Camera, sound, and general design issues

Question

I bought an iPod Touch 3G about a year ago. Recently, I sold my 3g and bought a 4g. I am a professional web and interface designer and have been in the industry about 5 years.
With the iPod upgrade, I got camera functionality. Also, the recent iOS update added a new set of sound options. It appears that you can have the sound muted, but still get notification sounds from mail, facetime, and perhaps other applications as well; a good feature. The multitasking bar also now has a volume slider as well.
My Proposal (see below for details)
- Link the camera shutter sound to the regular iPod volume. Or have a setting to turn shutter on and off. Or add a “Ringer and Alert” option to disable shutter sound.
- Add a “mute all sounds” button in the multitask bar.
- Remove the sound slider in the multitask bar and replace it with a brightness bar.
The Camera
The camera seems to work great. Unfortunately, it isn’t the highest quality, which I heard was not due to cost, but because of size. Really Apple? Because 0.28 inches is just borderline “too thick?” But that is a whole other issue. The issue I am having is that the camera makes a really nasty (and often loud) shutter noise whenever I take photo, even when the sound is muted. Apple did add the “Ringer and Alerts” sound volume, which apparently also is linked to the camera shutter noise. So either I get audio mail alerts with shutter noise or I get no audio mail alerts with no shutter noise. The “Ringer and Alerts” section allows me to disable certain sounds (incoming mail, outgoing mail), but not the shutter sound. Shutter noises are annoying and there are plenty of circumstances where you do not want a shutter noise. And no, I am not talking about perverted circumstances. Say you are in a boring conference reading a magazine and want to send a photo of a page to a friend? Perhaps you are in a retail store doing some comparison-shopping online and are taking photos of bar codes? Maybe I have witnessed a crime and want to capture a photo of the fleeing perp. There is no reason that people within a 3-block radius need to know that you are taking a photo with my iPod Touch (…and yes, the last example was a bit over the top). Since mail alerts are very useful, I tend to leave them on even when the volume is muted. I typically leave my sound muted because often I may be using a sound application (games, youtube, etc) in a waiting room or other situation where there are people around. I like to be courteous to other people, so I leave my phone on vibrate and go to an unoccupied room (when possible) when receiving a phone call. So leaving my sound on is not a good option for me. However, in order to take a silent photo, I have to go into settings, go to sounds, and slide the “Change with Buttons” option to off. Then when I am done taking the photo, I have to slide it back. Very inconvenient and I have to remember to do it if I am taking a silent photo. Why not add a “Camera shutter” option to the list of sounds in the “Ringer and Alerts” section? Or maybe just bundle the camera shutter sound with the regular volume control of the iPod Touch. Or just add a setting to turn shutter sound on or off.
The Sound
Why is there no easy way to “mute all sounds,” especially with the new sound options of the iOS? This option should be added to the multitask bar. If you are going into a meeting and do not want audio alerts. When the meeting is over, simply go back to the multitask bar and unmute all sounds; simple to use, easy to add. Why did Apple add a volume control to the multitask bar? You can adjust the volume from any application by using the external buttons! Also, perhaps I just don’t understand the new functionality of the volume buttons, but how come you cannot adjust volume from within some applications (camera and others)? The buttons just don’t seem to do anything in those applications. Why in the world would you do that? Those sound buttons have a specific purpose that users are accustom to. No matter what application you are in, you can easily adjust the sound. If you have some feedback on the new functionality of the buttons, please let me know.
The Brightness
Sound and brightness are the two items I change the most. Sometimes I am using my iPod Touch in a dimly lit room, so I like to turn down the brightness. The auto brightness works, but not well in dimly lit rooms. Watching YouTube videos can sometimes be a bit cumbersome with the brightness. If the video is to bright or dark, you can to exit the YouTube app, go to settings, adjust the brightness, go back to YouTube and resume the video. The same goes for the Video application. Some games are brighter or darker than others, so adjusting the brightness after starting a game is a common circumstance. Why not replace the audio controls in the multitask bar with a brightness option. Audio is accessible (or at least should be) from any application thanks to the hardware buttons.

Answer 1

Welcome to the discussions,
this is a user to user forum, and Apple does not follow the discussions. But you can address Apple directly using this link: http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipodtouch.html