The Official iPhone 5 Thread (Liveblog links inside!)

[Fingolfin269]

IPhone 5 is basically a galaxy s2+ its not even on par with an s3 and the next new androids cells with the snapdragon s4pros will make the iPhone 5 look like a 3gs in gaming and raw performance. This is inflammatory with no basis in fact, intended to basically troll. Please back up with facts.

Apple will sell millions of it but I'm not even remotely close to being wowed in the specs.

No NFC - Maybe 100 people in the US truly care
No removable storage - Nice to have, not a big deal
No live interactive widgets - Nice to have, not a big deal
No removable batt - Maybe 1000 people in the US truly care
1gb of ram - This is a spec that's part of a whole and overall performance is what matters so let's see what the benchmarks say.

Really its a faster looking version of iOS 5 with a slightly pulled screen.You're half right here. It is actually faster, not just faster looking.

Added my opinions. I also freely admit that my responses are my opinions but probably reflect the average consumer since I tend to bounce around from OS to OS.

 

[Eug]

Yeah, NFC is pretty much irrelevant at this point. It's irrelevant here in Toronto as far as I can tell, and judging by the posts from US posters in response to the question I asked about, it's irrelevant in the US as well.

However, removable storage support (using third party apps) is one reason I chose a Nexus 7 over an iPad mini.

However, since it's an iPhone, nobody here was expecting removable storage, and the truth is most people don't seem to care. I admit I find it a little surprising to me just how many people are more than willing to spend the $$$$ to get that 64 GB iPhone.

 

[darkewaffle]

If I was getting an iPhone I'd probably splurge on the 64GB just because I'd love being able to combine my phone and mp3 player into one device (even though that still wouldn't be enough space, it'd still get me pretty far).

I look forward to phones with storage on the order of a few hundred GB eventually.

 

[WelshBloke]

Yeah, NFC is pretty much irrelevant at this point. It's irrelevant here in Toronto as far as I can tell, and judging by the posts from US posters in response to the question I asked about, it's irrelevant in the US as well...

Why is the location relevant?

I'm thinking of getting a bunch of tags. I was thinking of one for my car to switch the phone to car mode, turn off the wifi and start up copilot automagically when I put the phone on the dashboard. Another one on my desk to start up a wifi sync to my PC for backups and music. I'm sure there are other uses as well.

 

[WelshBloke]

If I was getting an iPhone I'd probably splurge on the 64GB just because I'd love being able to combine my phone and mp3 player into one device (even though that still wouldn't be enough space, it'd still get me pretty far).

I look forward to phones with storage on the order of a few hundred GB eventually.

Shouldnt be too long till the 128gb microSD cards come out.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Why is the location relevant?

I'm thinking of getting a bunch of tags. I was thinking of one for my car to switch the phone to car mode, turn off the wifi and start up copilot automagically when I put the phone on the dashboard. Another one on my desk to start up a wifi sync to my PC for backups and music. I'm sure there are other uses as well.

It's a chicken/egg argument. Most people don't care about NFC so why should Apple? On the other hand, if Apple pushed it then maybe the masses would start caring?

 

[Eug]

Why is the location relevant?

Because a lot of the push for NFC is commercial and retail, except that push is extremely little. They seem largely uninterested right now.

Personally, I no interest in it whatsoever.

 

[WelshBloke]

It's a chicken/egg argument. Most people don't care about NFC so why should Apple? On the other hand, if Apple pushed it then maybe the masses would start caring?

Why would Apple pushing it? I'm not talking about using NFC for payments, I'm talking about using NFC tags for automating functions on the phone.

Adoption really doesn't matter in this case.

 

[WelshBloke]

Because a lot of the push for NFC is commercial and retail, except that push is extremely little. They seem largely uninterested right now.

Personally, I no interest in it whatsoever.

You arent interested in the location aware automation stuff you can do?

It sounds pretty cool to me.

 

[VashHT]

Well mine shipped today, I didn't get an e-mail or anything but they changed my status on their site. I'm hoping they manage to jailbreak it without much trouble, I'm fine using it stock but jailbreaking provides some nice things that you can't get stock.

