Ipod Touch / Iphone

[Dusty Chalk]

I'm not on the phone, I'm using it as a visor to blot out the sun.  It's a cellular eclipse.

[blessingx]

In case anyone wants to watch the most interesting part of the presentation, skip to minute 70...

http://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2013/

 

[justin]

Plus One on the iPhone 5 being a perfectly sized phone.

 

But, I really get a kick out of "the masses" holding a tablet sized phone to their head. What a hoot!

 

MagPul iPhone case for me...

 

i agree it is a great size for a phone. but its a bad size for just about anything else. probably 5-10% of my time w/ the iPhone is spent on a call, and that can be done with a headset. I think what happened was Apple entered the phone market at the tail-end of the tiny phone wars, and they didn't anticipate that trend would end. Not that I'm going to give Android phone makers any credit for reversing it. I think they just started making huge phones because they couldn't be competitive with the iPhone's processing capability or battery life without making a larger device, and that allows for a larger screen. It just happened that at the same time, everything went mobile, and people started spending as much time looking at their phone screen as they do their computer screen. Apple has done their best to ignore this, and maybe it is to force people into owning an iPhone, an iPad Mini, an iPad, and a Macbook (i'm 3/4 of the way there..). Or they're just really stubborn. I think they had to do their 2 year cycle w/ the iPhone 5 design so they didn't look foolish, and next year they're going to offer 2 new models, a big one and a regular sized one.

[MexicanDragon]

I hope their next models are 5 inches or more, JUST to piss off Dan.

As far as yesterday's announcement, I think high end phones of the past year or so are finally getting to where it isn't as big of a deal to upgrade due to specs/speed/etc. I still despise the size of the screen of the iPhone 5(x), but it does look great, and I love the build quality, but like Justin said, most of the mobile use these days (for most people) isn't making calls, it's messaging, internet, facebook, facetime, camera, twitter, instagram, etc.

With iOS7, however, a big frustration of mine with the iPhone has been address (time stamps on messages), and it just took 6 years. The fingerprint scanner thing, though, is REALLY nice, in my opinion, depending on what they do with it. Like Dinny, I hate putting in a passcode (or in my case, a complicated swiped pattern) all the time, but there's no way I'm going to leave my phone unlocked. Ever. Now, think about this: you're a parent and you want to let your kid play on the phone, but don't want them to have access to email, texts, sms, facebook, credit cards, ebay, paypal, d-_-b, etc. Now, set them up with their own fingerprint and you have a subset of things allowed. Their own ID for games, own browser, own FB account, etc. Similar for the spouse... and then you could have a "Guest" account, which could be locked out a little more. Internet (guest account with no history), phone access, and maybe a little more. This is totally doable, and if they do it, it could be a very nice feature.

Oh, and the camera looks great. I actually know someone thinking about going to the crazy Nokia/Lumia with the 41mp camera, but I want to get his thoughts about this cam instead (to spare him from WP).

As someone who doesn't like the iPhone, this one actually interested me more than previous ones on the hardware front, even though there are only a couple things that really jumped out at me.

**BRENT**

[grawk]

I think I'm going to be buying either 2 iphone 4Ss or 2 nexus 4s for my kids, and an iphone 5s for me in the next month. My wife will keep using her existing 4s. We'll be switching to tmobile.

[n_maher]

I think the sweet spot for phone screen size lies somewhere in the middle of what the market is putting out right now, for me anyway.  The iphone, even the 5, is too small.  I've been around them enough to see what email and the internet look like and I think it's a pretty substandard experience.  That said, I don't see any reason to have a 5+" screen.  I think my idea phone would have a ~4.5" screen, ripping good camera and all day battery life.  That's about the extent of my expectations but I know that others are far heavier users than I am. 

[grawk]

I still wish they'd stuck with the iphone 4 form factor. That said, we have at least 1 of almost every device size apple sells in my house. 2 iphones, 1 ipad mini, multiple full sized iphones, an 11" macbook air, a 13" macbook air, a 13" macbook pro, and a couple of imacs. (big family, with 4 school aged kids and 2 adults) I tend to prefer each device be best at it's primary use, and compromise on everything else, and for my phone, that means fits easily in a pocket and is easily usable 1 handed.

[Cankin]

I hope their next models are 5 inches or more, JUST to piss off Dan.

As far as yesterday's announcement, I think high end phones of the past year or so are finally getting to where it isn't as big of a deal to upgrade due to specs/speed/etc. I still despise the size of the screen of the iPhone 5(x), but it does look great, and I love the build quality, but like Justin said, most of the mobile use these days (for most people) isn't making calls, it's messaging, internet, facebook, facetime, camera, twitter, instagram, etc.

