News - Apple launches iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

[kalniel]

No Sapphire = no sale.

Wouldn't sapphire glass be too brittle for a phone? I'd rather have some flexibility/shatter resistance.

[aidanjt]

Wouldn't sapphire glass be too brittle for a phone? I'd rather have some flexibility/shatter resistance.

More brittle against impacts, yes, but harder against scratches and such.

Also:

[crossy]

Kind of amazed that my post seemed to be the most "pro" one so far.

Although, having seen some more pics etc on the AppleWatch/iWatch I still think that Pebble etc have better units available. No doubt the Apple halo factor will mean that the (inferior?) iWatch will sell loads.

By the way, speaking of watches, I seem to remember that my original (still got it) Sony smartwatch worked with both iOS and Android, and the Pebble ones definitely do. To my way of thinking this is a smarter buy than iWatch or Android Wear where you're limited in what you can connect it to. And I presume that Samsung's Gear watches still only work properly with their smartphones:


@aindanjt: re that pic - ouch.

[Smudger]

Early prototypes of the Apple Watch were tested by famous actors...

[Smudger]

Joking aside, is this the first iPhone launch that has only elicited a 2-page discussion?

Is this a sign that people are now a bit 'meh' about these?

[b0redom]

Well no one can get their hands on one for another week or so, so it will descend into 'but I can get a pointless higher res screen on android, and look at the hardware specs.....' or 'but it's the shiny Apple gadget... I will defend it to the last'....

All rather tiresome.

I will probably get one in a few weeks unless there are major problems on launch as almost all of my kit is OSX/iOS (I have an iPhone 4s which is about 2.5 years old), and I'm too heavily invested in the ecosystem to move to Android.

I'm sure Android has moved on from the last time I used it though.

I'm not really sold on the idea of an iWatch. Sure it would be great to have GPS maps on your wrist, and maybe even access to your playlist, but that's not really worth £300 or so. I'm also pretty sure that the fitness thing won't have enough battery to make it worthwhile for training (for me at least).

[peterb]

Joking aside, is this the first iPhone launch that has only elicited a 2-page discussion?

Is this a sign that people are now a bit 'meh' about these?

I'm not sure these launches are that exciting anymore -smartphones are a bit old hat, and smart watches are a bit 'meh' anyway.

as I said earlier, the good thing is that the 5s has dropped in price, and I don't really see any features on the 6 that would give any advantage over the 5s. So it is a straightforward privce decision.

I have looked at Android, but wading through the different specs is a faff - is it jelly bean, tooti fruity, original crunchy, peanut butter, liquorice allsorts or whatever 'ho-ho' brand name this week - plus there are different mfrs ad ons and modifications.

And the one thing the iphone supports that Android doesn't is imessaging.

I do have an Android device (loaded onto an HP touchpad when support for WebOS died. Its OK - and does more or less what I need - apart from imessaging! but it isn't good enough to make it a no-brainer over an iphone. However as my old phone (blackberry) is over 5 years old, it is almost time to think about replacing yet... maybe I'll wait until next year.

[crossy]

I have looked at Android, but wading through the different specs is a faff - is it jelly bean, tooti fruity, original crunchy, peanut butter, liquorice allsorts or whatever 'ho-ho' brand name this week - plus there are different mfrs ad ons and modifications.

So buy a Nexus - which is "pure" Android - and then choose your own modifications (and at this point the Android fans are rolling their eyes at the granny-egg-sucking advice I just gave).
And yes, having a choice of specs etc is just sooo fatiguing. So much better when a manufacturer takes your money and says "this is what we've got, now like it".

And the one thing the iphone supports that Android doesn't is imessaging.

And that's a business decision by Apple, although there seem to be iMessage apps for Android, (like this one). Best summation of the iMessage setup though is this one in Lifehacker, which says:

Even if that doesn’t bother you, functionality can be patchy and there’s no guarantee Apple won’t find a way to block them in the future. They’re absolutely not worth the risk.

Yes, I realise that this is probably a sarcastic post, but just don't get me started on smartwatches ... and more importantly the people who keep saying "oh, you've just got to have one of these". Especially as they're usually the same bozo's who were saying Glass was the "must have" earlier in the year.
Sometimes I hate technology, and hate technologists more.

[Andy3536]

Yes, I realise that this is probably a sarcastic post, but just don't get me started on smartwatches ... and more importantly the people who keep saying "oh, you've just got to have one of these". Especially as they're usually the same bozo's who were saying Glass was the "must have" earlier in the year.
Sometimes I hate technology, and hate technologists more.

You'll probably find the only people buying smart watches are those very same people that said "why do i need a watch, i've got my phone"
Some people will buy them though, shortly followed by the 'apple watch 2' in 18 months or so.

[peterb]

So buy a Nexus - which is "pure" Android - and then choose your own modifications (and at this point the Android fans are rolling their eyes at the granny-egg-sucking advice I just gave).
And yes, having a choice of specs etc is just sooo fatiguing. So much better when a manufacturer takes your money and says "this is what we've got, now like it".

But why by a device and then spend more time modifying to the way I want it? One of the 'plus' points of the early Android phones was that you could root it. But if you had to root it to get it to do what you wanted, I'd say the design was flawed from the outset - its only a 'phone!!

