Original iPhone early reviewer Steven Levy heralds iPhone X as kicking off Apple's next de...

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One of the first four reviewers of the original iPhone has been granted permission to publish his assessment of Apple's effort 10 years down the road -- the OLED iPhone X.




Writing for Wired's BackChannel, Steven Levy was one of the first to get his hands on the device -- in part, because of his history with Apple reviews. Levy was quick to point out a centerpiece of the phone -- all of the systems in the device that make Animoji possible.

"Animojis actually draw on some of the most technologically sophisticated advances of the iPhone X," wrote Levy for Wired. "The traits that make it unique: facial recognition, exotic sensors, an advanced camera, and powerful chips that drive graphics and machine learning."

There has been much said about the "notch" at the top of the screen since the device was released. Levy doesn't see the notch containing all of the iPhone X sensors at the top of the screen as much of an issue for users, calling it little more than an "aesthetic setback."

"You get used to it, like watching a play when someone with big hair is off-center in the row ahead of you," said Levy. "A tiny distraction in your peripheral vision that you eventually get past."

Apple's Face ID took a little getting used to, according to Levy. After a brief period of adjusting behavior to suit the feature, Levy appreciated Face ID integration into Apple Pay, and called it "a clearer way to do transactions."

The device that Levy did most of his comparisons with was his personal iPhone 7 -- as such, the camera assessments he made for the device were related to that device, and not the iPhone 8. Levy called the camera in the iPhone X a "major upgrade" -- but deferred to others to determine if it was "claiming the mobile photo crown."

Levy heralded the integration of augmented reality beyond Animoji into the iPhone X. All in all, Levy believes that the iPhone X "might be a halfway point" to the post-smartphone era, and may be remembered in a decade as "kicking off a new wave of apps that take us a step closer to making technology truly invisible."

The review of the original iPhone by Steven Levy was published by Newsweek on June 25, 2007. He called the nascent technology "pretty close to justifying the bombast" surrounding the device at the time, and a "wake-up call" to Apple's competitors to improve their own slate of products.
jahblade
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 49
    fallenjtfallenjt Posts: 4,056member
    Bu but...Android has had these features for years...lol.
    lkruppandrewj5790jahbladejbdragonsuddenly newtonracerhomiedoozydozenwatto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 2 of 49
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    And the troll response? “Apple paid this guy big money to write this review.” Wait for it. But then, when there’s a bad review of an Apple product our side says, “Samsung paid this guy big money to write this review.” And the beat goes on.
    muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 3 of 49
    With AAPL up on both Friday and today, I think the value of the high-demand, higher value “X” is being factored into the stock price.
    schlackdoozydozenwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 49
    It was not a glowing review. 

    He seems more excited about the way the future of how developers and users will make the x and its progenitors a new movement in tech and culture, as the original did 10 years ago.
    doozydozen
  • Reply 5 of 49
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member
    Face ID won't recognize him sometimes.  What will happen to all women who put on heavy cosmetics to the face?  
  • Reply 6 of 49
    jbdragonjbdragon Posts: 2,312member
    tzeshan said:
    Face ID won't recognize him sometimes.  What will happen to all women who put on heavy cosmetics to the face?  
    That should have no effect. Remember, FaceID will work in the dark. Painting your face up shouldn't have a effect unless you just cake it on super thick where it's going to change your face dimensions.
    schlackStrangeDaysradarthekatdoozydozenwatto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 7 of 49
    tzeshan said:
    Face ID won't recognize him sometimes.  What will happen to all women who put on heavy cosmetics to the face?  
    It uses lasers to create a 3D depth map of your face. Cosmetics will have no effect.
    schlackracerhomieStrangeDaysradarthekatdoozydozenwatto_cobraRobPalmer9williamlondonjony0
  • Reply 8 of 49
    jumejume Posts: 209member
    This review still doesn't justify the iPhone X price! Waiting for more reviews...
  • Reply 9 of 49
    jume said:
    This review still doesn't justify the iPhone X price! Waiting for more reviews...
    Your particular requirements may differ from others, especially those without price sensitivity.
    StrangeDaysdoozydozenwatto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 49
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,763member
    tzeshan said:
    Face ID won't recognize him sometimes.  What will happen to all women who put on heavy cosmetics to the face?  
    The face recognition is driven by a neural engine (i.e., artificial neural network). The algorithms it employs are highly adaptive and "learn" over time and with the application of more and more data to recognize changes and variations for the same object of importance, i.e., your full 3D face. This allows it to intelligently adapt to differences, much in the same way that your own brain recognizes the same person whether they are wearing makeup, eye glasses, colored contact lenses, or making a facial expression. It's not simply an image or pattern matching. But it's also not perfect and cannot blindly extrapolate beyond the realm of what it "knows" so it will have to ask you to log-in using other methods when it cannot make an association. I believe that every time it receives confirmation that you are the object of importance because you had to log in with a passcode after failing to be recognized, it will then feed the "missed recognition" sensor data back into the engine so it can dynamically adapt its algorithm to account for the observed variations. Over time the recognition performance should continue to improve as the neural engine has more and more data, attributes, and multivariable data relationships that it uses to recognize you. 
    edited October 2017 radarthekatwatto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 49
    schlackschlack Posts: 731member
    I think calling it a half way point is a good description. The features are cool and cutting edge. But it will take a few more years to fully realize their potential in software and use cases. Also, at ~$1,500 including decent storage, an Apple case, AppleCare, and tax (6%) it feels more like a tech showcase than a phone that most people will really buy. Even as a huge Apple fan without a budget per se, I don't think I could justify spending more than $800 on a new phone.
    edited October 2017 doozydozen
  • Reply 12 of 49
    With AAPL up on both Friday and today, I think the value of the high-demand, higher value “X” is being factored into the stock price.
    I think @sog35 is somewhere, crying in his beer...

