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Looks like Apple is doubling down on at least two features that really seem like duds -- 3D Touch (which as far as I can tell nobody even knows exists), and Sir

Looks like Apple is doubling down on at least two features that really seem like duds -- 3D Touch (which as far as I can tell nobody even knows exists), and Siri (which everyone raves about but nobody uses for anything). I'd love to see UX improvements around minor inconveniences of the iOS experience: - what the hell the volume button does in different contexts (sometimes it changes the ringer, other times the in-app volume, other times it just seems to go into a black hole) - easier access to app settings for the app you're using (things like privacy settings and notification settings and revoking/re-allowing privileges (like camera access, etc.); maybe context-sensitive pull-up or pull-down things? I like that OS controls this, not the app, just need a better way to navigate to it. - turn off buzzing and booping when I plug in a charger, and maybe some sort of wireless charging thing if the technology is where it needs to be yet - stop showing album art on the lock screen (or make it optional) - more uniformity on how lock screen notifications are acknowledged and dismissed -- sometimes there's an 'x' in the swipe-over, sometimes actions, sometimes just pressing the notification does something The only feature that seems interesting to me is the voicemail transcription; previous services I've used for this have been pretty terrible, but hopefully this is better. With Marshmallow's security model (of run-time grantable and revokable permissions) Android has become a lot more attractive to me -- my biggest pain point in using Android devices has always been the nightmare of looking at what an app wants in order to install.

