So-
"Expect the next iPhone to be as smooth as a baby's bum"
Yet half as useful and twice as shitty?
Apple prompted complaints when it removed the 3.5mm audio port from iPhones in 2016. Expect future models to be even more radical. The Cupertino giant mulled the idea of exterminating the Lightning port entirely when it was designing the iPhone X, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. "During the development of the iPhone X, …
IPS display = superb (iPhone 6/7/8 all have it, as do iPads and many Android phones)
OLED = worst (iPhone X) = screen burn in effects (similar to Plasma TVs), planned obsolescence (display gets very ugly after one year), UI has to suffer (forced dark mode, to minimize OLED power-hungry-consumption)
I will never ever buy a device with OLED display again. IPS all day long, or even TN or e-ink.
* Lifespan: The biggest technical problem for OLEDs is the limited lifetime of the organic materials. After 1,000 hours the blue luminance degrades by 12%.
* Color balance: OLED material used to produce blue light degrades significantly more rapidly than the materials that produce other colors, blue light output will decrease relative to the other colors of light.
* Water damage: Water instantly damages the organic materials of OLED displays.
* Outdoor performance: The metallic cathode in an OLED acts as a mirror, with reflectance approaching 80%, leading to poor readability in bright ambient light such as outdoors.
* Power consumption: OLED use 3 times more power than an LCD (IPS) displaying an image with a white background. This leads to reduced battery life. And forced black-themed UI to mitigate this major disadvantage.
* Lifespan: The biggest technical problem for OLEDs is the limited lifetime of the organic materials. After 1,000 hours the blue luminance degrades by 12%.* Color balance: OLED material used to produce blue light degrades significantly more rapidly than the materials that produce other colors, blue light output will decrease relative to the other colors of light.
I can't speak for phone OLED screens, but this isn't a problem for LG OLED TVs as they don't use blue OLEDs. The OLEDs they do user are rated at some huge number that is about 10 years of being on 24x7x365.
According to Bloomberg (quoted as a 'source' for the VB story):
Shares of Energous Corp., which is developing a wireless-charging system called WattUp, fell 4.3 percent on Thursday. The company has said it’s working with tier 1 device makers, sparking speculation that Apple is a partner. However, the iPhone maker is using a mix of its own chip and wireless technology from the Qi standard.
"Out of Apple, Samsung, HP, Microsoft, and Hitachi, DTR analyst Louis Basenese argues that only Apple meets all of the criteria necessary to be the partner in question" That is just journalism by speculative deduction, not by actual known fact.
According to Bloomberg (again) Apple plans to produce the charger with Pegatron Corp., which also builds some iPhones, according to a person familiar with the arrangement.
According to rumors about Apple's wireless charger that has been delayed again, apparently it contains an A* SoC just like iPhones, Apple TVs and HomePod. There's no reason I can think of why you'd put something that powerful in a simple charging mat, so it is obviously something more.
Whether that "something more" is wireless power at a distance ala Energous, or some sort of very high speed near field communication that would obsolete the need for a physical port even for a connection as high bandwidth as 4K HDMI, who knows. It will be interesting to see what it is, and what it needs that computing power for.
With each new iPhone that emerges, i am still surprised that they haven't done away with the 'mute' switch on the left hand side, above the volume. As it is very much a single function switch, and could easily be replaced by a toggle in the control center.
If you could assign functions to it, as a hardware toggle, that would be useful, but mine just lives very much in the 'mute' position.
When it comes to things I plug into to wall sockets, phone chargers use very little juice. Whilst it's not ideal that wireless charging is less efficient than using a cable, far more electricity could be saved by looking at other appliances and behaviours.
Where wireless-only charging would really inconvenience me as a user would be when using portable power banks, and if I wanted to charge in a hurry.
A happy compromise is phones with external nubs for receiving power, akin to MagSafe. A few generations of Sony Xperia featured such a system. The Nokia 6210 and earlier models could also be charged in docks using external contacts.
"Also could it be set to work in reverse so users have to ability to warm a bagel on a metal phone cover?"
