The 9/9/2014 Apple Launch Event Thread

[Eug]

The late Joan Rivers thinks the iPhone 6 is awesome.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

UPS tried delivering today. No one was home to sign

 

[bearxor]

I think my only dislike is the sleep button. I keep pushing it when I go to adjust the volume. Which I have done several times now, and is quite annoying.

I have that issue with any Samsung phone I use for any length of time as well. It takes a bit of time to adjust to it.

Would still prefer to have the power button on too. I never use it to turn an iphone on anyways.

 

[bearxor]

UPS tried delivering today. No one was home to sign

Can't you pre-sign on UPS.com?

 

[s44]

The late Joan Rivers thinks the iPhone 6 is awesome.

Yikes, was that a timed post?

 

[Mopetar]

It's even weirder to see a dead person's social media accounts are still active. It seems like a bad idea to keep them active as conceivably anyone could gain access to them and do some rather inappropriate things.

 

[blairharrington]

Just got back from the Apple store.

Got to demo the silver 6/6 Plus and grey 6.

I prefer the look of the silver backplate versus the grey. The grey is boring and dull IMO. I wish Apple didn't have issues anodizing it to slate black because that was so much nicer IMO. I actually like the silver and wish it came with a black bezel. I would never use a phone with a white bezel. Didn't see the gold in person but from pictures I think it's the ugliest with those ghastly white antenna lines.

The phone is so much nicer in your hand compared to the 4/4S/5/5S. Those rounded edges feel awesome. I always hated the sharp corners of previous iPhone's.

Another plus is that the backplate is not super slippery unlike the 5/5S. I would use this phone caseless.

Compared to my Moto X which is technically only 1 gram more in weight, the 6 feels lighter. It's because the phone is taller, a touch wider, and thinner than my X.

I cannot reach the upper left of the screen without struggling mightily. I could not pull down from the top of the screen comfortably. The damn bottom bezel is pretty large and really hinders one hand usage (for me). There are two solutions. Swipe from left to right to go back when you can. Double tap (not push) the home button to bring down the screen halfway. Both of these things work very well. However I find my Moto X to be so much easier to use in that I can easily reach all 4 corners without straining whatsoever. Again, that lower bezel is thick and it takes away from the ergonomics of the device. I would not consider the 6 simply for that reason alone. I have average sized male hands by the way.

Speaker seemed to be on par with my Moto X, which is very good.

Screen was great. It not being 1080P is irrelevant.

Camera bump is a non-issue unless you want to type on a flat surface sans case. Then it will rock.

It's a very sleek device. I probably used it for 20 minutes straight. Apple has another hit on their hands. But I would never use it personally. Like I've already said that lower bezel hinders things for me personally. I'm either going to stick with the X or get the Alpha or Nexus 6. I also have grown very fond of Android.

The 6 Plus is enormous and heavy. It's awesome if you want something huge.

 

[drbrock]

Going by the Apple Store tomorrow to check out the iPhone 6 plus. My friend showed me how to jailbreak my iPad today and how that system works. Looks like you can do everything you can on iPhone that Android does. That has me very interested in the phone.

Does the Sprint variant come with a Sim Card slot? Would be nice to have a world phone. Hate traveling with a crappy blackberry.

Also not even going to open the phone when I get it. Just going to mail it to liquipel and get the impact skin and waterproofing done to it. I am too rough on my phones to not have it. Anyone have experience with their service?

 

[desura]

I wonder if it's possible to have an NFC wristband without any of the expensive watch components. I really like apple pay, but having to shell out like $800 for an iphone or $350 for an apple watch is quite expensive to use it. If they had an NFC wristband without a screen for like $50 that would be awesome.

 

[Demo24]

Used it for a lot of today, this was the battery result. I plugged it back in just after the photo, pretty decent id say. This was a mix of lte and wifi, mostly various forms of web surfing but no real videos and just a bit of gaming. Screen is at roughly 50% brightness, but auto (which I haven't seen it adjust much), and a decent amount of downloading. Used about 1.7gb since I got it yesterday, yay unlimited! So glad I didn't let the vzw guys talk me into upgrading.

