Apple’s new iPhone 15 is an underwhelming ‘slap in the face,’ say disappointed fans::Apple unveiled its new iPhone 15 models this week, and some fans say they lack innovation.

  • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    224
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    I don’t know why people expect massive jumps every single year. There’s only so much you can really change year over year at this point.

    You don’t need to upgrade every damn year. Apple supports each phone for a minimum of 5-6 years.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      40
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, I’m sure if you just upgrade every 3-4 years there’s plenty that’s been added that makes it worthwhile.

      • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        26
        ·
        1 year ago

        Most definitely. Phones are no longer really throw away devices. They’re full fledged little supercomputers in your pocket and they’re expensive as fuck.

        Nobody upgrades their laptop or PC every year. Hell, the most important components like CPU, GPU, and RAM don’t even get new releases every year.

        Phones are damn near as powerful today. Nobody but someone that is already pushing the most powerful flagships to the limit can or will take advantage of the incremental updates.

      • Tandybaum@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’m 85% sure I’m going to get the 15. I’m upgrading from my XR so hopefully it’ll be pretty major for me.

        Agree 3-4 cycle makes it feel amazing.

        • TrejoPhD@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Also on an XR and just bought a 15 Pro.

          The XR is still snappy. The battery only is at 80% of its original life, but otherwise it’s fine.

          I’m very excited for the USB-C and wifi 6E. The rest I don’t care about, but I imagine I will be impressed by the speed when I get it.

          • Tandybaum@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            I’m at 85% battery

            I’m mostly excited about better battery, usb-c, and 5g cellular. Mag charging is interesting but I already have qi chargers all over the place.

        • hedgehog@ttrpg.network
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          XR to 15 is more like 5 cycles, so I think this upgrade is going to be a huge improvement for you. I upgraded from it after a mere two (though to the 12 Pro and not the 12) and the difference was very noticeable, especially in the display and camera, but also just in how much smoother and snappier everything got.

    • slaacaa@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I honestly don’t understand. I’m on my 11 pro at 86% battery. Might just use it for many more years after a battery swap, why would I want to change every year? I love the sharper edges of the new ones, and now also the dynamic island and USB C, but I’m not going waste money when my current phone still can do anything as fast as the day I purchased it.

      • insomniac@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I upgraded from 11 to 14 pro and was pretty underwhelmed. It was kinda worth it for the camera but besides that, it’s the exact same phone.

    • Snapz@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Then they shouldn’t release every year and create a new batch of endless ewaste and demand in natural resources mined by exploited labor.

      Your talking about where you place the blame: the drug dealer with no regard for human life as long as they are profitable, or the drug user who is weak, sick and often incapable of breaking their unhealthy habit.

      • therealrjp@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        There’s no requirement for you to upgrade every year if you don’t want to but without it, what would the people who need something new do? I’m upgrading this year from an iPhone X that is really on its last legs. Broken screen, charging more than once a day etc. It’s served it’s purpose well but now is the time for a new one. A two or three year refresh cycle would mean I would be potentially buying a two year old phone today. Why would I want that when I keep things for several years?

    • Wahots@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Shit, even my 5-6 year old S9 was pretty decent at the end, and fairly similar to my new phone. I only upgraded because the network chip was getting wonky, which made me a bit uneasy about getting stranded somewhere.

      I can’t wait for the EU regs about removable batteries to kick in. Now, if only we could finally move to a display technology that doesn’t suffer from burn-in…

      • Plopp@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I’d be more interested in legislation forcing them to release at least security updates for a decade. My phone is 6 years old, works absolutely fine (even the battery), but it hasn’t received any security parches for a couple of years, meaning it’s insecure and I have to replace it even though it works great. Complete buffoonery.

        Edit: I mean more than the screen thing, not the battery thing.

      • Stuka@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’m still on an S10. Battery life sucks and the screen has been cracked for years, but she still works just fine. No motivation at all to spend $1k on an ‘upgrade’

      • LetMeEatCake@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        57
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        This year’s new phones are for people that last bought a phone in 2020 or earlier. If the average user is on a three year upgrade cycle (what the data shows as I recall) then you’d expect roughly 1/3 of people to upgrade every year.

