AAPL - Apple Inc.

[portfolio14]

To go back to the earlier discussion, this guy has some thoughts about the S cycle:

 

http://www.aboveavalon.com/notes/2015/9/21/the-pixar-iphone

 

What's missing here is the fashion side. iPhone is as much a fashion artifact as a technology item. So far, we have seen Apple overhauls the fashion statement every 2 years. That's independent of what new information technologies are cramped into the phone. Think in terms of how car manufacturers refresh their models.

 

 

[giofranchi]

What's missing here is the fashion side. iPhone is as much a fashion artifact as a technology item. So far, we have seen Apple overhauls the fashion statement every 2 years. That's independent of what new information technologies are cramped into the phone. Think in terms of how car manufacturers refresh their models.

 

Imo the iPhone is both: fashion & technology. And there lies its most important strength!

 

Think about business or about personal healthcare: if the iPhone improves its appealing to businesses, or if the iPhone starts monitoring health parameter that, if constantly checked, would lead to a longer and better life, would you stick with your “old” iPhone, simply because the “new” one looks almost the same?!... I don’t think so, and I am sure I wouldn’t.

Or, more intuitively, are you planning to stick with your “old” iPhone, or are you buying the “new” one with its 3D technology? As far as I know, they look almost the same…

 

Cheers,

 

Gio

 

[giofranchi]

Following Apple's Lead, Samsung Plans Its Own Phone Leasing Program, Cutting Out Carriers

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2015/09/20/following-apples-lead-samsung-plans-its-own-phone-leasing-program-cutting-out-carriers/?utm_campaign=ForbesTech&utm_source=TWITTER&utm_medium=social&utm_channel=Technology&linkId=17223737

 

Cheers,

 

Gio

[Liberty]

http://9to5mac.com/2015/09/22/iphone-6s-review-3d-touch-live-photos-cameras/

 

Review roundup. Very positive overall. 3D touch will be a big one, everything without it will feel broken in a little while, IMO.

 

Mossberg saying it's the best phone on the market:

 

http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/22/9367511/walt-mossberg-reviews-iphone-6s

[giofranchi]

3D touch will be a big one, everything without it will feel broken in a little while, IMO.

 

+1! :)

 

Cheers,

 

Gio

[DCG]

Looking forward to checking out 3d touch when my phone arrives later this week. This 'S' release seems to be the biggest/most innovative release of all the S models so far.

 

 

Not sure what to take away from the fact that pre-orders haven't sold out (like they usually seem to do). Do they have greater supply than past recent releases, or is demand down?

[Liberty]

Looking forward to checking out 3d touch when my phone arrives later this week. This 'S' release seems to be the biggest/most innovative release of all the S models so far.

 

I thought the 5s was a huge release too. The A7 SoC was a huge leap forward in performance and introduced a new ARM instruction set (64 bits and more efficient) that took the rest of the industry by surprise, and Touch ID brought security and convenience to many aspects of the product and paved the way for Apple Pay. And Touch ID, like 3D Touch, made better an interaction that happens many, many times a day, so that matters a lot, unlike a cool demo feature that you never use.

 

Also, looks like the switching from android is going well:

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-widens-gap-between-ios-android-use-in-us-2015-09-22?siteid=yhoof2

[intothebreach]

Gruber's review of the 6S addresses Apple's tick-tock approach to upgrades (among other things) and is a good read.

 

I think this excerpt from his conclusion sums it well: "New-number iPhones (4, 5, 6) are about showing off Apple’s design prowess. The S models are about showing off Apple’s engineering prowess."

 

http://daringfireball.net/2015/09/the_iphones_6s

[Liberty]

Surprised they didn't mention this feature in the keynote (no time, obviously). This is going to be so useful:

 

Trackpad Mode: Press [with 3D touch] on the keyboard and it turns into a trackpad. iPads running iOS 9 can trigger this trackpad mode, too, with a two-finger swipe on the keyboard. Doing it with a single finger on the iPhone, though, is a tremendous boon to text editing. This might be the single best new feature for text editing on the iPhone since the addition of selection and copy-paste in iOS 3 in 2009. In addition to moving the insertion point around, you can press again and switch to selection mode — like double-clicking the mouse pointer on a Mac. Trackpad mode is a once-you’ve-used-it-you-can’t-go-back addition to iOS.

[portfolio14]

How does a normal user discover this kind of features?

 

Surprised they didn't mention this feature in the keynote (no time, obviously). This is going to be so useful:

 

Trackpad Mode: Press [with 3D touch] on the keyboard and it turns into a trackpad. iPads running iOS 9 can trigger this trackpad mode, too, with a two-finger swipe on the keyboard. Doing it with a single finger on the iPhone, though, is a tremendous boon to text editing. This might be the single best new feature for text editing on the iPhone since the addition of selection and copy-paste in iOS 3 in 2009. In addition to moving the insertion point around, you can press again and switch to selection mode — like double-clicking the mouse pointer on a Mac. Trackpad mode is a once-you’ve-used-it-you-can’t-go-back addition to iOS.

