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Apple Debuts iPhone 17

apple.com

251–260 of 290 posts

Re: Apple Debuts iPhone 17

#251

I always have a hard time swallowing the price of modern smart phones. Having something so ridiculously expensive and fragile as an everyday carry seems absurd to me. For reference, you can buy two Steam Deck LCDs for the price of one iPhone 17.

the iphone 17 is like the peak of consumer technology. They have the SOC manufactured on the newest TSMC node, they have cutting edge radio, decent camera system, etc. And all have to fit into a body that small enough for your pocket.

It’s pretty instructive to compare an iPhone to a consumer product that’s priced for affordability first, like a Nintendo Switch. The differences in build quality are very evident.

Re: Apple Debuts iPhone 17

#252
post #138

I'm actually considering buying myself an iPhone for the first time. I have basically two priorities when buying an phone: 1. Freedom. I should be able to build and run apps on it without the platform holder having a barrier on it. 2. Privacy. The phone shouldn't be an object to track me for better ad sales or any other purpose. Of course, priority 1 has until recently always led to Android while priority 2 has alway…

Has something changed in the Apple ecosystem to put item one anywhere near the table?

Let's be very clear here: all Google has announced so far is that installing apps from anonymous builds is going to be taken away and only if you want your phone to be considered "certified". Let's not get drawn too far into hysteria.

Re: Apple Debuts iPhone 17

#253
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPhone Air is definitely a testing ground for folding phone technologies.

How so? That would be great either way.

They stacked almost ALL the actual stuff, like the camera system, SOC, etc. inside that little plateau and the rest of the slab is basically just display and battery. If I was going to make a clamshell phone, experimenting with miniaturizing and arranging the whole thing into a small corner of the footprint would be where I’d start.

If you scroll halfway down the press release page you can see an image of the internals https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/introducing-iphone-ai...

Re: Apple Debuts iPhone 17

#254
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to use them, and I had two issues: 1. Their international plan is garbage, and if you don’t use the international plan, you cannot usefully use them as a phone-and-SMS-over-WiFi only solution in conjunction with another carrier. Competitors like USMobile do not have this problem. 2. Their customer support and website are very bad.

SMS works over WiFi? Or is that only RCS? Not familiar with this

SMS seems to work on “Wi-Fi Calling” aka “VoWiFi” despite the name rather strongly suggesting voice.

Re: Apple Debuts iPhone 17

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no such thing as a digital camera without processing. But third party camera apps can get images as raw as they want them and it supports professional video standards. Try Halide with "Process Zero" if you want that, but I'm pretty sure the most popular 3p camera apps are Asian beauty apps that do far more and far worse quality processing.

Sure there is. Shoot in Raw format. Get a file representing a matrix of the sensor readout for each rgb pixel. Your post processing software of choice handles interpolation to the method of your choice.

Which you can do on an iPhone, so I’m not sure what the complaint is.

Re: Apple Debuts iPhone 17

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB C by itself is enough of a reason to upgrade. I have one set of cords that work everywhere and the iPhone supports all of the standard USB-C standards - video, storage, audio, and networking using the same devices you use on computers. And MagSafe charging and stands.

I don't know if it is enough of a reason, I still use by 12 and charge it and my Airpods all via magsafe which is USB-C If I don't need to use the lightning port, I don't need to use what would be the USB C port. I am looking to upgrade to the 17 potentially, but USB-C to me isn't a key factor.

I am with you- magsafe is great for charging all the things and it is how I charge all my stuff currently. I will say that despite that, moving to USB-C is a big deal for me. As a household of 7 having different cables for everything becomes a chore whereas standardizing on USB-C saves us a ton of headaches. Kids phones need charging? Grab one of our dozens of USB-C cables and one of our many USB bricks and go. For me- it has been a slow climb but I have been slowly moving everything we have over to USB-C. When completed I can put all the other cables (mini usb, micro usb, lightning, that weird usb-3 thing some androids/ext harddrives used, etc) into my old cable foot locker.

Re: Apple Debuts iPhone 17

#257
post #208
post #138

I'm actually considering buying myself an iPhone for the first time. I have basically two priorities when buying an phone: 1. Freedom. I should be able to build and run apps on it without the platform holder having a barrier on it. 2. Privacy. The phone shouldn't be an object to track me for better ad sales or any other purpose. Of course, priority 1 has until recently always led to Android while priority 2 has alway…

Thing is, privacy with apple is a marketing term. if apple offered actual privacy, you could: - find out what/when apps are running - find out who they are talking to - prevent it, including apple if you want and apple has all kinds of nonsense like deep links (apps can intercept links), bluetooth beacons (apps can talk to stuff in a store/location), and lots of other stuff behind the scenes. You can't find out if it…

> find out what/when apps are running

How do you do that on Android? You can inspect the manifest to see some triggers, but an app can set more triggers when it first launches.

Task managers have been killed by Google about 10 years ago and it's impossible to see that's running in real time.

If you enable developer mode you can kind of see a partial list of what's currently running I guess, is that what you're talking about?

Re: Apple Debuts iPhone 17

#258
post #138

I'm actually considering buying myself an iPhone for the first time. I have basically two priorities when buying an phone: 1. Freedom. I should be able to build and run apps on it without the platform holder having a barrier on it. 2. Privacy. The phone shouldn't be an object to track me for better ad sales or any other purpose. Of course, priority 1 has until recently always led to Android while priority 2 has alway…

I'm in the exact same position down to the Pixel 7 pro. It feels like my options are either to move to graphene os or move to iOS. But grapheneos seems like it'll cause headaches that I am not that interested in dealing with, however my wish to escape vertical integration which plagues tech ecosystems still tempts me.

Re: Apple Debuts iPhone 17

#259
post #15

No Mini. Not surprised. I guess I'm gonna replace the battery in my 13 mini finally. Wonder if we'll ever see folding phones. I'm not concerned with the thickness but the overall foot print that's pocketable would be amazing.

The iPhone Air is definitely a testing ground for folding phone technologies.

At first I thought I disagreed because they put the glass on the back but on further thought, I agree because they put the glass on the back.

Re: Apple Debuts iPhone 17

#260
post #138

I'm actually considering buying myself an iPhone for the first time. I have basically two priorities when buying an phone: 1. Freedom. I should be able to build and run apps on it without the platform holder having a barrier on it. 2. Privacy. The phone shouldn't be an object to track me for better ad sales or any other purpose. Of course, priority 1 has until recently always led to Android while priority 2 has alway…

Has something changed in the Apple ecosystem to put item one anywhere near the table? Let's be very clear here: all Google has announced so far is that installing apps from anonymous builds is going to be taken away and only if you want your phone to be considered "certified". Let's not get drawn too far into hysteria.

In some regions of the world a phone that is not considered "certified" by Google is only useful as a paperweight. For example, I wouldn't be able to interact with government services or use any banking with such a phone. (Notice the any and with — no, I can't switch to another bank except by emigrating somewhere, and banks are only available as mobile applications. No web.)

So unless you're willing (and can afford!) to buy and carry multiple phones, the new severely downgraded Android is about as open as iPhone, but with zero expectation of it respecting your privacy.

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