Live Blogs - Apple Press Event 12 Sep 12

[foghat]

Originally Posted by =X=

True but that is the beauty for me. Being able to run the same app on my pone, 7" tablet and 10" is golden.


=X=

? I can run same app on iphone and ipad. There are a few exceptions where app is only for one or the other. But generally speaking.

I am sure android does some (many?) things better that iOS, but in the grand scheme of things I see no real reason to change. I'm set up, I'm working fine, wife and kids are good to go. Copasetic man, copasetic.

[MovieBird]

Originally Posted by foghat

Cool. I am a pretty heavy user of xbmc for my movies. I see they have a version for iPhone as well. Will have to check it out.

But even that is starting wane. Moving more towards a Netflix and iTunes rental type model.

You do realize there is a Netflix plugin for XBMC? There's a similar one for Amazon videos, as well.

[ScotiaBurrell]

So we've spent even longer with the iPhone 5 and have some pretty solid impressions of the device. First, the display is indeed noticeably more vibrant than the 4S, which isn't super surprising considering Apple's move from on-cell to in-cell touch and full sRGB coverage. We'll be able to tell in due time just how close it comes to 100% sRGB, but what we saw was very impressive.

Performance is noticeably improved on the 5 as expected given the presence of two Cortex A15 CPUs inside the new Apple A6 SoC. Of course, Apple allowed no benchmarking at the event so we couldn't run any objective tests, but we pulled up Maps and 3D buildings which didn't appear to drop any frames. Compared side by side with the 4S showing 3D buildings in downtown San Francisco it was even more dramatic.

Overall after our short time with the iPhone 5 I'm very positive about the end result. The combination of new silicon and LTE alongside display and camera improvements craft a very positive outlook for Apple's iPhone line.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6283/i...pics-and-video

[ScotiaBurrell]

I’ll grudgingly admit that the Lightning connector is a great design: it clicks nicely into place, but it can be yanked out quickly. It goes in either way — there’s no “right side up,” as there was with the old connector. And it’s tiny, which is Apple’s point.

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/...t-impressions/

[afv011]

Originally Posted by ScotiaBurrell

And it’s tiny, which is Apple’s point.

I think this is off the mark. Apple's point is obviously for the connector to be proprietary, so they can charge you extra for it, and collect plenty of dosh from any manufacturer of iThinghy accessories. There is absolutely no reason it couldn't have been done with microUSB - after all, you can get audio and video out of microUSB, connect mass storage devices and peripherals like keyboards and mice and even remote control a DSLR.

[TimW]

Originally Posted by afv011

I think this is off the mark. Apple's point is obviously for the connector to be proprietary, so they can charge you extra for it, and collect plenty of dosh from any manufacturer of iThinghy accessories. There is absolutely no reason it couldn't have been done with microUSB - after all, you can get audio and video out of microUSB, connect mass storage devices and peripherals like keyboards and mice and even remote control a DSLR.

Even Kindles use regular microUSB. I have a bunch of K chargers and I use one of those to charge my phone. (Yeah, I lost the original phone charger.) Makes things a lot easier.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

Your first link isn't saying that it is microUSB. It's just comparing the size of the connector. And the other two are purely speculative.

Speculation, rumors—the point is, they got my hopes up and things didn't pan out. It's not worth arguing about.

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by afv011

I think this is off the mark. Apple's point is obviously for the connector to be proprietary, so they can charge you extra for it, and collect plenty of dosh from any manufacturer of iThinghy accessories. There is absolutely no reason it couldn't have been done with microUSB - after all, you can get audio and video out of microUSB, connect mass storage devices and peripherals like keyboards and mice and even remote control a DSLR.

I can think of at least one reason: USB only supplies 5W at most. The dock connector can supply 10W, and this new Lightning connector may even supply more. This may not be such a big deal for the iPhone or iPod touch, but it is huge for the iPad. It needs a lot of power to charge in any decent amount of time. Other comparable tablets tend to use one form of proprietary connector or another for the same reason.

[foghat]

Originally Posted by MovieBird

You do realize there is a Netflix plugin for XBMC? There's a similar one for Amazon videos, as well.

