Just updated my 4 year old 6 Plus and indeed the whole experience is indeed noticeably smoother and more responsive.
Quite impressive actually that they went for lean/effcient programming if you realise that the the current phones are so much (4 times? more?) quicker, and I am happy that I can use my phone comfortably for another year, maybe 2, and delay investing in a new phone a bit longer.
I thought about treating my wife and me on an XR or XS by Xmas, but that can wait another year. My main attraction for new phones is the much improved camera, and that improves noticeably every generation.
I find it rather petty to complain about the naming convention, Xs Plus would have been more logical to me, but Xs Max isn't really worse, just different.
The area that does disappoint me however (and I am a longtime generally happy Apple user), is that even by the incremental improvement standard set by the "s" phone releases, this one does seem a particularly timid nano-incremental improvement. Screen, camera and processing are a bit better, and I think that's about it. Nothing really fresh.
The Apple Watch v4, now that had an interesting and substantial innovation: the ECG/EKG function in a small device for general consumer use. Now that was cool and points to the future of the Apple watch becoming more and more a complete health monitor / coach.
Sadly, I didn't see anything fresh like that in the current new phones. The XR could be ok to replace my relatively old 6 Plus for price reasons, but I hope that my current phone holds out another year to see what the next generation brings.
Unless I misunderstood, it has one traditional SIM like all iphomes always had, you can use that when buying a SIM on holiday for example. The second one is inside the device.
Hence I don’t see it as a lock down issue.
I currently live in Hong Kong and notice that the ECG feature is not mentioned on the local Apple site. Probably it needs to pass local certification and regulation to be activated wherever it is being sold. I do assume that the feature can be turned on remotely whenever it is certified for local use. A pity really.
The less expensive XR will be selling a lot, I think.
Has the FaceID which many people find cool, a good enough screen, and similar processor power as the flagship models.
Well, I became an engineer - that tech interest was in me since early on.
And somehow I ended up being a specialist of the ISO 20022 financial messaging standard. Which is interesting on its own, even while it ain't space exploring.
"I'd like to see kids growing up, instead of maybe wanting to be like a professional sports star, I'd like to see them grow up wanting to be a NASA astronaut, or a NASA scientist,"
Small anecdote: I remember almost nothing from my early childhood except this trauma from when I was 5-6 years old:
Teacher asked us what we wanted to as grown up. Other kids said things like policeman, baker, etc. I said “astronaut!”. Teacher immediately replied “Impossible, you wear glasses!”
Looking back, while she was right, she shouldn’t have crushed an early childhood dream so quickly and thoroughly.
We’ll know tomorrow for sure, but it could be that the ipad port stays in lightning form and that the charger has a USBC connector. Wouldn’t seem unreasonable to me.
Tangentially to the issue at hand, I once read about someone whose family name was Null, and it indeed regularly caused issues when his name was entered in some databases.
This trilogy is indeed impressive and highly original, I can see how it got these awards.
Well I will be honest, I enjoyed the first two volumes and have only recently started the concluding book that won this yearâ(TM)s award, though I expect it to be on the same high level.
I actually thought that fantasy was not for me, and only started these books due to the recommendation of a friend whose taste is aligned to me, and it was a discovery.
Volume 1 has superb alterning stoylines that come terrifically well together.
It is fantasy but not traditional. I prefer not to spoil anything.
Of course compensation is important. But a job you like doing is equally important for a meaningful life.
Think about the hours you spend at work, commuting and sleeping. Not that much time left for other things. Meaning, your work is a big part of your life. It is in my opinion important to spend it on work you like doing, otherwise life would become miserable.
I have a friend in a rather boring job who says: “I work to make other things possible”. Such as a nice holiday destination etc. But at the same time he doesn’t enjoy most of his waking hours.
I work at my 3rd employer, since this month I work there for 20 years. Yes, the compensation is ok, but I only stayed so long because most of the time I truly enjoy it, find it interesting, challenging and with opportunities to meet great people.
There is a beautiful french expression, translated:
"When the disgusted one have gone, the disgusting ones are left."
But that was not the core reason for me. Rather a matter of earning more in an interesting environment with growth potential, and with a more healthy work-life balance than my previous job.
On August 1 I will be 20 years in my current company.
