prof

mike1 said:

Also, other than not needing to have a Lightning cable around, what's the point?

I agree. There's literally nothing new here other than integrating the Lightning to USB-C Adapter into a case which is interesting at best. Will I now replace go and replace all of my families cases for all the different iPhones with new ones? Certainly not... We're quite accustomed to having both USB-C and Lightning cables around, luckily we were able to eliminate all uses of Micro USB.

While I don't support those "only in 'murika" bogus lawsuits, I would note that the data usage governance of iOS sucks big time. Even in low data/low power mode with disabled software and update downloads, "System services" from time to time like to go nuts and chew through 100MBs of data in no time. Happens to me multiple times a year when I'm on a local 1GB data plan abroad just to being able to use the occasional ride hailing, maps or transport card recharge. Last year I was even stranded on a remote South Korean beach because of that and had to find a restaurant with Wi-Fi just so I could re-up the data plan because System Services/"General" decided to download 800MB of "whatever" without my consent.

Just looking at my current usage, out of 2,86GB since the last reset 2 months ago, 1,06GB is attributed to System Services/General, with the next highest system service being Messaging at 98,5MB.

sloth77 said:

I voted Remain in the UK back in 2016.  But as an Apple user, I can't say hand-on-heart that I would do so now, with the shenanigans the EU is pulling with Apple.

It is a shame, as some of the EU regulations have been decent - like the USB-C support.

As a user in the EU I see zero problem with that approach. Sure we get less features but most of them will only be available with the latest devices anyway so not a huge loss for the vast majority of users. Also we do get things that other countries won't get like alternative App Strores. And of course we don't get the anti-features that UK would like their users to enjoy like broken privacy and security...

If Apple prefers to play hardball and reduce their own new device sales for people thinking like you, I can totally live with that as the vast majority of regulations provide quite a benefit and a cooldown of the Apple market would also reduce the device prices.

Apple going back to 8GB base RAM for a notebook? Unlikely... and if they have to spin a dedicated chip just to do notebooks with it, then the cost advantage is gone... There's a number of reasons why the higher end iPads are using M processors...

Wow, it's hard to express how much I'm not impressed. Those features are really just additions of control knobs for what devices have been capable of doing for 10 years now. Of course, despite the hardware being capable, the software does also not support those features on older iPhones. Why should they support setting the maximum charge level on an iPhone 13 when the user could just buy a 14 or newer?

There's still so much low hanging fruit... I don't quite understand why my dedicated rundown iPhone 7 phone with Whatsapp manages to get a solid 6 days of runtime sitting around, while a much fresher iPhone 12 doing the exact same thing bottoms out after 4 days.

A phone is a tool for me, I need it when I need it and I need it to be ready when I do... without having it permanently hooked up to a charger just in case. Why anyone would give a damn about 22 hours continuous video playback on battery is complete mystery to me -- where would I ever watch for 22 hours straight without being near to a power source only to have a flat battery when there's stuff I actually have to do on the go...

Apple should instead be focusing on identifying and reporting needless power drainers... and provide options for properly cutting them off instead of the half-assed "background activity" control they're offering -- of course mainly for third party apps and not their own system, which is most definitely the offender in my "Whatsapp-only" use case...