Each Year, I Say This Year's iPhone Is The Perfect One But I Always End Up Upgrading The Follow Year

There is something about Apple's method of upgrading its iOS devices that has made me upgrade each and every single year since the original iPhone except for the 3GS.  What is it about each year's upgrade that compelled me to do this?  And it's not just me.  Others I know as well.

Granted that for those locked into contracts, I get that your upgrade cycle might be different.  Of course, you can still upgrade like I do by buying the iPhone outright from Apple or your carrier, paying for the full price.  I do this by convincing myself that I'm worth it.  And for the most part, I'm frugal and I hardly splurge.  On top of that, my $30 T-Mobile plan likely has your $70+ plan beaten.

Still, once the iPhone 4 came out, I have said to myself, "5 megapixel camera.  That's good enough.  And it's retina display.  How much better can it be for the next one?  What? 4S?"

I think it over and this was even before the 4S is close to being out.  I loved my iPhone 4.

Then the 4S.  Crap. Siri.  8 Megapixel but better lens too.  Siri.  Wow.  The promise of a digital assistant with artificial intelligence.  I gotta get that.  Plus, like my mom said about the iPhone 4S, "it's Steve Jobs' last iPhone".

Then the iPhone 5.  Bigger screen.  Even better camera without upping the pixel count.  This is too much of a draw.  The disappointing thing was that the battery life did not improve.  Oh well, still, lighter, runs all of the latest and greatest of iOS 6.  GPS turn-by-turn was awesome even though Apple Maps was doing more damages to buildings than giant Japanese monsters ever dreamed of.  Plus, I had a couple of friends who I was trying to convince to get into Apple's ecosystem.  And the more I told them about the virtues of Apple's ecosystem and pointed out the bad things about it, I was convinced of upgrading by my own arguments.  So, I upgraded it.

Now, the iPhone 5s.  Boy.  Not a whole lot to write home about right now if you only follow the tech and financial blogs.  But if you truly were spend a bit of time going over the iPhone 5s introduction, you'd realize that the iPhone 5s may actually be Apple's most "forward looking" device and not a Steve Jobs-less reality distortion field at work.

A newer innovative camera system to make it one of the best on the market - even better than some point-and-shoot cameras.  Forget the 64-bit architecture and what it means for the future but its M7 coprocessor is just waiting for the right apps to take advantage of it.  Then there's the ability to take advantage of the newly redeveloped UI in iOS 7.

Now, I'm not all that drawn to the new color schemes with the silver, space gray, and gold.  So, that would not convince me one bit.  Nor is the slight improvement in the battery life.  Yes, we did get an improvement from 8 hours under LTE use in the iPhone 5 to 10 hours in the 5s, over all, I was expecting much more.

Sounds like a draw, right?  I got some of what I want and some stuff that left me wanting in the 5s.  Well, in the grand scheme of things, we are still talking about a whole new mobile experience if you're willing to look at what the future Apple is offering with the 5s.

There is one thing that sort of pushed me over to upgrading to the iPhone 5s:  it's that my iPhone 5 is limited to only 16 GB.  It's not where nearly enough.  I have had to compromise my mobile experience by deleting apps or not installing some apps because I just don't have the space for them.

I'm planning on ordering the 64 GB version come midnight Friday this week.  I think with the new camera, iOS 7, 64-bit chip with the M7 coprocessor, and more storage, I see the beginning of a new dawn of a whole new mobile experience.

As for iPhone 6?  New form factor.  Bigger screen a possibility.  128 GB storage.  iOS 8.  And who knows what new camera or battery experience, I don't know.  I think we may be visiting this upgrade issue again.

Siri Still Needs Work - Does Not Deserve To Be Out Of Beta

Lots of chatter this weekend about No more beta references about Siri on Apple's digital assistant's page. Frankly, I had always assumed that Siri will stay in perpetual beta because of the nature of the service and its on-going learning process.

So with Apple giving the official work, I thought there was only one way to find out.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Still Undecided About iPhone Event, Post-Jobs Apple

I'm willing to give Tim Cook the benefit of the doubt. It's why I am undecided about last week's iPhone 5s and 5c event. And as far as I'm concerned, I'm still iffy on the Cook era so far in areas of innovation, Apple's influence on mobile, and Apple's role as a technology leader.

Here is the thing. We elect president to a four-year term in the United States. Through all the crap that cable TV says about this and that, the American electorate doesn't make its final judgment until the whole term had nearly been served. And Cook is still early in his term.

So, I'm still digesting the 9-10 iPhone event. It was rather boring. Nothing that left us on the edge of out seats as we sat at our desks reading the live blogs. Even so, there is much to look forward to.

If not for leaks, Touch ID, new colors, iOS 7, and even the 64-bit A7 with the M7 coprocessor would have brought some excitement to Appledom. And let's not forget there at iOS features, less well known ones like iBeacon that could be sleeper.

Also, the idea of Touch ID being used for more than unlocking your phone and uses beyond iTunes purchases and extended to general purchases is something that will excite all mobile warriors, even the Wall Street types as will.

There could be things Apple is working on that won't immediately get on translate to more revenue or instant "wow" factor. Apple doesn't also do technologies for tech sake.

I'm okay with the Cook administration for now because the building blocks for a bright mobile future, Apple's vision of it, should be pretty bright.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

64-Bit Versus 64-Bit - Impact on Mobile

Apple announced this week that they are going with a new chip in their iPhone 5s, the A7. That was somewhat expected. What was not expected was that the chip would be 64-bit.

