I've recently switched to iPhone and this thread is so comforting. My friends thought I was insane when I told them that typing on Android (Samsung or Google keyboard) is much more accurate, fast and way less prone to errors (using autocorrect) than on an iPhone. And that's not even counting swipe mode! The difference is huge.
My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement
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Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement
#72What's missing from the article is a list of iPhones that had the feature:
These devices support 3D Touch: iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max.
Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement
#73Spacebar cursor selection is INCREDIBLY glitchy and frustrating and I use it daily...
Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement
#74The replacement of “force touch on keyboard to move cursor” is “long-touch on space bar to move cursor”.
This works fine for western languages where the key to input a space is large and centered, but some keyboards like the Japanese flick input keyboard look more like phone numpads where the middle of the keyboard is taken by the “number keys” (each key represents a consonant). The space key is located on the right hand edge of the screen, and while the “long-press to move cursor” shortcut still works, it’s only useful for moving the cursor leftwards since your finger is already at the righthand edge of the screen when the shortcut triggers.
It’s quite an unfortunate casualty caught in the crossfire between i18n, feature discoverability, and hardware cost-cutting.
Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement
#75What's missing from the article is a list of iPhones that had the feature: These devices support 3D Touch: iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max. -- https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205056
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Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement
#76I didn't even knew that my favorite iPhone feature was listening to the music I want until Apple introduced forced shuffling, playing titles alphabetically and started disturbing built-in music player UX in order to push their online offering.
It's a typical Cook's Apple experience to listen to 10 tracks from different albums, all called "Outro", after album chosen by me finishes playing with a track called "Outro" and is set to repeat.
Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement
#77The big takeaway for me was >>> My guess is that people had no idea it was there. Likely it had very low usage statistics and so Apple cut it in order to... Right there. I am often frustrated that I cannot edit a URL in the address bar - but not frustrated enough to use a different phone or explore. What would be useful is some kind of "how to use your phones hidden features" guide on the phone (no not on a website s…
Funny enough, the infrastructure for that exists too, and you may not realize it … in the Tips app. What is lacking is the even just moderately advanced topics.
I suspect that the long-press alternative in software was found to be sufficient alternative to not warrant the force-press. I wonder if this is where we are going on Mac too where, e.g., force press to trigger definitions of words is a godsend especially when leaving foreign languages,
Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement
#78> The screen actually had pressure sensitivity built into the physical screen and it would respond to a more forceful push into the screen.
I am soooo happy this physical feature is gone. Personally, I hated it.
I'm still a fan of the SE (give me touchID or death). I still want a touchID phone with more advanced camera capabilities.
This feature caused no end of confusion, even as an experienced iOS user. Completely fucked up any software trying to do long press detection. But even after adapting for that, the pressure differential for touching just didn't work.
Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement
#79It was a feature with 1% of users who knew about it and who were its passionate defenders. This is exactly the sort of feature you should RUTHLESSLY kill off. If you do not, the end state of your software is that it is a collection of features, all of them known to 1% of your users, all passionately defended. Kudos to Apple.
Only 1% of computer users do programming. Command lines, compilers, and any method of editing code should be ruthlessly killed off otherwise we risk having a collection of features.
Just give me a phone with a bunch of pictures and mandatory like buttons. That’s 90% of computing’s use case and all we need.
Re: My favorite iPhone feature was removed, long live its subpar replacement
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do they refuse to give you a manual? Why are there no instructions. Drives me crazy.
There is a large user manual available in “Books” ; https://books.apple.com/gb/book/iphone-user-guide/id15159955... I imagine most iPhone users don’t know it is there!
See, I didn't know that, and I've had iPhones since the 4 (a grand total of four devices), and am the sort of person who reads the manual in general, and likes to know all the features of a device I spend time with.
On the one hand, thanks for the tip! On the other hand, Apple has an enormous discoverability problem, it's getting worse, and they're responding by making the UX dumber instead of addressing it head on.