Many Looking Past iPhone 7 to Next Year's iPhone 8 (fortune.com) 105
Reuters reports: The iPhone 7 is expected to make its global debut on Wednesday, but many consumers and investors are already setting their sights on Apple's 2017 version of the popular gadget, hoping for more significant advances. At its annual product launch in San Francisco on Wednesday, the world's most valuable publicly traded company is expected to reveal an iPhone without a headphone jack, paving the way for wireless headphones, a touch-sensitive home button that vibrates, double-lens cameras for the larger Plus edition and other incremental improvements. Apple typically gives its main product, which accounts for more than half of its revenue, a big makeover every other year and the last major redesign was the iPhone 6, in 2014. The modest updates suggest that this cycle will be three years.Apple will celebrate iPhone's 10th anniversary next year. Rumor has it that the company plans to switch from LCD to OLED for display on the next year's flagship phone. It is also pegged to have an all-glass body.
Sounds familiar (Score:1)
Isn't this what the report says every year... right before setting new sales records?
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It says that iff they didn't receive enough ad revenue from Apple.
Wireless Headphones (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wireless Headphones (Score:5, Funny)
It's from Apple, so it's new again. ;)
Sorry (Score:5, Insightful)
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No...he meant something that actually passes for headphones.....
Re:Wireless Headphones (Score:4, Insightful)
Just like there were MP3 players before the iPod.
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Re:Wireless Headphones (Score:5, Interesting)
They probably mean "Paving the way for wireless headphones that are ginormous piles of crap".
Honestly, Stereo bluetooth sounds like crap. It's adequate if you're listening to music in a noisy environment so you would be able to identify details anyway, or if you just don't care... The compression used in Bluetooth is so severe that it not only ruins music, but even makes the majority of VOIP codec's unusable. I tried setting up a VOIP system on a tablet, and the only way I could make it work was to use a codec that did minimal compression (and so was very bandwidth intensive). Anything else made it sound like a Cylon being pushed feet-first into a Blendtec Blender.
There are some devices out there that use aptX for higher fidelity audio, but that's a proprietary codec that has very tiny market penetration.
The next major version of Bluetooth, which should be available "soon", is supposed to have a new profile specifically for high quality audio, and I'm setting my hopes on that.
Also, it's not unusual for Apple to get certain technology before anyone else (ie: thunderbolt), so I'm hoping that they are doing what they are doing with the iPhone 7 because they have got some kind of exclusivity agreement with someone for their silicon, and so the audio should sound amazing. If they don't... well... I expect Apple's phone division will probably have a bad time this year.
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Speaking of which, I imagine many users will be stuck charging their headphones daily- perhaps even more if they're anything like mine which top out at 4 hours. Right now it's
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I just came across this article, farther down in the list:
https://apple.slashdot.org/sto... [slashdot.org]
So it sounds like they may well be trying to go their own way. So... I guess getting themselves fucked is exactly what they're aiming for. :P
Guess I definitely won't be getting an iPhone 7. Maybe they'll pull their head out by the time the iPhone 8 comes around, but I won't be holding my breath.
Re: Wireless Headphones (Score:2)
Stereo bluetooth sounds like crap. It's adequate if you're listening to music in a noisy environment
If you're not using A2DP Lossless, you're doing it wrong.
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Unless you can also tell me where on my mobile device I can explicitly set the bluetooth profile you specify, your comment is basically useless.
Most devices don't give you that level of control, or may well not provide that profile at all, so claiming that someone is "doing it wrong", whether developer or end user, is pointlessly hostile.
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This is how I feel with "RAM is cheap" comments. No, even if a terabyte of DRAM costs $50 that means nothing if your computer only has a couple DIMM or SO-DIMM ddr2 slots. This makes it a $300 upgrade not a $50 upgrade (more for a laptop), and if it's just for running what you were already running before such as a web browser, what a waste.
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Oh? This is new information for me. I didn't realize that that happens when the microphone is active. I will have to look into that brand. Could you give a specific model? Also, do you know if it supports Siri?
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I'm assuming that was a dyslexic moment, and that the GP meant 44.1.
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Either that, or they forgot the appropriate command in their AT init string, and forgot to enable compression. AT%C2 should bump that puppy up to 57.6kbps if you have a clean line. :)
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Apple's legacy connectors were dickish (a VGA connector with the wrong layout), redundant (Apple-only keyboards? yawn), 1980s crap used only by themselves - whatever the printer/modem/localtalk ports were, and external SCSI was overpriced and dangerous.
We can only wish Apple took a similar initiative to get rid of "legacy" on their iPhones. This means to get rid of their Lightning connector and use USB-C in its place.
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But what I want to say is to have good audio that is truly yours and something to be proud of, you need to make your own vacuum tube amplifier and then use it to power real electrostatic headphones over a wire.
