this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
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At this point I’m trying to figure out what people want from yearly releases. iPhones are pretty much already packed with every feature imaginable. There’s not much more to add without completely transforming the device into something it isn’t.
I really liked the times when features were added and not killed off.
10 years ago you could purchase a flagship phone with IR blaster for controlling whatever you couldn't find a remote for, or trolling people in public spaces by turning off their TVs. Cloud storage wasn't as popular, but if your phone died, the images were safe on the micrSD card. Bluetooth headsets were a thing, but you could always just use a cheap pair of headphones to stick in the headphone jack. People who desired it could install a custom ROM with all kinds of optimizations and less bloat. It used to be a lot more popular back then. Other than cameras, battery life, and reversible and more robust USB-C connectors, there isn't much innovation. I used to feel like I owned my device much more back then. Now I only use the stock ROM, can either use wireless headphones or ones that use the charging port. I can't insert a microSD, or test new features for Android ported from other devices by someone on XDA Developers. I'm not using the phone the way I want, but the way the companies who made it decided on.
I agree. We don't really need anything else from a pocket computer. Just keep improving what we have. Nothing wrong with that at all. No one is holding a gun to anyone's head and making them buy the new version every year.
Someone else pointed out that for more and more people their phones are replacing a desktop/laptop, and that makes a lot of sense as to why people keep wanting more from them.
A growing population whose interaction with technology is entirely and solely through their thumb (or occasionally both thumbs) is such a sad reality, and voice interaction is nowhere near ready to replace traditional computer interfaces (aka keyboard/mouse).
What more do they need?
Good luck doing any kind of actual productive work on a phone.
Its just a device for chewing through content as fast as your fingers can scroll.
Not everyone needs to use a dedicated desktop/laptop at home. You might do whatever you need to do quicker on a desktop or laptop but if you aren't working that may not be an issue. I know several people who fit this description.
There’s very little I do in my day to day life that can’t be handled on my phone. If I didn’t game I’d probably have a seldomly used laptop.
Online banking, ordering basically anything, paying bills, paying rent, etc can all be done on mobile now. Systems are now built with mobile as a first class use case because people do so much on their phones. Just because you don’t do it doesn’t mean others can’t.
Yes. But real work I said. You didn't read my first paragraph.
Try working with a spreadsheet on a phone. OK?
The second paragraph you have a point. It very useful. However, you won't spend hours with your bankapp or your uber food app. Most of the time its an endless scroller tool. Am I right?
It has nothing to do with features and performance, most people don't use those anyway. You really don't need 8-core CPU on your phone but it's 2 more than 6 and me having 8 and you having 6 has everything to do with that. People love status symbols and pointing them out to others, as if that makes them better by comparison or something.
No matter what others say, you really don't feel limitations of your device. Sure screen might feel a bit faster, animations might feel more fluid. None of those a crucial to device operation and use and certainly not worth paying premium price for newest iteration that has all those marginally improved. It's just consumerism at work.
Case in point, pretty much every MacBook Pro has a TPM chip on it (trusted platform module). Guess how many people used it or has it configured to supply entropy to their systems to increase security. ThinkPads also have those, but most other laptops don't. Even most developers don't know what those are. They are great addition and extra feature for business users... but for the most part it's just another thing on the spec sheet that people pay for but never use.
As for the every imaginable feature... it seems they are being removed rather than added. I found 3.5mm jack useful. I wish we still had qwerty keyboards on our big screen devices as most used feature of phones these days is typing. I wish we had expansion slots and memory cards. I wish we had replaceable batteries so you don't have to depend on finding an outlet on long trips. I wish we had sapphire screens so you don't have to worry about scratching your screen. I wish we had smaller devices because some people just need a phone and not a tablet or they have smaller hands. But naaah... removing those is considered brave.
Better local AI capability. It's definitely something they are working with, introducing new accelerator features with new processors. Currently most of the actually great AI tools still require you to offload the workload to a server somewhere. And some stuff is not worth doing in a mobile device before it can be done at a fraction of the power.
For the basic hardware features, mainly the camera and image processing tools are actually relevant. Almost all non professional photography in the world is now done with phones and there is still a lot to do to improve the miniature cameras.
Some of the greatest new features from the past few years are things people don't even realize weren't always there. Like for example my phone opens up when I pick it up and look at it. And locks when I put it down. This makes usage so much more fluid and is something that did not happen just ten years ago. This kind of UI optimizations are way more important than some numbers in spec sheet. And the local AI processing I mentioned is a key in enabling more situations where the phone understands what you want without you explicitly pressing buttons.
A Siri that doesn't feel like it's ~13.5 years old would be nice, especially with the advancements in LLMs. I use Siri daily (timers, alarms, weather check while in bed, etc.) but it feels SO ancient. Can't even ask it follow-up questions.
Lol wot? "Every feature imaginable" 🤣🤣🤣 did I read this right?!
They just haven't yet "imagined" the many new features we have received in the last few years from non-Apple phones. Don't worry, once Apple "imagines" it, they will acknowledge the only logical truth they could conceive. That Steve Jobs' consciousness uploaded to an iMac has graced them with innovation once again.