iPhone SE • Hacker News Board

Re: iPhone SE

#491

Post by mcintyre1994 » Mon, Mar 21, 2016, 9:41 PM UTC

ino wrote: post #440

makecheck wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, until you mentioned it just now, I’d forgotten my phone even has 3D Touch. It had been literally weeks since I last thought to use force-touch for anything, mostly because there is zero indication where it will work. And it is half-baked in the sense that when I do activate 3D Touch, it’s usually by accident. It is almost the same gesture as deleting apps on the home screen! I go to delete an app, press-and…

Start using the keyboard trackpad for moving the cursor, selecting and deleting words, paragraphs or the whole text input. It's the killer app.

I just wish this worked on third party keyboards, I can't force myself off Swiftkey to Apple's keyboard at all.

Re: iPhone SE

#492

Post by cmyr » Mon, Mar 21, 2016, 9:41 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #234

Tloewald wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although 3D touch is not widely supported (even by Apple's apps) the "trackpad" on the keyboard alone is worth it.

This is going a little off topic: But Microsoft's on-screen keyboard has the best trackpoint for doing that. Doesn't require 3D touch and works wonderfully. Looks like this: https://i.imgur.com/eX2bfHp.jpg The blue dot is always there, but the four way arrows only appear after you press it, and you can drag further away to move faster, or closer to move slower. It is one of these things that after you use it you wond…

And I heard a while ago that Microsoft is working on bringing their keyboard to iOS. The 3rd party keyboard APIs on iOS are still awful, which would explain any delay/hesitance on their part. :(

Re: iPhone SE

#493

Post by toadhammer » Mon, Mar 21, 2016, 9:42 PM UTC

mey wrote: post #114

cryptoz wrote: post #74

Curious that the Sensors list does not include a barometer. It used to be the case that the A9 with coprocessor carried a barometer inside it. Has this changed for this phone? That would be incredibly sad if they removed sensors. Did the M9 iteration of the coprocessor remove the barometer? http://www.apple.com/iphone-se/specs/ Edit: Interestingly, the new iPad Pro does have a barometer in the Sensor list: http://www…

Out of curiosity what use did people find in a barometer?

GPS is bad at figuring height, can be off by 30-100ft. Think 911 trying to locate your cellphone in a multi-floor building. Barometer data is very good at figuring height.

Re: iPhone SE

#494

Post by __jal » Mon, Mar 21, 2016, 9:44 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #298

mlex wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say 3D touch is entirely a bad feature. I agree with the argument that 3D touch features are usually hard to discover (took me a while to realize you could press the keyboard to get a "trackpad"). Some of the features you get from it are nice little quality-of-life things though, like quick app switching. It will be tough getting app developers to decide to implement 3D touch features when it isn't support…

> I wouldn't say 3D touch is entirely a bad feature. I agree with the argument that 3D touch features are usually hard to discover That doesn't make them bad -- just hard to discover. Once you find out about them, they are dead easy. Not all UIs have to be immediately apparent, UI design is also about teaching users new idioms. Pointing with a mouse was alien once too...

This is really no different than OS X, except that it somehow is different.

What I mean by that is that OS X has hundreds of small features, keystrokes and affordances that are probably documented somewhere, but that I and most other people tend to find either by accident or by being told about them.

Apple's products have always been this way, and I rather like it. It is similar to my learning experiences with physical tools - over time, I've found a lot of tricks and 'off-label' uses for various woodworking tools by experience, and the OS sort of mimics that process.

For whatever reason, it doesn't work as well on the phone. I suspect it is partly that I don't spend hours at end doing things with my phone - I look something up, send a text, call someone, whatever and put it back in my pocket. A second factor is I almost never do complicated things on a phone. I have edited code in vi and then pushed/deployed it from my 6s, but not by choice, and that's not even that complicated.

So I do think discoverability is somewhat worse on a phone, at least for the way I use one, and it seems like an indirect form-factor consequence. It isn't that the form factor can't be used for complex tasks, but it is much more comfortable elsewhere, so the phone stays relegated to simpler stuff, which doesn't lead to the same degree of discovery/experimentation/happy accidents.

Re: iPhone SE

#495

Post by simonh » Mon, Mar 21, 2016, 9:48 PM UTC

ProAm wrote: post #323

mrweasel wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>$399 USD is great It's going to be $559 in Denmark. I had to check the prices on the other models, the cheapest 6S is $875. I never realized how expensive an iPhone is. Why anyone would buy an iPhone at those prices are beyond me. Sure, most will be buying via their carrier along with a subscription, but in most cases that will just make the phone more expensive.

