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iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

apple.com

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Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#911

Post by nprateem »

iteratethis wrote: post #258

I'm conflicted. It's absolutely stunning what smartphones can do these days and Apple makes an excellent product. It feels ungrateful and cynical to keep calling new models "boring". The reality though is that normie needs were accomplished several generations ago. I'll use my girlfriend as a sample of such user. She can't tell the difference between LCD and OLED nor would she notice Pro-motion. You can add a million…

LOL. Your naivety is so sweet :D

New features aren't for users. They're for the media so the company gets publicity and we have conversations like this and don't forget about them.

Imagine if Apple said "we're done, users have all they need", but Samsung kept putting out new features nobody wants or needs, and press releases and launch events... It's obvious what would happen to Apple, right?

Your average user has no idea what the buzzwords mean either, and that's for a reason. God knows why I need titanium, but I know it's strong and probably expensive so helps justify the price. 120fps? Who knows, but it's more than 24 or 60 so it must be good, etc. The features page goes on and on, gushing with how easy things are, high pro quality, time saving, etc.

Features are there to bamboozle buyers and overwhelm them with "benefits" to justify the high price. Frequent releases are for regular publicity. Heaven forbid any of this is actually because users want any of this stuff.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#912

Post by [deleted] »

MangoCoffee wrote: post #55
pistolpeteDK wrote: post #20

Interesting to see how they're marketing increasingly minor improvements as major breakthroughs. 16 Pro: Better camera, more zoom, dedicated camera button… isn’t that it? WiFi 7, faster ray tracing, USB-C/USB 3? Hard to imagine many people really need that. Have we witnessed peak Apple? Apple Watch: minimal updates. AirPods Max: new color. AirPods: some minor tweaks.

Smartphone has reached its peak. What's left to innovate? maybe Huawei's triple-fold phone(?)

[deleted]

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#913

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

iteratethis wrote: post #258

I'm conflicted. It's absolutely stunning what smartphones can do these days and Apple makes an excellent product. It feels ungrateful and cynical to keep calling new models "boring". The reality though is that normie needs were accomplished several generations ago. I'll use my girlfriend as a sample of such user. She can't tell the difference between LCD and OLED nor would she notice Pro-motion. You can add a million…

Adding features to smartphones for the last few generations is akin to more buttons in the MS Office ribbon/menu. Or any other commoditized product that adds gimmick features.

Its compelling in the sense that these organizations feel compelled to continually release things. No other real reason exists. You could probably classify much of product development for smartphones as bullshit jobs at this point. They are as useful to society as someone adding features to an ERP system.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#914

Post by bee_rider »

mulmen wrote: post #700
iteratethis wrote: post #258

I'm conflicted. It's absolutely stunning what smartphones can do these days and Apple makes an excellent product. It feels ungrateful and cynical to keep calling new models "boring". The reality though is that normie needs were accomplished several generations ago. I'll use my girlfriend as a sample of such user. She can't tell the difference between LCD and OLED nor would she notice Pro-motion. You can add a million…

I am an engineer at a big tech company. I’m not a “normie”. Even for me the new features aren’t compelling. They don’t really help me do anything I actually want to do. They don’t solve a problem or scratch an itch. And features change so often and so drastically I don’t really care to learn. I used to have an optical zoom but now I have super wide angle. My Fidelity widget used to show my balance but now it doesn’t…

I don’t get the assumption (not just in your comment, all over this post) that engineers and programmers are more likely to appreciate the changes.

I’m a programmer, apple devices have had the cpu grunt to run ssh or vi for ages. Therefore, I don’t really notice much generation to generation. I wonder if it will ever catch up to the Raspberry Pi in usability.

I expect a photographer, or maybe someone who opened big spreadsheets, or a social media person, or one of those coffee-shop authors, might be more likely to notice the difference.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#915

Post by kaba0 »

microtonal wrote: post #87
minimaxir wrote: post #51

The Pro variant is unusually poorly differentiated from the base model this cycle: https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/ The 13 Pro had ProMotion, 14 Pro had Dynamic Island and Always On display, the 15 Pro had USB-C and the Action Button, the 16 Pro...has maybe slightly faster AI? 4k120fps video? USB-C w/ USB 3? Not things most people would care about. ProMotion/Always On is still limited to the Pro models which is…

For me 60Hz on the base model is now a deal breaker. Even our daughter's 300 Euro A54 has a 120Hz screen (though not LTPO). Once you are used to 120Hz on a touch device, it's hard to go back (different on a relatively static computer screen, where I prefer having the high DPI of 5k 27"). So, it's iPhone Pro models until the base model gets >60Hz too.

Plenty of people simply don’t see it though. That’s what apple is betting on.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#916

Post by andrewla »

spicymaki wrote: post #364
stroupwaffle wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My biggest complaint is that the lenses aren’t flush with the back. I hate having cases on my phone, and their design makes wireless charging somewhat useless because it’s not flush with the charging mat.

They would if they could. Optical physics is one factor that prevents the lenses from being flush with the back. If you want to support advanced optical features the lenses need depth.

Sure -- but they could make the phone thicker so that the bump is flush, and fill the rest with batteries.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#917

Post by Certhas »

iteratethis wrote: post #258

I'm conflicted. It's absolutely stunning what smartphones can do these days and Apple makes an excellent product. It feels ungrateful and cynical to keep calling new models "boring". The reality though is that normie needs were accomplished several generations ago. I'll use my girlfriend as a sample of such user. She can't tell the difference between LCD and OLED nor would she notice Pro-motion. You can add a million…

In the EU we are going to get user replaceable batteries:

https://repair.eu/news/new-eu-rules-smartphones-and-tablets-...

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#918

Post by 015a »

lelandfe wrote: post #434
usaphp wrote: post #285

I love how ridiculous the scene to showcase Apple's Intelligence ability to tell you what bread the dog was. Instead of simply asking a women what breed her dog was - he had to open a camera app on his iPhone, ask a women a permission to take a photo of the dog, wait until the AI gives him an answer...

“Is that rain?” https://youtube.com/watch?v=EP1YAatv1Mc

Its so sad how much Siri has degraded even since this commercial; and then Apple Intelligence comes along re-selling a ton of the stuff Siri used to be able to just do.

- "Is that rain?" pulls up a weather widget, but Siri doesn't say anything about it (the correct answer for me right now would be the response "No")

- "Let's get soup delivered" does a google search for literally "let's get soup delivered" with no vocal response.

- The other two work fine.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#919

Post by vertical91 »

To be honest, I think that after years of incremental updates apple has maxed out the number of "value" features. I don't see a strong reason why Apple has to come out with new features every year.

Expecting ground-breaking new features every year is a bit crazy, unless there is a new breakthrough like solid state batteries. Like what's going to be there next year? Flush side buttons to make the phone thinner? Why not apply all those additions in a single iteration and wait 3-4 years to come up with a next major upgrade? Consumers are not dumb anymore and can see through their marketing gimmicks

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#920

Post by thirdsun »

TuringNYC wrote: post #357
iteratethis wrote: post #258

I'm conflicted. It's absolutely stunning what smartphones can do these days and Apple makes an excellent product. It feels ungrateful and cynical to keep calling new models "boring". The reality though is that normie needs were accomplished several generations ago. I'll use my girlfriend as a sample of such user. She can't tell the difference between LCD and OLED nor would she notice Pro-motion. You can add a million…

>> The reality though is that normie needs were accomplished several generations ago. Sure, and a couple of iOS updates into a good phone, and the phone is suddenly slow, crawling, and no longer meeting normie needs.

I experience none of that.
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