iPhone to feature glass surface, 8 hours of talk time - Page 2

It's not likely that they had this "all along".

They probably did upgrade it. they just didn't do it this week.

//begin rant

Obviously this news story has been all over, I've been reading comments from a bunch of web sites the last few weeks (engadget, TUAW, digg, gizmodo, etc).

I cannot believe how many people are bitching about the iPhone- it's insane! I would have to say, it's much worse than the worst (I'm thinking PS3 here)...

It's insane- people have such ridiculous expectations, false information about specs and features, etc. It's almost to the point where I don't want to read comments until we know all about the device (will we ever?).

Seriously, stop bitching about something 99.9% of people on earth haven't experienced. Wait until you actually use one, then you can bitch about how bad the battery life is, how sucky the OS is, the crappy built in applications, low memory, unresponsive touch-screen, pain in the ass touch keyboard, etc.

I felt like I could vent on this board and maybe people here would understand...

//end rant.

With approx. 6.5 billon people in the world, .01% would be 650,000 people have experienced the iPhone firsthand. I'd say it's more like .00003% or around 2000 people, including the engineers and the Chinese working in the factories.

I hear the Chinese factory workers are pissed it doesn't have removable battery.......

You know whats funny? I thought about that while writing, but didn't feel like taking the time to figure it out- thanks!

99.99997%

The inability of a removable battery is my only real sore point about the phone.

Other than that, I like it.

Was listening to the Your Mac Life Show earlier today (last weeks show) and it mentioned people have the phone for review but are not allowed to post reviews until June 26 or after.

You Chinese factory workers, you're incorrigible.

I read that they are pissed that it only has a 2MP camera.

This is not how manufacturing works these days. Companies that want to make money are all about reducing the amount of time that product sits in warehouses. For many companies, lean manufacturing has reached such a level that they never store any product but have it produced for exactly the time when it needs to be picked up. IIRC there was something here on AI a few weeks ago about Apple winning an award in this area...

On the other hand, it would be necessary to have orders in for raw materials, and components might be being accumulated before-hand; also the manufacturing processes have to be designed and the facilities prepared, so I do agree that this is not actually a design change that has taken place in the last few weeks. Given the purported (and I think reasonable) time that the iPhone has been in design, when I say "down to the wire," I mean in the past several months. That is still very close to the launch date for there to be this kind of major change in the end design.

As far as the battery life is concerned, would they have deliberately put out falsely low estimates before? No. Maybe underestimated to be on the safe side, but I don't think 3 hrs is just underestimation, especially given the fact that the few tests of prototypes that we've heard of (e.g. Shaw Wu's "sources") seem to match this spec closely. I would guess that software optimization resulted in the new longer talk times...

At this point, it's pretty certain that the hardware is finalized unless there is some major flaw discovered in the next few days (highly unlikely!). The software is probably still being worked on until the day of release and even beyond that.

What will you do if we don't have two more "newsworthy items" in the next two weeks? You seem to be very certain of Apple PR strategy. For my part, I would think the media manipulation is a very dangerous game to play on such a low level as when certain individual features will be announced. For example, what if the media had seized on the low battery life and made it such a big deal that the negative image concerning the iPhone was so widespread that a later change would not be able to erase that public image?

The lateness of this announcement is probably just the result of final QC studies being conducted on manufacturable phone prototypes to ensure that they are able to deliver on whatever they announce and also some public relations skills. If they had known these things in January, I think they would have announced them at MacWorld. If, however, the glass design was finalized in, say, march and they knew they would be able to get the increase in battery life around that time as well, they might have held off on the announcement until closer to the release date.

Are you admitting that you are a chinese factory worker?

100.0%-99.9%=.1%≠.01%

In other words, 6.5 million people, an even remoter possibility that 650,000.

Sorry, I couldn't resist....

It is pretty funny that Apple announces its using glass instead of plastic, because the glass is more durable. And people still complain that glass will scratch or crack.

Your signature:
When was Afghanistan last peaceful, crime-free? Certainly not under Taliban rule.

You have me on both counts.... but in my defense, your comments do nothing but strengthen my arguments.

Why doesnt apple make the damn screen out of at least clear titanium or diamond !!! \\


Now i cant use my iphone a cutting board!!!!!

true, true...

I disagree, based on my personal experience there. But this is hardly the thread to discuss that issue in....

Software optimization can't give that much of an improvement.

