I came here to read all the comments for the memory experts who know better than Apple and have travelled into the future and tested iOS8 on an iPhone6.
Jeez, you complain about analysts making up rumours of stuff that hasn't happened but you are happy to spout your own.
I'm not saying I'm right, I'm just saying that, at the moment, you can't know you're right. iOS8 might be a lot more efficient or the 1GB rumour might not be true.
I am get the feeling that the specs on the two iPhones are going to be very different with the large one sporting twice the RAM and CPU cores as the smaller one.
Could be that the iOS operating system has a smaller memory footprint than Android.
Or perhaps they are using a sort of paging to fee up memory with little or no impact on performance - or maybe the chip is powerful enough to do compression.
If only they could prefect carbon nanotube batteries - and get a 10x increase in the charge density of the battery - or maybe it is micro crystal batteries - whatever the next major breakthrough in batteries.
I don't have an opinion on whether they should put more RAM in the iPhone or not, but comparisons to Android are misleading. Android is horribly inefficient and using dalvik (java) VMs for apps ups the RAM requirements for sufficient performance. (My comments are only about the comparisons to Android, not the efficacy of additional RAM).
Of course 1Gb is sufficient because no developer will be stupid enough to build an app that needs more than 1Gb of memory if he knows the iPhone doesn't have more than 1Gb of memory! However this is NOT GOOD! Give developers more memory so they could build BETTER apps! Artificially limiting the iPhone memory is only bad for consumers but of course is great for Apple profits! Unfortunately, the average consumer and the brain washed Apple fan will never knew he is missing those potentially great apps that will never be build because of lack of memory.
Yes, the only possible consideration is cost. Not power draw or heat or anything else, Apple is just being cheap¡
Originally Posted by patpatpat
It would seem to me that more RAM (within reason) would also improve battery life.
What gives you that idea? It’s more hardware that has to be powered 100% of the time the device is on.
Originally Posted by Evilution
I'm not saying I'm right, I'm just saying that, at the moment, you can't know you're right.
Words to live by on a rumor site.
Originally Posted by GrangerFX
I am get the feeling that the specs on the two iPhones are going to be very different with the large one sporting twice the RAM and CPU cores as the smaller one.
Why on Earth do you still think there are two iPhones being released? Why on Earth do you think the specs would be different in any way, anyway?
No, you really do need it to keep pace with the rest of the market. 1GB ram is a low end budget device spec at this point no matter how much so called optimization is going on. Maybe the 5.5 will come with 2gb? If not I'll be shocked, but not entirely surprised.
Apple leads the rest of the market.
Comparisons to Android are invalid. Android is inefficient and uses RAM in a different way. So "keep pace with the rest of the market" has no meaning.
Now, I am not voicing an opinion on whether the iPhone should get more RAM or not. That is a different question with both positives and negatives from the technical side.
More memory will benefit everybody. It seems a waste of a 64 bit chip to not try and beat Android, now where Apple has the chance.
I don't care if they charged more, they do that for flash.
A bigger battery, a faster CPU, and more flash would benefit everybody too. But with every benefit comes a cost. Apple has to find the right mix of benefits and costs. There are no free lunches.
edit -- just to clarify, I'm not arguing whether adding more RAM to the iPhone 6 is the right thing to do or not. It might be, it might not be. I'm arguing that Apple is better positioned to make that decision than anyone here is.
I would also say that many companies are not able to make these types of decisions about tradeoffs as well as Apple, and instead just produce every possible permutation of features until they find one that people like -- that's the Samsung way, for example. Both approaches have advantages. I personally prefer Apple's approach, and I think they implement it well. But I can definitely understand that others might prefer the Samsung way.
None of your programs need anywhere near 1GB of RAM.
It comes down to OS needs and multi-tasking.
iOS is probably very frugal with RAM and multi-tasking is limited to specific tasks that the OS allows...so it's probably able to achieve much more than you imagine with that amount of RAM.
<span style="line-height:1.4em;">At what point is your usage demands a true Virtual Memory management system and OS, e.g. a Macbook Air? </span>
<span style="line-height:1.4em;">I don't ask my Honda Accord to haul 3 ton of fertilizer, because it's not the right tool for the job. But I do haul a couple hundred pounds at a time, knowing that for small jobs , and the occasional repeat trips to Lowes, the extra round trip time is not that bad compared to the rental/purchase price of a pickup </span>
truck.
So iPad is not the right tool for browsing the internet using Safari?
Btw, at most I maybe have 5-6 tabs open. But even if I have half of that open I still get constant tab refreshes. This certainly isn't something unique to me.
