Smartphones are stupid

I got a new cell phone. The Apple iPhone 15. As a fine art photographer, with nearly 4,000 photos in my portfolio, I especially looked forward to possibly using the cell phone camera as a sometime alternative to my Nikon camera. In my hopefulness I was dead wrong. The camera does not/will not take photos, it only takes videos! I don't do videos, I only do photos.

I experimented with my new iPhone 15 camera numerous times to take a simple photo. It only took videos. I went online on Google Search and looked up this problem. A number of results offered instructions on how to fix this issue. I tried them all. NONE of them worked. Apparently, at least with the camera I own, it is impossible to take a photo, I can only take a video of a subject. This is 100% worthless to me re fine art photography.

Why is this happening? I assume because Apple and its engineers are clueless and did not fully test the camera settings or did not realize this would be a huge problem for buyers who do photography. Or they didn't care. So far, I have found no fix, no update, no settings that eliminates the FORCED taking of videos instead of static photos. As a result, I cannot/will not use my iPhone 15 for taking pictures and the camera, and all its functions, is worthless to me. To me, this Apple smartphone is a waste of money. And, if I can't trust Apple, there is no other brand of smartphone I would trust.

A suggestion for all technology companies... 

BEFORE you launch a new product, do a Focus Group. Not a Focus Group of engineers or techies, a Focus Group with potential users who may or may not be technologically proficient. And fix any/all bugs BEFORE you launch a new product and frustrate users who buy it. Don't make smartphones that are stupid.

Andrew Lawrence
www.CoolColorPhotos.com

UPDATE:
On Feb 14, 2025, I called Apple and spoke to an Apple support Advisor, who looked up this issue. Her internal document showed that on the iPhone 15 the user could not change or remove the automatic Live Photo feature. In other words the camera of this Apple smartphone model could not take still photos, only videos. In other words, in my opinion, the iPhone15 smartphone was defectively designed. And thus useless to me as a fine art photography tool.