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Iphone Apple

The End of the iPhone Upgrade? 96

An anonymous reader shares a New Yorker story: Ultimately, the iPhone 16 does little to meaningfully improve on the experience I had with the 12, besides, perhaps, charging with a USB-C, as my laptop does, cutting down on the number of cords I have to keep track of. Instead, the greatest leaps in Apple's hardware are largely directed at those niche users who are already invested in using tools such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality. The company has announced that, within a month or so, the new phones will be able to operate its proprietary artificial-intelligence system, which means that users may soon be relying on A.I. to perform daily personal tasks, like navigating their calendars or responding to e-mails. The 15 and 16 Pros can take three-dimensional photos, designed for V.R., using the Apple Vision Pro. Thus far, I don't use A.I. tools or V.R. with any frequency and have no intention of doing so on my iPhone.

The fact that I do not need an iPhone 16 is a testament not so much to the iPhone's failure as to its resounding success. A lot of the digital software we rely on has grown worse for users in recent years; the iPhone, by contrast, has become so good that it's hard to imagine anything but incremental improvements. Apple's teleological phone-design strategy may have simply reached its end point, the same way evolution in nature has repeatedly resulted in an optimized species of crab. Other tech companies, meanwhile, are embracing radical departures in phone design. Samsung offers devices that fold in half, creating a smaller screen that's useful for minor tasks, such as texting, and a larger one for watching videos; Huawei is upping the ante with three folds. The BOOX Palma has become a surprise hit as a smartphone-ish device with an e-ink screen, similar to Amazon's Kindle, which uses physical pixels in its display. Dumbphones, too, are growing more popular by intentionally doing less. Apple devices, by contrast, remain effective enough that they can afford to be somewhat static.
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The End of the iPhone Upgrade?

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  • by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Thursday September 26, 2024 @01:07PM (#64819555)

    Why is this even news?

    The majority of Computers and Phones have been more then adequate for the majority of people for the past 5+, maybe 10+, years.

    Meanwhile iPhone can't even add a proper superscript 2 or 3 to the keyboard to enter in math symbols... /s

    • There's been a weird bit of drama about this release for Apple. I don't have it in front of me but apparently T-Mobile made a statement like 'iPhone 16s are selling great and our stockholders are realy happy!' over a rumor going around that T-Mobile was taking a loss (or something like that) with them. It's the sort of thing that's affecting stock prices but I'm not sure why it's being mentioned here. (altho it is objectively fair to say the iPhone 16 is not an exciting release.)

    • The lack of math symbols is the one criticism I have with my 13 mini. Yeah sure the battery life is hilarious, but the price has to be paid somewhere for the small form factor. I went a long time thinking that battery life was king, but with each successive Android device I bought, the phone kept getting larger and harder to handle, and each OS update broke something. I've long since moved away from writing phone-apps in my free time, so when I wear my developer hat I no longer have to deal with the absolut
      • Itâ(TM)s completely insane how Slashdotâ(TM)s text processing doesnâ(TM)t support basic Unicode in the year 2024. Even the unmitigated binfire of a platform that is X â" formerly known as Twitter â" can handle it.

        No doubt basic apostrophes and em-dashes in the above will make the amateur-hour Slashdot server spew mojibake all over port 80.

        • Nobody technical has been a part of Slashdot since long before CmdrTaco left and Conde Nast has been at the helm. The database schema is ready to vote in their second or third presidential election.
        • Itâ(TM)s completely insane how Slashdotâ(TM)s text processing doesnâ(TM)t support basic Unicode in the year 2024. Even the unmitigated binfire of a platform that is X â" formerly known as Twitter â" can handle it.

          Yeah, it'd be pretty trivial to fix that for the handful of common symbols that cause people the most grief. I'd even do it for them for free just to not have to see that crap all the time. :)

    • VerbTeX lets you lay out equations on iOS. Itâ(TM)s free.

    • Re-read TFS. It's a chance for the Apple fanbois to gloat on the front page of /.

      Awaiting my downmod.
    • by Dan667 ( 564390 )
      I bought top of the line PC parts more than 5 years ago and I have yet to see any reason to upgrade. My machine boots in 10 seconds and runs everything I need fast enough that I have little interest in upgrading. I remember back in the day where moving from something like a 396 to a 486 was mind blowing. They will have to innovate if they want people to spend their money. And if innovating is crypto or AI it isn't it for me.
    • The author is an idiot. This is true of any mature product and category. You shouldn't expect to see exponential changes each year. Once a product matures the changes are generally incremental.

      Look at TVs. They see incremental changes every model year. Much less frequently, something big like the change from 1080 to 4K comes along, but you shouldn't expect that kind of change every year.