 

[ponyo]

NFC is cool technology. I can definitely see it being useful in the future. I have yet to use Google Wallet. I'm down to $6 in free credit. Lost $4 due to inactivity fee which is BS. I did try out Android Beam to transfer couple pictures from my Galaxy Nexus to the Nexus 7 using NFC by touching the two devices together. Gotta admit it was cool as a geek to see the Star Trek warp sound and animation during the transfer.

 

[Aikouka]

Much like with the YouTube app, you don't think that Google will release their own Maps app? The biggest hindrance there is that you can't make non-Apple apps the defaults, which is a real pity. Make it annoyingly tedious to make things the default, bury the setting under 13 different swipes and taps. But it would be nice to have the option somewhere, and I don't even want to switch any of my apps (I really don't use my iPhone for much, but there is nothing good in the space between smartphone and dumbphone).

I really don't suspect that Apple would ever allow any app to become a default execution app; however what I would like to see is that an app developer could submit their app to Apple for the ability to add it as a certified default app. Only certified default apps would show up in your settings under predefined categories (default browser, default mail client, etc.). Now, I know Android people are going to say that it's too restrictive, but I think that's why it works so well. It still gives us the power to choose the app that we want (as long as the developer submits it properly), but it still gives Apple the power that it wants over the app ecosystem.

 

[WelshBloke]

I really don't suspect that Apple would ever allow any app to become a default execution app; however what I would like to see is that an app developer could submit their app to Apple for the ability to add it as a certified default app. Only certified default apps would show up in your settings under predefined categories (default browser, default mail client, etc.). Now, I know Android people are going to say that it's too restrictive, but I think that's why it works so well. It still gives us the power to choose the app that we want (as long as the developer submits it properly), but it still gives Apple the power that it wants over the app ecosystem.

Why would you as the user want that though as opposed to setting what you want as the default?

 

[Eug]

You arent interested in the location aware automation stuff you can do?

No, not at all. So far I don't see any tangible real world benefit vs. even just barcodes.

And for retail payment systems, the standard is RFID chipped credit cards.

 

[WelshBloke]

No, not at all. So far I don't see any tangible real world benefit vs. even just barcodes.

And for retail payment systems, the standard is RFID chipped credit cards.

Forget all about payment systems and the like, I'm not talking about that.

I can see why you wouldnt be into the payment thing, its not that widespread and there's other convenient methods.

But you have no interest in your phone knowing where it is and knowing what you want it to do when its there?

You could set it down on your stereo and it automatically turns on blutooth, connects to the stereo and begins playing a selection of songs.
The example of setting it in a spot in the car and it starting up navigation.

Theres a butt ton of cool stuff that you could do.

 

[Eug]

You could set it down on your stereo and it automatically turns on blutooth, connects to the stereo and begins playing a selection of songs.
The example of setting it in a spot in the car and it starting up navigation.

My car doesn't have Bluetooth, and my iPhone isn't my primary music player anyway. I prefer to use iPods for that. In the car on my commute, I listen to the news anyway, generally not music.

For nav, I use a dedicated GPS, which has all the maps on-board.

Also, I've given up on Bluetooth. I use wired or WiFi for everything now. For a headset for example, I plug in a wired headset since it Just Works, and there is no need to charge anything, ever. For laptop and tablet tethering I use WiFi exclusively because it's more reliable.

Theres a butt ton of cool stuff that you could do.

Yet almost nobody cares, myself included.

The only thing I care about is the retail payment side, but that's handled by my RFID credit cards.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

You arent interested in the location aware automation stuff you can do?

It sounds pretty cool to me.

It's typically combined with Tasker yes, but I haven't seen Tasker be a regular routine thing that most Android users use. Maybe the same tech guys who will load up Titanium Backup only....

I think it's interesting, but not necessarily a killer feature. Plus when I used to leave NFC on, my phone would pick up my credit cards all the time. It was a bit annoying. Turned it off to save battery.

The whole beam crap around and touch phones back to back hasn't really taken off either. I give Google a big fail for pushing NFC, and it was mainly because it botched the whole NFC payment stuff.

 

[WelshBloke]

My car doesn't have Bluetooth, and my iPhone isn't my primary music player anyway. I prefer to use iPods for that. In the car on my commute, I listen to the news anyway, generally not music.