And the source? Vinyl.
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Yeah, first of all, you should have mentioned Vitamix Professional series blenders. They are faster and louder.
Nah, what you need is Turnex, son of Durex, the blender for the next millennium. Not only is it faster and louder, but it can also be turned into the most powerful vacuum cleaner!
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Many not satisfied with N say N+1 will be it. (Score:3, Insightful)
Apple, Ford, Android, Dell, Intel, et al.
Invariably you'll get the slashdotters whining that N+1 is only an incremental improvement over N without looking at the fact that some people are still on N-5. Skylake may not be the end all be all but if you're coming from Core or Nehalem it's a noticeable improvement.
New owners, you should know by now this isn't the stuff Slashdot is made of. At the minimum tack it on to the actual release story.
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Invariably you'll get the slashdotters whining that N+1 is only an incremental improvement over N without looking at the fact that some people are still on N-5. Skylake may not be the end all be all but if you're coming from Core or Nehalem it's a noticeable improvement.
When these companies thrive on the most profitable segment of their customer base upgrading every 1-2 years, critiquing N+1 or N+2 incremental improvements is justified. Any company should easily be able to make an N+5 upgrade seem like the device can walk on water, so that is no achievement. But being able to keep people on a one or two year upgrade treadmill is what makes Apple the most profitable company in the world.
Its not too surprising Apple is only doing incremental improvements since its main flags
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Apple, Ford, Android, Dell, Intel, et al.
Invariably you'll get the slashdotters whining that N+1 is only an incremental improvement over N without looking at the fact that some people are still on N-5. Skylake may not be the end all be all but if you're coming from Core or Nehalem it's a noticeable improvement.
New owners, you should know by now this isn't the stuff Slashdot is made of. At the minimum tack it on to the actual release story.
The problem is, unlike Ford, Android, Dell, Intel, et.al. that Apple can not advertise the next JebusPhone as simply an N+1, even though it is 100% just an N+1. Apple needs to keep the mouth breathing masses fooled that they are revolutionary. The problem they have is that the RDF has pretty much died off and people are beginning to see that they aren't that great after all.
Also, as you pointed out people generally go from something that was a few generations ago to something current. Someone buying a Ford
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Wow. Android Fanboy much? Apple puts considerable time into their software development and it comes across polished. While I'm fine installing Cyanogenmod to get rid of carrier shit most people aren't. They use their iPhones and their Macs and they Just Work.
people are beginning to see that they aren't that great after all.
I wish I had Apple stock for every time I've heard this for the last 2 decades.
Guys. Stop... (Score:1)
Two apple related posts in the first three hours of the day? One about a new rumor, and the other about how someone on fortune thinks people will skip this version? The event is happening in a few hours. How about you report on THAT.
These stories? I don't care. It's not news. It doesn't matter. Stop.
Ha Ha Ha! (Score:2)
Luckily, I am not part of this "Many" at all.
My life won't change a bit through Apple, except this post...
Tim Cook has claimed big things for 5 years (Score:2)
Out of touch, Apple (Score:3, Interesting)
a touch-sensitive home button that vibrates, double-lens cameras for the larger Plus edition
Sigh.... Vibrating button is a parlor trick, nothing useful or appealing...... Go do something useful, like 200GB of memory in the base
model, and provide me a memory card slot, so I can load in data from external devices, archive things, or have additional storage available on
my phone.
Also, longer battery runtime and an option to replace my battery on the go are necessary,
until you do those things, Apple: I have no reason to upgrade.
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This is why I am waiting for the iPhone 7s. It's going to remove the Lightning plug and all you have to do is say a 4 hour prayer to save Steve Job's soul every day to charge the device.
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This is why I am waiting for the iPhone 7s. It's going to remove the Lightning plug and all you have to do is say a 4 hour prayer to save Steve Job's soul every day to charge the device.
Well, I suppose that could be useful after the App-ocalypse. We might actually get temples dedicated to Jobs, where they recite the book of Jobs aka the Apple EULA. We could have the orthodox church all in white and a reformed church where they worship the rose gold, gray, silver and black which of course hate each other. His followers will declare that there is no god but Jobs, and Siri is his prophet. And they'll all be awaiting the rAPPture, where all the faithful will be uploaded to the iCloud to live f
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It's going to remove the Lightning plug and all you have to do is say a 4 hour prayer ....
They could design the phone so there's no port, And make the aluminum case itself an electrode for charging
Give you a USB cable with Apple-proprietary magnet/clips; one pair of magnets each to snap onto opposite ends of the phone.
Induce an electromagnetic field inside the case, and include a coil inside the phone capable of releasing energy stored in the EM field as electricity for charging the battery.
