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iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro

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Re: iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro

#761
post #650

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's likely solve the gap of "I can't use my phone while it's wirelessly charging". With the magsafe thing you can just clunk the charger to the back of your phone and keep using it. While battery life is still crap on these (side note - I didn't hear a single thing in the presentation about battery life... yikes) people are going to be charging their phones while they use them. I hate to be a pessimist but with them…

I guess my confusion is basically that: if I want to use my phone while it charges, I just plug it in with a lightning cable. I don’t need it to “wirelessly” charge if I’m having to connect something to the device anyway. It seems to be a weird 3rd option for charging. They’re definitely getting rid of the port, maybe next year.

Consider that iPad has replaced lightning with usb-c and that having ports takes up a lot of space... I think they are just planning to phase out lightning and go port-less on the iPhone.

Re: iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro

#762
post #516

What happens to metal objects (like keys, etc) in your pocket now that your phone is a giant magnet? I assume the iphone is always magnetic, judging by the magsafe wallet?

It's obvious - your magsafe iphone becomes part of your keyring! GREAT... Knowing my luck, the phone will pull my keys out of my pocket and hold on JUST long enough for them to fall into a sewer grate

Sewergate

Re: iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro

#763
post #397

That was actually much more substantial of an upgrade than I previously anticipated. The stronger glass, MagSafe being able to stick your phone magnetically to surfaces, and the Dolby Vision HDR recording are what really got me. Not so much 5G.

The magsafe is really cool but for anyone interested in the wallet accessory just be careful with putting NFC chipped cards there. Paying with Apple Pay from your phone could get confusing.

The protocol does support anticollision so technically multiple cards (the NFC-enabled phone, which simply emulates one) can work and the card terminal would let you pick which one to choose, but in practice I don't think that is implemented and the choice of card you'd end up paying with is essentially "undefined behavior".

Re: iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro

#764
post #581

Let’s talk about the return of MagSafe! It seems...kinda dumb. Instead of plugging in a lightning cable, I can now stick a hockey puck to the back of my phone? The “safe” in MagSafe came from its “yankability” without sending your device flying. But if my phone is laying on top of a hockey puck...it’s gonna go flying if I trip on the cable. Why couldn’t we fill in the lightning port and use flush surface contacts, li…

Upon further reflection, the magnets might have been a necessary tweak to the AirPower concept. They couldn’t get it working with a large matrix of coils, on which you could lay the phone/watch anywhere. Instead, the combo charging mat shown in today’s presentation will use magnets to force proper placement on the mat.

Re: iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro

#765
post #692
post #581

Let’s talk about the return of MagSafe! It seems...kinda dumb. Instead of plugging in a lightning cable, I can now stick a hockey puck to the back of my phone? The “safe” in MagSafe came from its “yankability” without sending your device flying. But if my phone is laying on top of a hockey puck...it’s gonna go flying if I trip on the cable. Why couldn’t we fill in the lightning port and use flush surface contacts, li…

MagSafe can be seen as the replacement for AirPower! It's solving the same problem in a much simpler way. AirPower's big promise was that it was a multi-device charging mat that didn't require perfect alignment to get high power charging. Apple ultimately cancelled it, likely because this proved too difficult to do safely. (rumored to be thermal issues with the multi-coil design) MagSafe solves the alignment problem…

Aira's FreePower technology seems to be what Apple was trying to achieve with Airpower. Haven't tried it yet (because it's expensive) but from the review I read, it's legit.

https://airapower.com/

Re: iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro

#766

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the misfortune of charging my iPhone via usb connected to my laptop while working. This triggered the 4G tethering, so i spent an afternoon working on my cellular data plan... schlepping multi-gb csv files around. I didn't even notice anything, until my data plan ran out. I honestly wouldn't mind slower than 4G speeds. With 4G it's already bordering on ridiculous how quickly you can burn up a data plan.