For talk times that would have resulted in a 60% improvement.

For music play it would be 50%, etc.

That's too much of an overall change to be due to software.

Apple has been known to use batteries that are less than the highest capacity for their iPods.

This has been proven by looking at the replacements available from other companies. Often, they have run times that are between 30 and 50% longer than the ones supplied by Apple as original equipment.

I believe that this time, Apple was concerned about the complaints about there not being a replaceable battery, and did the best they could without changing the design.

I was waiting for someone to open that can of worms. Poppies are big business.

They could have used diamond coated glass. That's been around for a while, and isn't that expensive. The layer is only about 0.00004 inch, and is durable. It's applied by a gas evaporation method at low temperature.

It also adds strength.

PREDICTION: The final prelaunch CM will feature Maddox (as in Jolie-Pitt) using an iPhone to
video-call his famous parents...

Do we know what type of glass they are using or its durability?

I wish.

Actually I was under the impression the iPhone's screen was glass all along, so the fact that they say it got upgraded to glass surprises me. I'm trying to think of the name of the podcast where I heard those guys talking about it? They said it was a European manufacturer, and that it was specially toughened-glass, this was about two or three months ago though, they (not Apple, but these guys) definitely said it was glass. Who makes the capacitive touch panel, anyone of you know?

Hopefully its that mineral glass used on the SE T650 camera lens. Very durable and scratch proof.

I'm sorry, who's Maddox?

Just another example of how poorly Apple is offering information about the iPhone. They make an announcement ("We're using glass!") and leave it at that, making everyone wonder what type, durability, thickness, scratch-resistance, etc, etc, etc.

As for battery time, keep in mind that's under perfect usage. As in, you can make a single 8 hour phone call while in close proximity to a tower. I know my phone runs power down quicker (even when not being talked on) when it strains to find/keep a weak signal. iPod performance is based on "Turn on repeat, hit play, now don't touch it!"

Honestly I think the battery life is kind of news within Apple. They have to measure the battery time on a final product, with final software. I guess the software must have been in different beta stages up until a couple of weeks ago. The glass surface I agree though can't be a last minute change.

The good thing with a normal Nokia phone with exchangeable plastic enclosure is that you can drop in on hard concrete or asphalt and the enclosure will keep the phone safe from damage, it's like a helmet that reduces the shock. These extremely slim and tightly designed products coming up such as iPhone, and plus with a glass surface... I'm afraid they might crack on the first drop...

I just read in a scientific magazine, I cannot remember the name of the magazine. A former design manager for Apple spoke about their design process. He said Apple will seek out all types of obscure materials and manufacturing processes. He said Apple would look into materials that are not really used by any one because of how expensive they are. Or manufacturing processes that are experimental and get the manufacturer to ramp the experiment into a large scale process. Its possible the iPhone will use some exotic glass that few are currently using.

Actually, unnamed sources may have begun to report that the rebranding effort could suggest that the new name will possibly be "oCanada."

Great! Now we know how Apple keeps their prices up! They use expensive and obscure processes and materials!

EDIT: They use shiny, new, exciting processes and materials!

You need a kool-aid refill!

Yes that is true.

They said it was high quality optical glass.

Why would they release this unit with only 4 or 8 Gb? Tell me I shouldn't wait for a true all in one unit with the 30 or 80 Gb of the current i-Pod .

Big_Al

Cost.

If you want to wait a few years, by all means, do.

Please explain Cost. Cost to develop? Cost to purchase? I'd be willing to shell out more for higher capacity now. I wouldn't want to get one now, and have them come out with the higher capacity in 6 months. Could be a tactic on their part...release the lower capacity unit, then many of the early adopters will "upgrade and spend" again to get the higher capacity, which Apple should have come out with in the first place. It's like putting a carbuerator in a new model car, when the older models have had fuel injection.

apple isn't developing flash memory, they are buying it.

It's way too expensive to put that much memory in now.

How much extra would you spend?

Another $100 for 16 GB?

$200 more for 24 MB?

$300 for 32 MB?

$400 for 40 GB?

Would you spend $1,000 for a 40 GB iPhone? More?

As memory continues to come down in price, Apple will install more, just as they've done with the iPods, and computers.

30GB or 80GB of flash is asking for a lot.

But at the same time Apple has had flash memory in the iPod nano that cost the same as the nano itself. They have the power and influence to negotiate for more expensive memory if they wanted to.