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Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

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Re: Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

#291

Post by lawlessone »

carlosjobim wrote: post #192
paxys wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it though? The promise of gaming on iPhone (and mobile gaming in general) has been taken over and destroyed by freemium games whose only goal is to push microtransactions. What is a marginally better GPU going to accomplish? Help games sell me their "bundle of gems" faster? Developers simply do not have the incentive to build any other kinds of games when the current crop of addictive shovelware is so damn profita…

Before smart phones became something for everybody, 99% of "gamers" would game on lottery tickets, casinos, slot machines and such. They are still the majority and they want their slot machines, where they don't have to think or learn to progress. Computer / video game tropes are just an aesthetic to skin a slot machine on your phone.

Some truth to this, many people playing mobile games would never have owned a laptop/PC/console. They play these games on the commute or while watching TV. A "full fledged" game and it's large upfront costs wouldn't interest them.

Re: Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

#292

Post by edualm »

mjamesaustin wrote: post #273
danudey wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And there are a lot of games out there featuring microtransactions, but which also have Apple Arcade versions which don't have microtransactions. It's pretty great to be able to grab a game that looks fun and know that you can just sit down and play it, rather than having to tap through seven different pop-up windows trying to sell you on the battle pass, buying boosts, buying more coins, spending the coins you alrea…

Oh, I did not know this! Can you confirm if microtransactions are prohibited amongst Apple Arcade games? This would be a big selling point for me.

Not who you are replying to, but I can confirm it!

Re: Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

#293

Post by kaba0 »

dmitrygr wrote: post #111
GeekyBear wrote: post #31

The most interesting thing to me is that switching to a new SOC process node gives you the option of bumping up performance or reducing power draw, and it sounds like Apple has once again chosen to reduce power draw. It seems like other vendors have been going the "push performance no matter what it does to power draw and heat" route for a long time now.

Why run faster if you are already comfortably number one? It makes sense to focus on something that everyone wants improvement on: battery life.

To be honest, in general it does improve battery life if you are faster. Battery life is a race to CPU sleep mode, and if you finish the job faster, the more energy you can save.

Re: Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

#294

Post by Gigachad »

mplewis wrote: post #108
Night_Thastus wrote: post #99

Sticking the 23-year-old USB 2.0 port on a device that is made in 2023 and costs $1k is inexcusable. [non-pro] There is absolutely no excuse when we're talking about a device at this price point and this age. It doesn't matter that it wouldn't be fully exercised by most users. These are premium products at a premium price point. It's insulting that they would cheap out like that.

The vast majority of people aren't transferring data to and from their phone via USB cable.

Unless you are doing some kind of video production with your phone, there is no real reason to plug it in. And anyone doing that would have the pro.

Re: Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

#295

Post by derefr »

gretch wrote: post #226
pradn wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing will change barring a change in economics (subsidies for quality games, Apple not taking a 30% cut on microtransactions, somehow prices for good indie games going up) or a change in human nature (people seem to just play shitty games from what I see in the NYC subway). We already have beautiful mobile games, like Monument Valley. But that's not what the market is about. The very term "mobile game" reeks of lo…

> We already have beautiful mobile games, like Monument Valley. But that's not what the market is about. The very term "mobile game" reeks of low quality at this point. What exactly is it that you are after? It seems like you are not content simply getting the games you want, such as Monument Valley. You also need everyone else to live their life a certain way? Why not simply conclude that the market is big enough fo…

> You also need everyone else to live their life a certain way?

Well, yes, I need — or rather, would prefer — all the people who are addicted to portable slot machines, to stop throwing their lives away being addicted to portable slot machines.

But I don't blame those people for that, nor do I think that trying to get them to each personally attempt to overcome their addiction would be practical.

People with gambling addictions are people with a particular cognitive vulnerability to variable-scheduled rewards. Unlike people with other addictions, who "go overboard" on something that other people can "enjoy responsibly" (and so which society has a reason to otherwise permit), people with gambling addictions are the targets of products and services produced solely to target them, that people without gambling addictions just... don't see the point of. Slot machines of all sorts exist to commercially exploit gambling addicts. And they do so very well.

That very exploitation was why the US had outlawed casinos in almost every state; why casinos are 19+ to enter, even when not serving alcohol; why "casino game" video games must be rated M; why even depictions of gambling affect the age-ratings for TV shows and movies.

But now that exploitation has leaked. It's no longer limited to casinos; it's now everywhere in the palm of your hand — and not just bare-faced as "casino games", but also in the guise of everything from shooters to RPGs, all with their own variable-scheduled rewards that can suck up unbounded amounts of your very real money.

Obviously, I blame the exploiters — the "gaming" [i.e. casino] industry, and the ex-"gaming"-industry professionals infecting the games industry with their exploitation tactics. And also, I blame society, for not punishing the exploiters, not outlawing the exploitation.