filereaper 10y ago
Anecdotal, but I've found Siri to be quite helpful with Car Play, along with Google's equivalent (can't remember its marketing name) in Android Auto. Just drive along, push to issue command, and "Siri navigate me to <address> in <city>" and boom. This might have existed in luxury cars for years, but its coming down into the mainstream ~$30k cars recently and I'm loving it. I'm thankful for technologies like Siri in the context of driving at least.
- newjersey 10y ago
  Anecdotal counterpoint: Siri is horrible at recognizing my speech if it is anything that it doesn't expect. I can ask it to define a word all day long but I doubt it will get any better. It just keeps giving me the same (incorrect) response repeatedly. Google Now does a very good job at recognizing voice including words I may mispronounce when I say "define X" I can sort of imagine why. Google "knows" me better. What is awesome/scary is that I have tried this on other people's iPhones and Google Now still does better than Siri.
  - filereaper 10y ago
    Indeed, I have noticed the gap in comprehension between Siri and Google Now. I'd attribute that to Google having a much deeper expertise of ML than Apple. I wouldn't entirely discount things like Siri though, they'll get better with time.
    - skygazer 10y ago
      Google built their own voice recognition using neural nets. Apple licenses theirs from Nuance, the makers of Dragon Naturally Speaking. I don't know what technology Nuance uses now, but historically it was Markov Models, I believe. The founder of what-would-become Nuance, and early pioneer in voice recognition, Ray Kurzweil, was hired a few years ago by Google to "to bring natural language understanding to Google."
  - punjabisingh 10y ago
    Google Now's dictation is so much better for people with accents. My family's English pronunciations have a very strong Indian/Punjabi accent. For people with accents, Siri works very unreliably to the point that we've given up on it, whereas Google Now "magically" works all the time.
  - marvin 10y ago
    I speak a weird hybrid of four Norwegian accents, and Siri + iOS dictation is indispensable in both using my phone faster, and operating it when my hands are occupied with other things. So there's clearly a variety of experiences here.
    - tyfon 10y ago
      English with Norwegian accent is generally very clear and pronounced though. I never have problem with google now either, and I use it several times a day. As you I speak a Norwegian that is called "lett blanding" or "light blend" in English, composed of western, southern and eastern dialects :) Well there are some problems.. If I have it set to English, I can't really get it to grasp Norwegian names for streets etc. I wish it could have a mix of some sort.
- bduerst 10y ago
  >along with Google's equivalent (can't remember its marketing name) This is kind of hilarious, because there have been complaints that Google didn't name it's voice recognition assistant (it's just "Ok Google").
- rahoulb 10y ago
  One thing that always worked for me on iOS but never on Android was triggering Siri from a standard bluetooth head unit. I could hit the "call" button and it would launch Siri and I could say "message my wife" or a plain "read me my messages". Despite loads of mucking about, installing and buying 3rd-party utilities, I could never get Android to do the same (and Google Now would never "read me my texts" and often "text my wife" would say it had sent but would never arrive). I'm sure it's easy with Android Auto, but I have old cars and I'm not shelling out for a head unit that costs almost as much as the car itself.
Frank2312 10y ago
Just addressing your last point in this comment : >looking at what an app wants in order to install. I believe they request the same things in iOS as they do in Android in the case of multi-Platform apps like Facebook, but Google decided to show them in a different way that looks like it is worse than how Apple does it.
- andrewla 10y ago
  I haven't actually used Marshmallow yet; only read about the security model. But historically, apps on iOS can only ask for permissions at run time, not at installation time, and you can refuse any permission if you choose (and restore it later if you want). So if an app wants to use a camera, it can either (terribly) ask you the first time you run it, or (nicely) ask you when you do something that uses the camera, and app store guidelines say the app has to not break horribly when it is told no. In Android (historically) at installation time you get a list of requested permissions, and you either accept them all ("can access the microphone", "can access your contacts", "can access your browser history", "can control your phone", "can implant thoughts into your mind") or you can opt out by not installing the app. That's the scary thing; you go to install a todo app that wants to access your contacts -- what do you do? Is it malware? Will it be changed to be malware in the future? From what I can tell, the interface in Marshmallow is still annoying in that the app tells you what it is going to ask for at install time, but doesn't get granted those permissions until it asks explicitly and you say yes.
  - khc 10y ago
    In marshmallow, apps that are built for marshmallow behave like iOS, in that they will install without asking for permissions. For old apps, they will behave like previous versions of Android and pop up a list at install time. Those permissions are granted at install. You can go into settings and disable granted permissions in both cases (with a warning that things can break for old apps)
kylec 10y ago
I am really curious how the features they said were activated by 3D Touch will work on a non-3D Touch iPhone. I'm guessing that, like iOS 9, you won't get the menus on the home screen, but what about the notifications on the lock screen? There's no semantic meaning for a long press, so maybe they'll make a long press activate the menu as well?
throwanem 10y ago
> what the hell the volume button does in different contexts If the app you're using right now has a handle for audio playback, it changes the speaker volume. If not, it changes the ringer volume. As far as I can tell, that's all, and in a half decade of using iPhones and iPods, I've never actually seen it misbehave.
- mgkimsal 10y ago
  If you're in the camera, and listening to music, or on a call, using the volume buttons just take a bunch of pictures.
  - throwanem 10y ago
    I've never actually run into that case, but in informal testing, it looks like the camera overrides whatever else you happen to be doing at the same time, even if that's music or a call. That's a design choice, and there're arguments to be made for and against, but it seems hardly likely to surprise anyone more than once or twice.
