The Speaker (Or: why the iPhone's speaker is on the bottom of the phone)

http://dcurt.is/2011/10/12/the-speaker/

by chrysb • 15 years ago

69 46 15 years ago

Ever wonder why the iPhone's speaker is on the bottom of the phone?

rudiger• 15 years ago

Between the speaker and the 3.5 inch screen, I believe there is some sort of logical fallacy in Dustin Curtis' reasoning: the existing design is X, then we figure out some justification for X.

dcurtis• 15 years ago

I hadn't really noticed these things until I used Android phones. Since switching, I've become aware of how much thoughtful design went into the boring things I used to take for granted on the iPhone.

dlss6• 15 years ago

I think what he was saying is that different != worse.

If you had started on an android phone, you would probably have written a similar piece talking about how apple phones get muted when placed on a fluffy blanket (as the edge gets covered), and how the android hardware designers did it right.

You should focus on talking about design tradeoffs irrespective of your current behavior. Reading about how you can't train yourself to place your phone face down, and that this is somehow a samsung design flaw, isn't interesting :-/

morrow• 15 years ago

I've had the same realization about the iPad after working with webOS on the HP touchpad. I think the reason so much gets taken for granted with the iPad and iPhone is that their design and interface are very intuitive, so that you never have to really spend a lot of energy learning how to do things on them -- what comes naturally usually works. When you use a device that does things differently, you have to stop for a minute and take notice, and actually learn how to do it the way they've designed it (not that that makes it inherently worse).

nextparadigms• 15 years ago

A lot of tech reviewers seem to do that in their reviews, I've noticed. Since they like the iPhone and they are used to it, they treat it as a reference point, and then anything else that deviates from that must be the wrong way to do it.

Game_Ender• 15 years ago

It is useful to use the worlds most popular smart phone to compare other phones against. More people reading those articles will be familiar with the iPhone then any other smart phone.

shaunkoh• 15 years ago

Notice how dcurtis didn't start with "This is how the iPhone is", "This is Android", and "This is why the Android way is wrong".

Instead, he shared a problem that he had with his Android – not that it wasn't like the iPhone, but that it didn't wake him up properly.

The rest of his piece put across a hypothesis that builds upon the problem.

wonnage• 15 years ago

Yeah, you could probably conjure up a problem with any positioning, e.g bottom-speaker is pretty easy to accidentally cover when holding the phone sideways.

ugh2• 15 years ago

The author mentions a specific problem.

We don’t know whether Apple considered that problem but it’s a problem nonetheless.

mladenkovacevic• 15 years ago

I think it's arguable whether this is a true problem that has never been dealt with until Apple tackled it. The author of that article seems to be the only person I've encountered that has had this alarm being muffled issue.

Various devices deal with this in various ways (by putting little ugly feet on the back as someone noticed, by slightly curving the surface on which the speaker is located, or as iPhone does it by placing it on a plane which in most scenarios sits perpendicular to the surface on which the device is resting).

Whether Apple's solution is the most elegant is also arguable but everyone is entitled to an opinion. One thing is for sure, this wasn't some obscure problem that no engineer has ever thought of until Apple decided to save us.

X-Istence2• 15 years ago

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3105844

parasitius2• 15 years ago

Dude's blog is driving me nuts overall. No commenting, and the article about why iPhone is 3.5 inches the other day because "Galaxy S II" is too big to reach whole screen with your thumb... Yeah maybe for a child or small-bodied (non-American) woman, but I actually borrowed a friends to CHECK, and I can easily reach beyond every bit of the screen with one hand.

parasitius2• 15 years ago

Down rating :( ??

pluies• 15 years ago

Well, you don't address the post content but attack the writer directly, also implying that he's a child or a foreign small girl (why "non-American" by the way? Do American women have bigger hands?), which is not really good form.

there• 15 years ago

Even when you place the Nexus S on a flat surface, its speaker becomes almost inaudible.

i just put my nexus s on my desk and the speaker worked just fine. the whole reason why there's a little bump over the center of the speaker is to raise it off of a flat surface and let the audio get out.

putting the iphone in a dock probably muffles the audio coming from its bottom speaker (though maybe apple's dock accounts for this, maybe 3rd party ones don't).

there's probably not a perfect way to solve this for every user. if you know the speaker is on the back, don't rest it on a blanket. if it's on the bottom, don't use it in a dock.

adolph• 15 years ago

Yep, Apple's docks have little cut-outs. Some 3rd party inserts for various cases have cut-outs too.

sardonicbryan• 15 years ago

I use a Galaxy S2 as my alarm clock and have never encountered this problem, even though I typically leave my phone on my bed by my pillow as I sleep.

joezydeco• 15 years ago

Okay, Dustin. I have one for you to investigate next.

