No Cutting Corners on the iPhone X
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I upgraded at Christmas. I'm sure that they put a lot of effort into it. But now my phone no longer displays battery percentage, and I keep finding myself noticing the missing chunk. Even after a month I notice it.
Squeezing the last square inch is emphatically not worth it. Not even a little bit.
With the notch, status space is at a premium and they finally get rid of that completely unnecessary advertising for AT&T, etc. (shows up on lock screen, that’s it). Also, when I’m in the background and using Google Maps for directions or something, it’s actually easier to have the location button in the top-left corner because I don’t hit it by accident.
I really don’t notice the notch after a month or so but I also set a wallpaper with a black top (thanks to the OLED, that part of the screen is so dark that it really does hide the notch completely).
One thing that’s really stupid is web pages. So many of them have floating bars at the top and buttons at the bottom; then there’s browser UI, and then the notch has the illusion that it’s taking up even more space (when in a way it’s not). In the end each site feels like it’s crapping all over my screen space on the X. Mobile browsing needs to be seriously redesigned from the ground up; anything less than a full screen experience needs to go.
OTOH, if it gets too bad I use a kill sticky bookmarklet.
Which makes me think, is it easy to know what operator you are connected to? I live on a border, and it's important to know whether I'm on a French antenna or a Belgian one.
I know it's an edge case and most people don't need that, but I'm curious and I can't really find screenshots of it. Actually on the screenshots I find you can't even know if you're connected on 4G or not, which matters as some operators here only allow unlimited data on 4G.
I'm just interested on whether it is easy to see as well on an iPhone X.
I wish they had provided the option to customize the status bar to always include this icon. Or better yet, create a mode where Do Not Disturb automatically turns on and off when I'm sleeping and awake based on signals like alarms, charging, and motion.
I keep DND on all hours of the day, every day, but never feel like I'm missing anything by just allowing phone calls. When I really need focus, and at night, I'll turn on the more restrictive setting, but at the end of the day if somebody really needs to get in touch with me the option is there.
(An aside, it would be nice to be able to have a separate schedule for the "only allow double calls through" option so it could be on during sleeping hours)
I was very skeptical about the notches. But after a month of use, I find that I don't notice the missing space at all.
Most often, it really does feel like the entire screen is being used. It's almost an optical illusion.
My two minor issues with the X are: 1) the glass back makes it very slippery! (It slides off the arm rests on my couch no matter how well I place it.) 2) The protruding camera on the back is very noticable. I wish Apple would make a flat-backed phone again. When I set my phone on a flat surface, it shouldn't wobble.
Overall I was very skeptical of the X for a lot of reasons... but it's by far the best phone I've ever used. (And it better be at this price!)
I used to be a no case person, but I got one for the X because I had the same issues you did.
I've been using the Apple leather cases for my last two phones (including the X). They aren't as grippy as the silicone cases, and they cost more, but I find they feel better in the hand and don't have the "stuck to my pocket" problem.
I used to be a "no case" person as well. I dropped my 3GS a half dozen times and it just got dinged up corners. Same with a Lumia after that. I dropped my Nexus 6 about 5 inches and the screen shattered. Started using cases after that.
Put them on and you'll see how the back suddenly becomes perfectly flat and non slippery. The notch helps in securing the case. The changing shape of the notch also means that cases don't transfer between iPhone models.
I guarantee Jony uses a case.
I still wish there was a smaller iPhone that I could operate one-handed without the hacky home button tap to reach the top of the screen. How does that work on the X without the home button?
From my perspective the aftermarket cell phone case fixes a flaw in the design.
The sales reps can push for warranty or a case. Either way a win-win for Apple shareholders.
Same as with the wireless charger and wireless earbuds, they are advertised as part of the iphone innovative features but sold separately, so that they can advertise the whole line as "starting from $699"; meanwhile the whole iphone experience actually starts just shy of a thousand dollars.
> I still wish there was a smaller iPhone
me too, me too. holding tight to the 5s for now, I'm not gonna get a pouch for these non-pocketable monstrosities.
For being a radio frequency transparent, premium material?
I upgraded to an X from a 5. The screen real estate really allowed me to not to turn on my computer at some nights, which I consider as a plus. I just read what I want to read, and reply a bunch of e-mails, then put it off.