[Liberty]

How does a normal user discover this kind of features?

 

I think this is kind of a long discussion, but the short version is:

 

1) They don't have to.

 

2) From documentation, other people, or being trained to look for such feature via the obvious features.

 

Number one means that someone could use their phone and never know about all kinds of 'second level' feature and never not be able to do something. There are just shortcuts and nice little extras hidden everywhere, but the regular way still works (kind of like on a PC you can do things with a mouse, but it's faster if you know the keyboard shortcuts). Some people might not even know that you can swipe up to get the control center, but they can get to these things via other ways that are more obvious.

 

Number two has more to unpack: I'm sure it'll be documented somewhere on the site, so if someone is looking for features, it'll be there. But most people learn about tips and tricks from friends, online videos and reviews, etc. If something is really useful, it usually gets to people and doesn't stay obscure for long.

 

But most interesting is that you can teach one new interaction paradigm to users, such as doing harder presses to get more options on various things (icons, links), and let them experiment and find more places where it applies. The keyboard will likely be one of those places.

 

It's a bit like how long-presses or swipes are used to activate certain modes or options. Once people are aware of long-presses and swipes, you don't have to explicitely teach them every single place where it can be used.

 

That was probably more than you wanted to know, sorry, I'm interested in that kind of stuff and get carried away :)

 

Here's a video of the feature in action. Very cool:

 

[innerscorecard]

[innerscorecard]

My wife and I both preordered iPhone 6's due to the more convenient size, but we might have to exchange them for 6's due to the optical image stabilization for video. Maybe.

[adesigar]

Mossberg saying it's the best phone on the market:

 

http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/22/9367511/walt-mossberg-reviews-iphone-6s

 

Mossberg is an iSheep. The iPhone 6s might be the best phone but the review was terrible. I guess he had a minimum number of words to write.

 

The camera on the iPhone 6 was definitely not the best camera on a smartphone and I doubt the camera on the 6s will beat the Nokia/Galaxy S6/One Plus 2. It simply does not have the aperture.

Blind test of cameras - http://www.slashgear.com/oneplus-2-wins-blind-camera-test-vs-iphone-6-galaxy-s6-lg-g4-25399250/

The best camera on a smartphone that I know - Nokia 1020 - http://allaboutwindowsphone.com/features/item/20233_camera_head_to_head_nokia_lumi.php

 

Live photos is a feature copied from a 2013 HTC model.

The screen flash for selfies is another copied feature.

Battery life is terrible compared to the competition.

 

[giofranchi]

Battery life is terrible compared to the competition.

 

Yes! Think about what Apple could achieve simply by solving this single (very solvable!) issue. ;)

 

Cheers,

 

Gio

[giofranchi]

iPhone 6s: Apple’s Best Trap Yet

 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/iphone-6s-apples-best-trap-yet-1442923201

 

Cheers,

 

Gio

[TheAiGuy]

 

Ft: Swiss luxury watch industry smart enough to face down challenges

 

 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d03fd5a6-5d43-11e5-9846-de406ccb37f2.html?desktop=true

[Liberty]

Battery life is terrible compared to the competition.

 

Yes! Think about what Apple could achieve simply by solving this single (very solvable!) issue. ;)

 

Cheers,

 

Gio

 

Apple's battery life is great for the volume of the phones it sells. Most of the competition with longer battery life is from phones with much bigger volumes, and thus much bigger batteries.

 

Design is about tradeoffs; there's a point between size and battery life that is optimal for the most high-end users, and Apple is targeting that point. If they were just maximizing battery life, they could just make the phones thicker.

 

My wife rare gets below 50% at the end of the day on her iPhone 6. I use my iPad Air 2 very intensely, hours and hours each day, and I've never run out of juice.

[DCG]

Battery life is terrible compared to the competition.

 

Yes! Think about what Apple could achieve simply by solving this single (very solvable!) issue. ;)

 

Cheers,

 

Gio

 

Apple's battery life is great for the volume of the phones it sells. Most of the competition with longer battery life is from phones with much bigger volumes, and thus much bigger batteries.

 

Design is about tradeoffs; there's a point between size and battery life that is optimal for the most high-end users, and Apple is targeting that point. If they were just maximizing battery life, they could just make the phones thicker.

 

My wife rare gets below 50% at the end of the day on her iPhone 6. I use my iPad Air 2 very intensely, hours and hours each day, and I've never run out of juice.

 

 

yeah, but most people would rather a thicker phone if it meant longer battery life.

[Liberty]

yeah, but most people would rather a thicker phone if it meant longer battery life.

 

Do they really, though?

 

I think there's sample bias. People who want longer battery life are vocal about it, people who are satisfied don't think about it much and don't say anything, so you only hear about the first camp.

