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Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

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Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#191

Post by saagarjha »

rixrax wrote: post #181

Does the 'Ensure that Apple products last as long as possible' assume wrapping new iPhone into one of those cases? I don't know if I am alone here, but I find it counter intuitive that to protect my new shiny, I would have to cover it with more or less ugly case to avoid it breaking when I eventually drop it? And since I don't [use cases], maybe consequently, I seem to break them at about ~11 month intervals (althoug…

No offense, but I think the problems you haven't been solved by any phone vendor. They seem to be "you" problems. Protecting an iPhone when you drop it would (with current technology) require a bulky phone–though water resistance has significantly improved since iPhone SE.

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#192

Post by saagarjha »

llampx wrote: post #98
vbezhenar wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had iPhone 4S, it was insanely fast and snappy with iOS 6, become a bit sluggish with iOS 7 and very slow with iOS 8 and 9, almost unusable. I jailbroken it and installed iOS 6 and apparently it was fast again, so it's not about battery or anything, it's purely software which expects very fast CPU and huge amounts of memory. Mobile hardware evolved significantly over the last years, so it's understandable that deve…

Or, some software developers and/or PMs just got lazy with development and optimization, and greedy with the amount of data that could be harvested. A framework here, a library there and it adds up pretty quickly.

Are you talking about Apple themselves, or third-party developers?

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#193

Post by saagarjha »

llampx wrote: post #102
ksec wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Optimisation, Apple only ever seems to have optimisation turned on / tested on their latest release of iPhone. So whenever there is a new iOS, it felt insanely great on your latest iPhone, but felt like a step backwards in older iPhone. Although they generally put back whatever optimisation they have in stages of iOS point release. Having these optimisation and software targeting latest iPhone also means Software are…

This is why, as an Android user, I prefer not to update unless I really have to. It would be ideal if there were two channels for updates - one for security and one for features and security. That way you could pick what you as a user wanted. So if you are happy with Android Oreo you don't have to upgrade to Pie to keep receiving security updates.

> So if you are happy with Android Oreo you don't have to upgrade to Pie to keep receiving security updates.

Of course there is: just buy a phone from a company that's not Google, and you'll never get an OS update every again /s

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#194

Post by josefresco »

dep_b wrote: post #27
carlosrg wrote: post #11

Tell that to my iPad 3, which got unusable just after one major iOS upgrade. So I'm a bit skeptical.

There were a few "bad Apples" in the iOS lineup, the iPad 1 and 3 and the iPhone 4 were a bit underpowered the day they launched and didn't fare well on iOS 7 (or even 6...).

My iPad 1 aka "the tank" (as we call it in my house) is still (hardware wise) 100% functional. Software is another story. I believe the only thing it's used for is Netflix (which shockingly works). Web browser/Safari is a complete no-go.

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#195

Post by saagarjha »

EZ-E wrote: post #21

Real talk here : what makes an iPhone slow after 2 years? - the battery aging? - the apps using more ressources than before? - the newer OS version using more ressources than before? I've started using my old Android phone again after it being unused 3 years (Nexus 4), the apps are extremely slow now, the camera takes forever to open : what's going on? Computers don't age as much

I think it's really a combination of all of these. The only thing Apple really has control over is the last one, but even improvements there have measurable advantages as iOS 12 shows.

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#196

Post by mg96226 »

CameronBanga wrote: post #165
lentil_soup wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't necessarily have to fix it yourself, though. You could get it serviced by a professional, just like people do with a washing machine or a fridge.

And that happens today every day with the iPhone? There are plenty of professionals, both authorized and unauthorized by Apple, that can do nearly any repair necessary on an iPhone.

No, it does not happen with the iPhone or most other Apple products. They are incredibly hostile to 3rd party repairers.

Apple is notoriously draconian about ensuring that 3rd parties are blocked from accessing schematics and repair manuals. I'm talking, they threaten lawsuits to anyone publishing schematics, and there is no legal way to obtain those schematics unless you're an Apple authorized repairer - in which case you'll never need them because your job is just to replace entire logic boards after minimal diagnostics. This creates enormous waste and costs a lot more than an actual repair would. In some cases they don't even do that and just tell the user tough shit, get a new device.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-NU7yOSElE

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#197

Post by BooneJS »

To this point, iPhone performance has grown by first doing their own silicon and then by offering more hardware blocks to do what used to be done purely in SW. Of course, they also rode the wave from 45nm to 7nm.

As you look forward from 7nm, the picture is less exciting. Claims of 2x and 4x improvements will give way to 20% benefits from the hardware alone, and they'll have to work really hard on technologies like Metal to limit the amount of SW layers between an API call and the instructions in the chip.

Making products that last as long as possible is good for the Earth, but without breakthroughs in semiconductor physics, the space is maturing. Software already ate the world, and must now learn to coexist with the remaining resources.

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#198

Post by saagarjha »

ntsplnkv2 wrote: post #56
edhelas wrote: post #19

Tell that to Thinkpad users that can upgrade 15 years old second-hand Thinkpads with compatible parts bought from China (also apply to other notebooks). How easy it is to change the faulty keyboard on a MacBook Pro?

Isn't it possible that replacing parts all the time embraces disposable culture? "Oh I can just get a new battery? Great, I'll get one way more often than I need to, because I can." The old one gets in the garbage, or isn't recycled properly. And believe me, it happens often. I don't see why improving durability is a bad thing. And also not sure why whenever anything positive gets posted about Apple, so many enter "A…

> And also not sure why whenever anything positive gets posted about Apple, so many enter "APPLE MODE: RESIST IMMEDIATELY IN ALL WAYS POSSIBLE."

There are people here that have both positive and negative opinions about Apple, as there are people that have opinions about nearly every other company. Perhaps with Apple these opinions are a bit more strongly held.

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#199

Post by saagarjha »

carlosrg wrote: post #161
spockz wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, the iPad 4 has been supported for 5 years and the newer devices are still supported. So their current direction seems to be supporting the statements made in this talk.

I sure wish they started with the 3.

The third generation iPad was unfortunately underpowered right out of the gate, without the processing power to drive its Retina display. I think that's why the fourth generation iPad was released so soon after it.

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#200

Post by saagarjha »

beloch wrote: post #12

You know what helps products last longer and reduces waste at the same time? Repairability . The repairability of apple products is so poor that even Apple can't fix most of their own products without replacing surprisingly large portions of any given Apple device. End user repairability has been utterly neglected. Disassembly is frequently impossible without causing damage, and components such as batteries are frequ…

> Hey, it's great that they managed to get iOS 12 to run on a 5S. It probably runs like an absolute dog, but it runs!

But it runs well. That's the whole point of iOS 12: make iOS run well on older devices.

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