technology Apple Fails to Impress Again

[Guest]

I have to say, I'm not really surprised that Tim Cook has kind of not been delivering anything spectacular at Apple. Apple who originally were the masters of passing off something that was outdated as new and innovative have now sort of become another "me too" company. A majority of their innovations now are effectively just mimicking their competitors almost down to blatantly ripping them off now. Their biggest selling points of the 6S definitely mark it as an "in between" phone as it really isn't boasting too many new features. iOS 9 comes with improved Siri, better multitasking... For iPad users (effectively making it not really a great update for phones) and superior battery life. Laughably the biggest new feature is Android migration so it's easier to make the switch from Android to iOS. While your apps obviously won't transfer over, your contacts, messages and preferences will. This isn't nearly as effective as Android to android transfer which has nearly a 100% transfer these days. The new feature is rather foreboding and just assuming success before anything is even scratched in the stone.

 

iOS certainly is not going to be introducing any features that will make Android users look with envy as the only real improvement it holds that Android does not is an improved Siri, which is hardly a selling point for Android users.

 

Apple is also heavily advertising their recently acquired Beats line.

 

On the surface the device remains the same as the 6 and the 6+ sporting the exact same screens now only with a new feature called "3D touch" which roughly just translates to "better touch screen detection". I.e. "blast processing" from the Sega Genesis era. For those who don't know what that is because you were too young or just never heard the commercials: blast processing was a term that Sega coined and used a lot during the Genesis era to compete with the Super Nintendo. Effectively blast processing meant virtually nothing. It was a marketing gimmick.

 

The 6S+ stand a smidgen taller than its 6 counterpart (0.01mm taller to be exact) but other than that you probably won't see the difference shy of that and the slightly increased weight of the device.

 

Under the hood, the phones are sporting Apple's new A9 64-bit chip with their new M9 graphics processor. While 64-bit phones are far from new nowadays they still have little to no app support, meaning that the 64-bit element of your phone will probably seldom be used. This means you will probably not notice much of a difference. While the M9 will show slight improvements during gameplay, the difference will hardly be noticeable unless running very intensive games. Unceremoniously, as usual Apple once again has not released the clock speed of this chip. Apple often seems embarrassed that in this day and age that they have never gotten a CPU on their phones to break 2GHz despite most modern phones reaching that mark and beyond. The A8 was only 1.1-1.4GHz and I am doubting that the A9 will be breaking this trend. Also unimpressively, we will be seeing another 1GB RAM device in the 6S and 6S+ as no mention of improving RAM at all.

 

The biggest improvement to the device is the camera which will finally be being bumped up to 12MP from the 8MP model Apple has been using since the 4S. The iPhone 6S and the 6S+ will also be capable of 4K video at 30FPS. This once again is not a new feature to phones, nor is it the best phone to do this. The Galaxy S6 Edge has been capble of doing this since its August release. To top that, the S6 Edge+ Also has a superior screen resolution for viewing captured video, making it a better viewfinder. Apple is literally still on 1080p while even the Nexus devices have surpassed that over a year ago.

 

Essentially this upgrade is rather just a bit of playing "catch up" with competitors that are innovating the market. With Apple's iPod line slowly dying and OSX not really showing any noticeable market changes since the success of Windows 10, Apple may be in trouble in keeping a handle on their market share if they lose any loyalists.

 

Despite the obvious cash grab though, it does not stop Apple loyalists from lining up to want the phone. Just at my Best Buy Mobile store, I already have people coming in asking about pre-ordering the device. One gentleman stated he was returning his brand new Galaxy S6 that he literally just bought 2 days ago so he could get the new iPhone. When I asked why, he clearly did not even know anything about the new iPhone just that Apple had announced one.

 

This spoke to me about the common Apple user: they do not care about even knowing what they're buying so long as it has an Apple logo. As this man assured me that despite not knowing anything about the device, he was certain he wanted it and that it would be just right for him.