Well, that would just be in keeping with Apple tradition - I recall the Macs we had at my university kicked out so much heat that we used to joke about having slots in the front for 3.5inch disks, 5.25inch disks, and slices of break in order to make toast...
> Also could it be set to work in reverse so users have to
> ability to warm a bagel on a metal phone cover?
Yes, I’m sure you could inductively couple into a bagel or a ring doughnut if it were sufficiently conductive.
Of course non-ring-shaped food items would be more difficult. Perhaps it would create a market for ring-shaped Cornish pasties? Just avoid curly-wurlies - I reckon that “ladder” topology would act like some kind of voltage multiplier...
Going port free makes it a lot harder for those TB connected devices to break into the iPhone.
Upsidess and dowsides perhaps but this is all speculation by Bloomberg who are not known as being Apple friendly... sort of like this site really. Still it makes for a good topic to wind down the week on.
Time for one of these -->
"Including a wireless charger with new iPhones would also significantly raise the price of the phones."
What are they talking about?
The kind of person who spends as much money on a new phone as iPhone users do isn't going to stop to think "Ooh, no, that's a bit much this time", they're just going to grit their teeth and wave their gullibility under everyone's nose, saying "It cost $187 more because it's supermodern and only charges wirelessly", faking upset whilst secretly pleased they can do so - that's why they buy iPhones in the first place - whilst the rest of us wonder how badly it would hurt when we fell to the floor and faked our own death of boredom and whether it would be worth it have them shut up long enough to call the emergency services or whether the price of them wandering around shoving it under everyone's nose with "and if I hadn't had my new iPhone on me..." for f**king months afterwards wouldn't be even greater than enduring their smug self-satisfaction just a little longer.
While I'm not a big fan of Apple, I have owned four of them (iPhones) over the years. One just completely broke (it didn't mind a glass of beer or a glass of water from time to time). One got stolen. And one I gave to a friend who had never owned a smartphone before (he loves it). My current phone is an iPhone 6S.
My point is, I've never bought any of those phones 'brand new.' My first iPhone was a 3GS, which cost just $200 from a pawn shop. Mind you the pawn shop across the road was selling the exact same model for $600, second hand.
I can control which Apps have access to the Internet, and those that cannot. I have control over that on my current iPhone, and I really like that.
I have owned a couple of Android phones, but they always seem to be a bit shitty performance wise.
I do imagine the day I'll stop using Apple phones, and I'd very much like it to be soon.
I wouldn't mind the latest Samsung phone, but I've been put off by the 'battery explosion' news.
Be kind, and Peace to Syria!
You mean stupid.
The audio jack removal is pure marketing. Degrades the product.
Only "wireless" charging is stupid (can't charge in your hand and charger needs a cable & PSU and more space to carry).
No physical data port is less secure and limiting.
No physical SIM puts Apple or Operators in control. Less flexible. No anonymity.
!!!
I'm not the market for this overpriced style more important than function stuff anyway.
Quite.
I use my phone as much plugged-in as I do unplugged.
There's a reason I have chargers by my sofa. It's not that it *wouldn't* work on battery, but then I can use it unplugged at work all day if I want (or plugged in in my office), plug it in the evening when I'm using it, and it'll be ready for the next morning / later that evening.
For sure I wouldn't buy a wireless charger for... car... office... home... anywhere else I leave it... plus a new battery pack to charge it on the move when outside of civilisation, etc. Not for the sake of them omitting a 50p socket.
"No physical data port is less secure and limiting."
Removing the lightning port all together kinda renders moot the iOS12 feature to lock the lightning port after an hour.
They're not "locking the lightning port after an hour", they're locking the USB port data functionality only. It will still have Lightning functionality (i.e. audio, video, etc.) and be able to receive power via USB but won't pass USB data after it is has been an hour since it was last unlocked with the password (unlocks via face/finger don't count)
This prevents companies like Cellbrite from using various undisclosed USB / iOS hacks to bypass its security, but doesn't impair usage by the phone's legitimate owner. The only inconvenience the owner would experience is when he has it plugged into a computer for iTunes or transferring photos or whatever he'll have to enter his password on the phone once an hour.