    But I am sure he'll be back, boasting how many millions of shares he bought right before AAPL went to $166+ per share.
    racerhomiedoozydozenwatto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 49
    It was not a glowing review. 
    He must write a whole book to understand iPhone X.


    watto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 49
    schlack said:
    I think calling it a half way point is a good description. The features are cool and cutting edge. But it will take a few more years to fully realize their potential in software and use cases. Also, at ~$1,500 including decent storage, an Apple case, AppleCare, and tax (6%) it feels more like a tech showcase than a phone that most people will really buy. Even as a huge Apple fan without a budget per se, I don't think I could justify spending more than $800 on a new phone.
    I have a issue justifying spending $800 on old tech phone when for a small percentage increase you get the first of the new tech. I was undecided between an iPhone 8 256 and an iPhone X 256. That decided me on going the iPhone X route
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 49

    schlack said:
    I think calling it a half way point is a good description. The features are cool and cutting edge. But it will take a few more years to fully realize their potential in software and use cases. Also, at ~$1,500 including decent storage, an Apple case, AppleCare, and tax (6%) it feels more like a tech showcase than a phone that most people will really buy. Even as a huge Apple fan without a budget per se, I don't think I could justify spending more than $800 on a new phone.
    Half way to what? We know what is it and it always be what it is now. It won’t transform to a personal drone, it won’t fly, it won’t dig, it won’t swim. If it is expected to be something double the road, it is already that. 4K @ 60 fps, 4K screen, a breakthrough non-invasive authentication system, neural engine, first truly feasible AR, the convenience of wireless charging as proven by Apple Watch... Is it located half way of its promises? No. Then there is no point in qualifying it “half way”. 
    watto_cobrapatchythepiraterattlhed
  • Reply 16 of 49
    I am irritated from the photo. It does not look like an iPhone X nor as other iPhones. 
  • Reply 17 of 49
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member
    jbdragon said:
    tzeshan said:
    Face ID won't recognize him sometimes.  What will happen to all women who put on heavy cosmetics to the face?  
    That should have no effect. Remember, FaceID will work in the dark. Painting your face up shouldn't have a effect unless you just cake it on super thick where it's going to change your face dimensions.
    They have to remove cosmetics at night. Some times their spouses think they look very different. 
  • Reply 18 of 49
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member
    tzeshan said:
    Face ID won't recognize him sometimes.  What will happen to all women who put on heavy cosmetics to the face?  
    It uses lasers to create a 3D depth map of your face. Cosmetics will have no effect.
    We can make many facial expressions.  For example, laughing will cause considerable change in face 3D. Does Face ID know you are making facial expression that is different from when you set it up?
  • Reply 19 of 49
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,651member
    tzeshan said:
    tzeshan said:
    Face ID won't recognize him sometimes.  What will happen to all women who put on heavy cosmetics to the face?  
    It uses lasers to create a 3D depth map of your face. Cosmetics will have no effect.
    We can make many facial expressions.  For example, laughing will cause considerable change in face 3D. Does Face ID know you are making facial expression that is different from when you set it up?
    Of course there will be some initial issues. There almost always is, but for the most part I expect FaceID will work just fine for most folks under most circumstances. So what if a user has to resort to passcode every once in awhile? The iPhone X has so many other great features and this is just one. Over time with OS updates I fully expect Face ID will become just as dependable and easy to use as Touch ID is. Some folks are just less comfortable with change. 
    edited October 2017 patchythepiratemuthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 20 of 49
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    DscheyH said:
    I am irritated from the photo. It does not look like an iPhone X nor as other iPhones. 
    It's in the camera app, the lenses has no notch in it so the view area will be a RECTANGLE, everything else at the top and bottom will be dark.

    There is a lot of contrast in the shot so the dark area (of the notch at the bottom) will look even darker than usual if it tries to balance the exposure of the whole shot.


    watto_cobra
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