I RED). Some products, such as smart watches, health trackers and personal care devices, could be exempted if they are too small to have a USB Type-C receptacle. By the end of 2026, the Commission would be required to assess and include other devices that can be charged with the USB Type-C under the scope of the directive."
Easy. Call it Lightning Pro, with chargers starting at $99. Not included in the box, but you don't need it anyway because they already give you magsafe
I clicked present without adding anything, my design uses a telepathic interface, you simply think about it. If you see something, the image is transferred to the memory and uploaded to the cloud by simply desiring that occur. No microphone or earphones are needed, no Bluetooth. I call it the tiPhone it will be out in 2031, place your pre-orders now.
My design directly link your neurons to the cloud. Upload 3D vision, done. Connect to google maps, done. Call your mom, having a conversation without speaking aloud, done.
iBrain. Think different.
Directly download to your brain, from a brain near you. Soon.
Please don’t watch your baby in its bath, everything you see is matched against a database (rest assured for your privacy, everything is done locally in your brain - except if we need to human check - so you may experience slower thinking at times)
We are joking around of course, but sometimes interesting innovation comes from weird ponderings.
I have an experimental cloud phone that has no CPU and uses an FPGA to directly transfer data from a VM in the cloud to the screen. It works, even on 4G but better on 5G. Also, I have been experimenting with transparent OLED.
My dream would be a device completely cloud based, and hence, unlimited processing and storage. The back of the transparent display would be optical sensors and it would use computational imaging in the cloud, no lenses needed. The audio who knows, MEMS I suppose.
I think the technology exists; would anyone want such a thing? Who knows, we have seen things like that in sci-fi movies of course.
Oh, but if I share all my inner most thoughts and feelings, you say they will pay me $99.99 per month for sharing that information? Oh, I have that backwards, don't I? Eshh, now I suddenly see the light! Thank you!
Wink.
No USB-C option that I could see. I currently have an Android with USB-C and a MacBook Air and having the same port for both devices is so luxurious when traveling. This plus an Anker charger/ battery hybrid means I never run out of juice and travel light.
Unfortunately, because of the shit show of the USB C “standard”, it’s far from universal. It doesn’t do video over USB C for my portable USB C monitor, doesn’t do 10Gbps data nor does it do 100W charging for my MacBook Pro 16.
My Pinephone has all those features except the dual SIM card tray, and the battery’s capacity is rated 2,800mAh / typical 3,000mAh. The fact that it can burn through that in as little as an hour if held just right (with max brightness, volume, and load on the GPU, CPU, RAM, and separate modem CPU with the default nonfree, inefficient firmware; and not using the separately sold keyboard case with 6,000 more mAh) is a great incentive to limit its addictive effects.
Only thing I’d change is moving the volume buttons to the right side with the power button. The number of times I’ve taken a screenshot trying to un/lock with my left index finger is astronomically high.
Or putting the power button back on the top. Or going back to the iPhone 5's round volume buttons.
Both the placement and shape of the buttons leads to accidental presses and the inability to easily identify them by feel. Almost anything would be an improvement.
I put the volume and power buttons on the same side but then made sure to put the cupholder just under them so you can have a picture of every instant you hit a pothole.
In a future version of iOS Apple will share your iCloud photo library with your municipal road department. They can correlate these screenshots to dispatch repair crews. I'm sure this protects children somehow.
A Pro Handle would actually be pretty nice though, especially if it could be stowed like the antenna.
I was trying hard to search ways to share the video and found out that the "Download video" button is only visible in Chrome or Safari and not Firefox. I love everything about Neal's site but I wish supporting the three major web browser engines shouldn't be the big deal. I've seen the writing on the wall now and I should probably jump ships off FF to anything based on chromium.
One thing I'm missing that I'm still amazed the iPhone lacks: an under-screen fingerprint scanner. Behind-the-screen cameras are not ready for prime time, but surely Apple can please the fingerprint fans quite easily? They can even pretend they invented it by placing it on a weird position and saying it's revolutionary because no iPhone user has probably ever seen it before.
My Moto Z4 has an under-screen fingerprint scanner, and I absolutely positively refuse to ever have a smartphone without such scanner. It is the best possible placement.
Absolutely not. You can't unlock it without picking up. Like you are drinking coffee and the phone is resting nearby and then you need to unlock it to see some notification. With front mounted sensor you just gently touch it, and that's it.
If it is then surely Apple can spare the money to buy a license or they can buy the components themselves from a licensed manufacturer. There are many brands that include under screen fingerprint scanners, I don't see why Apple couldn't be one of them.
I didn't mean to offend anyone, I don't even know how you're supposed to take the thing with you without the Pro Handle. Just wish there was a good way to plug it into my other devices...
Add an Apple logo middle of the screen and it will connect to all Apple devices magically using dark witchcraft. Add an Android logo and boom, you now connect to almost all smartphones. Whatever you do... do not touch the pear logo.
I would love to see an entry-level-spec, large-screen version for seniors and those with vision issues where high resolution is next to useless.
No-one seems to be building such a phone, probably because most people in their 70s and above either don’t have a cell phone, or still rock a low-tech flip phone with physical buttons.
My own father (83 this year) would love a low-resolution screen the size of the iPhone Pro Max, just without the bells and whistles and “Pro” aspect of the Max.
