ALL iPhone generations released so far have a CSS pixel width of 320 pixels. But the iPhone 6 is the first to change this. It looks like Apple is finally bumping this up! This means a bit more text can fit on each line when holding the phone vertically for websites using <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">:
- iPhone 6 is 1334x750: CSS pixel width is likely 375px (pixel ratio = 2)
- iPhone 6 Plus is 1920x1080: CSS pixel width is likely either 432px (pixel ratio = 2.5) or 360px (pixel ratio = 3). It would make sense to implement a ratio of 2.5 as it would be 15.2% more CSS pixels for a screen 17.0% wider. But on the other hand (1) Apple designers are perfectionists and a fractional ratio means an image slightly less sharp, and (2) maybe with the Plus model Apple wants to attract smartphone buyers who dislike tiny text on a tiny display so it would make sense to provide fewer CSS pixels on a bigger screen... I am really curious to know which way they went.
This all needs to be confirmed with a device in hands...
I wonder how this will affect many of the apps where devs have hard coded the screen resolution and depend on the current DPI. The iPhone 4 doubled the DPI and the resolution so that it would be fairly seamless to devs. The iPhone 5 made the screen a bit wider but kept the same DPI. It looks like the iPhone 6 changes both DPI and resolution so this might break many existing apps.
This is going to throw advertising firms into an epic tizzy. The de facto mobile web ad size has been standardized around the 320px (320x50 usually) width of portrait iPhones since basically the dawn of smartphone advertising. Now suddenly they have 3 widths to worry about just for iPhone.
With hindsight, I don't think a resolution higher than 1080p was ever an option for Apple.
Wasn't the original Retina display touted close to the limit of human perception ?
Regardless of marketingspeak, higher resolution displays have unclear benefits, since possibly people won't notice difference in sharpness, and clear drawbacks, as increased battery consumption:
Too bad there is no longer a high end 4" model. The iPhone 5S won't support Apple Pay since it doesn't have NFC, and it is no longer available in 64 GB.
I would have thought that Apple understood they have customers that actually prefer the 4" size, or else they wouldn't have had any sales the last years. Let's hope for a iPhone 6S mini next year.
No you are not. In fact Gruber's podcast yesterday talked about that very thing. They thought it might be called iPhone "pro" because anything else meaning bigger just doesn't sound like Apple.
Overall this whole event was odd. It was more Apple reacting to trends rather than setting them...
Having a "pro" means the other option is "un-pro".
Apple knows their iPhones are (to some extent) status symbols, and just like the 5c failed because it was perceived as the "cheap model", they had to come up with a value neutral modifier for "big". And given both 6 models are larger than all previous ones, they could hardly have the 6 and 6 mini.
They don't have to worry about losing any customers to Android though, because nobody makes a 4" phone anymore. Unless you're looking for some Chinese generic with a 320x240 screen and no reviews.
I don't get this trend. I just want a phone that does calls/texts, maps, alarms, music, and occasionally browses the web. Why does it need to be enormous?
I would venture the trend is because there are consumers (maybe a significant percentage) who, when comparing different options, simply make a choice based on "bigger is better".
The 4.7 in version bump is negligible for most ppl's palms. Even the majority of people with small hands still engulf the 4 in. size. I think it would be a moot point in a majority of cases unless you are really jones'ing for the pocket space and portability...
I will definitely try it just to be sure, but even the move from 3.5" to 4" started to stretch it when reaching for the top left corner of the screen for me.
No iPhone 6 option at 4" is in direct contradiction to what they said before. It's a reason the Apple Watch is released in two different faces, people are different!
Agreed that it’s rather awkward to tap the top left corner—unless you have large hands. Fortunately, more apps are now supporting the ‘swipe from left edge’ gesture to go back (e.g. Safari).
4.7 is slightly smaller than my Nexus 5 which is HUGE. I think iPhone users are going to be in for quite a shock. A big phone usually means two handed use, compromises on battery life, etc. Interesting, that not too long ago, I kept hearing how my phone was too big, the 4" is the natural size by some Jobsian logic, wont fit the pockets of teens/women, etc, etc. Glad to see Apple contemporizing though.
I'm starting to think this was a move for Apple to not lose Asia as small phones are really out of style there. Apple lives in fear of only becoming an "American" company.
Exactly, and my Nexus 5 is the largest I will go for a phone. It's my line in the sand. If I upgrade (and it may be a long while before I do), it'll be to a Sony Compact. The new Moto X was on my radar until they made it bigger.
That's definitely not true. I work with plenty of Android phones with 4.7 to 5 inch screen sizes, and they feel comically large in my hand compared to my personal iPhone 5s. Even the jump from the iPhone 4s to the 5 made reaching everything with one hand noticeably more tedious, but of course one gets used to it.
The thing is, I cannot see how the increase in screen size will improve the functionality of the phone, at least in my case.
As a phone, messenger, and audio player, the main functions for me, I cannot see any benefit.
As a game console, gps/maps client, e-mail client I can see some marginal benefits from the larger screen, but not to justify the increased bulkiness.
I usually do not use my phone for web browsing, as a video player and e-book reader, due to the small screen, and I cannot see the .7 increase being big enough to change that.
I don't know about that - my nexus 4 is only 1.6mm wider. I have larger than average hands and can't quite reach all four corners without repositioning my grip. My wife also has an n4, and she has to use it with both hands.
I'd be quite happy with an iPhone 5 form factor Android device.
Interesting, I assumed it still required iPhone 6 because in the keynote they mentioned some addition to the secure enclave for this. But the website explicitly says Apple Pay is compatible with Apple Watch, and I quote:
> Paired with iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, or iPhone 6 Plus. In-store purchases only.
I'm building a dense network of atmosphere sensors using smartphones in order to build a more accurate weather model [1]. Android's APIs allow us to access the raw data, but all of Apple's marketing talks just about "elevation". I'm hoping they give us access to the raw sensor, and not just elevation change.
Humanity ought to have a much better weather forecast than we have now, as we're nearing 1B+ internet-connected barometers. Hopefully Apple's sensors can add to this network!
Reminded me of this dialogue from The Social Network:
Sean Parker: Well, I founded an internet company that
let folks download and share music for free.
Amy: Kind of like Napster?
Sean Parker: Exactly like Napster.
Amy: What do you mean?
Sean Parker: I founded Napster.
Amy: Sean Parker founded Napster.
Sean Parker: Nice to meet you.
cryptoz: My compliments on pressurenet, creative ingenuity, taking such impressive advantage (with practical application, and nerd fun) of data from a source as basic as a single sensor.
I build an avalanche safety app http://www.ullrlabs.com and knowing your elevation is one key aspect of determining the avalanche risk (due to differences in altitude for wind effect, temp, and snow accumulation).
It can be used as a basic altimeter. Which can help pinpoint your location better, they're meant to be accurate to within 10 feet vertically from a base point.
Many people's migraines are correlated to changes in barometric pressure. What's really cool is with thousand (or millions!) of people tracking when they have a migraine while using a barametric pressure tracking device, we'll finally get solid data to see how strong this correlation is and whether it involves other factors.
Medical science can't, for obvious reasons, do a lot of controlled experiments with people. The next best thing is using "big data" collection over millions of people over many dimensions. Knowledge will benefit immeasurable.
It's an interesting environmental variable to track, especially if you get migraines or have mood swings. If it turns out increased pressure is correlated to your headaches, you can take extra precautions to avoid other triggers.