- jedberg 10y ago
  That's true but how do I turn the volume down before a video starts. As far as I can tell there is no way to do that. In Youtube, even if my phone is muted, as soon as the video plays it will be 70% volume and I have to rush to turn it down.
  - goatforce5 10y ago
    Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to access the short cut controls?
  - maxwindiff 10y ago
    Open the control center (slide up from bottom of screen) and adjust the slider.
  - mikeash 10y ago
    If you're like me and never want to change the ringer volume, then go into Settings, Sounds, Ringer and Alerts, and set Change with Buttons to off. Then the volume buttons change the playback volume all the time.
ultramancool 10y ago
> 3D Touch (which as far as I can tell nobody even knows exists) Is this feature that bad? I'm an Android guy and it's probably the most appealing thing I've seen on the Apple side in a long time. At least as a replacement for the long press.
- k-mcgrady 10y ago
  It just isn't incredibly useful. Looks like they're refining how it's used (glanceable info instead of just shortcuts on a force touch on a home screen icon). I don't know what the parent expected them to do (throw out years of development?) but looks like it's heading in the right direction to me.
- stormbrew 10y ago
  It's not a replacement for long-press. It's in addition to long-press.
- overcast 10y ago
  The real issue with 3D Touch, is that there is nothing contextually there to say a button has 3D touch on it. It's just a let's try it, which means you don't even think about it.
- skrowl 10y ago
  Android has had 3D touch (aka pressure sensitive touch events) since API Level 5 that shipped with Android 2.0 (Eclair) in 2009 - https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/MotionEvent.html#getPressure() https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/MotionE... . Feel free to install https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.casual_dev.forcetouch https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.casual_dev... on the oldest Android device you have and it will work. It just flopped on Android like it's now doing on iOS. Push-hold / long-click / whatever you want to call it is just easier / more intuitive, I suppose. I believe the only big hit pressure sensitivity had on Android was on the Samsung Note type devices (which used it as pressure sensitivity on their pen) as well as the various Wacom-style drawing tablet things. The things you see in the news about "X new Android smartphone will come with an Android version 3D touch!" are basically just marketing hype / PR. Provably, and beyond a doubt, Android has had 3D touch for 7 years now.
jedanbik 10y ago
3D Touch is to iOS as the Option key is to macOS. Hold down the Option key and click on Airport or volume control to see what I mean in macOS. It gives you more information, and the information it provides is information you didn't necessarily need to have without holding down the Option key. In airport, with the option key held, you see options to generate a wireless diagnostics report. Without the option key held, you can just switch networks. In the volume control, with the option key held, you can see options to change speaker outputs and mic inputs. Without the option key held, you just see the volume controls. On iOS, with regular touch on the camera you get the camera. 3D touch - you get the ability to specify the camera you want before loading the app. 3D Touch is for iOS power users. Option key is for macOS power users.
- erikpukinskis 10y ago
  I've been using macs for I guess a decade or so now and I still have no idea what the option key is for. When a keyboard shortcut is like ^+⌥+F6 I just mash buttons until it works. Why do they use a different symbol on the button than in the UI? I really have no desire to learn the seven different buttons in Mac OS and I wish application authors would stop using them so they could someday simplify the keyboard. I don't understand why we tolerative having shift, fn, control, alt, option, and command, not to mention ⌘ whatever that is. Is it really necessary? Do I need to be an Apple historian to be able to understand the primary input device on a Mac? Command makes sense. And we need shift for capital letters. Let's just leave it at that.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago
    Seven? What? There's Control, Option/Alt, Command, and Shift. Four modifier keys. This is the same set you have on other OSes, except there, Command is called Windows Key or Super. Yes, Apple has symbols as abbreviations for Control, Command, Option, and Shift. Yes, Option is also called Alt. But it's not really all that complicated.
    - linkregister 10y ago
      The vast majority of Windows desktop keyboards do not have a fn key.
JadeNB 10y ago
> - turn off buzzing and booping when I plug in a charger, and maybe some sort of wireless charging thing if the technology is where it needs to be yet Does setting it to mute not work? My iPad 3 makes the noise on plug and unplug exactly when it is not muted.
- andrewla 10y ago
  Still buzzes when it's on mute; in a quiet room at night that's still more than I want. If they just made it configurable like other device sounds I would be more than satisfied.
  - JadeNB 10y ago
    Huh—my iPad doesn't buzz. I guess it's (a) an iPhone thing, (b) a new thing, or (c) a bug with which I am lucky to be afflicted.
    - lepht 10y ago
      "Buzzing" here meaning vibrating -- the iPads don't have vibrating notifications at all, or the required vibrating mechanism.
mrfusion 10y ago
How about this one. If I tell Siri to call someone and the phone is t up to my ear put the call on speaker.
- franciscojgo 10y ago
  You can actually say "Hey Siri call Jennifer with the speaker on" or "...call Jennifer on speaker". Buy yes, it makes total sense to do it automatically if not on the ear. The logic seems simple enough to program.
  - mrfusion 10y ago
    Wow I didn't know that! Thanks
baddox 10y ago
