iPhone 7

[sxr7171]

So AppleCare+ now charges $29 for screen replacement and I heard it does not count towards your two replacements.

If that's true it's worth getting. I go through about 2 screen breaks every generation.

 

[Fingolfin269]

LOL ... now this is what I call grasping.

Which part? The active part? We use Spi-Belts for running that barely have enough room for the phone as/is without a dongle. Or the forgetting to bring a dongle with you on a trip? I know I've forgotten to bring all kinds of things on trips before. Couldn't begin to count the number of times I've forgotten a toothbrush.

And yeah I know I'm probably just being resistant against the inevitable. But dammit I'm not ready to go to Bluetooth until someone can make some Bluetooth headphones that sound as good as my wired ones for the same price.

 

[Aikouka]

I could see a company doing headphone jack/case/charging port/extended battery. But wow it would be bulky. The length of the 3.5mm jack would require it to bulge out the back and at that point may as well add a battery.

If you added a battery to it, you could put it below the phone and in-line with the battery. I mentioned in the Mobile Devices thread that it would definitely add some size given the length of the connector is about 14mm (25.4mm per inch), so putting it below would definitely help given how big the phones are getting.

 

[sxr7171]

Which part? The active part? We use Spi-Belts for running that barely have enough room for the phone as/is without a dongle. Or the forgetting to bring a dongle with you on a trip? I know I've forgotten to bring all kinds of things on trips before. Couldn't begin to count the number of times I've forgotten a toothbrush.

And yeah I know I'm probably just being resistant against the inevitable. But dammit I'm not ready to go to Bluetooth until someone can make some Bluetooth headphones that sound as good as my wired ones for the same price.

Maybe not same price yet, but that's why I'm upset no real information has been released about the protocol used by this W1 chip. Maybe this company is really for people who prefer flash over real substance. I don't know. There was a lot of pomp and circumstance under Jobs but he could back it up to a degree. Right now I just smell cash grab all day and the stupider the customers the better. After all this is the company that bought and associated with Beats. No real specs just a huge ugly "B" on it. Just like hipsters trying to be unique by dressing and wearing their facial hair the exact same way. The more a company goes toward being a fashion brand I think real tech savvy people will want to GTFO. How dumb was the event this year? Crafted expertly for tech illiterates. Also that attempt last year at selling $15-20K watches with $100 of build cost was disgusting. I'm no fan of pricey Swiss automatics but man, at least they have some real mechanical merit even if anachronistic.

 

[sxr7171]

If you added a battery to it, you could put it below the phone and in-line with the battery. I mentioned in the Mobile Devices thread that it would definitely add some size given the length of the connector is about 14mm (25.4mm per inch), so putting it below would definitely help given how big the phones are getting.

Sure anything can be done but if compare any of these with any recent Galaxy phone you'll see they are already much taller than the competition for a given screen size. They look archaic in design. They cheaped out this year and didn't redesign it, but I would not tolerate any increase in length at all. 14mm added to this plus case thickness and added length and bulk just wouldn't work.

I actually carry the lightning cable that comes with the Audeze Sine headphones but adapted it to use other smaller portable phones. But if I didn't I'd leave these attached to whatever phones I want to use. I think that's the best solution. $9 I will admit is not a cash grab, but I wonder about how good a DAC/Amp that size for that cheap would be. Would it at least match the old internal DAC/Amp? Nobody knows. Will it provide enough output? Lots of unanswered questions. But assuming one doesn't care about any of that I'd keep a bunch of them around attached to phones, stuffed into travel bags etc.

 

[sxr7171]

Here's a good one. $40 dongle will let charge and use your headphones wired at the same time. Wow.

We'll just have to call this the dongle phone.

 

[Eug]

Apple succeeding here in terms of wireless audio would not be a big surprise.

There are already several different wireless formats that push out way more data than old school Bluetooth over short ranges, so they are rightly advertised as CD quality. Furthermore, they have been available for years. In fact, I am wearing KLEER wireless headphones right now that are vastly superior to the Bluetooth headphones out there. The main issue in the past was power usage and convenience, and of course, cross compatibility. Oh and cost. ie. The technology already exists. It's just the implementation that sucked, but not because of the quality of the sound.

What Apple seems to have done here is gotten around the cross compatibility issue by designing their own chips to be used in their own iDevices and their own (or Beats') headphones. And they can also licence the technology to other manufacturers. They can do this because they sell a bazillion iDevices a year and because they sell a bazillion headphones a year too, and they also licence to a lot of 3rd party companies already too.

What Apple had to tackle was the power usage and convenience (pairing, etc.) and cost. These don't seem like insurmountable issues when you remember they stuck a frickin' fingerprint scanner in the home button, for the masses, in every single one of their new model iPhones from 2013 on. The original prototype fingerprint scanner that Apple bought for this from something like a decade before was briefcase sized.

 

[Eug]

Happy shopping this morning guys and gals!

 

[sxr7171]

Apple succeeding here in terms of wireless audio would not be a big surprise.

