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Apple's Latest Products Get Rare Mixed-Bag Reviews, Muted Reception (bloomberg.com)
Mark Gurman, writing for Bloomberg: Despite the strength of its brand, Apple occasionally releases a product to mediocre reviews -- remember the original Apple TV or Apple Watch? But reviewers have rarely been as grumpy as this month, when Apple unveiled its collection of new gadgets for the holidays. "I can't think of a single compelling reason to upgrade [to iPhone 8, or iPhone 8 Plus] from an iPhone 7 [which was launched last year]," wrote Nilay Patel of The Verge. Another potential sign of trouble: the iPhone 8 models didn't sell out during pre-orders, another rare occurrence for Apple phones. [...] Reviewing the new Apple Watch Series 3 model, The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern wrote "On the AT&T-connected models, the cellular connection dropped, calls were often choppy and Siri sometimes failed to connect. On the one that ran on T-Mobile, I experienced several dropped connections." The Verge's Lauren Goode noticed a serious connection issue as well, saying the device "would appear to pick up a single bar of some random Wi-Fi signal, and hang on that, rather than switching to LTE." [...] Reviewing the Apple TV 4K, The Verge's Patel noted the device's high price, a lack of 4K support in major apps including YouTube, and a lack of support for the Dolby Atmos audio standard. Reuters reported on Friday: Hundreds of people usually gather at Apple's Sydney city store with queues winding down the town's main street, George Street, when there is a new product release. But there were fewer than 30 people lining up before the store opened on Friday, according to a Reuters witness. While the number of people queuing up outside Apple stores have dropped over the years with many opting for online purchases, the weak turnout for the latest iPhone has partly been due to poor reviews. Over at Financial Times, Tim Bradshaw reports: "I think demand is down from last year, for no other reason than you have another flagship phone," said Neil Cybart, an Apple analyst at Above Avalon. "A portion of the iPhone launch demand is not materialising quite yet." That could leave this weekend's initial sales lower than at any point since the iPhone 6 first launched in 2014, Mr Cybart added. Apple's decision to increase prices for the iPhone 8 compared with last year's model and a less aggressive launch push by mobile carriers could also affect demand.
Well yeah, people are waiting for the iPhone X. Or...gasp, the smartphone market is becoming saturated.
Maybe Apple will start giving their computers some love again. Or take their money and get into a whole new business to diversify a bit. At the moment they're all in on the phones and phone accessories, which is not a great plan long term.
Nobody really wanted a new whiz-bang gadget except for the idiots that always will... but everyone still expected it to work. How do failures like that get out the door for mass production?
I'll stick with my old-skool flip phone with a removable battery and hard off button.
Same thing that happened with the PC. They are simply good enough and will last a few years. I'm still using my iPhone 6, with a new batter from ifixit. I can easily get a couple more years out of it.
Despite what people here like to claim, an iPhone isn't and hasn't been a "status symbol" for some time. No smartphone is.
Clearly, the root cause of this debacle is disruption caused by cat parasites.
Weird that there's no mention how all the actual cool new stuff that gets people excited is in the iPhone X, which isn't available yet. If you plan on buying an iPhone X in a few months, you're not going to drop a lot of money on the 8 now.
If the facial scanner was on the back of the phone, and used as a miniature lidar sensor, I would seriously be impressed. Being able to scan items into a virtual environment easily and quickly would have a very large range of awesome applications. As it is now it could probably be repurposed for some pretty neat stuff.
The iPhone 8, other than a faster processo, slightly better camera and wireless charging is the exact same as the 7, which is very similar to the 6. The X has the same internals as the 8 and is much more expensive. Apple has really quit trying to be a innovative leader.
People who want the latest and greatest Iphone will go for Iphone X. Cant see any compelling reason to move from Iphone 7 to Iphone 8.
The answer is, we don't!
But because ppl keep buying them Apple and others keep making them. Me, i'm perfectly happy with my 4 year old Note 4 - still runs great and I can even replace the battery in mere seconds. I bought a new PC this year, a gaming PC none the less, and it was little more than the asking price of these new flagship phones - RE-COCK-ULOUS!!!!!
This is all!
