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Apple Special Event [video]

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Re: Apple Special Event [video]

#371

Post by gnicholas »

phinnaeus wrote: post #356
gnicholas wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you mean Lytro, which definitely came to mind during the keynote. Specifically, when they said that it had never been possible to change DOF in photos before. I was listening carefully to see if they would qualify that with "smartphone photography" — but they didn't. I think Lytro's tech beat them to the punch by around a decade.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-field_camera Light field cameras use different tech as I understand it.

No doubt they use different tech, but it struck me as untrue to say that never before has it been possible to change DOF after taking a photo. Isn't that precisely what Lytro enabled?

Re: Apple Special Event [video]

#372

Post by ken »

ethbro wrote: post #316
21 wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The market has spoken loud and clear since 2010, when Androids bigger than iPhone became popular. iPhone dragged it's feet till 2013/2014 because they didn't want to appear conceding that they were wrong, but eventually they had to buckle.

If you want to push margins, larger devices selling for higher absolute prices are a better option. Imho, it's harder to convince people a "smartphone" is worth USD $1k+. But a laptop / tablet replacement? That's reasonable(!) compared to a MBP... Given Apple's build costs don't scale with device size (++screen, +battery, +gpu/mem), selling the same internals in bigger devices for more is a win. So you continue expan…

> Given Apple's build costs don't scale with device size (++screen, +battery, +gpu/mem), selling the same internals in bigger devices for more is a win.

Only if those customers buy the bigger device, and if smaller phones require the latest internals. If these people stick with their older/smaller devices, you've lost a sale. If you can get away with 2-year-old internals in these smaller phones, it could be much cheaper to produce than the latest flagship.

I don't know what Apple's margins are on these devices, but a couple months ago AT&T was offering the current (final) iPhone SE for $50.

> Apple has the ability to say "These are the only form factors this generation, if you want the newest iPhone..."

True, but the SE was never about appealing to users who wanted the newest iPhone.

Re: Apple Special Event [video]

#373

Post by HSO »

heartbreak wrote: post #65
gnicholas wrote: post #56

It's now possible to change the depth of field after taking the photo. I wasn't paying close enough attention to know if this will also be possible on older iPhones. EDIT: sounds like it's just the new iPhones. But it includes the less expensive Xr.

They bought the company ~3 years ago that made a camera with post-processing DoF tech: LinX.

I think the LinX acquisition was more related to FaceID.

Re: Apple Special Event [video]

#374

Post by sixstringtheory »

uptown wrote: post #340
thought_alarm wrote: post #334

I hate the loss of the home button. Face ID is fine, but multiplexing so many different features on to the single, poorly-placed, side button has been a huge negative for me. The side button is way too easy to hit when the device is in your pocket, and when that happens you're activating Siri, or Apple Pay, or some accessibility shortcut, or you're taking a screenshot, or you're activating emergency mode. I've lost c…

I've been using the X and while it's a great device, the one thing I miss most is TouchID. Things like ApplePay are less convenient using FaceID, so I'm less likely to use it. The side-button double-click is awkward and unnatural feeling. Unlocking the device when it's flat on a desk or table now requires that I pick up the device instead of placing a finger on the sensor. Unlocking on the X seems slower than with th…

As an iOS developer who constantly needs to reunlock test devices, I simply cannot be required to face each one each time to use FaceID, that’s an ergonomic nightmare.

It also reminds me of the Black Mirror episode where people live in those small rooms with walls and ceilings lined with TV displays, and it would pause ads while it detected they weren’t actively watching. (S1E2: Fifteen Million Merits, probably NSFW)

Maybe Apple will eventually “catch up” to Android and put a TouchID on the back of the phone :D H*ck, make it Apple shaped!

