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Apple Corporation is Bad for Technology


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Their products are all premium priced , but how does that sustain growth?

They are likely at or near a saturation point that would stifle growth anyway regardless of pricing. The phones are so good now, that the amount of improvement model to model is getting smaller. You're seeing 35% faster now, rather than 400%. Do you really need that yet for your 2 yr old phone? Probably not. What Apple sold every two years is probably getting stretched to 3 years.

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A few years ago Apple released an iPhone 5C which was a discounted version of the premium model.

I'm not sure how that model sold but there was no iPhone 6C. This year Apple did release and Apple 6 SE which is basically an iPhone 6 with the old 4" look. Not mention last week of a discounted version of the iPhone 7.

I guess Apple's philosophy is that discounted iPhones are the older versions. People can probably get $0 iPhone 6's already with a contract. Which is pretty much the same think you do with top of the line HTC, Samsung or LG phones.

But you can still buy unlocked Android phones for $200 or so and they pretty much do that job.

Edited by Boges
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I guess Apple's philosophy is that discounted iPhones are the older versions. People can probably get $0 iPhone 6's already with a contract. Which is pretty much the same think you do with top of the line HTC, Samsung or LG phones.

I got one in March like that. You've been able to for over 6 months. The iPhone 6 is fine yet anyway.

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My wife's phone contract is up and she asked me what I could tell her about the iPhone 7 especially in contrast to her 5s. When I mentioned the headphone jack, she was unfazed, and declared that to be a complete non-issue.

Why? Because she's literally never used the headphone jack on her phone!! I suspect users like her are the ones Apple is looking at when they decided the headphone jack wasn't needed anymore. Not unlike when (not too long ago) Apple dropped DVD drives from Macs. Some people complained, but the important factor was that optical discs were on their way out and many people at that point already didn't use them at all.

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Because she's literally never used the headphone jack on her phone!!

I don't know if Apple tracks it, but iOS does know when a headphone jack is in use. If they wanted to, they could track what percentage of phones actually use the jack, and for what percentage of time. It would be interesting to know if they do this, and what the results were. If it could be combined with demographics, it would be even more interesting. I suspect kids in school, public transit users, and joggers would have the highest usage.

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Smartphones are just a platform, like computers. They will continue to get incrementally better and faster, but their uses are limited by whatever humans come up with. When was the last time you were "amazed" by a computer program? Are these programs there to amaze you or just to allow you to do useful things?

Seems like the next thing a lot of big companies are looking into to try to "amaze" people is VR and AR. VR looks pretty cool but the applications seem limited for now. VR gaming is not great cause no one has come up with a good control scheme, and VR video lacks engaging content (you can only look at soaring landscapes and cityscapes for so long). VR porn is pretty good, though. As for AR, Pokemon Go had some initial success but the fad quickly wore off... people will need to come up with applications that have real usefulness.

If you used VR at all you would slap yourself for saying much of this.

I've been messing with VR for a couple weeks now, and I gotta tell you, even at this stage VR technology has hit the ground running and is the future of computer interaction. The hardware is very good and will only get better. I've tried both the Occulous Rift and the Vive. The Occulous has better graphic resolution/quality than the Vive, and will be coming out with controllers soon. The Vive allows you to really get in the game. Valve's The Lab is a great showcase of the technology and interaction.

VR desktop apps are a bit crude but allow a nice 360 environment which gives it an almost Minority Report feel. VR IS amazing, and can only be experienced. The way I explain it is like walking into that kick ass arcade when you were a kid. It's a new exciting world with lots of possibilities.

Also there is a lot of engaging content for VR, I suggest just looking through Steam for many of those applications.

Pokemon Go was always going to be short term as it was a test to see how people would take to AR.

I am currently looking at how to get my music programs working in VR and will be able to create new 'instruments' in VR.

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even at this stage VR technology has hit the ground running and is the future of computer interaction

Where do you see the applications? Certainly gaming, and some other real (or pseudo) world simulation is a possibility. For many of us however, that is a very minor part of computer interaction (in my case way less than 1%). There are still large obstacles to overcome for many real world simulation environments, because almost all involve a local real physical environment as well (aircraft cockpit, power plant control room, etc.) that doesn't mesh with todays VR.

