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iPhones are hard to use

blog.fawny.org

211–220 of 652 posts

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#211
post #26
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two screens to send a photo sound like a bit of a hassle. On my Sony phone I can take a photo, press the "share" button to get a context based share menu and my most recent signal/email contacts appear right at the top ready to send without leaving the camera app at all. If I want to send it to someone not on that list I have to get into another screen but not two. The Facetime menu sounds quite crazy and very "un-Ap…

>On my Sony phone I can take a photo, press the "share" button to get a context based share menu and my most recent signal/email contacts appear right at the top ready to send without leaving the camera app at all. If I want to send it to someone not on that list I have to get into another screen but not two. You can do that on the iPhone too. What the person you're replying to is talking about is if you're already i…

It's actually not. The gallery has just been moved to a Messages app, right above the keyboard (the Photos icon). It's a bit jarring to get used to, though.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#212
post #7

Phones are computers now. We can't expect everyone to know AND USE all of the features. Many of the features are obscured on purpose.

I thought that when I read, "He (a senior citizen) also thought he had to use the Gmail app to read his Gmail" Like what do you want, an unskippable popup about the difference between email providers and email clients, and instructions on configuring IMAP and SMTP on a 3rd email app? That would only lead to more fear and confusion. The Gmail app is fine.

I believe what the article wants to say is that the built-in Mail app allows setting this up easily, so people should use that.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#213

My top 5 annoyances: - Too many features I'll never use, that mostly can't be removed. Less is more. i.e. I'll never use Siri or facial recognition. Never owned a bluetooth device. "Screen Mirroring" What? in the Control Center. Yet those and more always in the way, sometimes draining battery. - When radios are off to save energy, constantly nags about connection with modal dialogs that prevent use of the home button…

Can you even turn facial recognition off?

Open the Photos app, search for "people", and it will pull up photos of people's faces. Tap on one to make a full screen picture, and swipe it up , it will show "Related" people and pictures. You can tap on someone to find more photos of them.

Even if you never tagged them with names.

(You can also search Photos for general terms, like "flower" or "snow" or "food", it's doing image recognition on all pictures somewhere). iOS 11, 12 at least.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#214
post #179
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the user manual. Which is, btw, one of the very best user manuals you will ever see. It's very easy to find, and the fact you haven't found it tells me you probably didn't bother searching, since almost any Google search finds it instantly: https://support.apple.com/manuals/iphone And no: Apple does not "believe their product is so easy to understand that people will just get it". You just made that up. It's...sur…

I'm an avid apple user and honestly had no idea that manual existed. They could do a better job advertising it. Is there anything in the box mentioning it? Edit: and according to the article, the manual doesn't cover a lot of the hidden features described in the article. I learned at least five new things: select multiple pictures, announce calls, swipe right for forward, and a couple others I don't recall. I would r…

It's referenced in the only piece of paper in the iPhone box at the end of the getting started instructions. Or at least it was when I got my latest phone a year ago.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another hidden UX: you can long press the keyboard and it'll turn into a touchpad that you can use to move the cursor (still not as easy as cursor keys but much better than the long press and drag method).

I use this all the time because it's convenient, but there have always been two things that frustrate me about it: 1) There's no way to scroll the text while moving the cursor by moving it to the end of the last visible line, the way there is with the cursor interface you get by directly touching and holding the text. 2) Sometimes when I'm doing this it will randomly select the word my cursor is over, and I've never…

> There's no way to scroll the text while moving the cursor by moving it to the end of the last visible line, the way there is with the cursor interface you get by directly touching and holding the text.

This should work–at least, it does for me.

> Sometimes when I'm doing this it will randomly select the word my cursor is over, and I've never figured out exactly what triggers this.

On 3D Touch devices, pressing harder does this.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#217
post #138
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it’s worth, I use 3D Touch pretty much every day. The number one usage for me is moving the cursor around while editing text. I actually did it while writing this post; I decided I wanted to add a comma after “worth” at the beginning and did so easily with this feature.

I also use 3D touch many times every day. Mainly for mobile payments, example: 1. Pay for bus fare: unlock->find app->3d touch->select "show payment barcode" 2. Instant payment in restaurant: unlock->find app(e.g. wechat)->3d touch->"show payment barcode"/OR "scan barcode" to scan restaurant's bar code for payment Without 3d touch you need one more step to open the app, and maybe more steps to find menu for payments(…

Whoa. I just thought to check my train ticket app for 3d touch options and sure enough, I can launch straight to my ticket!

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#218
post #179
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the user manual. Which is, btw, one of the very best user manuals you will ever see. It's very easy to find, and the fact you haven't found it tells me you probably didn't bother searching, since almost any Google search finds it instantly: https://support.apple.com/manuals/iphone And no: Apple does not "believe their product is so easy to understand that people will just get it". You just made that up. It's...sur…

I'm an avid apple user and honestly had no idea that manual existed. They could do a better job advertising it. Is there anything in the box mentioning it? Edit: and according to the article, the manual doesn't cover a lot of the hidden features described in the article. I learned at least five new things: select multiple pictures, announce calls, swipe right for forward, and a couple others I don't recall. I would r…

It's the first thing mentioned on the small-print card that's in the box. I somehow suspect that most people don't read this card.

More likely to be found is that in the Tips app that a newly set-up iPhone tries to point you to, once you've gone through a few tips one'll suggest that you download the manual through Apple Books.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you get used to one O/S, the other becomes harder, because instead of just not knowing any of the conventions, you've actively trained the wrong ones.

My mum went from Windows Phone to iPhone without issue. I didn't have to teach her anything about the iPhone. To me that suggests either Windows Phone / iOS are similar (they aren't) or intuitive.

I mainly use Android, have an iPhone, and the differences are constantly tripping me up. To the point where the claim that iPhones are user-friendly feels intuitively completely wrong to me. I always want to point to the wifi thing, or the lack of periods and commas on the keyboard, or the terrible home-screen arrangement/customization stuff as ironclad proof that the iPhone is less user-friendly.

But that's not actually it. People who go from iPhone to Android find Android difficult to use. People who go from Android to iPhone find iOS difficult to use.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#220

> seniors... chest pain... Quick, if you could change one UX that would maximize the numbers of lives saved, what would it be? (For the purposes of this thought experiment you get to force all users to watch a 30 second educational video one time.)

Quick, if you could change one UX that would maximize the numbers of lives saved, what would it be?

Change the human brain response to eating vegetables and exercise so they felt good, while any other "food" and lazing around was unbearable?

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