[pmcollins]

I put the power button at the top so that I don't accidentally take a screenshot when I want to change the volume. Somebody please give me a design job at Apple.

I still don't understand why Apple moved the power button to the side opposite the volume buttons.

[plugin-baby]

Engagement with the screenshot function has really improved since that button was moved, and someone somewhere got a nice promotion.

[cafed00d]

If this were Google where PMs ran feature development willy-nilly, then I bet this would've been true. Luckily, Apple's design team still has enough pull; so the MBAs haven't taken over everything.

[xadhominemx]

It’s really funny you think the MBAs have less sway at Apple than Google. Apple is a penny-pinching company literally run by a supply chain exec with a Duke MBA. Google is a freewheeling engineer-led culture with zero interest in cost control.

[cafed00d]

The design team at Apple is still super influential. I should’ve probably clarified in my previous post: I work at Apple and over the years made good friends with writers on the team. We worked very closely in some Siri teams I was on.

Anyways, we still catch up once in a while and from what I gather the design team is truly organized to value the art and outcomes far far more than chasing promotions and titles. As an engineer, I can assure you I feel a very different vibe in the eng org; chasing after promotions is still a part the career “mindset”. Even amongst all my eng friends here. In all fairness though, that’s how all big tech eng teams in the Bay Area or Seattle are organized. Engineers are incentivized to get promoted to dissuade “rest and vest”.

Anyways, my larger point is: yes, design team at apple is def the most powerful and has final say on features. Of course, the MBAs run everything else from financial analysis that determine designers’ raises to operations in the supply chain. Someone’s gotta turn the magic into reality, after all ;)

[solardev]

Can it be both? The engineers create a new chat app every year, then the MBAs take it over next year and "optimize" it into the ground and all the engineers flee, but that's ok because the cycle will repeat shortly.

[franl]

Probably because phones are massive now, and the side is the only place the power button can be pressed while holding the phone with one hand.

[bnt]

But you only need to "power" it once in like a month. You "turn it on" by tapping the screen. You "turn it off" by putting it aside or in your pocket. Power button on the side is a weird choice.

[franl]

Yeah you might be right. There are “weirdos” like me who power it on and off every day though :) Who knows what their rationale truly was, just seems like a case where the bad physical UX of a huge screen on a phone was compensated for by placing a button in a non-standard location. Oh and the power button is also used to quickly lock the screen, so that’s something probably used more often than turning the device on/off.

[whywhywhywhy]

My photo library has hundreds of screenshots of alarms going off because every time i pick it up to turn the alarm off half asleep I take a screenshot

[hugi]

Heh. Incidentally I just finished my weekly "delete all the accidental screenshots" session.

[stavros]

Aren't the power and volume buttons switched there? The long one is volume, no?

[kbouck]

... or inadvertently turn off your phone while intending to take a picture

[ckolkey]

All. The. Time.

[layer8]

I switch my phone off 20% of the time I want to take a picture.

[xylophonermore]

causes me aggravation every day