Determine the location within tall buildings more accurately but obviously not 100% accurate. This is one step closer to pinpointing the exact location of the phone within tall buildings.
I like the look of my iPhone 5s much better. This iPhone 6 thing looks like a Galaxy. The throwback to iPhone 1 is interesting but count me out. Not liking the design at all
The protruding camera is also really weird. I wonder if Jobs would have signed off on that...
Who knows though. Maybe once I hold one personally I'll end up liking it more than the 5s. But I would be surprised :)
Most people put Apple phones in cases anyway, so does it really even matter much how the bare phone looks? It doesn't to me. The protruding camera lens housing will probably be flush with a case.
The iPhone6+ looks just like one of those giant Android monsters from Nexus or Samsung. This makes me sad.
I have small-person sized hands and often struggle even with the normal iPhone5 and the trend for making phones bigger and bigger makes me angry and sad at the same time. I hate it and always, always, when my friends would ask why I prefer Apple over cheaper and better speced devices, my answer was "Because Apple is the only phone that doesn't compete on screen size".
It does and I won't get a new iphone before 7 or 6s comes out anyway because I don't need a new phone right now.
But I feel betrayed. They were the only phones out there that understood a phone isn't magically better just because it's got higher numbers. Now it seems they aren't anymore.
At this rate next time I buy a phone I'm gonna have to get one of those stupid watches and forego a phone completely.
It comes down to the greatest good for the greatest number of users. The fact is that most of us feel that the current iPhone is too small, especially with the galactically-stupid layout techniques used by both mobile and desktop web sites these days. Apple stuck to their guns as long as they could, but it was costing them market share.
I have big hands and I still agree with you. I hung on to my Nexus One well past its expiry date because of the size of it. Eventually I had to move up and being in the Android realm I came VERY close to buying the Moto X because of its narrower form factor in my hand. In the end I went Nexus 5 but it still feels big to me.
Gladly... for another Nexus One fan. (still have mine, still fire it up from time to time) Off the top of my head so this may not be entirely complete.
What I don't miss:
- "Do I have enough memory to install this? Nope."
- Apps that need new Android versions
- That annoying touch screen bug
- 3G speeds
- all the hacks and mods to get around memory limitations
What I miss:
- the huge notification light... loved that
- being able to use my thumb across the whole screen width
- removable storage (and USB flash drive mode)
- battery life.. my Nexus One could go 2 solid days
I'll update this as I think of more. Of course the N5 is much faster, incredible screen, etc. The above is more personal notes. I haven't regretted the Nexus 5 buy at all... but I do get nostalgic sometimes. Especially when I'm looking for a charger.. like the people I used to laugh at. :)
I went BB Pearl 8100 > Nexus One > Nexus 5. Each upgrade felt stupid big at first, but I got used to them.
N5 is workable particularly if you install a launcher that lets you open notifications other than swiping from top. I also like its keyboard better than N1's - bigger keys do make a difference (though 4.4's keyboard software might also play a role).
You definitely hold and use the bigger phones slightly differently but I've found it's not a huge dealbreaker. And well, N5 screen is beautiful coming from N1.
Don't know about buying an N5 today, though, it's been out for a while. I haven't tracked refresh rumours but I'd expect there to be some.
pjmorris: I've still got mine too - I've got all my Nexuses except those made by Samsung as they all broke (wife's too).
Versus the N5, you lose your removable storage and battery, the N5 will feel a bit too big and, though not as bad as Samsungs or the N4 (also LG), a bit plasticky. And for whatever reason they put the headphone jack up top which is irritating. It doesn't come with that nice sleeve nor headphones.
Google does not offer personal engraving on back of the Nexus 5, so no "hello world" for you. No Google-sanctioned car mount or desk dock either, you have to make up your own mind, which is frustrating.
But the screen is excellent, makes you feel on top of the world to have all those pixels. Thin. Plenty of horsepower, plenty of XDA attention, the battery is not horrible but you may end up investing in a cheap portable charger, particularly if you're accustomed to carrying spares with that N1.
It feels powerful enough to really do computer stuff, kind of. Makes you wonder if phones have peaked. Goes nicely with a Chromecast, screen casting and beaming 1080 movies you acquired somehow to your television.
That, and a table of specs you can find elsewhere, is basically it..
According to the keynote, you can double-tap (somewhere? home button?) and the top of the screen will move down to where you can reach it with your thumb.
Truth be told, even though I switched from iOS to Android recently (and been quite happy), I have admired Apple when they stuck to their guns w.r.t screen size. It showed to me that they were being sensible about respecting the dimensions of our hands. The iPhone (hardware) just feels quite comfortable to use and hold. Also, iPhone 4's design was excellent - I kinda got used to the distinctive feel of an Apple phone in my hand (with its cuboid geometry).
iPhone 6's exterior just looks a bit strange (now we are going back to the original iPhone?) - it feels off in a way that I can't fully explain. But who knows, maybe it would be just fantastic to hold and use. [Like how the quick reports coming out from people who have held the Watch saying that it feel really nice]
Having used a range of phone sizes, the iPhones have always felt quite small to me. And while I'm a happy Nexus 5 user, I admit that it's ever so slightly too big. I really think 4.7" is the magic number for most peoples' hands (based on my experience trying out a Moto X), and adding 5.5" gets them a chance at the "phablet" crowd.
Especially surprising given how much they're pushing it to replace camcorders as well as DSLRs. I mean, how much raw HD video fits in just 16GB? Or even what's left over after half of that 16GB is filled with various apps and music?
I miss when phones used to have easily accessible microSD slots.
> Especially surprising given how much they're pushing it to replace camcorders as well as DSLRs. I mean, how much raw HD video fits in just 16GB?
Storage space is far from the biggest problem with the iPhone replacing DSLRs ("camcorders" are perhaps a different story, if only because "camcorders" is a broader category that includes the equivalent of "point and shoot" devices as well as higher-end, replaceable-lens, analogs of what DSLRs are for still photography.)
It is more than a little absurd in 2014. Many other manufacturers have at least moved up to 32 GB base. Don't get me started on the utility of a micro-SD card slot.
>> "I would imagine many people are the same way."
Most people are out of space. The number of people I heard complaining when iOS 7 was released and they didn't have enough space to install it shocked me. I also know a tonne of people (especially younger people) who can't backup to iCloud because they have filled their device with photos and they would have to pay for more backup space. When most new games are over 500mb and even things like Facebook require nearly 200mb of space it's very easy to run out of 16GB.
I'm another that can't fill my 16GB. Believe it or not, all of us don't record live videos or download full length movies to our phones. I have exactly 3 screens of icons. If I download a new app, I will delete an old one. It's just how I roll :)
surely Apple has the ability to determine the minimum space people need from actual usage statistics. I would expect that usage like that is fed back to them. If not it would be one helluva blown opportunity.
I keep a lot of pictures and videos I've recorded on my phone, as well as music. In addition I like having TV shows stored on my phone, for instance, every season of Archer, because I love that show and I don't want to use up my battery by streaming it constantly(especially when I'm on 6hr runs). My 5s is the 64GB model so I'm still doing quite fine on space, but I can definitely say I've used more than half of it already.
But that's why there are options. No need to up the minimum from 16GB IMO. Not everyone uses their phone as a mobile entertainment device. But some do.