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>card slot
>replaceable battery
My Samsung Note II has those. Even the newest iPhone would be a downgrade.
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Go do something useful, like 200GB of memory in the base
What do Apple charge, roughly, per GB? I vaguely recall it being... unreasonable. Apple don't seem to like giving memory out cheaply.
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Apple don't seem to like giving memory out cheaply.
They need to get with the times.... Flash is cheap.
I have a M.2 card with a 500GB SSD. The flash chip is about the size of a fingernail, and cost less than $200 brand new a year ago.
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Apple doesn't care about you.
That's fine, they don't have to. Stop asking Apple for things if you don't want to buy their devices. The fact that YOU don't want their devices doesn't mean that other people don't. That the devices don't have these features doesn't mean that they're bad or deficient, merely that they don't meet your requirements. Your requirements are fine, and their phones are fine.
What I don't understand is how every post on /. about Apple's phones becomes a free for all for people to talk a
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That's fine, they don't have to. Stop asking Apple for things if you don't want to buy their devices.
Who says I won't buy their devices? I will buy a lot more of their devices if they make these two improvements.
That the devices don't have these features doesn't mean that they're bad or deficient
No, but adding these features will add a LOT more value, then many of the other changes they have already done
and have potentially taken for this iteration. It would also in some sense ameliorate som
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No, but they WON'T. You're asking for a tradeoff that Apple isn't willing to make.
They will never include a memory card slot. They're trying to REDUCE the number of things in the phone so they have more space for other stuff. They don't want a mechanical home button because there are too many failures after people press them for a million times. They've made some choices, and all of them are antithetical to adding a memory card slot.
256GB of storage on the base model? That's a bit of a pipe dream. I'd love
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Wait for a phone that takes UFS storage (memory cards, not the old useless file system for DVDs)
That will allow memory cards that are basically as good as the internal flash, or even better. It's a single-chip SSD by this point. You would have the option for crappy internal + good external (i.e. performance, reliability and capacity), or good internal + crappy external, or both crappy, or both good.
Biggest thing today (Score:3)
Today will be the turning point in the way you buy a cellular service plan. In 3 years, we will be talking about how, after the iPhone 7 release with iOS 10's first-class treatment of VoIP services [imore.com], we no longer need to buy voice minutes on cell phone plans.
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I doubt iOS10 will change much. Just like Android 2.3 integration of SIP didn't revolutionize the market (although it's a nice feature and I use it, it's already possible to go data-only).
Apple still rely on phone numbers (so carriers) even for protocols such as iMessage, which could work just fine with an email address as an identifier.
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Just like Android 2.3 integration of SIP didn't revolutionize the market
Because the public doesn't notice when some arbitrary version of Android adds another tech feature. They don't even know which version of Android their phone is running.
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So? It has been there since almost forever. 90%+ of all Android devices ever sold probably has it.
VoIP on a data-only smartphone is not only possible, it is convenient.
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Re: Biggest thing today (Score:2)
Who buys voice minutes? All modern Verizon and att plans are data plans with unlimited voice and text added on.
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Bullshit, that's a trivial improvement. Google reached the end-game years ago with the release of the Hangouts Dialer (unlimited free calls over whatever data connection you have), then doubled-down on it with Google-Fi (no voice minutes at all). The bottom dropped-out of charging high prices for limited minutes and texts yea
The real headline should be (Score:1)
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This was predicted in the dilbert comics long back
http://dilbert.com/strip/2012-... [dilbert.com]
This was done in practice by Adam Osborne in 1982 and again in 1983 and is generally called "Doing an Osborne".
Alternating Years (Score:4, Insightful)
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I'm eagerly waiting for the day when phone manufacturers (not just Apple) decide that a clear name is all they need for their phones and they can drop the numbers not directly tied to the model. Car manufacturers use years, why not electronics?
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Car manufacturers use years, why not electronics?
Not all of them use just years. Many of the luxury models still use numbers. BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Infiniti, Acura, etc.
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Of course I'm waiting for the iPhone 8! (Score:1)
But I'm going to buy the 7 while I wait.
They should release an iPhone 10 so people buy now (Score:2)
It worked for Microsoft!
Why Not Get Both? (Score:2)
Being on the installment plan, I get a new one every year anyway. So do a lot of people. There's no incentive to skip.
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There's a huge incentive to skip. No headphone jack.
Well yes. That has become apparent today.
iPhone 7 (Score:1)
Quite frankly that is what I am doing (Score:1)
I just bought an iPhone 5 SE 64 this summer, after my original release iPhone 5 died. Since the guts of the 5 SE are the 6s model, I don't see the point in getting a giant iPhone 7 when I can wait for the market to laugh at giant phones again and Apple comes to their senses and sells an iPhone 8 model that fits in my pocketses, yes, precious.
Suck on that, marketoids.