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>"Thin on its own I get but thin with a giant bump 100% defeats the whole point for me. Seems clear at this point there is little hope of them engineering their
by ramesh31 1y ago
>"Thin on its own I get but thin with a giant bump 100% defeats the whole point for me. Seems clear at this point there is little hope of them engineering their way into thin cameras."
I have this recurring vision of what could have been if we never lost Steve before the industry went whole hog in on the camera bump fad. It goes something like this:
SCENE: Steve Jobs' office on the eve of the iPhone 7 release
"Hey Steve here's the new prototype for iPhone 7, we think you're going to love it!"
Steve picks up the phone, fumbles it around for a moment, flips it over, and runs his index finger over the camera bump
"You're fired. Now, you" points to another engineer "Get rid of the bump."
And just like that, we were saved from this nightmare. Alas, the world is shit now and no one cares about anything anymore. But I can say without question he would have never allowed it.
- stetrain 1y agoI’d rather have the world with nice cameras on my phone than the one where the back is flat for aesthetic design reasons.
- macintux 1y agoYep. The cameras keep me upgrading every other year, otherwise I'd probably wait 3-4 years at least.
- ramesh31 1y ago>I’d rather have the world with nice cameras on my phone than the one where the back is flat for aesthetic design reasons. The argument is that you shouldn't need to pick one or the other. They got us used to the bump because it is cheaper and simpler for them to build. The same with literally everything now. No more striving for excellence, it's just "what can we normalize and force people to put up with so we don't have to fix the problem".
- musictubes 1y agoRight, iPhone engineers are just lazy. That is a much better explanation than them having to juggle tradeoffs between camera performance, weight, and feel in the hand. It isn’t a problem. That’s why it isn’t “fixed.”
- stetrain 1y agoThe cheaper option for Apple would be to use smaller camera sensors with worse performance because that would reduce the depth needed for the sensor + lens. The cameras are getting bigger because a decent segment of the customers want better performing cameras on their phone. Either the whole phone would have to get thicker and heavier to accommodate, or you end up with a camera bump. And yes, some people would want that brick phone, but Apple seems to think it isn't a large market segment and the money they print from iPhone sales seems to point to them being decent at gauging that market.
- dpkirchner 1y agoGive me an iphone with a nice camera and a flat back, fill the extra space with battery, and it probably becomes a day 1 purchase for me.
- stetrain 1y agoThat would come close to doubling the thickness and weight of the phone. I’m sure some people would buy a 16mm thick, 400g phone but I doubt it’s the majority.
- dpkirchner 1y agoI think we'd need to see some sales figures for cases. The case I use on my 13 Pro (casetify) adds enough size that the bump is barely an issue -- there is maybe a 1mm edge around the actual camera bump. It's very nearly the ideal. I don't know how common this size case is, though -- common enough that a mainstream case company sells it, I guess. I'll concede the point on the weight, although I bet it'd be more like 350g.
- stetrain 1y agoI doubt Apple would add drop-friendly materials in such an expansion of the phone so most people would be putting a case on top of the iPhone Brick, making it even thicker and heavier.
- crooked-v 1y agoJust take the existing phone and fill in the space. Voila, same camera quality, no bump.
- jbverschoor 1y agoA wing shaped iPhone could’ve allowed for a larger battery. Similar to how the original MacBook Air was so thin. The wedge
- TheOtherHobbes 1y agoA wedge is such a natural solution. It tilts the screen forward slightly when it's flat, it could have sexy curved edges like the very first iPhone, it would match the aesthetics of the Air, and it would stand out compared to Android phones. The main issue is weight distribution, although current designs are slightly top heavy anyway. A less obvious issue is that people would tend to hold the screen vertically while taking photos, which would distort the visual plane of the lenses at the back. I'm sure both of those could be solved, and a wedge would create something original, instead of the nth iteration of the same ugly wart aesthetic.
- justsomehnguy 1y ago> stand out compared to Android phones. You meant to say "14 years old Android phones", right? chuckles https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_razr_xt910-pictures-4273.php https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_razr_xt910-pictures-4273.p...
- jbverschoor 1y agoMore like an elongated drop. Like a wing of an airplane. You know.. Air
- fortran77 1y agoAnd when it's obsolete, you could use it as a doorstop.
- zoeysmithe 1y agoFiring people willy-nilly as an admirable quality is a totally insane thing to look up to. Jobs's "design horse-sense" was also strongly against the screen size you take for granted as well. Maybe its time to put away these weird hagiographies.
- tacitusarc 1y agoPresumably the firing would be due to clear lack of judgement.
- zoeysmithe 1y agoWould it? Its just a hump. Where's this person's manager? What about the industrial design stage (where are the Ivy's who would massage that hump?) The idea that you're hiring talented people and just firing them like this is not only obscenely anti-worker, its anti-social and a wonderful example of how we worship the worst people. This is someone with a pedigree, able to land an apple job, pass the interviews, work with a team, has mortgage/family/whatever, etc but he upset a sultan sitting on his silk pillow and now must be thrown out on the streets? Oh and Apple's entire existance hinges on "HP and IBM were too full of fire-happy, stodgy, powerful men who wouldnt let youngin's with ideas flourish" then now Jobs becomes the HP/IBM he and Woz have decried all their careers? What a great way to send your talent off to competitors, scare your existing staff to never take chances, depressing hiring, build a toxic workplace, and send all these people to a startup where they might eat your lunch.
- pixl97 1y agoAnd yet Jobs set up Apple to become a trillion dollar company and HP is been relegated to the dustbin. Hell, all apples competition just copies apple these days for the most part.
- astrange 1y agoApple doesn't randomly fire people. In fact it's quite difficult to get fired for low performance from FAANG because they'd rather just lower your pay until you leave.