> 3D Touch (which as far as I can tell nobody even knows exists) I think people know it exists. The problem is that it doesn't do anything remotely useful, except for the iPhone keyboard cursor thing. > Siri (which everyone raves about but nobody uses for anything). I use it all the time (at least once a day) to add a reminder, set a timer, set an alarm, check sports scores (I don't really follow sports, so this will probably end after the Warriors' run), call someone (I do this rarely enough that I'm incredibly slow trying to figure out the Phone/Contact apps), or do a Google search. I would love some basic improvements to Siri UI, like sending my Google search straight to google.com instead of reading my entire query back to me first. > what the hell the volume button does in different contexts I've never had a problem with this. Another commenter already covered it, but it's extremely predictable and fairly obvious. > turn off buzzing and booping when I plug in a charger, and maybe some sort of wireless charging thing if the technology is where it needs to be yet Charging cues have never bothered me in the slightest, but I see no reason not to have a setting for it. Wireless charging would be absolutely huge. It's probably my number one feature request. I'd probably pay for a brand new 6s if all they added was wireless charging. Heck, I don't even need it to be fast, just let me set my phone down at my office desk and bedside table and I'll be happy. > stop showing album art on the lock screen (or make it optional) Again, this is something I've never even thought about, but it's hard to argue against making it optional. > more uniformity on how lock screen notifications are acknowledged and dismissed -- sometimes there's an 'x' in the swipe-over, sometimes actions, sometimes just pressing the notification does something There's no reason not to fix this.
- weinzierl 10y ago
  > except for the iPhone keyboard cursor thing. That's enough for me to never want to miss 3D touch again. >I use it all the time (at least once a day) I use it almost daily too, you get used to that things so quickly. The thing that annoys me with Siri is that it is slow. I want to say: "Hey Siri, how is the weather today?" and not "Hey Siri" wait, wait, wait, bling, bling, wait, wait, wait, "How is the weather today?".
  - baddox 10y ago
    I don't actually use Hey Siri much, because it is so unreliable. I mostly press the home button and hold for the entire duration of my voice command (because that allows you to pause in the middle of your voice command without Siri thinking you're done speaking).
Steko 10y ago
Can't speak to 3D touch as I'm on an older phone but I use Siri all the time, mostly for timers and dialing.
criley2 10y ago
Is Siri really not used for anything? As an Android user I find myself using "Ok Google" daily now for all kinds of things.
- jdhawk 10y ago
  I use it all the time, and have been praying for the ability to do more with it. I spend a ton of time in the car, and its really useful in that context. Also, its faster to tell Siri to remind me __________ or, create an appointment for ____ on ____ than to (unlock, find icon, tap +....)
- joombaga 10y ago
  I use it all day. First thing in the morning: How's the weather? In the car: Navigate to work. Play NOFX shuffled. At work: Remind me to fix Monit on the Kafka cluster. Before bed: Wake me up at 7am.
  - mentando 10y ago
    I guess talking to my phone is just weird for me, since I am not used to it, but I do all those things manually. I check the weather with one touch on the home screen. I don't need to navigate to work, because the trip is short enough and there won't be any heavy traffic. The alarm is set to 6.30 anyways, I don't have to change it daily, so I just left the standard weekday setting. Not hating on your use case, but I am always around people and I think I would get several odd glances, when talking to my phone like that.
uriah 10y ago
My main use of 3d touch is switching apps. That combined with swiping from left eliminates having to reach down to the home button or up to the back button when using the phone one handed.
wener 10y ago
Seems all these inconveniences is already got over in android. - volume button can control all in all context with a same ui - long press the app title - I don't have a buzzing yet - never get into this - just swipe to dismisse or slide down to get more info or action
afarrell 10y ago
> turn off buzzing and booping when I plug in the charger This is super helpful because I don't need to look at the screen to check that it is charging. I hope it stays.
chipx86 10y ago
I've heard this sentiment with 3D Touch and Siri before. I'm probably an outlier, but I use each about a dozen times or so a day. 3D Touch is one of the reasons I upgraded to the 6S. Lack of 3D Touch was the one thing that disappointed me the most about the new iPad Pro. I wasn't sure at first if it was something I'd end up using long-term, but it didn't take long for me to develop a lot of habits around it. Here are some of my daily actions through 3D Touch: * When I go to Starbucks, I use 3D Touch to get to the app's Pay option. * I use it on the Phone app to quickly dial the people I call the most. * Same with iMessage. * I use it on Sleep Cycle to quickly start my morning alarm. * On Intercom to speed up launching/getting to the part of the UI I want (People vs. different support mailboxes). * Day One to quickly record a journal entry. * Drafts to jot down a quick bit of info (someone's name or something, or a thought) to later process/organize somewhere. * Pandora to quickly get to my most-used stations (I only really have a few I often use, so it's perfect) When I need to place a call and am in the middle of something (getting ready in the morning, looking something up, making dinner, etc.), I use Siri. Actually, I'd say most of my calls are placed with Siri unless I have the phone in my hand. "Hey Siri, call <person> on speakerphone" is pretty common here. I also use Siri to start timers for laundry or to remind me of something I need to think about later. "Hey Siri, in 4 hours, remind me to do <blah>". I hate naps, but sometimes I need them. "Hey Siri, wake me in 30 minutes." I ask her every day in the morning what the weather's going to be like. Even though I live in Palo Alto and it's not exactly hard to guess. Super handy when I'm going to go somewhere else though. I also use her as an app launcher pretty frequently. Mostly in the morning when I want to kick off some music at home. I'll wake up, start getting dressed, and say "Hey Siri, launch Harmony." Since that takes a few seconds to launch sometimes, I do that while I'm otherwise occupied. Then when I can get to the phone, I just have to tap the item on the screen to get music going. My car will let me know when I have incoming texts, but I can't respond through it, so Siri's also my dictation if I'm stopped at a red and need to fire off a message to someone saying I'm late. So that's how I use 3D Touch and Siri. Consider me a data point :)
- theshrike79 10y ago
  Same here. I use Siri for everything that would be slower to do by hand, or my hands are busy. "Wake me up in X minutes" "Call <person>" "Remind me to ... [in X hours, in the evening, when I get home]" "What's the weather like today", when I'm getting ready in the morning "What's on my agenda today?", while driving to work I rarely use Siri to query for specific data, which seems to be the thing Google Now does well. Siri for me is just a way to operate the phone faster.

