iPhone users, don't you find the single button very limiting?

[BlahBlahYouToo]

single click to go to the home screen.
double click the button to open task tray.
hold the button to activate siri.
to close an app, you need to hold icons for a few seconds because you have no more buttons.

feels very lacking and inconvenient to me.

 

[alfa147x]

4 buttons to be accurate. After extensive use of many other phones, I don't. The OS is developed around 4 buttons and it has been developed very well.

 

[runawayprisoner]

single click to go to the home screen.
double click the button to open task tray.
hold the button to activate siri.
to close an app, you need to hold icons for a few seconds because you have no more buttons.

feels very lacking to me.

There is really no need to close an app on a regular enough basis, so I'd say it's not something of an annoyance.

Same for task tray. Going back to home screen accomplishes the same thing. The only reason why anyone would go into the tray are for:
1) Quick music control
2) Close apps that are crashing (rare but not impossible)
3) Control background Airplay and then get back to another app (wireless music mostly)

You don't need to hold the button to activate Siri, either. Just raise the phone to your ear and start talking.

 

[MrX8503]

I never thought about the home button being limiting. What does bother me though is that the home button wears out. For example my iPhone4 button is becoming less and less responsive.

Closing apps is multitouch friendly, meaning you can close two apps with two thumbs. This speeds up closing apps a little bit. I rarely go through the trouble of closing all my apps anyway.

I know its probably fixed in newer Android handsets, but what I found annoying is you have to first make room on your home screen before you can reorganize apps and widgets. On the iPhone you can move apps any where on any page regardless if there's room or not, it'll re orientate itself automatically.

 

[ImDonly1]

I never thought about the home button being limiting. What does bother me though is that the home button wears out. For example my iPhone4 button is becoming less and less responsive.

Closing apps is multitouch friendly, meaning you can close two apps with two thumbs. This speeds up closing apps a little bit. I rarely go through the trouble of closing all my apps anyway.

I know its probably fixed in newer Android handsets, but what I found annoying is you have to first make room on your home screen before you can reorganize apps and widgets. On the iPhone you can move apps any where on any page regardless if there's room or not, it'll re orientate itself automatically.

Jailbreak and download zephyr from cydia. It can close the app by swiping up from the bottom like in webos. Don't really need the button as much then.

 

[VashHT]

I miss the menu button from android, it's better having a button than having a bar on the screen with a "settings" button in almost every app. Android is getting rid of it too tho which is stupid to me, if you're going to have a row of buttons having a menu/settings button seems like a no brainer to me. I can kind of understand why they've removed it though, most people I've met don't seem to grasp the concept that the menu buttonw ill show you options and settings for the app you're currently in, it's like contextual buttons are too much for people to handle.

 

[bearxor]

No.

I go in to the multi-task bar to unlock orientation if I need it (and then I immediately lock it back when I'm done) or to close an app if it's not working right. In the average week, I'd say I open the task bar 3-5 times.

What's the Android solution to this? Bring down the notification screen and lock rotation? Open the tasker and slide the app off? Doesn't seem particularly better to me.

 

[MotionMan]

single click to go to the home screen.
double click the button to open task tray.
hold the button to activate siri.
to close an app, you need to hold icons for a few seconds because you have no more buttons.

feels very lacking to me.

I never feel like I am missing a button, so, no.

And there are four lights, err, buttons.

MotionMan

 

[TuxDave]

single click to go to the home screen.
double click the button to open task tray.
hold the button to activate siri.
to close an app, you need to hold icons for a few seconds because you have no more buttons.

feels very lacking to me.

It feels very convenient to me.

 

[Rackmountsales]

What more would you expect a company to do? I think people love to complain about nothing.

 

[ControlD]

In all the things I find frustratingly limited about the iPhone, and there are a ton, only having one button is not one of them. The one button I do have that my wife's Android is missing is the mute switch. I find having that is more convenient than the four buttons her phone does have.

 

[Eug]

There are actually 4 buttons, and a switch. 4 buttons and a switch on the iPhone is appropriate.

Aside from the switch, the iPod touch was also missing to very necessary volume buttons. Apple eventually agreed, and added those two buttons.

 

[foghorn67]

Don't like it. It relies on the screen for menu interactions which pop open when selecting a part of the touchscreen depending on the app.
I miss the menu button. Also the back button.
The 3-4 button layout maximizes the screen real estate by not needing on screen menus.

 

[silverpig]

Fewer buttons is better. That's why I like the PlayBook so much - zero buttons.

 

[Eug]

Zero buttons is not enough IMO.

 

[Red Storm]

Software buttons FTW. Love the Galaxy Nexus look, so sleek and simple.

 

[RedRooster]

Don't like it. It relies on the screen for menu interactions which pop open when selecting a part of the touchscreen depending on the app.
I miss the menu button. Also the back button.
The 3-4 button layout maximizes the screen real estate by not needing on screen menus.