You don't actually get 16. IIRC about 3 is taken up for the OS, so you're really at ... 12 and change out of the gate. I had a 32g 4s - got a 16g 5s and I feel the difference, often bumping in to space issues, having to move/remove photos, and generally having to think about it more - didn't have to with 32.
Everyone's uses are different, but think of resale as well - 2 years from now, what will you get for a 16g device vs a 32 or 64?
I suspect more people than ever share your view. Personally, I'm still old school and prefer to keep an archive of music on my phone. It's great for road trips where cell service may not always be strong. Also in subways or other transit tunnels. Because of this, I love option for mirco-sd. If no expansion is available, I'd expect more than a measly 16GB for everything
I think they could easily sell the 32GB model at the $199 price point. Also, remember that you pay $199 with a carrier but it is something like a $500 phone.
I was surprised by this as well -- despite hearing a rumor of it a week ago. I've given it some thought.. It's a common complaint: $100 for flash storage that costs them a fraction of that. But Apple isn't measuring P/L on a component basis.
It's important to Apple's business to maintain margins. Taking down margins would be punished heavily by investors. So this move seems calculated to me to, yes, push more people to the $299 model. And to do that to offset the cost of more expensive components elsewhere in the device. We'll have to wait for a teardown to be sure, but that's my hypothesis.
I hardly use half of my 16gb model... cumulonimbus computing all the way.
I'm sure they do the research on storage usage... From my personal experience, I have never even heard a complaint about storage space. That doesn't mean I wouldn't appreciate a buffer but definitely not a deciding factor for most. And heh, they give you options
Unless you believe that removing the 16GB model would magically cause all other models to drop $100 in price, then why do you view keeping the 16GB model as a bad thing? I'm sure it sells quite well. If it didn't, they would get rid of it.
They're still selling the 8GB 5c as their 'low end' phone, too, so there will still be new users hurting for space. For "free" with a $2,000 2 year mobile contract.
Gruber is going to have to set aside about a month's worth of updates to get through all the claim chowder from the people who gave the Galaxy Note shit for being 'hilariously' or 'ridiculously' or 'stupidly' large.
Gruber talks about this in the latest episode of the Talk Show. He admits that trends change, and what looked stupid a few years ago might not look so stupid anymore now that everyone is doing it. Also, phones are no longer used for actual phone calls so much, making the "brick next to your ear" factor less meaningful.
I wish people didn't feel the need to "gotcha" Gruber at every possible opportunity. He's generally a very reasonable fellow, if aggressive at times.
It's because he's an aggressive dick who's "gotcha" passive-agressive Claim Chowder pieces are often disingenuously dishonest.
His habit of trawling for people's reaction to the very first iPhone ( the glorified feature phone with a 2G connection, no ability to do voice-and-data and no ability to write apps for it who's sales figures were basically a rounding error) and present them as if they are talking abut the latest juggernaut selling release of the iPhone with the justification that they should have seen what 10 iterations and 7 years of development was going to bring makes him an easy and satisfying target to skewer when he so grossly fucks up with his own opinions.
When I started reading Gruber, before I was even an Apple fan, I loved how he plowed through the anti-Apple BS that showed up so regularly on tech websites (and that I didn't even recognize as such before I started reading him). I think his style is a reaction to all the nerd bullying that Apple users have been subjected to over the years. (And really, you still see it everywhere in the tech sphere. "How's that one-button mouse?" "Mac gamers? LOL!" "iSheep" etc. Try asking a question related to Macs or OSX on any tech website: you'll get a hundred comments laughing at you for having bought a Mac. If you're into Apple products, it's hard to not grow angry and bitter after a while. Hence the endless flame wars between Apple and Android users on sites like The Verge.)
Except, it is, and this doesn't invalidate that fact. But for some reason there's a vast market of people who really like hilariously large screens. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them... I'll keep hanging onto my 4s thanks.
I had a Moto X. If you're a current iPhone user, and haven't been a dedicated Android user, my advice would be don't. You'll regret it. "Active Notifications" are in all ways inferior to Apple's Notifications, and that's about the only thing the Moto X has going for it over a Nexus 5 besides being a bit smaller/lighter and having better battery life.
RAM matters a lot more on an Android, and even with more cores, running faster, with more RAM, it will be objectively slower at most things than an iPhone 5C (and that much slower than an iPhone 6 I'm sure). Plus actually using it will eat through battery quicker (it wasn't a 36-hour device for me like the iPhone 5C was, despite similar usage) and (this one surprised me) eats more data.
Not to mention if you have kids, the lack of iMessage and the inability to forward an HD video over to your spouse of the kids is almost a deal-breaker all by itself.
Anecdotal, my 2c, etc. But I owned a Nexus One, every iPhone except the 3GS and 5S, a Samsung Galaxy S2, Moto X, Palm Pre, Palm Veer (loved that little guy, just too buggy) and most recently an LG G2.
Discounting Apple on the basis of hardware and perceived performance would be a big mistake IMO. They're head and shoulders above everything else on those counts IME, and age so much better.
I got so tired of the quirky G2 (I swear there was a 1 in 3 chance that just unlocking the phone would launch the Alarms app for no reason, and that forced Menu button... GRRRR) I swapped my SIM into an old iPhone 4S I had lying around yesterday. It's not quite as snappy. But it's not half bad either. From a perceived performance perspective (say that three times fast!), the G2, a flag-ship Android phone released only 12 months ago, is slower in every way than an iPhone 5, a phone twice it's age (and yup, the G2 has 2GB of RAM, the iPhone 5 had 1GB).
If you prefer Android more power to ya. But if you're a long time iPhone user... Maybe I'll convince you to save some heart-ache (and $$$). ;-)
While I will buy a 6 for development purposes, I too was disappointed to find out that RAM is staying at 1GB. It's nearly 2015. More RAM does affect battery life, but still...they could have struck a balance here with 2GB.
Exactly how much does it affect battery life? I wouldn't be at all surprised if the answer is "a lot". I'm sure engineers at Apple would love to be able to provide 2GB of RAM (after all, they're using this device too!), but the fact that they're not either means it is cost-prohibitive (unlikely) or has an unacceptable impact on battery.
I asked someone I know about this and they confirmed that a RAM upgrade would have a significant effect on battery life. Can't provide any citations of course.
They also pointed out that iOS already artificially limits the amount of RAM a single process can use, so adding RAM wouldn't even really do anything besides make it take longer for background apps to be evicted.
Samsung has managed to do it and still maintains (arguably) reasonable battery life. I like Apple products in general, but the whole overpriced/underpowered thing gets a little old.
> I like Apple products in general, but the whole overpriced/underpowered thing gets a little old.
Funny, I'd say the same thing about the people who've been repeating the "overpriced/underpowered" trope ever since it stopped being true over a decade ago.
So Safari stops running out of memory and crashing. (I assume that's at least part of the problem. It's much worse with 64-bit than it was with 32-bit.)
So I can keep 2 websites in RAM at the same time instead of it reloading when I switch between them.
Apple fixing Safari's bad behavior and letting it sleep its state to flash would work too, but 6 iOS versions later it looks like they're incapable of that.
Photos and videos chug through space, most of my iPhone-owning friends have to resort to deletion of old photos at inopportune moments when they're trying to take a new one. I know that it's easy to push old media off onto a computer but it seems that most people never sync their iPhones to their hard drive.
It is pretty silly but also annoying as the iPhone has a strong following due to its "it just works" design. Girls in particular love it for the camera but 16gb just isn't enough space to get my SO and her friends past a few months of photo-frenzy.
