> Yes, it’s plastic, but there’s nothing cheap about it.
Hard back-pedalling on plastic observed.
Thoughts and Observations on Today’s iPhone 5C and 5S Introduction
41–50 of 57 posts
Re: Thoughts and Observations on Today’s iPhone 5C and 5S Introduction
#42Nokia designers should be proud of themselves for setting a colorful plastic case trend for the smart phone market and even influencing the iPhone.
Nokia's designer and product managers have nothing to be proud of in its history. They let companies like Apple, Samsung etc come in and dominate what was their industry to own.
I agree about the product managers, but I don't think that designers are to blame for the failures in the smart phone market.
Re: Thoughts and Observations on Today’s iPhone 5C and 5S Introduction
#43> Next, it has an intriguing “motion coprocessor”, which I think pretty much means you can use your 5S as a fitness tracker with almost no effect on your battery life. My guess is that it's much more than this. It's for augmenting the GPS location with dead-reckoning, for places where the GPS location doesn't reach well, such as buildings or on subways, etc. Accelerometers are already pretty sensitive - enough to pro…
I doubt it's for GPS assistance. Motion sensors can be used to suppress Wi-Fi scanning and/or GPS localization during the roughly 89% of the time humans are not moving. Remember, phones continually scan for new Wi-Fi APs in the background even when the screen is off. On modern phones with a/b/g/n chipsets (32 channels to scan) and energy-expensive CPUs (i.e. Exynos) this takes a huge amount of power. Motion sensors t…
> Motion sensors themselves are really energy-cheap but the main CPU needs to be on to sample them, which basically means that if you want continuous mobility detection you're going to burn through your battery pretty quickly, which is why it isn't used much.
It's a coprocessor not a sensor, so it may operate independently of the CPU as far as continuously sampling the motion sensors is concerned. Presumably that requires much less power to do so.
Of course it will used to augment/supplement GPS.
Re: Thoughts and Observations on Today’s iPhone 5C and 5S Introduction
#44The 5C is important for one big reason: China. I expect the "unlocked" price won't reflect the kind of subsidies and discounts that China Mobile and Apple can give to make it affordable for their customers.
I think the "C stands for China" is fair, but I don't expect Apple to break with their multi-decade tradition of maintaining the highest margins that are compatible with a viable market presence. Yes margins will be lower in aching than elsewhere, but they are not going to even attempt to compete with Android for market share because it would be utterly pointless. The Chinese mass market is dominated by extremely poo…
There's enough money in China that Apple can make some in roads but a bulk of the phones selling there are sub $200 (off contract) non-Google Androids. The 5C isn't going to take anything out of that market.
Rather boringly I suspect the C stands for colour (or color if you must).
Re: Thoughts and Observations on Today’s iPhone 5C and 5S Introduction
#45The 5S camera is killer. f/2.2, apparently a great sensor for the size and 120fps video is more than most pocket cameras offer. Manufacturers of point-of-shoot cameras can pack up and leave if this is a trend.
> Manufacturers of point-of-shoot cameras can pack up and leave if this is a trend. My friend brought a cheap point-and-shoot camera to last New Years Party. He had pictures from a family get-together with kids throwing leaves up in the air, taking multiple snapshots during. With the fast shutter mode, you could see individual leaves and zoom in on them. I'm certain the iPhone 5 nor any other camera phone cannot come…
The ability to low light pictures was the one thing that surprised me about my Nokia 920. It really does have a great camera, I guess the 1020 is even better.
Re: Thoughts and Observations on Today’s iPhone 5C and 5S Introduction
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple will adjust pricing based on currency. If the Australian currency is getting weaker it may be because the emerging markets that it depends on are seeing turmoil in their currencies because of the prospect of Fed QE tapering. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/4934147/Apple-up...
Apple has overcharged both in Australia and Europe for decades, even when the currency has been strong. It's simply because they believe that people who live there will stomach a larger price. It's probably true. It's still infuriating. It results in funny cases where a Nexus 4 can be 1/3 the price of an iPhone 5.
Just fly up to Hong Kong over a holiday and buy an iPhone there. Prices are cheap, and its what we used to do in Mainland China before (now, iPhone pricing is about 20% higher than the USA sticker, which probably mostly due to VAT).
