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iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

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Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#981

I used to care about my photos a lot. After accumulating a few decades worth of photos I've gotten to the point where I don't care about my photos at all. I used to obsess over megapixel count, portrait mode, FPS, lighting, and so forth, because I used to think that these amazing images would be priceless in the future. Well, the future came and went, and to me they actually ended up being worthless. At one time I ca…

I haven’t cared about megapixels for a long time. My “real” camera is a decade old and has just a 16 megapixel sensor.

With the right lens(es) it still destroys every iPhone.

I don’t see myself getting rid of it for a phone camera any time soon. If anything, I feel the opposite and want my camera with me (rather than just my phone) more of the time.

That said, I also still take loads of photos on my phone and look forward to that camera becoming more capable. And I completely hear and am on board with the argument about enjoying things in the moment and not getting stuck behind a camera, or worse, obsessing over posting to social media.

Everything in moderation, I suppose.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#982
post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know that I completely agree. To some degree, sure — most folks probably don't notice the year-to-year updates in e.g. computing power. But my 70yo mother, who is pretty far from being technologically savvy, uses continuity every day to copy one-time-use codes from her phone to her computer, even though she'd have no idea what the term "continuity" means in this context. She notices that it's easier to snap b…

Nearly all of the things you describe there aside from the camera are software/services based and don’t require improved hardware year-on-year at all. This is a problem for a company that makes its money selling expensive hardware.

I think you hovered over something significant: yes, most of the "new features" of the new phones are software features … but the line between "what is software and what is hardware" may not be crystal clear to a lot of the population.

Imagine the effect of a TV spot touting a new OS feature on the new iPhone. Do I need the new phone to get that feature? As soon as you've asked the question, you're at the doorstep of "I wasn't thinking about it, but I will need to replace the battery soon ($$) and it's been getting slower …"

You may learn the feature is available in an OS update, but it's inconsequential: you've already rolled the idea of a new phone around and remember how nice it is to start fresh. This one may not get you, but next year's definitely will.

Some confusion around hardware -vs- software is key to draw people in.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#983
post #774

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…

There are just 5 major use-cases for this thing, and they don't change since 2008: calling, messaging, navigating, camera, note-taking. The rest of what you can do is mostly time-burning and satisfying addictions, which makes the most of the profit I guess.

Audio is a major use case.

Podcasts have grown in audience size dramatically, everyone has Spotify or whatever, and the iPod has long since been discontinued.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#984

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…

[dead]

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#985

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Insanely good ideas"? With the months of nonstop and over-the-top hype of "Apple Intelligence" these all seem underwhelming. Even in the idealized world of demoware there's no killer feature, not to mention that none of it is even available to real customers yet. I was expecting something only Apple could do with their vast ecosystem of IP and partnerships, the must-have cool new thing that would stimulate a leap in…

Like what? People have been whining "where's the innovation" for years about phones, totally ignoring the fact that this is a mature product category. Where's the innovation in word processors? At this point, we're often talking about regression. Apple removed the audio output from its best-selling music player. It removed TouchID. It removed the SIM slot. You know what would be "innovative?" Making a goddamned phone…

[flagged]

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#986
post #798

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…

> You could set her back 8 iOS versions and she probably wouldn't notice. Because she uses none of the hundreds of features released since. Not because she dislikes them, she doesn't know they even exist. there's no manual to read. apple does not inform you in any way. finding out new features is by word of mouth. so annoying. i should not have to discover features on my very expensive phone by random chance via watc…

Indeed. A typical major iOS version has hundreds of new features.

New iOS features are typically announced at the WWDC event. Which is a developer event that surely no normie watches. But even if they did, it's still a summary featuring like 5% of new features.

Normies may not know or suddenly discover features introduced a decade ago.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#987

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…

Yeah that’s how I feel. I feel like the iPhone 7 could handle all the daily use cases just fine. Every phone after is cool but doesn’t accomplish anything

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#988
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…

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 s…

My comment is a counter response to the assertion that engineers are any different than “normies”.

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#989
post #774

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are just 5 major use-cases for this thing, and they don't change since 2008: calling, messaging, navigating, camera, note-taking. The rest of what you can do is mostly time-burning and satisfying addictions, which makes the most of the profit I guess.

Audio is a major use case. Podcasts have grown in audience size dramatically, everyone has Spotify or whatever, and the iPod has long since been discontinued.

That's true, tbh I totally forgot about it since I completely stopped using my phone for audio when they started removing 3.5mm jacks. Adapters don't stick for long with me, and BT headphones I just don't find too convenient.

In the end I found my 2008 walkman and it works perfectly to this day. It's built like a tank. It has a replacable 64GiB SD card just for the music. And my latest macbook can now again work with this card perfectly for syncing. No upgrades needed for 16 years.