Highly likely unrelated, but it reminds me of Steve Jobs's biography where he talks about the important lesson from his dad about making sure every aspect of your work is done with care throughout. Even the parts people won't see.
Doubt it. For one, he can just get a new iPhone if his breaks, and two, he takes a lot of pride in his work. He's not going to go and cover it up.
"The notch" usually refers to the screen cutout for sensors at the top of the iPhone X screen, which has no relevance to the case. Do you mean the camera bump?
The iPhone cases from Apple would grip the same without the camera bump and corresponding case cutout. The sides of the apple cases wrap around all four edges of the phone, with only a partial cutout for speakers, microphone, and lightning port at the bottom. The edges of the case hold it very securely. It's hard to get the phone out because the edges grip so tightly.
> The changing shape of the notch also means that cases don't transfer between iPhone models.
The rest of the dimensions also change. If the iPhone 7 and 8 had the camera in the exact same spot, the cases still wouldn't be interchangeable. Not with a good fit on each phone at least.
> I guarantee Jony uses a case.
I bet he doesn't. People use cases to protect their phones. Ive could break a hundred phones and not feel any pain from replacing them.
So yeh, I don’t buy the parent’s argument either.
Patina is cool and adds character.
But it's no nice looking they would say while buying a cover to promptly cover it the moment they unbox it. The idiocy of modern day smartphone culture boggles my mind. Ironic that it reminds me of apple's 1984 commercial in a bad way.
I've dropped plenty of phones plenty of times and they've never broken.
If they make the phone thicker (a "built in" case, if you will) a consumer's choice is actually restricted. Then there is of course that 10% of people who won't actually use a case served also.
But I also wonder what material you'd manufacture right onto a phone that doesn't just cheapen it to most people, like the lame helmet they give you when you rent a motorcycle. A cool brushed metal feel vs the cracking rubber and yellowing rubber on my girlfriend's cheap android.
Either way I'm not sure why one wouldn't put it in a case. It's like 10 years too late for anyone to be marveling at it.
Well, the main issue is the wobble, but a flatness isn't necessarily the only solution. I wonder if they could use a less-conventional design, perhaps a contoured back with a "fatter" top and bottom that would allow it to rest horizontally, while improving balance and hand-feel. That's a pretty serious camera in the phone, they're doing plenty with the space they're using, and I bet they could cram some more fun components with a fatter bottom.
AppleCare Plus FTW, indeed.
Apple care, expensive though it may be, gets me a few mulligans while also providing broader coverage against other unknown damage or warranty issues, something even the nicest Otterbox style cases won’t afford me. It’s all a trade off. My preference is expensive but I historically break a screen every year, why not plan accordingly.
I don't want to be rude, I simply have a hard time understanding how careless people can be with their expensive devices. I'm not specifically accusing you of being careless, but I don't understand how people can drop their phones all the time.
My Moto X has been dropped one time, because I accidentally put it behind a stupid strap on my pants, rather than in the pocket. I cut that strap off afterwards, because that's just a really shitty idea to put a strap right on front of a pocket.
But I can't help but feel like people make it out to be a bigger deal than it is... you can get it fixed third-party for pretty cheap.
That probably sounds a little bit sanctimonious, but it's the truth.
I have broken exactly one phone in my entire phone-owning life (since 2002), I've had 6 phones during this time, 4 feature phones and 2 smartphones. So one accident in 16 years, and that was a Sony Ericsson Elm. It was actually what pushed me to finally get a smartphone, so maybe it was a net positive :-)
Arrogant maybe, but that's because I'm usually right about most things ;-)
For that matter, I only occasionally glance at my fuel gauge in my car too. If it as at 3/4ths 10 minutes ago I don't need to double-check to make sure it hasn't suddenly hit empty.
Why? Simple user experience. I don't want to rest my thumb (or any finger) to unlock my phone before I select where I want to go. Screen turns on, notifications are present, phone is unlocked and my finger's first gesture is to select which notification to goto. That whole same user experience with 1 less motion is gold to me.
However, I want Face ID back. I want gestures back. Both of those were fantastic. I can’t wait to see what they have this year.
Interesting. I had a 7+ before the X and I miss the size of the 7+. No way I'm giving up FaceId and the new gestures though.
