Apple Event - 09 Sep at 10am PDT

[Fbone]

All the major carriers are now offering free upgrades and Sprint and T-Mobile (so far) will pay the early termination fees if you switch to Sprint or T-Mobile.

For many the iPhone 6 will be free.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Fbone

All the major carriers are now offering free upgrades and Sprint and T-Mobile (so far) will pay the early termination fees if you switch to Sprint or T-Mobile.

For many the iPhone 6 will be free.

I suppose that offer is only valid if you get the iphone 6 under contract?

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by harriska2

I am a watch wearer and might consider the apple watch. But if it requires a iphone, no go. I don't have a smart phone as I just cannot bring myself to spend $60 or more every month on a phone plan. I have a stupid phone and it costs $7 a month.

Yes, the iPhone is required for the apple watch.

I have t-mobile pre-paid, it cost me $30/mo. There are other options too, like Ting... although, you won't be able to get the iPhone 6 on Ting, but when the 6 is out, you should be able to get the 5s.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by harriska2

I don't have a smart phone as I just cannot bring myself to spend $60 or more every month on a phone plan. I have a stupid phone and it costs $7 a month.

I have a stupid phone too. I'd use a smartphone, but Verizon requires data plans; and I refuse to pay for data when it's free over wifi.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I have a stupid phone too. I'd use a smartphone, but Verizon requires data plans; and I refuse to pay for data when it's free over wifi.

Have you checked out Ting? You only pay for what you use. So, if you don't use data, you don't pay for it.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Have you checked out Ting? You only pay for what you use. So, if you don't use data, you don't pay for it.

Thanks, but I'm on a family plan with 5 phones. Verizon is needed because of the coverage.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

I can't get over the fact that the company that literally invented Retina displays has just come out with two new phones whose ppi is bested by ALL of the new Android phones.

I can understand why Apple might not get over that fact, but I'm having a harder time grasping why you can't. Rome was once cutting edge, too, and so was the British Empire -- though fortunes needn't fall to fluctuate.

In the past, Apple cut deals, followed aesthetic ideals and spun the result in ways that seemed to presage the curve of tech fashion. That doesn't necessarily last (although it can). It's predictable that other companies -- particularly ones with a manufacturing edge, like Samsung -- would find ways to usurp and/or undermine Apple's dominance (and it isn't the first time, is it?).

It's also possible that the American iconclast represented by Jobs, and the American aesthetic represented by Apple, would fade in fascination as global influences converged, just as the decentralization of storage and even applications undermines the sealed object that Apple's hardware represents.

It never surprises me when the impetus and innovation of a trendsetter congeal into inflexibility. If you doubt it, look at Sony.

Also: The structural intricacy of a company and its decisions can behave like a crawling piece of architecture. The foundation that works with one landscape might easily topple with another.

Apple has rarely been the company that set tech benchmarks. It's a company that innovates in ways that can include benchmark-setting innovation as the means to aesthetic/industrial-designed/user-facilitating (or user-controlling) ends.

BTW: I don't see Apple's manipulation of the user as always being a bad thing -- it often is, but not always. The limitations of a work of art can also condition and limit the responses of the person who views it in ways that lead to a new and possibly revelatory experience. Limitations can be freeing, just as they're often in the way.

[Kumabjorn]

Isn't the Watch connected to the iPhone through Bluetooth? Shouldn't it work with Android phones then as well? I thought I read somewhere that Apple was releasing a SDK and that it included Android. I could be mixing up my info though.

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by LovesMacs

I'm intrigued by what the Apple watch can do but I probably won't buy it. Wristbands tend to irritate my skin.

The real innovation that Apple missed out on is a decades-old concept, the wristwatch as self-contained phone, AKA the Dick Tracy watch.

How is a decades old concept an innovation?
Besides you can buy wrist phones now if you want.
http://www.dhgate.com/wholesale/quad...one+watch.html

Now we need the shoe phone from get smart.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by afv011

Planned obsolescence. This year they get you to upgrade for a larger screen, next year they'll give you the extra GB of RAM.

Yes, this. It has always been their way. Why put it all into the first version and then have nothing left over for the 6s? And people will continue to upgrade.

[Shane R]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

Yes, this. It has always been their way. Why put it all into the first version and then have nothing left over for the 6s? And people will continue to upgrade.

It is very obvious to the discerning and/or enthusiasts eye.

Nonetheless, the tech press, as skeptical as they have been of Apple recently, continue to give the phones good reviews. I like my 5s. But I am decidedly undecided about re-upping right now. I think the tock cycle phones (as opposed to the tick - or gen one phones) are generally better purchases.

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Isn't the Watch connected to the iPhone through Bluetooth? Shouldn't it work with Android phones then as well? I thought I read somewhere that Apple was releasing a SDK and that it included Android. I could be mixing up my info though.

It uses Near Field Communication AFAIK

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

It uses Near Field Communication AFAIK

Not for communicating with the phone it wont, NFC has a range of a few centimeters or so.
I'd assume bluetooth for talking to the phone, NFC is for contactless payments.

[JSWolf]

I am surprised that Apple did not up the working RAM for the new phones. 2 or 3 GB would have been much better then the old 1GB.

[SCION]

Disappointing that they haven't dropped the 16GB model altogether and start off with 32. Many have expected a 32, 64, 128 tier by now. The 64GB is overkill for me, but normally there would be a 32GB in that price slot.