 

[bearxor]

The damn bottom bezel is pretty large and really hinders one hand usage (for me).
...
Like I've already said that lower bezel hinders things for me personally.

Not trying to troll at all so this is a serious question.

What, in your opinion, is the difference between the bottom bezel of the iPhone that contains the home button and the bottom bezel and on-screen buttons of the motoX?

In my opinion, these areas serve similar purposes, take up an equal amount of room and count as "non-interactive" areas of the phone. Meaning that they're there regardless of what you're doing on the phone. The exception being watching video or playing a game in landscape mode but then we're talking about a completely different usage case as far as holding the device that wouldn't pertain to this discussion.

 

[bearxor]

I wonder if it's possible to have an NFC wristband without any of the expensive watch components. I really like apple pay, but having to shell out like $800 for an iphone or $350 for an apple watch is quite expensive to use it. If they had an NFC wristband without a screen for like $50 that would be awesome.

Well I think the problem you run in to is with authentication from the wristband.

The Apple Watch works by using the sensors on the bottom of the watch to tell if the watch has been removed. If it has, it prompts the user to authenticate again that they're authorized to make the payments. And it still has to have a way to communicate with the phone eventually.

So you're still looking at some kind of decent low-powered SoC with BT, NFC and skin sensors. You still need an LCD to prompt for authentication. You could probably do it for $150 or so. And then you've essentially got everything you need to make it a smartwatch anyways. So you might as well give it smartwatch features.

I mean, that's probably pretty close to the price Apple is targeting to actually make the watch for. I think the catch is the authentication. If there were another acceptable way to authenticate a user after the watch has been removed and reworn that can somehow omit the LCD you'd be able to shave off quite a bit of cost and bulk.

Maybe something like Coin where if the BT4LE connection is broken for X amount of minutes it doesn't work or something.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Picked mine up from UPS this morning. There was a like of about 50 people trying to do the same thing.

It's pretty much what I expected, a bigger iPhone. I'm happy with it.

Anyone else noticing different keyboards can be buggy in different apps? Like sometimes not popping up, etc?

 

[bearxor]

Picked mine up from UPS this morning. There was a like of about 50 people trying to do the same thing.

It's pretty much what I expected, a bigger iPhone. I'm happy with it.

Anyone else noticing different keyboards can be buggy in different apps? Like sometimes not popping up, etc?

Yes. Typically starting another app that brings up the keyboard will fix it. I've only had the issue with Swiftkey so far. I'm sure they'll fix it in short order.

 

[Crono]

I wonder if it's possible to have an NFC wristband without any of the expensive watch components. I really like apple pay, but having to shell out like $800 for an iphone or $350 for an apple watch is quite expensive to use it. If they had an NFC wristband without a screen for like $50 that would be awesome.

NFC tags are cheap. I bought more than a few off Amazon for $10. They also have NFC wristbands, if I recall correctly.

 

[blairharrington]

Not trying to troll at all so this is a serious question.

What, in your opinion, is the difference between the bottom bezel of the iPhone that contains the home button and the bottom bezel and on-screen buttons of the motoX?

In my opinion, these areas serve similar purposes, take up an equal amount of room and count as "non-interactive" areas of the phone. Meaning that they're there regardless of what you're doing on the phone. The exception being watching video or playing a game in landscape mode but then we're talking about a completely different usage case as far as holding the device that wouldn't pertain to this discussion.

The answer is in your picture. The Moto X has both a smaller lower bezel and the screen begins before the iPhone 6 screen. What this means is that it's much easier to reach the top center and top corners of the X versus the 6 because the top of the screen is literally closer.

 

[Nebor]

It's even weirder to see a dead person's social media accounts are still active. It seems like a bad idea to keep them active as conceivably anyone could gain access to them and do some rather inappropriate things.

That's true. I've been running Steve Irwin's twitter for years now.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

The answer is in your picture. The Moto X has both a smaller lower bezel and the screen begins before the iPhone 6 screen. What this means is that it's much easier to reach the top center and top corners of the X versus the 6 because the top of the screen is literally closer.

yeah but if you look at it starting above the home/back buttons, its nearly the same.