Well, it is a rumor, lets see (probably) in September what will be true. FaceID only working vertically would be a bit of a pain, considering that Apple, like them or not, tend to aim for simplicity it looks well possible that this rumor won't happen.
Regarding the headphone jack, yeah it is a bit annoying though the little dongle which you can leave attached to your favourite cans is not that much of a burden, and I also have the impression that the Airpods are being used by more and more people (I may adopt them once they come with noise reduction, currently use a wired Bose headphone with that functionality). So, not that many customers will be lost I think.
I expect that a bigger change will come in 2-3 years: phones and tablets without any physical connectors (charging would be wireless). Not only by Apple but I expect all the main makers. A feature that would actually help privacy but of course wired cans and data transfers will be impossible as well.
SpaceX's recent launch of a Tesla vehicle as proof of concept was cool, perhaps poetic and arty even, but not the most impressive part: I have to admit that my jaw dropped open when I saw 2 of the 3 rockets returning and landing again (3rd one was lost). I found it a triumph of good engineering, really impressive that it actually worked considering the rocket shape and gigantic powers involved.
There is a catch however. Sensors work best with light falling perpendicular on it, not with light falling under an angle in the corners, like from a symmetric wide angle lens that was close to the image plane. This was much less an in issue in the age of film. Leica has a special layer of microlenses on the sensor of its M camera to compensate this for those who use their old lenses. I once saw a diagram of the sony rx1 lens and it had plenty of rear elements, I assume to get the light falling perpendicular on the sensor edges.
The top EVFs, for example in Leica SL or the top Fuji APS camera) are really quite good these days, very high resolution, no latency, with a button you can magnify the center which is good for manual focus when needed, you can immediately get an idea of exposure and white balance.
The one disadvantage I noticed is usage in high contrast situations like on a very sunny day.
Slashdot Mirror
Just updated my 4 year old 6 Plus and indeed the whole experience is indeed noticeably smoother and more responsive.
Quite impressive actually that they went for lean/effcient programming if you realise that the the current phones are so much (4 times? more?) quicker, and I am happy that I can use my phone comfortably for another year, maybe 2, and delay investing in a new phone a bit longer.
I thought about treating my wife and me on an XR or XS by Xmas, but that can wait another year. My main attraction for new phones is the much improved camera, and that improves noticeably every generation.
Excellent dystopian novel. Also semi-apocalyptic. The endpoint of extreme capitalism.
I find it rather petty to complain about the naming convention, Xs Plus would have been more logical to me, but Xs Max isn't really worse, just different.
The area that does disappoint me however (and I am a longtime generally happy Apple user), is that even by the incremental improvement standard set by the "s" phone releases, this one does seem a particularly timid nano-incremental improvement. Screen, camera and processing are a bit better, and I think that's about it. Nothing really fresh.
The Apple Watch v4, now that had an interesting and substantial innovation: the ECG/EKG function in a small device for general consumer use. Now that was cool and points to the future of the Apple watch becoming more and more a complete health monitor / coach.
Sadly, I didn't see anything fresh like that in the current new phones. The XR could be ok to replace my relatively old 6 Plus for price reasons, but I hope that my current phone holds out another year to see what the next generation brings.
Unless I misunderstood, it has one traditional SIM like all iphomes always had, you can use that when buying a SIM on holiday for example. The second one is inside the device. Hence I don’t see it as a lock down issue.
Afaik, it only works with an iphone.
I currently live in Hong Kong and notice that the ECG feature is not mentioned on the local Apple site. Probably it needs to pass local certification and regulation to be activated wherever it is being sold. I do assume that the feature can be turned on remotely whenever it is certified for local use.
A pity really.
The less expensive XR will be selling a lot, I think. Has the FaceID which many people find cool, a good enough screen, and similar processor power as the flagship models.
Well, I became an engineer - that tech interest was in me since early on. And somehow I ended up being a specialist of the ISO 20022 financial messaging standard. Which is interesting on its own, even while it ain't space exploring.
"I'd like to see kids growing up, instead of maybe wanting to be like a professional sports star, I'd like to see them grow up wanting to be a NASA astronaut, or a NASA scientist,"
Small anecdote: I remember almost nothing from my early childhood except this trauma from when I was 5-6 years old:
Teacher asked us what we wanted to as grown up. Other kids said things like policeman, baker, etc. I said “astronaut!”. Teacher immediately replied “Impossible, you wear glasses!”
