The ring/silent switch has been on the iPhone since the very first one was announced by Steve Jobs in 2007, but now the writing is on the wall for the last major moving part of the device. From a report: Now that this has been replaced by a haptic ‘action button’, it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the lineup is as smooth as a river pebble. At today’s iPhone event, the no doubt long-considered change was announced with little fanfare, with the new button sold as a customizable shortcut to whatever the user wants. Launch the camera, or an auxiliary function, or a particular app, etc. Seems useful in some ways, especially for accessibility. But I mourn the loss of this switch, as I do every time they compromise the hardware design of Apple devices. Removing TouchID is one such choice. I still hope they will be reversed. The haptic touchpads in MacBooks aren’t something I enjoy compared to the actual depression of the originals, although it’s probably a net benefit to the repair. The attempt to unite under a single port had failed in everything except boosting dongle sales. They tried to destroy the magnetic power connector but failed.