filereaper 10y ago

Anecdotal, but I've found Siri to be quite helpful with Car Play, along with Google's equivalent (can't remember its marketing name) in Android Auto. Just drive along, push to issue command, and "Siri navigate me to <address> in <city>" and boom. This might have existed in luxury cars for years, but its coming down into the mainstream ~$30k cars recently and I'm loving it. I'm thankful for technologies like Siri in the context of driving at least.

newjersey 10y ago
Anecdotal counterpoint: Siri is horrible at recognizing my speech if it is anything that it doesn't expect. I can ask it to define a word all day long but I doubt it will get any better. It just keeps giving me the same (incorrect) response repeatedly. Google Now does a very good job at recognizing voice including words I may mispronounce when I say "define X" I can sort of imagine why. Google "knows" me better. What is awesome/scary is that I have tried this on other people's iPhones and Google Now still does better than Siri.
- filereaper 10y ago
  Indeed, I have noticed the gap in comprehension between Siri and Google Now. I'd attribute that to Google having a much deeper expertise of ML than Apple. I wouldn't entirely discount things like Siri though, they'll get better with time.
  - skygazer 10y ago
    Google built their own voice recognition using neural nets. Apple licenses theirs from Nuance, the makers of Dragon Naturally Speaking. I don't know what technology Nuance uses now, but historically it was Markov Models, I believe. The founder of what-would-become Nuance, and early pioneer in voice recognition, Ray Kurzweil, was hired a few years ago by Google to "to bring natural language understanding to Google."
- punjabisingh 10y ago
  Google Now's dictation is so much better for people with accents. My family's English pronunciations have a very strong Indian/Punjabi accent. For people with accents, Siri works very unreliably to the point that we've given up on it, whereas Google Now "magically" works all the time.
- marvin 10y ago
  I speak a weird hybrid of four Norwegian accents, and Siri + iOS dictation is indispensable in both using my phone faster, and operating it when my hands are occupied with other things. So there's clearly a variety of experiences here.
  - tyfon 10y ago
    English with Norwegian accent is generally very clear and pronounced though. I never have problem with google now either, and I use it several times a day. As you I speak a Norwegian that is called "lett blanding" or "light blend" in English, composed of western, southern and eastern dialects :) Well there are some problems.. If I have it set to English, I can't really get it to grasp Norwegian names for streets etc. I wish it could have a mix of some sort.
bduerst 10y ago
>along with Google's equivalent (can't remember its marketing name) This is kind of hilarious, because there have been complaints that Google didn't name it's voice recognition assistant (it's just "Ok Google").
rahoulb 10y ago
One thing that always worked for me on iOS but never on Android was triggering Siri from a standard bluetooth head unit. I could hit the "call" button and it would launch Siri and I could say "message my wife" or a plain "read me my messages". Despite loads of mucking about, installing and buying 3rd-party utilities, I could never get Android to do the same (and Google Now would never "read me my texts" and often "text my wife" would say it had sent but would never arrive). I'm sure it's easy with Android Auto, but I have old cars and I'm not shelling out for a head unit that costs almost as much as the car itself.