And that is part of the attraction of the iphone - it does what the majority of users want, straight out of the box. The only decisions to be made are memory size and colour! Which is exactly what I want from a commodity product.

[TheAnimus]

I think you are confusing a brand there peterb.

iPhone people accept as a standard, a bench mark. A friend of mine just bought a smaller sony phone, the keyboard is poor, the swype version unsuitable for the usage she has. She is already lamenting the iPhone. It could probably be addressed. It could probably be fixed by a 3rd party one, but the damage to the brand of 'Android' is done in her mind.

Much the same way, that horrifically set up windows XP machine at work, that takes about 3 min to log on via the domain, makes people dislike windows. Hell I had someone swear blind that their Macbook would boot faster than my surface pro 3. The rational? It was a mac, it *must* be faster. They didn't even know what spec I have.

To be honest, I struggle to use an Android phone as my only phone. I've never managed. Too many things are not smooth enough, as I've said before thats why I use a windows phone. Sure it only does 80% of what I need, but that 80% it does so well compared to the others for me. Simple things like the keyboard is amazing, fixing spelling errors which is an issue for me, is trivial.

However, I can really understand why people are saying "really Apple? You've been saying larger screens aren't needed or wanted, your PPI isn't even catching up". Because the features just aren't there. Would I rather browse a web page on this just announced phone? Or my Lumia 930 that's in my pocket today, and cost half as much. The 930 will win, it has a much better screen for browsing.

This is the thing, whilst the iPhone brand to you means simply out of box experiance of a certain level, to many people, they don't value that convenience, putting it aside, as a lump of hardware without software so to think, it's simply not up to snuff.

[Smudger]

Considering that Retina devices are the best thing since sliced bread and stats for them used to show how superior to other devices they are, when new devices are launched without Retina, that the response is 'why would I need a higher resolution?' is amusing.

I predict that next year's 6s will be 'with Retina' and suddenly any lower resolution will be absolutely inferior.

[crossy]

But why by a device and then spend more time modifying to the way I want it? One of the 'plus' points of the early Android phones was that you could root it. But if you had to root it to get it to do what you wanted, I'd say the design was flawed from the outset - its only a 'phone!!

I think the "buy and then mod" is also called personalisation - note that I did say "choose your own modifications", and if you're entirely happy with the out-of-box then don't modify. I've changed the background wallpaper and keyboard on mine, then rooted to allow Titanium Backup to run properly, and rooting was a no-brainer - easy enough for an iFan to do.

By the way, there's very few Android phones that aren't rootable these days - certainly all the mainstream ones have been "dealt with". And in some cases the rooting process is laughably easy - Google "towelroot" if you don't believe me (that's what I used on my G3).

And that is part of the attraction of the iphone - it does what the majority of users want, straight out of the box. The only decisions to be made are memory size and colour! Which is exactly what I want from a commodity product.

And apart from iMessage and iTunes - both Apple-specifics - I doubt you'll find anything of note that the iPhone does that any 'droid phone from the mainstreamers doesn't. And if you're merely looking for a "commodity phone" then why the heck are you paying Apple's prices? Buy a Moto G and pocket the saving!

But enough of the bashing, if the iPhone way-of-use is a better fit for you personally then it makes no sense to look elsewhere. Just don't try trotting out that "magical" or "unique" nonsense though - as that's just Apple PR BS.

You'll probably find the only people buying smart watches are those very same people that said "why do i need a watch, i've got my phone"
Some people will buy them though, shortly followed by the 'apple watch 2' in 18 months or so.

Quite true, and the sad thing is that they're not really doing anything that you can't do buy just pulling your phone out of your pocket. I also don't see the need for energy-sapping colour screen when all you're doing is presenting info, and why would I need to run an app on a resource limited device when I've got a much more powerful one sitting mere inches away.

At the moment, what I'd be looking for is something that runs for hours on a single charge, connects reliably (yes, I'm meaning you Sony) with smartphones and acts as a secondary screen/input device for that phone. Oh, and tells the time without needing to be "woken up", so I guess that means something like eInk screens.

[peterb]

And apart from iMessage and iTunes - both Apple-specifics - I doubt you'll find anything of note that the iPhone does that any 'droid phone from the mainstreamers doesn't. And if you're merely looking for a "commodity phone" then why the heck are you paying Apple's prices? Buy a Moto G and pocket the saving!

But enough of the bashing, if the iPhone way-of-use is a better fit for you personally then it makes no sense to look elsewhere. Just don't try trotting out that "magical" or "unique" nonsense though - as that's just Apple PR BS.

Which is why I have no interest in the Iphone6, except for the fact that it has resulted in a price drop of the 5s to the point where it is probably worth considering. It will probably last me for the next 5 years.

[crossy]

Which is why I have no interest in the Iphone6, except for the fact that it has resulted in a price drop of the 5s to the point where it is probably worth considering. It will probably last me for the next 5 years.

Don't let the iFans hear you say that - it's heresy not to want the latest 'n' greatest.

I know exactly where you're coming from on the money-saving aspect, and to be honest there's not a heck of a lot wrong with the 5s, or the 5, or the 4s, or 4, etc, they're all pretty decent devices. I've got no "religious" objection to Apple products - heck, just bought yet another iPod. Have a good weekend.

[peterb]

Have a good weekend.

You too!