There are already several different wireless formats that push out way more data than old school Bluetooth over short ranges, so they are rightly advertised as CD quality. Furthermore, they have been available for years. In fact, I am wearing KLEER wireless headphones right now that are vastly superior to the Bluetooth headphones out there. The main issue in the past was power usage and convenience, and of course, cross compatibility. Oh and cost. ie. The technology already exists. It's just the implementation that sucked, but not because of the quality of the sound.

What Apple seems to have done here is gotten around the cross compatibility issue by designing their own chips to be used in their own iDevices and their own (or Beats') headphones. And they can also licence the technology to other manufacturers. They can do this because they sell a bazillion iDevices a year and because they sell a bazillion headphones a year too, and they also licence to a lot of 3rd party companies already too.

What Apple had to tackle was the power usage and convenience (pairing, etc.) and cost. These don't seem like insurmountable issues when you remember they stuck a frickin' fingerprint scanner in the home button, for the masses, in every single one of their new model iPhones from 2013 on. The original prototype fingerprint scanner that Apple bought for this from something like a decade before was briefcase sized.

Kleer is superior but older tech at this point, especially from a power consumption point of view, while in the meantime Bluetooth has advanced quite a lot in terms of power consumption, bandwidth, cost and pairing. There are other codecs available within Bluetooth besides the usual SBC which is what Apple Bluetooth audio uses. There was no reason not to just throw Apt X on there other than not wanting to license it from CSR. The cheap and lazy headphone makers were too busy making $800, then $1200, then $1500, then $2000 and now $4000 headphones laughing all the way to the bank to care about adopting that. This time whatever Apple brings will stick whatever it is. I just hope it really is what I expect and I'm bothered that no specs have been issued beyond "well it has a sensor to see if it's in your ear and it will be offered as a playback device to other devices signed into your iCloud. That's all well and good but I want to hear about the meat. The actual protocol.

But the whole time with Bluetooth audio was an option to just pass audio in whatever format the source is in, and in iTunes that's of course 256kbps AAC, this could have been in the newer low energy modes. But none of the headphone manufacturers wanted to embrace that. So I'm hoping Apple have finally implemented this. I just wish they would say they did or not. This of course could have been implemented in software without new hardware but I suppose since the headphone makers have been so daft as to not ever do it Apple had to offer a hardware solution and hold their hands and get them to do it for a fee. These are the same clowns that are tripping over themselves trying to make some headphone at the $4k price point since apparently that's the new thing for them to do. This chip better not be just about pairing or whatever and I hope it does not preclude makers from including their own tech like DSP, ear canal calibration and noise cancellation.

I can say I had a Thinkpad from about a decade ago with a fingerprint reader, it was very tiny. Some HP windows mobile PDAs had one too more than a decade ago. the huge improvement Apple implemented was that you don't have to swipe and it's really fast and with dry fingers works the first time. Those readers sometimes needed a few swipes to get in.

For quite some time you could sign into an Apple TV by just placing your phone near it, and it would pair via Bluetooth and sign you into iCloud. I guess the chip is a turnkey solution for those headphone makers too lazy to do anything but sell diaphragm coil things for higher and higher amounts of money with more and more bling. I think the only real innovation here if true is that they have a solution to pass and decode native 256kbps AAC. The sensor and iCloud playback stuff is fluff IMHO. some real ear canal calibration, noise cancellation, DSP HRTF, DSP EQ type stuff would have been something to talk about.

 

[Sushisamurai]

If I had to guess, some third-party is going to create a case for the 7/7+ that extends the phone by a little and adds a 3.5mm jack by including its own DAC and a lightning pass-through.

They already do have cases, but they're super bulky and usually in the price range of $400-600 (because of the shielding, otherwise phone calls and texts would interrupt your music with that beeping modem noise). I think if I was going to spend that much of a DAC/AMP for my iPhone specifically I'd rather just buy a new pair of headphones to work with my phone and keep my nice cans for home

Edit: the more I think about it, I think Mophie would have a great opportunity to do a DAC (or pass through)/battery case

 

[Kenneth Baker]

Thank you bro.

 

[Eug]

 

[Kazukian]

Nice, Eug, I did the trade in with TMobile, got a 32GB 7+ and a 32 GB 7, both matte black took forever, but done. $99 out of pocket, but have to keep accounts active for 2 years. I have 6 lines, so will upgrade next year too, hand phones down to kids.

 

[Aikouka]

I ended up going with the iPhone 7 Plus 256GB (matte) black. I wasn't really planning on it originally, but since Apple removed storage tiers (effective reducing the price point at specific storage tiers), it's cheaper for me to buy the same type. I ended up going with the larger amount, because I looked, and I'm using nearly 80GB of my phone's storage (it's mostly music as I prefer it kept local). Although, I think Verizon is doing a bit of tomfoolery with their website. They stated that my existing plan would cost this exorbitant amount over their new plan, but the displayed pricing didn't include the line discount ($25) and the 15% discount that I get. Unless Verizon is trying to take away any of those discounts, I should only end up paying about $2 more a month for the larger storage model.

