Comments on: The Apple iPhone has no ‘off’ button

By: Michelle G from home

Michelle G from home — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:03:05 +0000

You have an iPhone! You beat me. I love your photos Chris. We miss you here. We are moving to Tasmania in a month.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:02:26 +0000

A couple of things come to mind, perhaps because as I’m in my forties I’m considered old fashioned, but I can think several more reasons to switch off the phone (and I do mean the phone not the device itself)

Firstly you do not need the world in contact with you 24 hours a day. Switching off the phone is a good thing to do. Do not believe that your world will fall apart if someone cannot contact you, it won’t. If it’s important they will call again or contact you in a different way. We do seem to have great difficulty these days, in distinguishing the difference between the immediate and the important. Don’t underestimate the pleasure to be had from a darkened room.

Secondly there are lots of times, when I’m on holiday for instance, that I want to escape, and don’t need friends asking if ‘I’m going down the pup tonight’ Clearly I’m not, I’m on holiday. What’s more, I don’t want to pay for the privilege of telling people I’m not available with exorbitant roaming charges.

I would also like to point out that the iPhone has 2 off switches. The button on the top switches off the entire device, and the ‘airplane mode’ switches off the phone. It also switches wireless off, which is a pain, but you can switch wireless back on if you want to. (at least you can with 2.0)

My favourite add on, on my palm phone was a scheduler that turned the phone off at night, and turned it back on in the morning. Who wants to be woken in the middle of the night by a wrong number or an idiot not realising which time zone you are in. Yes you can manually switch off the phone, or switch it to silent, but who remembers to do that all the time. I just hope something like that makes it to the Apps store soon.

By: notmymname

notmymname — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:57:11 +0000

In responce to Thomas’s 3 reasons to turn off a CELL PHONE, only one can apply to the iPhone!

*Saving Battery.
YES! Turning off the phone will save the battery if you don’t need to, or cant receive calls or e-mails.

*On an airplane.
NO! iPhone has an “airplane mode” that disables cellular and wifi usage so it is the same as an iPod, no signals to interfere and you can play music, videos, movies and games.

* To avoid interference around medical equipment.
NO! Turn on iPhone “airplane mode” that disables cellular and wifi usage so it is the same as an iPod, no signals to interfere and you can play music, videos, movies and games.

# Thomas Says:
May 7th, 2008 at 12:29 pm

Here are three reasons to turn of your cell phone off the top of my head:
* Saving battery
* Taking your phone on an airplane
* To avoid interference around certain of kind of medical equipment

By: skizz

skizz — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:11:04 +0000

Updated — as people have pointed out I was wrong that you can’t turn it off. I’m leaving the post though because I think the point is interesting.

By: jsk

jsk — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:47:52 +0000

iPods don’t have an off switch either (you can only put them to sleep).

By: Bruno

Bruno — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:30:16 +0000

In my best Arte Johnson “Wolfgang” voice…

“Verrry interesting–…but schtupit!”

By: Thomas

Thomas — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:29:30 +0000

Here are three reasons to turn of your cell phone off the top of my head:
* Saving battery
* Taking your phone on an airplane
* To avoid interference around certain of kind of medical equipment

By: iPhoneUser

iPhoneUser — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:52:37 +0000

It definitely has an off button.

By: William

William — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:33:25 +0000

I must be missing something here. The button on the upper right will turn the power off if you hold it down and then move the slider that appers to the right. That to me is an off button but you might be talking about something else?

By: Randy

Randy — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:29:40 +0000

If you hold the button on the top right down for a few seconds. You get a swipe bar that shuts off the iPhone.