With iOS7, however, a big frustration of mine with the iPhone has been address (time stamps on messages), and it just took 6 years. The fingerprint scanner thing, though, is REALLY nice, in my opinion, depending on what they do with it. Like Dinny, I hate putting in a passcode (or in my case, a complicated swiped pattern) all the time, but there's no way I'm going to leave my phone unlocked. Ever. Now, think about this: you're a parent and you want to let your kid play on the phone, but don't want them to have access to email, texts, sms, facebook, credit cards, ebay, paypal, d-_-b, etc. Now, set them up with their own fingerprint and you have a subset of things allowed. Their own ID for games, own browser, own FB account, etc. Similar for the spouse... and then you could have a "Guest" account, which could be locked out a little more. Internet (guest account with no history), phone access, and maybe a little more. This is totally doable, and if they do it, it could be a very nice feature.

Oh, and the camera looks great. I actually know someone thinking about going to the crazy Nokia/Lumia with the 41mp camera, but I want to get his thoughts about this cam instead (to spare him from WP).

As someone who doesn't like the iPhone, this one actually interested me more than previous ones on the hardware front, even though there are only a couple things that really jumped out at me.

**BRENT**

I haven't seen report on "Guest" account in iOS 7 but if one wants to limit access of certain features by kids, just go to Setting -> General -> Restriction and select feature to disable.

It is already in iOS 6, not sure about 5. On the other hand, "Guest" account should let one to further tailor features for particular user.

[MexicanDragon]

Cankin, are you talking about having the kids have their own phone and limiting, or are you talking about handing them your phone to use say, in the car or at the doctor's office? I am talking about the latter, handing your personal phone off to someone while blocking access yo your entire digital world.

If there is a way to do that now, I'm not aware. Your option seems to be more of setting up a phone for a kid for their use, and setting restrictions and locking that with a pass code, perhaps.

**BRENT**

[grawk]

if apple makes it so there's a "per fingerprint" configuration for the 5S, that'd be a spectacular feature. I'd want that on the ipad more than the phone, but even on a phone it's a game changer.

[Cankin]

Cankin, are you talking about having the kids have their own phone and limiting, or are you talking about handing them your phone to use say, in the car or at the doctor's office? I am talking about the latter, handing your personal phone off to someone while blocking access yo your entire digital world.

If there is a way to do that now, I'm not aware. Your option seems to be more of setting up a phone for a kid for their use, and setting restrictions and locking that with a pass code, perhaps.

**BRENT**

You can turn on restriction only when you let your kids use your personal phone, it takes no more step than logging off and switch to guest account.

If Apple's Touch ID can log in to different account base on finger prints, that would be more convenient.

[justin]

I hope their next models are 5 inches or more, JUST to piss off Dan.

As far as yesterday's announcement, I think high end phones of the past year or so are finally getting to where it isn't as big of a deal to upgrade due to specs/speed/etc. I still despise the size of the screen of the iPhone 5(x), but it does look great, and I love the build quality, but like Justin said, most of the mobile use these days (for most people) isn't making calls, it's messaging, internet, facebook, facetime, camera, twitter, instagram, etc.

With iOS7, however, a big frustration of mine with the iPhone has been address (time stamps on messages), and it just took 6 years. The fingerprint scanner thing, though, is REALLY nice, in my opinion, depending on what they do with it. Like Dinny, I hate putting in a passcode (or in my case, a complicated swiped pattern) all the time, but there's no way I'm going to leave my phone unlocked. Ever. Now, think about this: you're a parent and you want to let your kid play on the phone, but don't want them to have access to email, texts, sms, facebook, credit cards, ebay, paypal, d-_-b, etc. Now, set them up with their own fingerprint and you have a subset of things allowed. Their own ID for games, own browser, own FB account, etc. Similar for the spouse... and then you could have a "Guest" account, which could be locked out a little more. Internet (guest account with no history), phone access, and maybe a little more. This is totally doable, and if they do it, it could be a very nice feature.

Oh, and the camera looks great. I actually know someone thinking about going to the crazy Nokia/Lumia with the 41mp camera, but I want to get his thoughts about this cam instead (to spare him from WP).

As someone who doesn't like the iPhone, this one actually interested me more than previous ones on the hardware front, even though there are only a couple things that really jumped out at me.

**BRENT**

 

the fingerprint scanner is really just to make it faster to make iTunes purchases, and probably so they can lay off the people who deal exclusively with iTunes chargebacks from people who claim purchases were unauthorized. There is no way they are going to get into the complexity of having different user accounts

[shellylh]

I really don't understand the giant phone craze.  I can't even completely use my Nexus S (4") screen with one hand - I can only reach part of the screen.  There is no way I could use something bigger without dropping the phone every hour.  I do have really small hands but there must be 25% of the population with smallish hands I would guess.  

