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Apple Announces iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus

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Re: Apple Announces iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus

#291

Post by skohan »

cromka wrote: post #261
skohan wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s nice but it’s still going to be 10 years or more until it’s as convenient as SIM cards everywhere. When I crossed the border from Rwanda to Uganda, I bought a sim at a local shop, and a boy from the village cut it down to size by hand with a pair of scissors. They are not going to have ESIM anywhere soon. ESIM requires carriers around the world to have the technical competency to make the activation and manage…

> That’s nice but it’s still going to be 10 years or more until it’s as convenient as SIM cards everywhere. That's a bold statement to make. You realize that merely 15 years we didn't even have smartphones? How many random prophetic it-won't-happens happened in that time?

That's a fair point, 10 years might be a bit hyperbolic.

On the other hand, Smartphones were better positioned to drive adoption that eSIMs are. Smartphones create immediate utility for the user over feature phones. eSIM is arguably better than a physical sim, but at the end of the day you are only saving maybe a tiny inconvenience every time you have to swap out the sim. So there's not going to be a large push to switch from the user side.

A good comparison might be USB-C. People were writing in 2015 that the writing was on the wall for USB-A[1], and even though USB-C is basically better in every way, it's still not fully adopted 7 years later. It's not even the standard for desktop peripherals.

Also Smartphones are a highly competitive market with multiple vendors vying for users. Telecoms are mostly monopolies, and have little incentive to improve in most cases.

The only real driver I see for this is if eSIM-only devices get widespread popularity. I don't see it happening any time soon with low-end Android phones. Maybe wearables, but I feel like the idea of people in the developing world getting a second data plan for a wearable is a long way off.

But I could be wrong.

[1]: https://www.theverge.com/2015/6/2/8704551/usb-type-c-is-the-...

Re: Apple Announces iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus

#292

Post by dang »

POPOSYS wrote: post #243

This is a thread about Apple but the words India, Foxconn and workers rights are missing - but this is the only thing that should be discussed currently when we discuss Apple. Please inform yourself about how bad workers are treated there, life in the Foxconn Apple facilities is terrible. We, as Hacker community, need to speak up - these practices must be stopped.

You posted this 4 times. Please don't copy/paste comments.

Re: Apple Announces iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus

#293

Post by smileybarry »

bamboozled wrote: post #279
smileybarry wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still haven’t looked into it much but IIRC iPhone 12 & iPhone 13 could already save multiple eSIMs, while 13 could activate 2 at the same time. I think it was up to 8 (or 10) saved eSIMs?

How do eSIMS work, Do I need to use a special provider? Where I'm residing everything is backwards and difficult, I'm not sure eSIMs are going to be easy for me?

AFAIK eSIMs are implemented using a reprogrammable SIM chip residing in the device, and “applying” a saved eSIM (or installing one) means reinitializing it with the SIM’s parameters. I think it’s even implemented somewhat closely to a physical SIM.

Regardless, you need your carrier to support phone eSIMs and one of several registration methods: app, QR code, or manual parameters. (because some carriers support data-only eSIM for smartwatches)

But given this new eSIM push (and that non-US iPhone 14 models will keep the SIM slot) I think a lot more carriers are going to work towards this now. One of the 30 shown in Apple’s event is an Israeli carrier and they’ve been dragging their feet on eSIM for years, only doing the bare minimum for Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch.

Re: Apple Announces iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus

#294

Post by Closi »

belligeront wrote: post #40

People who travel frequently, does the lack of physical SIM card concern you? I'm not sure how widespread eSIMs across countries.

No - At least travelling from Europe (UK), carrier charges abroad are usually pretty reasonable. I'm with Vodafone.

I can access my full dataplan for £2 a day if I am travelling in Europe, or £6 a day if travelling outside Europe. This usually means that it's not worth getting a sim now if I go abroad (which maybe is a bit cheaper, but a lot more hassle and I can't keep my number).

Plus if you are travelling through a few countries, you don't have to buy several sims, and if travelling for work then a few days roaming is cheaper than buying the sim anyway.

Re: Apple Announces iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus

#295

Post by Shirt3907 »

tomduncalf wrote: post #169
jcfrei wrote: post #57

What bugs me most about Pro vs non-Pro models is that they don't enable you to take macro shots on the non-Pro models. Even my old Samsung s8 could do those - yet on lots of newer phones (iphone and android) macro shots are for some reason not possible on the cheaper versions. I'm pretty sure that's not because it requires expensive camera features but because it serves as a way to segregate the market.

The iPhone macro uses the ultra wide angle lens which has huge depth of field and can focus really close, so can get very close to objects. Without the ultra wide angle lens you can’t take what most would define as macro photos. You can still take photos as close as the camera can focus otherwise on other models, I suspect your S8 is doing this but the macro mode locks it to minimum focal length. Macro mode (or anyth…

I am curious how the iPhone 14 will perform here.

Starting with the iPhone 13 series (actually already the iPhone 12 Pro Max) Apple somewhat crippled the standard camera regarding close-range photos. Closest focus is now around 14cm. All previous models, and most main cameras from all other brands, typically have a closest focus at around 7-10cm. Means the best resolution with the main cam is now about half what it was before...

If you regularly need close-range photos with decent resolution, the iPhoneSE 22 will give you far better results than the iPhone 13.

Halide will not help you, it seems that it is a hardware limitation. Probably a marketing decision by Apple to promote the UW macro mode of the Pro model.

Re: Apple Announces iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus

#297

Post by pwinnski »

colinmhayes wrote: post #145
AnonHP wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These have much better cameras, crash detection and some more improvements over iPhone 13 Pro (the chip is from the 13 Pro, not from the 13).

> These have much better cameras They say that literally every year and I never notice.

I have an iPhone X (2017). My partner has an iPhone 12 (2020). The difference is very noticeable across those three years.

I think often a single year's improvements are negligible but real, so any given two year's improvements are much more noticeable.

Re: Apple Announces iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus

#299

Post by t0bia_s »

hbn wrote: post #298
t0bia_s wrote: post #296

There are a ton of alarmist articles about how bad climate change is and how terrible our society is... But hype around new phones every year is same. I don't get it.

It's okay because they don't include a charger in the box any more :)

Ah yes. Eco box. Then we are safe!

Re: Apple Announces iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus

#300

Post by Too »

rcarr wrote: post #65
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #51

Still no USB-C port. Disappointing.

EU Law stipulates it's got to be USB-C by Autumn 2024. Will be interesting to see if they implement it next year or hold off again.

Does this apply to the phone or only the transformer? Last iphone i unboxed came with a charger that has a usb-c outlet and a usb-c to lightning cable.

Even if i would be more than happy to hear that the phone requires it as well. The transformer is the biggest source of e-waste and the biggest nuisance to carry around while traveling. Cables are smaller factors in both aspects.

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