I know. I was using it for a bit, was not too impressed. This was a while ago though and it may be better now. Not really worth the effort of firing up the htpc to use netflix when I can use it via my ps3 or atv.

Like I said, can't get amazon videos in Canada. Apple Tv is where it is at for me here in Canada. Has a nice netflix app and the best movie rental service available.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

I can think of at least one reason: USB only supplies 5W at most. The dock connector can supply 10W, and this new Lightning connector may even supply more. This may not be such a big deal for the iPhone or iPod touch, but it is huge for the iPad. It needs a lot of power to charge in any decent amount of time. Other comparable tablets tend to use one form of proprietary connector or another for the same reason.

You can supply more than 5W on USB. My NookColor, for instance, comes with a charger that supplies 2A (10W), as opposed to the 0.5A you get on a PC USB port.

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by afv011

You can supply more than 5W on USB. My NookColor, for instance, comes with a charger that supplies 2A (10W), as opposed to the 0.5A you get on a PC USB port.

While the Nook Color can accept a standard USB cable for data syncing, it does not use a standard connector for charging; If you look inside the one attached to the wall brick you should see more than the standard four pins. Now realize that iDevices use the same cable for charging and syncing (The charger doesn't have its own cable).

[afv011]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

The Nook Color does not use a standard USB connector for charging. If you look inside the one attached to the wall brick you should see more than the standard four pins. Now realize that iDevices use the same cable for charging and syncing (The charger doesn't have its own cable).

Indeed it doesn't, but for everything else, it is USB. You can still the USB port for everything else, provided the kernel has support for it and you have the necessary apps. The fact that standard USB 2.0 specifies a max of 0.5A does not mean that you have to limit yourself to 0.5A for your charger; it simply means that generic chargers and PC ports have to stick to 0.5A because users could connect devices that can't handle more than that much current.

The same applies to the Nexus 7. USB (where the U stands for UNIVERSAL, by the way), was designed for interoperability and it would benefit everybody if companies adhered to standards. In EU they're trying to get a bit tough, but there are too many loopholes for companies to continue to do their shenanigans.

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Do we know that yet? I don't think we know how 'good' or 'bad' the A6 is yet.

Yes, we do know that there are already phones with better CPUs than the iPhone 5 A6 processor. Apple is using a dual core ARM A15 series for their A6 processor, and the A15 is slightly slower and less power efficient than the QCOM Scorpion series used in some Android and WIN8 phones. QCOM licenses the ARM instruction set and then designs their own CPU to run those instructions, while Apple licenses the the standard ARM CPU that is provided for them by ARM. For gaming speed etc., there are Android and probably WIN8 phones with quad core CPU implementations also.

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by afv011

Indeed it doesn't, but for everything else, it is USB. You can still the USB port for everything else, provided the kernel has support for it and you have the necessary apps. The fact that standard USB 2.0 specifies a max of 0.5A does not mean that you have to limit yourself to 0.5A for your charger; it simply means that generic chargers and PC ports have to stick to 0.5A because users could connect devices that can't handle more than that much current.

And yet the fact is every device which draws more than that invariably uses a propriatary connector. This suggests that there are issues with trying to supply that kind of power over a standard USB cable. And as I said, Apple uses the same cable for charging and syncing. So if they used connector that could fit a standard microUSB cable there would ultimately be a lot of confusion. People would try using that cable with the charger, only to find that it doesn't work as it is missing the extra pins. They could fix a cable to the charger as the Nook does, but then you have to deal with an additional cable!

Originally Posted by afv011

The same applies to the Nexus 7. USB (where the U stands for UNIVERSAL, by the way), was designed for interoperability and it would benefit everybody if companies adhered to standards. In EU they're trying to get a bit tough, but there are too many loopholes for companies to continue to do their shenanigans.

And the SB stands for Serial Bus... The fact is USB was designed to be a data connector, not a power connector. Charging high end electronics goes beyond what its designers ever intended.

[Kumabjorn]

I missed the flair and panache of a Steve Jobs presentation. Not really the same thing without him.