nhughes

Soli said:

2) You can't have AR without a camera, but as we saw with Google Glass a camera just makes it creepy. Can Apple overcome that stigma?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, at least in terms of a wearable camera on the Apple Watch. Using the Series 3 with LTE, without your iPhone nearby, is a great experience except for one glaring omission: the lack of camera. And yet, having a discreet camera on your wrist is indeed creepy.

There is also the problem of which way does the camera face? Toward you for FaceTime/selfies? Or away from you, to take (probably low-quality) pics? Or do they do two cameras, or some sort of clunky physical rotating camera?

I wonder if the solution both of these problems is the same: One camera that faces the user (embedded in the screen, if they could ever do that). This allows for FaceTime and selfies and the like, and then taking pictures of the world around you would require some sort of broad gesture (ie, telling the watch to take a picture, but the image isn't actually snapped until you rotate your wrist outward in a rather obvious motion, then turn your wrist back to view the image). I wonder if having a broad gesture, combined with some sort of visual cue (a light flash or whatever) would turn down the "creep" factor, letting people around you know that you are snapping pictures.

Perhaps the solution for this with augmented reality glasses would be something similar — a process that requires the user to press a button on the device itself, so it is clear to those around you that you are interacting with your glasses, accompanied perhaps by a flash of light or something that says "hey, picture time." It's not perfect, but it's arguably more obvious than someone on the train acting like they are using their phone for other purposes while they are actually snapping pics.

Cameras in everything, including our glasses, are seemingly inevitable. And younger generations won't care as much. But we're still in some sort of uncomfortable limbo — which is precisely why the Apple TV Siri remote requires you to hold a button to invoke Siri. I suspect Apple will continue to go slow and tread lightly. Perhaps the first Apple AR glasses won't even allow the user to capture pictures. The first iPad didn't have a camera.

unphocus said:

Is there a dark mode for AI app?

I wish. I will pass this along to our developers. But this tip does result in black background and white text in the AI app.

tzm41 said:

To extend battery life, use your vibrant super retina display to display B&W content. Nice.

To extend battery life, put an unsightly humpback whale on the back of your thin, svelte, gorgeous handset. 

It's a tip, not a mandate. Lighten up.

wood1208 said:

If iPhone X and IOS 11, virtual home button appears under screen as picture and explanation suggested, it is like a home button under screen !!!. Tell you the truth, i played with iPhone X a bit and the black thin bar at the bottom for swipe up to get to the Home screen is awesome. I wish Apple just add that to the rest of iPhones so I don't have to click Home button to get to Home screen. Double tap to wake up screen and should do the same double tap where no apps are located to put the screen to sleep.

rrrize said:

wood1208 said:

If iPhone X and IOS 11, virtual home button appears under screen as picture and explanation suggested, it is like a home button under screen !!!. Tell you the truth, i played with iPhone X a bit and the black thin bar at the bottom for swipe up to get to the Home screen is awesome. I wish Apple just add that to the rest of iPhones so I don't have to click Home button to get to Home screen. Double tap to wake up screen and should do the same double tap where no apps are located to put the screen to sleep.

I agree. I got used to the "home bar" after just a few hours yesterday.  I really like it.  But on another note, I don't know about the notch at top.  I've heard all kinds of reviews of people saying they don't even notice it, but my experience has been quite the opposite.  It really stands out like a swolen nose, especially when the screen is completely white like in iMessages, Mail, Contacts and I even notice it and cannot help but feel a bit annoyed by it when looking at video. ...sigh. Otherwise I love the size and feel and spped and I really like FaceID.  Still playing with it so will discover more - but the notch is a no-g0 for me.

lightvox said:

Nope.  Not for me.  Already used to not having a Home button after less than a day, and I prefer not having a home button now.  Much easier using the phone one-handed without a home button.

Notch is also fine and doesn't bother me one bit.  Now that I've had the phone, I realized that without the notch, and with no home button, it would be really difficult to tell which side is top or bottom.  The notch helps me easily orient the phone.

I'm very happy with the home bar and swipe gesture, but I hate, hate, hate the new multitasking view/interface. The app icons/windows feel unwieldy, like they are slipping on ice when I interact with them, not quite doing what I want. I also find myself instinctively wanting to swipe up to force close, even though that no longer works. And force closing is now done by long pressing and tapping a tiny icon, which takes longer and is less convenient.

I wonder if Apple did this to discourage people from the bad habit of needlessly and obsessively force closing all of their apps.

Either way, I think it's a step backwards. Hopefully a future iOS update brings back swiping up to force close. Apple actually did something similar already with the iPad multitasking/control center view on iOS 11. Early betas required a long press and icon tap to close, but later betas (and the eventual final release) brought back swipe up to force close.

Regardless, swiping up to return home is great. And left and right to jump between apps is a pleasure too. But the rest of the multitasking experience, not so much.

zomp said:

Will the cases work with Wireless Charging pads? Wireless charging is very new to me and I don't full understand how it works and the limitations.

All Apple cases work with wireless charging pads. This is noted in the article.