None of your programs need anywhere near 1GB of RAM.
It comes down to OS needs and multi-tasking.
iOS is probably very frugal with RAM and multi-tasking is limited to specific tasks that the OS allows...so it's probably able to achieve much more than you imagine with that amount of RAM.
I am not calling for Apple to up the RAM as there are tradeoffs, but to say that "None of your programs need anywhere near 1GB of RAM" is just ignorant. With a "desktop class" 64bit CPU, you can do things with your phone that you wouldn't have thought possible and some of those need RAM. Things like signal processing and synthesis, etc. can all benefit from RAM.
I have no problem browsing the internet using Safari on my iPad as it stands now.
You never have tab refreshes? Safari never crashes on you? If so consider yourself lucky. I had constant tab refreshes on the 3rd gen iPad running iOS 6 so it's not a new problem (for me at least).
I am aware of this but hte situation is worse when you (as it is right now for many users)have to load 32 and 64 bit libraries at the same time. And guess what - memory was sufficient until now even under less than ideal conditions. Somebody also mentioned memory compression a la Mavericks. Again a reason to believe ios8 wil rock.
Apps may not have to load both libraries. Apple knows the device the app is intended for. The correct libraries could be loaded upon download.
I am not sure, that is, I don't believe that iOS will use memory compression, but I could be wrong.
RAM isn't the whole issue. Efficient processors and operating system can compensate for 'less' RAM. Inefficient ones can remain so no matter how many dozens of GB of RAM you put in the device.
This is something that Apple might understand even if bloggers, users etc don't. And perhaps even Samsung either doesn't get it or they know that the average person doesn't so they stuff in more RAM than is being efficiently used to impress users who don't know better.
That sounds good, but OS efficiency is one thing, large data files are something else.
There's a difference between saying that Apple is not making a product with the best mix of features *for you* and saying that Apple is not making a product with the best mix of features *for them* (which is closely related to making the best mix of features for the majority of customers). You're well positioned to assess what's best for you -- I'm sure you would benefit from more RAM. But Apple is substantially better positioned to assess what's best for them and/or the majority. That doesn't mean they'll always be right, but in cases where you and they disagree, my guess is they are going to be right about 90% of the time.
There are plenty of examples where I wish Apple would choose features that are a better fit to my needs. For example, I'd rather that the Mac Pro had two Xeons and one GPU rather than two GPUs and one Xeon. But clearly Apple has determined that more of their pro customers would benefit from a second GPU than a second Xeon. They are much better positioned than I am to make that assessment, so I'm guessing they probably made the right call. It's not that I think they can't make mistakes -- it's just that I think it's much more likely that I will make a mistake in assessing what's best for them than that they will.
I hate to be the one to say this, but, Apple isn't always right. Hard to believe, I know, but true nevertheless.
And notice the people here talking about the problems with Safari. And yes, Safari does use a lot of RAM. That's true on the Desktop as well.
And it's not just me. Gaming companies have complained about the lack of sufficient RAM. I'm willing to bet that most people would benefit from more, not just me, and those like me.
But as I said, it's possible that 1GB is just sufficient on the iPhone. But maybe the new models will need more. From what I can remember, video shares RAM on these devices, and the more sophisticated the video /graphics processing is, the more RAM they will need.
At any rate, more is definitely needed for the iPad. And as Apple has done that before, they could choose to do it again.
I came here to read all the comments for the memory experts who know better than Apple and have travelled into the future and tested iOS8 on an iPhone6.
Jeez, you complain about analysts making up rumours of stuff that hasn't happened but you are happy to spout your own.
I'm not saying I'm right, I'm just saying that, at the moment, you can't know you're right. iOS8 might be a lot more efficient or the 1GB rumour might not be true.
We just don't know.
Oh please! As Apple is ALWAYS correct. About everything. All the time. No matter what.
Those of us who use these products on a regular basis see memory related problems. They are known to be memory related problems.
Apple's decisions can be murky. We don't always know why they are made.
Comments
I came here to read all the comments for the memory experts who know better than Apple and have travelled into the future and tested iOS8 on an iPhone6.
Jeez, you complain about analysts making up rumours of stuff that hasn't happened but you are happy to spout your own.
I'm not saying I'm right, I'm just saying that, at the moment, you can't know you're right. iOS8 might be a lot more efficient or the 1GB rumour might not be true.
We just don't know.
Could be that the iOS operating system has a smaller memory footprint than Android.
Or perhaps they are using a sort of paging to fee up memory with little or no impact on performance - or maybe the chip is powerful enough to do compression.