EDIT: My delivery date is 9/23. I also decided to trade in my old phone. I normally sell them, but I checked eBay, and I was seeing the Verizon iPhone 6S Plus 128GB Space Black go for about $600-630. Given that I would've had to pay about $530 to pay off the phone, and that eBay takes a 10% cut and PayPal takes a 2% cut, it isn't worth the hassle to sell it myself. If I did, I'd maybe only make $30-40.

 

[WelshBloke]

Not getting the pink one?

 

[Kazukian]

Not getting the pink one?

Heh, I've had a couple pink ones, always in a case, so it really wasn't a big deal.

The black phones will be popular, the new colors always are, only way to show off you have the newest model without actually telling people.

 

[WelshBloke]

Heh, I've had a couple pink ones, always in a case, so it really wasn't a big deal.

I thought that Eug had a thing for the pink versions.

 

[Elganja]

ordered mine as well... i got the jet black 128gb plus model, at&t said 4-6 weeks (ordered at 3:02am EST)

i'm coming from a regular iphone 6, but i plan on keeping it since it will be my unlocked international phone when i travel

luckily, at&t offers really good deals for new customers who have directv and port over to them... 650 credit over 24 months (starts after 2-3months) ... similar to the trade in promotions everyone else is doing, but no trade in

 

[Elganja]

on the charge and listen point... i do hope a 3rd party introduces an adapter that will do both. little upset apple themselves didn't offer something (the dock doesn't count imho)

i personally only have one situation where this affects me... most of my cars have bluetooth audio, except one... so i ordered a 3.5mm to bluetooth adpater. should solve my qualms, albeit a little clunky

 

[purbeast0]

I've been looking on Verizon this morning and pretty much all iPhone 7 models except Jet Black still say they will be delivered 9/16.

 

[purbeast0]

And I just realized that I do a lot of development on my current iPhone 6 while listening to music with my wired headphones, because my wireless headphones are rarely taken out of my gym bag. I won't be able to develop and listen to music with wired headphones anymore though. Hmmm....

 

[Eug]

Not getting the pink one?

I like the pink colour but didn't want the non-matching antenna band (white).

Got the pink last year for the wife. Currently using a gold 5S. Gold also has the non matching antenna band which has kinda bugged me.

P.S. Got emails from friends at 3:30 EST this morning informing me they got their orders in. It seems jet black and black are popular for the guys. And it's sad we are emailing each other at that crazy hour.

P.P.S. The silver will also match my laptops better. I had considered getting a gold MacBook but now am looking towards a MBP, and I was also deathly afraid of the gold wearing off the shell of the MB, since I don't use my laptops with cases.

 

[WelshBloke]

I like the pink colour but didn't want the non-matching antenna band (white).

Got the pink last year for the wife. Currently using a gold 5S. Gold also has the non matching antenna band which has kinda bugged me.

P.S. Got emails from friends at 3:30 EST this morning informing me they got their orders in. It seems jet black and black are popular for the guys. And it's sad we are emailing each other at that crazy hour.

P.P.S. The silver will also match my laptops better. I had considered getting a gold MacBook but now am looking towards a MBP, and I was also deathly afraid of the gold wearing off the shell of the MB, since I don't use my laptops with cases.

I guess that silver will be the most hard wearing of them all. You can't really go wrong with silver or black.

Enjoy.

 

[sxr7171]

These clowns have separated GSM and CDMA versions. In years past the way to get an unlocked non contract phone was to buy the T-Mobile version. This year that will not be possible.

Also I can't just order an unlocked full price Verizon model because they are stupid beyond belief. They require carrier log in data which obviously will not pull up for prepaid.

Why do they constantly run this crap through the carrier? I'm not using their damn credit. What should be a simple here's my $850 send me my phone is a joke of a run around.

I think either I'm just not getting it because iOS 10 on the 6s is pretty good, or I think it's finally to move on. To a galaxy edge 7 or something.

 

[Eug]

These clowns have separated GSM and CDMA versions. In years past the way to get an unlocked non contract phone was to buy the T-Mobile version. This year that will not be possible.

Also I can't just order an unlocked full price Verizon model because they are stupid beyond belief. They require carrier log in data which obviously will not pull up for prepaid.

Why do they constantly run this crap through the carrier? I'm not using their damn credit. What should be a simple here's my $850 send me my phone is a joke of a run around.

I think either I'm just not getting it because iOS 10 on the 6s is pretty good, or I think it's finally to move on. To a galaxy edge 7 or something.

You can't get an off contract phone from Apple in the US at all? Still?

The 7 Plus I ordered in Canada is factory unlocked non-contact, from Apple. I assume my iPhone will be GSM only, and no CDMA, but correct me if I'm wrong. CDMA here is legacy only, so it's effectively irrelevant. The previous CDMA-based carriers switched away from that.