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Apple iPhone and related items (cont.)

editor said:
Come on: Apple maps was one of the worst pieces of software they've ever released and made them a laughing stock.
Click to expand...

That doesn't mean the idea that they have somehow become un-apple like of late has plenty of merit. If by 'of late' you mean since Jobs died, I can provide a number of examples of shit they did when he was alive.

MobileMe was pants. Siri was something Jobs nurtured but it came nowhere close to living up to the hype. Final Cut Pro X went down rather badly with pro's.

And in terms of high-profile iPhone device issues, who can forget the reception/antenna issues that plagued the original iPhone 4 and caused Jobs to have to offer free bumper cases to users? Surely that design mistake had as much or more potential to cause reputation damage to the iPhone than some increases in crashing?

In my opinion the test of whether the loss of Jobs will badly harm Apple is yet to come. Its when we move on from incremental improvements of the current crop of devices and towards whole new types of devices. Wearable computing may be an early indicator, or it may take longer, but still too early to tell in my opinion.

What certainly does not give us a proper clue is stuff like market share or whether mature platforms & form factors lack 'innovation'. Apples pricing structure, brand and target markets mean they should only ever have a dominant market share in the early days, prolonged only if the competition continue to lag way behind. That was never going to last, with or without Jobs.
 
Plus when it comes to the laughing stock that is Apple Maps, its far from clear that it wouldn't have happened under Jobs. It's not like the app or the UI suck. Its all about data, and I don't think Apple under Jobs had much of a track record for excellence in regards to data or online services.

Its the real driving experience vs the map data, and the local knowledge of the user that exposes Apple Maps to ridicule, and its far from obvious that Jobs would have put anything in place to catch that and delay the launch as a result. And given how his attitude towards Google evolved in response to Android, he was likely a driving force behind starting the maps project and wanting it done quickly.

If I had to guess, I'd say he would have caught one of the comedy problems with Apple maps (probably the wobbly 3d bridges) but let the rest through.
 
elbows said:
Plus when it comes to the laughing stock that is Apple Maps, its far from clear that it wouldn't have happened under Jobs. It's not like the app or the UI suck. Its all about data, and I don't think Apple under Jobs had much of a track record for excellence in regards to data or online services.

Its the experience and the local knowledge of the user that exposes Apple Maps to ridicule, and its far from obvious that Jobs would have put anything in place to catch that and delay the launch as a result. And given how his attitude towards Google evolved in response to Android, he was likely a driving force behind starting the maps project and wanting it done quickly.
Click to expand...

Clearly MobileMe is a good example of how the maps problems could have easily happened under Jobs. Apple are known for not doing data orientated products as well as Google.

Like I said its a false narrative that people who don't know any better or those who have emotionally invested in hating Apple buy into...
 
There is another timing factor - the press and others like to gush over success stories and build them up, then eventually they get bored and start looking for the story of their downfall. In the case of Apple, this desire coincided with the competition getting their act together with smartphones and tablets, and jobs dying. And the phenomenon was heavily amplified in both directions, in part due to prior anomalous dominance that Apple had with the iPod.
 
elbows said:
There is another timing factor - the press and others like to gush over success stories and build them up, then eventually they get bored and start looking for the story of their downfall. In the case of Apple, this desire coincided with the competition getting their act together with smartphones and tablets, and jobs dying. And the phenomenon was heavily amplified in both directions, in part due to prior anomalous dominance that Apple had with the iPod.
Click to expand...

Very good point, particularly about the press and their usual game of build up/take down...
 
I've just bought the Mrs a 5c. The salesman in the shop was falling over himself to give me a good deal but wasn't anywhere near as keen to sell me a 4s or 5. They've clearly not sold any.

That means the prices are pretty good. 36/month for unlimited calls and texts plus 1.5gb of data on EE 4G. No charge for the phone, waived an early upgrade fee of £69 and offered £40 for her old lumia 820.
 
Given that my iPhone has never crashed, since I've owned an iPhone. I'm unsure how to take 'double' the number of crashes?

0x2=....

Even this 1st release of iOS7 is proving to be remarkably stable, had a couple of critical issues which they fixed in a week.

Its proved Apple have a very capable QA team indeed.
 
Sunray said:
Given that my iPhone has never crashed, since I've owned an iPhone. I'm unsure how to take 'double' the number of crashes?

0x2=....

