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The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

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Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#401

Post by ComputerGuru »

stouset wrote: post #345
ComputerGuru wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lightning ports are not more durable than USB-C. They are extremely prone to the device-side conductor corroding. USB mini made the mistake of making the device side contain a friction wear item, but USB micro fixed that but had other endurance issues due to its flimsiness. USB C doesn’t suffer from any of those drawbacks.

Every USB-C device I’ve ever owned—including my MacBook Pro—has suffered from cables failing to “click” into place and being held in noticeably more loosely than when they were brad new. This has happened from within a few weeks to a few months. And it’s not the simply the cables wearing out: new cables with old devices produces the same behavior. And when I remove my USB-C YubiKey, the port it uses produces the sati…

> The only people I ever seem to hear criticize Lightning are people who don’t even own Apple devices.

I've been exclusively iPhone since the 4S and its gorgeous retina display lured me away from my beloved Curve 8900. I am still not as proficient a typist nor as productive a person on the go as I was with my BlackBerry back in 2009.

(I did however ditch my rMBP years ago but I don't see how that could factor into a discussion about Lightning ports.)

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#402

Post by paulryanrogers »

samatman wrote: post #379
paulryanrogers wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is also big enough to include user replaceable batteries. So patting oneself on the back in that case may come across as hypocrisy.

...did you intend to post this under my comment? I can't for the life of me see the relevance. Sealed phones aren't an industry Nash equilibrium, they're a good design that users and manufacturers both prefer. There are also no ecological grounds whatsoever to prefer user-replaceable batteries. The fact that it requires a few professional tools and some patience is irrelevant: when the battery stops holding a charge,…

> There are also no ecological grounds whatsoever to prefer user-replaceable batteries.

Really? I used to routinely replace batteries in my family's phones. Now they're more inclined to get rid of an otherwise working phone since I no longer have the skills to keep up.

And the battery is usually the first thing to need attention as a device ages.

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#403

Post by __d »

dkonofalski wrote: post #356
__d wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My partner's 12" MacBook has a (single) USB-C port, which has become increasingly loose over time. To the point where she has to listen for the distinctive sound it makes when charging when she plugs it in, and wiggle the connector until it connects properly. So despite the apparent solidity of the machined shell, something in the system wears over time.

I'm not trying to suggest that this is the answer/reason for your particular anecdote but it could have nothing to do with USB-C itself and simply be unnecessary physical wear put on by the user. I think you can find anecdotes in either direction for this particular case.

IMO, all connectors have issues, some more, some less.

USB-A has proven remarkably good, despite the "insert 3-times" problem, and it's now fairly large size.

Lightning is ok -- I have found that cables lose their "snap in" ness after a while, the arcing limits the connector lifetime, and I've snapped the tongue off a few (cheap) cables.

USB-B Micro has been pretty good for me, despite the "insert 5 times" problem.

USB-C has advantages of "insert-once", and smaller size, but (in my one-off anecdata) can have issues with losing its snug-ness over time. I thought it was notable, since it was with a MacBook -- so not something badly engineered, or cheap, or whatever.

I guess my view is that it's not a panacea, and arguably, on a par with things it's replacing.

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#404

Post by floatingatoll »

floatingatoll wrote: post #33
mangoman wrote: post #2

I saw that on their page - I wasn't as offended about the pricing differential as the post, but I was groaning during the whole verizon pitch. I wonder how much verizon paid for that placement. It felt extremely out of place and very cringy IMO.

I remember the iPhone launching as an AT&T exclusive or something back in the day. Did whichever US carrier it was get the same duration of exclusive placement?

Verizon only got two-thirds as much time as AT&T did for the iPhone launch — 4 minutes instead of 6 minutes.

MacWorld keynote, 2007, the CEO of Cingular is given the stage at 78m23s, in front of a giant Cingular logo. He leaves the stage at 84m23s, in front of a pair of Cingular and AT&T logos. So that's precisely 6 minutes on stage, out of precisely 80 minutes total.

In the 71-minute iPhone 12 keynote, the CEO of Verizon is brought on stage at 15m55s, and speaks until Tim boots him at 19m55s. So that's precisely 4 minutes on stage. Additionally, millimeter-wave 5G is given airtime, but says Verizon's product title for that a total of 5 seconds only.

ps. All iPhones offer carrier branding in the top-left corner of the screen when cellular service is active and control center is open (non-notch phones may not need to open control center).

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#405

Post by fomine3 »

kube-system wrote: post #202
epanchin wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they wanted to be enviroment they would have switched to USB-C. I'm personally happy about the lack of charger, all my Apple ones go into a drawer never to be seen again.

