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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.
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
Qi charging
That's cute. I remember when I got my first phone with wireless Qi charging (Nexus 4) five years ago
2nd worst.