Apple Iphone 6 and 6+ announced

[Borgholio]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/iphone-6-un ... 014-event/

Quoting relevant part of article:

First up was the company's new larger, thinner iPhone 6, which features an aluminum body and glass front that curves around the sides. The base model comes with a 4.7-inch screen and the other, dubbed the iPhone 6 Plus, has a 5.5 inch-screen. The iPhone 6 screen has over 1 million pixels, while the iPhone 6 Plus has over 2 million pixels, Schiller said, emphasizing what he called the the devices' "stunning display."


Gesturing toward giant photos of a lizard and a butterfly projected on-stage, Schiller also highlighted the new iPhone's enhanced camera, which he said includes image-stabilization functionality.

With a two-year contract, the iPhone 6 will cost $199 for a model with 16 gigabytes of memory, $299 for the 64GB phone and $399 for 128GB. The iPhone 6 Plus is priced at $299 (16GB), $399 (64GB) and $499 (128GB).

So...same as before just a bigger screen to compete with the most popular Android phones. No word on any changes to the ability to mod the O/S, no word on expandable SD memory...so...it's bigger. Yay.

[Tribble]

So...same as before just a bigger screen to compete with the most popular Android phones. No word on any changes to the ability to mod the O/S, no word on expandable SD memory...so...it's bigger. Yay.

Mod the O/S? Expand the memory??? This is Apple we are talking about here.

[Borgholio]

Mod the O/S? Expand the memory??? This is Apple we are talking about here.

That's pretty much my point. Android is far more flexible than iOS which is (IMO) one of the main reasons why it is more popular than iOS...not merely the screen size of the phones. Basically the Iphone6 is identical to my old 3gs in terms of what it can and can't do...aside from gimmicks like NFC, a higher-res camera, and a larger screen. Apple isn't doing anything different...they're still playing catch-up on the exterior stuff while the interior stuff remains stagnant.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Mod the O/S? Expand the memory??? This is Apple we are talking about here.

That's pretty much my point. :) Android is far more flexible than iOS which is (IMO) one of the main reasons why it is more popular than iOS...not merely the screen size of the phones.

How does this matter, in any way, to the average consumer? The average consumer is going to get an Android device from her carrier that frequently features a locked bootloader, an OS locked down tighter than an 85 year old nun's lady-parts ... that's also saddled with carrier bloat-ware, and a mean time between OS updates that's measured in geological ages.

Also, the average consumer doesn't buy a lot of smartphone apps, so they tend to use their phone's internal memory for naked selfies and pictures of their cats. The demand for expandable storage is such that there are lots, and lots, of Android "flagship" devices that ... don't have expandable storage.

These things you mentioned ... do not matter one bit for 95% of smartphone users. Apple realized that, and they also know that people will pay ludicrous sums of money for the little badge on the back of the phone. They don't care about the 1337 H4X0RZ who like to put Clockwork-cyanorangemodlulz 9001 (new feature ... IT's OVER 9000!) on their rooted (an operation carried out by other hackers with lots of free time on their hands to defeat all the mechanisms put into place by Google and the OEMs specifically to prevent such a thing from happening) devices.

[phongn]

So...same as before just a bigger screen to compete with the most popular Android phones. No word on any changes to the ability to mod the O/S, no word on expandable SD memory...so...it's bigger. Yay.

If you want a customizable or hackable phone, Apple is not what you want. This isn't exactly news.

[Borgholio]

I wasn't referring to the ability to hack the OS or root it, I was referring to what you can do with it from an end-user standpoint. As a very simple example, a WiFi scanner to locate and measure the signal strength of your network. Doesn't exist on iOS. GPS apps to show you signal strength and raw navigational info. Doesn't exist on iOS. Greater ability to organize and customize your home screensThe ability for developers to easily do things with it gives an Android much greater capability than an iPhone.