    • The end of news: It's all been done before, humanity has nothing new to offer. Repeats of the greatest hits will be played until such time as funding runs out and "Humanity" is shut down. A special thanks to all viewers.
    • Because reporters writing stories aren't the brightest bunch, and when they figure out something obvious that other people have known for a long time it suddenly becomes news.

  • It's not the phone (Score:2, Interesting)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) *

    It's the personal status update.

    The teens do not want to be caught dead with an iPhone 15 in school, even a pro max.

    • by vux984 ( 928602 ) on Thursday September 26, 2024 @01:27PM (#64819619)

      In my experience, the teens stopped caring a while ago. Maybe the people who were teens when the iphone 3 came out who are closing in on 30 now still care??

      • In my experience, the teens stopped caring a while ago.

        What's your experience? In my experience I agree with you. In my wife's experience (she's a teacher and unlike me actually spends all day with fighting bickering teens) she says that the status associated with what phone you have is very much still a thing - and one of the reasons why she's now super thankful that smartphones are banned in her school.

        • by vux984 ( 928602 )

          My experience is as a parent of (older) teens who definitely don't care about having the latest phone or even an iphone -- my eldest for example wants a z-flip, my youngest doesn't care and is happy with whatever family hand-me-down is up for grabs. And their friends and friends and peers don't seem to care what each other have at all.

          10 years ago, around here, when they were pre-teens they desperately wanted (even needed!) a smartphone and it absolutely HAD to be an iphone.

          I don't doubt there's still cliqu

    • by avandesande ( 143899 ) on Thursday September 26, 2024 @01:28PM (#64819629) Journal
      Really? I never hear anyone discuss what version phone they have these days. Maybe it mattered 10 years ago... What phone you have is passe.
      • And what effort have you put into listening? I don't hear anyone discuss this either. But then I'm sitting here working from home. The wife on the other hand as a teacher is much better placed, and yes the type of phone you have is still very much a status symbol among kids, the kind of shit that people get bullied over.

    • Really? You'd have to look pretty closely to even notice the difference between a 15 and a 16 (especially with a case). I just updated from a 13 pro to a 16pro that I put in very similar cases. When I mailed my 13pro back for trade, I had to double check the side buttons to ensure I wasn't sending the wrong one back!

  • Jokes on you, apple pulled a rug and finally offering usb-c so we can enter an age with 1 charging cable for everything. Once my dumb iphone can take usb-c, I wont upgrade for along time.
    • It's amusing to me that the only upgrade of note to the iPhone for years is the one that they were forced to do against their will by an EU directive [graniteriverlabs.com].

      • by EvilSS ( 557649 )
        They would have done it soon anyway. iPads were already moving to USB C before that came out. Bonus of doing it this way is that I didn't have to read all the "OMG GETTING RID OF LIGHTNING IS JUST A MONEY GRAB!!!!!" crap like when they went from 30-pin to lightning. I saw someone still bitching about the 30 pin connector going away last year.
    • by Hadlock ( 143607 )

      I'm really pleased that we're on a single charging standard now, there is one really ragged looking iphone charging cable in our car and I'm really looking forward to the day when my wife goes from iphone 14->16 and we can stop carrying around two sets of charging equipment everywhere we go. I never really took much of an interest in my wife's phone technology, but getting away from lightning cables is going to be a huge upgrade for our household.

      • Why would she replace a 14 with a 16? Itâ(TM)s only a couple of years old max and itâ(TM)s still a good phone. Itâ(TM)ll be a good phone for years, and probably supported by Apple for another four years.

        • by EvilSS ( 557649 )
          I'm making the same swap this year. Why? Mainly USB C. I'm at the point where USB C is becoming common in my home and lightning is becoming more of an inconvenience. The other reason is my battery on my 14 has degraded more than usual. I suspect it's due to a sketchy wireless charger I used for most of it's life buy still. Yes I could get it replaced but USB C pushed me over the edge. I also wanted to get the 1TB version. I've actually started to get closer than I'd like to running out of space on my 14. I
  • Joke aside, the Apple iphone has not innovated since 10 or more years, always a step behind the Android ecosystem.

    Just look at IA today, Samsung had a better IA system than Apple just dream of.

    • WTF is IA?
    • by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )

      As someone who migrated from Android to iPhone, that's not entirely true.

      Yes, the iPhone is completely missing "computer" contexts like files. That's probably the one that irritates me the most - it's effectively impossible to manage the thing (your data) outside the context of the Apple cloud ecosystem. I hate that about it.

      It also lags behind significantly in features.

      Where it excels: battery life, stability, security (updates and design), and consistency.

      It's like comparing a Tesla to a well maintained u

    • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

      10 years is a LONG time. It's not clear Android has innovated for 10 years or more either.