All Apple products are significantly overpriced, how their consumers do not realize the are being taken advantage of is beyond me.

The only iPhone (actualy iOS device of any kind) I've ever bought that's not still in active use is my first, a 3G. My daughter still uses my 3GS to this day. The screen is cracked, but it's fully functional and she can even still download compatible apps from the App Store. Even ones that are no longer available for sale, but which I bought back in the day (I'm thinking of Lemonade Stand).

I've got excellent value for money from every iOS device I've ever had, with regular software updates years after they were bought.

Re: iPhone SE

#496

Post by Throwaway23412 » Mon, Mar 21, 2016, 9:48 PM UTC

Esau wrote: post #480

makecheck wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, until you mentioned it just now, I’d forgotten my phone even has 3D Touch. It had been literally weeks since I last thought to use force-touch for anything, mostly because there is zero indication where it will work. And it is half-baked in the sense that when I do activate 3D Touch, it’s usually by accident. It is almost the same gesture as deleting apps on the home screen! I go to delete an app, press-and…

I think 3D touch is a lot like a right-mouse click in the desktop environment, in that there is rarely anything to indicate where you can do it. You basically have to read about it or just try. That said, I don't personally care for it. I also feel that iOS is getting too complicated.

A right-click equivalent already existed: a long press.

3D Touch is the long press controlled by finger pressure instead of time pressed. It took an already hard-to-discover feature and made it more nuanced (that is, more complicated).

Re: iPhone SE

#497

Post by qwertyuiop924 » Mon, Mar 21, 2016, 9:50 PM UTC

Note how they say, "A beloved design," not, "The S5 design." Whenever a company is not detailing what their customers already know in order to emphasize that their devices are SO good that they're revisiting the old design, it's to avoid saying, "We fucked up."

Re: iPhone SE

#498

Post by dkonofalski » Mon, Mar 21, 2016, 9:52 PM UTC

dreamfactory2 wrote: post #242

otterley wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It works reasonably well on the Apple Watch, where screen real estate for touching "objects" is minimal. Force-touching on the notifications view, for example, is the only way to clear all notifications. That said, I've never used it on the iPhone -- if anything, Force Touch only gave us some shortcuts to actions that long-time users have already acquired "muscle memory" to perform differently (and without significan…

I hate it on the watch. I'm not that uncoordinated and always misfiring it and confused by what happens. For anyone actually disabled I'd imagine it must be a sick joke accessibility anti-pattern.

I don't understand this. I have such an easy time with Force Touch but yet you're definitely not the first person I've heard say this. I can hit the Force Touch menus everywhere with 99% accuracy. Most people that I've seen do this seem to press really hard to try and activate it but it's much more subtle than that. It's even hard to describe but the activation isn't because of a harder touch, it's because of a "deeper" touch. At least that's how I was introduced to it and now I absolutely love it.

Re: iPhone SE

#499

Post by lelandbatey » Mon, Mar 21, 2016, 9:52 PM UTC

shostack wrote: post #289

junto wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I've been desperately holding on to my Nexus 4! It is the perfect size.

Got mine sitting right next to me here. I was going to jump to the 5x, but a limit of 16GB storage with no external storage in this day and age of high-end phone cameras, video, app bloat, etc. is just flat out unacceptable for me in a phone at this point. It's a shame they have such an awful UI, because Samsung is doing some really great stuff with their Galaxy line on the hardware side of things.

The Nexus 5X is not limited to 16 GB, they also sell a 32GB version. Thats not to say that that will service everyone's space needs, however.

Re: iPhone SE

#500

Post by Kronopath » Mon, Mar 21, 2016, 9:52 PM UTC

dkonofalski wrote: post #490

ino wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Start using the keyboard trackpad for moving the cursor, selecting and deleting words, paragraphs or the whole text input. It's the killer app.

Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by "keyboard trackpad"? Is this on iOS or what? Edit : HOLY WHAT!?! How did I not know that this exists?!?! I just figured it out. If you didn't know what it is, like me, then pull up any place where you can input text. Type something in and then Force Touch anywhere on the keyboard while it's showing. Your cursor will move with your finger like a trackpad. That's amazing.

I'd like to take the opportunity to point out that when people talk about how mobile touch interfaces have "low discoverability", comments like this are exactly what they're talking about.