Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple, please don’t take all of the buttons away

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 94 posts

Re: Apple, please don’t take all of the buttons away

#21

Post by mrexroad »

delecti wrote: post #2

I've seen enough people be astonished to learn that their laptop's touchpad is just using haptic trickery to simulate a button that I think their anecdata really just isn't representative. I've seen people who know that it's using haptic trickery use the depth rod of a set of calipers because they just don't believe it. I think that a poorly engineered power button (one which can become inoperative if the OS freezes)…

Don’t forget that the “home button” on iPhone has simply been a finger print sensor with a haptic response since iPhone 7; no physical travel when pressed.

Re: Apple, please don’t take all of the buttons away

#22

Post by crazygringo »

Haptic buttons are great. The Home button on my iPhone SE, the click on my MacBook trackpad -- zero issues. The click on my AirPods Pro stem too.

And the obvious benefit here is better waterproofing and one less physical mechanism to break.

I really don't understand the author's complaint. I think this ship sailed years ago and it's proven to be a non-issue.

Re: Apple, please don’t take all of the buttons away

#23

Post by samwillis »

izacus wrote: post #13

I'm sure they'll do it since it saves money. I had a horrible time teaching my grandparents to use the gesture navigation on their new iPad (they still hate it, they still get regularly anxious because they can't reliably make the "home" gesture instead of clear feedback of a hardware button and there's many gestures they accidentally trigger which cannot be disabled in A11y or MDM settings) - but they saved money an…

I'm not sure a touch sensitive button is a lower cost component than a physical button, you need an IC to drive a touch button. I can't see this being driven by cost savings.

I'm not even convinced there would be a cost saving when you take into account buttons failing and needing to be replaced.

Reducing the number of buttons and replacing them with on screen-only (say move to on screen-only volume) would be a clear cost saving. But also a massive UX disaster that they wouldn't do.

Re: Apple, please don’t take all of the buttons away

#24

Post by lozenge »

izacus wrote: post #13

I'm sure they'll do it since it saves money. I had a horrible time teaching my grandparents to use the gesture navigation on their new iPad (they still hate it, they still get regularly anxious because they can't reliably make the "home" gesture instead of clear feedback of a hardware button and there's many gestures they accidentally trigger which cannot be disabled in A11y or MDM settings) - but they saved money an…

Did you check the accessibility features?

Re: Apple, please don’t take all of the buttons away

#26

Post by subbz »

Aside from saving money, they're doing it also to generate sales.

In iPhone 15 the missing button will be the feature. Some years later, say in iPhone 18, the re-introduced button will be the feature.

All that happened before with Apple devices. They took away the form factor of the original iPhone SE without replacement just to bring it back with the iPhone 13 Mini. Also they took away the ports of MacBooks to end up with an USB-C port only - and now - the latest 14" MacBooks reintrudice a wide range of ports as a.. can you guess?

Re: Apple, please don’t take all of the buttons away

#27

Post by charlus »

izacus wrote: post #13

I'm sure they'll do it since it saves money. I had a horrible time teaching my grandparents to use the gesture navigation on their new iPad (they still hate it, they still get regularly anxious because they can't reliably make the "home" gesture instead of clear feedback of a hardware button and there's many gestures they accidentally trigger which cannot be disabled in A11y or MDM settings) - but they saved money an…

I don't have an iPad, but assistive touch might help your grandparents.

Re: Apple, please don’t take all of the buttons away

#28

Post by kurthr »

subbz wrote: post #26

Aside from saving money, they're doing it also to generate sales. In iPhone 15 the missing button will be the feature. Some years later, say in iPhone 18, the re-introduced button will be the feature. All that happened before with Apple devices. They took away the form factor of the original iPhone SE without replacement just to bring it back with the iPhone 13 Mini. Also they took away the ports of MacBooks to end u…

Don't worry, the Mini is going away. It's not profitable (enough).

However, the increased haptics and strain sensor costs are unlikely to be made up directly by button cost savings. It does make it much easier to seal the entire thing and it may reduce volume (more battery), or increase "functionality", but I think it is to some extent (as others have mentioned) it's really the final step in Steve Jobs long bitter personal war on the button.

Really, I worry more that there may be no way to reliably reset your phone once they remove the USB cable and everything is wireless.

Post reply on HN