Looking back, while she was right, she shouldn’t have crushed an early childhood dream so quickly and thoroughly.
We’ll know tomorrow for sure, but it could be that the ipad port stays in lightning form and that the charger has a USBC connector. Wouldn’t seem unreasonable to me.
It seems that many people find it useful.
Mechanical watches are charming. Yes, quaint but fascinating that something without electronics can be accurate to a few seconds per day. Beautiful.
Tangentially to the issue at hand, I once read about someone whose family name was Null, and it indeed regularly caused issues when his name was entered in some databases.
Actually the rotating bezel is a simple way to time pasta cooking etc.
Have you actually READ the winning trilogy? I read lots of SF and found it remarkably well crafted.
Have you actually READ the winning trilogy?
This trilogy is indeed impressive and highly original, I can see how it got these awards.
Well I will be honest, I enjoyed the first two volumes and have only recently started the concluding book that won this yearâ(TM)s award, though I expect it to be on the same high level.
I actually thought that fantasy was not for me, and only started these books due to the recommendation of a friend whose taste is aligned to me, and it was a discovery.
Volume 1 has superb alterning stoylines that come terrifically well together. It is fantasy but not traditional. I prefer not to spoil anything.
Of course compensation is important. But a job you like doing is equally important for a meaningful life.
Think about the hours you spend at work, commuting and sleeping. Not that much time left for other things. Meaning, your work is a big part of your life. It is in my opinion important to spend it on work you like doing, otherwise life would become miserable.
I have a friend in a rather boring job who says: “I work to make other things possible”. Such as a nice holiday destination etc. But at the same time he doesn’t enjoy most of his waking hours.
I work at my 3rd employer, since this month I work there for 20 years. Yes, the compensation is ok, but I only stayed so long because most of the time I truly enjoy it, find it interesting, challenging and with opportunities to meet great people.
A good use case I read about was was property records in countries with high corruption.
With asshole colleagues with your attitude to different opinions, indeed good that he left.
There is a beautiful french expression, translated:
"When the disgusted one have gone, the disgusting ones are left."
But that was not the core reason for me. Rather a matter of earning more in an interesting environment with growth potential, and with a more healthy work-life balance than my previous job.
On August 1 I will be 20 years in my current company.
Well, it is a rumor, lets see (probably) in September what will be true. FaceID only working vertically would be a bit of a pain, considering that Apple, like them or not, tend to aim for simplicity it looks well possible that this rumor won't happen.
Regarding the headphone jack, yeah it is a bit annoying though the little dongle which you can leave attached to your favourite cans is not that much of a burden, and I also have the impression that the Airpods are being used by more and more people (I may adopt them once they come with noise reduction, currently use a wired Bose headphone with that functionality). So, not that many customers will be lost I think.
I expect that a bigger change will come in 2-3 years: phones and tablets without any physical connectors (charging would be wireless). Not only by Apple but I expect all the main makers. A feature that would actually help privacy but of course wired cans and data transfers will be impossible as well.
SpaceX's recent launch of a Tesla vehicle as proof of concept was cool, perhaps poetic and arty even, but not the most impressive part: I have to admit that my jaw dropped open when I saw 2 of the 3 rockets returning and landing again (3rd one was lost). I found it a triumph of good engineering, really impressive that it actually worked considering the rocket shape and gigantic powers involved.
There is a catch however. Sensors work best with light falling perpendicular on it, not with light falling under an angle in the corners, like from a symmetric wide angle lens that was close to the image plane. This was much less an in issue in the age of film. Leica has a special layer of microlenses on the sensor of its M camera to compensate this for those who use their old lenses. I once saw a diagram of the sony rx1 lens and it had plenty of rear elements, I assume to get the light falling perpendicular on the sensor edges.
The top EVFs, for example in Leica SL or the top Fuji APS camera) are really quite good these days, very high resolution, no latency, with a button you can magnify the center which is good for manual focus when needed, you can immediately get an idea of exposure and white balance. The one disadvantage I noticed is usage in high contrast situations like on a very sunny day.