>> Apple's Latest Products Get Rare Mixed-Bag Reviews
I'm sure some marketing heads will soon roll. Personallzed "interviews" with influencial tech reporters' favorite cosplayers need to scheduled and happy-ending-completed AT LEAST three weeks in advance of the product releases, people!
It has *never* been the case that a single-generation upgrade has been a worthwhile* jump for an iPhone.
If you want your new phone to impress you, just wait a few generations.
* (Unless you're really into smartphone cameras. Apple's photography team make incredible year-on-year leaps.)
It is also the first time Apple has released its new phones with the premium model being delayed a few months, I know if I intend to upgrade there is little reason to get the 8 over the X.
I suppose as it probably took some courage to post something as asinine as this. It also takes courage to climb into a cage with a lion. Just because something takes courage doesn't necessarily mean that it is a good idea.
I like how the Bloomberg article attributes the mediocre reviews of Apple products to "grumpy reviewers". Because of course, it's not possible that Apple's offerings could ever actually be mediocre.
You are welcome on my lawn.
You're full of shit. Nothing happened to the PC. Quality parts last 5+ years.
And when one part goes bad I just swap it out.
I'm still using a iPhone 5c with it's original battery.
Sneeches be gettin' wise?
I'd have been happily in line if any of the new iPhones had a headphone jack. As it is, I'll stick with my 6S. Nothing added in the 7 or 8 interests me, but I use the headphone jack daily, usually while charging. It's sad that when my current phone dies, I'll either have to break out of the whole Apple ecosystem, or deal with crappy adapters I'll have to by multiples of, and replace when they lose or wear out.
It's a telephone. The first year that the Bell phone hung on the wall everyone I'm sure was excited. Now a days there's a box in my parent's basement full old crap phones...you want one? all are free!!! This is where we are with the iPhone. It's a phone. The most exciting feature of the X is an animated emoji - I hear the movie sucked ! The phone is still a rectangle. You have any idea how long it took AT&T to change the shape of the phone - wasn't until after it was deregulated.
I do need a new phone - have a discontinued iPhone 5 (no S, no C, no Plus.... plain old original stock). However, the X is too rich and thinking about the whole material things won't love me issue...I'll go for the 8. But my wife has the 7 --- and I don't see a difference.
Obviously I hold onto things until they expire. Do I save a buck and get the 7 or at least get the most current model 8?! or maybe the SE because it is smaller - and I have the watch too.
But why do I need a smartphone again?! Oh, so I can swipe through FB twice a day while pretending to care about the content !? That experience can be had for far less than a $1,000 X.
And damit -- why are the storage sizes 64 or 256. Why couldn't it have been a useful 128 vs 256? Oh - 'cause nobody would pay the premium for a 256. I guess I will be parted from my money.
Oh woes me.
.. isn't hardware. It's software. More specifically, Apple offers a complete platform where hardware, software (OS and built-in apps), web services (iCloud, App Store, iTunes music and video) and content are all fully and seamlessly integrated. Users get a consistent experience across devices, and app developers can count on relatively consistent capabilities on end-user devices (as opposed to the fairly disparate device software and hardware configurations and capabilities on Android and Windows platforms). All the attention at an Apple product launch is paid to the shiny new hardware. Relatively little attention is paid to the fundamental improvements in the platform, like the adoption of HEVC and HEIF (2x better photo and video compression), or the introduction of Augmented Reality and Machine Learning (ARkit and Core ML), multitasking, drag and drop. Why do you think Microsoft is now in the hardware business, and Google is building a hardware business? They can't compete with Apple if they can't offer a seamless experience.
I suppose you missed the part where he replaces his iPhone 6 battery. It takes all of 15 mins.
The thing is, there is little reason to upgrade a phone now. The iPhone has not improved battery life, and progressively gets slower over time. Since the storage canâ(TM)t be replaced, that means reasons to upgrade are much the same as upgrading a car. Slightly newer style, no improvement to lifecycle.
I'll wait until they release the iPhone 9 SE, the guts of the iPhone 8 S stuffed into the form of an iPhone 5
Won't be advertised in the US, but aimed at the Asian market, you have to get it by mail order.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
This one is free.
I know, you're a Bauhaus enthusiast. And you know, I usually agree: Remove everything that's superfluous and what remains will be perfect. No frills, no fluff, no bells, no whistles. Bare bone, form follows functions approach. Absolutely agree.