 

It never amazes me, truly it doesn't.

 

What are your thoughts on this iPhone 6S and 6S+ release?

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,331]

I am an iphone user but I really don't care which smart phone I use as long as it's at least somewhat usable. My problem with apple products and iOS in general is the fact that they release new updates and phones practically every five seconds. It's probably due to the whole trying to catch up think you mentioned. Not to mention that Apple products are always so overpriced. If I do end up getting the 6S, it will either be years down the road or not at all.

[Guest]

I am an iphone user but I really don't care which smart phone I use as long as it's at least somewhat usable. My problem with apple products and iOS in general is the fact that they release new updates and phones practically every five seconds. It's probably due to the whole trying to catch up think you mentioned. Not to mention that Apple products are always so overpriced. If I do end up getting the 6S, it will either be years down the road or not at all.

Why not make the switch to Android? The Galaxy devices are killing the market, they get excellent support and you get such a huge range of customization because of how big Android has gotten. Android is so huge now that the amount of software available for it exceeds iOS. I had an iPhone back in the 3GS days and while it served my needs then, it was only a month or two before I was looking at Android devices with better capabilities than me.

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,331]

Why not make the switch to Android? The Galaxy devices are killing the market, they get excellent support and you get such a huge range of customization because of how big Android has gotten. Android is so huge now that the amount of software available for it exceeds iOS. I had an iPhone back in the 3GS days and while it served my needs then, it was only a month or two before I was looking at Android devices with better capabilities than me.

Eh, mostly because I don't put smart phones as a top priority for my personal needs since I'm more of a computer person so my phone use is for calling, texting, and back up internet. Plus I'm on a 2 year plan that's not up yet. Maybe once that's up I can give the switch a try.

[Envy 6,182]

I find it to be incredibly unlikely that 6S will be the newest phone in a year and a half when our contract is up, so I'm not really concerned with it.

 

What I am concerned with is their changes to the Music app, which have really screwed everything up. I've always used my iPhones and previously iPods to listen to music at my work, I have enough music I regularly listen to at any given time to fill up an entire workweek with their shuffle feature.

 

Problem is... With iOS 8.4 they completely messed up this feature that they've always been so good with. After finding out how to shuffle all of my music again, which was something they hid with 8.4, much to my horror I discovered that the shuffle mechanism has been messed up from its very foundation.

 

It may pool from my entire library to shuffle, but it doesn't shuffle through all of it. Instead, it selects some number of songs (100 - 200?) and shuffles through them, and then when you reach through a certain point in that shuffle, it will start repeating those songs again. And again. And again. Literally. I saw it play the same song twice in ten skips.

 

Hate to use this overused joke, but it's very true in this case... You had one job, Apple. If you saw any of my posts prior to this update, you'd see me having no complaints over the iPhone whatsoever. I was a perfectly happy little customer paying out of her butt for the simplicity... But now it's gone.

 

They better fix this.

Edited September 11, 2015 by Envy

[Guest]

 

 

What I am concerned with is their changes to the Music app,

 

This was one thing I can admit I missed when I switched to Android. Android's default music app is clunky, and I don't like having to drag all of my music from file to file to load onto my phone. I also did not really want to invest in Winamp or the other music programs so I could sync better because that would mean switching my music player on my PC as well. I also hated how ugly these other apps look on top of how they seem to fail to hold onto ID3 tags so I end up losing my album arts and whatnot when I move stuff around.

 

Fortunately, I found a nice program that syncs my iTunes library to my Nexus 5, but it has a few hiccups now and then. It still annoys me though that the apps are relatively slow in that they eat up resources and aren't as smooth as iTunes was.

 

 

 

It may pool from my entire library to shuffle, but it doesn't shuffle through all of it. Instead, it selects some number of songs (100 - 200?) and shuffles through them, and then when you reach through a certain point in that shuffle, it will start repeating those songs again. And again. And again. Literally. I saw it play the same song twice in ten skips.