Even this 1st release of iOS7 is proving to be remarkably stable, had a couple of critical issues which they fixed in a week.

Its proved Apple have a very capable QA team indeed.
Click to expand...

I'll have to dig it out but I'm sure it's gone from 1% to 2% which is far lower than the hysteria would suggest.
 
souljacker said:
I've just bought the Mrs a 5c. The salesman in the shop was falling over himself to give me a good deal but wasn't anywhere near as keen to sell me a 4s or 5. They've clearly not sold any.

That means the prices are pretty good. 36/month for unlimited calls and texts plus 1.5gb of data on EE 4G. No charge for the phone, waived an early upgrade fee of £69 and offered £40 for her old lumia 820.
Click to expand...

Heh that's useful to know!:D
 
£36 for 1.5gb of data seems extortionate to me.

iirc I'm on £40 for 2000 mins, 5000 texts, 250 MMS(which I never use) and unlimited data with tethering and a £69 iphone 5 64gb.
 
4G data isn't as cheap as 3G though is it? Not that I would know since I've had no experience of 4G or shopping for it yet, can someone spill the beans on this assumption of mine?
 
elbows said:
4G data isn't as cheap as 3G though is it? Not that I would know since I've had no experience of 4G or shopping for it yet, can someone spill the beans on this assumption of mine?
Click to expand...

No its not....... but its also no where near as reliable afaik.

My housemate always whinges about his 4g.
 
Looks like iPhone 5S has pushed the bar on benchmarks:

421541.jpg


Apple's sixth generation iPhone uses the new 64-bit A7 system on a chip (SoC), featuring a dual-core processor. The A7 chip integrates an M7 motion coprocessor, which gathers data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass to offload work from the A7 for improved power efficiency.

New benchmark tests conducted by Which? lab reveal that the iPhone 5s has broken all the records in the processor benchmark and the device is about twice as fast as its predecessor. This matches Apple's official claims that the iPhone 5s delivers twice the CPU and graphics performance of the previous model. The new iPhone is also 50% faster than Samsung's fourth generation Galaxy S smartphone, Galaxy S4.
Click to expand...

Full article.














Of course some people who previously relied on such stats will obviously dismiss them now it's Apple doing well out of them...
 
Another Apple event this week, 22nd, in the evening here. iPod/iPad and new Mac are all rumoured to be demo'ed.

I am really hoping for a faster retina mini. Loving my current version but if I have the choice, I will just upgrade.
 
Kid_Eternity said:
Of course some people who previously relied on such stats will obviously dismiss them now it's Apple doing well out of them...
Click to expand...
To be fair Apple haven't been seen to be playing games on benchmarks.

On the other hand managing to get a single core score of 1500 compared to everyone else's 800 or less is suspicious. Also the 5c is half that, using what is basically last year's chip. No one, in the history of micro processors, has ever managed to double single threaded operation in a single generation. To do it without raising clocks by a power-sapping margin is nigh on impossible.
I'm betting that the speed improvements are real and measurable but they stem from better integration of CPU and OS more than they come from any inerrant advantage of the A7 over all the other ARM chips in use. It's always been one of the key advantages of Apple that they manage hardware and software together so tightly. Android is a more flexible OS and so has to be less tightly coupled/less optimised.
 
Sunray said:
Another Apple event this week, 22nd, in the evening here. iPod/iPad and new Mac are all rumoured to be demo'ed.

I am really hoping for a faster retina mini. Loving my current version but if I have the choice, I will just upgrade.
Click to expand...

Reckon a retina Mini and iPads with Touch ID's would be about right at this stage...
 
Well, my 5s arrived the other day. It's the first iPhone I've owned and while not without the odd flaw it's the best phone I've ever owned and then some.

The Good

It's beautifully made. Makes everything else I've tried feel cheap. Only exception is the HTC One, which has a similar quality feel.
It's fast. Almost impossibly so. Load times for everything are to all practical extents instant. The time it takes for the zoom animation is the time it takes to load an app.
Apps. There's just more choice of quality apps than I got with Android.
iOS7. Overall it's lovely. Apps that haven't been updated to the new look already feel old and clumsy. However, see below.
4G. Holy shit it's fast. I'm going to save £££'s in hotel wifi fees.
Battery life. I'm getting a full day easily, using it at levels that would have needed at least one full recharge on my old HTC.
Call quality. Much better than anything else I've owned.
The camera, particularly the 120fps slow motion video feature :D


The Bad

iOS7. It's better on an iPad somehow. The calendar app is particular is, for my needs at least, utterly unusable in the phone version. They've put form before function. The music player looks bloody awful as well.
The keyboard. It's OK, but not as accurate as the stock Android one, for my fingers at least. Maybe I need to adjust, I dunno.
I miss the smartdial feature from HTC sense.
The weight. It's almost too light. Feels a bit odd in your hand because of this. Maybe I'll get used to it though, time will tell.
The fact that a case isn't really an option. All that lovely design will have to be hidden away for fear of breaking it.


