Remember When iReveals Were Actually Interesting?

"PS9" (PS9) 09/10/2013 at 13:49 • Filed to: techlopnik

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Now thanks to the pasta strainer that is China's electronics production industry, everything is telegraphed several months in advance. Yay, confirmation of what I already heard about a 1000 years ago. I guess.

It's not entirely China's fault though. Back when Steve Jobs didn't have a shitty movie made about him, SoC technology was nascent. It was a big deal for anything you could hold in the palm of your hand to have a GPU at all, and each jump in Mhz improved performance by leaps and bounds. Now, we're well past the point of diminishing returns, and more cores, faster GPUs, and more RAM by themselves are unable to fix the still persistent short comings associated with mobile software.

The potential for a handheld device to displace all the other computing devices in your life has yet to be realized. Instead of more unity and commonality, our computing solutions are becoming more divergent and fragmented. Every smartphone from here on out is going to be an increment of the one that came before, barring some kind of disruptive technological change.

CalzoneGolem > PS9 09/10/2013 at 13:50

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Nope.

GhostZ > CalzoneGolem 09/10/2013 at 13:57

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Dammit. I wanted to say it first.

Pessimippopotamus > PS9 09/10/2013 at 13:58

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But, but... more colors!

Seriously though, the fingerprint reader sounds interesting, but impractical. The 64bit architecture sounds interesting, but no one will develop 64bit apps until current 32bit iDevices are all phased out, and there are a crapload of them active right now. Aside from that... I was more excited by the Moto X's hands-free mechanics.

Hermann > PS9 09/10/2013 at 13:59

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Me, in the next two weeks:
Technology blogs -> Mark as read

Edit: I own an iPhone and I'm excited about iOS7. But Tech blogs get unbearable around Apple Reveals. I feel like having a bunch of 11 year old girls around be, expecting a One Direction concert.

Jayhawk Jake > Pessimippopotamus 09/10/2013 at 14:09

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I'm going to try to get a 5C...but only because I broke the screen on my current phone. I think I'll go for white.

dinobot666 > PS9 09/10/2013 at 14:10

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I thought this thread was going to be about the upcoming PS9.

GhostZ > PS9 09/10/2013 at 14:11

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My new Phone arrives tomorrow. It's a new X8-chip Motorola Droid Maxx. It has 60% more processing power than my old laptop, and is 40% as powerful as my current laptop before overclocking. It has a dedicated core for voice recognition and another for motion sensing. This lets it extend the battery life to over 48 hours of regular usage, and almost 60 hours of idling time.

This is what I think about it:

BTW: That disruptive technological change is going to be CNT batteries, which would let your phone use the same amount of power as your laptop without adding weight.

GhostZ > Pessimippopotamus 09/10/2013 at 14:11

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Moto X looks brilliant. I'm getting one in a few days, so I'll try to post an Oppo review.

Mathias Rios > PS9 09/10/2013 at 14:21

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Big Apple fan, this release was quite underwhelming I must say.

PS9 > GhostZ 09/10/2013 at 14:25

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Better batteries won't be disruptive. When smartphones caught on, they shifted a lot of the computing we did with our laptops into the palms of our hands. They gave us internet everywhere, and transformed cellular carriers globally into mobile ISPs. When tablets descended from the smartphone parts bin, they eliminated netbooks completely and transformed our expectations for computing battery life. Smartphones, tablets, and their associated technologies changed the world by transforming how we compute and where we can compute.

Better batteries will do no such thing. They will certainly be welcome, and the will allow us to do what we already do for much longer than before, but that's not the same thing as a disruptive, transformative change.

duurtlang > Hermann 09/10/2013 at 14:30

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It really is like that. And to make things worse the skater boys come to annoy the One Direction fangirls, and an all out war starts. No intelligent discussion possible. It's almost like discussing politics on youtube.

liquid_popcorn > Hermann 09/10/2013 at 14:32

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Exactly.

The most exciting thing to me about ios 7 is the swipe up shortcut for brightness/wifi/flashlight/etc, which I've been wanting forever.