You overdid it. And to make matters worse, you then went astray.
You removed features people actually didn't see as superfluous. And added some that actually are. Reverse this and you'll see people return to your product.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Why should there be some kind of surprise that the market for iPhones eventually becomes saturated? The iPhone 6s was the same as iPhone 6 with better specs, and the 7 was a 6s with better specs but without the headphone jack. The 8 is basically an improved 8, and they all look the same. They all run an identical OS. I don't want to blame Apple for the lack of innovation. The technology has now matured and Apple has found a formula that works for them, and they're sticking with it.
However, this incredible bubble has to eventually pop. When more and more people realize that their three year old iPhone looks and works the same as the new one, less and less of them will be willing to spend 700-1000USD for a new one each cycle. I can imagine upgrading from the 6, because it has only 1GB of RAM, but 6S is where I would stop upgrading iPhone because the 6s still can use wired headphones.
Yes, I would say it is indeed factually accurate to say that, with a few exceptions*, it is rare for Apple products to receive substantial numbers of lukewarm or hostile reviews from august publications.
*exceptions include Fisher-Price iMac, Desk Lamp iMac, Aluminum iMac, iPod the First, iPod the Touch, iPhone Ha Ha No Keyboard Good Luck With That, iPhone Ick You Used Plastic, iPhone Duh You Used Glass, iPhone Hurr Durr Way Too Many Pixels, iPhone Just Keep Saying AntennaGate, iPhone Horrendous Disfiguring Camera Bump Of The End Times, iPad, little iPad, big iPad, Apple Pencil for god's sake, Toilet Seat MacBook, Won't You Always Be Knocking Your Power Cord Out MacBook Pro, Why Did You Get Rid Of The Magnetic Power Cord Macbook Pro, Give Me Function Keys Or Give Me Death Macbook Pro, Pretty Much Every Other MacBook Pro Except The Original 12" Aluminum MacBook Pro But Also That One Too, Mac Pro, The Other Mac Pro, Pretty Sure There's One More Mac Pro In The Mix Here, Good Luck Doing Anything Without A Floppy Drive Mac, Good Luck Doing Anything Without An Optical Drive Mac, Good Luck Doing Anything Without A PS/2 Port Mac, The Heck Even Is A FireWire Though Mac, Oh Wait I Forgot About The Stupid Cheese Grater Mac Pro Hah Because Of All The Holes, MacBook Air, G4 Cube, Apple Watch, Magic Mouse, Apple TV, OS X, iOS, and overwhelming majority of future products yet to be created
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
It's a telephone.
No it is not a telephone. It's a handheld computer that happens to be able to make calls. HUGE difference.
Great post, grandpa! Any stories for us about how a bowl of soup used to cost just a nickle?
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
Apple's secret to success isn't hardware. It's software.
Steve Jobs said almost verbatim that "Apple is a software company" and he was right. Apple designs nice hardware but it's not really terribly different from their competition and they don't actually make much of it themselves. I could put Windows 10 on a Mac and if you didn't see the badge on the front of the box you'd have no idea you were using an Apple product. You could put Android on the iPhone hardware and you'd never know it was an Apple product. What makes Apple distinct and what enables them to charge the margins they do is the software. Apple is a software company first and foremost. They just sell their software in a pretty box with some nice hardware.
Think about what parts of the business Apple has kept. Software and design. They don't actually make any hardware themselves so they cannot be a hardware company. They have some services but really they are just to support Apple software. Apple is at their core a software company and the rest of it is just tactics to make that work.
Why should there be some kind of surprise that the market for iPhones eventually becomes saturated?
Maybe because the market for Samsung Galaxy phones does not appear to be saturated? There's this theory that companies need to compete to win sales they haven't already made.
Breakfast served all day!
You're not really that funny.
ripvlan is right, the novelty is wearing out. The "cool new things" Apple comes don't do anything that useful.
Now, time for my "remember when" story, I remember when cellphones were first affordable for teenagers, because I was a teenager then, and we got these crappy plastic Alcatel phones with two line LCD text displays, the fact they did text messaging was amazballs! _everyone_ had one. Now like the Bell phone there might some in a box somewhere, and they're free.