Only "wireless" charging is stupid (can't charge in your hand and charger needs a cable & PSU and more space to carry).
Simple - I expect Apple will before long go the same route as "disposable contact lenses" - you sign up for a year's supply of phones which will be mailed to you at intervals/pickup from Apple Store. They work until the in-built battery or super capacitor runs down to a preset level and is then permanently bricked. Everything stored in the cloud so no data loss due to bricked device.
As you have no headphone socket, it makes little sense to have audio processing inside, same goes for speakers and microphones.
Then it's obviously a problem if the user stores data on the device as that can more or less easily be copied during police searches. Persistent memory is also the main reason why jailbreaking works, so ditch any kind of persistent memory.
Then obviously Apple has to share its profits with mobile carriers. Those want to have some share of the money. Removing the wireless interfaces would get around that. No LTE, no need for a SIM.
CPUs are no longer of any relevance in the mobile world. Nobody buys product X because it's CPU is faster than Y. Since you have no interfaces and no storage, there's nothing for your CPU to do anyhow, so get rid of it.
OLED screens are _really_ expensive. However a simple sheet of glass can look just as nice, particularly if you print something preety on its back. This also removes one huge burden for your power budget and might get you to the next point.
Batteries are expensive and require some way to charge and/or replace them. Also they can catch fire. If you also remove the cameras you might be able to reduce your power so much that you can get away without any battery.
So yes, you can easily produce such a device, and I'm sure Apple could even sell it. It could even be made incredibly thin so reviewers would love it.
Lack of headphone jack was enough to stop any upgrade plans. These “Innovations” make the phone less functional.
Thank goodness the old 6S is still running well, because the whole Apple vs Android thing is turning into the last presidential election...there are no good choices.
Out on the West Coast we still have a fairly vocal crew that is convinced that all radio waves (except inexplicably AM, FM, and TV) cause cancer and/ or brain damage.
Yet I'll wager they'll all be iPhone users....
Energous claiming to be able to provide power to multiple devices from three feet away, up to a 30-foot "envelope".
God I love marketing speak. A pint to anyone who can make sense of that.
Three feet away, up to a 30-foot "envelope"
Trying to think like someone who doesn't understand maths or physics...
If you take 3ft as the radius, then the area of a circle drawn around the charging point is about 28.3ft2. Would that work?
Of course what you should be talking about is a sphere or hemisphere and... goodness, the absolutely crippling inefficiencies of air-coupled inductive power transfer.
M.
Not so much worried about the deadly aspect, but the EMC (Electromagnetic Compatibility) issues. What is this going to do to radio receivers, or other devices not designed for the brave new world of wireless power, which might have bits of circuitry unwittingly acting as antennas for these frequencies, and what frequencies and field strengths do these systems operate at?
Incidentally, there is already some mains power getting into the ether. Anyone who possesses an oscilloscope knows a quick test if it's working is to touch the tip of the probe and see the 50 or 60 Hz mains sine wave your body is picking up from the unshielded mains cables.
This is pure Steve Jobs "less is more, and screw functionality". The end goal is a featureless monolithic slab - white with patented round corners, of course. You will interact with it through voice and expressive dance. It will stream all sound and imagery to your iSpy wearable, which will project directly into your eyes and play sound through bone conduction. Unfortunately, everyone else will blindly copy them.
Steve Jobs is in Hell in a room with one door. It has a single button beside it labeled CLOSE.
No matter what Apple remove, the faithful will always make a case as to why it is the best thing to happen and Apple is right in doing it. The strange thing is these people don't realize is the main thing Apple is removing is their hard earned cash. Leaving them with less. One day they'll wake up and smell the coffee.
... how are we going to use iTunes when the device is (unavoidably, a few OTA updates later) bricked?
Or when jailbreaking?
