Camera flash/multi tasking
Do you guys think a camera flash and multi-tasking (like the Palm Pre has) will ever come to the iPhone?
I waited till the 3GS to get an iPhone and for the most part, I'm fairly pleased with my phone. It was nice to FINALLY get video recording and voice dialing and enough flash memory to hold all my videos, music, and pictures.
But I've noticed a certain "stubbornness" when it comes to Apple and I don't know why it's there or where it came from or what justifies it. Apple has been a little too incremental with the iPhone platform in my opinion. A lot of times when I'm watching Apple's design videos, I hear Jonny Ive saying about refining things to a point where absolutely nothing is there that doesn't need to be there.
So what is it about a camera flash and multi-tasking that make them so unnecessary? It's a little embarrassing for the iPhone to be great at so many things, yet Apple's decision to be stubborn about the little things still present problems for people who want to maximize the usability of their phone. I hate the droid does commercial as much any Apple fanboy but when someone points out your expensive smartphone can't even take pictures in the dark, you can't really counter that. Not really trying to start an argument but I mean, what do you think gives Apple insight into making these annoying incremental decisions?
I waited till the 3GS to get an iPhone and for the most part, I'm fairly pleased with my phone. It was nice to FINALLY get video recording and voice dialing and enough flash memory to hold all my videos, music, and pictures.
But I've noticed a certain "stubbornness" when it comes to Apple and I don't know why it's there or where it came from or what justifies it. Apple has been a little too incremental with the iPhone platform in my opinion. A lot of times when I'm watching Apple's design videos, I hear Jonny Ive saying about refining things to a point where absolutely nothing is there that doesn't need to be there.
So what is it about a camera flash and multi-tasking that make them so unnecessary? It's a little embarrassing for the iPhone to be great at so many things, yet Apple's decision to be stubborn about the little things still present problems for people who want to maximize the usability of their phone. I hate the droid does commercial as much any Apple fanboy but when someone points out your expensive smartphone can't even take pictures in the dark, you can't really counter that. Not really trying to start an argument but I mean, what do you think gives Apple insight into making these annoying incremental decisions?
Comments
I like looking up webpages while I'm in a call.
Might go buy an LED keychain torch from a $2 shop = what phone manufacturers call a flash.
Do you guys think a camera flash and multi-tasking (like the Palm Pre has) will ever come to the iPhone?
I waited till the 3GS to get an iPhone and for the most part, I'm fairly pleased with my phone. It was nice to FINALLY get video recording and voice dialing and enough flash memory to hold all my videos, music, and pictures.
But I've noticed a certain "stubbornness" when it comes to Apple and I don't know why it's there or where it came from or what justifies it. Apple has been a little too incremental with the iPhone platform in my opinion. A lot of times when I'm watching Apple's design videos, I hear Jonny Ive saying about refining things to a point where absolutely nothing is there that doesn't need to be there.
So what is it about a camera flash and multi-tasking that make them so unnecessary? It's a little embarrassing for the iPhone to be great at so many things, yet Apple's decision to be stubborn about the little things still present problems for people who want to maximize the usability of their phone. I hate the droid does commercial as much any Apple fanboy but when someone points out your expensive smartphone can't even take pictures in the dark, you can't really counter that. Not really trying to start an argument but I mean, what do you think gives Apple insight into making these annoying incremental decisions?
Do you guys think a camera flash and multi-tasking (like the Palm Pre has) will ever come to the iPhone?
I waited till the 3GS to get an iPhone and for the most part, I'm fairly pleased with my phone. It was nice to FINALLY get video recording and voice dialing and enough flash memory to hold all my videos, music, and pictures.
But I've noticed a certain "stubbornness" when it comes to Apple and I don't know why it's there or where it came from or what justifies it. Apple has been a little too incremental with the iPhone platform in my opinion. A lot of times when I'm watching Apple's design videos, I hear Jonny Ive saying about refining things to a point where absolutely nothing is there that doesn't need to be there.
So what is it about a camera flash and multi-tasking that make them so unnecessary? It's a little embarrassing for the iPhone to be great at so many things, yet Apple's decision to be stubborn about the little things still present problems for people who want to maximize the usability of their phone. I hate the droid does commercial as much any Apple fanboy but when someone points out your expensive smartphone can't even take pictures in the dark, you can't really counter that. Not really trying to start an argument but I mean, what do you think gives Apple insight into making these annoying incremental decisions?
This has been covered elsewhere, but:
The iPhone does multitask, it just doesn't allow you to run third party apps in the background. Apple did this as one of many tradeoffs among ease of use, battery life and speed that they made to make the iPhone experience what it is. You can disagree with their choices, but they're not arbitrary or merely stubborn.
People often talk about liking or loving the iPhone as a whole but then go on to criticize some particular thing they want or need, without acknowledging that the "iPhone", as it has come to be understood, is exactly the sum of all little decisions Apple made. Want a removable battery? Then the phone is bigger. Want third party multitasking? Then battery life is shorter and system management is more complex.
For some people that's Apple being too controlling; for most people that equals an out of the box experience that just works. There are other phones if you prefer more opportunity to fine tune your system.
As far as flash on the camera goes, most of the phones that have that are just hitting a feature bullet point without doing a very good job of implementation. If you read the reviews of such devices, you'll see that the flash doesn't actually do much (like here).
There are a few phones with good flash implementation, but they typically make the camera the main attraction, at the expense of other aspects of the device. Again, this is a matter of tradeoffs, with Apple looking to hit the sweet spot of functionality that benefits as many users as possible.
In general, I don't think it's a very good idea to worry about "features", especially compared to other devices in an industry that habitually lards on "features" willy-nilly in an effort to get some mindshare, without much concern as to how such features are implemented or if the work very well.
And you bring up the iPhone's limited multi-tasking. I mean, yea, it's great that you can multitask when you're on a phone call. But what does it say that you can only multi-task in that one instance? You've got all these apps and you cant switch between them as quickly as you can on something like the Pre. I know they dont have nearly as many apps, but perhaps Apple will find a way to trump everyone in OS 4.0? They can end the debate on multi-tasking just like they ended the debate on stereo bluetooth (added it), copy and paste (added it), landscape keyboard (added it), and MMS (added it). They weren't winning any arguments by being stubborn about their phone having these glaring holes.
Addabox, you talked about the iPhone being the sum of all of Apple's micromanaging, yet they still added all this stuff later on. Couldn't they have just saved the effort and had it from the beginning? You mean to tell me that they can't find a higher capacity battery that fits in the same amount of space and then they hide behind poor battery life being the reason for why they don't do certain things? The way these guys look for and handle supply vendors, it's pretty hard for me to believe that they can't find something that just works better for the customer. I think we can all live with a non-removable battery and no physical keyboard. Notice how I didn't bring up those lamebrained points because I actually agree with Apple on those fronts. My battery is going to last me until I get a new upgrade. And a physical keyboard is just more moving physical parts that can get damaged and become unreliable.
Maybe the next trudge through incrementalism will finally bring stuff like Flash support, a camera flash, and multitasking. I can only hope. Because there's Apple's vision of like, a phone that they think is perfect. Something that has everything they think it should have and for all the right reasons. And then there's the reality: it's probably the least imperfect phone I can get my hands on right now. Still better than a blackberry cuz of the web browsing. Still better than android and webOS cuz of the apps and the hardware. And still better than Windows Mobile, pretty much by default.