Apple's Next Year iPhone Won't Have the Home Button: NYTimes

The reviews for the Apple's new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are live today. The New York Times, for instance, has given the smartphone a fairly positive review. However, in the story, the reporter says that the company's next flagship iPhone won't have the home button (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; here's an alternate source). Instead, the display will serve the purpose of the home button as well, the report added. From the report:Apple is likely to continue making iPhones without headphone jacks, and next year's iPhone will have a full-screen face with the virtual button built directly into the screen, according to two people at the company who spoke on condition of anonymity because the product details are private.

Comments

Underwater

[DrYak]

Yes, we should eliminate all those things which are working great, so there are no ports, because... reasons

He just gave you a reason, smartass: so you can bring the phone underwater.

I have quite a few gadgets that can go underwater (not just splash resistant, but water resistant: full IPX7-certified immersion capable) that do feature ports.

Including the e-Book I gave present to my mother (Kobo H20) : that has ports - a microUSB charging/sync port, and a microSD card port.
(As long as the rubber cover is over them, and isn't currently open to swap the microSD card, this thing can survive 1m under water for half an hour)

That also includes my speaker (UE Megaboom): it has a microUSB and a 3mm Audio stereo analog jack and a huge honking battery rated at a whooping 200Wh.
Everything that Apple deems necessary to remove just to make their phone splash resistant.
And this speaker is not only resist spalsh but can be forgotten for some time at the bottom of my above-ground pool. And will keep playing music (though not very audible due to difficulty of transferring sound air->water->air again).

I gave also a photo camera as a present to my girl (Olympus TG-4) this thing is rated at 15m depth (you could go diving with it). And it still has a USB connector, a SD card port, and Audio/Video connection (though the port is digital : it's a micro HDMI, not analog jack port) and fast and easy end-user replaceable battery. Though for the record it use plastic doors instead of rubber covers to protect the ports.

So again, can you explain me why Apple needs to remove functionality that is used everywhere (just go to any student party and watch how often people plug their smartphones with their music playlists into the analog jack of whatever speaker system is laying around*) just in the name of making the damn thing splash resistant ?
Oh yeah, I know: their obsession of making the phone thin enough to slice cheese. A rubber port cover would stay in the way.

(It's the same company that obsesses with ridiculously small SIM card formats, even if the whole device isn't fitting directly in the ear - Lt.Uhura's style)

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(*) Apple removing the audio jack from their hardware would be like removing the floppy drive from their "canddy" iMacs... before USB flash drive got available.
Currently only some portable speaker system feature bluetooth. Even less are hassle free (NFC-based "touch to connect").
There are tons of old speaker systems in student dorms only accepting analog inputs. (Or even more ironically: accepting audio from the old (non-lightning) Apple connector that isn't produced anymore).

Luckily Bluetooth to 3mm jack / -to stereo RCA (and most ironic: to Apple 30-pin) audio dongle are cheap from China over ebay, so eventually this situation might get more jack-less friendly.