Hell, if the iPad mini could be turned into a fully-functional cell phone without relying on VoIP hacks, he’d likely jump at that.
In the reflective elements, you can see the reflection of an image. I believe the image to be a panoramic aerial photo of the 1 Infinite Loop Apple Campus in Cupertino, CA.
Building windows in both Transport Fever 2 and Derail Valley show the same cityscape in their reflection if I'm not mistaken. Also if the building is in front of a tree or middle of nowhere. Kinda cheap imo, but apparently few enough people notice that they don't care to make it better, so I also feel a little special.
Am I the only one who opened the tool and thought: "this, this is perfect, add nothing!"?
Why isn't there a phone yet with no ports or power plugs of any kind (wireless charging and software power/reset), flush rear camera, hidden front camera?
It feels like that's the inevitable end of the current evolutionary tree, and all the technology is there and reasonably economical.
If we’re lucky, literally never on some of that without the technology being vastly superior to what we have today. What’s possible and what’s good aren’t always the same thing.
And if your software hangs? Hard buttons are a nice safety. Even one can be wired to some simple microcontroller that'll power cycle the entire device is held for 30 sec or some such thing. Doing it via a much more complex interface (touch, etc) isn't as foolproof
I posted that farther down in the thread. Yes, I thought the same thing.
Sorry for the repetition, but this is a little dream of mine.
I have an experimental cloud phone that has no CPU and uses an FPGA to directly transfer data from a VM in the cloud to the screen. It works, even on 4G but better on 5G. Also, I have been experimenting with transparent OLED.
My dream would be a device completely cloud based, and hence, unlimited processing and storage. The back of the transparent display would be optical sensors and it would use computational imaging in the cloud, no lenses needed. The audio who knows, MEMS I suppose.
I wonder if apple will use this in the future, maybe even use customer input to redesign their products. I dont think so, but i wonder what kind of weird designs that would result in
I took it seriously when adding elements from the first page of the elements slider. Then... I scrolled to other pages with other available components and my sides went into the orbit.
Seriously, power, volume, silencer, lightning, 3.5mm jack, home button on the back for touch-id, what more do you want (well maybe usb-c instead of lightning)
No wonder the design head was axed. The phone is like a Porsche. Looks the same since its inception. They are in constant angst mode about the looks, ooh what will happen if we make drastical changes... so it will stay and look the same. They don't want to disturb the cash cow.
But of course it gets pricier year after year.
Design iterations and UI is something like this:
Look we've changed the window's bezel by 1 and a half pixels, now it's much better. 3 generations later: we changed it back the way it was, retro style, wow! Now everyone APPLAUD the CHANGES and hand over the money!
And did anyone else notice in the reflection of the metal band what room (like what virtual place the camera is located) you're shown designing this in?
There are fewer downsides to the iphone for me. That's all there is to it. If Android polished their corners a bit more and more manufacturers offered better quality handsets with stock or near-stock android, and better post-sales support, then they'd be in the running.
i was so delighted to find it has a video export but Twitter is not letting me tweet the video - as far as i can tell this fits under all their requirements - anyone else have the same problem?
that's apple's long term goal, to realize pervasive personal computing. that's why they released siri, airpods, the watch, and faceID (and even the future glasses), as waypoints to that exact future. they probably won't get rid of screens, but will minimize their use over time.
I put the power button at the top so that I don't accidentally take a screenshot when I want to change the volume. Somebody please give me a design job at Apple.
I still don't understand why Apple moved the power button to the side opposite the volume buttons.
If this were Google where PMs ran feature development willy-nilly, then I bet this would've been true. Luckily, Apple's design team still has enough pull; so the MBAs haven't taken over everything.
It’s really funny you think the MBAs have less sway at Apple than Google. Apple is a penny-pinching company literally run by a supply chain exec with a Duke MBA. Google is a freewheeling engineer-led culture with zero interest in cost control.
The design team at Apple is still super influential. I should’ve probably clarified in my previous post: I work at Apple and over the years made good friends with writers on the team. We worked very closely in some Siri teams I was on.
Anyways, we still catch up once in a while and from what I gather the design team is truly organized to value the art and outcomes far far more than chasing promotions and titles. As an engineer, I can assure you I feel a very different vibe in the eng org; chasing after promotions is still a part the career “mindset”. Even amongst all my eng friends here. In all fairness though, that’s how all big tech eng teams in the Bay Area or Seattle are organized. Engineers are incentivized to get promoted to dissuade “rest and vest”.
Anyways, my larger point is: yes, design team at apple is def the most powerful and has final say on features. Of course, the MBAs run everything else from financial analysis that determine designers’ raises to operations in the supply chain. Someone’s gotta turn the magic into reality, after all ;)
Can it be both? The engineers create a new chat app every year, then the MBAs take it over next year and "optimize" it into the ground and all the engineers flee, but that's ok because the cycle will repeat shortly.
But you only need to "power" it once in like a month. You "turn it on" by tapping the screen. You "turn it off" by putting it aside or in your pocket. Power button on the side is a weird choice.
Yeah you might be right. There are “weirdos” like me who power it on and off every day though :) Who knows what their rationale truly was, just seems like a case where the bad physical UX of a huge screen on a phone was compensated for by placing a button in a non-standard location. Oh and the power button is also used to quickly lock the screen, so that’s something probably used more often than turning the device on/off.