Music and games and applications, my current phone has 23GB of each with ~10GB for on-the-spot stuff. I don't carry my photos library on my phone because there just isn't enough room, and the music library is a subset of my complete library.
The 128GB internal option is the one which'd make me actually consider an iphone 6.
My wife and I had our first child at the beginning of the year. The desire to photograph every second is very real, and photos burn up a LOT of space given these modern phones with their super high res cameras these days.
Not starting with 32 gigs seems like a bean counter somewhere trying to be clever and force more people to opt for the higher storage (read: more expensive) versions. Might just be my tinfoil hat talking.
Not GP, but my Nexus 4 is perpetually at its limit, filled with podcasts and a small selection of my music. I spend a lot of time in areas with a very poor signal, so streaming isn't useful to me.
Personally, I want a MicroSD slot because that way we both win.
Why does this matter? Apps run great as is. If the phone was slow I could understand but it isn't.
>> base storage still at 16 gigs really annoys me.
They pay a little extra for the larger models... It would have been nice to have a 32gb base model and it's a little strange they didn't do it but it's not like they don't offer larger storage versions.
Not increasing the RAM is like retroactively future proofing previous devices. As noted, updates (OS and apps) degrade quickly on devices with less memory once newer devices that have more come out. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a 2GB device, but I have little doubt that 1GB devices would be rendered half useless by memory hungry updates within six months if that were the case. Software abhors a vacuum.
I'd have to really wonder how well it runs on the 4S. People have gotten burned in the past, downloading the latest iOS for their phones that Apple advertised as technically being able to be updated, but really didn't work out well in practice. IIRC the iOS3->iOS4 upgrade was like that.
Safari doesn't play well at all with multitasking. I have to cross my fingers whenever I want to copy something into a form from another app because chances are the page will reload when I come back to Safari since it ran out of RAM. I also often get into the situation where I can't even tab between just 2 pages since Safari runs out of RAM and reloads each page.
Apple fixing Safari's bad behavior and letting it sleep its state to flash would work too, but 6 iOS versions later it looks like they're incapable of that.
Exactly. It smacks of someone at Apple saying "Hey, if we keep the base at 16 gigs it will make more people upgrade to the 64, which will be more money".
The protruding camera kind of bothers me, probably much more than it really should. But I feel like Apple's obsession with thinness may have gone too far if they need to protrude the camera like this.
Didn't catch that stabilization is only available on plus. That's a bummer! Anyway, they may have decided to make it protrude on the 6 in order to match the 6 plus, which has the constraint. Just guessing..
Nexus 5 owner and general android fanboy here. I'd agree with you if not for the fact that the Nexus 5's camera is still not nearly as good as the iPhone 5/6's. In fact it can be downright terrible at times.
Agree the camera can be poor but I think future software fixes will remedy that. Hardware upgrades to Nexus 6 are more affordable due to lower price of the device, too. I also like the extra features like multiple panoramic options and photo sphere.
Poor camera is not a software problem. It's a matter of hardware. And skimping on the qualitative stuff like a camera is a very easy way to lower price.
I am in both Android and iOS camps and I'd say the Note 3's camera comes very close, perhaps even beating it on stills and certainly on 4K recording. The Note's auto-focus is absolutely hideous though so for short videos/vlogging/Vine/Facetime/Skype the iPhone is still the winner.
I'm still getting the 6 Plus instead of the Note 4 though.. simply because it's three fewer weeks to wait ;-P
I'll check it out. I never use the flash on any camera (even my DSLR) simply because it never looks good, but it sounds like the iPhone's might be worth a go.
True unless someone has made years of investments in iTunes-sourced content, then moving over to a cheaper phone with the same feature set is no longer an apples-to-apples comparison. I have a collection that goes back to iTunes' and the iPod's very first days. I'm not terribly keen going through any conversion/repurchasing process.
If you bought your music after Apple finally ditched DRM, you can upload your AAC files to Google Music for free and sync/stream them to all your Android devices as well as your laptops/desktops.
If you "bought" your music with Apple DRM, you can pay another fee to actually own it and be able to play it on a non-Apple devices.
If you "bought" your videos with Apple DRM, consider it a lesson learned.
Taking the entire migration process you describe changes the "price" to be paid for similar phone, so my claim of false equivalence still stands.
There's no "lesson" when I have made the conscious decision to stick with Apple all these years. I may have paid a premium paying for iPods and iPhones, but I feel my time is valuable enough to not have to mess around with my media files in any way you describe. Nor do I feel the urge to spend money on music I have already purchased, but I don't see that as being a mistake from which to learn a lesson. Nothing has happened to me with Apple or its products so egregious to feel compelled to take on anything like you describe.
The 'mess around' process would just mean loading your existing music into Google Music one time. Heck, on a Mac, it may just ask by default if you want to sync your iTunes library. Then they're available everywhere you run Google Music... which means not being artificially locked to a single company's hardware.
Most people make the mistake to think they 'bought' a movie or DRMed music file when they really just rent/lease it long term.. And then they realize they're screwed when they want to the freedom to buy whatever device they want and have 'their' music they 'bought' on it. After all, most people didn't grow up buying a CD from Best Buy and having it work on their Best Buy CD player but not on their Sony CD player.
You may have realized what you bought into and consciously made the decision that you accepted the limitation in rights/etc in exchange for convenience/etc, but most average consumers do not.
Remember that music on on iTunes isn't DRMed anymore.
With movies you're SOL, but Google Play literally let me just upload my iTunes music folder, and aside from a couple of metadata glitches, it just worked.
Actually, I've had a Nexus 5 for the past 6 months, and I'm considering buying an iPhone 6 to replace it. I've never had an iPhone, so I'm curious to see how it compares to Android phones (my previous phones have been Samsung Galaxy S3, Nexus 4 and now Nexus 5).
Really disappointed that the iPod touch didn't get any love. I get that it isn't a priority, but I do love the product.
I run a flip phone and the battery lasts a week and change. So does my iPod. Friends with iPhones are constantly pulling out their phones with dead batteries.
The thinness obsession has always irked me. Apparently it's what the market wants, but I wish they would use the space and weight savings for more battery. Were it not for battery life I would purchase an iPhone and just run it with T-Mobile prepaid and no data.
I might get downvoted by fans here, but the most commented change for the new iPhone being the addition of a barometer shows a certain decline in the innovation department from Apple, or at least, lack of ability to surprise.
I think when Apple starts to EOL the iPhone 5 and 5s, so probably in 1-2 years, there will be the iPhone 6M, which will be the iPhone 5s size with iPhone 6 internals.
Uh, then don't get it. It's not like they aren't releasing a smaller phone called the iPhone 6 as well. Plenty of people with small hands are big fans of Samsung's Galaxy Note series, so maybe not everyone else in the market hag the same ergonomic preferences you do.
Android's much more fragmented and yet hasn't had any trouble making gains. As much as Apple and Apple-boosters have made of fragmentation as some great cost, actual market experience hasn't really born that out in terms of selling handsets.
It does make things more difficult for developers, sure.
Look at how popular the Galaxy Note is. I don't understand those people, but they love it. And I think the iPhone 6 Plus is actually smaller than a Note.
A friend of mine has the Note, I think; he loves it. It fits his hand perfectly.
For reference, I literally cannot use his phone one-handed; I can't hold it and reach all the way across the screen with my thumb. I'm a small dude and he's a big one, and some devices are just designed for the opposite extreme.
