kevin kee

spice-boy said:

Apple's PR is working overtime lately, I wonder if bad news is coming? Oh right the iPhone Pro.

Fatman said:

$6 billion is insane and a colossal waste of money. This money could be used to fix a lot of broken things ... Siri, Apple maps, adding more SSD storage to Macbooks, fix watch OS, fix MacBook keyboards, fix the Apple TV remote (see Amazon fire remote buttons if you need guidance), lower the prices of HomePod & Apple TV. Instead they’re going to waste it on has-been stars in (probably lame) sitcoms - I hope I’m wrong. These Hollywood SOBs really know how to rip off Apple. 

jume said:

Its logical.. you get the same phone for 1/2 price today.

crowley said:

StrangeDays said:

crowley said:

StrangeDays said:

crowley said:

tmay said:

crowley said:

tmay said:

crowley said:

iOS_Guy80 said:

crowley said:

iOS_Guy80 said:

crowley said:

It used to be that Apple made things that looked better from the back than their competitors looked from the front.  I really hope they've got something special in the works for 2020, because that bump is grotesque.

Really. When you use your phone what side do you look at? What side matters the most? When was the last time you looked at the back of your phone? Does it really matter why it looks like. What matters is that IT JUST WORKS.

WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING?

It's ok that aesthetics don't matter to you.  Other people think differently.  I like for things to look nice as well as work, especially when I'm paying as much as an iPhone costs.

That new bump with the three lenses does look nice and aesthetically pleasing. We agree to disagree.

Interesting that you make the point since you think it doesn't matter what it looks like, but fair enough.  I think you're in a tiny minority.

So, do you want the improved imaging and video, not to mention A/R, or not?

Not sure what relevance that has, but they're not features I'm particularly interested in.  Moreover, those features aren't contingent on a square camera bump in the corner.

So, where should that camera bump go, and what should it look like?

Given that Apple has always placed its camera(s) in that corner, I'm not sure why moving it makes any sense. 

This is your opportunity to demonstrate your design skills; where should it go, and why?

Tbh, if they made the phone thicker and got rid of the bump, that's 90% of my issue dealt with, the feel of it is more irritating than the look. Though in terms of placement, centralising it would remove the asymmetry to good effect, and a cleaner orientation, in a proper square, a line, or a cross formation rather than the rather chaotic looking offset of the three lenses and flash would probably work.

Do you likewise complain that the ports on the back of an iMac aren’t centered or symmetrically balances to either side? Why not?

1. I wouldn't consider buying an iMac, I'm a MacBook guy, so I don't have much interest in it.
2. Even if I did, those ports don't bother me, they're a very small part of the back on the iMac, and their location has a function that would be impeded by centralisation.
3. Even if I did have interest and they did bother me, I don't see the back of my monitor screen very often, I see the back of my iPhone all the time.

“or symmetrically balances to either side”

The ports on the back of the iMac could be placed on either side, symmetrically, but they arent. They’re on one side only. No one complains about this. It’s the same reason why the pearl clutching here is silly nonsense. 

Nice cherry picking there.  They don't complain about it because the back of an iMac normally faces a wall, and the only time they ever see those ports is when they reach around the back to find them, in which case it is convenient for all the ports to be in the same place in an easily accessible corner.  That's functionally preferable.

The location of the iPhone camera is not functionally useful, and judging by the negative comments here and elsewhere I've seen is aesthetically disfavoured by a sizeable proportion, in a product where aesthetics matter to a sizeable proportion.

The camera sensor is usually the thickest component in the phone. In fact in the latest iterations of the iPhone, it sticks out by 1mm or so. This is because all of the other components are able to get thinner, except this one.

Now because it is so thick, it cannot be stacked on top of the battery which takes 90% or so of the surface of the phone. This leaves very few options: the top or the bottom. The bottom is out for obvious ergonomic reasons so that leaves the top. Now here is the thing: modern phones are PACKED with components. There is no room anywhere. This means that centering the camera would mean moving another large component and risking to have to grow the phone somewhere else. 

The next explanation is an aesthetic one. If the designer decides to center the camera, then where is the flash going? To the left? to the right? Either way it will look unbalanced. The default position goes back to the upper left corner, just as in the previous iterations of the phone. 

Finally, moving the camera, beside detracting from the heritage, improve nothing and make the phone larger than needed would mean alienating millions of user who have been accustomed to this location over the past 10 years.

CheeseFreeze said:

I appreciate the editorials but honestly these articles are way too long for the subject matter, and they are a bit....ranty. 

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter so I wrote you a long one”.... The author would benefit from putting the article away, looking at it the day after and aiming to cut it by 50%.