Frank2312 10y ago

Just addressing your last point in this comment : >looking at what an app wants in order to install. I believe they request the same things in iOS as they do in Android in the case of multi-Platform apps like Facebook, but Google decided to show them in a different way that looks like it is worse than how Apple does it.

andrewla 10y ago
I haven't actually used Marshmallow yet; only read about the security model. But historically, apps on iOS can only ask for permissions at run time, not at installation time, and you can refuse any permission if you choose (and restore it later if you want). So if an app wants to use a camera, it can either (terribly) ask you the first time you run it, or (nicely) ask you when you do something that uses the camera, and app store guidelines say the app has to not break horribly when it is told no. In Android (historically) at installation time you get a list of requested permissions, and you either accept them all ("can access the microphone", "can access your contacts", "can access your browser history", "can control your phone", "can implant thoughts into your mind") or you can opt out by not installing the app. That's the scary thing; you go to install a todo app that wants to access your contacts -- what do you do? Is it malware? Will it be changed to be malware in the future? From what I can tell, the interface in Marshmallow is still annoying in that the app tells you what it is going to ask for at install time, but doesn't get granted those permissions until it asks explicitly and you say yes.
- khc 10y ago
  In marshmallow, apps that are built for marshmallow behave like iOS, in that they will install without asking for permissions. For old apps, they will behave like previous versions of Android and pop up a list at install time. Those permissions are granted at install. You can go into settings and disable granted permissions in both cases (with a warning that things can break for old apps)

kylec 10y ago

I am really curious how the features they said were activated by 3D Touch will work on a non-3D Touch iPhone. I'm guessing that, like iOS 9, you won't get the menus on the home screen, but what about the notifications on the lock screen? There's no semantic meaning for a long press, so maybe they'll make a long press activate the menu as well?

throwanem 10y ago

> what the hell the volume button does in different contexts If the app you're using right now has a handle for audio playback, it changes the speaker volume. If not, it changes the ringer volume. As far as I can tell, that's all, and in a half decade of using iPhones and iPods, I've never actually seen it misbehave.

mgkimsal 10y ago
If you're in the camera, and listening to music, or on a call, using the volume buttons just take a bunch of pictures.
- throwanem 10y ago
  I've never actually run into that case, but in informal testing, it looks like the camera overrides whatever else you happen to be doing at the same time, even if that's music or a call. That's a design choice, and there're arguments to be made for and against, but it seems hardly likely to surprise anyone more than once or twice.
jedberg 10y ago
That's true but how do I turn the volume down before a video starts. As far as I can tell there is no way to do that. In Youtube, even if my phone is muted, as soon as the video plays it will be 70% volume and I have to rush to turn it down.
- goatforce5 10y ago
  Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to access the short cut controls?
- maxwindiff 10y ago
  Open the control center (slide up from bottom of screen) and adjust the slider.
- mikeash 10y ago
  If you're like me and never want to change the ringer volume, then go into Settings, Sounds, Ringer and Alerts, and set Change with Buttons to off. Then the volume buttons change the playback volume all the time.

ultramancool 10y ago

> 3D Touch (which as far as I can tell nobody even knows exists) Is this feature that bad? I'm an Android guy and it's probably the most appealing thing I've seen on the Apple side in a long time. At least as a replacement for the long press.

k-mcgrady 10y ago
It just isn't incredibly useful. Looks like they're refining how it's used (glanceable info instead of just shortcuts on a force touch on a home screen icon). I don't know what the parent expected them to do (throw out years of development?) but looks like it's heading in the right direction to me.
stormbrew 10y ago
It's not a replacement for long-press. It's in addition to long-press.
overcast 10y ago
The real issue with 3D Touch, is that there is nothing contextually there to say a button has 3D touch on it. It's just a let's try it, which means you don't even think about it.
skrowl 10y ago
Android has had 3D touch (aka pressure sensitive touch events) since API Level 5 that shipped with Android 2.0 (Eclair) in 2009 - https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/MotionEvent.html#getPressure() https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/MotionE... . Feel free to install https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.casual_dev.forcetouch https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.casual_dev... on the oldest Android device you have and it will work. It just flopped on Android like it's now doing on iOS. Push-hold / long-click / whatever you want to call it is just easier / more intuitive, I suppose. I believe the only big hit pressure sensitivity had on Android was on the Samsung Note type devices (which used it as pressure sensitivity on their pen) as well as the various Wacom-style drawing tablet things. The things you see in the news about "X new Android smartphone will come with an Android version 3D touch!" are basically just marketing hype / PR. Provably, and beyond a doubt, Android has had 3D touch for 7 years now.

jedanbik 10y ago

3D Touch is to iOS as the Option key is to macOS. Hold down the Option key and click on Airport or volume control to see what I mean in macOS. It gives you more information, and the information it provides is information you didn't necessarily need to have without holding down the Option key. In airport, with the option key held, you see options to generate a wireless diagnostics report. Without the option key held, you can just switch networks. In the volume control, with the option key held, you can see options to change speaker outputs and mic inputs. Without the option key held, you just see the volume controls. On iOS, with regular touch on the camera you get the camera. 3D touch - you get the ability to specify the camera you want before loading the app. 3D Touch is for iOS power users. Option key is for macOS power users.