 

All I want is a fast (that won't be sluggish in 2 years), relatively thin phone with ~4" screen with a good gmail app, Swype type keyboard, and a long battery and without a lot of bloatware.  Is that really too much to ask?  I guess I would also like LTE now that I think of it. 

Edited September 11, 2013 by shellylh

[Dusty Chalk]

Roughly 50% of all people have below-average sized hands. 

 

And if they bifurcate, they should make the smaller one back to the old (iPhone 2, 3, 4) size.

[shellylh]

remove the Swype requirement (unless you are willing to jailbreak), and that's the iPhone 5s.

I know, that is what is so frustrating! In addition I would much rather have iOS than android for certain apps like Remote...

[deepak]

I hope their next models are 5 inches or more, JUST to piss off Dan.

As far as yesterday's announcement, I think high end phones of the past year or so are finally getting to where it isn't as big of a deal to upgrade due to specs/speed/etc. I still despise the size of the screen of the iPhone 5(x), but it does look great, and I love the build quality, but like Justin said, most of the mobile use these days (for most people) isn't making calls, it's messaging, internet, facebook, facetime, camera, twitter, instagram, etc.

With iOS7, however, a big frustration of mine with the iPhone has been address (time stamps on messages), and it just took 6 years. The fingerprint scanner thing, though, is REALLY nice, in my opinion, depending on what they do with it. Like Dinny, I hate putting in a passcode (or in my case, a complicated swiped pattern) all the time, but there's no way I'm going to leave my phone unlocked. Ever. Now, think about this: you're a parent and you want to let your kid play on the phone, but don't want them to have access to email, texts, sms, facebook, credit cards, ebay, paypal, d-_-b, etc. Now, set them up with their own fingerprint and you have a subset of things allowed. Their own ID for games, own browser, own FB account, etc. Similar for the spouse... and then you could have a "Guest" account, which could be locked out a little more. Internet (guest account with no history), phone access, and maybe a little more. This is totally doable, and if they do it, it could be a very nice feature.

Oh, and the camera looks great. I actually know someone thinking about going to the crazy Nokia/Lumia with the 41mp camera, but I want to get his thoughts about this cam instead (to spare him from WP).

As someone who doesn't like the iPhone, this one actually interested me more than previous ones on the hardware front, even though there are only a couple things that really jumped out at me.

**BRENT**

You are a huge nerd

[grawk]

Apple seems to do a good job at having the compelling upgrade be every 2 years

[justin]

I've never bothered with a passcode on my phone. With a 4 digit pin it's trivial to brute force it, and I've yet to not be able to figure out somebody's swipe pattern simply based on fingerprints, unless they have recently wiped the screen. I figure that if somebody has my phone, they are going to get into it. The fingerprint doohicky would be really nice, but I'm not going to upgrade from my iPhone 5 to get it.

I know certain police that couldnt get into a passcode locked iphone 5

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

[Grahame]

 

Maybe the police thought rubber hoses, rather than computational brute force ..

[n_maher]

am I the only one who hates the aspect ratio of the iPhone 5 screen?

[morphsci]

am I the only one who hates the aspect ratio of the iPhone 5 screen?

You don't like 16:9?

[n_maher]

It feels way too narrow, to me, for a phone.

[grawk]

I'm still happier with the original geometry.

[postjack]

I really don't understand the giant phone craze.  I can't even completely use my Nexus S (4") screen with one hand - I can only reach part of the screen.  There is no way I could use something bigger without dropping the phone every hour.  I do have really small hands but there must be 25% of the population with smallish hands I would guess.  

 

All I want is a fast (that won't be sluggish in 2 years), relatively thin phone with ~4" screen with a good gmail app, Swype type keyboard, and a long battery and without a lot of bloatware.  Is that really too much to ask?  I guess I would also like LTE now that I think of it. 

 

For me the giant phone craze is because I primarily use my phone for web browsing. That's been my primary use since I bought the original iPhone. It still blows my mind I can carry the world wide web around in my pocket. I'm not a big app guy, not a big gamer, not a big talker. I just like browsing the web. Thus my Note II.

 

And reading books, which I found impossible to do on the smaller iPhone screen. I know some people are fine reading on it, but it hurt my eyes and head.

 

I think Brent is correct on his analysis of current smartphone development. The past several years have seen innovation in leaps and bounds, mostly now the changes are smaller.

 

The good news is there are a ton of quality choices out there for smartphone geeks.

[blessingx]

This may help explain the giant phone craze...
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oprUI6nupfc
 
vidlink