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The Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus Review

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Re: The Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus Review

#71

Post by stouset »

davnicwil wrote: post #50
andy_ppp wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Built in obsolescence?

Almost certainly. I try really hard to be as un-cynical as possible about this, but there's a great quote I heard from someone smart whose name I can't recall right now - economics is incentives all the way down - and it applies perfectly here I think. What possible incentive could any phone manufacturer have to build a phone that significantly over-lasts the rough 2 year cycle that their bulk buyers, i.e the network…

Customer goodwill?

Consider it this way: the actual evidence we have disagrees with your conclusion. Apple has seemingly gone out of their way to ensure that new releases continue to run on increasingly-older generations of hardware. Look at calvin_c's comment[1] for a complete breakdown of this.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10502753

Re: The Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus Review

#72

Post by zephod »

humbleMouse wrote: post #27

I don't like the iphone 6 line. They are too big. I bike and run with my phone all the time and don't like having a clunker strapped to my arm. I got rid of the 6 and got a 5c and I like it way more. Just as fast as an iphone6 and 1/3 the price. By just as fast, I mean for normal use - not playing games and using crazy apps (which I don't do)

I feel the same way, and at this point I'm just holding out for some kind of iPhone Nano product line next year.

What puzzles me is that I don't know anybody else who feels like this. Most people are surprised at me, or don't seem to notice that they suddenly need two hands to operate their smartphone.

Re: The Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus Review

#73

Post by stouset »

devit wrote: post #18
vbezhenar wrote: post #15

I wonder, how many years iPhone 6S will be able to stay relevant. For example iPhone 4S started lagging on iOS 7. While it's certainly usable on iOS 9, it feels as an old and underpowered device. If you have powerful computer from 2010, it'll happily run Windows 10 and almost any application, including almost any game in medium (or even high) mode. I wonder, whether this race on mobile platform will continue or iPhon…

That's going to depend on whether Apple can be trusted to support their hardware indefinitely or whether they will decide to drop support to force people to give them more money. A much safer bet would be a popular Android device, where anyone can port the latest Android version to the device and there is no monetary interest in not doing so, and thus it's likely that updates will be available forever.

Except in reality, Apple continues to support their old devices with the latest updates significantly longer than any other Android manufacturer, who practically force you to go through the effort of rooting your phone to get even critical security patches.

Re: The Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus Review

#74

Post by aljones »

davnicwil wrote: post #50
andy_ppp wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Built in obsolescence?

Almost certainly. I try really hard to be as un-cynical as possible about this, but there's a great quote I heard from someone smart whose name I can't recall right now - economics is incentives all the way down - and it applies perfectly here I think. What possible incentive could any phone manufacturer have to build a phone that significantly over-lasts the rough 2 year cycle that their bulk buyers, i.e the network…

Seems obvious that displeasing your customer is more likely to send them to a competitor than pleasing them.

Re: The Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus Review

#75

Post by [deleted] »

davnicwil wrote: post #50
andy_ppp wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Built in obsolescence?

Almost certainly. I try really hard to be as un-cynical as possible about this, but there's a great quote I heard from someone smart whose name I can't recall right now - economics is incentives all the way down - and it applies perfectly here I think. What possible incentive could any phone manufacturer have to build a phone that significantly over-lasts the rough 2 year cycle that their bulk buyers, i.e the network…

[deleted]

Re: The Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus Review

#76

Post by oldmanjay »

shostack wrote: post #66
bad_user wrote: post #33

I'm mostly an Android user and now I have an iPhone 6s, received as a gift - this is actually the third iPhone I'm receiving as a gift, the first one was a 3GS. I like the hardware, the phone, its size. I like how polished it feels. I really like the photos it takes. But I consider Android's software to be superior. Others might disagree, but I have many reasons for why I prefer Android and I think iOS is falling fur…

Totally agree. Tried an iPhone 6 and switched back to my Nexus 4 after a week because the notifications were driving me nuts compared to Android. I have three different email accounts, and unless I used the native Mail app (which I hate), the Gmail app would show all of the individual email notifications on a separate row combined across all accounts. My notifications quickly became useless. On Android, they are roll…

I'm not sure how much this plays in, but to my eye, your comment adds nothing to the discussion. Your personal preference isn't interesting in context.

To be fair, I can't imagine a context where I would find your preferences to be interesting (on HN, that is) so I could be wrong. I didn't vote on your comment in any case.