        This is better for Apple, as it keeps their revenue more spread out instead of heavily concentrated in year one of a three year cycle.
        This is better for consumers, as it means new features and upgrades are constantly being made. If they want to upgrade early they can, and they’ll get new features even if it’s only been two years.
        This is also better for both Apple and consumers because there’s more opportunities to course-correct or respond to feedback over issues. If Apple only released a phone every other or every three years, it’d take that much longer for the switch to USB-C.

        Just because a new product is launched does not mean you need to buy it. Nvidia released a new GPU last year, but I didn’t buy it even though it’s newer than what I currently have. Arguing that new phones shouldn’t come out each year is like arguing that new cars shouldn’t come out each year. It makes no sense.

        • Mak'@pawb.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          21
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          I fall squarely into that 3-year cycle. My old iPhone 12 Pro, which is—as others would very plainly say—still pretty capable, is liable to go to my mother. My husband’s will go to one of the nieces or nephews.

          For me, this “slap in the face” upgrade is shaping up to be a pretty substantial upgrade. And, I’m good with spending my money on that.

          • InfiniteFlow@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            8
            ·
            1 year ago

            I’m in the same boat. Will be replacing my 12 Pro, which will go to my wife, hers to my kid. We get about 10 years out of each phone, by using them like this. The improvements I get for upgrading only after three years are very significant!

        • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yup. I’ve got a base 12. Jumping to a 15 pro max will be a pretty huge upgrade for me. Almost double the battery life, pretty much all the cameras will be massively better, I’ll get the third telephoto lens, the chip is massively faster than the one I have, usb-c, the dynamic island, the action button. A ton will be a jump for me.

          For someone with a 14 pro max, there’s no real reason to. Nor is it really intended for them. Now, Apple sure as shit isn’t going to come out and say “no don’t buy our product”, because that would be stupid. But they make it easy to keep a phone for longer with the support for those of us that want to do that. Most companies will maybe give 3 OS and 3 years of security updates. Apple does 5-6 years for OS and still randomly patch old phones like the iPhone 5s with security updates.

          • LetMeEatCake@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            I’m planning to upgrade from a 12 mini, which partly influenced my choice of years too (having seen 3 year data was the main part!). If I had a 12 Pro I think I’d have kept it for an extra year, but the battery is just not sufficient for how my phone use has changed.

            I think furthering your extra details here too is I saw someone point out that one of Apple’s slides for the base 15 was comparing its performance to the base 12. Apple knows how often people upgrade. Picking the 12 as a comparison point wouldn’t be an accident — we’re the single largest target audience for the 15. And in a year, they will in all likelihood compare the 16 to the 13 for the same reason.

        • slaacaa@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Fully agree. It’s like people have no impulse control, and feel like they need to have the shiny new gadget, then cry when it’s not radically different from last year’s model. I’m still on my 11 pro, was holding off for the arrival of USB C, but it’s still working perfectly, so I might just upgrade in 1-2 years.

      • insaneduck@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        22
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Person with iPhone 11 can still upgrade. Not everyone buys phone on same cycle. So they have to release it. But you don’t have to buy it.

        • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          And most people are not buying new phones every cycle these days. Unless there really is a major experience change - which is rare now that the product is mature.

      • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        That doesn’t solve anything though. There are improvements every year, just not enough to upgrade every single year.

        And there are always people that do keep their device for several years upgrading in any given year.

      • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Stop buying $1000+ flagships if they’re not worth it. No company is going to stop producing anything that people are willing to pay for.

    • Bye@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      38
      ·
      1 year ago

      Because we had massive jumps from like 1999-2008. Bring those back.

      • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        24
        ·
        1 year ago

        Because cellphones were just emerging then. The technology was rapidly changing all the time

        And when you look back, a ton of the innovations were trying to solve a part of the problem that modern smartphones have solved and then some.

        When texting took off, companies tried to innovate better ways than T9 to do that. So you ended up with variations of full keyboards. Slide out, on the face, swivel, etc.

        Flip phones and other slide outs tried to maximize screen space before touchscreens were around or good. When the screen is only useable as a screen you have to get creative to still have a keyboard.

        When cameras first got out into phones they sucked. So companies put a ton of effort into innovating that. Hell cameras are still one of the main focuses on innovation. It’s just that there are diminishing returns with what you can package in a phone. So it takes a lot more work to get a small improvement.

