radarthekat

tht said:

radarthekat said:

tht said:

"[The] the company is preparing a major shake-up for the iPhone's 20-year anniversary," it says, "including a foldable version and a bold new Pro model that makes more extensive use of glass."

There are things they can do with the iPhone design, but not sure there is anything major left though. I don't think there is any, but who knows.

Saying "major shake-up" is a tabloidization from Gurman. He does that all the time, using overly dramatic words. What he calls major is a "meh" a lot of the time. I do not think the iOS 6 to iOS 7 GUI change was a major-shakeup. I do not think the iPhone 8 to iPhone X design was a major shakeup, or major change. Even Touch ID to Face ID, which changed a lot of the UI design and handling qualities of the phones and tablets was just another gradual UI change.

A major shake-up to me is the Intel to Apple Silicon change. Going from the Obj-C frameworks (AppKit, UIKit) to Swift frameworks (Swift, SwiftUI) is a gigantic change. I think Apple is still suffering from this actually. Forstall to Federighi has been monumental, with some pretty big pluses and minuses.

Don't think this iPhone XX will be a major shakeup. It's a handheld tablet or slate device with touch UI using icons, menus, buttons, etc. It might fold, but you are using it the same way still.

Here is a wishlist, or perhaps a list of features that might be good:

1. Glass that doesn't crack, doesn't scratch. These are opposable properties of glass design. Given that it's been almost 2 decades, obviously a difficult problem. This feature is huge for users, imo. The last great feature that benefits everyone.
2. Glass that doesn't show fingerprints and always smooth to the touch. Fingerprints obscure the display. Would be great if there wasn't any. The amount of time it would save Apple Store employees wiping down the display every hour is probably worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
3. Solar PV everywhere, front and back, and magnetically latched folio cases with Smart Connectors that have solar PV in them. Still a bit into the future. The solar PV can trickle charge, extending runtime. Leave it out in the sun give it a charge. It would be comfort when using your phone in sunlight, where its display is at 100% brightness, and it is getting some juice from the sun as well.
4. LFP batteries. Regular lithium-ion batteries have a cycle of life of about 500 cycles, for about 3 years of typical use before charge capacity goes down to less than 80%. LFP batteries can go 5000 cycles.
5. MVNO with sat-comm service. They can guarantee E2EE, service anywhere in the world (except underground, concrete rooms, and Faraday cages). Governments likely will not allow it.
6. Hand and eye tracking. May have to add another Face ID sensor cluster here. As a UI feature, just interesting.
7. Ceramic case design, like they did with the Apple Watch. They can really amp up color saturation, use pastel colors, etc.
8. Sheet-metal case design. Like with cars, the paint job could be quite interesting. Radio performance kills the idea.

I'm really looking forward to the iPhone 17 Air. Using my iP12 without a case definitely has me thinking thinner is better.

Solar might be an expensive add that yields too little added charge in most contexts,  and while you could leave your PV clad iPhone in the sun to charge, I’m pretty sure this is not something Apple would recommend.  Therefore, no PV on the phone in my view. 

LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) batteries have disadvantages such as lower energy density and potential for poor performance in extreme cold.    LFP rarely burn but they are more prone to catastrophic explosions because, when they fail, they off-gas more hydrogen and create an explosive atmosphere more quickly.   Plus they charge more slowly.  

Probably will have to run the numbers on solar PV one of these days. It's really how many Watt-hours gained over a typical person's usage. Something on order 50% of the battery capacity would make it worth imo. I don't think it will be a problem to leave it out in the sun. It's probably not ok if you are using it in sun, but if it is just charging with everything else in a sleep state, it should be ok. Not ok out in the sun in Death Valley in the summer, yes. Probably ok in 70° day.

Yes, tradeoffs with all battery chemistries. I can understand your point about catastrophic explosions, but I'm having a hard time understanding the relative risk to NMC or Lithium-ion. LFP batteries, tens to hundreds of GWH of it, are deployed in EVs and stationary storage. Its negatives don't seem to be a factor there. Would be interesting to see why the consumer electronics industry have stuck with lithium-ion.

bala1234 said:

There is an old cliche in the tech-support world. The problem lies between the keyboard and the seat. /s

What the Trump administration doesn’t seem to grok, along with the MAGA millions, is that bullying allies into concessions by applying tariffs at excessive rates that are detached from the tariff rates those nations apply to our exports, might work to get concessions, which Trump and MAGA will claim as some sort of major victory for America. But in reality those nations he’s bullying with the much bigger economic stick that the United States wields, because he can, has put those nations on notice and has strongly motivated them to work to cut trade deals elsewhere in order to distance themselves from the United States.  This will eventually reduce our standing in the world and shift power in four key aspects to those we compete with on the global stage; in economic standing, in military standing, in technological standing and in global political influence.  He’s shooting us in the foot and his followers are too one-dimensional in their thinking to see it.

tht said:

"[The] the company is preparing a major shake-up for the iPhone's 20-year anniversary," it says, "including a foldable version and a bold new Pro model that makes more extensive use of glass."

There are things they can do with the iPhone design, but not sure there is anything major left though. I don't think there is any, but who knows.

Saying "major shake-up" is a tabloidization from Gurman. He does that all the time, using overly dramatic words. What he calls major is a "meh" a lot of the time. I do not think the iOS 6 to iOS 7 GUI change was a major-shakeup. I do not think the iPhone 8 to iPhone X design was a major shakeup, or major change. Even Touch ID to Face ID, which changed a lot of the UI design and handling qualities of the phones and tablets was just another gradual UI change.

A major shake-up to me is the Intel to Apple Silicon change. Going from the Obj-C frameworks (AppKit, UIKit) to Swift frameworks (Swift, SwiftUI) is a gigantic change. I think Apple is still suffering from this actually. Forstall to Federighi has been monumental, with some pretty big pluses and minuses.

Don't think this iPhone XX will be a major shakeup. It's a handheld tablet or slate device with touch UI using icons, menus, buttons, etc. It might fold, but you are using it the same way still.

Here is a wishlist, or perhaps a list of features that might be good:

1. Glass that doesn't crack, doesn't scratch. These are opposable properties of glass design. Given that it's been almost 2 decades, obviously a difficult problem. This feature is huge for users, imo. The last great feature that benefits everyone.
2. Glass that doesn't show fingerprints and always smooth to the touch. Fingerprints obscure the display. Would be great if there wasn't any. The amount of time it would save Apple Store employees wiping down the display every hour is probably worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
3. Solar PV everywhere, front and back, and magnetically latched folio cases with Smart Connectors that have solar PV in them. Still a bit into the future. The solar PV can trickle charge, extending runtime. Leave it out in the sun give it a charge. It would be comfort when using your phone in sunlight, where its display is at 100% brightness, and it is getting some juice from the sun as well.
4. LFP batteries. Regular lithium-ion batteries have a cycle of life of about 500 cycles, for about 3 years of typical use before charge capacity goes down to less than 80%. LFP batteries can go 5000 cycles.
5. MVNO with sat-comm service. They can guarantee E2EE, service anywhere in the world (except underground, concrete rooms, and Faraday cages). Governments likely will not allow it.
6. Hand and eye tracking. May have to add another Face ID sensor cluster here. As a UI feature, just interesting.
7. Ceramic case design, like they did with the Apple Watch. They can really amp up color saturation, use pastel colors, etc.
8. Sheet-metal case design. Like with cars, the paint job could be quite interesting. Radio performance kills the idea.

I'm really looking forward to the iPhone 17 Air. Using my iP12 without a case definitely has me thinking thinner is better.