tjwolf

liberation said:

No one else seems to have said this, but isn't there an obvious reason for the larger power button - that it will perform the functions of the home button? Without a physical one on the front, it will be harder to access the virtual one when apps are in full screen mode. The large powerbutton wil allow any sized hand (left or right handed) to press or dounble press the power button. Sleep could be a longer press - and poet a long press as now. Personally I think it would actually improve on the current front home button for one handed use

What if I just want to see the lock screen to read my last notification or get a look at the time?  Pressing the power button does that now.

“...while developers would only need to build a single app version...”  - sounds a lot like the signed Java applets of yore.  And just as with that technology, this one will bring with it massive opportunities for security issues.

Apple has done a pretty good job keeping the app store curated and free of malware.  I don’t see how curation is possible in this brave new world.  Obviously Android users don’t have much to lose - they’re already used to the wild west - but for iPhone owners, this seems like a step back.

nhughes said:

tjwolf said:

favorites are now always visible and reachable - even while in an app

...Presumably the function area would go "dark" when you're doing an activity like watching a video. Some apps would not be well served by having stuff at the bottom of the screen.

Hm, other than the video playback you mentioned and FPS games, I can't think of cases where you'd not want a visible function area.  Maybe there'll be a special 'video/game' mode that gets escaped via one of the remaining physical buttons - or maybe via 3d touch.

Can you say "universal translator"? My days of stupid smiles as my Chinese in-laws talk about me are about to come to an end! :-)

Seriously, though, I'm surprised nobody's attempted live translation with existing hardware yet.  It seems that all the necessary ingredients are there already: Google Translate already converts text to a number of languages (Apple's Siri is about to get into the translation business as well).  And dictation from speech to text is already pretty darn accurate (at least in the 2 languages I know).  So why hasn't anyone written an app that lets you put your phone on the table, tell Siri "start translating" and then everything that's said at the table in a different language from yours gets translated by Siri directly into your ears via the Airpods connected to the phone on the table.  Conversely, when you speak into the Airpods, the phone speaker will output in the preferred language.

If anyone implements this, I'll promise to be your first customer :-)

...

Of course, the iPhone 5 and other legacy devices will still function properly with iOS 10.3.2 and earlier if users choose to continue to stick on legacy platforms. But the outdated hardware and software will become increasingly obsolete over time, and there is no guarantee that functions or apps will continue to work as expected.

We're at iOS 10.3.3 already...

Seems to me that the apps/functions would only become obsolete if they use back end services that no longer support them.  Can you give an example in the iOS world where that has happened?  Standalone apps (e.g. your solitaire app) will probably never become obsolete.