I can't think of the horror of possible vulnerabilities that's called transferring a IPSW file over Wi-Fi and putting device into DFU Mode, again, over Wi-Fi.
Fuck you again, Apple.
It's a non-starter.
Yabbut their website... http://energous.com/ has pictures of smiley happy people looking smiley and happy plus they have videos.
Shit... I have to take a break to go fiddle with my anti-grav fusion powered alien space saucer, a couple of adjustments and it will be good to go, but if there are any Angel Investors out there I have modified my toilet to transmute my piss into platinum.... I just need something more sensitive to verify that the piss in the bowl has some platinum in it and then we are good to go.
'Inductive charging borrows Nikola Tesla's idea of wireless power transmission' - no, it uses Michael Faraday's discovery of electrical induction. Telsa thought his 'wireless power transmission' was something more than simple induction, but it wasn't - his idea was based on a misunderstanding of electromagnetism.
Design over function is all Apple
Don't mistake style for design.
Apple have never been about design, only about style: in Design form follows function and, as you have pointed out yourself, Apple don't care about functionality, only about appearance.
Rabid fanboi downvotes in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...
Apple can't even make their wireless charging mat work, it's still not on sale nearly a year after being announced, Apple are not taking the lead in this area. There will be no across the room / in your pocket wireless charging because all methods for transmitting significant amounts of energy beyond a few mm are hopelessly inefficient unless they're focussed and then they're inherently dangerous. How many times will this nonsense story be ressurected?
I had hoped this idiotic decision to eliminate the stereo jack would be fixed, not compounded. I've had an ipod mini, an iphone 4S, an ipod classic and an iphone 6+. Seems like the 6+ will be the last apple phone I'll buy which sucks from a user stand point. It's been very handy over the years to have all my music and playlists for the last decade and a half be transferable easily between the devices. Get a new phone, slap in the card, plug into the computer and restore from backup, bam. Its like my old phone just got bigger, no changing all the settings and manually inputting my contacts one at a time like I've had to switching between phones in the past.
I don't care about the 'style' of the phone, haven't every latest feature and half baked idea crammed in especially when it reduces the function of the device. All my vehicles have stereo jacks to connect the phone to, the Bluetooth is for the phone only not the radio. Plus with the delay introduced by Bluetooth, I wouldn't want to use it as my primary source anyways.
Getting a "real" smart phone that still only does things half as good as my desktop or laptop with far better screens and inputs isn't a fun thought. Learning all location of where all the damn settings are, adding the contacts manually, replacing all the scattered charging cords, making new playlists(cause be damned if the iTunes playlists will easily translate into a different phones player without issue at least in the past). And for what? So the phone can make calls, send texts, listen to music, check the web and watch youtube and then sit around.
If apple wont give me a better produce than a 6+ for what they charge, I guess I'll just sit on my old phone until it doesn't work any more. Maybe by then they'll introduce the Iphone Classic, which will have the ability to actually work like the old ones do.
Keep that 6+ and run it into the ground.
I hung onto my 3Gs for years after I should have long since dumped it on the basis that nobody would think of even maintaining malware tailored to it let alone write anything new, because anybody still using a 3Gs after all that time was clearly too cheap to have an identity worth stealing in the first place.
Energous sounds a lot like Theranos.
Gimmicky magic tech creating happily diverse people on marketing materials, spat out at the top of a Silicon WallyValley bubble and which might work or, in this case, be practical, if the physicial universe were just a little bit different.
Je_suis_Deplorable.jpg
I can't see Apple removing the lightning port anytime soon. A couple of good reasons off the top of my head are MFi & CarPlay.
Apple make a shit tonne of money through MFi certification for Lightning products. Why kill that golden goose for Qi which they'd make practically nothing off. I think they've only just started supporting Qi because customers really pushed for it's inclusion and it's omission was a negative on side by side comparison in device reviews with Android devices that do have it.
Most CarPlay device out there require a lightning connection. iOS has supported wireless CarPlay since version 9 but there's still only a handful of cars with it factory fitted (only Mercedes & BMW last time I checked) and number of after market units.