 

[blairharrington]

yeah but if you look at it starting above the home/back buttons, its nearly the same.

The navigation buttons are part of the screen. Meaning the screen begins on the Moto X before the iPhone 6. Combine that with the thinner bottom bezel on the X and your thumb has less it needs to travel to reach the top of its screen compared to the 6.

 

[bearxor]

The answer is in your picture. The Moto X has both a smaller lower bezel and the screen begins before the iPhone 6 screen. What this means is that it's much easier to reach the top center and top corners of the X versus the 6 because the top of the screen is literally closer.

I understand what you're saying here and what you were getting at in your original post. I think my question might, more directly, be do you not consider the on-screen buttons of the motoX (or any android phone that uses on-screen buttons) as "bezel area"?

For instance, does it matter, practically speaking, that an Android phone now uses dedicated screen real estate for something that used to occupy bezel real estate? Is there a practical difference between an iPhone bottom bezel with a home button and the Android on-screen buttons that perform the same function and are just always there?

I can understand you not reaching the top of the iPhone screen though. But it is taller than the motoX and not just because of the bezel. But it's not significantly taller. Judging from my unofficial "just kind of looking at it method" it looks to be a third of an icon and the status bar taller. That's not significant but the extra quarter of an inch could definitely make or break a reach.

But that's not really what I'm wondering about. I'm just wondering about the bottom bezel that so many Android users find "unwieldy" or "ugly". I would think the only ones whom could complain about that would be Samsung users. Since Samsung has gone with a tiny physical home button in addition to two capacitive buttons.

And not to single out just you, anyone that thinks the bottom bezel of the iPhone is too large compared to Android phones that use on screen buttons should feel free to respond. I just don't see a practical difference and was looking for some opinions on it.

 

[bearxor]

The navigation buttons are part of the screen. Meaning the screen begins on the Moto X before the iPhone 6. Combine that with the thinner bottom bezel on the X and your thumb has less it needs to travel to reach the top of its screen compared to the 6.

That's not incorrect. But, at this point, aren't you basically saying that a smaller screen is easier to reach to the top of?

 

[blairharrington]

I understand what you're saying here and what you were getting at in your original post. I think my question might, more directly, be do you not consider the on-screen buttons of the motoX (or any android phone that uses on-screen buttons) as "bezel area"?

For instance, does it matter, practically speaking, that an Android phone now uses dedicated screen real estate for something that used to occupy bezel real estate? Is there a practical difference between an iPhone bottom bezel with a home button and the Android on-screen buttons that perform the same function and are just always there?

I can understand you not reaching the top of the iPhone screen though. But it is taller than the motoX and not just because of the bezel. But it's not significantly taller. Judging from my unofficial "just kind of looking at it method" it looks to be a third of an icon and the status bar taller. That's not significant but the extra quarter of an inch could definitely make or break a reach.

But that's not really what I'm wondering about. I'm just wondering about the bottom bezel that so many Android users find "unwieldy" or "ugly". I would think the only ones whom could complain about that would be Samsung users. Since Samsung has gone with a tiny physical home button in addition to two capacitive buttons.

And not to single out just you, anyone that thinks the bottom bezel of the iPhone is too large compared to Android phones that use on screen buttons should feel free to respond. I just don't see a practical difference and was looking for some opinions on it.

I don't consider the navigation buttons a bezel area. They are part of the screen. Literally. As I've stated, reaching the top of the X is much easier than the 6.

 

[bearxor]

I don't consider the navigation buttons a bezel area. They are part of the screen. Literally. As I've stated, reaching the top of the X is much easier than the 6.

Ok. I think we're probably just going to disagree on this point.

 

[blairharrington]

That's not incorrect. But, at this point, aren't you basically saying that a smaller screen is easier to reach to the top of?

No I'm not. Both phones feature 4.7" screens. The X has less bottom bezel and the screen begins first. Combine these factors and you have less area that your thumb needs to reach. I can't believe we are still talking about this.

 

[bearxor]

I can't believe we are still talking about this.

Don't worry, you've made it quite clear you're not interested in a discussion about technical specifications vs their practical implementations.