Also I know my hands are on the small side, but various phones/phablets the size of the 7+ are uncomfortable for me to hold, and obviously impossible for me to use with one hand.
I could read with one hand on the 7+ and do most operations using the shortcut to bring half the screen down.
(Writing this made me realize I always taps the very uppermost area of the home button)
In fact it feels like a hilarious oversight.
I don't have that problem. Maybe if I wore skinny jeans. Unlock from pocket is the way I usually do it.
Ask me how I know. >.<
I'd much rather run linux on my iPhone, but we're lacking the ecosystem of apps, let alone the mobile development library. I'm hugely biased, but I'd love to have better React Native support on linux for this very reason.
The battery lasted significantly longer when I switched back to OSX.
Oh, speaking of RAM, OSX sucks at allocating it. Yes, yes, "unused RAM is wasted RAM". So is used swap on a SSD that's soldered to the frickin' frame of the laptop. Nothing says great use of time and resources like replacing the entire upper of the laptop. It's not an AR-15. These parts should be easily removed.
It is not however illegal to own or make such guns.
Because the AR15 is so modular in nature and parts like the stock and barrel don't dictate if the firearm is automatic, federal laws dictate that the lower receiver is what is actually considered the firearm.
Since regulated and unregulated AR15 lowers are mostly identical, and the point at which they diverge is a nonfunctional state, manufacturers can make incomplete or 80% complete AR15 lowers that aren't considered firearms. You can then take these lowers and complete them yourself at home to have an unregistered firearm that you could not otherwise posses without registration.
The US Army has interchangeability requirements for different rifles based around the AR-15. Different rifles use different barrels, gas systems, and ammunition requiring or eliminating the need for certain features.
Civilians will also often have requirements that are unusual such as left side porting and assists.
Not all manufacturers are going to make all of these variations thus you might choose to mix and match based on your needs. It's also quite common for civilians to make their own lowers to circumvent federal regulations around owning fully automatic weapons.
The M4 has a shorter barrel and thus short and higher pressure gas system. This results in a higher bolt velocity and rate of fire. Because of this and the fact that you typically use M855s in the M4, you can run into feed issues since the bullet tip is more pointed. Because of this they altered the angle of the feed-ramp however that modification caused issue when machined into the upper and so it's preferred for your barrel to have the feed-ramp. Thus your upper and barrel have to be closely paired and are also M4 specific. None of this however affects any compatibility with the lower.
The forward-assist and chrome-lined bores were introduced due to extraction issues experienced during Vietnam with the M16. These were attributed to improper maintenance of the rifle and quality issues with the ammunition. Since neither of those are really issues in civilian rifles and add complexity and expense, they not explicitly needed. So there exist options for uppers without.
Left port and assist uppers are also relatively uncommon but sought after in civilian rifles.
MacPorts.
> Unfortunately the documentation on how to best install that software installer changes, which leads to odd instabilities.
https://github.com/macports/macports-base/releases/download/...
> Shortcuts are terrible because you have to constantly flex the hands in to hit Mac Key + whatever.
The key is near where your thumb should be anyways…
As to brew there was some argument back when I first installed it that it should run as sudo. Then that was found to be terrible, but unless one really gets into brew and all that, figuring out how to undo the mess is neigh on impossible. So my answer was screw it. I do most of my server work in Linux VMs. Anything I need I'll just work in those too.
Then there's the terrible productivity from loosing shortcuts. You see, in the non-Apple world, the Alt key brings up the menu. Now if one pays attention, they can find that hitting Alt + Lettered Key can pick the menu that opens. Further, a bit more sleuthing shows that (while holding Alt, often) letters within the menu items get little bars under them. By pressing that letter while the menu opens, the software reacts as if the mouse manually scurried across the screen to the menu, then down to the sub item and then clicked it. The benefit is that more shortcuts opened up. IDE became even more powerful by allowing chording (like a piano). Unlike Emacs, the chords are often dual handed so the hands span more than contract. Interestingly, while the precise keyboard strokes are different, the general idea transfer across most windowed environments in Linux and Windows. Apple eschewed this for reason I don't know, and won't deign the idea they did it solely out of hubris back in the Lisa era.