I don't root or flash my phone or anything. But when I considered going back to iOS I just sat down and checked the app store for things I often use. Half the things I currently do on the Android, I can't do on iOS. So yeah maybe I was being stupid in thinking that Apple would do something greatly different that would make the phone useful enough for me to actually want to have. Oh well.

[phongn]

I wasn't referring to the ability to hack the OS or root it, I was referring to what you can do with it from an end-user standpoint. As a very simple example, a WiFi scanner to locate and measure the signal strength of your network. Doesn't exist on iOS. GPS apps to show you signal strength and raw navigational info. Doesn't exist on iOS. Greater ability to organize and customize your home screens. The ability for developers to easily do things with it gives an Android much greater capability than an iPhone.

Apple does not believe those use cases are relevant to their target audience. They are not interested in maximum flexibility like how Google makes Android, but rather polishing and refining a smaller set of features.

I don't root or flash my phone or anything. But when I considered going back to iOS I just sat down and checked the app store for things I often use. Half the things I currently do on the Android, I can't do on iOS. So yeah maybe I was being stupid in thinking that Apple would do something greatly different that would make the phone useful enough for me to actually want to have. Oh well.

Your use cases are not within Apple's scope of interest but are within Android's. I doubt that that Apple will ever produce a mobile device matching your desires and preferences: that's okay, Android appears to fill that for you.

[phongn]

Mod the O/S? Expand the memory??? This is Apple we are talking about here.

That's pretty much my point. Android is far more flexible than iOS which is (IMO) one of the main reasons why it is more popular than iOS...not merely the screen size of the phones. Basically the Iphone6 is identical to my old 3gs in terms of what it can and can't do...aside from gimmicks like NFC, a higher-res camera, and a larger screen. Apple isn't doing anything different...they're still playing catch-up on the exterior stuff while the interior stuff remains stagnant.

Android's flexibility lets it reach all price targets, from inexpensive phones like the Moto G to expensive flagship phones like the Galaxy Alpha. This inherently gives it a greater market share. As you note, it is all things to all people, so those who wanted a larger phone, or more customizability, or an inexpensive phone went with Android, by and large. That's fine. Apple isn't chasing that: they are trying to maximize profit from the top of the market (and said so at the release of the original iPhone). Google and Apple have totally different goals. The former is trying to get their platform everywhere (like Microsoft in the 1990s) and the latter is trying to skim off the top (like ... Apple of the late 1990s onwards).

Apple's OSes have shown greater refinement, improved design, and are now moving forward with tightly coupled interaction between all their products (e.g. phone/computer handoff, wireless file sharing and the like). A 3GS running iOS 3 (and even iOS 6) is a vastly different machine than an iPhone 6 running iOS 8. Apple typically* does not chase "feature checklists" so beloved of technology enthusiasts, instead working on complete user experience and design. As someone deeply interested in human-computer interaction, this is way more interesting than the feature-of-the-day.

* I'm slowly starting to see some of that, though, which is a bit disheartening.

[Enigma]

So how long will it take before the Ipad is renamed as Iphone since the phones seem to get bigger and bigger.

[Steel]

Outside the US few people have arses large enough to fit an ipad in their pocket, so I think demand will still always exist for smaller phones

[Ubiquitous]

Outside the US few people have arses large enough to fit an ipad in their pocket, so I think demand will still always exist for smaller phones

I have taken on the challenge - I have a plus headset arriving on Friday. Having been very happy with my iPhone 5 for two years I have decided if I don't like the plus I will put it on ebay and revert back to my trusty 5.

[Borgholio]

Let us know how it works out. I couldn't go back to a smaller phone unless I had no other choice. A bigger screen is just so much more useful for me since I use my phone for everything else BUT phone calls typically.

[Ubiquitous]

Let us know how it works out. I couldn't go back to a smaller phone unless I had no other choice. A bigger screen is just so much more useful for me since I use my phone for everything else BUT phone calls typically.

Yeah I will make sure to report back buddy. I hope I enjoy it as I have sunk a lot of money into buying it!