> sitting around enjoying candy crush

My dude, Candy Crush is a great, fun, classic, and ethical game compared to what they have these days. Have you looked at the mobile casual games market in the last five years? If the words "rare JPEG" don't mean anything to you, then you should really spend a few minutes looking into the people throwing away their life savings on some of these "games."

Re: Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

#296

Post by smoldesu »

philistine wrote: post #191
bradgessler wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I question if Apple really cares about or is serious about gaming. My impression is they use it as an excuse to showcase hardware improvements since games are happy to soak up pretty much any hardware that's thrown at it. That seems to be where their concern for gaming stops. There is Apple Arcade, but it feels like the least amount they could do for the size of their company. I do think they care about it over the l…

Apple is making 30%, just like all the console makers and Steam, on every single game transaction on iPhone. What you're forgetting, and pushing aside, is that the mobile gaming market is as big as the traditional gaming market. All the phone games make as much money as all the consoles and PC gaming together. Apple, with its command of all the valuable phone customers, is pulling an estimated 14 billion dollars in 2…

> The reality is that Apple is a bigger gaming company, by revenue, than Microsoft or Sony

The "reality" is that Apple still has to pay other studios to port games to their systems. We spent 8 tragic years watching them wheel out Tomb Raider demos each keynote as if it was a shiny new release. Larian Studios came, Blizzard Studios went, but nobody changed the tide of gaming on iPhone or Mac. The fact that Boom Beach is more profitable than dear esther is not exactly an allegorical victory for Apple.

So... here we are. A world where a $300, 20nm Nintendo Switch is a better gaming console than a shiny new $800 3nm iPhone. Apple's service revenue isn't driven by good games, so they have no incentive to build a better system. The entire iOS runtime is an antitrust meltdown waiting to happen.

Re: Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

#297

Post by skykooler »

checkyoursudo wrote: post #231
sgt wrote: post #7

Haven't watched it yet, but I bought a 14 Pro just two weeks ago (well aware of the imminent 15 on its way). I guess secretly I was hoping that the difference is not huge. ;)

I bought a 13 mini just a few weeks ago. Pretty sure the salespeople were rolling their eyes. Might have been the last one left at the store.

I'm disappointed there's no 15 mini announced. Rather disappointing that the only phones that fit in a pocket these days are all Android - no choice left.

Re: Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

#298

Post by internetter »

__loam wrote: post #241
pradn wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing will change barring a change in economics (subsidies for quality games, Apple not taking a 30% cut on microtransactions, somehow prices for good indie games going up) or a change in human nature (people seem to just play shitty games from what I see in the NYC subway). We already have beautiful mobile games, like Monument Valley. But that's not what the market is about. The very term "mobile game" reeks of lo…

Steam also takes 30% from the first $10 million in sales, so I'm not sure what it is about the app store that incentivizes this. The incentives are arguably identical on Steam. I think it has more to do with the nature of the device (Touch controls, people using it on their bathroom breaks, etc) than it does with any economic situations.

To be fair, steam offers a massive amount of goodies on top, including a built in mod store, tools for multiplayer, forums, and many more. I'd argue that the platform is worth at least 10% if used to it's fullest (and after a certain threshold the 30% goes down anyway — though imo it should start low for small studios)

The same cannot be said for the app store. Save from basic DRM (steam has this), leaderboards (steam has this) & achievements (steam has this), you get much less for that cut.

Re: Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

#299

Post by theshrike79 »

mjamesaustin wrote: post #273
danudey wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And there are a lot of games out there featuring microtransactions, but which also have Apple Arcade versions which don't have microtransactions. It's pretty great to be able to grab a game that looks fun and know that you can just sit down and play it, rather than having to tap through seven different pop-up windows trying to sell you on the battle pass, buying boosts, buying more coins, spending the coins you alrea…

Oh, I did not know this! Can you confirm if microtransactions are prohibited amongst Apple Arcade games? This would be a big selling point for me.

They are 100% IAP and ad free.

One of the reasons I got Apple One, the kids can install an endless amount of decent to excellent games from there and I don't need to worry about them wasting money on them or getting predatory ads.

Sneaky Sasquatch is the hidden gem in there. It starts off simple, but it's a really cool and complex world you can explore

Re: Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

#300

Post by bsimpson »

paxys wrote: post #34
gruturo wrote: post #2

It looks like the one feature I was more eagerly awaiting is there: It can drive a display through the USB-C cable ( https://www.apple.com/iphone-15-pro , scroll down to "Gigablast your gigabits" and then click on "Explore Connectivity". Looking forward (assuming it will work like the iPad Pro) to not carrying a laptop with me when I know there is a USB-C or HDMI (with an adapter) screen available at my destination.…

I bought an Android phone that transforms into a desktop computer when you plug in a USB-C monitor, and the entire experience is mind blowing. You can even connect a bluetooth keyboard and use the phone screen as a touchpad. Unfortunately I don't think Apple is going to go in that direction anytime soon.

This sounds like Motorola in about 2012.
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