721–730 of 857 posts
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One difficult I remember reading is: they can't always do things an obvious way someone else did because... patents.
Which is ironic, considering that patents are supposed to be non-obvious.
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Apple managed to design its own state-of-the-art CPUs. I wouldn't have imagined that designing its own modem would be such a difficult challenge?
Their CPU is based on ARM IP, it’s not like they designed it from the ground up. The modem they might have had to? Also I guess a big challenge are all the patents you need to be aware of and find ways to license or circumvent, not sure if that’s worse for modems but it seems all wireless / cellular technology is riddled with patents (not saying CPUs aren’t but again ARM is probably taking care of some of that for Ap…
It's the opposite, AArch64 was designed by ARM in order to produce their CPUs.
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If you look at the math it's not even that complicated. Basic statistical inference and information theory. Seems like the difficult part is doing that effectively while avoiding IP issues -- patents on software and math have entrenched Qualcomm's dominance. Imagine if all of the IP for ML or AI were held by a single company that got the regulating body (ITU/3GPP) to require their use. Makes a mockery of FRAND terms.
Patents are the main thing here. Building a cellular modem, complete with working protocol stack, entirely in software has been done as a 1 person open source project. Making a production -ready modem is clearly more complex, but far from hard for a company with the resources of Apple. However, doing so whilst not violating any of qualcomms huge array of patents is the real challenge. I'm willing to bet that the rele…
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> "I'm sure the modem contributes, but IMO the battery life is probably mostly from just having a bigger battery" According to reports, the 16e has a slightly smaller battery than the iPhone 16. 3279 mAh in the 16e vs. 3561 mAh in the 16.
IMO somebody just made that up based on it sharing the outer dimensions of the iPhone 14 which also happens to have exactly 3279 mAh. I can't really figure out what "larger battery" could mean in their release video if it isn't larger than at least the 14 if not the 16.
There would be manufacturing differences that would induce at least some variation from phone-to-phone.
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IMO somebody just made that up based on it sharing the outer dimensions of the iPhone 14 which also happens to have exactly 3279 mAh. I can't really figure out what "larger battery" could mean in their release video if it isn't larger than at least the 14 if not the 16.
I can’t understand how someone can say with certainty the capacity down to a single digit (327 9 ). There would be manufacturing differences that would induce at least some variation from phone-to-phone.
[1] https://www.mysmartprice.com/gear/mobiles/mobiles-news/apple...
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You are missing the point. These types of "budget" phones that Apple does are for people who can't/won't buy the flagship (because too expensive) but wouldn't buy something second-hand either. There are a LOT of people like that. It is not rational at all; they would rather buy something shittier for their money than get more value. My grandparents are like that. To buy in the second-hand market you need to have some…
I'm not talking about second hand. I'm talking about new from the carrier old model phones. Here is the verizon page for iphone 14s they have, you can get them for 0 down 0 a month through some deal from the cell phone plan. Apple can't compete with free. https://www.verizon.com/smartphones/apple-iphone-14/
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I'm sure the modem contributes, but IMO the battery life is probably mostly from just having a bigger battery due to the new internal design (and maybe chemistry changes). The new design moves the frame's structure into the middle of the sandwich, making it more rigid and allowing them to make the frame thinner to pack in more battery. Lots of people are mad about losing magsafe but in magsafe phones the magnets sit…
With almost everyone using a case, magsafe doesn’t really need to be in the phone, it would probably be fine if it’s just in the case.
At this point there’s only really one thing I want from an iPhone and that’s an option for a 12/13 mini sized device again. Surely those phones didn’t sell so few that it’s not worth doing at all?
I am still using my 13 Mini. I got it, because I knew that it would be the last Mini Apple does. I plan to use it, until I need to charge the battery every 15 minutes.
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The CPU/SOC operates independently with limited protocols (such as PCIe, NVMe, etc.). In contrast, a baseband processor must communicate with various base stations and core networks, requiring precise timing, physical signal alignment, and correct message formats. Even though the 3GPP defines mobile network standards, achieving full compatibility remains extremely challenging.
When you're apple, you can just be mostly compliant, and the worlds mobile networks will have to work around your bugs. Nobody will use a phone company that doesn't work with iPhones.
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Apple has huge margins, it's not a problem unless you think about margins. Making more money is normally good, even if the margin is slightly lower.
But it’s better to sell phones with better margin. More people need to take Econ 101. Opportunity cost is an actual thing. You can be sure they did the math. Selling ever so slightly fewer larger phones at higher margin is better than selling slightly more phones at a lower margin. Apple knows its sales and profits much better than anyone else.