While I have seen some demos about information navigation, they have all been contrived and don't necessarily fit into the real world. The only applications I am aware of that offer promise is when robotics are involved for remote telepresence.

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Apple is finally getting around to releasing their new fully wireless earphones. They're separate earpieces known as Airpods. Anyone that has any logical bone in their body would realize that these small things would be super easy to lose. 

Apple to the rescue with their $10 Airpod straps!!!!

http://promo.spigen.com/product/iphone-7-iphone-7-plus-airpods-strap-copy/

:lol:

Edited by Boges
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34 minutes ago, Boges said:

Apple is finally getting around to releasing their new fully wireless earphones. They're separate earpieces known as Airpods. Anyone that has any logical bone in their body would realize that these small things would be super easy to lose. 

Apple to the rescue with their $10 Airpod straps!!!!

http://promo.spigen.com/product/iphone-7-iphone-7-plus-airpods-strap-copy/

:lol:

Not an Apple product. I think Apple is counting on a bunch of people with only one earphone so they can keep selling them new sets.

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Just picked up a Galaxy S7. Not the one that explodes. (Never buy an LG phone, my previous phone was an LG G4 and 8 months before the contract was up it bricked itself due to something called a Bootloop)

Decided to see how flagship phones stack up. 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2016/12/18/iphone-7-vs-galaxy-s7-review-should-you-upgrade/#7b29b4c54c9c

It appears that the talk about scrapping the earphone jack to increase performance elsewhere is a total lie. It's all about locking down a new market with lightening port earphones. 

Quote

But of course it’s impossible to evaluate iPhone 7 design without spending some time on its most controversial aspect: the removal of the headphone jack. For some this will be a deal breaker, for others no big deal, but what I will say is Apple’s reasons for excluding it (water resistance, bigger battery, age) are nonsense.

The Galaxy S7 is an objectively better phone. But I've realized something, even though I had a bad experience with LG built phones (even though the actual usability is superior) I'm stuck in an Android trap. Much like Apple users are trapped in their own Apple vortex. 

My entire mobile tech life is built around Google Products Maps, Gmail, Google Play Music etc. Downloading the Google Now Launcher even restored my App setup on my new phone. I suspect Apple users have the same experience. Both Google and Apple are excellent at keeping customers reliant on their hardware. And I would never want to start over on the surplus Micro USB chargers I have. 

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10 minutes ago, The_Squid said:

I buy older versions when my phone packs it in.  Much cheaper.  Spending $600 on a phone seems absurd when next year it'll be $100.

I bought a battery for $12 and a small charger card/port for $8 when my phone quit, and it is now almost 2 years later and the phone is still working fine.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 17 February, 2017 at 6:17 PM, The_Squid said:

I buy older versions when my phone packs it in.  Much cheaper.  Spending $600 on a phone seems absurd when next year it'll be $100.

$900 actually. If you're happy with your mobile provider's package then you can easily get a year old phone free. The retail price of smart phones are a bit of shell game. Providers make the money on selling you data plans not hardware. 

But since we're in a thread ripping Apple. They're the users that seem eager to go for the latest greatest Apple product and pay more than they need to for it. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/1/2017 at 1:50 PM, Boges said:

$900 actually. If you're happy with your mobile provider's package then you can easily get a year old phone free. The retail price of smart phones are a bit of shell game. Providers make the money on selling you data plans not hardware. 

But since we're in a thread ripping Apple. They're the users that seem eager to go for the latest greatest Apple product and pay more than they need to for it. 

One of the problems I see with the lower technology future, is that after the financial crash, I saw people who were trying to make do with less, have their homes seized by the local governments. You can scrimp and save in the way our parents or grandparents did, but the mayors and police chiefs and school superintendents and the connected crony purveyors of sprawl have your property hostage, and they require a king’s ransom in order for them to continue to live the lives of luxury they’ve become accustomed to, at our expense.

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