Apple Event - 09 Sep at 10am PDT

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

My biggest problem with Android phones, and yes I'd like to consider them, is the inability of any UK Network to get 32Gb onboard storage devices. I only use apps on my iPhone and for those I need internal storage. I don't take tons of photos or add videos etc, I need storage for apps like Kindle and Audible. All O2 can offer me is the new Samsung Galaxy which is less than £100 cheaper than the 6 that will now have 64Gb. That's where Apple have us.

Actually your issue is more about uk carriers choosing not to offer models with more onboard storage, they want to keep their range as simplified as possible so don't like offering the same model with the only variation being the amount of storage on the devices, unfortunately that means that they end up offering the 16gb variant as they also like to be able to advertise lower prices on this stuff too.

It will be quite interesting to see how they react to these new iphones, I would not be at all surprised if after the initial rush, you had to order the 128gb variants special rather than having them available in every store.

You say less than £100 cheaper, but you do realise that a 64gb microsd card would cost more like £30 so all that has happened now is that Apple are ripping people off less for the larger storage versions than they did in the past.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I agree. If it was 8mm thick but the battery lasted all day under heavy use I don't think people would worry about the extra few millimeters.

Sadly, all this stuff seems to be done based on typical usage patterns these days with the companies knowing what people tend to use a phone for and then they work out the minimum battery size needed to support that use, which unfortunately means that you end up with heavier users being less happy and devices being thinner used as a selling point.

Basically, it is the fault of the general public for not speaking up or better yet voting with their wallets when companies chose thinness over battery life.

One other thing to bear in mind with the being happy to have a thicker device if it meant a much bigger battery, any extra battery is also adding noticeably to the weight of a device too which again is something the general public dislikes.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

My biggest problem with Android phones, and yes I'd like to consider them, is the inability of any UK Network to get 32Gb onboard storage devices. I only use apps on my iPhone and for those I need internal storage. I don't take tons of photos or add videos etc, I need storage for apps like Kindle and Audible. All O2 can offer me is the new Samsung Galaxy which is less than £100 cheaper than the 6 that will now have 64Gb. That's where Apple have us.

I don't want a 16 'but you can put an SD card in it'.

And by taking out the 32GB that might be part of Apples reasoning.

They don't sell the Nexus 5 in the UK?

[afv011]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

We don't need huge specs, we just need better efficiency. When we get better efficiency, it will give us better battery life and performance. The internet isn't THAT heavy that you need 4GB of RAM to even load a webpage.

I have read in multiple places that safari keeps reloading tabs due to lack of memory, so there seems to be a reasoning for more than 1GB of RAM. More RAM would also make the phone more fluid as it does not have to reload from disk previous apps that had to be killed to make room for new ones, making app switching that much faster.

Also, if the phone does not have dedicated video memory and uses the 1GB for the GPU, then having a bigger resolution would take a larger chunk out of your available memory for the OS and apps.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

My understanding is beyond a certain point that you can't see the pixels, it doesn't matter.

Well, the sharpness of the letters should be affected.

And I definitely would like to have better than 440 ppi which I have now and ise to read a newspaper by holding the screen 5-10 cm from my eyes.

[Shane R]

Originally Posted by afv011

I have read in multiple places that safari keeps reloading tabs due to lack of memory, so there seems to be a reasoning for more than 1GB of RAM. More RAM would also make the phone more fluid as it does not have to reload from disk previous apps that had to be killed to make room for new ones, making app switching that much faster.

Also, if the phone does not have dedicated video memory and uses the 1GB for the GPU, then having a bigger resolution would take a larger chunk out of your available memory for the OS and apps.

iOS7 is already pretty fluid on the 5S, both graphically and in switching apps (I can't comment on iOS 8). I suspect they forewent further gains to save on battery life and to keep the pricing within a certain window.

This is a bit of a concern with the 5.5" version though:

We didn’t see any visible blurriness as a result of this scaling, though some UI animations and transitions seemed to be a little choppier than they are on the iPhone 6 or our iPhone 5S—we’ll need to wait for our full review to see just how the A8 chip handles the resolution change.

Only occasion that I've seen that, so I'd wait for the reviews before taking it as gospel.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by afv011

I have read in multiple places that safari keeps reloading tabs due to lack of memory, so there seems to be a reasoning for more than 1GB of RAM. More RAM would also make the phone more fluid as it does not have to reload from disk previous apps that had to be killed to make room for new ones, making app switching that much faster.