If only they could prefect carbon nanotube batteries - and get a 10x increase in the charge density of the battery - or maybe it is micro crystal batteries - whatever the next major breakthrough in batteries.
Or maybe they are just fucking greedy!How expensive is 1 extra GB of RAM? $5?
Yes, the only possible consideration is cost. Not power draw or heat or anything else, Apple is just being cheap¡
What gives you that idea? It’s more hardware that has to be powered 100% of the time the device is on.
Words to live by on a rumor site.
Why on Earth do you still think there are two iPhones being released? Why on Earth do you think the specs would be different in any way, anyway?
No, you really do need it to keep pace with the rest of the market. 1GB ram is a low end budget device spec at this point no matter how much so called optimization is going on. Maybe the 5.5 will come with 2gb? If not I'll be shocked, but not entirely surprised.
Apple leads the rest of the market.
Comparisons to Android are invalid. Android is inefficient and uses RAM in a different way. So "keep pace with the rest of the market" has no meaning.
Now, I am not voicing an opinion on whether the iPhone should get more RAM or not. That is a different question with both positives and negatives from the technical side.
More memory will benefit everybody. It seems a waste of a 64 bit chip to not try and beat Android, now where Apple has the chance.
I don't care if they charged more, they do that for flash.
A bigger battery, a faster CPU, and more flash would benefit everybody too. But with every benefit comes a cost. Apple has to find the right mix of benefits and costs. There are no free lunches.
edit -- just to clarify, I'm not arguing whether adding more RAM to the iPhone 6 is the right thing to do or not. It might be, it might not be. I'm arguing that Apple is better positioned to make that decision than anyone here is.
I would also say that many companies are not able to make these types of decisions about tradeoffs as well as Apple, and instead just produce every possible permutation of features until they find one that people like -- that's the Samsung way, for example. Both approaches have advantages. I personally prefer Apple's approach, and I think they implement it well. But I can definitely understand that others might prefer the Samsung way.
Why on Earth do you still think there are two iPhones being released? Why on Earth do you think the specs would be different in any way, anyway?
There were last year, and they had different specs.
There were last year, and they had different specs.
You know what he means.
But thank you for that wonderful image you’ve put back into my head of an iPhone 5SC. Really feels good to dwell on that garbage again¡
It comes down to OS needs and multi-tasking.
iOS is probably very frugal with RAM and multi-tasking is limited to specific tasks that the OS allows...so it's probably able to achieve much more than you imagine with that amount of RAM.
Btw, at most I maybe have 5-6 tabs open. But even if I have half of that open I still get constant tab refreshes. This certainly isn't something unique to me.
None of your programs need anywhere near 1GB of RAM.
It comes down to OS needs and multi-tasking.
iOS is probably very frugal with RAM and multi-tasking is limited to specific tasks that the OS allows...so it's probably able to achieve much more than you imagine with that amount of RAM.
I am not calling for Apple to up the RAM as there are tradeoffs, but to say that "None of your programs need anywhere near 1GB of RAM" is just ignorant. With a "desktop class" 64bit CPU, you can do things with your phone that you wouldn't have thought possible and some of those need RAM. Things like signal processing and synthesis, etc. can all benefit from RAM.
So browsing the internet using Safari is too demanding for the iPad?
I have no problem browsing the internet using Safari on my iPad as it stands now.
You never have tab refreshes? Safari never crashes on you? If so consider yourself lucky. I had constant tab refreshes on the 3rd gen iPad running iOS 6 so it's not a new problem (for me at least).
Apps may not have to load both libraries. Apple knows the device the app is intended for. The correct libraries could be loaded upon download.
I am not sure, that is, I don't believe that iOS will use memory compression, but I could be wrong.
That sounds good, but OS efficiency is one thing, large data files are something else.
You’re sure about that, are you?
I hate to be the one to say this, but, Apple isn't always right. Hard to believe, I know, but true nevertheless.
And notice the people here talking about the problems with Safari. And yes, Safari does use a lot of RAM. That's true on the Desktop as well.
And it's not just me. Gaming companies have complained about the lack of sufficient RAM. I'm willing to bet that most people would benefit from more, not just me, and those like me.
But as I said, it's possible that 1GB is just sufficient on the iPhone. But maybe the new models will need more. From what I can remember, video shares RAM on these devices, and the more sophisticated the video /graphics processing is, the more RAM they will need.
At any rate, more is definitely needed for the iPad. And as Apple has done that before, they could choose to do it again.
Oh please! As Apple is ALWAYS correct. About everything. All the time. No matter what.
Those of us who use these products on a regular basis see memory related problems. They are known to be memory related problems.
Apple's decisions can be murky. We don't always know why they are made.