My father was an early adopter of the Galaxy Note. It really comes down to how big you can make words on the screen for him. Old people don't like having to squint at their phones.
I'm sure this will be downvoted into oblivion but I have Karma to burn preaching some truth. Between big phones (even the small iphone 6 is bigger!), the watch and NFC, Apple is clearly repositioning themselves as fast followers and letting Samsung et. al. foot the bill on R&D and market building. They're probably hoping they can provide higher quality (and more profitable) offerings in markets that somebody else has bled to create. I think this started to happen once they lost market dominance, and I think it's a really smart move on Apple's part. Samsung has shifted their focus on clumsily trying to innovate and get things to market first, and it's worth it for Apple to sit back, see what works and doesn't work and then just execute the hell out of what they intend to do.
After years of hearing that the "current" iphone size is just perfect for the size of the human hand, neither of the current phones are that size. It's unbelievably annoying to listen to all the bizarre justification that goes on about Apple products, and I'm sure this size shift and abandonment of their previous sizes completely will get some kind of fence moving justification. [1]
But I applaud Apple for just doing it and catching up with where the market has moved to. I've been in too many phone stores where I've heard people think the iPhones for sale are the old crappy smartphones from last generation and run over to where the larger phones are.
It took a couple years, but Apple finally listened and the new phones look really nice.
edit I'm also reminded that the "c" model has been dropped. Sales figures didn't seem to be very high and I think the experiment has been deemed a failure. It wasn't what anybody really expected or wanted anyways but it was a curious and weird diversion.
edit2 Here's gruber's take on the phone sizes the notorious Apple shill finally admits that it's time for bigger phones, but hasn't come up with the justification framework yet
Some people want to buy them. It doesn’t matter why. For some it might be games. For others, being able to carry one device as a hybrid phone/tablet. For others, it might be about reading — making the iPhone more usable as an e-book reader. It doesn’t matter what the reasons are. The simple fact is that many people want huge phones — not just bigger ones, but huge ones — and they’re willing to pay a premium for them. Apple has played a one-size-fits-all game for seven iPhone generations. The market shows that one size does not fit all. I don’t know that they should have done it sooner, but it certainly feels like the time for multiple iPhone sizes has come.
Let's also see what he has to say about this
I’ll be very disappointed if this is just a device that shows a fake analog watch face, displays notifications from a tethered iPhone, and tracks your footsteps and heart rate.
Because there it is on record. Gruber's already disappointed in the iWatch. I'm not. I'm glad it's out there, improving the market for all consumers, iWatch wearers or not. There's some nice ideas and design there.
Honestly that's kind of always been Apple's strategy. They're usually not the first mover, but they try to be the best mover.
I think they've been a little bit slow to follow shifts in the smartphone market though. They should've had a larger iPhone quite some time ago, and they were unfashionably late on notifications and 4G.
Still, this latest release will sell briskly per usual. Jury's out on the Apple Watch. Especially since battery life was conspicuously absent from the unveil.
I'm not an iPhone fan by any stretch of the imagination. But I recognize the importance of Apple playing a major role in the smartphone market in terms of making the competition muchmuch better than they would be otherwise. The glacial slow response from Apple on things like phone size is really strange. I can really only attribute it to a larger picture shift in focus and approach between Apple and Samsung.
There's other weird uneven things going on though in the internals. 64-bit CPUs and 1GB of RAM? 16GB base models near the end of 2014?
I'm sure there's strategy behind it, but as a consumer it's just weird.
The important thing is that it doesn't really matter. When people like my mom go into the phone store, they'll see nice big, and in their minds competitive, iPhones for sale and will now give them a second look.
About the specs: I don't think the average iPhone buyer is concerned about them as much as the average HN user.
In the end what it counts is user experience, and if the average user see sharp, quick, responsive UI and fast applications he/she couldn't care less about how much RAM the phone has.
Storage is a different issue, but Apple got away until now offering more storage as a premium, so why change ?
I don't really disagree with you, but specs can be an indicator of capability. With modern Android phones hitting 3GB and soon 4GB of RAM, multi-tasking is really nice on that kind of phone.
This all sounds like feature talk, but here's my use-case at least: being able to listen to music, get directions in the background and switch between a game, the web, and a book in the foreground without worrying about any of the apps getting killed due to low memory is really empowering and enjoyable.
My old phone would kill one or two of those apps outright and it was nothing more than memory getting cleared up.
If the rumor is true, 1GB of RAM is really a full phone generation behind. Even weirder, I would have expected Apple to be using their 64bit CPU tech to push the boundaries of memory on phones.
"Between big phones (even the small iphone 6 is bigger!), the watch and NFC, Apple is clearly repositioning themselves as fast followers and letting Samsung et. al. foot the bill on R&D"
Just like Apple let Creative Labs foot the bill on R&D and market building with the Nomad before the iPod was introduced?
Other than "both devices played compressed music files" I don't think there was really lots of comparison between the nomad and the iPod.
But yeah I guess in some way that's true, portable mp3 players of some kind were a rapidly growing market being developed by dozens of companies when the iPod came out. I had an entire series of CD-R/mp3 capable portable CD players back then for example. So the market was open and proven, but Apple provided real innovation in both technology and in digital distribution that wasn't there at all before the iPod. Combined, those were game changers and set Apple ascendant to the point it is today.
Getting most of the major record companies to sign on the dotted line is something I think only Apple could have done.
>I'm sure this will be downvoted into oblivion but I have Karma to burn preaching some truth. Between big phones (even the small iphone 6 is bigger!), the watch and NFC, Apple is clearly repositioning themselves as fast followers and letting Samsung et. al. foot the bill on R&D and market building.
First, there's not much (if anything) they have gotten off of Samsung about these devices, except maybe how not to do some things.
First, if you have seen the prototype iPads and iPhones tested, they've actually built all kinds of prototypes in different sizes half a decade or more ago. And obviously the same thing holds for the Watch and the bigger iPhone: they were in development for at least a couple of years, iterating and refining them.
Unlike the iPad, which at least also had a redesigned GUI library (and thought behind it) to take advantage of the larger screen, a slightly larger iPhone is not something not obvious. Apple could have made the iPhone 5 a 6" model if they liked to rush things, it's not that they missed some key insight. What they actually did was wait for several things to fall into place, like baterry capacity, CPU/GPU power to provide a smooth experience with the bigger screen, etc.
If Samsung provided anything is just some early "market research" in the feasibility of selling a large phone. There's nothing technical or UI-wise here that was copied, or needed to be copied, from a Samsung phone.
Second, Samsung only started on their watches when rumours of an iWatch pending had already surfaced (and it shows, since theirs was mostly a hack job of mashing existing stuff and rushed decisions). Apple was building the thing for a long time, and I'd say has put far more thought and polish on the whole thing that anything we've previously seen from competitors (including Peeble).
>I'm also reminded that the "c" model has been dropped. Sales figures didn't seem to be very high and I think the experiment has been deemed a failure.
Actually, it sold very well. "From the constant harping about the supposed "failure" of Apple's iPhone 5c, you'd think the phone is selling poorly. The reality is that middle tier model, while dramatically less popular than Apple's top of the line iPhone 5s, still managed to outsell every Blackberry, every Windows Phone and every Android flagship in the winter quarter, including Samsung's Galaxy S4.". http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/03/22/apples-iphone-5c-f...
In general it was constantly in the top-3 to 5 best selling phones for all US carriers. Most phone companies (including Samsung) would kill for a "flop" like this.