And sure, the future can be shiny and exciting. But how about everyone slow down for a bit and enjoy the present first?
This space unintentionally left blank.
I'm looking forward to Android 8, so I can set every app to "never show notifications" and my lockscreen can be a lockscreen with a picture and the time.
only old farts think phones can be cool anymore
love is just extroverted narcissism
Kids these days, no respect! You can call me anything you want but as long as what I'm doing is smart, like not replacing a phone until you have to, I don't give a rip what you think. My money will be me more good in the bank then wasted on a new phone every year.
Slashdot's obsession with all things Apple appears to keep driving their web traffic down. It's pathetic how this site is just a shell of what it once was.
I know...this PC I have is basically the same as the one I had 30 years ago. It still has the same stupid intel chip, it's just faster and can process graphics way better. To say that all phones since the 6 are the same because they run the same OS and the casing hasn't changed much is just plain dumb. The processor in the iPhone 8 is on par with an intel core i5...in a battery operated device. These reviews are dumb and in a month everyone will be surprised how they didn't impact sales or user experience at all and how it really is the best phone on the market. Just like every year for the last 10.
I don't want to blame Apple for the lack of innovation
TLDR; No Steve Jobs, no innovation. It happened when they fired him in the '80s, and it's happening again now, after his death.
The companies want to sell you something, so they make changes even tho they are not required or even requested. They add thigs, change things only on the basis of making changes, because they need to sell you something... it make me think about Windows media player which was great at version 6 but after that... only got poorer and poorer because they changed it when they shouldn't have. Thats the problem with our economy.
lack of support for the Dolby Atmos audio standard
I doubt there's a single consumer thinking that Dolby Atmos is a compelling reason to buy a phone.
In theaters, Dolby Atmos is a 128-channel audio coding standard with spatial metadata and auditoriums can use dozens of pairs of speakers, including overhead for accurate spatial simulation.
On a phone, it's at best a dual-stereo speaker setup, but maybe the upper stereo speakers are pointed upward. Using the same name for both is a gimmick, and honestly Atmos only offers a little bit of precision over a standard 5.1 setup.
"I can't think of a single compelling reason to upgrade [to iPhone 8, or iPhone 8 Plus] from an iPhone 7 [which was launched last year]," wrote Nilay Patel of The Verge.
Of course there's little reason to upgrade from last year's iPhone 7. The question is whether there is a reason to upgrade from a 2 year old iPhone 6s or a 3 year old iPhone 6.
The answer is No, because the iPhone 8 doesn't have a headphone jack.
I don't know why there's this narrative that the Apple market is 'saturated'. They're still growing, just more slowly.
But even if that were the case, Apple is well known for allowing its own products to cannibalize sales of its other products. There's going to be a lot of demand for the X, and so that's suppressing iPhone 8 sales. Hardly a revelation.
There are plenty of people on long update cycles now; the most common one is 'when my phone breaks'. Assuming you're actually fairly careful with your phone, you'll get iOS updates for phones as old as the iPhone 5S, which was released in 2013. iOS 11 runs well on my iPhone 6, and I plan my upgrades to be on a 4 year cycle, because that's where I think the value is. A huge number of people bought the iPhone 6, and so how many of them really feel like they need an upgrade is a bit of an open question.
There's this story that Apple fans aren't just loyal, we're fanatical to the point of nonsense, and we buy things for no reason, all the time, and that's not true. We spend our money where we think it's warranted, and we like Apple products because they're well engineered and built to last if you put in a little effort. We don't buy things that are new for the sake of buying new things. I understand this narrative is important for some people because it makes them feel like the only reason that Apple is successful is because they're good at marketing and its customers don't understand what they're doing, but I'm afraid you're just going to have to accept that there are plenty of good reasons to buy Apple's stuff on its own merits.
The iPhone 8 looks like a great phone. If this were my upgrade year, I might consider one—though I would probably also go for the X, since that feels like it has longer legs for the future. I'm sure a lot of other people are making this decision and that's probably the one Apple was expecting. Relax.