      What I do know is that 10 years ago I tried switching to Android and it was awful. Apple phones required a lot less processor, resulting in longer battery life and faster charging. Took quite a while for technology to overcome that inherent disadvantage for Android. The constant spewing of ads, though, was a self-inflicted wound.

      The only "IA" I dream of is none. Not how sure "better" is determined here.

      • 10 years is a LONG time...Apple phones required a lot less processor, resulting in longer battery life and faster charging. Took quite a while for technology to overcome that inherent disadvantage for Android.

        Indeed it is.

        Recently I bought a CNF Phone 1 [nothing.tech]. The different color backplates and the overemphasized screw grommet are gimmicks...but using the stock ROM, I get between four and six days out of a battery charge, and it goes from 20% to full in about 2 hours with a 65W charger. I don't tax it very much (it's a work phone, so basically calls, e-mail, and Slack), but I've never felt it lag or stutter...and it's $200. The camera is outclassed by current Apple and Samsung flagships...but the phone is $200.

        So yeah

    • Apple iPhones are primarily a cult following. Financially, they make no sense.

  • To paraphrase the quote:
    "The fact that I did not need a replacement for the Samsung S4 when the display finally cracked after a fall, is a testament not so much to the phone's failure as to its resounding success."

  • There is a big, BIG, BIG improvement Apple could easily make to encourage me to upgrade, but they don't want to because it will kill there ipad/macbook sales.

    I just need one compute device. Stand alone, its a phone. doc it into a tablet case... its a tablet with extra battery capacity. Attach a keyboard... its a macbook with even more battery. Three uses, one really essential module. I upgrade the module when needed, don't need to update the other two.
    • by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )

      That's great and all, but what if I want to make a phone call while docked?

      They're better as discreet devices. Especially when you look at the marked capability difference between a 32GB MBP vs the current generation phones in terms of capabilities.

      Most people don't want a phablet. It's the worst of both worlds.

      "Cloud connectivity" is supposed to have (and largely has) eliminated the need for such a conceptualization: everything you need can be in all places at once.

      • That's great and all, but what if I want to make a phone call while docked?

        It is my understanding that Air Pods and Beats are popular device. Other manufacturers also make headsets. I have observed lots of people using Siri to make calls or send SMS. The biggest problem I can see is making a good interface that changes appropriately as different docks are used.

        Samsung has a feature that allows a phone to act like a desktop if you plug in a docking station. I played around with the capability one evening, it seemed usable. My problem is that I already have a laptop that I us

  • by FudRucker ( 866063 ) on Thursday September 26, 2024 @02:02PM (#64819739)
    the smartphone market reached its peak and is now just wandering around on a plateau, all smartphones are not really getting better and people nowadays are just buying phones when they need a new phone due to breaking or losing their current phone, my current iphone is a 13, not interested in buying a new one, and my android is about 2 years old and im going to use it until it is broken or lost,
    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Indeed. And that is actually a good thing. Technology can only mature if it is not changed all the time.

    • Yep, I have a Pixel 4a. When it dies, I'm more tempted to try to get another (probably refurb) 4a than whatever is currently being offered. I don't like the larger sizes of the newer models and the 4a does everything I need.

      • Too bad that Google decided to stop updating the Pixel 4a over a year ago. The hardware if fine but the software is now dangerous.

        Google's short update period really does their customers a disservice. I no longer buy Android phones for the office, we simply have more problems with them and have to replace them more often, makes no sense.

  • Also, Windows 11 will be the last version of Windows.
  • I went from an iPhone 11 to the 16, it was due. I really do like the additional action button and dedicated camera buttons. I use my camera a lot, so that was a nice addition. Probably a 14 or 15 upgrade to 16 wouldn't be as noticeable.

  • A lot of the iPhone stuff is incremental release to release, but after a few years it starts to become a lot more compelling.

    Going from a 14 to a 16 would bring you much better battery life and big camera improvements.

    In general from release to release the camera updates are still usually worth looking at, sometimes they cause me to update yearly instead of bi-yearly.

    I almost did this year for the 48MP wide angle (was 12 in the 15) but I figure I can live without it. I may change my mind later, right now I

  • Apple did not invent most of the stuff it made popular. They did refine a lot of things, though. But I think it's now more that other manufacturers have not invented anything great either on a while, so Apple has not had anything new to copy. I've had my phone for 6 years now. The only truly improved thing since then have been the cameras. But it's better for the environment to not buy a new phone so frequently, so I don't really mind the slowdown of the innovation cycle. But it's not like there's no room f
  • As with a lot of technology, the iPhone has reached a plateau. There is countless versions of software that are the same, mostly making improvements that hold little to no value to end users. Just as one “bought” music before the advance of streaming services, we now have to “subscribe” endlessly to listen to music or watch movies. Why allow anyone to buy anything once, if you can get them to subscribe to something forever to enjoy it? Guessing one can do this already with hardware
  • benefit from new technology. This is a nonstory.