Re: The Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus Review

#77

Post by sghodas »

zephod wrote: post #72
humbleMouse wrote: post #27

I don't like the iphone 6 line. They are too big. I bike and run with my phone all the time and don't like having a clunker strapped to my arm. I got rid of the 6 and got a 5c and I like it way more. Just as fast as an iphone6 and 1/3 the price. By just as fast, I mean for normal use - not playing games and using crazy apps (which I don't do)

I feel the same way, and at this point I'm just holding out for some kind of iPhone Nano product line next year. What puzzles me is that I don't know anybody else who feels like this. Most people are surprised at me, or don't seem to notice that they suddenly need two hands to operate their smartphone.

I have the 6s+, and yeah I can't use it with one hand, but I'm okay with that because I love having the bigger screen so much more. I can see a lot more while typing, watching videos is a better experience, and I've noticed myself using the bigger phone (I used to have a 5s) in new ways a lot more.

Before, I would avoid doing some tasks on my phone like taking more than a few lines of notes. The bigger screen feels less cramped and I don't feel annoyed while using it. In fact I wrote this comment out on my phone. I've never done that with any of the smaller phones I've had.

Re: The Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus Review

#78

Post by CamperBob2 »

gareim wrote: post #28
CamperBob2 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What drives me nuts about my 6s is the way they moved the power button from the top of the phone to the opposite (long) side as the volume buttons. This guarantees that I cannot pull the phone out of my pocket without hitting one button or another inadvertently, and also makes it likely that the button I press first will be a volume button rather than the power button I wanted. I'd like to grab the iPhone's product d…

"Just avoid holding it that way." - Steve Jobs EDIT: Interesting. Watching the votes go up and then down makes me think that half of the people do not appreciate my comment. In that case, I feel like I should elaborate. If the phone is in your pocket, then reaching in has two options. One is wrapping your hand around the sides and the other is a pinch on the front + back. With OP's button pressing issue, I think it's…

EDIT: Interesting. Watching the votes go up and then down makes me think that half of the people do not appreciate my comment.

I don't agree with your assertion that a top button is more awkward, even on the larger phones, but I wouldn't moderate anyone down for saying so. But you've got to consider how many Apple users, fans, and even employees are probably reading a site like this one. They may not have the time or motivation or even the ability to articulate a rational rebuttal to a critical comment, but the good ol' downvote button is only a click away. Can't take it too personally.

And speaking of usability facepalms, there's also the wonderful HN up/down button layout to contend with. I don't always hit the arrow I'm aiming at with an optical mouse, much less a finger on a touchscreen. I think those buttons amount to some kind of obscure hazing ritual or inside joke on YC's part; they can't be that obtusely-designed on purpose.

Re: The Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus Review

#79

Post by davnicwil »

aljones wrote: post #74
davnicwil wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost certainly. I try really hard to be as un-cynical as possible about this, but there's a great quote I heard from someone smart whose name I can't recall right now - economics is incentives all the way down - and it applies perfectly here I think. What possible incentive could any phone manufacturer have to build a phone that significantly over-lasts the rough 2 year cycle that their bulk buyers, i.e the network…

Seems obvious that displeasing your customer is more likely to send them to a competitor than pleasing them.

Is it obvious?

What if you displease them in one way, by making older phones have a limited lifespan, but redress that by pleasing them enough to make the difference in other ways, for example by developing newer phones with superior features that get them excited enough not to care so much about the shortcomings of the old model (shortcomings which wouldn't necessarily be as apparent if the phone had a longer lifespan)?

Might it then be the best strategy to displease your customers on purpose, and accept the negative impact of that since it's also contributing to a wider goal of selling more phones and making more profit?

Re: The Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus Review

#80

Post by qqqqqqqqqqqqqq1 »

calvin_c wrote: post #36
jackson1372 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you have powerful computer from 2010, it'll happily run Windows 10 and almost any application, including almost any game in medium (or even high) mode. I wonder, whether this race on mobile platform will continue or iPhone 6S will be able to run iOS 15 without any lags? I'm not sure the comparison to PCs is fair. Smartphones are still pretty young, and both the OS and chipsets make large leaps every year. If the…

A good precedent has already been set for this. The first iPhone got two major updates, iOS 4.0 being the first version that didn't support it. The 3GS added an extra year to the lifespan, launching with iOS 3.0 and only being left out of support for iOS 7. The 4S added even another year, recently having received the fourth major update of it's lifespan. So yeah, while there is certainly some performance lost on a 4S…

The iPad 2 is so slow on ios8 and newer that most people wouldn't actually want to upgrade, though [1]. Apple sold the iPad 2 until 2014 as a low-end model, so they can't really stop updates completely, but it isn't really usable.

1: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/a-slide-into-obsolescen...

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