This CSPAN video where Brian Merchant talked about his book "The One Device: the secret history of the iPhone", in which he retraces the creation and development of the iPhone. What I found interesting is comparison of Jobs to Edison where he didn't invent the smartphone (or the light bulb) but many others did. https://www.c-span.org/video/?...
mfwright@batnet.com
Actually there are multiple people on Slashdot, of differring opinions. Personally I am familiar with dx0mark and never questioned it, but keep on fighting that straw man my good sir.
Not me, I hate this new MacBook "pro", or should it be called what it really is - MacBook "amateur".
Hilarious post. I checked out your game, too. The intro is pretty impressive, and the concept is also quite entertaining. I did not get into the gameplay, but I'll check it out later. Is it entirely Flash-based? Because that doesn't seem like a platform with a future, I regret to say.
"Motivational verse" just kills me. I'll have to show the gf this when she gets home.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
Apple work on the assumption that people upgrade every other year driven, in part, by the standard 2 year contracts that network operators tend to have.
The fact that last years phone isn't a big enough improvement over this years has been consistent for well over 10 years now. Admitidally skipping the S moniker has confused things - but Apple's target for the iPhone 8 are the people currently using an iPhone 6S (or earlier). In which case, the move from those devices to the 8 is a big jump.
I'm surprised that this well-worn strategy still takes reviewers (and posters on internet forums) by surprise.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
Apple practically deifies themselves to its followers, which is fine if you want the image of providing magical, revolutionary products and services. If you position yourself that way though, it becomes impossible to release a product that would otherwise be considered very standard and practical and "good enough" without getting this kind of negative response that contradicts the hype. There's nothing wrong with the stuff they put out, generally speaking, but it's hard live up to the gleaming, shiny perfection that is their marketing.
Long signatures suck.
While having a phone that is also a computer is great, it has to be affecting the marketability of these that (presumably subsidized) tablets have become so cheap. When an Amazon Fire can be had for $40 it has to make it harder to justify why a phone would be worth $1000. Sure the iPhone X is more powerful, but if the use case is Facebook and Netflix...
This narrative for some reason has traction among the irrational apple haters on slashdot, and no absolutely basis in reality.
Poor are getting poorer by getting into ever growing debt, while rich are getting richer by shifting around their Das Kapital.
The more shocking part is that there seems to have been little real-world testing of the phones, or the wifi issue would have been caught. Wherever they were using it probably had nice wifi. I think Apple's reputation for consistent quality might be declining.
Great, carry around another dongle and 54 peripherals. Elegance!
That isn't really true. We changed from candlestick phones to desk phones to princess phones to ... heck I can't remember what the phone was called, but the dial/buttons were in the handset, and this was before divestiture.
My upgrade was super easy... I went online, placed my order, and waited at the door for the UPS carrier.
This was the first "release day" iPhone that I've purchased. I didn't really need a new iPhone. My 5s is still working, but it's battery life wasn't meeting my needs. (ok, yes I could have bought many, many new batteries for the cost of my 8+ w/256Gb and Apple Care) For me the deciding factor was the A11 CPU along with the newer camera features. funny... I just bought a desktop replacement capable device that's possibly a phone (I haven't made a call from it yet).
Surfs up at the Beach...
I see a lot of Apple fans rushing to defend the company, pointing out all the times the media decried an Apple product as a poor idea or too expensive or ?? And then, people got their hands on them, decided they really liked them, and sales went through the roof anyway.
Point taken and agreed with, EXCEPT -- the post Steve Jobs Apple is notably less interesting. I think the fact is, Apple was Steve's baby. When he gave those Keynotes and gushed about some "insanely great" new idea, he really believed it was. A lot of that stuff was only allowed to be put in production because he personally approved of it (after rejecting dozens of other ideas), or dreamt it up himself in at least a basic, general way.
Tim Cook is clearly NOT the same type of guy. He doesn't dream up cool new tech ideas at night and pressure his staff to make them happen, while micro-managing that whole process. He wants to leave that to their other employees. But I don't think their other employees are quite that self-sufficient. I think the culture at Apple has been, for far too long, about taking orders from "The Steve" and finding ways to make his wishes into reality.
They got by for a while with Jobs ideas that were in the pipeline, but that's clearly run out now. And what I see now are a lot of smaller refreshes to its products, passed off as the latest upgrades. The Apple Watch is a good example. The LTE support should have been in the LAST revision - given the expectations of a watch that could do more while untethered from a phone.