But these are all pretty small niggles in the overall scheme of things :)
 
beesonthewhatnow said:
Well, my 5s arrived the other day. It's the first iPhone I've owned and while not without the odd flaw it's the best phone I've ever owned and then some.

The Good

It's beautifully made. Makes everything else I've tried feel cheap. Only exception is the HTC One, which has a similar quality feel.
It's fast. Almost impossibly so. Load times for everything are to all practical extents instant. The time it takes for the zoom animation is the time it takes to load an app.
Apps. There's just more choice of quality apps than I got with Android.
iOS7. Overall it's lovely. Apps that haven't been updated to the new look already feel old and clumsy. However, see below.
4G. Holy shit it's fast. I'm going to save £££'s in hotel wifi fees.
Battery life. I'm getting a full day easily, using it at levels that would have needed at least one full recharge on my old HTC.
Call quality. Much better than anything else I've owned.
The camera, particularly the 120fps slow motion video feature :D


The Bad

iOS7. It's better on an iPad somehow. The calendar app is particular is, for my needs at least, utterly unusable in the phone version. They've put form before function. The music player looks bloody awful as well.
The keyboard. It's OK, but not as accurate as the stock Android one, for my fingers at least. Maybe I need to adjust, I dunno.
I miss the smartdial feature from HTC sense.
The weight. It's almost too light. Feels a bit odd in your hand because of this. Maybe I'll get used to it though, time will tell.
The fact that a case isn't really an option. All that lovely design will have to be hidden away for fear of breaking it.


But these are all pretty small niggles in the overall scheme of things :)
Click to expand...

The weight is simply crazy, you're right about it being a snappy fucker too. The camera has taken some great low light shots too, better than my mates 300 six month old Canon point and shoot!
 
beesonthewhatnow said:
Well, my 5s arrived the other day. It's the first iPhone I've owned...

The Bad

iOS7. It's better on an iPad somehow. The calendar app is particular is, for my needs at least, utterly unusable in the phone version. They've put form before function. The music player looks bloody awful as well.
The keyboard. It's OK, but not as accurate as the stock Android one, for my fingers at least. Maybe I need to adjust, I dunno.
I miss the smartdial feature from HTC sense.
The weight. It's almost too light. Feels a bit odd in your hand because of this. Maybe I'll get used to it though, time will tell.
The fact that a case isn't really an option. All that lovely design will have to be hidden away for fear of breaking it.


But these are all pretty small niggles in the overall scheme of things :)
Click to expand...

I agree with you about the Calendar and the Music Player, they need completely rethinking; the Calendar isn't as good as io6, but it's a bit better on the ipad.
There are other calendars to buy off the app store which are allegedly better but the default one should be excellent by now. Annoying.
 
hendo said:
I agree with you about the Calendar and the Music Player, they need completely rethinking; the Calendar isn't as good as io6, but it's a bit better on the ipad.
There are other calendars to buy off the app store which are allegedly better but the default one should be excellent by now. Annoying.
Click to expand...
I went with this one - http://readdle.com/products/calendars5/

The Apple one is useless on the phone because in month view all you get is a circle to show you have an event on that day, with no indication as to what particular calendar it's from or whether it spans on to other days. It works on the ipad because they use colour and text to show you the information.

iPhone:

ios7_calendar_month-225x400.png


iPad:

calendars_5_ipad_month_view.png
 
The calendar interface I like best is in Fantastical, which is based around your agenda, with the week or month display following where you are on that. (It also has a natural language interface for entering events, which is so so on phones given typing speed, but really shines on a Mac - you can hit the hotkey, type "meet bill at 4pm next Saturday at the pony show for 2h", press enter and it's in there, as opposed to fucking about in Calendar.)

I don't have a lot on my calendar though and rarely need to look at the temporal relation between events, just know when and what they are individually.
 
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