I doubt that USB-C would be more environmentally friendly. I am fairly sure that the vast majority of people buying new Apple phones today are people that currently have Apple phones. Lots of Apple's customer base have been iPhone loyalists for longer than USB-C has been commonplace.

Anyone who use smartphone accessories may need to buy USB-C cables except a few Lightning models. Proprietary connector is bad for environment.

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#406

Post by ctvo »

ashtonkem wrote: post #64
joejohnson wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The corporations have been running the country since it was a nation.

That's really not true. US political and economic thought heavily centered around individual proprietors and farmers before the civil war, and was deeply suspicious of large corporations. In some states you could only form a joint stock company for time & scope limited things, such as building a canal. It's only after the Civil War and into the Gilded Age do we see the rise and acceptance of large scale corporations,…

Another thing worth noting is the push back against the inequality and corruption of the Gilded Age. This time period is when we had our anti-trust laws and improvements to them [1].

The narrative that the government was always broken or in the control of corporate interests takes away agency and responsibility from individual citizens. It may be mostly true, but there's enough glimpses of when citizens were able to corral these interests that it's worth not giving up on.

1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson%E2%80%93Patman_Act

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#407

Post by kevindong »

marcinzm wrote: post #335
kevindong wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The expectation with all forms of useful insurance (health, auto, umbrella, home/renter's, life, etc.) is that for most people most of the time, they'd be better off not having it. But in the rare cases when someone does genuinely need it (e.g. your house and all of your possessions burn down, you need treatment for cancer, etc.), it prevents financial ruin.

My point isn't insurance vs. no insurance. My point is that the type of insurance doesn't actually matter that much if you're the one paying for it (versus having premiums covered by your employer). If you get a bad accident on the low end company insurance you pay your $10k out of pocket max. On the top end insurance you pay $4k but also paid $8k more in premiums during the year. The insurance companies did the math…

A $10k medical bill is not what I would call catastrophic. Highly unusual, yes. But not catastrophic.

A catastrophic event would be something like you get run over by a car and have to spend weeks in urgent care racking up a six figure bill. Of course, such an event is highly unusual and the vast majority of people will never make a claim of that size or even approaching that size.

By design, people who don't make very much in claims pay for the people who do make those claims but also get the benefit of knowing if such an event ever occurred to them, they wouldn't be financially ruined.

> The insurance companies did the math to make sure they come out ahead no matter what you choose.

That's plainly false. See any true medical catastrophe.

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#408

Post by manicdee »

stetrain wrote: post #394
manicdee wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's a separate box that then the buyer has the option to say "no". Why would everyone just take one when they have perfectly functioning charging cradles, docks, clocks, and travel accessories? I have a 5-port charger on my desk which charges all my devices and organises them neatly. When we go travelling we have a USB charging bar which plugs into mains and provides half a dozen 2.4A USB ports. We don't need ven…

You'd probably want to charge something like $5 for it still. The power of free vs not free can be surprising.

That too, I was thinking of simply not mentioning it and handing one over if people ask.

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#409

Post by senkora »

theshrike79 wrote: post #260
senkora wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phones do not ship charged, and I’m sure that the need for a charger will be prominently advertised both online and in store.

What kind of magical creature grabs the phone from the package, charges it, repackages it and puts it in the shelf for me to buy? I've bought exactly 0 phones with 0% battery EVER, and I got my first phone in -97.

Interesting, my experience has been different, though I haven’t actually checked this in several years (I just always charge electronics first).

It seems like electronics used to ship uncharged because partially charging NiCad batteries harms them, and shipping fully charged batteries is dangerous. Nowadays, Lithium batteries are typically charged at 30% capacity before shipping. Lithium batteries were sometimes sent uncharged for some period of time in between.

Source: https://mobileaccessories.ventev.com/learn/do-i-need-to-char...

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#410

Post by [deleted] »

dkonofalski wrote: post #398
babesh wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that you will most likely immediately need it. Example, I charge my phone bedside. Now I need to either buy a brick or if I do what Apple wants me to do which is to buy the MagSafe charger. This incentivizes people to buy yet another Apple accessory. That and margins are the real purpose. One more foot into the Apple ecosystem.

>you will most likely immediately need it What is that based on? The vast majority of iPhone buyers are existing iPhone users and will not need the brick. I have 4 bricks and cables in a drawer right now and I don't need them at all because I have a Qi wireless charger on my nightstand. Most people will not need the brick.

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