While there was some controversy about whether going from 32-bit to 64-bit in the PC market was really beneficial to the end user, Apple had indicated that iOS 7 had been built to take advantage of the 64-bit chip architecture in the A7.

I'm sure some of that is true but there is likely some embellishment as well.

But not to be outdone, Samsung also announced that 64-bit chips are also on its roadmap.

My question is this: is Android 64-bit ready? If not, is Google working on that?

A quick Google search showed that Android is indeed not far behind Apple in the 64-bit race. However, one note of interest is that many of our apps on the PC, including Apple's OS X, are still running as 32-bit apps. And the transition from 32-bit to 64-bit started almost ten years ago and we are not quite there yet. (The Verge)

However, Apple could hold a greater advantage because of its ironclad hold on its own ecosystem and software and hardware development. Even so, it remains to be seen what kind of mobile experience and UI improvement is felt by the average mobile warrior.

One thing for sure. iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or other non-Windows OS, we are still a way off from seeing performance parity with desktop/laptop if ever.






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

This Is Bogus: China Gets To Preorder The iPhone 5s and Probably As Many Units As It Wants Too

Thanks for nuthin', Apple.  American company that does its art in California is what Apple advertises itself to be.  And I get that China is a very important growth territory now and in the future.  I get that.  So, while I also get that Apple will allow the Chinese to begin preordering the iPhone 5s on September 17th (9to5mac), three days before anyone else in the world would be able to order online or in the store.

That just doesn't sit well with me.  Apple is an American company through and through.  I get that it is a multi-national company now and the "American" part has become much more fuzzy over the years.  It's why it specifically mentioned that devices are designed on California rather than the USA.

The 9to2Mac post mentioned problems with previous launches - like scalpers, gangs, and unruly behavior.  I'll be honest, folks.  The last time I went to wait in line at the local Apple store for a launch, there were plenty of Chinese scalpers here in the US.  I can understand some Chinese and they were not saying how much they love Apple and how they were the biggest fan boys/gals in the world.

Just saying...

Plus, with the iconic devices being Apple's, I had always assumed that we would always get our hands on any new devices first.  Remember back in the 90s and 2000s when Nintendo and Sony reigned supreme in the console and handheld gaming devices?  Japan always got it first and it would not be months later until we get it here.

I just thought those days were over.

Why Can't My Next iPhone Look Like The iPod nano? That Would Rock!

This Youtube video of an iPod nano has been making rounds.  Ordinarily, such a video would not make me excited at all.  But for the fact that this is the "space gray" that is supposed to be the same color as the black iPhone 5s, folks want to see what their black iPhone 5s will look it.

I had not considered the new black/space gray version until I saw this nano. The main reason is all the focus on the gold model and now nice looking it truly is in person.  Also, the white/sliver looks very nice if you're not into the gold.

After watching the video of the space gray nano below a couple of times, I'm giving the black version another look.  My current iPhone is back.  Then I got thinking further.  Why can't Apple make an iPhone with the same body as the nano but only bigger for the 4" screen, or maybe even the future and rumored 5" version next year?

Wouldn't that be awesome?  Well, one can only hope.  Check out the video and see if the black version of the iPhone 5s would interest you.  I'll be honest.  I am very interested now.

Apple Stock Price Cut Because of iPhone 5C Availability and 5S Stock "Issues" - We'll See

Today, a dumb Wall Street firm downgraded Apple stock because of the following reasons.  One, iPhone 5C preorders are still happening without sell-outs and, two, because the iPhone 5s isn't available for preorder, the ongoing thinking is that Apple did not make enough to accommodate the demand.  Having said that, this nameless firm did not heed Tim Cook's warning regarding using only a couple of data points in the supply chain to try to discern the bigger picture.

Here is a bit of the bigger picture I doubt Wall Street is seeing.  The iPhone 5C is the iPhone 5 with colorful plastic covers. A heck of a lot easier to manufacture than the iPhone 5s I'm sure.  And given previous demand for the lower tier iPhones, Apple likely made damn sure it has ample supply.

Furthermore, Apple is including a couple of new elements in its first wave launch.  First, NTT Docomo, the last major Japanese carrier hold out, will be launching the iPhone along with its competitors on September 20th, like everyone else.  In case you're not away of this, it's also the biggest carrier in Japan.  And top of that, it has made a big promise to Apple to sell as much as iPhone to accoutnt for 40% of its smartphone sales.  Given that a plurality of its customers defecting to competitors is due to the iPhone, it should not be too difficult.

Then there's also this.  China.  Yeah, the Chinese market will be among this initial wave of iPhone launches.  The first time ever. According to the press release, "Apple’s retail stores and select Authorized Apple Resellers. iPhone 5s will be available in the US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK on Friday, September 20".

And that doesn't not even include the 600 million-strong China Mobile as a carrier yet.

So you can bet that iPhone 5s supply is going to be an issue.  But there is also one additional reason why the iPhone 5s did not get a preorder window.  For the first time ever, Apple is launching two new iPhones - 5C and 5s.  And though the 5C is essentially the iPhone 5 with colorful plastic covers, it is a totally brand new product.  Apple likely did not want to confuse things for buyers.

So, we'll see who's right?  Wall Street or common sense?  Anyway, iPhone 5s sales starts on the 20th, including online order.