Second, it wasn't dropped. It's still available, and just rolled on the $0 with contract tier.
First, there's not much (if anything) they have gotten off of Samsung about these devices
I have a black Samsung Galaxy S3. I held it up against the image of the iPhone 6, and they're barely different. The s3 has slightly bowed sides, and the two phones have a home button with a different shape. Oh, and the Apple phone doesn't have 'Samsung' written on the front (I haven't seen an image of the back, so you never know...)
I'd love for Samsung to turn around and sue them back on this design issue.
This is like iPhone 6 in the sense that Times New Roman is like Helvetica. They are both fonts after all.
Different buttons, different curves, different materials, different home button, different back design, different colors...
Where exactly do you see the similarity?
Not to mention the whole "huge touch screen, minimal buttons smartphone" thing was pioneared by Apple already since the first iPhone, when Samsung did keyboard smartphones that looked nothing like this?
The iPhone 6 looks like the Galaxy S3 in the same way that the Galaxy S2 looked like the iPhone.
Not to mention the whole "huge touch screen, minimal buttons smartphone" thing was pioneared by Apple already
So? It's irrelevant to my point: Apple took Samsung to the cleaners over a visual design patent (amongst others), and I'm saying that this phone looks a hell of a lot like the S3.
Yes, if you look at the screen, it's android vs ios and doesn't look similar, but the hardware lines, button placement, curled edges, earpiece are all very similar. The home button is a little different - but again, these kinds of difference are the same in magnitude as S2 v iPhone. For example, the home button on the S2 was an oblong ringed with metal, wheras the home button on the iPhone is a circle. Apparently that's visual-design-patent-infringing for Samsung, but a marker of innovative distinction for Apple?
Was talking about the watches.
Then make that clearer, because you sound diversionary in saying this. The article is about the iPhone. The parent comment mentions watches in passing, but is primarily about the iPhone. You spent half your comment talking about ipads and iphones right after the bit I quoted.
S2 doesn't look like iPhone enough for Samsung to get sued (my opinion as an Android user that loves iOS as well), but.. earpiece? Really? The curled edges I'd agree with. But that's about it.
> And obviously the same thing holds for the Watch and the bigger iPhone: they were in development for at least a couple of years, iterating and refining them.
Sources or guessing?
I think the similarity of how the iWatch and the Android watches work is too similar to be a coincidence. There's some cool software work on Apple's watch, and I believe it'll generally be a better product overall. But it looks just like something somebody would make after seeing the competition and iterating an improvement on it. That's my assertion and I'm going to stick with it until somebody proves me wrong.
> Second, Samsung only started on their watches when rumours of an iWatch pending had already surfaced
IIR that's correct. iWatch rumors started and Samsung tossed together the Gear to get it out the door first. Apple didn't ship and now we're on Gen 2 of Android watches while Apple releases a nearly identical product...even down to some fairly small use-case details. I'm not poo pooing the device, with Apple's polish and tight integration I'd call it a Gen 2.5 smartwatch. It looks good, and going old-school Blackberry with the knob as an input device is a good idea. It's probably a full half-to-full generation ahead of the current Android devices for very Apple-y reasons.
But there's very little new here, and more important it's not all that different. It doesn't look like an independently developed device. It looks like a particularly well thought out Android smart watch. Apple could have...should have...gone a completely different direction with the watch, but they didn't.
Basically your story doesn't make any sense. The public story is that all Samsung knew was "Apple is working on a watch", and with that information, completely independently tossed together (with a little help from Google) a device that, in the Gen 2 version of Android Smartwatches, just so happens to work almost exactly like the iWatch minus the nub. From needing to tether, to use-cases, to display turn-on when raised, etc. There's a million different directions each watch development effort could have gone, yet both efforts coincidentally independently arrived at the same conclusion...with both teams operating in secret, probably on opposite sides of the planet.
The probably of that happen are only slightly less than throwing a bunch of parts into a dryer and at the end of the cycle getting a clock.
If Samsung developed the smartwatch based on nothing more than a rumor and just slapped it together, then they did one hell of a job because that's the template all new smart watches are currently following and they deserve a little more credit. If they copied Apple outright, then there's some serious leaks in Apple's R&D department.
But neither of those cases fits Occam's razor -- there are no coincidences...the similarities are too strong. It's more likely Apple has been mulling around a watch for a while. Samsung slapped together a watch based on a rumor, the gen 2 devices were pretty good and Apple simply went the direction with the idea that Samsung had pioneered. The only other conclusion is that Samsung committed one of the greatest acts of industrial espionage since the Soviets stole the designs for the atom bomb.
Note: I don't know why you're getting downvoted, we're just having a civil discussion. People get so emotional around Apple's stuff.
Neither. For one, it's obvious that any such products needs at least 1-2 years to design, manufacture prototypes, etc. Second, we've seen several previous exposes of how Apple developed new stuff (iPad was in the labs for 7-8 years, the iPhone the same, etc, and there have been galleries of the tons of prototypes they checked published). So, I was basically just stating the obvious.
>I think the similarity of how the iWatch and the Android watches work is too similar to be a coincidence
Well, people already had a uncanillity similar experience to Android watches 5 or so years ago, by strapping an iPod mini to a wrist strap. It's a watch that talks to a smartphone and has a computer screen, so of course its similar in that, but that's inevitable. The kind of interface, the controls, the fashion styles for the straps and everything, and the internal design / sensors / etc are unique.
>Basically your story doesn't make any sense. The public story is that all Samsung knew was "Apple is working on a watch", and with that information, completely independently tossed together (with a little help from Google) a device that, in the Gen 2 version of Android Smartwatches, just so happens to work almost exactly like the iWatch minus the nub. The probably of that happen are only slightly less than throwing a bunch of parts into a dryer and at the end of the cycle getting a clock.
For one, the "almost exactly" is only in the sense that one car and another car do mostly the same things. The design, controls, software and everything is different, from the "nub" to the style choices to the sensors to the charging, to the e-payments, to the app selection UI etc. The Samsung version is sub par in every way.
>If Samsung developed the smartwatch based on nothing more than a rumor and just slapped it together, then they did one hell of a job because that's the template all new smart watches are currently following and they deserve a little more credit. (...) Samsung slapped together a watch based on a rumor, the gen 2 devices were pretty good and Apple simply went the direction with the idea that Samsung had pioneered.
What are those ideas again? Can you name one thing Samsung did that was a) non obvious part of a smartwatch, b) better?
> Neither. For one, it's obvious that any such products needs at least 1-2 years to design, manufacture prototypes, etc. Second, we've seen several previous exposes of how Apple developed new stuff (iPad was in the labs for 7-8 years, the iPhone the same, etc, and there have been galleries of the tons of prototypes they checked published). So, I was basically just stating the obvious.
Good, so then you must agree that Samsung couldn't possibly have just slapped together a design and manufactured hundreds of thousands of watches in a few months. Even Samsung must take time to bring a product to market. If you truly believe Samsung just craps out devices, then you're also claiming they're among the most efficient design, production and marketing organizations on the planet. Nobody would even come close.
> Well, people already had a uncanillity similar experience to Android watches 5 or so years ago, by strapping an iPod mini to a wrist strap.
Can you link to what you're talking about?
> It's a watch that talks to a smartphone and has a computer screen, so of course its similar in that, but that's inevitable.