Also, if the phone does not have dedicated video memory and uses the 1GB for the GPU, then having a bigger resolution would take a larger chunk out of your available memory for the OS and apps.

Not to mention that low RAM is a reason many devices fail to get OS upgrades.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by afv011

They don't sell the Nexus 5 in the UK?

Yes I can get one from Amazon, but NOT from a network. I am wary of buying a phone from Amazon and having basicly no warranty

As I said I don't want an SD card, that's no use to me for apps.

As it is I'm staying with my 5 and waiting to see what happens in the next few months. My only issue with the 5 is battery life so I'm going to try a battery case with sim only.

[Shane R]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Not to mention that low RAM is a reason many devices fail to get OS upgrades.

That's storage space; we're talking about what system uses as a virtual disk of sorts for its use. It's generally soldered directly onto the cpu circuit board and is measured in MBs wheras the working storage is different and measured in GBs.

[Barty]

It's inexcusable that the iPhone 6 comes with one gig ram still. It may run iOS 7 fine, and 8, but what about 9 next year ?. I'm sorry but there's only so much optimization you can do. Apple has good engineers but you know what, so does Google. They may be inferior designers but I think they can code. Last year's flagshio android phones already had 2 gig pretty much standard. IOS is more efficient than android, but it's not 2x as efficient.

You know what kills your battery? When you have to keep reloading apps and data from storage or the net. You know what kills your user experience? Waiting for stuff to reload, or when upgrading the os makes your device ever slower. Stop bragging about your CPU. People with a clue know ram is equally if not more important. Having low ram puts tremendous strain on developers too and restricts the kind of apps that can be developed.

This is one reason why I still have an iPad 3. So what if the air is lighter and faster. It's still going to kill off processes when I have multiple things opened.

Apple has always done this -- low ball their specs. They can get away with it thanks to their design and user experience, but eventually it'll catch up with them. Eventually, iOS may be as marginalized as OS X.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Shane R

That's storage space; we're talking about what system uses as a virtual disk of sorts for its use. It's generally soldered directly onto the cpu circuit board and is measured in MBs wheras the working storage is different and measured in GBs.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by Barty

It's inexcusable that the iPhone 6 comes with one gig ram still. It may run iOS 7 fine, and 8, but what about 9 next year ?

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

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by Barty

It's inexcusable that the iPhone 6 comes with one gig ram still. It may run iOS 7 fine, and 8, but what about 9 next year ?. I'm sorry but there's only so much optimization you can do. Apple has good engineers but you know what, so does Google. They may be inferior designers but I think they can code. Last year's flagshio android phones already had 2 gig pretty much standard. IOS is more efficient than android, but it's not 2x as efficient.

You know what kills your battery? When you have to keep reloading apps and data from storage or the net. You know what kills your user experience? Waiting for stuff to reload, or when upgrading the os makes your device ever slower. Stop bragging about your CPU. People with a clue know ram is equally if not more important. Having low ram puts tremendous strain on developers too and restricts the kind of apps that can be developed.

This is one reason why I still have an iPad 3. So what if the air is lighter and faster. It's still going to kill off processes when I have multiple things opened.

Apple has always done this -- low ball their specs. They can get away with it thanks to their design and user experience, but eventually it'll catch up with them. Eventually, iOS may be as marginalized as OS X.

For the most part Apple's consumers don't care about technical specifications and aren't going to compare if the iPhone has 1GB of RAM or 2GB. Those types of comparisons make sense if you're buying Android phones and comparing between hardware vendors, they don't matter if you're buying an iPhone. The amount of RAM matters when you're running multiple applications at once and Apple's made a conscious decision to limit multi-taksing in iOS because if every app wants to run in the background it kills battery life.

Apple's customers care that it's faster then the last iPhone but they don't really care if Android phones are faster, if it does what they want and doesn't frustrate them too much, they're happy. Apple has done a pretty good job of supporting new iOS releases on two previous generation of iPhones so you can get 3 years out of your purchase and still run the latest iOS and most of the apps but you can't run the latest "cool" feature. If you don't want to upgrade iOS and can live with the old apps you can use if for 4 or 5 years. That's all that most Apple customers care about, "if I buy this I can use it for x number of years and get y user experience." It seems that most people are upgrading every 2 years anyway but I'm personally on a 3 year cycle.

[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.

[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.