Sn210 > PS9 09/10/2013 at 14:33

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I was more excited to learn about how much the price of the 5 was going to drop so I can upgrade my 4, but I guess Apple is going to drop the 5 completely in favor if the 5C? So much for hoping to save some money

Hermann > Sn210 09/10/2013 at 14:40

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I think it won't be dropped. They've announced that the 4S will be free on contract, so there's the possibility they won't drop the 5.

But since they've dropped the iPad 3 on the iPad 4 launch but kept selling the iPad 2, there's the possibility they'll only keep the 4S as the extra budget option while the middle will be the 5C and the top shelf option will be the 5S.

Hermann > duurtlang 09/10/2013 at 14:42

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You misspelled sk8r boiz.

Also, my RSS reader is going nuts, every 10 minutes = 20 new technology stuff, which are marked as read right away.

Sn210 > Hermann 09/10/2013 at 14:48

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Yep, that's exactly how I interpreted an article I read: 5s will be at the top, 5c will be the middle, and they were going to keep selling the 4s for $0 with a contract. My goal is to replace my dead 2g shuffle, my 32g iPod with a broken headphone jack, and my full 8g iPhone 4 with a heavily discounted 64g iPhone 5 once everyone goes crazy for the new 5s. Best Buy did drop their price $50 already for the 64g 5, so that may be as good as it gets for me.

duurtlang > Hermann 09/10/2013 at 14:54

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I bet that, to the mind of a 12 year old, you misspelled One Direction as well. Anyway, while I was visiting Warsaw (the original one) in July there suddenly appeared this huge group of at least a hundred (pre)teenage girls continuously shouting "Justin Bieber". It was almost like a protest march, marching towards the town square. It was amusing, sad and cute at the same time. I'm assuming one of those Apple reveals or sit ins is somewhat similar.

Hermann > Sn210 09/10/2013 at 14:59

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You might get a nice used one when the new ones launch. But the prices won't change much either, because you are certainly not the only one after an iPhone 5 now that it's "outdated".

Also, they might get dirt cheap as refurbs, just like the iPad 3.

Hermann > duurtlang 09/10/2013 at 15:06

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I feel you, man.

My fiancees cousin is now 11 years old and she and her friends are completely obsessed and blind with these guys. And it's beyond any crazy fan type I've ever seen. I don't know if the internet has something to do with this, but it's just absurd.

And that's pretty much how it goes on with these Apple reveals. I think people got so obsessed that it stopped being a magical event and is now just a source of easy headlines ("Plastic iPhones suck, here's why", "Is apple relevant again?", "The best iPhone is the 4S", "the best features of iOS7 were available on Android since 2009"). It feels like celebrity gossip.

Sn210 > Hermann 09/10/2013 at 15:19

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That's a good idea too, thanks. I'll have to keep an eye out for a deal. I just read somewhere too that iPhone 5 sales boomed once Apple sent out invites to today's reveal.

Pessimippopotamus > Sn210 09/10/2013 at 15:54

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5 will be replaced with the 5c because the 5c has lower manufacturing costs for Apple. It's simple as that. The 5 will be discontinued come September 20.

As a result, yes, 5 prices should actually go up and hold steady for a long time to come.

If it's got the same internals, and the same software support, would you opt for a metal finish or a stamped plastic cover?

Sn210 > Pessimippopotamus 09/10/2013 at 16:22

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My problem is that I wanted a 64gb phone, and the 5c only goes to 32gb, otherwise I'd say I'd just get the 5c

bourgeoisie > Pessimippopotamus 09/10/2013 at 20:03

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I know I'm the minority, but I'll take the injection molded plastic all day long.

I loved my iPhone 3G for its curved plastic back which felt more natural and far more comfortable in the hand than my current 4S. Certainly there's a big difference in "handheld comfort" even between the 4S and the 5/5S designs, but I'll take the plastic.

The improved camera is the only thing that has me considering a 5S over a 5C, and even that isn't very compelling since the 5C will be a decent upgrade from the camera on my 4S.