I also don't like the concept of renting the music for listening, instead I prefer to buy it, as directly from the author as possible – so I never used Spotify or whatever.

A lot of people are like this actually, I personally know a dozen who won't even listen to digital formats, only physical copies on vinyl, cd, tape, etc. – so it's a bit of an exaggeration to say "everyone is using X"

Re: iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

#990

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been working in tech for 25 years, and I'm sure I hardly use any of the new features. Camera? Click, maybe crop it or turn it into a loop if it's funny. I play some games on it. I browse some social crap on it. I occasionally tell Siri to set a reminder. That's... about it. I'm really not sure what else I'm supposed to be doing.

You don’t use maps for looking around? For navigation while driving? You’re allowed to have in-car satnav or not drive. You don’t use the camera for QR codes? Fine you don’t want to scan things for information. You don’t use the image recognition in the camera app to select people and copy them out of the background? That’s fine you don’t participate selfies and party photos. To do OCR on text in photos? It’s fine th…

As a member of GenZ I find it a fun challenge to answer to this - especially since my generation is supposed to have a significantly higher amount of applications (and smartphone usage in general!) as opposed to others [saw a study on this once albeit I cannot recall where, so no link].

>You don’t use maps for looking around? For navigation while driving? You’re allowed to have in-car satnav or not drive.

I do indeed use Waze, with the occasional PoC/location check in Google Maps in the browser.

>You don’t use the camera for QR codes? Fine you don’t want to scan things for information. You don’t use the image recognition in the camera app to select people and copy them out of the background? That’s fine you don’t participate selfies and party photos. To do OCR on text in photos? It’s fine that you never want it. To select e.g. plants and search for what they are on Google? It’s fine that you know what everything is/don’t care/don’t photograph plants. To search your photo library by text for things and people recognised in the pictures? Fine that you know where all your pictures are. To describe photos by voice? Fine that you have good eyesight.

Google Lens and Assistant serve these tasks for me. Especially useful when I need to find something on the Chinese web.

>You don’t use the builtin daily steps tracker, or any third party running or cycling or exercise mapping / route trackers, or any Garmin style route planners? Fine that you don’t have other devices for that kind of thing or don’t go out.

My watch does that and I sync it every other month with its app (which is complete useless bloat, but oh well).

>You don’t use the weather app, or a third party one? Fine that you don’t want to.

I do that in the browser.

>You don’t use any remote terminal, Remote Desktop, programming, Jupyter, anything? Fine that you have a laptop which does everything you need.

I occasionally do use RDP to check on my server, although it's so rare that I usually don't even have the RDP app installed. Wish there was some client for RDP that could run in the browser instead, similarly to qBitTorrent's GUI (not neccessarily hosted locally, it might as well be a web app that connects to the local network - IF that's possible, that is).

>Kindle, any ebook reader, any podcast app? Fine that you have paper and don’t listen to posts.

Nope, not in the target demographic for any of these...

>Any music player? Fine that you don’t listen to music.

Spotify, YouTube and Tidal. Occasionally, I also use Telegram and Poweramp for FLAC playback, although I don't have Poweramp installed at this moment and Telegram is not something I often think about when it comes to audio playback.

>Any Netflix style video or TV show app, BBC iPlayer? Fine that you don’t even own a TV.

YouTube exclusively. If I want to watch some show I do it via shady, but legal (in Poland) websites in the browser. Android can handle HTML5 players just fine, although I slightly prefer iOS' unified player, especially when it comes to hiDPI.

>Any third party camera app such as night eyes or webcam stacking, or use the phone as a wireless webcam on another computer? Fine that you aren’t interested in photo novelties.

A Google Camera modification is my single camera app. Does almost everything - good night shots, way better day shots than the default Xiaomi camera etc. - remote webcam is the only thing I don't have, but I have an old phone that sometimes serves this purpose.

>No Evernote or OneNote cloud synced notebooks or todo lists? Calendar? Email? Fine that you only ever write plain text in a plain text file and you don’t have meetings or appointments.

Nope - I only have an e-mail client out of those. Calendar - well, I do have the built-in one, but I exclusively use it to check which day of the week is day X going to be. I don't really have appointments, and when I do I fixate on them so much it's hard to forget them.

>No local train, tram, bus, library, cinema, schedule app? Fine that you drive everywhere or go nowhere.

IF I rarely need to check the schedule (public transport/cinema) for anything I do it via the browser. No need for Yet Another App (TM) that doubles the web app they release regardless.

>No educational apps? Fine that you learn things in other ways. No Chatgpt? Fine that you don’t ask LLMs things. No Google or phind or kagi search? Also fine.

I ask the LLM questions... in the browser! The ChatGPT mobile site is absolutely sufficient for all of my needs. Google - I do have the app but I do searches exclusively in browser as well.

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