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Comment by VincentEvans | Hacker News Reader

After apple moved iphone power button from the top to the side of the device - most times i try to turn off my phone one-handed - i take a screenshot instead.

My camera roll is full of screenshots of my lock screen and occasional random website.

I was going to say - do they use their own devices? But if they don’t - what do they use? I mean it’s an iphone…

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Cynically: you should not want to switch off your device, at least not often, so this function is deprioritized. If you want it off for reasons other than long-term storage, something in the design is lacking.

Software this complex needs regular reboots to clear caches and resource leaks.

Also many venues like cinemas, theaters or planetariums require you to turn the phone off for the duration of the performance.

Also you may need to save battery, e.g. on a long trip with no way to charge the phone.

Where has someone asked you to turn it off? IME, cinemas/theaters would at most ask you to enable airplane mode or silent mode and to not use the phone, but turning it off is an unnecessary step.

To save battery on a long trip, I combine airplane mode with low-power mode. Then my iPhone 8's battery level does not move.

Last time? In a planetarium. The staff person insisted on everyone specifically turning all electronics with the screen off and observed the group doing that, because, paraphrasing, there's always some idiot who takes "switch off" to mean "put in airplane mode", and in this case light from the screen is by itself disturbing.

I put it on silent for shows. I turn it off off for weddings and funerals, I'm taking zero chance there.

Well, maybe it wasn’t clear from my description, but by attempting to press the power button my intention is not to “power it down”, but rather to “lock” it.

…which I do countless times a day, and apple put their “screenshot” combination buttons on opposite sides of the screen, EXACTLY where I hold it.

Because if I don’t - it butt-dials random numbers. And by random - I don’t mean digits, but something a lot worse - a russian roulette of employers, acquaintances, municipal services, businesses or anything else that happens to be in recent calls, or contacts, or numbers that dialed me, or that I dialed, or… you get the idea.

related anecdote: when my mother misplaced her phone for a few days, causing it to run out of power and shut down, she was able to charge it but she could not turn it on because she had forgotten how.

One of the best practices endorsed by the us government to protect yourself from persistent malware on iPhone is to power it off and on periodically: https://media.defense.gov/2021/Sep/16/2002855921/-1/-1/0/MOB...

Perhaps it was a tradeoff they consciously made to benefit elsewhere in the design.

Considering how much this change annoys me - it’d make me feel better if I could tell what that benefit was.

Same goes for removing the home physical button.

I hear they are coming for the physical mute toggle next.

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