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iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

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941–950 of 1001 posts

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#941
post #82

Smaller notch? Touch ID? Better battery life? Faster charging? Larger default storage? Nope, let's skip all that and spend most of the event talking about video recording. Is anyone here actually excited about the features they just announced? Or are people simply upgrading because they get the latest iPhone every year or two by default?

> Is anyone here actually excited about the features they just announced?

I'm somewhat tempted by the camera improvements. Mostly the increased resolution on the ultra-wide camera, though the dedicated camera button might be nice. There've also been times when the higher zoom lens would have been useful for me, and it being available as standard means I'd actually have it without needing to buy a too-large phone.

The ultra-wide matters even when you're not using it for the zoomed-out fisheye shots, because it also is used for the macro mode. When you're within about a foot-or-so of a subject, the Camera app will switch to macro mode and quietly transition to using an extremely cropped view from the center of the ultra-wide lens. This lets it focus really well on up-close things... but the image quality is noticeable worse. So hopefully a vastly higher-res ultra-wide would result in me not feeling I should fiddle with camera settings around that transition point.

(Yes, this is very much a problem of Apple's own making. It started being annoying around the 14, when the main camera's focal length changed a bit and made them push the distance they had to trigger macro mode from out so it was no longer only happening when you were around 6 inches from a subject.)

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#942
I haven’t seen more people less impressed by an Apple product release since before the iMac came out.

For all the discussion, this was so mid it hurts.

I feel like people are poking the product release with a stick. C’mon. Do something.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#943
post #629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really interesting observation, but I would say there are still moments that can delight like we restored an old iPhone of my partner's and came across videos and live photos of our oldest when they were a toddler. Whether this is actually worth the many, many thousands we have spent on our smartphones to preserve rare moments that matter amongst many that really don't is another question. If smartphones never had ca…

Honestly I just have an RX100, physics means that it will always be able to take optically better photos than an iPhone even though the post processing is definitely “worse”. It fits in my pocket just as easily as a phone and I can take both normal photos and selfies pretty easily. It’s not the cheapest option but I appreciate having better image quality in a form factor I can easily shove in my pocket.

> It fits in my pocket just as easily as a phone

What kind of pants do you wear? Or are you in one of those locales where you have a coat on year-round?

Asking because my iphone barely fits in my jeans pockets. I'm a dude, so I still have somewhat usable pockets.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#944
My hot take – we've gone past peak camera for most people.

Yes, there is an audience that want more and more camera, and the pro caters to that. For a lot of people they just want a pretty good camera that they can quickly capture their memories with, they don't really care for the phone to be wrapped in a camera with a dedicated button etc. I also think in terms of all the AI image processing vs. just giving a natural image the quality peaked at the iPhone 13.

I think the camera button is neat, and of course no one is going to avoid an iPhone because of it, but I don't know if it's really going to drive sales more any other small iteration would. Again, the innovation continues to comes from software features.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#945

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…

> She can't tell the difference between LCD and OLED nor would she notice Pro-motion.

Most people do notice a difference there, maybe not instantly with a few second glance, but using one over another is definitely visible. I do think it is not a reason to upgrade for most people.

I consider myself quite technical, and I also upgrade fairly rarely - with 14 Pro I will either wait for next year or the year after that.

I think there is a main point people usually forget - new phones are not for people who have bought an iPhone in the last few years, rather than people who have 5-6 year old phones, Android users, new people coming into smartphone market. That market is huge and the differences for those people is definitely perceivable. With non-pro version having a lot of the features from a pro version from the years before, it is a great time to buy the latest phone.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#947

Phishing email operators rejoice: Apple still are not showing emails in the Mail app, and will even scan your phishing email and rephrase it while recognising and pushing it as a priority notification. I actually like the idea, but I worry a lot that it will lead to non tech-savvy (and tech-savvy-but-hurried) people to getting rekt. It’s still obscene to me that they don’t show the sender’s email before clicking in.…

> if there are tracking pixels, they fire since you must open the email for further screening

What makes you think that? Email message content is plain HTML, tracking pixels are usually implemented as ``s with unique link.

I'd expect Apple engineers are aware of that and they can render HTML without external resources, and only then pass it to their LLM. Also Mail.app is already capable of doing that -- you can disable loading external resources by default in settings on iOS and macOS both.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#948

No Apple financing on the unlocked phones?

The fact that phones needs to be financed or subsidised by the carriers should tell you that they are WAAAY to expensive. I'm still of the opinion that Apple needs to make a cheaper phone. Starting a $1100 makes this something only very few will purchase on their own. It's an absolutely insane price. The iPhone SE starts at $600 (4000DKK) that is still way to expensive. I really wish they'd make a "base" phone for ar…

I don't need the financing, I just take all the 0% financing I can get.

Apple caters to the premium market, diluting their brand with a cheap phone would be a dumb business decision on their part.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#949
post #700

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Smartphones are essentially solved at this point. How about running a normal desktop OS on smartphone, so that you could completely replace your laptop/desktop?

Nobody actually does that, turns out. Several manufacturers have the feature and it goes unused.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#950

The faster new 6-core GPU in A18 Pro delivers stunning visuals for next-level gaming, benefitting games like Death Stranding. ---- Hm, Death Stranding in the official article? :DDDDDDD

I don't quite know how the developers would fit a game like that in a mobile device. I still recall my PC GPU struggling without upscaling. It's not even available on something like Nintendo Switch either, yet here it is for Apple devices: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/death-stranding-directors-cut/... Guess it's a testament to how far hardware, modern game engines and competent developers can all go.

Me neither, but do you know what the game is about? :D
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