        Beyond that, most of the innovation is under the hood and less noticeable. Improving the chip architecture to be more powerful and more efficient. On device encryption for security. Lidar scanning for 3d modeling. Better integration with the ecosystems.

        Beyond those you still have innovations like the foldable, which right now still kinda suck. Just like phones did when they started trying to innovate. Foldables will lead to crazier innovation down the line with the added space. Right now they’re still just trying to get the folding screen decent.

        Once a technology matures, you stop seeing massive jumps and innovation becomes evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Another 10-15 years and you may see phones slow down to laptop pace, where a new model is only released every few years and then the jump between generations is bigger by comparison because you’ll have three years of work into it rather than one.

      • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        What would you add to a flagship smart phone that hasn’t already been done and is actually possible with the technology available?

        The solution here is to vote with your wallet and not pay $1000+ for the latest flagship if you can buy a $300 phone from a couple years ago that’s pretty much the same thing.

        • Bye@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          I’d add a personal assistant that lives up to the promise. It can make reservations for you, find out when your friends are available, navigate phone trees, etc.

          • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Find out when your friends are available might be kind of creepy. Unsavoury people knowing that you’re away for a week and that your house is empty sounds like a dream for criminals, I also wouldn’t want people phoning me saying “I can see you’re free tonight, let’s do something” or a boss saying, “I can see you’re available for overtime this weekend, that’s good!”. It would also depend on people making their schedules available to the cloud and to make them accurate.

            The make reservations thing could be interesting as could the phone tree navigating, but I wouldn’t put these ideas on the same scale as capacitive touchscreens, hd screens, front cameras, fast charging, wireless charging, amoled displays, 3/4/5G, bezeless phones, folding screens etc. Do you see what I’m saying?

  • Wisely@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    76
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    What’s funny is this is the biggest update in years. The action button and USB C by themselves are a much bigger difference than last year was. Base models also got dynamic island. Smaller bezels, rounded edges, new colors. I dk how much more could change visually besides those things anyway?

    The pros also have 3nm, armv9, wifi 6e, thread connectivity, new cellular bands, ai 5g modem, ray tracing, more ram, Qi2, 10 gbps port, increased repairability, titanium. 5x zoom on the Pro Max.

    I think the problem that people are picking up on is that the base model is turning into a budget version of the previous year’s pro model. If you want newer tech you are forced to pay over $1,000 now. Before they had the same internals as the pros.

    • jdeath@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      correct me if I’m wrong, but literally the first 3nm computing devices to land in consumer’s greedy paws. 12-atom wide transistors. what a SLAP IN THE FACE

        • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          14
          ·
          1 year ago

          3nm refers to the smallest possible feature size - the transistor would be bigger than this.

          It can correlate with performance, but it is not performance.

          • iopq@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            3nm is the name for node that is better than 5nm which is better than 7nm, which is better than 10nm, etc. and you can only compare it to the previous node by the same manufacturer

            they literally just multiply by 0.7 and round down, so after 3nm it’s 2nm, after 2nm it’s 14A - no matter what the physical size is

            it’s the name for size of the planar transistor pitch that would be required to match it, NOT the actual size of ANYTHING in the transistor and hasn’t been since finfet transistors were introduced

        • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Because people lost their shit when the iPhone moved from the 30 pin to the lightning.

          Apple significantly helped develop USB-C. They were always going to move to it eventually, and have been staying with the Mac and the iPads.

          People buy a LOT more accessories for iPhones though that a port change obsoletes. You see videos now about how many of your accessories you’re going to have to rebuy or buy an adapter for.

          It’s not a minor change at all. They said 10 years for lightning when they introduced it, and went exactly 10 years.

          • psud@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            I’m so happy iPhone is now USB C. My partner and I have had their mother on road trips with us so we’ve had to have a mix of USB C and lightning cords. It’ll be nice to not have to look at the end of the cable to see which Belkin white cable it is

            • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              I wish that USB-C would have been just like a bigger lightning port to handle usb 3 and higher. I like the form factor of lightning better than C.

              It’s a more robust connector having the pins protected in the port than having a weak little piece sticking out in the middle. I’ve had a few USB-C ports break on me on the device because they cheaped out. My galaxy S9, my Pixel 4, and my pixel buds all had the port on the phone get wonky and wouldn’t charge from any cable.

