Apple event

[Dylrob]

https://www.pcmag.com/news/370686/th...doesnt-have-5g

The technical issues aside, it does unfortunately make the device less attractive to be sure.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I have absolutely no intent to politicize it, but it it is a reality and you cannot rationally discuss commerce, including Apple's import of goods from China, without mentioning the import tax/fees war that is ongoing. It is what it is, and it will impact commerce. Stating this fact is not politicizing it. It is merely stating the obvious. It is not taking a political side to simply mention that this import war will and is affecting prices. That is a statement of fact and nothing more.

The politics is in your base assumption, which is that it's a bad thing and that Apple won't make adjustments. It's political opinion, not fact. Many people assume that their personal beliefs are facts when they are merely opinions.

[tomsem]

I wish ‘we’ were not so impatient for 5G. There are a lot of issues to work out, not the least of which are cybersecurity, e.g.:

http://lawfare.libsyn.com/tom-wheele...ecurity-for-5g

The benefits are years away, and may never come to my (deeply rural) neck of the woods.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

https://www.pcmag.com/news/370686/th...doesnt-have-5g

The technical issues aside, it does unfortunately make the device less attractive to be sure.

5G is in the same space that LTE was when LTE first came out, i.e. the standard is a bit shaky. In addition, 5G is still in the trial stage in the US. The roll out has been a lot slower than I expected it to be. AT&T is playing the same game as they did with LTE, i.e. labeling their current service as 5G when it's not. I had a guy show me that on his existing iPhone, the AT&T coverage was labeled 5G.

I don't know that not having 5G will hurt sales all that much. So many people use WiFi anyway (actually a large part of the planned 5G network is based on the idea that most people will be using WiFi a large part of the time).

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I wish ‘we’ were not so impatient for 5G. There are a lot of issues to work out, not the least of which are cybersecurity, e.g.:

http://lawfare.libsyn.com/tom-wheele...ecurity-for-5g

The benefits are years away, and may never come to my (deeply rural) neck of the woods.

In general, customers don't worry about such things, they just want faster speeds.

5G was never going to provide benefits in rural areas. It's coverage area per cell tower is much too small. It works a lot better in urban areas where there are lots of places to put mini cells.

My sister is in the same boat as you. Heck, she barely has cell coverage. The good news is there is a business model where 3rd party carriers are building cell towers in rural areas and renting space on them to the big boys. She was just contacted by a company that wants to build a tower on her land to fill in the gap in coverage there. Who knows, in a couple of years she might have LTE service. Plus, technology is improving to the point where they can squeeze more and more bandwidth out of existing services.

[rem736]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

My sister is in the same boat as you. Heck, she barely has cell coverage. The good news is there is a business model where 3rd party carriers are building cell towers in rural areas and renting space on them to the big boys. She was just contacted by a company that wants to build a tower on her land to fill in the gap in coverage there. Who knows, in a couple of years she might have LTE service. Plus, technology is improving to the point where they can squeeze more and more bandwidth out of existing services.

i don't understand why cell radio units can't be set up on existing telephone/electrical poles. these are everywhere, including rural areas, aren't they? i'm speaking of the u.s. only, of course.

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by rem736

i don't understand why cell radio units can't be set up on existing telephone/electrical poles. these are everywhere, including rural areas, aren't they? i'm speaking of the u.s. only, of course.

Building a pole isn't the problem; It's the antennas and other electronics that are expensive to build and maintain. Spamming them all over the place simply wouldn’t be cost effective in rural areas.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

Building a pole isn't the problem; It's the antennas and other electronics that are expensive to build and maintain. Spamming them all over the place simply wouldn’t be cost effective in rural areas.

Right. Some of the 5G mini-cells are designed to sit on existing telephone poles. But they still have to be put out there and they need power. I believe that you need something like 4 times the cell towers the cover the same area as 1 tower with LTE. Plus, of course, each cell has to be connected to the switch.

[pwalker8]

Apple rolled out a new beta of Catalina which seems to have fixed the quite a few of the issues, at least they fixed the issues that I was having.

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by Tarana

The one good thing about it is that the price of the Iphone 8 came down, so I may get that instead of the 7. I have to leave my world of flip phone....

LOL! Just as I have been considering getting a flip phone as a backup, and selling my SE. The iP7 does me quite nicely, I managed to get the 128GB model for the same price Apple were selling the 32GB model, so quite happy. I thought long and hard about getting a newer model (Xs at the time) but decided that adequate was good enough. I'll upgrade when the phone no longer works the way I need it to

However, I have preordered the Watch5. I am still using a Series 1 and if I didn't need falls detection, I probably wouldnt have botehred. Battery is still good and everything else works nicely.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem with the iPhone 11 series is no 5G. So (IMHO) if you have an iPhone, don't bother to upgrade it just yet. It's a lot of money to spend on a phone without 5G.

Do you live in a highly congested population center with people packed in like cord wood? That is, do you live in a area of highrise apartments buildings with more people than you can shake a stick at? If so 5G MIGHT work for you. If you live in the suburbs, urban single-family housing developments, or rural area, 5G is as uselss as teats on a boar hog. You do know that 5G is extremely limited in the distance it can be broadcast, right? Most of us will never benefit from 5G in its current state. It was designed for people who live in multi-family, high population areas, or work in high rise buildings where people are packed in tight. 5G is the most overhyped thing in the phone industry, and that is why most phone companies are not pushing to implement it yet, and most of the ones who are are lying about what they are implementing. So Apple is smart to not waste time and money on 5G at this time.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

The politics is in your base assumption, which is that it's a bad thing and that Apple won't make adjustments. It's political opinion, not fact. Many people assume that their personal beliefs are facts when they are merely opinions.

Whatever... Don't lecture me with your BS logic.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by Tarana

The one good thing about it is that the price of the Iphone 8 came down, so I may get that instead of the 7. I have to leave my world of flip phone....

Unfortunately, they only sell those now with the lowest storage tier. If you've kept your 5s all these years, you might be better served with the iPhone 11, mid storage tier.

If you keep it as long....it's not that much more a month and 2 years newer tech.

Just a thought. Easy for me to spend your money

[leebase]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem with the iPhone 11 series is no 5G. So (IMHO) if you have an iPhone, don't bother to upgrade it just yet. It's a lot of money to spend on a phone without 5G.

Perennial comments:

This year's iphone is boring....no reason to upgrade.

Next year's iphone is going to be so great, no reason to buy this years.

iPhones are too expensive, nobody should every buy them.

See you next year when we will make the same three comments on those iPhones

[leebase]

For me....the iPhone became "good enough" sometime around the 4s-5s. Ever since, it's the camera that has inspired my upgrades.

I'm on the X...and didn't upgrade to the 10s. I'm looking real hard at the 11 Pro. The 11 is a no brainer upgrade for my wife and kids who are still rocking 6s's.

If I were buying Android....I would NOT be buying a 5g phone. Too pricey, typical first gen battery issues. And, well, Android.

I may or may not upgrade this year but i'm not one bit concerned about 5g.