I've been using brew for nearly as long as it has existed. AFAIK, the point of the tool was to make it so that sudo would be unnecessary for installing individual packages. Are you suggesting there was a debate over whether installing homebrew itself should require sudo? I don't see how that would have been recommended, given that sudo itself is executed in the install script and is needed, among other things, to create `/usr/local`.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/in...
Just no. The command key based shortcuts significantly predate ctrl key based shortcuts.
My personal choice is that the benefits of Linux outweigh the benefits of Apple. Apple is expensive by half (my laptop has a slightly slower CPU than my old Mac but 32 GB of RAM vs 16 and new SSD with a replaceable battery. The Mac would be $2600 vs the Linux $1500). For example, my wife's laptop is my old i7. Not the best i7 any more, but it still runs quick, has 16 GB of RAM, a new battery and a new SSD. To get that same capability, I would have had to pay $2400.
That is the problem. I don’t know why you think that the only criteria valuable for comparison is your definition of development. Different people have different needs. For you a mac is clearly not the answer; for you.
Personally, my hands are very uncomfortable every time I have to hold ctrl-a to select all.
Even if I grant the keyboard, at least in Linux you can easily layout a new keyboard. OSX makes that a pain. You end up having to purchase a tool that jimmies with the system internals to get the mapping to work more than 75%.
Ultimately I agree with the idea that it's people's own money. They should be free do with it as they please (though ironically many of the most ardent OSX users are near authoritarians like AntiFa that want to tax people to support pet ideas and the general removal of freedom). My point above was to commiserating with the OP that Apple produces overrated products when it comes to utility. If one prefers form over function, Apple is the way to go. If one prefers function/price over form, anyone else is better.
And at the risk of talking to myself, again, different people have different needs. Function is not only what's useful to you.
By the way, System Preferences > Keyboard > Modifier Keys. 3 clicks to remap the keyboard.
how much weaker is the glass thanks to these curves. what's the factor of safety?
where are they intending the glass to break? how did they use that to minimize the damage to the rest of the device when that happens? is it easier to remove the screen there?
So the reason this has moved to iOS is because the ID team and Ive have much more influence there than they did in the early iOS days.
As for the notch and the screen edges my personal belief is this is all down to industrial designer bravado. The brief for the iPhone X is "Equal margins on all edges at any cost" this is why Touch ID had to go and they justify the notch because to the left and right of it there is a margin to the device edge that is equal to the bottom and the sides of the device so in the Industrial Designers eyes they have achieved the perfect symmetrical device (Look at Apples recent laptops to see how much emphasis the current put on symmetry above all else).
My theory is the ID team at Apple would look at the "edgeless" Galaxy S8 screen and scoff that it's not truly edgeless because the margins are uneven.
Isn't this a super ellipse? ... oh, it is. It is even mentioned as a squircle on Wikipedia [1] as a super ellipse with n = 4, a = b = 1!
Apparently they use Autodesk Alias. Same techniques are used for surfacing in the auto industry.
(My emphasis)
However, bizarrely, it has been available in full 3D in parametric mechanical CAD for at least 20 years thanks to the advanced 3D blending functionality in the underlying modeling kernels: Parasolid, ACIS, ShapeManager etc.
Meanwhile, the 2D sketching environment in those programs has lagged w.r.t. curvature continuous fillets.
Witness this Solidworks 2012 tutorial on GrabCAD by Leandro Fernandes[0].
Because of the relative weakness of the 2D sketcher compared to 3D with respect to filleting, Leandro does (roughly) the following strange hack:
1. creates the profile of the wheel rim in the 2D sketcher
2. rotates the profile to form the 3D rim
3. fillets the profile in 3D
4. merges all the faces into one face
5. intersects the filleted 3D profile with a section plane to get back into 2D
[0] https://grabcad.com/tutorials/tutorial-how-to-model-a-bbs-lm...
It sat on the Adobe website for a long time until Adobe decided that they wanted to scrap years of useful add ons and content in one of their pointless reorganisations.
A lot of good code died that day...
Apple is implementing temporary workarounds (that won't exist in future devices) in their top of the line products. This is the kind of short-term thinking that they're so famous for avoiding.
They're still doing quite good overall but this is clearly something they're struggling with.
This is a ridiculous trope that needs to die. Among the many ‘half-measures’ people whined about during Steve Jobs’ tenure are things such as the original iPhone not having 3G, the iPhone 4 antennagate, the infamously scratch prone iPod Nano, the crack prone poly MacBooks, etc etc.