For nav, I use a dedicated GPS, which has all the maps on-board.

...

Might as well say that maps and itunes on an iPhone is pointless as you dont use those.

Just because you haven't previously used things shouldn't kill your interest. The fact that better, newer ways of doing things appears is a good thing. Thats what keeps me interested in gadgets and not using a dumb nokia from decades ago.

 

[WelshBloke]

It's typically combined with Tasker yes, but I haven't seen Tasker be a regular routine thing that most Android users use. Maybe the same tech guys who will load up Titanium Backup only....

I think it's interesting, but not necessarily a killer feature. Plus when I used to leave NFC on, my phone would pick up my credit cards all the time. It was a bit annoying. Turned it off to save battery.

The whole beam crap around and touch phones back to back hasn't really taken off either. I give Google a big fail for pushing NFC, and it was mainly because it botched the whole NFC payment stuff.

Why does that matter in the least?

Youre into flashing custom ROMs, yes? Does it matter that most of the smartphone using public doesn't? And NFC tags needs less of a dev community as well.

 

[vi edit]

My car doesn't have Bluetooth, and my iPhone isn't my primary music player anyway. I prefer to use iPods for that. In the car on my commute, I listen to the news anyway, generally not music. For nav, I use a dedicated GPS, which has all the maps on-board.

So you use an iPod for music, a dedicated GPS for navigation and don't really use BT? Why even own a smart phone in that case?

The only problem I've ever had with BT on my iPhone is once every other month or so my phone will fail to fully synch with my Sienna BT system. Usually just going into the settings and tapping the car audio device is enough to get it back on. Otherwise my wife an I have iPhones synching back and forth between Panasonic phone systems in the house and our vehicles on a daily basis. The new touch screen setup in my wifes Camry is awesome at interfacing with a BT enabled phone. The only thing it can't do is display album art from Slacker. BT is awesome and the battery drain is *incredibly* minimal.

 

[Eug]

Might as well say that maps and itunes on an iPhone is pointless as you dont use those.

Just because you haven't previously used things shouldn't kill your interest. The fact that better, newer ways of doing things appears is a good thing. Thats what keeps me interested in gadgets and not using a dumb nokia from decades ago.

Maps is useful on the iPhone because when I'm not in the car, I have access to it. I don't carry my car GPS with me. iTunes on the iPhone is not useful to me, but I do use it occasionally, and I can fully understand why the majority of people would want it.

It's not that my interest in NFC has been killed. I just never had any in NFC, and I can't fathom many people truly wanting it on their phones either, because it's just not very useful.

BTW, I don't use context specific barcodes either, but like I said, right now there isn't much real world advantage that NFC provides over 2D barcodes.

So you use an iPod for music, a dedicated GPS for navigation and don't really use BT? Why even own a smart phone in that case?

1. Make phone calls
2. SMS
3. Check my calendar
4. Check my email
5. Check my contacts
6. Surf the internet
7. View my webcams
8. Take pictures
9. Tether my tablet or laptop for some of the above
10. etc.

You can do a lot of this on a lower end feature phone, but not all of it, and often the support is much worse, and usually the screen suck.

 

[TheSlamma]

LULZ

"Plus the new screen is 2mm taller, that's gotta be worth at least 400 dollars" lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXr1kmuqGcU

 

[WelshBloke]

Maps is useful on the iPhone because when I'm not in the car, I have access to it. I don't carry my car GPS with me. iTunes on the iPhone is not useful to me, but I do use it occasionally, and I can fully understand why the majority of people would want it.

It's not that my interest in NFC has been killed. I just never had any in NFC, and I can't fathom many people truly wanting it on their phones either, because it's just not very useful.
...

I've just given you some examples of why it is useful, just because they aren't relevant to you is fairly irrelevant.

 

[jpeyton]

I admit I find it a little surprising to me just how many people are more than willing to spend the $$$$ to get that 64 GB iPhone.

You have to admit it's a brilliant strategy from Apple. Charging an extra $200 for and extra $40 worth of NAND flash memory. It's how they produce industry leading margins on all their iDevices.

 

[WelshBloke]

"Plus the new screen is 2mm taller, that's gotta be worth at least 400 dollars" lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXr1kmuqGcU

This is better.