erikpukinskis 10y ago
I've been using macs for I guess a decade or so now and I still have no idea what the option key is for. When a keyboard shortcut is like ^+⌥+F6 I just mash buttons until it works. Why do they use a different symbol on the button than in the UI? I really have no desire to learn the seven different buttons in Mac OS and I wish application authors would stop using them so they could someday simplify the keyboard. I don't understand why we tolerative having shift, fn, control, alt, option, and command, not to mention ⌘ whatever that is. Is it really necessary? Do I need to be an Apple historian to be able to understand the primary input device on a Mac? Command makes sense. And we need shift for capital letters. Let's just leave it at that.
- TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago
  Seven? What? There's Control, Option/Alt, Command, and Shift. Four modifier keys. This is the same set you have on other OSes, except there, Command is called Windows Key or Super. Yes, Apple has symbols as abbreviations for Control, Command, Option, and Shift. Yes, Option is also called Alt. But it's not really all that complicated.
  - linkregister 10y ago
    The vast majority of Windows desktop keyboards do not have a fn key.

JadeNB 10y ago

> - turn off buzzing and booping when I plug in a charger, and maybe some sort of wireless charging thing if the technology is where it needs to be yet Does setting it to mute not work? My iPad 3 makes the noise on plug and unplug exactly when it is not muted.

andrewla 10y ago
Still buzzes when it's on mute; in a quiet room at night that's still more than I want. If they just made it configurable like other device sounds I would be more than satisfied.
- JadeNB 10y ago
  Huh—my iPad doesn't buzz. I guess it's (a) an iPhone thing, (b) a new thing, or (c) a bug with which I am lucky to be afflicted.
  - lepht 10y ago
    "Buzzing" here meaning vibrating -- the iPads don't have vibrating notifications at all, or the required vibrating mechanism.

mrfusion 10y ago

How about this one. If I tell Siri to call someone and the phone is t up to my ear put the call on speaker.

franciscojgo 10y ago
You can actually say "Hey Siri call Jennifer with the speaker on" or "...call Jennifer on speaker". Buy yes, it makes total sense to do it automatically if not on the ear. The logic seems simple enough to program.
- mrfusion 10y ago
  Wow I didn't know that! Thanks

baddox 10y ago

> 3D Touch (which as far as I can tell nobody even knows exists) I think people know it exists. The problem is that it doesn't do anything remotely useful, except for the iPhone keyboard cursor thing. > Siri (which everyone raves about but nobody uses for anything). I use it all the time (at least once a day) to add a reminder, set a timer, set an alarm, check sports scores (I don't really follow sports, so this will probably end after the Warriors' run), call someone (I do this rarely enough that I'm incredibly slow trying to figure out the Phone/Contact apps), or do a Google search. I would love some basic improvements to Siri UI, like sending my Google search straight to google.com instead of reading my entire query back to me first. > what the hell the volume button does in different contexts I've never had a problem with this. Another commenter already covered it, but it's extremely predictable and fairly obvious. > turn off buzzing and booping when I plug in a charger, and maybe some sort of wireless charging thing if the technology is where it needs to be yet Charging cues have never bothered me in the slightest, but I see no reason not to have a setting for it. Wireless charging would be absolutely huge. It's probably my number one feature request. I'd probably pay for a brand new 6s if all they added was wireless charging. Heck, I don't even need it to be fast, just let me set my phone down at my office desk and bedside table and I'll be happy. > stop showing album art on the lock screen (or make it optional) Again, this is something I've never even thought about, but it's hard to argue against making it optional. > more uniformity on how lock screen notifications are acknowledged and dismissed -- sometimes there's an 'x' in the swipe-over, sometimes actions, sometimes just pressing the notification does something There's no reason not to fix this.

weinzierl 10y ago
> except for the iPhone keyboard cursor thing. That's enough for me to never want to miss 3D touch again. >I use it all the time (at least once a day) I use it almost daily too, you get used to that things so quickly. The thing that annoys me with Siri is that it is slow. I want to say: "Hey Siri, how is the weather today?" and not "Hey Siri" wait, wait, wait, bling, bling, wait, wait, wait, "How is the weather today?".
- baddox 10y ago
  I don't actually use Hey Siri much, because it is so unreliable. I mostly press the home button and hold for the entire duration of my voice command (because that allows you to pause in the middle of your voice command without Siri thinking you're done speaking).