I don't think it's inevitable or obvious at all. Given the instructions "go make a smart watch" I can think of half a dozen completely different ideas right off the bat, none of which are what smart watches look like or how they work -- I never would have required tethering at all for example. I personally think cramming down the pinch and swipe smartphone metaphor into a device that size is not a good solution, I think all of the competitors (except pebble) failed in that respect.
It's like if somebody told you to "make me a device that will transport me distances using an engine". While you could have come up with anything from a boat to a train to rocket propelled rollerskates, instead you and your competitor both "independently" arrive at solutions which are basically different trim levels of this year's Toyota Camry, except one has a stick shift.
Odds of that happening are close enough to zero to be effectively the same. So either Samsung has the best industrial espionage team on the planet (doubtful) or Apple just waited for the competition to jump first and then just followed the trendlines and produced a really polished as hell version of what they were fumbling around with (likely).
In fact, Apple could have copied and refined the Pebble instead and knocked it out of the park. By so blatantly copying what's going on in Android land, it leads to too many unfavorable comparisons. They could have completely broken away from that path Samsung has set and gone with a smaller, sleeker, more elegant device. By refining the Samsung template, Apple just leads itself to comparisons, even if the final product is super polished. Basically, if Apple was going to make a car, they needed to make a Tesla or an Ariel Atom, not a top spec Camry (with a stick shift).
> The Samsung version is sub par in every way.
On this we can completely agree. I'm not impressed with the Android smart watches at all. I don't see a good use for them, they're overpriced, underspec'd and don't provide me with anything I wouldn't rather just do with my phone (and in fact require my phone to be nearby anyway).
That's why I'm so disappointed with Apple's offering, even though it's just the Android watch polished to the n-th degree. In the end the whole direction is just a "meh" idea to me.
Imagine instead an Apple polish to a pebble style watch, no tethering required, all the watch faces and notifications and canned responses, week-long battery life, none of this swipe and nub nonsense, beautiful Apple design (Pebble watches all look like something I would have loved when I was 12, but not 40) and flawless execution.
What you're failing to understand is that I'm not saying Apple copying Samsung is bad because they copied Samsung (who gets credit isn't important), it's bad because, given a possible universe of ideas they could have followed instead, they copied a crappy design idea and then polished that turd until it shined. But it's still just a ball of poo.
>Good, so then you must agree that Samsung couldn't possibly have just slapped together a design and manufactured hundreds of thousands of watches in a few months
The "hundreds of thousands" is not an issue time-wise given their manufacturing expertise. It's the design, programming etc stage that takes time. I'd say they've spend a year or so. The first one (Gear) was using Android, and was mostly like a shrank phone, with not much thought. That the Gear 2 switched to Tizen shows that at the time they released the first they didn't have a long term plan nor had settled their basics, like OS choice.
There's nothing particularly tasteful or well thought out in either mockup. The circular display, for one, is limiting and too watch-inspired for use with apps. That's why both mockups just show a few basic functions.
But, really what "refinement of Samsung's ideas" or "copying"?
Most everything we've seen on the Watch (and Gear) were already out there in the rumors for the iWatch, years ago. Some pressumably leaked from Apple's tests too.
Samsung rushed ahead and did a (ho-hum) implementation of them, Apple did a more mature one. It's not like there's anything in Gear 1/2 that either Apple didn't already have in the iPhone or everybody was not already expecting in the iWatch rumors years before either watch was released.
Not sure about that. The 5c is basically a 5 that's built slightly more cheaply, so that it fits in at the bottom of the price spectrum at all points. The 6 currently is two notches up from the bottom, and because of that it may be that Apple decided that they didn't want to dilute the 6's brand with a cheapo version.
Another year down the line when there's an iPhone 6S and the 5C has been dropped, that's when I'd start expecting something like a 6C, though perhaps it would just be a 5SC. Not necessarily those names, exactly, but something following the pattern of "Drop the bottom-end phone, replace the 2nd-from-bottom with a plastic version."
Glad to know that you have inside knowledge from Apple about this. Clearly, the ATV is EOL, or we'd have seen a new rev. Same goes with the Mac mini, iPod Touch, etc. Apple is still selling them, and "clearly" intends to do so for the near future.
Everybody that pumped-up the $GTAT stock in anticipation of sapphire seemed to me to be forgetting that Apple is not ambitious with new technology. 3G, LTE, NFC, etc. To me, I couldn't understand why Apple would put themselves in a position where a small, young company like GTAT could cause delays in an iPhone release.
Why? From what I understand, sapphire is more brittle than Gorilla Glass (although supposedly scratches can contribute to the likelihood of cracks), so what I think for most people the common breakage case is quite possibly not any better. Additionally, sapphire is more reflective than glass which is problematic all in itself.
Apple reserving sapphire screens for watches makes perfect sense to me.
Because watches are bound around your wrist, thus making them much less likely to be dropped (and they're much lighter if they are dropped) - scratching is the big concern with watches. I believe many (most?) high-end non-smart watches already use sapphire instead of glass for that reason.
Does anyone know how the new devices will handle old apps that were building specifically to the 320pt width? When we got the 4" screen, the old apps were put into black boxes until you updated the info.plist. Any news on if this will be a thing again? Thanks.
From the keynote, when they demoed the un-updated CNN app, it looks like they're just scaling the app (no black bars) and depending on the resolution of the screen to avoid the blur being obvious.
So I imagine it's possible to scale up the app so that the height takes up the full length of the new height, but an app I am working on now was coded to be specifically 320pt wide, so I'm worried about how they handle this.
I'm hoping that it keeps the aspect ratio, even if that means black bars for now, because otherwise there will be undefined side-effects in many apps.
Admittedly, I don't know how they've actually implemented this, but I would imagine that it would be possible for them to render the app on a 320pt "virtual screen", then take that and stretch it appropriately for the actual screen. Otherwise I don't see how they'd maintain true backwards compatibility.
Am I the only one that feels a bit dissapointed about the design of this device?
Up till now all of the new iphones seemed to get nicer and nicer design-wise, but this seems like a big step back to iphone 3. Perhaps it's just my taste.
I am confused why Standby time for iPhone 6 and iPhone 5S are exactly the same(250 hours) when other comparisons like Talk time are significantly different(14 hours vs 10 hours)?
Could be that they made the hardware more efficient at consuming less energy during talk time, time but those same efficiency gains don't apply to energy usage during stand-by. This can often be the case when extra chip capabilities are added for a specific use.
Wouldn't buy the iwatch or the new iphone, and I have been a Apple longterm user. Like the motorola 360 better, round design is a huge win and again Apple are last to market with a inferior product. The iphone's main feature for me was that it was more secure than android phones. But after the celebrity icloud hacks and the iphone backdoors that were revealed (then denied by Apple) I have had enough - Apple products have lost premium status in my eyes. Other than that my nexus 5 had all these features at $350 unlocked last year - including NFC payments. It also doesn't help that my $3000 retina macbook dies after a few months of use bc of bad ram, and now I need a new logic board. Planned obsolescence is a huge problem with Apple. They were caught out slowing the older versions of their phones right before the release of the new ones by analyzing google search data, and this unserviceable expendable model they are pushing just won't fly anymore. Don't tell me laptops without dimm sockets and exchangeable batteries are a necessary design compromise for slimmer devices. Thats total bullshit. My iphone 4s ground to a halt right at the release of the iphone 5. It had become comically slow - a product I would never have bought if it had been presented that way in store. Apple is the worlds largest computer manufacturer and they don't need to pull underhanded tricks like that. It says a lot to me that Apple joined PRISM one year after SJ passed. Right there on the NSA slides.