      • Wisely@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        It’s not that USB C is amazing, but that it is a big change for iphones. Especially compared to the past couple of years where they changed even less.

  • eee@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    75
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    “New iphone sucks”, says fans while standing in line at the store the night before the launch.

    • faceula@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      Absolutely this, we made them this big. Well, some of you lot not me. Android 4 life!

      • Prethoryn Overmind@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        And this is why Lemmy is absolutely less about “techy people who know security” and more about people who just want everything to be free for some damn reason.

        • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          1 year ago

          I think most people want to be able to afford health, home, and happiness if they are working a full-time job in the US. Not sure how that gets confused with free. I mean, I understand why, just more boot licking of capital over labor.

  • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.fmhy.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    50
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    So what the fuck do you all want? It’s a phone. All the innovations that could be crammed into a candybar-style phone have pretty much been done.

    If you want real innovation that means a return to the early 2000s when there were tons of different form factors in the market. Sliders, flips, phones with full keyboards, etc. But that means you either need The Only Phone Manufacturer to produce more than one product line of phones, or it means you need to consider other options.

    There’s a LITTLE innovation happening- Samsung and Google are both using the new flexible OLED panels to make flipbook-style phones that look pretty cool. Motorola has one too that’s a flip phone style gadget, kinda square when closed but flips open to be a standard phone size. Sadly I don’t see any real contenders with a physical keyboard.

    • FaeDrifter@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m also not convinced the new flip phones are the new way forward and not just a gimmick. Like we got a few years of rapid flatscreen TV development, and after it started to stall manufacturers tried to push it the 3D route, but it never caught on.

      I don’t want or need innovation in my phone or TV.

    • Nahvi@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Personally, I would like to see miniaturization become the the trend again.

      I haven’t been interested in a new release since phablets became the standard. I don’t need my phone to replace my PC. It just needs to be able to run a web-search in a pinch.

      I was really hoping the Apple Watch was going to be the next leap forward, but they were very careful about making sure most people didn’t replace their phones with them.

      • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.fmhy.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Interesting. Personally I was planning to buy a phablet for my next phone but they’ve gone out of style it seems and been replaced with folding phones.

        I would be interesting to see something with a rolled up slide out display like the Global communicator from Earth: Final Conflict, basically a slim stick of a phone with a larger display rolled up inside that can be pulled out as much as necessary for the desired screen size.

        • Nahvi@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Sci-fi phones are the best. I like the slide ones alright, but I was always a huge fan of the mid-air projections. Seems like we are decent way off from either right now.

          Also, I keep hoping we get a short term pair of glasses or ultra light weight VR/AR goggles before we figure out projection anywhere tech.

          • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.fmhy.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Very cool idea. Yeah real holographic projection is still a ways off, especially from a portable emitter. AR however is much closer. There’s an increasing focus on AR tech and making it smaller and cheaper- I saw a glasses the other day for $400 that projects a real 1080p screen onto your field of view and can talk to a phone. That stuff will only get better. The key is making it lightweight, have a long battery life, and fashionable. You also need some kind of separate input device, if you assume the phone remains in the pocket as a compute module. Or for those willing to accept a larger watch, perhaps the watch becomes the phone rather than an accessory to one. There’s of course issues of size, weight, battery life, etc; but as tech improves those will get better. And in theory, the main reason you don’t have the watch as the main phone is lack of screen size; if an external AR display was common that problem goes away.

            • Nahvi@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              perhaps the watch becomes the phone rather than an accessory to one.

              I was hoping for something like this when the Apple Watch came out, but they were clearly very against the idea.

              • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.fmhy.net
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                Screen and battery weren’t there for it. Still aren’t I don’t think unless you significantly increase the size of the watch to either be a real hockey puck, or more likely stretch it out to be both thicker (probably about 1/2" to 3/4" thick) and wider (I’m thinking 3-4") it’s gonna be an option anytime soon.

                • Nahvi@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  more likely stretch it out to be both thicker and wider

                  I think there would be a large market for a wide device that needed two wrist straps to hold it in place. Hard to tell sometimes though. It would either become super trendy or only for super nerds. Either way, I would probably scoop it up.

                  In any case, I am pretty sure the phone companies want us to have a watch also, not instead, and will suppress any development that changes that mentality.