Exactly. I noticed it way more when I moved to WP7, for the most part the apps on that don't have any wasted space up at the top for navigation, its just all swipe and if you need a settings menu or back button you use the hard buttons. So even though iPhone's dpi is crazy big, it doesn't help when the smallest smartphone screen on the market has to put in gigantic Back buttons at the top of every app.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I found the whole experience very limiting. I used an iPhone for 3+ years. Glad I discovered Android.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I miss the menu button from android, it's better having a button than having a bar on the screen with a "settings" button in almost every app. Android is getting rid of it too tho which is stupid to me, if you're going to have a row of buttons having a menu/settings button seems like a no brainer to me. I can kind of understand why they've removed it though, most people I've met don't seem to grasp the concept that the menu buttonw ill show you options and settings for the app you're currently in, it's like contextual buttons are too much for people to handle.

I agree. But I just bought an HTC One S, which doesn't have a menu button (just back, home, and multitasking), so I guess I'll have to get used to it.

The unfortunate part is the One S has a bit of interface kludge where apps that haven't been updated to the ICS interface standards (with an on-screen settings button) have a big ugly bar along the bottom with a virtual menu button. Most of the custom roms remove this of course and let you remap the multitasking button to a menu button instead. But if you don't want to root and install a rom then you have to live with it.

Personally my problem with the iPhone is that the single button means you have to put all the settings and stuff on the screen, you can't hide them behind an off-screen button or behind a long-press gesture like you can in Android. As a result, the already-small screen loses a little bit more precious space.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

There is really no need to close an app on a regular enough basis, so I'd say it's not something of an annoyance.

Same for task tray. Going back to home screen accomplishes the same thing. The only reason why anyone would go into the tray are for:
1) Quick music control
2) Close apps that are crashing (rare but not impossible)
3) Control background Airplay and then get back to another app (wireless music mostly)

You don't need to hold the button to activate Siri, either. Just raise the phone to your ear and start talking.

Really? I do it all the time. Maybe its just me, but I don't like a ton of apps "open" all the time.
Actually a lot of my iphone user friends are like this too.

So for us, closing an app is a long processs.
Double click, long hold icon, click icon again, then single click button (or off task tray area).
In android its:
Recent apps, swipe away, home.

 

[dguy6789]

They are doing away with the menu button on Android because having a menu button instead of an on screen menu key does not give you any information regarding whether the menu button will do anything or not on any given screen. By having a menu option on screen in the UI only you will always know if there's more options to be configured or not.

 

[ControlD]

Really? I do it all the time. Maybe its just me, but I don't like a ton of apps "open" all the time.
Actually a lot of my iphone user friends are like this too.

So for us, closing an app is a long processs.
Double click, long hold icon, click icon again, then single click button (or off task tray area).
In android its:
Recent apps, swipe away, home.

I agree with this completely. This is the main reason I am hoping the untethered 5.1.x jailbreak is released sometime soon. Having a SbSetting widget to close all background apps at one time is a huge time saver. I still can't understand why Apple doesn't give this functionality natively.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Really? I do it all the time. Maybe its just me, but I don't like a ton of apps "open" all the time.
Actually a lot of my iphone user friends are like this too.

So for us, closing an app is a long processs.
Double click, long hold icon, click icon again, then single click button (or off task tray area).
In android its:
Recent apps, swipe away, home.

Really. The reason why you don't have to close them is because you don't need to. An app is technically and factually closed as soon as the home button is pressed and the user is back in home screen.

The only reason why you ever need to "close" an app from the multitasking bar is because its saved state is corrupted. Otherwise, it's just a waste of time.

It's not like Android where everything stays open and running until the device runs out of memory and crash.

Really, can you honestly say that an iPhone suddenly feel 10x faster after having all of its icons expunged from the multitasking bar?

 

[shortylickens]

The interface is designed in such a way that you only need one hard button.
I been using Android since the 1.6 days and I'd have to say most apps dont have any real use for the menu button.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Really. The reason why you don't have to close them is because you don't need to. An app is technically and factually closed as soon as the home button is pressed and the user is back in home screen.

The only reason why you ever need to "close" an app from the multitasking bar is because its saved state is corrupted. Otherwise, it's just a waste of time.

It's not like Android where everything stays open and running until the device runs out of memory and crash.

Really, can you honestly say that an iPhone suddenly feel 10x faster after having all of its icons expunged from the multitasking bar?

Uh no, Android does a pretty good job of closing background processes in order to free up memory as needed.

But you're right that iOS is probably the same way and there's no benefit to using a "task killer," just as those apps on Android are useless (or detrimental).

The interface is designed in such a way that you only need one hard button.
I been using Android since the 1.6 days and I'd have to say most apps dont have any real use for the menu button.

Really? A huge number of the apps I use make use of the menu button.