  • That changes on real breakthroughs, but before that value then comes from maintenance and durability. No idea whether Apple can deal with that. For another example, see, e.g., about 2/3 of Windows users still being on Win10. Clearly MS has trouble understanding what is going on and adapting to it. Obviously, they can essentially coerce people onto Win11, but that will cause a_lot_ of long-term resentment and will likely be counter-productive.

  • Longer upgrade cycles are now the norm for basically all computing devices (PCs, Smartphones, Tablets, etc.). I remember when I'd upgrade my PC every six months or so- and you'd actually get a noticeable upgrade doing that. Today, even a gaming PC will play the latest AAA titles for 5+ years. Computing continues to get better, but the differences are no longer so obvious to the end user.

    I used to be on a 2-year upgrade cycle with the iPhone, but I have switched to 3 years. The limiting factor tends to be mo

  • Past reasons to upgrade:

    Unusable battery life.

    Manufacturer bricked device.

    Phone company bricked device.

    New functionality that was genuinely useful. This doesn't happen very often these days.

    ...laura

  • It would require a staggering lack of imagination to think "it's hard to imagine anything but incremental improvements".
  • "teleological phone-design strategy"
    Is there ANY other design strategy? Can you design any electronic device in a way other than for the purpose that they serve?

    "....Amazon's Kindle, which uses physical pixels in its display."
    Ooh!

    This author is trying really hard to make people think he knows something.

    • Can you design any electronic device in a way other than for the purpose that they serve?

      That paragraph is contrasting the "teleological" iPhone with other brands' grasping for meaningful innovation through e.g. folding screens. Apple's upcoming AI smartphone features also arguably violate this principle, by adding features just to get on the bandwagon - I'm sure that will be litigated in many many articles to come.

  • Other tech companies, meanwhile, are embracing radical departures in phone design. Samsung offers devices that fold in half...Huawei is upping the ante with three folds.

    Are we entering a fold-off where they keep upping each other until they re-invent a Brise fan? It's like the blade count contest on face razors. People realized 5 blades was too expensive and unhelpful, so 2 or 3 is the norm again.

  • Apple has taught us that you can have all the features of the next year's phone by paying a few dollars more for this year's phone.

    And sometimes better cameras, more storage, and better battery life. The Pro and Pro Max models are the real flagships.

    I haven't always chosen iPhones, but I've had a 5c, an 11 Pro Max, and a 15 Pro Max.

    This cycle was weird. I heard very little about the 16, and mostly heard about the 17.

    • My situation is similar to yours, but I've had older iPhones. My current one is the XS Max, and it's still working fine. I noticed you've gone from the 11 Pro Max to the 15 Pro Max. Is it worth the expense? I like the XS, and it meets my needs, but a better camera would be nice. Like you, I've stayed flagship models, but older ones.

      This is one situation where that ancient lie, "Your opinion is important to us" is actually true. I'd value your experience with the older and newer camera.

      • 4 generations between the same tier of device seems like a reasonable amount of time to delay upgrading to where you can truly appreciate the differences between the two. My 11 Pro Max had a great camera as well, but it was only 4G, was down to ~75% battery capacity, and the Lightning port was getting iffy. I felt it was finally time for an upgrade. Going up to the 15 Pro Max got me USB C charging, 5G service, faster wi-fi, a noticeably faster device, more storage space, and an even better camera. The 1

  • Except for the over priced folding phones, smartphones haven't really changed much since 2007. Oh, they've gotten faster, bigger, brighter, faster, but if you have a phone from the last 3-4-5 years it's "good enough" for about 99% of users anyway.
  • Makes calls, texts with new RCA upgrade, takes pics and movies, battery still charges great. All apps also work. Never saw the NEED to upgrade !!!!
  • iOS 18 apparently takes away the ability to block Caller ID on all outgoing calls. This doesn't seem to be done by the carrier in this case since it is present on it now in iOS 17. I use my phone for work and we block Caller ID so that customers are not calling us directly (they reach us by calling the call center.) Customers receive paperwork which explicitly tells them that we may call them from a blocked number.

    Now I will have to dial *67 before each call, which is stupid.

    I used to be an Apple user for y

  • still works fine. I would like the better camera's/lenses in the iPhone 16 Pro, but I am definitely not spending another $1000 to get just that. I don't need VR stuff, because I am not spending $3000 for the headset, nor do I care much for (what is erroneously called) AI these days. Maybe next year.Or the year after. Or when this phone finally bites the dust I will get a dumb phone, back in the day those could text and such.

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