    • LurkNoMore@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’ve no interest in a flip phone. Why? Why is my option a foldable screen, but no head phone jack? That’s not something I want, that’s something I need.

      • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.fmhy.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah I agree. It seems brain dead- you’re making a $1200 book-flip phone that opens up like a laptop to a giant screen, so you have tons of space for ports, and you can’t re-add the headphone jack? Seems overly focused on profits rather than usability.

      • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.fmhy.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Perfect example of the problem.

        CPU was lower-mid-range back in 2020, will be horribly out of date now. No 5G. No wireless charging. No detail on which Android version(s) it supports.

    • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      You’re so right.

      I miss the days where the new phone came out and it had five brand new amazing features, but phone design has pretty much been perfected now and the only room for innovation is going to be on the software side of the UI and a better camera.

      It’s absolutely not worth paying $1000+ for the latest flagship anymore and it hasn’t been for years. Buy a $300 phone that came out a couple years ago, it’s the same thing.

      • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.fmhy.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        phone design has pretty much been perfected now and the only room for innovation is going to be on the software side of the UI and a better camera.

        Strong disagree.
        Phone design in one form factor has been mostly perfected, but even there room for innovation exists. More ports, more features- remember how the early Galaxy phones had IR blasters and headphone jacks? That could make a comeback. Or maybe make the phone 2mm thicker and put a battery that will last for days. Or make the phone 5mm thicker and put rubber padding around it so it’s indestructible even without a case. Or do like the old Compaq iPaq and make dockable modules that add significant functionality (week long battery, small projector, full HDMI/USB suite, etc).

        There’s a bit of innovation happening with other form factors- foldable screens are being used in the most boring and basic ways possible. I want to see something more like the Global Communicator from Earth: Final Conflict- little stick of a device that has a pull out video screen that can be pulled out to various sizes.

        I think there IS room in the market for innovation, it just requires companies that are willing to a. take the risk and b. commit to better software support than Samsung.

  • anlumo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    44
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I think that we’ve reached the peak of that form factor. Every real change will have to deviate so much that we wouldn’t call it smartphone any more.

    • lustrum@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Indeed. The issue for these companies. If phones aren’t enticing enough and people start hanging onto devices for an extra year that effecticely cuts their revenue in 1/4.

      That’s why icloud got more expensive, it’s why google is trying to monetise your web history for ads. They’re looking for further revenue.

    • Lightborne@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      We were there 10 years ago and that’s being generous. Phones have been fucking boring for over a decade.

      And that should be a good thing because by now you should be able to pick up a great smartphone for a hundred bucks… except that all these phone companies have to keep the money flowing in so they keep inventing shitty gimmicks and charging thousands of dollars for them.

      Or they strip out features to make you use their shitty clouds and subscription services.

      Or they keep bloating the OS so much that the hardware can’t keep up - but God forbid you want to ignore their shitty update that brings 100 new emojis! They’re gonna force that shit on you whether you like it or not.

      Tech industry is a desert of wasted talent nowadays.

      • neptune@dmv.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        1 year ago

        This is an overstatement. My first smartphone was an old Sony in 2014 and it was good.

        My second phone was a crappy Samsung in 2017 and it was bad. Slow data rates. Horribly over saturated photos.

        My third smartphone was a pixel 2 and it was remarkable. Better battery life than I was used to. The photos looked amazing.

        Then the released the night mode feature and I realized I had never seen a good phone Pic taken in a bar, but I was, on last year’s hardware taking decent photos in dive bars…

        Then pixel eventually started supporting portrait mode. That was cool.

        But really? Apps and websites have gotten so bloated with shit we don’t realize how capable phone processors have become. If the data on websites now had been this way in 2013? Forget about it. People would have hated smartphone.

        Progress on cameras has been pretty obvious. Batteries and screen size slightly less obvious. But I feel the counter acted gains on processor speeds have gone unnoticed. Phones have changed in the past ten years.

    • Bye@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      But the little assistants could be so much better.

      Like I want to ask Siri to do complicated tasks. Make me a reservation. Find a picture of a cow and send it to Jeff. Change my background to StarCraft. Stuff like that.

      • SmashingSquid@notyour.rodeo
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’m happy as long as Siri doesn’t get worse like Alexa, who will turn on a fan in another room when I say “Alexa, turn on the fan” but if I say turn off the fan it turns off the correct one.