Does iOS watch your use patterns for the phone and mute alerts when it thinks you're asleep? It could be just me, but I know I'm not the only one with a Pavlovian response when I hear the mail dinger. And the phone is abnormally quiet until just around the time I normally get up, then I hear the morning mail ding in.

Am I nuts? Wife says I am.

alttag• 15 years ago

I swear mine does it too.

I suspect it mutes alerts after a period of inactivity (but it could be something sneaky like a combination of the photosensor and accelerometer reporting dark and no movement).

X-Istence2• 15 years ago

It doesn't do this with alerts from apps on the iPad for example... those still go off, so I am not sure.

Although I may have become so used to the sound that I can tune it out ...

Shenglong• 15 years ago

This may be a little old, but this really reminds me of the LG EnV Touch - the phone I had before my iPhone4. Here's a picture: http://admintell.napco.com/ee/images/uploads/gadgetell/lg-en...

Worse than putting the speakers on the back, the LG team actually stuck the speakers on the INSIDE of the phone. Yeah, it's fine and loud when you open it up, but you can barely hear the phone ring when it's closed and in a pocket. Things like this really bother me. Thanks for pointing this out.

tzs• 15 years ago

From a Time Magazine story from 2007:

    The iPhone is a typical piece of Ive design: an
    austere, abstract, platonic-looking form that
    somehow also manages to feel warm and organic and
    ergonomic. Unlike my phone. He picks it up and
    points out four little nubbins on the back. "Your
    phone's got feet on," he says, not unkindly. "Why
    would anybody put feet on a phone?" Ive has the
    answer, of course: "It raises the speaker on the
    back off the table. But the right solution is to
    put the speaker in the right place in the first
    place. That's why our speaker isn't on the bottom,
    so you can have it on the table, and you don't
    need feet." Sure enough, no feet toe the iPhone's
    smooth lines.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1575743,00....

rottencupcakes• 15 years ago

Because rubber feet have friction and hold a phone on a surface much better than the iPhone's smooth back does.

Also, putting my iPhone down without scratching the front or the back glass on a piece of sand or dirt is an art.

Yes, the iPhone 4(s) is pretty, but you sacrifice function for that beauty.

ceejayoz• 15 years ago

Agreed. Thus far, every time my iPhone 4 has fallen has been a time I put it on an ever-so-slightly tilted surface and it seemingly slides under its own power. I'd be fine with a little more friction on the glass backing.

tptacek2• 15 years ago

If you want little rubber feets on the back of your iPhone, put little rubber feets on the back of your iPhone. The back of the iPhone is, properly, inert and ambivalent to your modifications.

driverdan• 15 years ago

The iPad design team could have learned from the iPhone team. The speaker is on the back which makes it very quiet when watching a movie. You have to put something behind it to reflect the sound.

dpark5• 15 years ago

My guess is that they didn't want to put holes in the glass. It'd be less sleek. But it would sound a lot better.

cpeterso• 15 years ago

Why not put speakers on the left and right edges of the iPad?

eam• 15 years ago

I think it would be better if it were on the top. When I hold my phone upside vertically sometimes I manage to cover the speaker with my hands.

Splines• 15 years ago

What I don't understand is why the earpiece couldn't also double as an "external" speaker. They're about the same size.

nebaneba• 15 years ago

I never noticed this! But now, I do:

http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/TechRadar...

on both sides too!

grimborg• 15 years ago

The HTC Desire has the speaker on the back and it doesn't have this problem.

rvschuilenburg• 15 years ago

You know, nothing is perfect. Ever played a landscape game on the iPhone, watched a movie in landscape, or whatever? Ever noticed how you somehow always cover the speaker with your hand without noticing it? I do. It's driving me nuts.

The Speaker (Or: why the iPhone's speaker is on the bottom of the phone)

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