 

Android music players (like Rocketplayer which is what I use) have a similar issue. They will pool all of your music for shuffle... But they don't know enough to not repeat songs. The old iOS music app used to just shuffle the entire song list and not play any song twice, I do miss that. It's a minor issue, but still annoying.

 

 

 

Hate to use this overused joke, but it's very true in this case... You had one job, Apple.

 

Sadly... It's true. You make one device. You have no excuse for it to not be amazing out of the gate.

 

 

 

If you saw any of my posts prior to this update, you'd see me having no complaints over the iPhone whatsoever. I was a perfectly happy little customer paying out of her butt for the simplicity... But now it's gone.

 

The problem is that simplicity has been achieved by competitors now for lower prices, so now Apple is thinking "okay, let's make things more complex then!" so they can set themselves apart again, but that's basically just doing the opposite of what your competitors are doing just for the sake of being "different". 

[deadprofile 1,122]

I don't have anything other than an Ipod that is an Apple Product. I see no appeal to the Iphone anymore because the competators are very similar in what they offer, most often at a fraction of the price. I like how Steve Jobs was against a stylus, and now they came out with a stylus....

[Envy 6,182]

Android music players (like Rocketplayer which is what I use) have a similar issue. They will pool all of your music for shuffle... But they don't know enough to not repeat songs. The old iOS music app used to just shuffle the entire song list and not play any song twice, I do miss that. It's a minor issue, but still annoying.

 

---

 

The problem is that simplicity has been achieved by competitors now for lower prices, so now Apple is thinking "okay, let's make things more complex then!" so they can set themselves apart again, but that's basically just doing the opposite of what your competitors are doing just for the sake of being "different". 

 

You say that the simplicity has been achieved by the competitors, but you mention that your Android doesn't shuffle music properly either.

 

It is not minor for me, it is a MAJOR issue. It is so irritating to see the same song repeated over and over again, and have other songs that I love not ever come up in the shuffle even though they're in my library and set to shuffle.

 

It is supposed to shuffle through the entire library once and then stop, so you can start it again. But honestly, I don't know what in the world the shuffle in iOS 8.4 even is. I can't formulate how it even works. It doesn't even shuffle through all of the songs it decided to add to the shuffle session before repeating songs it's already played (hopefully that makes sense.)

 

It has gotten on my last nerve! I suspect it's all to try to goad us over to their Apple Music/radio service. But nope, that won't work for me. I have limited data. I don't want to use it anyway. I paid for my music, let me listen it!

[Guest]

 

 

You say that the simplicity has been achieved by the competitors, but you mention that your Android doesn't shuffle music properly either.

 

 

Relative simplicity I suppose. Some features are obviously not perfected I guess.

 

 

 

I paid for my music, let me listen it!

 

I hate how this is the mentality that manufacturers are trying to crush. They don't want you to own anything anymore, they want you to just pay to use it and give them the ability to take it away when they feel necessary. Give me my damn stuff and get the hell out of my house, Apple! 

[Envy 6,182]

 

 

Relative simplicity I suppose. Some features are obviously not perfected I guess.

 

 

 

 

I hate how this is the mentality that manufacturers are trying to crush. They don't want you to own anything anymore, they want you to just pay to use it and give them the ability to take it away when they feel necessary. Give me my damn stuff and get the hell out of my house, Apple! 

 

 

Well, I'm just saying their 'simplicity' isn't up to par for me, then. =/

 

Sadly, from what I gather, listening to these custom radios is gaining a lot of steam. At work, I'm the only one I know that actually listens to their own library, save for those who are listening through their MP3 players.

 

I really have no problem with that, actually. If that's what they want to listen to, fine. But I like having my own music (a good portion of which can't even be found on the iTunes store). Really can't understand why Apple would go and screw up something so simple.

[Guest]

 

 

Really can't understand why Apple would go and screw up something so simple.

