The New Iphone 5

[adriantc 0]

It's been almost a week since Apple release the 'new and improved' iPhone 5. As far as I can notice from the specifications only two things have really been changed and one, as far as I am concerned, not for the best. The two things are the CPU (which seems to be a great improvement when it comes to speed and power consumption) and the connector which continues in the long Apple tradition: 'We don't do anything that's standard for the rest of tradition!'. While the rest of the world has adopted (some might think by force of the UE law) microUSB as the standard interference port, Apple seem to have gone again against the tide and unveiled a different port. Of course that can only mean trouble when you have multiple phones or you don't like adaptors (which of course Apple generously sells with a huge margin of profit... asking 29$ for a piece of cable is a crime ) Oh... I forgot about the headphone change. That could also be marked as an improvement although I didn't consider the old ones so rubbish.Anyway as I see it Apple is becoming lazy with it's success. For a few generations now the iPhone hasn't brought anything new to the scene. Above all I think innovation is what brought Apple's success and now while I still see that with every new release people stay 2-3 days camped in front of Apple Stores all over the world the real innovation is no more. I think Apple is now a car that has gone uphill by the power not of oil, but of innovation and once that has run dry going downhill is just a matter of time.Just as a side note (for fairness)... I'm not an Apple fan or user - so keep that in mind when reading the above lines.So what do you think about the new iPhone?

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I think the new iPhone, while it is new, isn't worth upgrading to. There's not enough to really justify an upgrade at this point. It's more or less like upgrading from a 2012 car to a 2013, while both are pretty much identical. Those who do it will just because they have the expendable income, but when it really comes down to it, there is no reason to.From a business perspective, I understand where Apple is coming from. They keep everything proprietary so you have to rely on them, which in turn increases their business. While it's often seen as "rude" from the buyer's perspective, as long as people keep making the purchases I don't really see where the argument is!

[adriantc 0]

When they started with the xS versions of the phone everybody said that they release this small updates (with no major features) because people have 2 year contracts and they buy a new phone when those contracts finish, so to hook new customers they release they intermediary phones (like iPhone 4S between 4 and 5). Now it seems it has become a general rule. Maybe that's why we don't see any jump from a generation to another. They just have to keep people hooked...Of course there is also some truth in the assumption that most useful things have been discovered by now. It's just like with the touch-screens. They have reached a limit with the old fashioned keyboard so they had to find a brand new technology. There is so much improvement to be done on a technology/device before you have to replace it all together.Bottom line: Way too much resources (both financial and men-hours) are invested in all kinds of technologies that while are very popular don't bring added value. I've read the other days about a new eye implant that offers sight to a certain part of the blind people. It's black and white and only shadows, but it's a great improvement. Of course I doubt that people would camp 2 days in front of a store to buy an implant... maybe if it starts with an 'i' in the name...

Edited September 22, 2012 by adriantc (see edit history)

[rpgsearcherz 5]

When they started with the xS versions of the phone everybody said that they release this small updates (with no major features) because people have 2 year contracts and they buy a new phone when those contracts finish, so to hook new customers they release they intermediary phones (like iPhone 4S between 4 and 5). Now it seems it has become a general rule. Maybe that's why we don't see any jump from a generation to another. They just have to keep people hooked...
Of course there is also some truth in the assumption that most useful things have been discovered by now. It's just like with the touch-screens. They have reached a limit with the old fashioned keyboard so they had to find a brand new technology. There is so much improvement to be done on a technology/device before you have to replace it all together.

Bottom line: Way too much resources (both financial and men-hours) are invested in all kinds of technologies that while are very popular don't bring added value. I've read the other days about a new eye implant that offers sight to a certain part of the blind people. It's black and white and only shadows, but it's a great improvement. Of course I doubt that people would camp 2 days in front of a store to buy an implant... maybe if it starts with an 'i' in the name...

Let's go get the name of the implant registered. It'll be the iEye. Instant billions. YES!

[adriantc 0]

I wonder how can it connect with iTunes ... nothing Apple makes seems to work without iTunes installed. (one of the main things that makes me steer far away from anything that has an apple on the cover.Now that it has been 2 weeks since it was released people (of course) started complaining. The joins aren't that great (light seems to come out of the cover), the cover seems very happy to get scratches, WiFi seems to have some issues. I guess if it's not the battery, it's the signal... if it's not the signal, it's the screen... if it's not the screen, it's the cover.On the other hand in a face to face camera comparison between the latest Nokia and the latest iPhone really kills the iPhone - camera wise of course. Nokia may be up to something here. (they still have to do some more work on the marketing department - specially considering they liberal use of... let's call them... "special effects" in their commercials).

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I wonder how can it connect with iTunes ... nothing Apple makes seems to work without iTunes installed. (one of the main things that makes me steer far away from anything that has an apple on the cover.