AppleTV feels the same way to me. All of the updates are good, but they feel like they're about 1 revision behind where they should be. When I forked out the money to go from my last AppleTV to the version that can finally run its own apps? I'm left wondering why THAT one didn't also have 4K support in it (even if it would have cost a bit more)?
It's a telephone.
I view and use my smartphone as a highly portable computer that happens to have a phone included, not the other way around.
The headphones that came with my 8+ are wired... just not directly to a headphone jack... there's an adapter for that.
I use apple ear buds when I can't find my JVCs ergonomically the Apple buds don't seat in my ears which reduces the bass response.
You must have your reality distortion field on.
Definitely. There is only so much to be done in incremental updates at this point. Additionally, there was really nothing wrong with Touch ID, AR is not going to be the gamechanger they think it is IMHO, and an awful lot of people donâ(TM)t care to wear a watch. Take all of the fluff away and you have a phone with a better camera, a better screen, and a faster processor. Just like last year, and the year before, and the year before, and the year before. The imporovements to the iPad, though cool, donâ(TM)t change the fact that itâ(TM)s a small device; add much more and you pretty much have a laptop with a touchscreen. Ironically, with mobile, Apple and others have sort of backed themselves into a corner, recreating a wheel that they have already created. Over time, progress tends to even out after a quantum leap, and I think we are beginning to see that effect.
Dial Buttons? We had a rotary dial in our handset of our wall phone - and we liked it. We didn't get the tone button phones until the breakup. Even then, we had to set the button to simulate pulse dialing unless we wanted to pay Ma Bell an extra $5 a month for the tone service. $5 sounds like nothing today, but in 80s money that's about 2-3 hours work after the tax man takes his 40% cut.
One of Apple's biggest innovations was partnering with AT&T, Verizon, etc., to sell $1000 computers (iPhones, and to a lesser extent iPads) on an installment plan. People who would never think of doing that for a $600 laptop all of a sudden were buying $900 iPhones that way.
To run down the articles: the iPhone 8 isn't selling like a flagship Apple phone, because it's not the flagship. The iPhone X is.
The new Apple Watch is too sticky with the Wifi. Will be fixed in a patch shortly.
A phone with a mono speaker doesn't support Dolby Atmos, a technology nobody gives a rats ass about in the first place. Atmos enabled receivers have been flooding the secondary market after completely failing to justify their price premium.
Is this really the best the haters can come up with this time? No "hold your phone a certain way to reduce the signal level", no snapping the phones in half to prove that they can be snapped in half? Are you too good to bitch about the lack of a headphone jack this time, or is it because too many Android phones came out without headphone jacks in the intervening time?
I read the internet for the articles.
If iPhone 8's biggest selling point is that it can perform like a desktop Core i5, that's just a superfluous feature for most people.
The A8 SoC in the iPhone 6 is still more than satisfying for all uses most people need their iphone for. It's basically a fancy messenger and a web browser, because most apps are wrappers around a web site.
There is little change from the 7 to the 8. And, the price of the X is staggering. Granted, the AR stuff is cool. But, is the ability to create an animated emoji worth the several hundred dollars over the 8.
The Apple Watch Series 3 has a minor network issue. It will be fixed. Heck, I've seen something similar on my 6 Plus. It would be nice, when switching to a another network, to verify the signal strength AND connectivity before making the jump. Surprised this got past QA yet again.
Still, I now have a reason to consider the Series 3. But, I'm not running out yet to buy it.
That little penis-like adapter is now a part that can get lost unless left dangling off the hardware all the time.
Leave it connected to the headphones. If you use a second set of headphones, buy a second adapter for 9 bucks.
The collective slashdot whine over this non-issue is quite remarkable.
I thought you could do the same in the previous versions of Android.
I needed a phone, and wasn't impressed enough by the 8s and the X to bother waiting.
I am beyond thrilled with the SE. I was getting sick of stretching my thumb to reach stuff (That stupid "yank down" gesture is worthless).
The phone screams.
I also hear that the displays on the new phones will pretty much suck.
Geez, ya think that $1,000 (minimum starting price) for a phone isn't exactly what the market wanted?
Double Duh.