Re: Apple Special Event [video]

#376

Post by ascii_only »

GFischer wrote: post #284
untog wrote: post #266

It occurs to me today how sad it is that we only have two viable mobile ecosystems these days. I have an iPhone SE, which Apple has opted not to update. That's their decision to make, I suppose, but no-one else can make iOS devices and I really don't want to switch to Android (it isn't ignorance, I've used it since the Nexus One, I've just grown to dislike it for privacy and UI performance reasons over time, and it d…

UI performance in Androids is decent these days. Privacy, well... no. Even within the Android ecosystem, it's very sad that innovation is stymied. The only ones that even try are LG and they always fall flat. There's a long list of different Android phones I'd like to see: - Keyboard / Accessible phones. My mother in law has some disabilities that prevent her from using a touch-phone and she's using an Android phone…

-keyboard Blackberry key2

-small size Sony xz2 compact

Re: Apple Special Event [video]

#377

Post by waterphone »

macintux wrote: post #230
waterphone wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does this by default without a subscription service in the event of a detected fall if you do not respond to an alert within a certain amount of time. Hope nobody falls on their watch and are uninjured but break the touch sensor, preventing them from being able to cancel the 911 call…

It only calls 911 if it detects no movement after a fall, so it would have to be the motion sensors in the device that completely fail, not a touch sensor.

I was referring to the failure of whatever mechanism would be used to cancel an alert that appears post-fall.

Re: Apple Special Event [video]

#378

Post by jrockway »

untog wrote: post #153
Odenwaelder wrote: post #125

They killed the SE! Now we're stuck with screens too big to use with one hand. I really really dislike this.

Yeah, this feels like a huge shame. Android doesn't really offer anything comparable either. I realize the market for smaller devices is a minority one, but it is really so small that no-one will cater to it? You'll have to remove my SE from my cold, dead hands. It's not just one handed operation, it's simply a much better size and I'm yet to see any reason I'd want a bigger one.

I think the problem is that there are two types of people that use phones, those that think of a phone as a mini-computer, and those that think of a computer as a very large phone.

Many of us on HN are probably in the first group. I look at my phone as a portable computer that's a big compromise for portability; as soon as I am within range of an actual PC, I will switch to using that. (Example, my phone is great for checking when the train is going to arrive. But before I leave for the station, I've already checked the schedule on my computer.)

That usage pattern probably places us in the minority. Many people are using their phone to do things that they can't do on a computer; Snapchat, Instagram, games, etc. Those simply don't run on computers. But they suffer from the same ergonomics complaints that we do, so they make a good market for computer-shaped phones. And that is what Apple is releasing today.

Re: Apple Special Event [video]

#379

Post by NeedMoreTea »

codesternews wrote: post #310
oh_hello wrote: post #193

I'm amazed by the sizing. The SE appears to be gone. This means the smallest device you can buy is the 7/8. Many still find this to be too large. Considering Apple's history of selling older iPhone models at a lower price, it seems like two years from now the bottom of the line will be the Xs and Xr announced today. The smallest lower-end iPhone available at that time would be the Xs which is larger than the 6/6s/7/8…

I think the most important reason of having bigger devices is performance vs battery. You can not extend a smartphone and give feature like OLED, Neural Engine etc without considering affect on the battery. They want bigger device to solve many those issues. If they release the iPhone SE update they can not compete with other iPhones in terms of feature and performance. Also it have huge involvement of iOS updates al…

I would expect quite the opposite. The bigger the screen the more dramatic the power draw to illuminate all the extra square inches.

That was borne out by my experience with the SE when I first got it, having better battery life than any other smartphone I'd owned.

My plan for now is to hang on to the SE for another couple of years, with battery replacement when it gets too tired.

Re: Apple Special Event [video]

#380

Post by matwood »

plantain wrote: post #66

The showmanship really feels like it's run out. Even when it was the post-Jobs Ive and Cook it was still captivating, but this is just tiresome.

Because at this point phones are kinda boring. The new chips seem cool, but look completely wasted on a phone. Where is the iPad Pro with the new chips? What about the long rumored MacBook with A-bionic whatever?

Nothing in todays announcement makes me want to upgrade my current iPhoneX. Better graphics on a tiny screen? Yawn. The basketball tracker demo was neat, but those are very specific use cases.

The Apple Watch looks like it is really coming into its own. They should have closed with that.

EDIT

You know what would have really blown the doors off the one more thing? If the iPhone Xr started at $499. That's how you grow the market.

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