Actually, iTunes isn't a requirement for using iPhones or iPods. There are other programs that are open-source that can sync with them as well. I can't think of the names off the top of my head but I used to run *nix only OS's (before gaming), and iTunes wasn't available so I had to go searching for alternatives.

I really don't like iTunes either!

[adriantc 0]

I didn't actually know that. But I think you still require a software to transfer files. Open-source is better then iTunes (coming from an open-source developer ), but you still shouldn't be forced to install anything (on the phone or on the computer) to put some mp3s on your phone or download some photos.

On the funny side here is a nice prank that shows what kind of people camp in front of Apple stores

[k_nitin_r 8]

The Apple iPhone was a revolution when it was introduced because no smart phone manufacturer wanted to cross the price barrier at the time and the use of capacitive touch screens, brush aluminium casings, and a revolutionary new operating system interface and app store were the package for disaster when you considered the price of such a device. Between a computer and a phone that cost the same, most people would have thought that the average person's intelligence would tell him or her to buy a cheap cell phone and a laptop computer for about the same price as an expensive smart phone. Apple decided to go ahead with the idea anyway just as it did in the past with expensive Macintosh computers. However, this time Apple's fortunes were much much better and people actually wanted to get an iPhone despite its price tag. The adoption started because of the carrier subsidies - people eventually paid the price of the phone because of the two-year-long or one-year-long contract that they had with the carrier, but the up-front costs were really low when compared with to the features that the phone had to offer and the lump-sum cost of other smart phones of the time.BTW, you do not really need iTunes to use an iPhone. You can transfer files to it as though it were a USB device. However, you do need to use iTunes for upgrading the iOS operating system on the iPhone and if you want to install applications on the iPhone using your computer instead of downloading them directly onto the iPhone. The former is probably something that you absolutely would need to use iTunes for but you can just install it whenever a new version of iOS becomes available, install the new iOS onto your iPhone, and then uninstall iTunes till the next version of the iOS operating system comes along which would be at least six months to a year unless they discover some really nasty security bug that they have to fix or your carrier decides to send across its own patch for the iOS, such as for locking it to their network or for installing software to spy on you as a result of government regulations.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

The Apple iPhone was a revolution when it was introduced because no smart phone manufacturer wanted to cross the price barrier at the time and the use of capacitive touch screens, brush aluminium casings, and a revolutionary new operating system interface and app store were the package for disaster when you considered the price of such a device. Between a computer and a phone that cost the same, most people would have thought that the average person's intelligence would tell him or her to buy a cheap cell phone and a laptop computer for about the same price as an expensive smart phone. Apple decided to go ahead with the idea anyway just as it did in the past with expensive Macintosh computers. However, this time Apple's fortunes were much much better and people actually wanted to get an iPhone despite its price tag. The adoption started because of the carrier subsidies - people eventually paid the price of the phone because of the two-year-long or one-year-long contract that they had with the carrier, but the up-front costs were really low when compared with to the features that the phone had to offer and the lump-sum cost of other smart phones of the time.
BTW, you do not really need iTunes to use an iPhone. You can transfer files to it as though it were a USB device. However, you do need to use iTunes for upgrading the iOS operating system on the iPhone and if you want to install applications on the iPhone using your computer instead of downloading them directly onto the iPhone. The former is probably something that you absolutely would need to use iTunes for but you can just install it whenever a new version of iOS becomes available, install the new iOS onto your iPhone, and then uninstall iTunes till the next version of the iOS operating system comes along which would be at least six months to a year unless they discover some really nasty security bug that they have to fix or your carrier decides to send across its own patch for the iOS, such as for locking it to their network or for installing software to spy on you as a result of government regulations.

I wasn't even thinking about the upgrading of the OS with my post; that's a good point. Luckily though, with the ability to upgrade the OS through the device itself, there's no need for iTunes again.

[adriantc 0]

The Apple iPhone was a revolution when it was introduced because no smart phone manufacturer wanted to cross the price barrier at the time and the use of capacitive touch screens, brush aluminium casings, and a revolutionary new operating system interface and app store were the package for disaster when you considered the price of such a device. Between a computer and a phone that cost the same, most people would have thought that the average person's intelligence would tell him or her to buy a cheap cell phone and a laptop computer for about the same price as an expensive smart phone. Apple decided to go ahead with the idea anyway just as it did in the past with expensive Macintosh computers. However, this time Apple's fortunes were much much better and people actually wanted to get an iPhone despite its price tag. The adoption started because of the carrier subsidies - people eventually paid the price of the phone because of the two-year-long or one-year-long contract that they had with the carrier, but the up-front costs were really low when compared with to the features that the phone had to offer and the lump-sum cost of other smart phones of the time.