Re: Thoughts and Observations on Today’s iPhone 5C and 5S Introduction
#47The 5C is important for one big reason: China. I expect the "unlocked" price won't reflect the kind of subsidies and discounts that China Mobile and Apple can give to make it affordable for their customers.
Reality check: 1. The spec published today is not suggesting that iPhone 5c/s would support TD-SCDMA networks which CMCC is bound to due to regulation reasons. And LTE-TDD is light year ahead for CMCC. 2. A difference of mere 800 CNY in price between 5c and 5s is not attractive enough to those who can afford 5,000+ CNY(, i.e. the iPhone 5s) in China. And in the past, smugglers carrying duty-free iPhones from Hong Kon…
1. China Unicom...3G is much better than TD SCDMA anyways, which almost never delivers even with a compliant phone.
2. I agree. The 5C occupies no interesting niche in the Chinese market beyond its unique styling. Besides, the yellow one looks too much like a xiaomi to be attractive.
Re: Thoughts and Observations on Today’s iPhone 5C and 5S Introduction
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt it's for GPS assistance. Motion sensors can be used to suppress Wi-Fi scanning and/or GPS localization during the roughly 89% of the time humans are not moving. Remember, phones continually scan for new Wi-Fi APs in the background even when the screen is off. On modern phones with a/b/g/n chipsets (32 channels to scan) and energy-expensive CPUs (i.e. Exynos) this takes a huge amount of power. Motion sensors t…
> Motion sensors themselves are really energy-cheap but the main CPU needs to be on to sample them, which basically means that if you want continuous mobility detection you're going to burn through your battery pretty quickly, which is why it isn't used much. It's a coprocessor not a sensor, so it may operate independently of the CPU as far as continuously sampling the motion sensors is concerned. Presumably that req…
I meant that on current phones the main CPU needs to be on, which is why motion suppression isn't used much. Apple added a separate processor to handle the motion sensing, thus offloading the main CPU, and saving energy.
> Of course it will used to augment/supplement GPS. > Of course
What do you base this on? Could you give me an example where a separate motion processor would augment GPS?
Re: Thoughts and Observations on Today’s iPhone 5C and 5S Introduction
#49The 5S camera is killer. f/2.2, apparently a great sensor for the size and 120fps video is more than most pocket cameras offer. Manufacturers of point-of-shoot cameras can pack up and leave if this is a trend.
Err no: http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/coolpix/s/s6500/ 16MP, 12x optical zoom, upto ISO3200, Lens shift VR The only good thing is f/2.2 which the Lumia 1020 has and is a better camera, 32Gb of built in storage (and SD card slot) for £200 GBP LESS than the 5s. Apple are rip off merchants. Sorry.
Sorry, for what? Stick by your words, don't apologize for them.
Re: Thoughts and Observations on Today’s iPhone 5C and 5S Introduction
#50The 5S camera is killer. f/2.2, apparently a great sensor for the size and 120fps video is more than most pocket cameras offer. Manufacturers of point-of-shoot cameras can pack up and leave if this is a trend.
> Manufacturers of point-of-shoot cameras can pack up and leave if this is a trend. My friend brought a cheap point-and-shoot camera to last New Years Party. He had pictures from a family get-together with kids throwing leaves up in the air, taking multiple snapshots during. With the fast shutter mode, you could see individual leaves and zoom in on them. I'm certain the iPhone 5 nor any other camera phone cannot come…
I agree that the new iPhone camera will be no substitute IQ-wise for a half-decent point-n-shoot, and it probably will not be enough to convince me to upgrade from my 4S. On the other hand, I am very impressed with the path Apple are taking regarding automatic modes. Automatically bracketing exposure and shooting in burst-mode, then analysing the results in real time for highlight/shadow clipping and sharpness, and then presenting the 'best' photo to the user? Automatically combining twin tinted flashes for tone without mucking about with gels? That's great stuff (assuming it works), and orders of magnitude more advanced than the 'auto' modes on pretty much all other cameras.
It's not going to replace good cameras used by enthusiasts who know their aperture from their ISO, but it has the potential to make huge waves in the snapshot category. I'd love to see that tech make its way to, say, the successor to the Canon S110 or the next Ricoh GRD.