Yes the article from the Times has a different opinion, but I wanted to share the slides mostly, as I cant find the original paper by Laura Trucco. His theory is that its the ios release that slows the phone, no denying that they are slowed. But leaving the phone functional should be the first priority. Any developer who tested ios 6 on the iphone 4 and approved it should have been shot.
Wow, this comment is really full of FUD. Planned obsolescence? iPhone backdoors? You need to reevaluate where you get your Apple-related news from.
> They were caught out slowing the older versions of their phones right before the release of the new ones by analyzing google search data
Where did you even get this from? That's 100% made-up. But it's also oddly specific in a way I've never heard before. What site is pushing this particular brand of garbage?
It's from a google trends graph showing that the number of searches for "why is my iphone so slow" or something similar consistently peaks (at a 300% above baseline rate or more) right before a new iphone model is released.
Ok I read it. That "article" states from the very beginning that it's wacky theory. It doesn't even attempt to offer evidence for anything. It's literally just "hey, what does Google Trends show for the search 'iPhone slow'".
Apple has been accused of planned obsolescence before, and the claims have always proven to be complete bullshit. There's a very simple explanation for why people complain about their phones being slow around the time new devices come out, and that's the fact that a new OS is released at the same time (as your link even states), and it's very common for new OS's to not perform as well on old hardware as the previous OS. This is partially because the new OS typically adds more functionality, which takes computing resources to use, and partially because the new OS is predominately only tested on new and current-gen hardware, and not tested much on older hardware. This is very well-known, and it affects pretty much every computing product ever. The only reason you're not really seeing this with Android phones is because a) new Android phone releases don't correlate with OS upgrades, and b) most Android phone users either don't or can't upgrade to the latest OS anyway.
Did... you even read the article? Yet that's all it shows: People suddenly feel that their phone is slowing down. It doesn't show that our iPhones actually became slower.
And provides some possible reasons related to consumer psychology.
I think you need to read the Times article more carefully. It's about how correlation is not necessarily causation in big data analysis, and uses the iPhone theory as an example.
Apple planned obsolescence is a myth. Yes it might be true that the new iOS updates will require more resources, and thus the older models perform less well - but that's akin to running Windows 7 on a PC that was released formerly running XP, with all of the "Aero" features enabled.
I agree Apple does some crappy things; but every large company, government and organisation does. Does that make it right? No. Is there any point in complaining about it in an iPhone 6 release thread? Not really.
Let's talk hardware and new features instead of grabbing our pitchforks.
No - lets decide if we want to give this company more of our money before comparing features. They are absolutely using planned obsolescence and the non exchangeable batteries across their product lines and removal of dimm sockets are a clear signal. You don't own the product, or control the data you put on it. You appear to purchase but in reality - you effectively rent. Apple designs are pretty, but not made to last. And while they like to hand you the 'license' of security, the backdoors and icloud breaches and PRISM participation show that is not backed by any real substance. Jokes on the user.
That may be true - but the world is run by consumerism. There's a reason people don't always buy store or generic-brand products where the quality is the same. There's a reason people will spend $1000 on a phone comparable to a $300 one.
People buy brands and aesthetics, not function.
And people don't care about privacy or security, not yet anyway. I'm a hobbyist pen-tester, I've reported breaches which would allow full identity theft - and what happens? Nothing.
I swear I'm getting more and more pessimistic by the day, time to go camp in the woods.
may be i'm too introvert or just don't have the imagination - i'd more understand adding more sensors toward "tricorder", ie. ones that can say more about condition/health of the human host of the phone (temperature, heartbeat, alpha/beta/theta-waves, dopamine level, etc...)
Any decent smartphone can already get a GPS fix in a second or so.
The main bottleneck to a GPS fix these days is simply downloading the satellite positions. This is done over a 1970s-era protocol that operates at 50bps and takes about 30 seconds to transmit all of the data.
Smartphones bypass this by downloading the positions over their local data connection, which cuts that down to a fraction of a second.
Fixing your altitude to +/- 2000ft doesn't really help the process to any significant degree. If you have the satellite positions or can get them quickly, the rest comes fast. If you don't, you're doomed to be slow.
Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. Barometers are only good for detecting relative altitude/elevation changes over short periods of time.
Over longer periods of time (hours/days) the atmosphere pressure is going to change whether you change altitude or not. Over short periods, the barometer can give a relative change. Without a known starting point, it can't give you absolute altitude/elevation.
It has nothing to do with getting a gps lock.
I'd be pretty surprised if the phones didn't pull down the satellite constellation data over the network vs waiting on the nav message broadcast from the satellites.
I have some MPX5100 pressure sensors connected up to an Arduino. When I first experimented with them, I was shocked to find that they were accurate enough to report pressure change simply from lifting the device off my desk and up to eye level.
Not that this says anything about the sensor used in the iPhone, but it's not unreasonable to expect that it could be used as some form of motion input.
No it's not. There's really not much difference in spec between the two devices other than the status points obtained. And it's about 1/4-1/3 of the cost.
Edit - plus my experience:
Possibly going aganist the grain here, but I've owned TOO MANY Apple products not to explode here. I'm sitting on a 2011 MacBook Pro with a big dark spot on the screen where it is starting to fail for example. Bring on the ThinkPad X230 that is replacing it next week.
Having used iOS extensively and written software for it, I find very few things more objectional, inflexible and tiresome. The OS is totally frustrating and just about everything hangs or crashes randomly (Safari being a fine example of horrible as it won't even render half a PNG image, leaving blank 60% at the bottom). Oh plus deleting every damn email in my exchange box on several occasions. Apple have a policy of silence and mysticism on all issues as well.
The build quality of Apple's mobile products is awful. Design over substance, completely irrepairable, poor engineering and materials decisions. Nickel alloys used everywhere resulting in dermatitis, glass on the edges (impact points) and terribly difficult to use connectors (lightning). As for repair, glue and proprietary screws. Enough said. I can still repair a Nokia with a T4 Torx and no heat gun.
The app ecosystem is horrible as well, consisting of vast swathes of mainly pay-per-addon traps for children, popularist crap and hyped overpriced junk.
Then there's the opaqueness of the devices. For example, it took me 5 fucking hours to get my wife's bookmarks off her iPad resulting in me having to write a script to convert the SQLite database (which was a bastard to get off the thing) into an HTML file so she could import it into Chrome. And why can't I just download an mp3 file onto the device like I can with Android, Windows Phone, Windows, MacOS etc.
Wake me if Apple ever return to the kind of innovation they brought with things like the original Macintosh, the iMac, Mac OS X, the iPod, or the original iPhone.
- iPhone 6 is 1334x750: CSS pixel width is likely 375px (pixel ratio = 2)
- iPhone 6 Plus is 1920x1080: CSS pixel width is likely either 432px (pixel ratio = 2.5) or 360px (pixel ratio = 3). It would make sense to implement a ratio of 2.5 as it would be 15.2% more CSS pixels for a screen 17.0% wider. But on the other hand (1) Apple designers are perfectionists and a fractional ratio means an image slightly less sharp, and (2) maybe with the Plus model Apple wants to attract smartphone buyers who dislike tiny text on a tiny display so it would make sense to provide fewer CSS pixels on a bigger screen... I am really curious to know which way they went.
This all needs to be confirmed with a device in hands...