retrogusto

How anyone would benefit from a mute switch that no longer shows its status at a glance is beyond me, but if these rumors are true, hopefully the wisdom will become evident when the phones are announced and released.

JP234 said:

To anyone who's accidentally pushed a button on his phone, why does changing the mute switch to a button benefit the user. Seems like it was done just to benefit Apple. You're going to mute your phone without knowing you did it, you know you are, and wonder why you and Siri are no longer on speaking terms.

Hopefully just a rumor. It would be very frustrating to no longer be able to look at the switch to see if the ringer was off or not, and it’s unclear if this would also mean that I couldn’t adjust volume without taking the phone out of my pocket, but that would be a meaningful step in the wrong direction too, at least for me. And as you note, there would be no clear advantage for the user. Someone might mention something like increased water resistance, but the number of people who really need to take their phone deep underwater is…pretty limited.

charlesn said:

retrogusto said:

I have to admit, in the comparison photo, the iPhone shot might be closer to reality but the Samsung shot looks more natural to me, and I think most people would prefer it, 

It's always funny to read when someone who hasn't spoken to "most people" is sure their personal preference is what "most people would prefer." 

Neither approach is the "right" answer here. And even though I prefer Apple's approach, it's important to note that computational photography is still making countless decisions for me to deliver an image of what I "really" saw. 

You don’t have to speak to “most people” to have an informed opinion about what most people might prefer, and given the condescension of your comment, I don’t mind saying it’s idiotic to think otherwise. I’ve been photographing for almost 50 years, studied art, photography and cinematography in multiple well-regarded universities, including a seminar with Vittorio Storaro in Italy, won a few awards for my photography and filmmaking, etc. That’s enough to have a valid opinion about what people tend to like.

lotones said:

pscooter63 said:

A dedicated TVOS app would be a nice tip of the hat - I don’t necessarily want to be tethered to AirPlay.

And there’s my issue with this: Apple TV is limited to 48khz for some reason. I can’t even stream files from my computer to the Apple TV  on my sound system at a native resolution above 48khz, which is an really disappointing because there is no limitation of an internal DAC, and I can do so on my universal disc player released 7 years ago! All the Apple TV needs to do is pass the audio to my preamp.

Either Apple needs to enable Apple TV to play  hi-res above 48khz via a software update, or release a third Apple TV in 3 years for people who actually can hear the difference between 48khz and 98khz (i.e. people with a halfway decent sound system).

I’ve been wishing for a while that they would restore the optical output that used to be included with Apple TV, which would also make it a lot easier to connect your Apple TV to an external DAC or other stereo components that don’t have HDMI. Almost no DACs take HDMI input, and if you invest big money on one of the few that does, it will start to be obsolete as soon as they update the HDMI spec, whereas optical digital signals don’t run that risk in the same way. If you want to use a high-end DAC from 10+ years ago with HDMI, it won’t pass through a 4K signal or HDR. I know you can solve this problem with a splitter or extractor, but it’s still inelegant and there aren’t a lot of great options there either.

Apple has been trending towards thicker phones, but adding weight faster. This would constitute a pretty large jump, but maybe not totally impossible given the half-pounders they are selling now, and still thinner than the 3G or 3GS.