I really don't agree with the carrier policy on phones. On two-year-long or one-year-long contract they look like banks... they profit from the costs of the phone and from the cost of the service. They pack everything up to look like it was cheaper, but on the long run (two-year-long) you actually pay more on the phone then you would do upfront. It's just like a credit with interest. That wouldn't be a problem if they wouldn't also make money on the calls you actually make.

I have two older Sony-Ericsson phones (dumb-phones ) and there are not many occasions when I miss having a smart-phone. The main advantage of a smart-phone is the browsing capabilities which I sometimes need. But there are also some drawbacks. For one thing iOS seems more stable then Android (I haven't used Linux a lot, but Google seems to have managed to make a pretty stable OS into an unstable one). One more thing that requires permanent updates and fixes. One more thing that can crash (and Android sure does a lot) and make you loss countless hours on installing all the applications again and again.

But returning to Apple... I think they have capitalized on the popularity of their laptops and OSs. If the iPhone would have been released by any other company, but would look just the same and have the same characteristics, it wouldn't have enjoyed nowhere near the same success. It's all about the vibe in the name Apple. And they are still selling the phones, by taking advantage of that. The advantages over the competition are very very small (compared to the first iPhone when there was almost no competition), but the phones still create some kind of emulation when they get released even if the changes are not large. In conclusion I think the real performer during the last years is not their engineering department, but their marketing department.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I really don't agree with the carrier policy on phones. On two-year-long or one-year-long contract they look like banks... they profit from the costs of the phone and from the cost of the service. They pack everything up to look like it was cheaper, but on the long run (two-year-long) you actually pay more on the phone then you would do upfront. It's just like a credit with interest. That wouldn't be a problem if they wouldn't also make money on the calls you actually make.

This is a hard one to hit on. While what you're saying is probably true in some respects, there are a lot of them that they lose money on. Especially when they do the $0.00 costs with the contracts. Some of them you have to pay for they definitely lose money on up-front as well, being that they have to put money towards not only that phone, but also to development and other things for new features and upgrades.

Keep in mind you can always get a "prepaid" plan and never have to worry about being locked into any type of contract.

[sabulba 0]

I phone 5 is getting high level of user experience and people are showing their interest in this Smartphone. Reasons are clear for this kind of response as this is less with various high tech applications which makes life easier.Maps are one of the application which helps to navigate you while driving. Turn-by-turn navigation, Traffic info, Flyover and like this kind of information are displayed. Camera provides the different best functionalities like Shoot panorama photos Edit your photos, Share your photos. In video recording, this is impressive as this is capable to shoot the high quality videos.

[adriantc 0]

For the Maps on iPhone state

I phone 5 is getting high level of user experience and people are showing their interest in this Smartphone. Reasons are clear for this kind of response as this is less with various high tech applications which makes life easier.

 

Maps are one of the application which helps to navigate you while driving. Turn-by-turn navigation, Traffic info, Flyover and like this kind of information are displayed. Camera provides the different best functionalities like Shoot panorama photos Edit your photos, Share your photos. In video recording, this is impressive as this is capable to shoot the high quality videos.

 

For the maps on iPhone statement I have to remaind you how incomplete Apple's maps are compared to those of Google. Of course that was to be expected since Google had a lot of experience in this department... Not to mention they haven't started from scratch as they bough other companies that had experience of their own. While that may be true Apple shouldn't have released a product that was not up to the name of Apple.

 

I think this picture sais a lot for the status of Apple's maps: ....

On a serios note a side-by-side comparison makes it pretty obvious:

 

I have to agree with the photos part, but with an observation. It will be true until Nokia releases its latest creation will basicly destroy everything on the market when it comes to picture and video... quality, stabilization and all.

[OpaQue 15]

I m no longer the iPhone Fan. My opinion : Com`on Apple - you have earned enough.. Your hardware should be geared towards following standards so that people need not buy special equipment and carry it around everywhere.Apple should have a friendly approach to other Companies and Products like Google Maps which most of us love. Apple should focus its energy on other innovative things instead of competing.. I do not feel they are creating a platform for the users. Their actions speak otherwise.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

But returning to Apple... I think they have capitalized on the popularity of their laptops and OSs. If the iPhone would have been released by any other company, but would look just the same and have the same characteristics, it wouldn't have enjoyed nowhere near the same success. It's all about the vibe in the name Apple. And they are still selling the phones, by taking advantage of that. The advantages over the competition are very very small (compared to the first iPhone when there was almost no competition), but the phones still create some kind of emulation when they get released even if the changes are not large. In conclusion I think the real performer during the last years is not their engineering department, but their marketing department.

This is completely true. When it really comes down to it, the only real thing Apple has that others don't, at least as far as I know, is the "retina display." Other than this, it's purely marketing.

You could also throw in the fact that all Apple devices work together, creating a system of unity, and therefore making it an all-in-one setup, but in terms of its usefulness, I find it as going a bit overboard.