Did you use the phone as an alarm clock?

Did you ever miss an alarm because you left it in mute?

Are you aware of anyone who’s had that happen?

My understanding was that, in the case of the Centro, the switch was actually a hardware switch–that is, it physically cut off the connection to the phone’s speaker when toggled, so that no software could ever alter its behavior. There’s no reason, however, that a physical switch can’t have a behavior specified by the user, just as the iPad lets you choose to use the side button as either a mute button or a screen orientation lock.

If memory serves me correctly, Apple banned a creative camera app from the app store because it hijacked the volume buttons to use on the camera. Then they went ahead and put the same, or similar, functionality right in the next major version of iOS. So clearly there’s been some evolution in Apple on whether users should be able to determine how the physical buttons work.

I agree, this is Apple stubbornness, and a case of them thinking that they know what we want better than we know ourselves–even to the point of not giving us a choice when it is simple to do so. Glad I don’t own an iPhone.

I’m glad I do (currently I’ve got every model except the iPhone 4, which I hope to get from my dad when he upgrades to a 4S). But as I said, I predict that Apple will change this in iOS 6.

My understanding was that, in the case of the Centro, the switch was actually a hardware switch–that is, it physically cut off the connection to the phone’s speaker when toggled, so that no software could ever alter its behavior. There’s no reason, however, that a physical switch can’t have a behavior specified by the user, just as the iPad lets you choose to use the side button as either a mute button or a screen orientation lock.

I agree, this is Apple stubbornness, and a case of them thinking that they know what we want better than we know ourselves–even to the point of not giving us a choice when it is simple to do so. Glad I don’t own an iPhone.

But that just raises the question that I’ve been asking: shouldn’t it be a mute switch that makes the phone silent? I say yes, it should be. You can say no, it shouldn’t be, but it’s stipulated that we all know what it is.

Second, it works the way it must for the alarm clock to have any value at all. This may be news to you but many people silence their ringers much, most or even all of the time. It’s extremely unlikely that an alarm would sound at an undesirable time. And also inconsequential if it did happen. Whereas it would be so commonplace and so unacceptable to miss an alarm that no one would ever use it.

There are two potentially unfortunate cases we’re examining:

1. The mute switch silences all the sounds on the phone; someone accidentally leaves the mute switch turned on, so his alarm doesn’t ring and wake him up.
2. The mute switch silences some sounds on the phone but not others; someone turns it on, thinking he’s not going to hear his phone for the duration, but instead it rings and annoys other people and embarrasses him.

I say that the second case is much worse, because in that case, the user expected the button to perform a certain way – and he had lots of logical reasons to expect it would behave that way – but then it did something else entirely. The first case is not as bad, because the phone is responding exactly to how it’s been set by the user. In the first case, it’s a simple matter of forgetfulness (user error); in the second case, it’s a matter of confusion (design error).

Everyone with an iPhone is free to buy an additional alarm clock and put it next to his bed, to protect against the possibility that he might leave his phone’s alarm silenced. But how is someone supposed to protect against the possibility that his iPhone will make noises even though he thinks he put it in mute?

Apple (and Android) got it right.

I stand by what I said earlier, which is that this is a design flaw. But also as I said, rather than simply reversing the behavior of the switch in the future, Apple will add some advanced settings for the user to specify how he wants the mute button to behave. And that will be the best of both worlds.

Apple (and Android) got it right.

Firstly, the guy at the orchestra concert was a moron. Plain and simple.

“Moron” isn’t inflammatory language, is it?

His phone started making a noise, but he was so embarrassed to be identified that he didn’t even try to stop the alarm until he was called out. Instead of taking responsibility for his inaction, he chose to blame his phone.

He didn’t realize it was his phone. Because he had silenced his… or so he had thought… which is the whole point. If this were about one guy making a stupid mistake, then Gruber and all the bloggers who talk Apple wouldn’t give a damn and nobody would be writing about it. It’s because the iPhone is counter-intuitive by design that people have to come down on one side or the other.

It’s very clear by the language he uses to describe what happened. “I didn’t know phones had alarm clocks”. Sounds plausible dude. The fact is, if he’d actually pulled it out of his pocket he could have fixed it in 1 second. In fact, pressing any button on the phone at all will silence an alarm.

That statement just shows that he’s too old and dumb to be using any smartphone.

Secondly, the switch is a ringer & alert silencer, not a mute switch. It silencing incoming alerts & calls. The icon on the screen when you enable it is a bell with a line through it, not a speaker. It was never and will never be designed as a mute switch.

Counter-intuitive, poor design. This can not be described as, “It just works!”

Old Nokia & Motorola phones used to turn themselves on from being completely off to sound the alarm or a reminder! The advantage of the iPhone specifically over your old phones is that you have reminders & a calendar instead of just an alarm clock. Much more useful and they will stay silent when the silent switch is on. An alarm, by it’s very nature should never be muted.

Counter-intuitive, poor design. This can not be described as, “It just works!”

I realise that you have a separate alarm clock that you use to wake you up, but a huge number of people don’t. They also no longer carry around a separate mp3 player, camera, diary etc. One device that can handle all their needs. Very much not an edge case at all. The design philosophy behind a device like the iphone is very much one of consolidation. One device that can do many tasks.

Actually, I use an iPhone as an alarm clock now. I am somewhat more savvy than the guy in the article.

But I do sympathize with him because I was in his position a few times when I first started using an iPhone some years ago: I had multiple alarms set and made a point of “silencing” my phone for the duration of what was supposed to be a quiet, tranquil long weekend, only to be greeted by the jarring alarm sound on multiple occasions.

People should know the devices that they rely on to run their lives, and on my first day of using the iPhone, I’d carefully gone through every setting and examined every feature to get all the ins and outs lined up correctly. But there was no setting to make the alarm override “silent” mode, and none to make “silent” mode override the alarm – so I assumed it would “just work.” This is why I’m sure it will be added as an option in a later version of iOS.

Firstly, the guy at the orchestra concert was a moron. Plain and simple. His phone started making a noise, but he was so embarrassed to be identified that he didn’t even try to stop the alarm until he was called out. Instead of taking responsibility for his inaction, he chose to blame his phone. It’s very clear by the language he uses to describe what happened. “I didn’t know phones had alarm clocks”. Sounds plausible dude. The fact is, if he’d actually pulled it out of his pocket he could have fixed it in 1 second. In fact, pressing any button on the phone at all will silence an alarm.

Secondly, the switch is a ringer & alert silencer, not a mute switch. It silencing incoming alerts & calls. The icon on the screen when you enable it is a bell with a line through it, not a speaker. It was never and will never be designed as a mute switch.

Old Nokia & Motorola phones used to turn themselves on from being completely off to sound the alarm or a reminder! The advantage of the iPhone specifically over your old phones is that you have reminders & a calendar instead of just an alarm clock. Much more useful and they will stay silent when the silent switch is on. An alarm, by it’s very nature should never be muted.

I realise that you have a separate alarm clock that you use to wake you up, but a huge number of people don’t. They also no longer carry around a separate mp3 player, camera, diary etc. One device that can handle all their needs. Very much not an edge case at all. The design philosophy behind a device like the iphone is very much one of consolidation. One device that can do many tasks.