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iPhone SE

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541–550 of 733 posts

Re: iPhone SE

#541
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Says who? 3D touch is an awesome addition. Granted it has discoverability problems but I think that adding a new dimension to the interaction is great. It is a nice way to avoid a cluttered interface while providing advanced power-user functionality.

If an expensive feature has discoverability problems, it probably doesn't sound awesome from Apple's perspective. The current CEO of Apple is the former COO, someone well regarded for his prowess in managing Apple's supply chain and determining optimal cost per unit for Apple's products. If only a small percentage of customers use 3D Touch and 3D Touch adds a substantial cost per unit, I can see why Mr. Cook would di…

Lots of Apple products have things that only power users can find/use, even under Jobs. The design philosophy is that it's not require to use, but it's there if you want it and know what you're doing.

Re: iPhone SE

#542
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.

Unfortunately the keyboard force touch only works about ~70% of the time, which is too unpredictable for me to start incorporating into regular use as a user. It's odd that after ten years of development, Apple still hasn't made their keyboard just work . Selecting and manipulating text is still buggy and unpredictable.

I went through a period of thinking the same: sometimes it would seem to want to type a letter instead of triggering the cursor movement. I think the key is that you just keep your finger on the screen while applying a bit more pressure (press harder, then release the pressure without lifting off the screen) to trigger the trackpad mode. I now find it 100% reliable and can't figure out how to trigger the odd behaviour I was previously experiencing.

Re: iPhone SE

#543

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

>It took an already hard-to-discover feature and made it more nuanced (that is, more complicated). I would argue that it fixed the long hold, honestly. Waiting for long holds is a total pain. Being able to reach the same level of contextual menus instantly without long holding is a huge source of relief for the user in apps that rely on that kind of interaction.

You can't really argue that if it doesn't do the same thing, though

Re: iPhone SE

#544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A full 24 hours worth of music (~33 complete albums) at 192 kbps is only 2GB.

Sure, but music isn't really the sticking point anymore. Infinity Blade 3 is 1.7 GB. A single photo takes up more space than a song from an album. 40 minutes worth of 4k video maxes out the device (and that's optimistically assuming the apps that come with the phone don't take up any space).

> Sure, but music isn't really the sticking point anymore.

Music is definitely a sticking point for me, I've got 30GB of music on my phone, and the same again in applications and games.

Re: iPhone SE

#546
post #440

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.

The keyboard trackpad almost always lands me off by one character however. Something about releasing pressure changes how my finger contacts the screen. I love the idea, but I usually end up needing to do the long press after trying and failing 3 times to position my cursor where I want it.

Re: iPhone SE

#547
post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this will be your first iPhone, you've picked a good one to get started with. My first and only iPhone, after nearly 5 years, is the iPhone 4S which is seemingly an identical body as this SE. And it is a rock-solid, perfect little machine. I've dropped it countless times on brick and cement and it has no scratches on it after all this time -- never even put a case on it. These larger, thin phones that have come si…

I maintain that the iPhone 4S is still the finest piece of consumer electronics ever created. They really hit a home run with that one. I've since moved to a big 6S, but my 4S is still quite usable.

The 4S was a real landmark in UI smoothness as well, as it was the first dual-core iPhone.

Previously, even if a developer was on his best behavior (putting expensive tasks on a background thread to avoid bogging down the main thread and causing a frame rate drop), it didn't really help, because you only had one hardware thread.

Even though the 4S is a "slow" processor compared to the latest phones, it's UI was way more usable than the 4 and 3GS because of the second processor core.

Re: iPhone SE

#548
post #382
post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

16GB is enought for me. I don't watch movies, I don't listen to much music and I don't install apps. Just a phone with some basic apps and internet connections. I also think 4 inches is decent size for my pocket. I think I'll buy my first iPhone soon. Good job, Apple.

If this will be your first iPhone, you've picked a good one to get started with. My first and only iPhone, after nearly 5 years, is the iPhone 4S which is seemingly an identical body as this SE. And it is a rock-solid, perfect little machine. I've dropped it countless times on brick and cement and it has no scratches on it after all this time -- never even put a case on it. These larger, thin phones that have come si…

The SE has the same size body as a 5/5S. But I agree with you. I believe the 4S is the best phone Apple made for its time, and it's still very useful.

Re: iPhone SE

#549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately the keyboard force touch only works about ~70% of the time, which is too unpredictable for me to start incorporating into regular use as a user. It's odd that after ten years of development, Apple still hasn't made their keyboard just work . Selecting and manipulating text is still buggy and unpredictable.

I agree. I got really excited about the keyboard thing (when I edit code on my phone, proper cursor movement is severely lacking), but when I tried it on a friend's 6S I was severely underwhelmed. The activation force seemed random, and the cursor would never land where you expected. It was slower than using the little magnifying glass on the actual text. Touch keyboards are a hard problem, but we use them so often (…

That's an accurate assessment. I use the trackpad on my 6s+ frequently. 50% of the time it works perfectly. 50% of the time I apparently don't lift my finger in the speed or direction iOS expects, so the cursor moves forwards or backwards 1 or 2 characters from where I wanted it to stop. And I have to try again because there's no other way to nudge the cursor a character or two.

Just a little tweaking and it would be perfect. I don't have this problem with using the keyboard normally, which is quite accurate.

Re: iPhone SE

#550
post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not fragmentation. Pencil and 3D Touch were designed as optional features from the get-go. It makes perfect sense to reserve them for their premium devices. Fragmentation is more like when apps run poorly on less popular Android phones because of all the differences (screen sizes, performance characteristics, etc.). But optional features like 3D Touch peek/pop aren't really essential to make apps run well. They'…

It's curious that the smaller phone is not a 'pro' device. I just want it to be smaller, not less powerful or even less expensive. There are of course size which limitations which dictate that smaller devices cannot cram all capabilities into the same space. But to the extent that is not true, let me pay for a powerful small iPhone.

Apple wanted to create an up-to-date budget device. What you're describing would be cool, but it's just not the market that Apple was targeting.
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