Steko 10y ago

Can't speak to 3D touch as I'm on an older phone but I use Siri all the time, mostly for timers and dialing.

criley2 10y ago

Is Siri really not used for anything? As an Android user I find myself using "Ok Google" daily now for all kinds of things.

jdhawk 10y ago
I use it all the time, and have been praying for the ability to do more with it. I spend a ton of time in the car, and its really useful in that context. Also, its faster to tell Siri to remind me __________ or, create an appointment for ____ on ____ than to (unlock, find icon, tap +....)
joombaga 10y ago
I use it all day. First thing in the morning: How's the weather? In the car: Navigate to work. Play NOFX shuffled. At work: Remind me to fix Monit on the Kafka cluster. Before bed: Wake me up at 7am.
- mentando 10y ago
  I guess talking to my phone is just weird for me, since I am not used to it, but I do all those things manually. I check the weather with one touch on the home screen. I don't need to navigate to work, because the trip is short enough and there won't be any heavy traffic. The alarm is set to 6.30 anyways, I don't have to change it daily, so I just left the standard weekday setting. Not hating on your use case, but I am always around people and I think I would get several odd glances, when talking to my phone like that.

uriah 10y ago

My main use of 3d touch is switching apps. That combined with swiping from left eliminates having to reach down to the home button or up to the back button when using the phone one handed.

wener 10y ago

Seems all these inconveniences is already got over in android. - volume button can control all in all context with a same ui - long press the app title - I don't have a buzzing yet - never get into this - just swipe to dismisse or slide down to get more info or action

afarrell 10y ago

> turn off buzzing and booping when I plug in the charger This is super helpful because I don't need to look at the screen to check that it is charging. I hope it stays.

chipx86 10y ago

I've heard this sentiment with 3D Touch and Siri before. I'm probably an outlier, but I use each about a dozen times or so a day. 3D Touch is one of the reasons I upgraded to the 6S. Lack of 3D Touch was the one thing that disappointed me the most about the new iPad Pro. I wasn't sure at first if it was something I'd end up using long-term, but it didn't take long for me to develop a lot of habits around it. Here are some of my daily actions through 3D Touch: * When I go to Starbucks, I use 3D Touch to get to the app's Pay option. * I use it on the Phone app to quickly dial the people I call the most. * Same with iMessage. * I use it on Sleep Cycle to quickly start my morning alarm. * On Intercom to speed up launching/getting to the part of the UI I want (People vs. different support mailboxes). * Day One to quickly record a journal entry. * Drafts to jot down a quick bit of info (someone's name or something, or a thought) to later process/organize somewhere. * Pandora to quickly get to my most-used stations (I only really have a few I often use, so it's perfect) When I need to place a call and am in the middle of something (getting ready in the morning, looking something up, making dinner, etc.), I use Siri. Actually, I'd say most of my calls are placed with Siri unless I have the phone in my hand. "Hey Siri, call <person> on speakerphone" is pretty common here. I also use Siri to start timers for laundry or to remind me of something I need to think about later. "Hey Siri, in 4 hours, remind me to do <blah>". I hate naps, but sometimes I need them. "Hey Siri, wake me in 30 minutes." I ask her every day in the morning what the weather's going to be like. Even though I live in Palo Alto and it's not exactly hard to guess. Super handy when I'm going to go somewhere else though. I also use her as an app launcher pretty frequently. Mostly in the morning when I want to kick off some music at home. I'll wake up, start getting dressed, and say "Hey Siri, launch Harmony." Since that takes a few seconds to launch sometimes, I do that while I'm otherwise occupied. Then when I can get to the phone, I just have to tap the item on the screen to get music going. My car will let me know when I have incoming texts, but I can't respond through it, so Siri's also my dictation if I'm stopped at a red and need to fire off a message to someone saying I'm late. So that's how I use 3D Touch and Siri. Consider me a data point :)

theshrike79 10y ago
Same here. I use Siri for everything that would be slower to do by hand, or my hands are busy. "Wake me up in X minutes" "Call <person>" "Remind me to ... [in X hours, in the evening, when I get home]" "What's the weather like today", when I'm getting ready in the morning "What's on my agenda today?", while driving to work I rarely use Siri to query for specific data, which seems to be the thing Google Now does well. Siri for me is just a way to operate the phone faster.