The more shocking part is that there seems to have been little real-world testing of the phones, or the wifi issue would have been caught. Wherever they were using it probably had nice wifi. I think Apple's reputation for consistent quality might be declining.
It's similar to the problem you can run into with video games, like Blizzard's WoW. It works superfast-great on the developer's test machine which is the latest top-end with max memory and a $900 video card, and connected to the WoW server with a gigabit ethernet cable.
Anyone remember the iPhone 4 external antennas that you could partially short with your finger to get worse reception? I believe that was the same basic mistake: not widely testing it. If you test it near a cell tower, you don't notice some degradation in your service, but not everybody lives and works that close.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Great, carry around another dongle and 54 peripherals. Elegance!
People use laptops in non-portable scenarios too, moron.
"I can't think of a single compelling reason to upgrade [to iPhone 8, or iPhone 8 Plus] from an iPhone 7 [which was launched last year]," wrote Nilay Patel of The Verge.
...the rest of that paragraph from The Verge article:
Of course, if you're upgrading from anything older than an iPhone 7, the improvements in the camera and the overall speed of the phone are going to really impress you.
So same as usual, most people don't upgrade yearly. Especially in the US with two year phone contracts. Nothing to see folks, move along.
You also have a lot of people waiting for the iPhone X.
I still use a 4S. ;)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
And some of those people have laptops that do it at half the cost, right out of the box. How does Daddy Cook's asshole taste? I hope he's at least paying you to shill, but I know with a lot of Apple guys it's more like a pimping arrangement where *they* pay Daddy.
You just need to accept that a phone is a phone and select one from the many brands available.
The second hand market suits you too because you could actually use a upgrade.
We knew Apple was going to have a transition period after Steve passed. It's been six years now. This deviation from engineering excellence is a loss of focus. Do one thing and do it well. I've been a Mac user since 1989. Updates are sloppy, engineering is suffering and YES they have become even more creepy with their privacy intrusions. I don't do auto updates anymore because it takes me hours to figure out what Apple has turned on by default. NO APPLE! I REALLY don't want all of my private data in your iCloud. Quit turning it on and quickly uploading my stuff before I can turn it off again.
Well, who knows..Maybe the fanboys are right and he actually is Jesus
They don't pay me, and if it's a "Pimping arrangement", the Pimp must be doing something wrong.
Most recent Apple purchases:
1. 2013: 2012 nrMacBookPro. Before that: 2005: REFURB 1.8 DP G5 Tower (before that, all Mac purchases were eBay)
2. 2015?: iPhone 6 Plus. Before that: 2011?: iPhone 4s (my first iPhone).
3. 2017: AppleTV 4. 32 GB. Purchased for cord-cutting experiment. Never owned one before.
Never purchased:
1. iPod of any kind.
2. Apple Watch.
How does that square with your delusional version of Apple users' buying habits? Out of my several Apple-using friends, not ONE of them comports with the typical Slashtard meme of "Oooh! Gotta have teh new shiny!"
Not. One.
However, my Windows-centric boss has an iPhone 7 Plus (his second iPhone), and a 2nd gen Apple Watch. He purchased the first iPhone long before I was hired, and He just came into the office wearing the Apple Watch earlier this year. I had never mentioned either to him.
Sometimes people just realize when products are good.
for years now, I thing GP is er infested by a cat parasite
"Sometimes people just realize when products are good."
And sometimes apple products are not good, but you will never admit that because you are a perennial fanboy.
you sound like a perfect candiate for the SE. Best phone they make too many happy customers.
Quality issues may have a big factor along with an absurd price of the iPhone X offered with a pitiful amount of memory. I will never buy a new product from Apple again after the pathetic quality of the iPhone 6 after going through 5 phones in 14 months Apple replace the 6 with a 6s and I finally had a decent phone again. I only consider refreshed and debugged products from them now. Really a notch introducing into the screen and pictures and videos and apps? If it works like it looks they are full of courage to think this is ok.
Well --- way back when, before even my time - you picked up the phone and said into it "I want to call Bob across town" --- or "Can you connect me with Sears catalog order dept?" and magically the call would be connected.
Then a big detour happened and the operators were replaced by dial-pads and you did it yourself.
Now we're back to talking to the operator and her name is Siri.
What's old is new again. Or is that new is old again?
Call me anything 'cept late for dinner.