 

Apple has more data than anyone else on this, and they are more successful than anyone with their phone designs. I think they know what they're doing and they've picked a good point on the battery life vs size/weight continuum.

 

If they make the phones thicker and heavier to please the 5-10% of people who want more battery but it makes the phones less attractive to the 90-95% of people who are totally fine with the current battery life, that might not be a good move. Thinness is especially important with larger screens. If they hadn't done so much work before going from the 4 to the 5, the larger 6 wouldn't have been nearly as compelling.

 

Also, iOS 9's new low power mode can add around 3 hours of use when the battery gets under 20% (or you can activate it manually earlier and have even more than that), so complaints about battery life should actually be even lower than they were. Oh, and the 6 Plus has more battery life than the 6, so that's one more choice for those who really need it.

[giofranchi]

Apple's battery life is great for the volume of the phones it sells. Most of the competition with longer battery life is from phones with much bigger volumes, and thus much bigger batteries.

 

Design is about tradeoffs; there's a point between size and battery life that is optimal for the most high-end users, and Apple is targeting that point. If they were just maximizing battery life, they could just make the phones thicker.

 

My wife rare gets below 50% at the end of the day on her iPhone 6. I use my iPad Air 2 very intensely, hours and hours each day, and I've never run out of juice.

 

I think that even without compromising the thinness of its phones, Apple might improve battery life… After all that is truly a technology challenge… And Apple could improve battery life to the point it becomes irrelevant: the same thinness and a battery that lasts 1 week… who would care then for a thicker phone with a battery that lasts 10 days?!

 

Cheers,

 

Gio

 

[giofranchi]

Apple iOS 9: 42 New Features And How To Use Them

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2015/09/21/ios-9-features/

 

Cheers,

 

Gio

[adesigar]

yeah, but most people would rather a thicker phone if it meant longer battery life.

 

Do they really, though?

 

I think there's sample bias. People who want longer battery life are vocal about it, people who are satisfied don't think about it much and don't say anything, so you only hear about the first camp.

 

Apple has more data than anyone else on this, and they are more successful than anyone with their phone designs. I think they know what they're doing and they've picked a good point on the battery life vs size/weight continuum.

 

If they make the phones thicker and heavier to please the 5-10% of people who want more battery but it makes the phones less attractive to the 90-95% of people who are totally fine with the current battery life, that might not be a good move. Thinness is especially important with larger screens. If they hadn't done so much work before going from the 4 to the 5, the larger 6 wouldn't have been nearly as compelling.

 

Also, iOS 9's new low power mode can add around 3 hours of use when the battery gets under 20% (or you can activate it manually earlier and have even more than that), so complaints about battery life should actually be even lower than they were. Oh, and the 6 Plus has more battery life than the 6, so that's one more choice for those who really need it.

 

Apple did make the phone heavier but the reason was 3D Touch. Its about 15 grams heavier for the 6s and 20 grams heavier for the 6s plus. Its thicker too but that's negligible I doubt any normal user can tell the difference of 1/5th of a mm.

[giofranchi]

Digital Health: Moving Toward a Healthcare Revolution

 

http://www.mhealthnews.com/blog/digital-health-moving-toward-healthcare-revolution

 

Think about what Apple could achieve in this still new market, but with the potential to be very large indeed!

 

I have just added some more.

 

Cheers,

 

Gio

[Liberty]

Apple did make the phone heavier but the reason was 3D Touch. Its about 15 grams heavier for the 6s and 20 grams heavier for the 6s plus. Its thicker too but that's negligible I doubt any normal user can tell the difference of 1/5th of a mm.

 

It is, but that tradeoff is very clear cut: An almost imperceptible change in weight and size in exchange for a very useful new input method that most people will likely use dozens and dozens of times a day, making their experience noticeably better, as well as creating a new tool that developers can take advantage of. That's a no brainer.

 

Battery life is less clear cut, and I think Apple's solution to have a low power mode in iOS 9 that significantly reduces power usage while keeping the phone quite useable is a winner (they also made it more efficient overall so that existing phones will also get more battery life even when not in low power mode). The issue is that people who don't have battery life issues don't care if at the end of the day their phone has 50% or 60% left. It's totally equivalent. So if you make the battery bigger, they only get the downsize of a heavier and bulkier phone. But once in a while, these people might need more battery life (they travel, go to the airport, have a long flight, etc). That's when the low power mode can significantly extend their battery, yet the rest of the time no extra size/weight.

 

By the way, another factor is that Apple is partly a victim of its success here. From all usage stats, it's clear that iOS devices are used more than Android devices on average. People use more apps, visit more websites, do more searches, consume more content, buy more things, etc. So while the iPhone and iPad are very power efficient, they are also used more. I bet that if we were to normalize for both battery size and usage, we'd find out that most of the competition is significantly less power-efficient. But hey, it's a high quality problem to have.