Your laptop chose to override an existing WiFi/LAN connection to use a tethered phone USB connection? That seems highly unusual. I plug my phone into my laptop all of the time, and the tether has never overridden my WiFi. I've never had to use it, but macOS allows you to order the available networks according to your preference. Did you perhaps do this and forgot about it?

> Your laptop chose to override an existing WiFi/LAN connection to use a tethered phone USB connection?

Tethered phones are considered Ethernet interfaces by many operating systems so they would typically take priority over a wireless connection, unless the system has an explicit override for it like macOS does.

Re: iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro

#767

Finally time to replace my SE. Pretty happy with 4.5 years for a smartphone lifespan.

I've replaced my 2016 SE's battery once through Apple ($29 battery lawsuit program) and once myself ($29 and an hour of my time, via iFixit). So the whole phone cost me something like $460 over 4.5 years. I'm looking at the 12 Mini. - It doesn't have a headphone jack, so I'll have to buy an adapter to use my chonky set of headphones with it. - Apple phased out TouchID, and my state is experiencing it's worst-ever COV…

Similar boat, except:

- I don’t know when the last time I plugged wired headphones in was, so Bluetooth only is fine for me.

- I’ll still have all the same charging cables that I have now, the lightning to USB-C cable is nice but I’d be fine with out it. This is going to be a backup cable for my USB-C power bank, since I already have a cable with that.

- The $30 price difference is bulllshit, agreed. It’s shitty of them to be marketing these prices with a $30 AT&T/Verizon discount included. I’m on T-mobile, so no discount even if I stuck with them, but will likely be switching to Mint.

- I haven’t filled 64 gigs on my SE yet, but I’m certainly glad I spent the $100 to get it over the 16 GB base model. Looking at getting a similar life out of a new phone, I should plan on the $50 for 128 GB.

The things that I want are:

- Modern camera technology, especially night mode and the ultrawide. Many years ago I paid $700 for a cannon 10-22mm ultrawide lens, I don’t know if this is superior in every way to my (oldish) DSLR, but as they say the best camera is the one you have with you. And most of the time I don’t have my SLR, let alone it’s extra lenses.

- On that note, compatibility with Moment cases and M-mount lenses. A small phone is more important to me than the 3rd telephoto camera in the Pro phones, but it’d be nice to have the option to mount a decent quality telephoto or macro lens.

- More RAM. The SE does a lot of relaunching apps when switching between more than two things, and it’s not particularly fast at it.

Losing TouchID is a bummer, but a trade off I think I’m willing to make. I could drag this phone out for another year if I had to (barring hardware failures), but I’m looking forward to the upgrades.

Re: iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro

#768
post #750
post #666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my thought as well. Also let's not forget about the 100k functional devices Apple sent to recycling and wanted to remove from the second-hand market. https://9to5mac.com/2020/10/01/apple-catches-electronics-rec... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24663718

I’m torn in this case. On one hand, Apple is in the right because that company was hired to do a job but ended up doing something completely different. But on the flip side, if the phones were functional at the time of receiving the phones and required none to minimal repair, then shame on Apple. This whole fiasco reminds me of the O&G industry and the manufacture of plastics. It’s much cheaper to create and sell “vi…

Legally Apple is right, of course.

But as discussed in that HN thread there are many reasons why it's the wrong thing to do, specially if you want to pretend to take the moral high ground regarding the environment.

Re: iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro

#769
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My big question is... does the new "Ceramic Shield" mean that I won't need a screen protector anymore?

You haven't needed a screen protector in a long time.

Unfortunately the iPhone 11 Pro has a softer screen, I had mine accumulating permanent scratches within just a few days which surprised me as every other phone I’ve owned had no issues without a screen protector.

So iPhone 11 Pro max become the first phone I had to buy a screen protector for, really disappointing in such an expensive phone.

Re: iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro

#770
post #742

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems that now iPhone 12 uses same housing design as 12 Pro. I think Pro is almost only for camera upgrade (including LIDAR).

The Pro is made from stainless steel, and the regular is made from aluminum.

Thanks for pointing out. Personally I prefer aluminum than stainless for lightweight.
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