 

The answer is simple: stripping customers of ownership and forcing them to use all cloud based stuff is more profitable! Don't let people use anything that they own because that means they aren't paying subscription fees to do normal every day things that they've done for free for years!

[Envy 6,182]

The answer is simple: stripping customers of ownership and forcing them to use all cloud based stuff is more profitable! Don't let people use anything that they own because that means they aren't paying subscription fees to do normal every day things that they've done for free for years!

 

Again, I just don't get it. I must have purchased hundreds of songs from iTunes. It's not like they haven't gotten money for the music in my library.

[Guest]

Again, I just don't get it. I must have purchased hundreds of songs from iTunes. It's not like they haven't gotten money for the music in my library.

But now they can make you pay a monthly fee to listen to songs. This ensures you keep giving them money. :3

[Nerdy Luigi 2,065]

What else is new? Apple is only getting FURTHER behind.

[Envy 6,182]

Relative simplicity I suppose. Some features are obviously not perfected I guess.

 

Sorry to bump this dead topic up, but I just have to put this in another perspective.

 

It's just not fair to frame this as a feature that is not perfected. I got an iPod Nano back in Spring of 2006 - 9 and a half years ago. And guess what? It did Shuffling just fine! It shuffled through whatever you told it to. It did not repeat songs. It shuffled through the entire list of songs before repeating any. Simple.

 

This feature was perfected back when even the idea of cameras and internet on cell phones was absurd (back when we called them "cell phones". Lol). There is no excuse for this.

 

I updated to iOS9. It shows a "Shuffle All" ...button(?) but I'm not sure if it functions any differently from the new 'system' of shuffling. I'll have to wait until next week to find out. =/ But I'm not trusting it for one second because last night when I shuffled with it, it still didn't show what number song it was on... There can't be a bigger red flag than that.

[Guest]

Sorry to bump this dead topic up, but I just have to put this in another perspective.

 

It's just not fair to frame this as a feature that is not perfected. I got an iPod Nano back in Spring of 2006 - 9 and a half years ago. And guess what? It did Shuffling just fine! It shuffled through whatever you told it to. It did not repeat songs. It shuffled through the entire list of songs before repeating any. Simple.

 

This feature was perfected back when even the idea of cameras and internet on cell phones was absurd (back when we called them "cell phones". Lol). There is no excuse for this.

 

I updated to iOS9. It shows a "Shuffle All" ...button(?) but I'm not sure if it functions any differently from the new 'system' of shuffling. I'll have to wait until next week to find out. =/ But I'm not trusting it for one second because last night when I shuffled with it, it still didn't show what number song it was on... There can't be a bigger red flag than that.

I guess Apple just decided to reinvent the wheel. I could not explain to you their motivation to change a feature that was working quite well and had zero complaints. My wife still has an 7th gen nano that does it quite well, but Apple just baffles me.

[Envy 6,182]

I guess Apple just decided to reinvent the wheel. I could not explain to you their motivation to change a feature that was working quite well and had zero complaints. My wife still has an 7th gen nano that does it quite well, but Apple just baffles me.

 

More like destroy the wheel. The shuffle feature is officially broken now. =/

[Guest]

More like destroy the wheel. The shuffle feature is officially broken now. =/

I haven't used iOS outside of work for years now, but does Apple allow for alternate media players to be installed on their iPhone and iPod Touch lines now? I know on Android you can just solve the problem by getting different media players and even find iTunes clones.

[Envy 6,182]

I haven't used iOS outside of work for years now, but does Apple allow for alternate media players to be installed on their iPhone and iPod Touch lines now? I know on Android you can just solve the problem by getting different media players and even find iTunes clones.

 

I believe they do, but it's just kind of stupid to have to do that... I wouldn't even know where to start.

[Guest]

I believe they do, but it's just kind of stupid to have to do that... I wouldn't even know where to start.

I would check the app store. Nothing lasts forever sadly, so at least there is alternatives.