Apple was never a company that produced only flawless, non-controversial products, and Steve was perhaps the most controversial and opinionated product person to have ever lived.
Do you suppose it's possible that it's no coincidence that people who dislike the notch don't use the phone?
I’m not surprised at all: these people knee-jerk so hard and often, they probably can’t afford Apple products after the paying for orthopedic surgeons.
And the “ignorant Apple fanboy” narrative that seems to be the counterargument to this falls laughably short when you realize that the number of Apple’s customers has been increasing exponentially for the last fifteen years, all while they continue to enjoy the top spot in consumer satisfaction surveys across virtually their entire product line.
certain notch designs are much better than others for keeping the screen from breaking.
It's "weird looking" at the moment because Apple was the first[1] with the <cough> "courage" to do this in order to integrate what's basically a Kinect into the front of a phone. But phones are already showing up that copy this solution.
[1] Well, Essential did it, but didn't commit to the degree that Apple did.
ALL design is compromise. The options available for this design are a) stop the entire screen below the sensors b) extend the screen around the sensors or c) remove the sensors.
A gives you less overall screen space, and leads to other problems like an imbalance between the ‘chin’ and ‘forehead’ areas. Of course you could remove even more screen sapce to balance that out, but...
C means you have no Face ID, which is closer to giving up than compromising.
B is obviously the option they went with, and having used the phone for several months, I’d have to say I agree with this compromise. I get some extra screen space by moving the status stuff up in to the ‘ears’ and I still get faceID.
> And guess what? There’s no SDK that you need! You’ve got everything you need if you know how to write apps using the most modern web standards to write amazing apps for the iPhone today. So developers, we think we’ve got a very sweet story for you. You can begin building your iPhone apps today.
They fixed that the very next release.
At the time, Google and Apple had a very close relationship and I thought it was odd that Apple didn't implement offline web apps via gears.
Most iphone apps are, after all glorified web pages.
Can you think of anything similar to these weird misfeatures? I'm genuinely curious.
[0] http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Real_Artists_Ship...
Perhaps the whole thing is purposely form over function.
Count on it (unless they have a design latent in the notch).
http://bgr.com/2018/02/01/iphone-x-review-android-copy-desig...
I wonder how many man-hours were spent debating the shape of the corners.
I've been on a touchbar mac and it's just as usable as having keys, with the added flexibility of changing them around (adding a lock button, etc.). It's mostly a non issue and does everything the prior bar did.
The notch essentially houses the 1 feature most people love on their X's, it becomes a non-issue once you use it. Or, if you're like me, you recognize that instead of losing a notch, you gained 2 ears of information.
My real problem with that model is the sticky keyboard, though. My space bar and several other keys are intermittently unresponsive, which irritates me no end.
And no Face ID camera. The "notch" was because of the Face ID components.
You're comparing apples and oranges.
Facial unlocking was introduced in Android phones back in 2011.
That's what I thought.
Even though the margins on the X are sleight of hand because of the notch, they still believe this is a truly edgeless phone and by looking at the object it's pretty obvious the brief was equal margins on all sides at any cost.
EDIT: Maybe it's somewhere in here: https://developer.apple.com/accessories/Accessory-Design-Gui...
I did a spartan reverse engineering by recreating the UIBezierPath equivalent of the two types of radii found in the Apple Design Resources [1], then adding a convenience initializer on UIBezierPath that recreates the shape with arbitrary radius of the chosen kind (either UISwitch-like, or App Icon-like).
Earlier attempts include the fascinating Unleashing Genetic Algorithms on the iOS 7 Icon [2].
[0] https://mobile.twitter.com/argentumko/status/955773459463790...
[1] https://developer.apple.com/design/resources/
[2] http://blog.mikeswanson.com/post/62341902567/unleashing-gene...
Also it's so annoying when people say "iPhone buyers buy it just for elitism" - hell no, I just love Apple's attention to details, to small things.
Wish they would sweat the minor details on their other products that aren't flagship products a swell. Take a look at their USB-C Digital dongle as an prime example. 2-star rating for a $70 dongle, almost universally because of the same fundamental problem.
No, the iPhone X is not a minor detail.