    • slaacaa@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      My complaint is with the bulky camera island - barely sticks out on my 11 pro, would like to see smg similar in the future (without a loss in wuality of course)

  • this_is_router@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    “I’ll never leave Apple but the iPhone 11-15 are all the same exact phones,” said one user in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

    I’m getting serious

    vibes here

      • this_is_router@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        I never used an iPhone. Got one from work but put it in a drawer and kept using my Android.

        Magsafe? What does it change? A short google sounds like it’s NFC with magnets. What’s so special about it?

        I’m using a pixel 5 with grapheneOS. Battery lasts for two days easy and is 80% recharged in 90mins. I have a night stand that wireless charges the phone every night. What I’m trying to say is, battery is a non problem for me

        • Killer@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Magsafe doesn’t really change anything, they’ve literally just put magnets on the back of the phone. The most it’s used for is accessories, put the phone on a stand, have a wallet you can take off your phone, or so that their wireless charger stays in place. They still only have 15w wireless charging.

          Short video going over it

        • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          It’s more Qi charging with magnets to align the wireless charger right. More efficient wireless charging, and opens up a lot of accessories.

          I use a MagSafe wallet and it’s reduced the number of things I carry with me to really just 2. Phone and car key sine the wallet is magnet attached to the phone.

          I also have a MagSafe charging stand that allows me to use standby mode and it turns my phone into a nightstand clock with my schedule and things displayed.

          There’s MagSafe battery packs, phone stands, car mounts, you name it.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        No iPhone until now has had “Road Assistance over Satellite”. No iPhone has had these camera capabilities. On the Pro, high speed USB can open many new use cases. As a smaller feature, I’m really excited about the Thread support

    • nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      as an android user with 3.5mm jack since always in all of the phones I have had, I didn’t use it once since like 2017

      • vext01@lemmy.sdf.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        I have a collection of wired headphones. I did use it, when phones had it.

        Now it’s dongle life.

          • Prethoryn Overmind@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            As an Android user. People I think forget how much headphones with cords sucked to.

            Skull candies were expensive, broke, and sounded like shit.

            Did no one else have headphones get yanked out of your heads bent and worn out. Cords get frayed, have them get lost or stolen. It was also just nother tangled cord that I had do deal with.

            I might be a rarity here and you are entitled to feel how you feel but God I look back and think about how badly I fucking don’t miss the headphones jack and all the shitty headphones brands trying to make a buck.

            There are cheap and affordable shitty sounding Bluetooth earbuds and good ones these days at an affordable cost now. Just. Move. On.

              • AA5B@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                The only reason I use wired headphones is my company doesn’t see the problem with providing a Windows specific Bluetooth headset to my Mac

            • nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              Yep, exactly. When people hate on TWS earphones they usually only have experience with ridiculously expensive Airpods or these bulky airpods clones from AliExpress, while there are in facts lots and lots of affordable and great-sounding alternatives from brands such as Sony, Xiaomi, or Haylou; the last one being my choice

            • vext01@lemmy.sdf.org
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              The only thing I have against wireless stuff is the battery. The batteries aren’t easily replaced and it’s often the death of the headphone when the battery no longer holds charge.

              It means I don’t want to spend much on wireless cans because I know they will die.

        • nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          I do have a pair of wired headphones I use with my laptop and probably could find a pair or two of earphones I used pre-2017; what’s your point?

          • Tangent5280@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Isn’t it obvious? I thought you didn’t have a pair of those, which would explain why you didn’t use the jack on your phone.

            Any particular reason you use your earphones only with your laptop?

            • nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              No, I use my laptop stationarily so the cord never bothered me, unlike when using wired earphones on the go with my smartphone

              • Tangent5280@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                Ah, that makes sense. I loved my wired pair because I sometimes forgot to keep my wireless charged, and they had a tendency to be low on charge when I needed to be on important calls. They were my backups and the audio quality was also pretty good.

                My current pair of wireless, that I use when exercising, has also stopped turning ON for reasons I don’t follow, so I’m understandably miffed at having to listen to ambient noise during exercise.

                It seems to me that we’ll continue to have these issues as long as we have non-removable-battery earphones, since many of the issues come from having an independant power supply and firmware components.

    • Nahvi@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I don’t object to them as an optional feature, but they are about as useful as optical drives to the typical user.

    • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I used to be one of the angry people pissed off about losing the jack.

      Now that I have a few wireless earphones, I wouldn’t go back to wired. It’s a mild inconvenience to have to charge them but the battery life is decent and not have a cable getting caught on stuff whilst I’m working is super useful.

      The audio quality is a tiny bit worse than wired, but unless you’re an audio engineer, you’re not going to notice.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      There was always a Lightning to headphone adapter if you really wanted it but most of us had given up the headphone jack long before Apple stopped providing it

  • BigDiction@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    28
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Randos on Twitter left negative comments with little to no substantive feedback. Fire up the article!

  • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    29
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    It’s just a phone. Here’s an idea: You don’t have to rush out to pathologically buy the latest thing that Apple makes. You and Apple don’t owe each other shit. If your old phone works, stick with it. And if the new iPhone doesn’t do it for you, just fuckin’ buy something else.

    • DeadlineX@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      This article isn’t even relevant to anything. It’s just quotes from like… 5 people who posted on twitter that they were disappointed. That’s not a useful sample size, and who cares about some strangers opinion on something that isn’t for them? It’s just weird how many of these articles are coming out saying “these users” think this.

      In reality, it’s more like “these cherry picked tweets match my narrative for this click bait article that will spur divisive discussion”.

    • Prethoryn Overmind@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      34
      ·
      1 year ago

      🙄, Android phones have moved the same direction.

      It’s time to move on guys. They are gone and IMO fuck cords especially ones I couldn’t keep in my ears because I kept getting them yanked out.

      • Fridgeratr@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        19
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        🙄 yourself. Adding a 3.5 jack doesn’t stop anyone from using Bluetooth, and only adds functionality. Being able to get a cheap pair of headphones that actually sound decent and don’t run out of batteries is pretty nice

      • regbin_@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Bluetooth earbuds all suffer from the same problem: latency. Let me know when I can reliably get zero latency then I’ll switch to wireless.

        I use my phone to play rhythm games where 5 ms matters.

          • regbin_@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Latency on the YouTube app, not real-time audio. Even if they have low latency, it would cost >$100 while a wired IEM with similar sound quality and a working mic costs only $20.

  • pbsds@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    People say this every year. The vast majority of true innovation is behind us. Why was an article written this year? Is it just because some reporter browsed X and thought, “eh, why not?”. This is not news.

  • TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Phones are maturing. Are they upset when the new Toyota Camry is only modestly different than last years?

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      You know, it’s funny. I’ve never in my life met a Toyota Camry fanboy who was willing to fight me to the death, or at least bitterly argue with me incessantly in the comments, over their allegedly superior choice to buy a Camry or my allegedly inferior choice not to. Damn strange.

  • BitingChaos@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    I have a 14 Pro, and the changes in the 15 Pro are tempting to me.

    I want USB-C, I want the lighter titanium, I want the rounded edges, I want the new camera effects, I want to try the new case options, etc.

    Anyone coming from an older phone would find a LOT to look forward to in the iPhone 15 or 15 Pro.

    It sounds like your life is pretty sweet in order to be underwhelmed by a magic $800-$1000 device.

    • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      You’d drop a $1000 for usb-c, round edges, new camera software and case options?

      Are you rich?

      I’m not saying that it’s a bad phone, but presumably your current phone works just fine, which means you think those features are worth $250 each. I personally think I could use that money for better things elsewhere.

      • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        You do know that Apple gives pretty damn solid trade ins right?

        If you have a 14 pro and want to upgrade to a 15 pro, you get $570 for your 14 if it’s in good shape. So a 15 pro is only $429.

        If you really enjoy having the latest and greatest, it’s not that hard to put away $35 a month towards upgrading.

        • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          The trade in value is a great point but it still ends up with four new features costing you over $100 each.

          Each to their own, I’m sure that some gadget and tech lovers would absolutely be willing to pay that to have the latest and greatest, but I’d argue that the average person would probably rather have the $429.

          • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            The average person isn’t buying their phone outright either. They’re getting an upgrade from their cell carrier, and most of them do “free phone on us” as long as you stay under contract for 2 years.

            T-Mobile for example (just who I’m with) will give you a $1000 credit towards a 15 pro if you trade in an “eligible device” over 24 months.

            Relatively few people are just outright dropping $1000 on a phone.